Culture & Community | Immigration | Arts & Culture | Arts & Anti-racism | Possible Futures | Crafters of Color New Haven
Top: Objects in the auction at Possible Futures. Lucy Gellman Photo. Bottom: Esdrás in the Wilbur Cross High School Orchestra. Contributed Photo. The photo below is also contributed.
A music classroom, spring 2025. The air is warm, balmy even. Strains of John Caponegro’s “Canyon Sunset,” drift through the air, a steady, stringed ebb and flow. Among the students, Esdrás R. lifts a viola to his chin. He’s young, quiet, on the cusp of summer break and still so focused. As he places his bow to the strings, the notes conjure dusk spreading its long pink fingers across the sky.
That portrait of Esdrás, as not only a model student but also a young and budding artist, began to emerge last week, as teachers praised his work in and beyond the classroom at Wilbur Cross High School (WCHS). It comes two weeks after he was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a workplace raid in Southington.
This week, it also comes during the last stretch of a community art auction and fundraiser for his legal expenses, which are ongoing. More on that below.
“This is a person who has the potential to become part of our community and just make the world a better place right here in New Haven, and it’s just being ripped away,” said WCHS Orchestra Director Kendall Alderman, who is also Esdrás’ homeroom teacher, in a phone call last week. “So many of my students have been through hell just trying to get a little bit of the American dream.”
Esdrás, who should begin his junior year later this month, joined the orchestra his sophomore year, opting for the viola. In part, Alderman said, it seemed like Esdrás could see how necessary the instrument was for the ensemble to function. “It’s something that is important to getting the whole balance,” Alderman said.
While Esdrás kept mostly to himself, he was kind and respectful, always focused on his work and never late to class, Alderman said. He was the kind of kid who didn’t play hooky, or crack jokes, or show so much as an ounce of disrespect to his teachers. In class, he worked diligently to stay on track, learning new pieces of music like “Canyon Sunset” and Casey Kriechbaum’s “Petite Tango.” With his peers, he also tried out new technology that allowed students to compose and produce.
Because Alderman was also Esdrás’ homeroom teacher, he saw firsthand how deeply Esdrás cared about succeeding in school, how willing he was to put in the extra hours to improve his English (teacher Magda Natal has also noted this several times, including in reporting from the New Haven Independent and at a rally last week). While he was slightly older than his peers, he was on track to graduate in 2027, at the end of his senior year.
On July 24—just three days after ICE arrested and detained Esdrás—Alderman joined several educators in sending testimony to a federal immigration judge. In less than a month, he will open up his doors at Cross, and welcome students back into his music classroom for another school year. He, like many at the school, wants desperately for Esdrás to be among them.
“Esdrás [last name redacted] is not a threat to our community or nation,” he wrote in his testimony, joining several WCHS staff members and students in their plea for the student’s release. “He is a normal teenage boy who I expect to grow and thrive as a productive and helpful citizen. He has the support, encouragement and sound guidance of [name redacted for protection] and all of the staff here at Wilbur Cross to ensure this.”
“The separation and potential deportation of this promising young man away from his family and this school/city community will only continue irreparable harm and suffering to all concerned,” Alderman added.
“Papers Don’t Stop You From Being A Person”
Top: Crafters of Color Co-Founder Meredith Clark, who runs Beacon Craft Studio. Bottom: Some of the raffle items included pins, stickers, and zines. Lucy Gellman Photos.
At Possible Futures last Friday, that momentum continued with the launch of a raffle, art auction and fundraiser meant to raise money for Esdrás legal fund (donate directly to that here). On a back table, dozens of pieces of art stretched out in vibrant color: squat ceramic cups and pots in teal and tan glazes; a huge crocheted whale, his sleek, fabric fin rising toward the ceiling, a checkered pillow, adorned with lavender fringe and the words Scream Here.
Toward the edge of the table, a bright array of letters dangled from a banner, the shapes vibrant and quilted in patterned cotton fabric. Fuck ICE, read one. Abolish ICE, read the other. Already, it was possible to imagine them hanging in a nursery, or neatly over a workspace or playroom. Across the space, a smaller table had become home to raffle items, including neat displays of zines and miniature art pieces.
The auction came together last week, as news of Esdrás’ arrest and detainment spread through New Haven and many of the city’s creatives grappled with a sense of powerlessness. Lauren Anderson, who runs Possible Futures, connected with Crafters of Color New Haven, a group that has used the bookspace before for its markets and fundraisers.
Lauren Anderson and Jada Boggs ring people up as book sales, raffle tickets and sweet baked goods that ultimately raised $1,200.
Artists began popping out of the woodwork: Aiden Caceres, who is the brain behind Stuffing Corner, donated a huge orca whale, with patches of white and black muktuk rendered in soft, shiny, polyester yarn. Bookworm Alex Contreras-Montesano, who works at Possible Futures and Elm City Montessori School, put in a pair of delicately beaded earrings, their pink-and-green design inspired by the cover of a book (Contreras-Montesano said it’s on the wearer to figure out which, although this reporter suspects Isabel Allende’s The Wind Knows My Name).
Fairy Meadow Flowers hopped in with a $100 gift card, presented with a copy of Jamaica Kincaid’s An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children thanks to Anderson (she also donated several books to the raffle, and Hanif Abdurraquib's There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension to an NBA-themed raffle item). Writers P. Paramita and Michelle Phương Hồ stepped up with writing and poetry consultations. Creatives like Skate Haven Founder Steve Roberts came in with decked-out skateboards and protective gear.
More Love/Less Hate, reads a sticker that they have affixed to the underside of the board, a mantra for the moment if there ever was one.
When asked Friday about why it was important to contribute, Paramita didn’t hesitate for a moment. “I just want to stand for what’s right,” they said. They also love Possible Futures, where they’ve been hosting a "manuscript meetup” for authors who may be struggling with getting their work published or lack a space for constructive feedback and critique.
Within two days, 51 artists had volunteered their work. By the time it opened last Friday afternoon, people had already started to eye certain pieces. The bookspace, in return, turned its Friday happy hour tradition into a fundraiser, selling baked goods, raffle tickets, and drinks with a suggested donation. During that time, 100 percent of book sales also went to Esdrás legal fund. On Friday alone, Possible Futures raised $1,200 for the cause, Anderson said.
Across the bookspace, Crafters of Color Co-Founder Meredith Clark echoed that need to not feel powerless. A leather worker and the owner of Beacon Craft Studio, they too were horrified and shaken by the news of Esdrás’ arrest in late July, in part because they are also an immigrant, and have seen firsthand how fraught the U.S. immigration system can be. “He’s just a teenager,” they said. “I wanted to do something.”
They speak, in part, from experience. Born in China, Clark immigrated to the U.S. when they were just a year old as an international adoptee. When they were 10, the U.S. government lost track of their documentation for a month. During that time, Clark’s family couldn’t pay for their prescriptions. They couldn’t travel. They remember feeling gripped with fear.
Even once the issue was resolved—a glitch with paperwork—the fear stayed with them.
“I was undocumented as a citizen,” Clark said. Even years later, they’ve made sure that they have copies of their documentation stored in multiple places, just in case they need to access them. “It’s so much worse for people who aren’t citizens. Papers don’t stop you from being a person. From being a child.”
Top: Lauren Anderson and Izzi Geller. Bottom: Author P. Paramita, who donated a 1:1 Literary writing (fiction or nonfiction) consultation.
Educator Izzi Geller, who donated two anti-ICE banners to the show, said that they were equally dismayed, alarmed and devastated by the news of Esdrás arrest, and the potential ramifications it could have for other New Haven Public Schools students on the cusp of a new school year.
Until June, Geller was a teacher at Metropolitan Business Academy, where she was also an outspoken advocate for her students. Later this year, she plans to move to Mexico to study on a Fulbright Scholarship. When she heard about the fundraiser, she tried to think of what she could have ready in under 72 hours. The bright, whimsical garlands that she’s been making for friends sprang to mind.
“I’m so horrified and I just feel like my stomach has been in knots,” she said. “Since Donald Trump took office, we’ve been having these discussions about how to protect our students.” Supporting Esdrás, then, felt like a natural thing to do.
As of Tuesday morning, the auction had racked up $3,419 in bids. Bidding remains open through Friday, August 8. Donate directly to Esdrás’ legal fund here.