"A space where immigrant storytellers develop stories to help change the world."
A conversation with United We Dream and Intelligent Mischief about the Immigrant Creative Kickback.
Where do you find space to catalyze your dreams? Who do you get to collaborate with? And, how are you transforming the world alongside other immigrants right now?
Such are the powerful questions that led to the first Immigrant Creative Kickback in March of this year. While thousands of companies and individuals flood the city of Austin, Texas each spring for the annual South by Southwest conference, for leading voices from United We Dream and Intelligent Mischief, it could be a space for creative and immigrant-centered possibility. Responding to a shared need to uplift the voices missing within the SXSW hubbub, the two organizations launched the Immigrant Creative Kickback.
This week, Juanita Monsalve, Senior Marketing and Creative Director for United We Drean, and Terry Marshall, founder of Intelligent Mischief, share their vision for this kickback and what it might mean for immigrant creators in the future.
ANTERO GARCIA: So why a “kickback” at SXSW?
TERRY MARSHALL: The reason we called it a kickback was because we wanted something different. What happens at South by Southwest is you have panels, you have speakers, you have gatherings and get-togethers. The kickback was something that was not just us talking at people, but where people got to meet each other, interact, and mingle.
JUANITA MONSALVE: My first time at South by Southwest was not this year, but the year before. I was there all alone and I remember feeling kind of like, “Man, this is a huge space!” I had met Terry and you had gracefully sent a text to a group of people that we all knew that said, “This is where we're going to be hanging, if y'all want to meet up.” Having gotten to spend time with y'all at South by Southwest felt totally different than when I was there alone. I think that was a moment for us to have the shared analysis that there are voices missing at South by Southwest: immigrant voices.
I’ll add that our job as creatives is to inspire other creatives. And so, we want to be able to create as many of those opportunities where we are creating space and creating opportunities for other people's creativity to shine. For us, this was a space to bring people together. Hopefully more collaborations will come out of that, more opportunities for people to have positive messages about abundance and collective care for communities.
There are voices missing at South by Southwest: immigrant voices.
AG: Can you describe the space and who showed up?
JM: It was a space that we wanted to create where people could go in and kind of dream up of opportunities, get to know each other, make connections, and hopefully new collaborations would come out of that. I think we'd love to keep it going. We actually transformed this very conference-like space. We had bean bags, we had flowers, we had a photo booth. Folks were able to play, get to know each other. And so it was very much about creating the space for collaboration and for joy to flourish.
TM: Yeah, since you mentioned the beanbags … I remember leaving the room at one point before people had set up and coming back and seeing the beanbags and gasping because it really transformed the space. If you're at SXSW, you see things over and over again. And I think we did a really good job of transforming the space and having people feel welcomed, really have the sense of having abundance and care for one another. You could tell by the sense of people who were there that they go to places like SXSW, but they weren't used to the type of space that we created. I could see that was unlocking something new for them.
[People] weren't used to the type of space that we created. I could see that was unlocking something new for them.
AG: Are there moments from the event that most stand out to you?
JM: Whenever we create anything, I get very worried. I'm always like, “Oh, what if no one comes?”
AG: I have that feeling all the time!
JM: I think one of the moments that I was really excited about was when we had three young women come in -- three young Asian women of different nationalities studying game production. Their latest game is about a young Asian woman. And their intention is to really be able to build the experience of what it means to be both an Asian woman with parents who are immigrants and the experience that they have as young women in the United States. They came up to me at the end of the session, just really excited and glad to be here.
Young women in the gaming space is a really big deal. And for them to be so consciously creating something that is about them, instead of trying to fit into other versions of the gaming world is really, really cool. I'm looking forward to continuing the conversation with them.
TM: Overall, it was about meeting all these folks back to back to back. I don't think I would've met some of these folks in the typical movement space. It felt refreshing. In particular, there's this one person. He was, I believe, South Asian, grew up in Ireland, I think, and also grew up really into dancehall music and culture. He was making a documentary about this white reggae artist from Britain who currently is at the top of the charts in Britain. As he described this work, I'm just thinking, “Wow, I want to really build with this guy.” A lot of things are happening in this work. The multi-layered identities happening. But I think he also saw that in me and wanted to connect.
AG: As a collaboration between two organizations, can you talk about the shared values that connect this work?
JM: For United We Dream, we love Intelligent Mischief because I think that at our core there is this respect and admiration for all immigrant people as visionaries. Intelligent Mischief's work is always surprising, they're able to build new worlds. I think every time I talk to you, Terry, I always end up hearing at some point or another talking about the theory and thinking behind building new worlds, whether it's the extension of a movie and continuing to have conversations through the building out of those characters, or whether it is through music. In that sense, our intention really aligns: United We Dream is very much centered on envisioning the world that brings us to real freedom for all people of color. And that means envisioning something that we've never had before. That requires a different sense of openness and a willingness to embrace and develop something new. And that really applies when we think of Texas.
United We Dream has been working in Texas for some time with our hub down there. And what folks in Texas are encountering now is a lot of hate that they've been continuing to endure and to fight against. We are really invested in honoring the strength of people in Texas and figuring out how we continue to show that immigrants are here to stay for the long term. We're going to continue to fight for this new world where all people of color are free. This work also aligned politically, given SB 4 and the attacks that immigrant people are suffering there.
I think the other thing that we really align with Intelligent Mischief is wanting to create values of abundance, and our belief that communities can care for each other. Go ahead, Terry.
TM: Yeah, everything Juanita said! I think we connected with Juanita a couple of times at different spaces the year before. And I think each time I guess we would be able to hear each other's stories and we would say, “Wait a second, we see things very similarly.” We are envisioning how justice should happen in a very particular way. We are seeing how story and imagination are important parts of creating justice.
For us at Intelligent Mischief, part of our mission statement is that we tell stories to unleash Black imagination to shape the future. And we pride ourselves on being Afro-diasporic in body and in the organization. Right now there's four of us in Intelligent Mischief, and everyone's actually from families of immigrants and we're all Black. We’re seeing that as crucial in terms of the diversity within the Black diaspora itself.
Even before I knew Juanita, I knew of and admired United We Dream for being very important in undocumented movement. It felt like there was so many creative immigrant, undocumented folks who were creating new videos, creating memes, creating murals, art. I was really blown away by this. United We Dream has centered a lot of that. Meeting Juanita and seeing their work around immigrant stories and cooking was powerful.
We connect around stories and imagination and the importance of changing the narratives around immigrant folks. We can shape the world we want. I think when we came together, we were like, “We need a space where immigrant storytellers develop stories to help change the world.”
Propina
We’ll share the second half of our conversation with United We Dream and Intelligent Mischief next week. If you are an artist seeking to change the world via your stories, we’d love to hear how you might support future kickbacks. (And we’d always love to share your own narratives here on La Cuenta).
And if you missed our first conversation with Juanita Monsalve, take a look here:
We’ll see you next week.