Vessel to the Voice
Gathering young, passionate artists, united through creative expression to champion human rights and inspire global change.
Spotlight
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Spotlight 〰️
This Week’s Spotlight
Aram Han Sifuentes
Insta: @aramhansifuentes
Website: aramhansifuentes.com
Aram Han Sifuentes is a Chicago-based Korean American fiber and social-practice artist who uses sewing to empower immigrants across the country. Born in Seoul and brought to the United States at age five, she grew up in California’s Central Valley as the daughter of dry cleaners and garment workers, learning to sew from her mother at six. Her work inherits that cultural history: citizenship-test questions embroidered by hand, curtains carrying multilingual protections against ICE and police, garments that unfold into protest messages, and banners strangers can borrow for marches.
Her U.S. Citizenship Test Samplers project exposes the labor, cost, and arbitrary barriers built into the naturalization process; each sampler is sold for the application fee ($760), with the money going directly to its maker. The Official Unofficial Voting Station invites people legally barred from voting to cast symbolic ballots, while her Protest Banner Lending Library allows those who cannot safely demonstrate to send their words into the streets through someone else’s hands. Though her method is gentle, it is never timid.
Today, Sifuentes is working with Chicago’s HANA Center on Citizenship for All, gathering immigrants, youth, adoptees, and survivors of domestic violence to make traditional Korean nonggi banners. More than fifty workshops have turned personal stories into bright, public declarations of belonging. As immigrant communities face raids, detention, and pressure to hide, her work offers protection, visibility, and the courage of making together.
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FAQs
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Vessel to the Voice is a student-run non profit organization, gathering passionate artists to inspire political change through creative expression. Our hope is to better understand the intersections of art and humanities and its impacts on the human condition. By working on both a local and global level, we aspire to foster communities kindled by awareness and empathy.
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In Palestine, Israeli occupational forces are waging a war on the militant group Hamas, but at the same time waging war on the Palestinian population, purposely killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians. Their methods include (but are not limited to) indiscriminate air strikes, destruction of critical infrastructure (electricity, water, hospitals), forced displacement, and blocking humanitarian aid such as food, water, and medical supplies. The suffering happening in the Gaza Strip is profound and underreported globally.
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In the United States, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has expanded detention and deportation operations, aiming to seed and create widespread hate, fear, and instability. While framed by the second Trump Administration as public-safety or border-security efforts, enforcement often impacts people with no criminal record and separates families who have lived in the country for years, contributing both to the economy their communities. Common practices include large workplace raids, arrests at routine check-ins or court hearings, prolonged detention in overcrowded and unsanitary facilities, and the removal of prior limits on enforcement in places like schools, hospitals, and houses of worship. The result is a system that reaches far beyond individual cases, disrupting entire communities and daily life.
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You can visit our Stay Informed pages to get some information about what’s happening in Palestine and with ICE and spotlight people, as well as follow our Instagram (@vesseltothevoice) where we post stories with current events. Additionally, sites such as the United Nations News, Al Jazeera, Reuters, and AP. We encourage you to get your news from a variety of sources to have a well-rounded knowledge of current events.
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The most important step to getting involved is staying informed in whatever ways you can. You can visit our Events page to see when we will be hosting events, and try to find other ways to get involved too, whether that be volunteering, donating, or otherwise.
