On Sunday, November 15th, ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery will host a panel discussion of immigration reform and the fight for a living wage. The discussion will begin around 4:30 pm, immediately following the 3:00 pm performance of My Mañana Comes. The panel is free and open to the public and does not require a ticket to attend, although interested parties are encouraged to RSVP at the event’s web page: http://www.artswest.org/event/manana-today-panel/

The panel will be moderated by Tony Gomez, Education Manager at Broadway Center and member of Humanities Washington’s Speakers Bureau. The panelists will include Jorge L. Barón, Executive Director of Northwest Immigrant Project, Rosanna Sharpe, Executive Director of Northwest African American Museum, and Diego J. Aranda Teixeira, Immigration Attorney at Villacorta & Bailey Law.

ArtsWest will also host an hour-long Twitter Q&A on Thursday, November 12th, at 3:00 pm, using the hashtag #mananatoday. Arts and social justice leaders are slated in participate, and those wishing to join the discussion can do so by following @ArtsWestSeattle.

About the Panelists
Jorge L. Barón has served as the Executive Director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) since April 2008. NWIRP is a nationally-recognized legal services organization dedicated solely to advancing and defending the rights of low-income immigrants and refugees. Jorge graduated from Duke University and received his law degree from Yale Law School. Jorge’s passion in advocating on behalf of immigrant and refugees is firmly rooted in his own immigrant experience: he is originally from Bogotá, Colombia, and immigrated to the United States at the age of thirteen.

Rosanna Sharpe is a native of the Pacific Northwest and has twenty-four years of museum experience. She holds a BFA in arts administration from Long Island University, Southampton, NY and an MFA in museum studies from Syracuse University, NY. Currently, she serves as the executive director of the Northwest African American Museum (Seattle, WA) – a community-based museum founded in 2008 with a mission to spread knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of the histories, art, and culture of people of African descent for the enrichment of all.

Diego J. Aranda Teixeira is an immigration attorney working in cases both in and out of immigration court. He is of Brazilian and Mexican descent, and is passionate about defending immigrants’ rights, and highlighting the contributions that immigrants have always made to the communities they go on to join. Diego has law degrees from the UCL at the University of London and from New York University.

About the Production
My Mañana Comes, a new play that debuted to much acclaim off-Broadway last year, delves into the issues of immigration, identity, and fair pay. The four bussers, two Mexican immigrants living in the Corona neighborhood of Queens, a black American from West Harlem, and a Mexican American who grew up in Coney Island, find their worlds intersecting in the back of a Manhattan restaurant.