For three days in three different locations this week, 2008 Dare to Dream Media & Arts Festival (April 16-19) is bringing together artistic talents from diverse backgrounds to celebrate and honor the experiences and contributions of immigrants in New York City. At the same time, it will also introduce alternative educational models aimed at nurturing global consciousness among underserved youth.

Produced by Bronx-born, Dominican community activist and visionary Joel Mejia, the Dare to Dream Media & Arts Festival is also the culmination of the Dare to Dream Project, a media arts initiative that uses immigration as a basis to teach media and arts to inner city youth.

Manhattan: Franklin H. Williams Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute
The festival launches on April 16th with a multimedia opening night boasting film/video screenings, an art exhibition, audio storytelling from Radio Rootz, a performance by the Caribbean Repertory Theater, and an interactive experience with the video game, ICED (I Can End Deportation) which puts players in the shoes of an immigrant to illustrate unfair immigration laws.

One highlight of the evening is Betty Bastidas’ short film essay called “Citizens of Nowhere — Another Look“, whose portrayal of undocumented immigrant youth living in the U.S. exposes the paradoxes around the current immigration laws that regulate the educational rights of children from undocumented immigrant families.

The conference will also feature Dominican-born, NYC-based photographer Salvador Perez’s emotionally charged photo series, “World Trade Center Memorial Shots”, in memory of the people that died on September 11, 2001, and Columbian-born photographer Johanna Guevara’s “Faces of an Immigrant Family”, a photo essay capturing the different generations of her family that have traveled from Columbia to the U.S.

Live art will be provided by The Trust Your Struggle Art Collective, a group of community organizers, teachers and designers dedicated to work towards social justice and community building through the medium of art.

Brooklyn: P.S. 24 in Sunset Park
April 18th — day 2 of the festival — will showcase the work of students who, under the auspices of Dare to Dream Project, have explored cultural identity and issues related to the immigrant experience through various media.

Queens: Queens Museum of Art
The festival culminates on April 19th with Through Immigrant Eyes: A Digital Storytelling Festival, in which immigrants of different ages and background share their life experiences about immigration, gender, culture and class, using digital media and performance.

Full info here.