Aghajanian neatly ties together these themes, and illustrates how art is just one of the gifts offered by our new arrivals. It's a point worth underlining, especially given the toxic anti-immigrant rhetoric that has coincided with the rise of President Donald Trump.
Salah Hadwan, a 27-year-old Yemeni American who grew up in Hamtramck and is now a member of the Hamtramck Board of Education, was one of these local supporters. When he found out that the installation might be destroyed, he rallied a popular local restaurant, Royal Kabob, to donate 10 percent of its sales for one day to Hatch Art. Hamtramck Disneyland "shows that, regardless of what's going on in the U.S., there's always that hope that you can come to the U.S., come to a city like Hamtramck, and freely express yourself in whatever way you think is unique to you," he says. "It's symbolic of immigrants."
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