On July 25, 2025, a group of enthusiastic chalkers gathered on the sidewalk outside the Roosevelt Hotel in New York. The hotel, which was previously a migrant centre, has been unoccupied and non-functional for months now. The task for DGI and its friends, as well as those wielding the chalk, was to reimagine what it would be like if we were to take matters into our own hands and create a welcoming centre for refugees and migrants.
We started with rethinking the very notion of “migrant”.
Migrant is not defined in international law and it is traditionally understood as people who move by choice rather than to escape conflict or persecution, usually across an international border. They do not qualify for the protection available to refugees, asylum seekers or (internally) displaced persons, even though the migratory movement might run as a mixed movement and the people face similar risks and vulnerabilities as refugees.
We asked ourselves:
Maybe the question isn’t how to “help” migrants — as if they were helpless children —but how to recognize that any thriving society builds its future by mixing with others, by absorbing new energies, by welcoming the desire to live together. Maybe we should begin with the understanding that any vibrant, successful society builds its future by absorbing the energy of other cultures, by mixing with them, by welcoming their desire to live together.
New York is a perfect example of how endless waves of migration shaped the city into what it is: a city of possibility. Almost everyone here is either a migrant or the descendant of one. That’s why there are so many restaurants serving food from all over the world, why dozens of languages mix on the streets, and why every day someone is starting a new business, opening a theatre, a tailoring workshop, an art studio — or dreaming of building a home.But maybe all of that belongs to the past? Maybe New York — and the United States more broadly — is closing itself off from migration, from the new, from change. And maybe the city of opportunity will look very different in the future.
This visual assembly was a follow up of the Visual Assembly David and Nika did in London in 2019 (take a look at the history of the project). We hosted a hybrid format, allowing people from different countries to join online and converse with the chalkers on the pavement in New York. What emerged was a dynamic dialogue between pragmatic real-world solutions and unrestrained creative dreaming and design. Participating in this assembly were John and Goodie, who work in refugee camps in Kenya, Savitri from Earth Church in New York, who has worked in organising mutual aid for refugees, Miles and the chalkers in New York, and a whole breadth of DGI volunteers and friends from across the world. The design of our refugee centre was focused on care and granting agency to the refugees. It was to recognise the complex histories, cultures, skills, needs and desires of the people who find themselves displaced from their homes and thrown into foreign worlds.
Food was a central theme. We would provide people with the means to produce their own food through rooftop farming and spirulina cultures, and deliver groceries or food that would otherwise be discarded. We would share the richness of their culinary cultures with local folks by opening pop-up restaurants. We would create libraries with books, tools, and more that would enable people to create and construct everything they need, from furniture and clothes to toys and musical instruments. Language classes and spaces for bidirectional knowledge and skill exchange between local and migrant populations, including refugees. Spaces that also support trauma healing through dialogue, therapy, and more. But also fun and play by creating stages for Fashion shows, carnivals, and folk story nights.
People on the street in New York, took inspiration from themes discussed on the call and brought them to life on the ground, discussing how they fit into the broader New York City context. However, just as a good discussion was growing, the NYPD (New York Police Department) came and claimed that the sidewalk was the hotel’s private property. Even though this is a lie, a compromise was to draw on the street. Between dodging cars and the surprise of the entire incident, it became harder to maintain a direct connection to the call. Instead, volunteers on the ground took advantage of the situation to chalk statements making fun of the hotel, which had clearly called the police.
Meanwhile, as the conversation online progressed, some DGI volunteers made us aware that such spaces for refugees exist and are successful in many parts of the world. The leap from imagination to creation need not be as great as we are made to think. We can organise and jump from passivity to action using visual assemblies as a springboard.
