Exhibit: America the Borderland

Dayton Metro Library is hosting an exhibit titled America the Borderland in the Main Library’s Atrium. It is a multiplatform storytelling project that shines light on changemakers positively impacting their communities along the border between Mexico and the United States. At a time when immigration is at the forefront of a volatile and polarized national debate, the stories of these changemakers, shared in their own words, provide a nuanced and authentic perspective that is often missing from mainstream coverage.

America the Borderland was created after a team of University of Dayton undergraduate students traveled to El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, along with faculty members and practitioners in May 2018, as part of the Moral Courage Project. The student team was trained in interviewing techniques, fieldwork and documentary ethics, and border politics and history. They collaborated with grassroots organizations, immersed themselves in immigrant communities, collected testimony from everyday changemakers and documented the experience through photography – the result being America the Borderland.

The Moral Courage Project also created the exhibit Ferguson Voices: Disrupting the Frame, their first, which was also on display in the Main Library in August. With Borderland, The Project iterated the same model of first-person storytelling and distribution by shifting the lens south to capture visual stories that was used in Ferguson.

America the Borderland will be on display through Tuesday, October 15, at the Main Library, located at 215 E. Third St., Dayton, 45402. Information in this release was provided by Joel Pruce, Human Rights Center, University of Dayton. For more information about this exhibit, call the Library’s Ask Me Line at 937.463.2665.