4/2 @ 6pm | Lives In Translation: A Feeling of Itself

Join Project for Empty Space (PES) on April 2 from 6–8 PM at 800 Broad Street for the opening reception of A Feeling of Itself, an exhibition presented in collaboration with Lives in Translation (LiT) and the Design Consortium at Rutgers University–Newark, led by designers Chantal Fischzang and Gisela Ochoa.

This exhibition is part of a three-part program unfolding across multiple sites throughout Newark from March through June 2026. In addition to the exhibition at Project for Empty Space, the work will be featured in a window installation at 19 Williams Street in Newark, presented in partnership with Teachers Village and RBH Group. The project culminates in a site-specific lighting installation across PES’ exterior façade on Edison Place, transforming the building itself into a beacon that connects language and light.

A Feeling of Itself explores the richness and complexity of living between languages. Rooted in the concept of arraigo—a sense of belonging shaped through one’s roots—the exhibition layers bilingual interviews, photography, typography, and data visualization to illuminate how translation becomes a powerful form of cultural connection. At a time when multilingual identity and migrant/immigrant communities face increasing scrutiny and political attack, this exhibition asserts language diversity as a source of power, dignity, and collective memory. A Feeling of Itself celebrates multilingualism not as a barrier, but as a creative and civic strength that defines Newark’s past, present, and future.

Drawing from multilingual conversations across the region, the project transforms linguistic data into immersive public artworks. Through light, sound, and spatial design, the installations render language visible, celebrating Newark’s polyphonic identity while foregrounding the lived experiences of multilingual students and families. Interviews between LiT students and their relatives, conducted in English and their respective mother tongues, form the emotional core of the exhibition, revealing the layered dynamics of code-switching and presenting language as both a personal inheritance and a shared civic resource. The exhibit also features visualizations of survey data collected from students, faculty, and staff from all three Rutgers campuses, highlighting its identity as a majority multilingual university.

Housed in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at Rutgers University-Newark, Lives in Translation pairs multilingual students with community organizations to provide translation, interpretation, and documentation of linguistic diversity. Among other languages, the program works with Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Korean, Portuguese, Gujarati, Arabic, Polish, Haitian Creole, Russian, Hindi, Tagalog, Italian, Vietnamese, Urdu, and French—reflecting the 15 most-used languages in New Jersey. The exhibition also reflects LiT’s broader advocacy efforts, including testimony before the New Jersey State Senate in support of expanded statewide language access legislation, an initiative that positions New Jersey as a national leader in equitable access to public services for limited-English-proficient residents.

The works on view extend a longstanding partnership with RU-N’s Design Consortium, bringing visibility to LiT’s research, data, and impact. Grounded in cooperative learning and community building through communication design, the Consortium is housed at Express Newark, a center in Newark, NJ, where artists, students, and community members collaborate to advance social change.

Through collaboration, research, and public art, A Feeling of Itself affirms that translation is not merely transactional—it is relational. In giving form to voices that move fluidly across languages, the exhibition invites audiences to experience language as light: connective, radiant, and alive.

A Feeling of Itself is led by designers Chantal Fischzang and Gisela Ochoa, in collaboration with Lives in Translation director Stephanie Rodriguez and advisor Jennifer Austin, and Design Consortium designers Jhoselyn Contreras and Yulisbeth Rojas.

Produced with support from Project for Empty Space, the Newark Story Bus, SHINE Portrait Studio at Express Newark, the Rutgers Language Engagement Project Research Advisory Council, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, the School of Arts and Sciences, and the RU-N Chancellor’s Office.

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