HEAR HERE, WALLA WALLA

HEAR HERE, Walla Walla is a phone line that seeks to map our community through stories from immigrant and first generation Walla Walla residents.

Immigrants, broadly defined, make up 13 percent of the total population of the state of Washington. They represent 17% of the total labor force in the state, and their share of the total annual economic output of the state is 14 percent.1

HEAR HERE is comprised of excerpts from a series of community interviews, conducted and collected by Whitman College students and community members in the fall of 2018. We invite you pick up your phone and see what is on the line from and for our neighbors in Walla Walla. By pressing the numbers on your keypad you can navigate through the topics of Belonging, Exclusion, Courage, Invisibility, Change, Tradition, Legacy, Sunrise and the ultimate question -- if you knew you would be heard, is there one last thing you would like to say.

HEAR HERE, Walla Walla is a project co-created by the Whitman College Department of Theater and Dance's Devised Theater course in collaboration with members of the Walla Walla Immigrant Rights Coalition as well as immigrants in our community. This work was produced in tandem with the devised theatre production Because You Are Here based on the same interviews.

Both projects are sponsored by the Whitman College Innovation in Teaching and Learning fund and the Andrew W Mellon foundation, diversifying the curriculum through community engagement.

1. “The Economic Contributions of Immigrants in Washington State,” posted by Elena Hernandez, Washington State Budget & Policy Center, March 03, 2015.