By Jazlyn Baptiste 

Imagine being 19 leaving your small island home to migrate to the United States. You carry a brown envelope with your new identity at JFK Airport. However, upon landing, you’re taken to an ICE detention room seeing people chained ready to be deported. You are afraid. 

Walaceka Octave doesn’t have to imagine because that was her immigration story, one not unlike many others shared at the Migration Justice Zine Project held on March 25th, 2026. This collaboration between Adelphi’s School of Social Work and the College of Arts and Science’s art and art history department was organized by faculty, staff, and the social action committee including Art Professor Andy London, College of Arts and Sciences; School of Social Work Social Action Committee co-chairs Dan Kaplan and Sara Terrana; Chrisann Newransky; Dave Lau; Carissa Chunasamy; Abby Balbi; Ashley Butler (GA); and Dean Corbin with Joanne Quinn-Beers and Carol Cohen assisting. 

Attended by approximately 120 social work students and 20 visual art students, teams were created with 8-10 social work students, 1-2 art students, and 1 faculty member per group. All were tasked with fulfilling the project objectives of migration justice storytelling through visual media and advocacy. 

Graduate student of social work and administrative director of social services for the city of New York Walaceka Octave shared her story of leaving the small 238 square mile island of St. Lucia at the young age of 19 to migrate to the United States. She carried a large brown envelope containing her chest x-ray and other medical information which identified her immigrant status. Upon landing  at JFK, she was taken by ICE to a room where she observed people in chains ready to be deported.  Her story of fear and injustice was transformed by various artists at the event into a storyboard. 

Another guest speaker and School of Social Work student-leader Felix Torres shared his immigration story, highlighting the need for social workers and social advocacy as his life and documentation transformed because he said, “It changed because somebody cared enough to translate the system.” 

This project is important to him since it relays important information to others. He said, “The message of this is to realize how powerful storytelling is to create change in policies and to understand that we’re all human first.”

Towards the end of the workshop, each team chose a person to present the storyboard to other tables prompting empathy and discussion. The Immigration Zine Project elicited fellowship and a call to action as Walaceka’s story was sadly not the only migration story involving fear and injustice. The stories in the project will eventually be made into published zines and some will be animated and featured at Adelphi’s inaugural animation festival on April 1-2 in the UC Ballroom.