You Are Welcome Here

This piece was a reinterpretation of my classic Migration is Beautiful poster. Five years after the original work was created, this pro-migrant affirmation was needed more than ever as anti-immigrant hate and legislation was exacerbated under the racist presidency of Donald Trump.

The monarch butterfly represents the natural act that is migration. Human beings have been migrating since the beginning of time. We are a part of nature, and it's in our human nature to move, just as all other species move. Borders were created by governments to keep people in or out—they are not a natural part of our environment. This artwork imagines a world without walls and borders; this butterfly symbolizes the rights of all living beings to move freely.

This design was originally created for the Oakland Unified School District (California), a sanctuary school district, in the summer of 2017. The district distributed posters to all their schools to create a more welcoming environment for students.