Re-imagining Migration and the American Jewish Historical Society presented webinar exploring Emma Lazarus, the Statue of Liberty, and I’m/migration on September 25, 2019. We described the event this way: Once again, Emma Lazarus’s 1883 poem is in the news. It is no surprise, since 1903 when The New Colossus was first affixed to the Statue of Liberty it has come to symbolize a particular vision of the United States as a home for immigrants.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

In this webinar, we will explore the poem, the context in which the poem was written, and introduce curricular resources to bring this rich history to life and invite young people to become civic poets, using language to reframe the public conversation about i’m/migration.