Walk with Amal:
A First Amendment Rights March from ICA LA to Gladys Park
November 2, 2023

Walk with Amal is the journey of a 12-foot puppet representing a young Syrian refugee girl on an international search for her mother. On November 2, 2023 between 1-3pm, Little Amal will participate in Looking for Home, a First Amendment Rights march, to draw attention to the rights of refugees, migrants, immigrants, the unhoused, and all who need a home. Little Amal has become an international human rights symbol for displaced people. As we march together through the urban core of Los Angeles, we shall witness how the arts can help build a human connection with compassion in the face of societal struggles and challenges.

Little Amal’s visit to Los Angeles is part of Amal Walks Across America: A Nationwide Journey spanning more than 35 cities & towns, 100 events, and 300+ partners.

The march will begin at ICA LA in the Arts District and end with a puppet performance at Gladys Park in Skid Row, with stops at Para Los Niños and Inner City Arts.

Parking will be available in the parking lot across the street from Para Los Niños on 7th street. Signage will mark the lot.

Walk with Amal: Looking For Home is organized via a partnership between Los Angeles artists and arts organizations: ICA LA, Los Angeles Poverty Department, Automata, Inner City Arts, Para Los Niños, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, and artists Dorian Wood and Corazón del Sol.

Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) is an epicenter of artistic experimentation and incubator of new ideas. Founded in 1988 as the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMoA) and reestablished in 2017 with a new identity and home in Downtown Los Angeles, ICA LA builds upon a distinguished history of bold curatorial vision and innovative programming to illuminate the important untold stories and emerging voices in contemporary art and culture. Through exhibitions, education programs, and community partnerships, ICA LA fosters critique of the familiar and empathy with the different.

Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) is a Skid Row-based theater organization, founded and directed by artist John Malpede. LAPD has distinguished itself by its longstanding commitment to making change in L.A.’s Skid Row community, particularly regarding the homeless, through theater-based civic engagement work.

Founded in 1989, Inner-City Arts offers a safe, creative space in Los Angeles where more than 200,000 children have been invited to create and explore. Inner-City Arts provides quality arts instruction for students from underserved communities, integrated arts workshops for educators, and programming designed for the community through The Rosenthal Theater.

Para Los Niños serves L.A.’s neediest children and families, placing education at the core of our work. In keeping with our original mission to help children thrive, our model – of early-education, TK-8th grade education, youth workforce services, and family and community services – provides a comprehensive, holistic approach to break the cycle of poverty and help children, youth, and families reach their full potential.

Immigrant Defenders Law Center is a next-generation social justice law firm that defends our immigrant communities against injustices in the immigration system. ImmDef is fighting back every day against the immigration system’s campaign of cruelty against migrants at the border with a focus on assisting children and families.

Dorian Wood (b. 1975, pronouns: she/her/they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. Her intent of “infecting” spaces and ideologies with her artistic practice is born from a desire to challenge traditions and systems that have contributed to the marginalization of people.

Corazón del Sol is a third generation Los Angeles-based artist. Informally taught by her early access to the arts and subsequent questioning of the arts’ organizing systems, she has a practice rooted in collective sense making through conversation, movement, video, sculpture, and other experimental modes. Through her community activism and formation of the low-cost housing prototype, Jardin de Estrellas, she brings form to her belief that beautiful housing is a fundamental human right. Lately she is most interested in connectivity’s ability to dislodge addiction to power that traumas engender.