Voting Access for All Coalition (VAAC), in partnership with Indivisible Metro Detroit, is continuing a series of community pop-ups to build a collaborative Voting Rights Art Installation on May 19th and 28th.

At a time when barriers to voting are growing, these gatherings create space for people to express personal experiences, frustrations, memories, and hopes connected to voting and civic participation.

Through writing, drawing, and mixed media, community members are contributing personal pieces that express experiences, memories, frustrations, hopes, and perspectives connected to voting and democracy. Together, these individual works will become a larger public installation centered on voting rights, access, barriers, and community voice.

Not every experience connected to voting can be easily explained in conversation or policy language. Art allows people to express what they carry, what they have experienced, and what they want others to understand.

Participants are invited to reflect on questions like:
• What does voting mean to me
• Why does my vote matter
• What does it look like to protect our right to vote

Each contribution will be a 5 by 7 piece created through writing, drawing, collage, or mixed media. No art experience is needed, and people are welcome to create on their own or alongside others.

The installation is being developed in collaboration with Detroit artist, writer, and storyteller Yusef Qualls-El, whose work explores incarceration, race, identity, dignity, and the silencing of marginalized voices. His leadership helps ground this project in lived experience, creative expression, and community storytelling.

Join us at the next pop-ups:

Tuesday, May 19 | 5:00 to 7:30 PM
Sherwood Forest Branch Library
7117 W Seven Mile Rd, Detroit

Thursday, May 28 | 5:00 to 7:30 PM
Jim’s Corner
22757 Woodward Ave Ste 100, Ferndale

Stop by, create, and add your voice.

These gatherings create space for reflection, connection, and expression, bringing together individual experiences into a shared statement about voting and civic participation.

More dates and locations will be announced as the installation continues to grow.