Sunday, March 27, 2011

From Memphis to the heart

I met Steve Pavey in one of the most awkward ways two people could possibly meet: past midnight in a Memphis, Tennessee hotel room.

My fellow travel companion and I quickly apologized for interrupting the obvious sleepy Pavey.  As soon as we entered the room, we dropped our bags and walked out the door to grab a late dinner after spending nearly 8 hours traveling from California to Tennessee.

But that's how things usually work out when people from across the country are put in different hotel rooms, try to remember each other's names and go past that awkward moment of, well, awkwardness.

Undocumented students and allies met in this city for the United We Dream Congress and talk about where the DREAM Act is heading. My Dreamers Adrift parter Jesus and myself were invited by UWD to be the artistic aspect of the congress. We set up a wall we titled The Wall of Dreams and created this video.

Throughout the event, I noticed that Pavey filmed and photographed the entire event. It wasn't until the last day of the event that we actually got to talking. I learned that he is quite the artist himself and works with other community artists. The following week, I saw his photographs all over Facebook.

As I was going through the images, I realized that I didn't actually draw any images of the event myself. So I was so inspired by Pavey's images that I asked him to borrow his images and convert them into illustrations. The following then is a collaboration of sorts between Pavey's amazing photographs and my version of them in illustration form. Through these images, I try to capture the emotions of my fellow DREAMERS and allies as we worked together to make the DREAM Act a reality. Enjoy.