What’s the best way to work off Thanksgiving dinner? Become an avatar, sample words and music, write a brief poem, and share thoughts during an immersive experience, of course.

Cultural Lab LIC hosts Letters Without Borders with the Extended Reality Ensemble (XRE) this weekend.

For 90 minutes on Saturday, Nov. 26, the audience is immersed in audio-visual installations, sculptures, live poetry, spoken word, avatars and music to relate the lives of immigrants in NYC and their communication with their home countries. (The doors open at 4:30 pm for the 5 pm show.)

On Sunday, Nov. 27, Culture Lab LIC opens at 2 pm, and attendees are invited to immerse themselves in the letter installation and AI playground. Then at 3 pm, the poetry workshops begin with Nuyorican Jani Rose, Alfaaz’s Karan Rathod, and others. At 4 pm, a celebration of the short works culminates with an open mic featuring lead poets and audience.

The events are free, but organizers suggest donations of at least $10 at the door (cash or Venmo). Register here.

Participating artists include Clara Francesca, XRE’s Anne Wichmann (She’s Excited!), Jani Rose, Jiaoyang Li, Sky Rolnick, Gene Chaban, Konstantin Onishchenko, Rajiv Rao, and the audience.  The concept began with Wichmann, a media artist, musician, producer and self-described “powerhouse performer,” and Francesca, a poet and actress, in 2021.

“As an [Australian] immigrant to NY… brought up by [Italian] immigrants in Melbourne, it crushed me seeing ‘my people’ be cruel to ‘historically new’ migrant communities in a country ‘created’ by massacre,” stated Francesca. “Yet, when reading the letters my grandparents sent back to Asmara [Eritrea], Catania [Sicily], Cogolo [North Italy], and Tipperary [Ireland], their words back home were core humane necessary words of love.”

Francesa described Letters Without Borders as “a metaphor of sorts to represent the ‘things we say,’ e.g. from modern cellular text messages to family to calls with international phone calls to literal letters across centuries of time for migrants. To be interpreted as desired. What will we send in the future? XRE has partnered with artists, sharing poems relating to immigration to be featured on location. Letters Without Borders links the microcosm of Queens…with the macrocosm of our globalized world, exploring communalities and differences that bring us together as immigrants writing letters home to those we love.”

With an entrance at 5-25 46th Ave., Culture Lab LIC is a multi-genre arts promoter based in The Plaxall Gallery. Letters Without Borders, which receives funds from the Queens Council on the Arts and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, will take place in the outdoor event space, but the 12,000-square-foot facility includes three indoor art galleries and a 90-seat theater.