#XMAP: IN PLAIN SIGHT: “The Los Angeles Orbit”Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles Join MOCA LA for “The Los Angeles Orbit," the first in a series of public programs to engage In Plain Sight, a collaborative artist project dedicated to abolishing immigrant detention and the culture of incarceration in the United States. Over Independence Day weekend 2020, In Plain Sight (IPS) launched the nation's sky typing fleets to write eighty artist-generated messages in the sky over detention facilities, immigration courts, borders, and other sites of historic relevance in the United States. As the planes soared, they made visible what is too often unseen and unspoken on the ground: the appalling, profoundly immoral, imprisonment of immigrants. Each celestial message was followed by #XMAP, a hashtag directing viewers to an interactive web site that locates immigrant detention centers in their vicinity and connects them to the on-the-ground campaigns of IPS’s organizational partners fighting against immigrant detention. A transmedia creative campaign dedicated to amplifying immigrant voices inside and outside of detention centers, IPS will continue its its social impact activities through 2022 with an augmented reality exhibition of sky-typed phrases above detention centers, an anthology documentary film series, and arts-related cultural partnerships and educational programming on issues of immigrant justice. “The Los Angeles Orbit” will feature an overview of In Plain Sight by lead artists rafa esparza and Cassils followed by a conversation with IPS sky writers Bamby Salcedo of the TransLatina Coalition, artist Beatriz Cortez, poet Yosimar Reyes, and artist Ken Gonzalez-Day. Participants in this panel generated the phrases that formed the ring, or “shared orbit path,” around downtown Los Angeles over Independence Day weekend. They will discuss their individual practices in relation to IPS and explore how the multicultural conditions of Los Angeles, the second largest city of immigrants in the US, has generated groundbreaking experimental collaborative practices by artists and activists alike. Viewers will learn about accessible actions they can take to join the movement against immigrant detention. To RSVP for this event: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hnnqw3zUTe6948m6VJM5SQ Space is limited and available on a first come, first serve basis. To learn more about the artists and campaigns of In Plain Sight, visit www.xmap.us and @inplainsightmap.