"You Know Who I Am" by Paola Pivi

The Statue of Liberty stands in New York Harbor and has welcomed people to New York since 1886. For decades, immigrants processed through Ellis Island saw the enormous copper statue upon arriving at US shores. Though Ellis Island no longer processes arrivals to the US, the statue remains an iconic symbol of freedom and welcome. In a new work called “You Know Who I Am,” on view on the High Line in New York City, artist Paola Pivi has repurposed the image of the statue to reflect on those ideas of freedom and welcome in the US today. She created a smaller-scale replica of the Statue of Liberty and added a series of emoji-style masks, each representing “an individual whose experience of freedom is connected to the United States, offering the sentiment that anyone could be represented within the symbol of the statue.” Currently, the mask portrays Marco Saavedra, “an artist, poet, restauranteur, longtime immigrant rights activist, and community organizer based in the South Bronx.” After many years of activism and organizing, Saavedra set a legal precedent for undocumented activists when he was granted political asylum in 2021. The image of his face on the iconic statue puts the history of American immigration in conversation with the modern immigration landscape.

Listen to an interview with Mr. Saavedra here.

Office Holiday Party

This week, we had our annual office holiday party! We celebrated by taking a cruise around the southern tip of Manhattan, where we got to see landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge up close. The Statue of Liberty, of course, has been welcoming immigrants to New York City since 1886, holding up her torch to light the way to America’s shores. The Brooklyn Bridge has been a notable feature of the city for even longer, as it was designed by a Prussian immigrant in the 1860s and was completed by his daughter-in-law in 1883. After taking in the views of the skyline and the city’s rich history, we headed over to the Spanish Diner at Hudson Yards for delicious food and drinks and lots of lively conversation. We had a wonderful time celebrating the holidays in our beautiful city!

Reclining Liberty by Zaq Landsberg

Tucked against a stand of trees at the top of a hill in Morningside Park is an unusual sight: the Statue of Liberty taking a rest. Artist Zaq Landsberg’s “Reclining Liberty” is a massive musing on the state of American ideals. The Statue of Liberty is a classic New York symbol, standing proudly in New York Bay to welcome visitors and immigrants to the United States. But in Landsberg’s version, she seems tired, taking a pose inspired by the Reclining Buddha, meant to depict the Buddha in his last moments of life. The pose has a hopeful connotation, however, as it can be understood to represent the last step on a path towards enlightenment. With this work, Landsberg is questioning whether Lady Liberty, or indeed if the US is “an entity forever upright and tall, is it an eventual decline and fall, or is there another stage for the country that will transcend this symbol altogether?" The sculpture manages to be humorous and charming, while provoking serious contemplation about American ideals.

I Lift My Lamp Beside the Golden Door

I Lift My Lamp Beside the Golden Door by Dorothy Iannone.

Dorothy Iannone, a Berlin-based artist, has created a large-scale mural installation near 22nd Street on the High Line. Iannone's work is inspired by Egyptian frescoes, Byzantine mosaics, and ancient fertility statues. In between her three colorful Statues of Liberty is the final line from Emma Lazarus’s poem The New Colossus: “I Lift My Lamp Beside the Golden Door.” The mural re-imagines the Statue of Liberty "anew as a symbol of the openness of New York City and the United States to those seeking asylum, freedom, or simply a better life" and also brings "a bit of joy to an often exhausting and demoralizing political debate." The mural is on the High Line through March 2019.

Boat Dance 2017

It’s one of our favorite events of the year: the firm’s annual “Boat Dance.” Everyone took a break last night from working hard preparing visa petitions to enjoy some good food (shrimp cocktails!), conversation, and drinks! Despite menacing skies and thunderstorm forecasts, our boat, The Manhattan, took us all on a lovely ride on the Hudson and East Rivers where we were able to view Ellis Island, Governor’s Island, and the Brooklyn Bridge. Although it was a bit windy, the weather turned out great in the end, and we all were able to watch a beautiful sunset at the Statue of Liberty. Alla, Gabby, Ashley, and Lourdes (shown above) had some great laughs and even learned a valuable lesson—don’t wear skirts on a windy boat!

Happy Birthday, Emma!

“'Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'” —Emma Lazarus

On this day in 1849 Emma Lazarus was born into a wealthy New York family descended from Sephardic Jewish Americans. With a clear talent for poetry, she attracted the notice of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emma Lazarus’s famous poem was originally commissioned for a fund-raising campaign by artists and writers to pay for the statue’s pedestal. Only after her death did it become synonymous with the Statute of Liberty and transformed the statue into the “Mother of Exiles," welcoming new generations of immigrants from all over the world. In 1903, after determined lobbying by a friend of Lazarus who was descended from Alexander Hamilton, himself a famous immigrant, the poem was affixed to the pedestal.