California-based singer-songwriter Kesha has teamed up with United We Dream, America’s largest immigrant youth-led organization at 4 million, to raise awareness about the organization.
As it celebrates its 10th anniversary, United We Dream – which boasts 100 affiliate organizations over 28 states and focuses on empowering youth to develop their own campaigns of justice and dignity for all immigrants, especially crucial with the current presidential regimes views on immigration and accelerating deportations – will benefit from the video for “Hymn,” a track off Kesha’s latest album, Rainbow.
According to Pew Research, nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants were living in the U.S. as of August 2017.
The partnership between United We Dream and Kesha was born after a reception honouring both the singer and organization co-founder and executive director Cristina Jiménez as two of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People in 2018."
It was the meeting between the two that led Kesha to create a video for “Hymn,” a song that encourages the disenchanted to “find their place in the world,” according to the press release.
In a series of Tweets, Kesha explained why she wanted to work with United We Dream:
"When I attended the Time 100 Gala this past April, I met Cristina Jiménez, co-founder of the largest immigrant youth organization in the country, United We Dream. I was so moved by what she and her team are doing to empower immigrant youth in our country. They are working to protect and empower hundreds of thousands of DREAMers who came to this country as children and grew up, studied, and worked in the USA, and now face deportation with the scheduled end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Even though DACA is scheduled to end, United We Dream has continued to fight for justice and dignity for immigrants and helps DREAMers apply for protection.
“I am partnering up with United We Dream to shine a light on the organization, and I wanted to encourage anyone and everyone to donate even just a moment of your time to learn about what's going on with DACA, donate a dollar if you feel compelled, or simply be open to learning about what's happening to the people behind the statistics. These are stories of people who are currently having their lives, their dreams and their pursuit of happiness in this free country, taken away from them. At my shows, I dedicate my song ‘Hymn’ to DREAMers because I don’t believe that people who came to this country as children should be punished by potentially having their families torn apart if they haven’t done anything wrong.
“Unfortunately, these young people are immediately at risk of losing their access to higher education, lawful employment, and relief from deportation. As I say in ‘Hymn’, we are all “Dreamers searching for the truth,” and I hope you will stand with me to fight for the DREAMers. Join me and let’s support United We Dream here.
“In conjunction with this collaboration, I am also releasing the music video for 'Hymn.' This song is so important to me, and I’ve been holding onto this music video for a while now, but after meeting Cristina, I felt like now was the time to release it to further bring attention to this cause. We are all the same, born into whatever circumstance the universe hands us, and I believe it should be a right to be able to dream big. Watch my music video for 'Hymn' here, dedicated to all DREAMers.”
Added Jiménez: "We are excited that Kesha was inspired by the work of thousands of immigrant youth who took to the streets during the Dream Act to demand permanent protections from deportation. All across the country, immigrant youth of United We Dream are continuing to organize their cities and states. We are grateful to Kesha and to all those who are joining our fight to ensure immigrant youth are #HeretoStay."
The United We Dream website offers a network and a support system for undocumented workers that include immigrant protection, defense against deportation, education equity and justice and liberation for LGBTQ immigrants.
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