ICE custody deaths remembered in Tempe art show

Just a day after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot a man during a questionable traffic stop, artists and activists opened a special Día de los Muertos art exhibition at Danelle Plaza to bring awareness to the brutal violence of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. 

A strip frequently recognized as a central hub of Tempe’s artistic community, Danelle Plaza houses a number of displays in several buildings — but the new “Memoria de Comunidad” exhibition in the plaza’s Rocket Space Gallery has a particularly social justice-oriented twist. One of the main pieces in the exhibition is an ofrenda — a colorful altar meant to welcome and honor dead loved ones on Día de los Muertos — for 29 people who have died in ICE custody this year. The exhibit continues through Nov. 8.

The idea was conceived of and created by community advocates with Organized Solidarity Collective. On the front lines of the crackdown, the group of concerned community members has been helping families understand their rights as well as navigate the hellish process of locating their loved ones and ensuring they survive.

One of its key organizers — who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation — described case after case of horrifying conditions to Phoenix New Times at the exhibition’s opening on Oct. 30.

“They don’t have to give them food,” they say, claiming that in some cases detainees have to pay $7 for a cup of noodles. “At least in prison you get three meals a day and you can have a bathroom.”

ICE has rejected this allegation, but people in communication with the detained have still insisted it is true in some instances. 

The organizer noted that on ICE’s website the agency lists the names of 15 people who have died in custody this year. But the group’s research, taken from news reports, indicated that about twice that number of people have perished this year. The list includes people with Latino, Chinese, Vietnamese and Ukrainian names (one Chinese woman was never even named, according to their research) who were anywhere from 24 to 75 years old.  

“I want people to feel uncomfortable,” the organizer says. “I want regular human beings to know that 29 people have been assassinated by ICE since January 21. I did an ofrenda for them because I don’t want them to just vanish.”

Kassie Winchester, who helped publicize the event for Danelle Plaza and Organized Solidarity Collective, says that plenty of viewers were unaware of the deaths.

“I’m shocked by the amount of people who come in and say, ‘We had no idea this is happening,’” she says.

The unnamed organizer says their collaboration with the Tempe Arts & Music Coalition, which has run Danelle Plaza since May, began after dozens of agents from Homeland Security Investigations — a division of ICE — used the plaza as a staging location. The presence of heavily armed agents pissed off just about everyone associated with the plaza. In an Instagram post, the beloved bar and music venue Yucca Tap Room blasted the federal agents for their “intimidation tactics” near the bar and local art installations.

“I came that day and I walked in here and said, ‘I need to talk to you guys. We need to do a workshop,’” the organizer says. 

After the workshop focused on dealing with ICE took place, the collective began brainstorming ideas for an arts exhibition with TAMC president Jacqueline Swan, who says the coalition wanted “to create some awareness of what our neighbors and friends are going through” in an arts exhibit.

“We kind of let it come together organically,” Swan tells New Times about the Día de los Muertos-themed showcase. “There’s so much going on in town for this holiday, we didn’t expect to have a lot of people turn out, so we just tried to do something really respectful, authentic and intimate.”

A number of other ofrendas are placed across the gallery, commemorating family members of artists and one particular Phoenix artist who has passed into the beyond: Rose Johnson.

“Rose is the reason I became a muralist. She had murals all over Phoenix and Tempe in the 90s,” Kyllan Maney, executive creative director of TAMC, tells New Times, adding that Johnson was the first female muralist in the Phoenix area who had a following.

Michele Delgado, who helped create the ofrenda, says Johnson was a key figure in the scene.

“She inspired me with her outlook, her tenacity and her persistence,” Delgado says. “Making this art thing work is not easy.”

The gallery also features the work of various other artists, including Marco Albarran and Xtian Styles. It is located at 37 W. Southern Ave., Tempe. It will be open on the following days:

• Tuesday, Nov. 4: noon to 5 p.m.
• Friday, Nov. 7: noon to 8 p.m.
• Saturday, Nov. 8: 3 to 5:30 p.m.