A new anti-ICE compilation album benefits immigrants rights organizations

Last year, a well-known street vendor in Los Angeles' Culver City neighborhood was detained by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.Ambrocio "Enrique" Lozano had been selling ice cream in the area for decades — a photo of his abandoned paletero cart soon went viral on social media, a striking representation of beloved community members being targeted by heightened immigration raids.

Artist and activist Dali Colorado, who grew up in LA and now lives in Oregon, saw the photo as a call to action."Let's not let the paletero cart just sit in the street and be forgotten about," Colorado remembers thinking."Let's build on it.

Let's build speakers, let's build a voice and let's push it to create the Contra-ICE sound system."After more than 100 days in detention, the Los Angeles Times reported that Lozano was able to return home to his family and was granted a green card.But Colorado's project, a benefit album spanning music, comedy and spoken word, was just beginning.

The result, Contra-ICE Vol.1: ICE OUT, will be released Oct.

2 through a non-profit established by Colorado and her collaborators called Build Art Make Change.The record features contributions from over 30 artists, including Kathleen Hanna, Fred Armisen and Tom Morello, with the cover art taking inspiration from Lozano's paletero cart, retrofitted with a booming sound system."It's become this iconic symbol of the resistance," Colorado says.

"We are anti-ICE.We don't want to beat around the bush here."NPR reached out to ICE for comment on the creation and mission of the compilation album, but did not hear back.Proceeds from the album, as well as a benefit concert in LA on Oct.

3, will go towards political and social activist organizations National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and Unión del Barrio.Colorado says she chose organizations advocating on the ground on behalf of immigrants being targeted at their job sites and their families.Almost all of the tracks feature ruminations ...