Second Program of the Four-Part Series “What Can Become of Us?”

Co-presented by Stanford Institute for Advancing Just Societies (IAJS), Zócalo Public Square, Zhou B Art Center and OH Art Foundation

The U.S. is a tapestry of groups that have collectively created American culture, politics, and society. In Chicago, one in every five people is an immigrant. From across the country and around the world, they have migrated to what Norman Mailer once described as “the great American city,” settling in neighborhoods like Portage Park, the South Side, and Bridgeport, and stitching their customs, skills, and values into the fabric of existing communities. If we think of America as a composite of interlaced patterns, who carries the loom, and who threads the needle? How does the American fabric remain woven together in fraught times and through history? 

This program is inspired by So, I told her I was half-Indian (2025) by Chicanx and Punjabi American weaver Kira Dominguez Hultgren. The piece, multiple looms woven together as a suspended sculpture, is commissioned by IAJS and will be on view at Zhou B Art Center from August 12 to September 12, 2025.

Join us August 15 at Zhou B Art Center in Bridgeport for a special Third Friday Art Walk event to view the artwork and hear a talk between artist Kira Dominguez Hultgren and guitarist and Chicago Immigrant Orchestra co-director Fareed Haque, who will discuss the work’s larger themes, including how race plays out across generations, how public memorials help make hushed histories visible, and how new technology reveals outdated stereotypes.

A panel moderated by Stanford IAJS faculty co-director Brian Lowery and featuring Yale historian and Pulitzer Prize-winner David W. Blight, historic preservation leader Bonnie McDonald, and creative consultant and fashion designer Siying Qu will follow, discussing how migrant communities help stitch together our ideas of American life.

Live Spanish audio interpretation of the discussion will be provided. Please email support@zocalopublicsquare.org if you require an ASL interpreter, and we will do our best to accommodate your request.

We invite our in-person audience to continue the conversation with the artist, speakers, and each other at a post-event reception with complimentary drinks and small bites, art-viewing, informal art talks, and live music by the Chicago Immigrant Orchestra.

Agenda
6:30 Check in and art viewing
7:15 Artist Conversation
7:35 Panel Conversation
8:25 Reception