Opening Reception: 1000 Dreams

1000 Dreams, a global project, seeks to change negative refugee narratives through recounting the stories of 1000 refugees across the world.

Through 1000 interviews, conducted entirely by storytellers with a refugee background, the voices of refugees are amplified, opening a door to their misunderstood and misrepresented world.

For the BDC exhibition, refugees from Bronx communities are highlighted. They’ve been trained to interview and document the stories of other refugees, allowing opportunities for new narratives and stories to emerge.

On View:
April 3 - May 11, 2025

Gallery Hours:
Thur - Fri, 3-7PM
Sat - Sun, 1-5PM

About Witness Change:
Witness Change (@witness_change) produces highly visual storytelling on seldom-addressed human rights abuses. The non-profit organization exists to improve life for marginalized groups by amplifying their stories. Their projects have reached more than 250 million people worldwide and have been on the cover of National Geographic and Time magazine. Witness Change’s current projects include Where Love Is Illegal, stories of discrimination and survival from the LGBTQI+ community, and In My World, a campaign to amplify stories of people living with mental health, psychosocial, intellectual, and cognitive disabilities.

Mirqedir Mirzat

“For me today, there is only one dream, either it’s independence or death,” says Mirqedir Mirzat (32). A Uyghur from East Turkistan (called Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China) now living in France, he began fighting for Uyghur rights when his mother was taken to a re-education camp. “When my mother was locked up… that day changed me – my vision of life.” He joined the French Uyghur’s Association in 2019 as vice-president and was also elected as the deputy prime minister for the East Turkistan Government in Exile. Mirzat has not returned since 2015 and though he misses his parents, “if one day I go back to China, it means I accept their colonization of my country. I will not accept that.” He says what brings him joy is “my family. They are here, fortunately, in a country that respects human rights, a country of freedom.” He says of his homeland “What leaks out is just 1% of the truth so we can’t imagine what’s going on… our hearts can’t bear it anymore.”

Roholah Mohamadi

“I hope they live in a secure world,” says Roholah Mohamadi (35), speaking about his children’s future. Roholah grew up in Iran, but an issue with residence cards saw him and his wife deported to Afghanistan, his country of birth – a place they neither knew nor felt secure in. “People who lived there didn’t care about bombs or seeing someone being killed… We found it hard to live in this situation.” In Europe, he hoped, he’d find peace and a future for his family. The journey was “like a movie.” He and his young family were forced to cross a freezing lake, stuffed into an over-crowded, airless bus and had to make a dangerous sea crossing. He thought they’d drown: “When the boat was full of water, I couldn’t even talk to my family. We were crying… My wife couldn’t swim and I wasn’t able to choose which one of them to rescue.” Now they stay in a refugee camp in Greece which is like “a prison.” But, “I try to think positively,” he says. “If we get depressed, no one can give hope to our children.”

Roghaia Mohammadi

When Roghaia Mohammadi (34) left her home in Afghanistan, and then Iran, her dream was to “experience a peaceful, war-free life and get ahead by working hard and studying.” In pursuit of this dream, the mother of three has endured robbery, deportation, violence against her children, and separation from one of her sons. The most difficult part of her journey was in a smuggler’s car. “My son panicked and couldn’t breathe. I begged the driver to stop… he told me he did not care if my son died, and that if he died, we would throw him out of the vehicle. I just cried and fanned my son with a piece of a cardboard box.” Now, as she seeks asylum in Greece, her thoughts are elsewhere: “most nights before bed or when I am alone, I think about my second son in Iran. I am physically here, but my soul was left in Iran.” Still, she finds hope. “Thinking about a better future for myself and my family helps me. I have always been a strong person, but this trip has made me even stronger.“

Header Images:
Adonis from Senegal - Photographed & interviewed by Abdoulaye Ndoye
Lady Chavarría from El Salvador - Photographed & interviewed by Evanna Vasquez
Iva from Ukraine - Photographed & interviewed by Iva Sidash.