During Immigrant Heritage Week, St. Mary's Episcopal Church in West Harlem will host a ground -breaking event for Harlem school children, their families and the general public. This interactive event will launch a national art campaign by the Harlem Arts Foundation and immigrant artist Harlem resident Edward Hillel.

Participants will engage in a dialogue to determine and record their (G) status in order to acknowledge and appreciate that in the United States. Today, more than 40 million people living in the U.S. were born in another country. In New York City, 37% of residents are foreign-born. if we can all see each other by the number of generations (G) we have been in this country: G-0’s are born elsewhere, G-1’s are first-generation born here, G-3’s are third-generation born here and so on, then our similarities will far outweigh our differences and we can begin to consider each other as equal.

Through this project we hope to build and expand a dialogue between Americans from all walks of life, in order to begin to recognize ourselves in each other and each other in ourselves. we are ALL immigrants.