Naily Nevarez

My work explores storytelling as a tool to help others build empathy for the lived experience of marginalized communities.

Focusing on digital mediums such as video, animation, and web apps, I search for ways to incorporate interactivity, connection, and emotion ― powerful tools to immerse viewers and facilitate empathy.

My thesis, Wavering Stripes, is an interactive storytelling website that spreads awareness on and ignites action toward ending immigration detention in the United States.

The website begins with an open shot of an eagle flying through a desert landscape. The eagle lands on a flagpole, and within moments, the viewer is transported to a space of despair and agony as the American flag distorts into a detention center-like environment. From here, viewers click on the human figures to learn the story of someone who has died in a detention facility. After reading the stories, viewers are encouraged to make a donation to Detention Watch Network, a national coalition focused on abolishing immigration detention and my partner organization for this thesis project.

By distorting a symbol of American pride into the structure of a detention facility, Wavering Stripes reveals both the injustice and irony of immigration detention in the land of the “free.”

waveringstripes.com