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Veronica Ramirez is a founder and workshop leader with Mujeres en Movimiento, a self-organized group that explores the use of dance, art, ancestral remedies, and civic engagement to empower Latina immigrant women in Corona, Queens. This portrait of Veronica at home was created during a collaborative portraiture workshop.

Queens, New York, United States, 2018.

© Project Luz

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Roberta Chalini is a member of Mujeres en Movimiento, a self-organized group that explores the use of dance, art, ancestral remedies, and civic engagement to empower Latina immigrant women in Corona, Queens. This portrait of Roberta and her cakes was created during a collaborative portraiture workshop. It represents her dream of making cakes for other people coming true.

Queens, New York, United States, 2018.

© Project Luz

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Valeria Reyes is a member of Mujeres en Movimiento, a self-organized group that explores the use of dance, art, ancestral remedies, and civic engagement to empower Latina immigrant women in Corona, Queens. This portrait of Valeria and her piñatas was created during a collaborative portraiture workshop.

Queens, New York, United States, 2018.

© Project Luz

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Claudia Yac is a member of Mujeres en Movimiento, a self-organized group that explores the use of dance, art, ancestral remedies, and civic engagement to empower Latina immigrant women in Corona, Queens. This portrait of Claudia at home with her daughter Emily was created during a collaborative portraiture workshop.

Queens, New York, United States, 2018.

© Project Luz

Sol Aramendi

Sol Aramendi (b. 1968, Argentina; lives in the United States) is a socially engaged artist working with immigrant communities throughout New York City, and she creates opportunities for immigrants to empower themselves through art. Her participatory practice lives at the intersection of immigration, labor, and art, and builds leadership and promotes change around fairer labor conditions and immigration policy.

Aramendi has received support from the Ford Foundation (2018) and the National Association of Latino Art and Culture (2018). She received a Blade of Grass Fellowship (2014) to develop a smartphone-based application that enables immigrant workers to report wage theft. Aramendi is a fellow at The Worker Institute at Cornell University.

Artist Statement

Sol Aramendi

Project Luz is a nomadic space to share, learn, and experiment with using photography as a tool of empowerment for immigrant communities. We partner with community groups and organizations to facilitate encounters where participants learn and co-create images inspired by their identity and life stories. Workshop participants document and present their experience of New York City from their individual migrant perspectives. The resulting artworks are often used in local and citywide rights campaigns such as anti–domestic violence initiatives and the promotion of fair migrant labor practices.

Our community practice approach centers on building a network of art projects that collectively aim to transform the creative and economic opportunities of immigrant city residents through arts, civic education, and interactions with local institutions.

Project Luz was created in 2003 by Sol Aramendi when she emigrated to the United States from Argentina.

—Sol Aramendi, September 2018

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