Philadelphia Honors Immigrant Heritage Month with Community Celebration, Public Art Installation
PHILADELPHIA — Mayor Jim Kenney and local leaders kicked off Immigrant Heritage Month (IHM) at a community celebration and art installation at LOVE Park today, inviting the broader Philadelphia community to join in a month of recognizing the countless contributions that immigrants and immigration have made and continue to make to Philadelphia and the United States.
The event is one of dozens being held across the country throughout the month of June. The anchor of this year’s IHM celebrations is a public art installation in well-loved, diverse neighborhoods in cities across the country. As part of the #CelebrateImmigrants campaign, the “I❤️CITIES” public art demonstration includes a physical installation of an art piece that proudly displays “I❤️Philly.” During the day, participants shared and honored their personal heritage, as well as loved ones’ immigrant heritage, by pinning country flags representing their ancestry to the art installation.
The event also featured a performance from the Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, a Chinese group.
“As a Welcoming City, Philadelphia not only embraces immigrants—we celebrate them,” said Mayor Jim Kenney. “Activities like Immigrant Heritage Month allow us to publicly recognize our own heritages and highlight the many contributions that immigrants have made to our city and the nation throughout history. I am proud that Philadelphia was selected to host this year’s national Immigrant Heritage Month kickoff, and I hope the ‘I❤️Philly’ public art piece will encourage more residents and visitors to engage in this important conversation around the impact of immigrants and immigration.”
“Every year, we try to step up our celebrations for Immigrant Heritage Month,” added Miriam Enriquez, Executive Director of the Office of Immigrant Affairs. “So, it was a real honor to be selected by FWD.us to help kickoff IHM 2019. Seeing residents and visitors engaging with the ‘I❤️Philly’ art piece this afternoon was extremely moving, and I know it meant a lot to the members of our immigrant community. It sends a message that you are welcome here and we are happy you call Philadelphia home. We’re looking forward to keeping this energy and excitement up throughout the month.”
Immigrant Heritage Month (IHM) is a nationwide effort to gather and share the inspirational stories of immigrants in America. Spearheaded by the I Am An Immigrant campaign, this year marks the sixth annual Immigrant Heritage Month. IHM kicks off on June 1, 2019. IHM is an opportunity to celebrate immigrants and immigration, our heritage, and the countless contributions that immigrants have made and continue to make to our nation.
To see Philadelphia’s full lineup of Immigrant Heritage Month celebrations, visit the IHM event spotlight page on phila.gov.