Over the last few years, stories about immigration have riddled news feeds, from increased Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) action across the country to mass deportations and inhumane conditions in ICE detention centers. 

Bookmark Stories, a community art project launched April 30 by Stanford Medicine and Stanford Medical Humanities, hopes to provide Stanford and Bay Area community members a space to reflect on how immigration has affected them and their families. 

“It was really inspired by the mental health impacts of the current environment around immigration,” said Dr. Bryant Lin, director of medical humanities and arts at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. According to Lin, the team decided to use bookmarks because they mark a place to pause and reflect while reading a book. 

“When do you use a bookmark?” Lin asked. “We thought it would be an appropriate metaphor for immigration: a pause, a reflection, a time of transition in your story as a person immigrating.”

Bookmark Stories began with events at libraries across campus, including Lynne and Roy M. Frank Library, Lane Library and Green Library. Each of these drop-in events featured tabling sessions with art supplies provided, where participants could make their own immigration-themed bookmarks. 

“We are mindful and sensitive to this subject matter… it’s not something we take lightly,” said Lauren Toomer M.F.A. ’15, a lecturer in the department of surgery and the department of art and art history. Bookmark Stories participants can choose whether to sign the bookmarks they make or not, allowing them to remain anonymous if needed. 

More than just the writing or drawing on the bookmarks, those who feel comfortable can volunteer to share via audio “what inspired their bookmark alongside the piece itself,” said Toomer. “The conversations that unfold during the making are equally as powerful as the visuals themselves.” 

One bookmark, pictured in the photo above, was made by Mani Farhadi, who allowed The Daily to share her bookmark and story. The drawing at the top of the bookmark is of Khorshid Khanoom, which is Persian for Lady Sunshine, Farhadi says in the audio recording.

Underneath the drawing, Farhadi wrote: “Grateful for the ancestors from Iran and America, centuries of migration, in a state of constant travel. Uprooting and restarting, building a better life. Each day a new beginning, seeking sunshine’s energy, remembering their heritage and honoring their memories.”

“I was looking for some hope and positive energy today,” Farhadi said in the recording, “so this bookmark project was perfect.” 

Though the Bookmark Stories project has its roots in on-campus libraries, it hopes to expand and serve more Bay Area communities. “The Bay Area is one-third Asian,” said Lin, who is also co-director of the Center for Asian Health Research and Education. “Most of the Asian immigrants are fairly recent — either you’re first generation like myself, or second generation, or you are an immigrant yourself, so we’ve definitely seen the direct mental health impacts of this crackdown on immigration among our community.”

“Our goal is for this to be beyond Stanford, because this issue is beyond Stanford,” Toomer said. The Bookmark Stories project will be partnering with schools, libraries, senior homes and different types of community and cultural centers around the Bay, according to Toomer. 

When it comes to deciding where to host bookmark making events, Toomer emphasized accessibility. “Where do people naturally gravitate towards, and feel a sense of safety, pause and calm?” Toomer asked, referencing desired qualities in potential project partners. 

Though the project was started by Stanford Medicine, Bookmark Stories is not exclusively for doctors or patients with immigration stories. “The health community is everyone,” said Lin. “Anybody could be a patient at any point or a caregiver of a patient.” 

“[Bookmark Stories] is focused on anyone who wants to celebrate immigration,” said Lin.