PLACE
735 NW 18th Ave,
Portland, OR 97209
The Immigrant Story, in collaboration with acclaimed Portland photographer Jim Lommasson, presents DREAMs Deferred. Inspired by Langston Hughes’s landmark poem Harlem, this exhibition explores the experiences of five individuals who arrived in the United States as undocumented children and have since built their lives, families, and futures in this country.
At a moment when immigration enforcement and political hostility toward immigrant communities are intensifying, DREAMs Deferred documents the lives of five migrants living with the uncertainty, fear, and limitations imposed by an unresolved immigration system.
For this exhibition, The Immigrant Story collaborated with Portland-based illustrator Victor Bizar Gómez to create three posters that blend contemporary activist art with the tradition of socially engaged political poster design. In addition, Portland mural artist Oliver Casillas presents an immersive, three-part painted installation reflecting on the experience of migration across the southern border. Drawing from his Mexican American heritage and informed by the visual language of neo-classical muralism, Casillas transforms the gallery into a contemplative landscape that explores movement, memory, loss, and belonging.
Through portraits, personal narratives, objects, illustrated posters, and a large-scale mural installation, DREAMs Deferred brings together multiple perspectives on migration and displacement. The exhibition invites visitors to consider the human consequences of harsh immigration policies and to engage with the lived experiences of individuals and communities navigating an increasingly uncertain and hostile political climate.
DREAMs Deferred will run from June 22 through August 6, 2026, at PLACE, 735 NW 18th Ave, Portland, OR 97209.
DREAMs Deferred was made possible through the generous support of the Zidell Family Foundation, with additional funding provided by the Collins Foundation.