Just Films - Las Madres de Berks

Las Madres de Berks documentary shares the testimonials of four mothers that were detained for 2 years with their children at The Berks County Residential Center, a family prison in Pennsylvania.

The film will be followed by a panel discussion and Q & A session with filmmaker Michelle Ortizand Kim Dinh with the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition.

Michelle Angela Ortiz is a visual artist/ skilled muralist/ community arts educator who uses her art as a vehicle to represent people and communities whose histories are often lost or co-opted. Through community arts practices, painting, and public art installations, she creates a safe space for dialogue around some of the most profound issues communities and individuals may face. Her work tells stories using richly crafted and emotive imagery to claim and transform spaces into a visual affirmation that reveals the strength and spirit of the community.

For 20 years, Ortiz has designed and created over 50 large-scale public works nationally and internationally. Since 2008, Ortiz has led art for social change public art projects in Costa Rica & Ecuador and through the US Embassy as a Cultural Envoy in Fiji, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Venezuela, Honduras, and Cuba.

Ortiz is a 2018 Pew Fellow, a Rauschenberg Foundation Artist as Activist Fellow, a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist National Fellow, and a Santa Fe Art Institute Equal Justice Resident Artist. In 2016, she received the Americans for the Arts' Public Art Year in Review Award which honors outstanding public art projects in the nation.

www.michelleangela.com

Kim Dinh is PICC’s Western PA Staff and PA is Ready! Network Coordinator. Born in Vietnam and immigrated to the US with their family in high school, Kim’s commitment to immigrant justice is rooted in fighting for workers’ rights and building capacity to organize in immigrant communities. Before coming to PICC, Kim worked at the Thomas Merton Center, a social justice non-profit in Pittsburgh. Kim has worked on and supported a variety of campaigns ranging from wage theft to transit policing. Kim is also an organizer supporting Asian and Pacific Islander worker and immigrant rights, and is a founding member of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) Pittsburgh Chapter. Kim received a B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh.

Location

Eddy Theater

Directions

Campus Map

Parking is free in the Library Parking Lot which you can only enter off of Murray Hill Avenue (not to be confused with Murray Avenue).

Murray Hill Avenue can be reached from both Wilkins and Fifth Avenue and is a cobblestone street. From Fifth Ave, it is located between Maryland Ave and S. Negley Ave. From Wilkins, it is located between Murray Ave and S. Negley Ave.

Contact Information

Melody Harris
4123651578
m.harris@chatham.edu

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