On Tuesday, March 12, Washington Performing Arts and NYU Washington, DC will convene immigration policy experts and civic leaders to examine contemporary issues in U.S. immigration policy since the 1980s, including a discussion of the role of state and local government in supporting immigrants as federal policies shift over time. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, fiftheenth term as the Congresswoman for the District of Columbia and Chair of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, will give the opening remarks.

The panel is comprised of Kathryn M. Doan, Esq., Executive Director, CAIR Coalition, David Grosso, Councilmember at-Large, Council of the District of Columbia, Lori Kaplan, Former President & CEO, Latin American Youth Center, Mary Ann Gomez Orta, President & CEO, Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute, and Nicholas A. Brown, Director of Special Productions & Initiatives, Washington Performing Arts, who will serve as moderator for the evening.

This conversation is presented in conjunction with the premiere of Washington Performing Arts’ co-commission Dreamers, a new oratorio by composer Jimmy López and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz on March 17, 2019 at Sidney Harman Hall (via simulcast). Dreamers explores contemporary stories of Latinx so-called dreamers who are caught in the middle of the current national immigration policy debate.

For more information, visit DC Dialogues.