BORDER OF LIGHTS at The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College 524 WEST 59TH STREET New York, NY 10019 (BETWEEN 10TH & 11TH AVENUES)

Felipe Escalante originally conceived Border of Lights in early 2020 to draw attention to the US- Mexican border crisis and its role in demonizing immigrants and other foreigners. While the pandemic pre-empted the premiere of his piece, its themes are more relevant today than ever, as fears of immigrants  have only continued to escalate. The images of children in cages that dominated the news when Escalante began choreographing Border of Lights have now been superseded by pictures of asylum-seekers piling onto buses or aerial shots of them  snaking in seemingly infinite lines toward the border.  With its depiction of persecution and judgment and  evocation of the anger and disgust felt both toward immigrants and among them, Border of Lights asks audiences to examine their own prejudices and to celebrate all immigrants as they look to build lives outside of their native-born countries.