I asked him what he needed
for the journey. He said,
Write down what you saw.
Maybe, someday, the world
will want to know.
-Ed Madden
Ed Madden told me he would love to have his poem, and the image it inspired me to make, included in my art series “and I quote.” Ed is a professor of English at the University of South Carolina. I’m making images to process my feelings about the country’s string of abuses of immigrants. Ed Madden is writing poetry. This is the title poem in his latest book. It can be purchased at https://www.squaresandrebels.com/
Those caught up in this mass deportation are speaking out. The New York Times recently interviewed an 85-year-old widow about her experiences in ICE detention. When her American husband died, she had wanted to stay in the U.S. in the house they had shared. She was arrested eight days before her court hearing. ICE didn’t even allow her to dress but took her away in handcuffs and wearing a bathrobe.
The 85-year-old said she survived only because other prisoners helped her. The French embassy lobbied on her behalf and now she is back in her native France. A doctor has diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder.
When the children being deported grow up, their stories will be especially poignant. They will write about their childhood in America, about being dragged from their home by masked men, about being mistreated in prison, and about building a new life in a new country. Their books and movies will be the best record of this tragic chapter in America’s history.
