Love Without Borders: Illegal Son, Tommy Alexander, Matt Dorrien, and Alexis Mahler at Mississippi Studios

Thursday, January 9, 2020 - 8pm doors, 9pm show
21+
$12 advance, $15 day of show
Grammy-winning trombonist Denzel Mendoza is a Dreamer—a common moniker for DACA recipients—and he’s caught in limbo. His uncertain legal status in America has prevented him from touring internationally with Haley Heynderickx, but it has also inspired his explosive yet introspective improvisation with his jazz trio Illegal Son. Fortunately for Mendoza, his fiancée is a U.S. citizen (the pair fell in love in the parking lot, er, field at Pickathon), but that doesn’t mean that Mendoza’s path to citizenship is all of a sudden a simple one. Love Without Borders is a benefit “show to raise funds and awareness of the difficulty of when an immigrant, let alone an undocumented Dreamer, gets married to a U.S. citizen and has to go through the process of a green card application,” he tells. “The logistics and legalities of the process are lengthy and very expensive for us, and statistically for many other Dreamers and undocumented folks. We have summed up the total of both the immigration and lawyer fees of the entire process and it comes out to $3,610, an amount that we won't be able to raise in time by ourselves. We are pushing this benefit because we can't say what will happen tomorrow or the next month due to how our tumultuous administration could affect our situation.” The night will feature appearances from Portlanders including the rockin’ energy of the Tommy Alexander Band, Mama Bird Recording Co.’s Matthew Dorrien brooding over his piano, and folk singer-songwriter Alexis Mahler opening. Mendoza’s Illegal Son will close out the night joined by some talented friends. Get ready for a set full of breathless passion and some unique insight into Mendoza’s situation and standing in American society.
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