Amid immigration crackdown, Chinatown artists say it's time to flex, not hide

"Raised by a Fijian mother and Indian father, the artist known as SNJV remembers seeing his dad's ruffled green card in his wallet when he was little. Right at the top it read: "Resident alien." "It was just so jarring," he said. "That terminology is intended to remind you, subtly but not so subtly, that you are different. You are other.""

"As the Trump administration "aims to silence, criminalize and eradicate" immigrant and LGBTQ communities, head curator Candace Huey said, the festival is focusing on the power of protest and solidarity - and flexing it by transforming fear and anxiety into collective action. "We are going to let contemporary art do its thing, giving a safe place for freedom of expression and reframing what it means to be American today," Huey said."

"In another installation, "Non Alien Box," a group of international students used decommissioned newspaper boxes - San Francisco once had 1,000 mounted news racks on city sidewalks - to host stories of struggles with the job market due to visa restrictions. The stories include: companies that passed on applicants who needed visa sponsorship, workers who stayed at jobs for fear of losing their work visa, and employees who were laid off and given just 60 days to find another job or leave the country."

Chinatown's Fourth Annual Contemporary Art Festival foregrounds work by many first- and second-generation immigrant artists addressing alienation, visa precarity, and cultural survival. Curatorial focus centers protest and solidarity in response to an administration targeting immigrant and LGBTQ communities, transforming fear and anxiety into collective action and safe spaces for expression. Installations such as "Non Alien Box" collect firsthand accounts of job discrimination, visa sponsorship barriers, and the 60-day rule after layoffs. Performers like SNJV reinterpret code-switching and adoption of Western names or attire as survival strategies. The program aims to reframe contemporary meanings of being American.

Read at Mission Local