10 May 21 - 27, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents A Cup Without ICE Dallas artist Angel Faz brings bold protest art to a national campaign pushing for safe, welcoming World Cup spaces free from fear and intimidation of ICE. BY PRESTON BARTA A s Dallas readies itself for the global stage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup this summer, a new campaign asks a pointed question beneath all the pag- eantry: Who gets to feel safe when the world comes to town? “No ICE in the Cup,” a national coalition effort led by the Horizons Project and backed by nonprofits, faith leaders, worker organiza- tions, small businesses, artists and soccer fans, wants the answer to be simple: everyone. In World Cup host cities, including Dal- las, the campaign is calling for fan experi- ences free from the threat of immigration enforcement, while building something more expansive than a protest slogan. It is organizing youth soccer events, community watch parties, local activations and a na- tional art initiative that treats culture not as decoration, but as a form of public defense. That last part matters in Dallas, where local artist and designer Angel Faz has contrib- uted one of the campaign’s first featured works — a fierce, kinetic image that looks less like a polite invitation than a warning shot. It’s protest art with cleats on. The poster is blunt. A soccer player drives the ball hard into a looming goalkeeper marked “ICE,” blasting both man and net backward. Red floods the background as black anchors the weight and white letters shout the campaign’s name across the top with “NO ICE IN THE CUP!!!” For Faz, who was born and raised in West Dallas, the piece comes from lived ground. “I’m a Dallas-based artist and designer and I work a lot with land, land-based move- ment, migration, communities, how we pro- tect one another,” Faz, who uses they/them pronouns, tells the Observer. “We protect us.” That phrase — “we protect us” — feels like a key to both the campaign and Faz’s larger practice. Their work often moves through questions of land, belonging, Indig- enous identity, migration and civic memory. Faz describes their family as Indigenous and Mexican-Indigenous, rooted in Texas long before modern borders made belonging feel conditional. “We’ve been here since before Texas was Texas,” the artist says. Pulling the Penalty Card on ICE That history gives extra force to the cam- paign’s central argument. The World Cup is supposed to be a festival of movement, sound and shared obsession, a place where flags wave and strangers yell in unison. But for immigrant communities, that joy can curdle quickly under the presence — or even the possibility — of surveillance. “For me, the World Cup should be about joy, play, gathering, people coming together across borders,” Faz says. “But the threat of ICE changes that feeling of public space. It turns celebration into fear.” That tension sits at the center of “No ICE in the Cup.” The coalition’s stated goal is to make the tour- nament feel like a public celebration rather than a check- point. The campaign is pushing not only a message, but a model: communities, busi- nesses and organizers creating spaces where people can gather without intimidation. The effort spans multiple host cities, but in Dallas, where immigration politics, policing and public space have long collided, the message lands with a particular charge. Faz’s artwork sharpens it. “Art is visceral,” they tell us. “It can move through differently than a policy statement. It can make people feel something.” That’s exactly what the poster does. It draws from a protest vocabulary that feels both historic and immediate — the stripped- down urgency of red, black and white un- derlined by the hard angles and sense of motion compressed into a single blow. Faz says they intentionally used a limited palette to make the image feel urgent, citing a love for protest posters from the 1960s and ’70s. Trained as a graphic designer, they brought those principles into the work while resist- ing the polished emptiness that often flat- tens political art into branding. “In this day and age of saturated imagery and AI art, it was important for me to hand- draw it,” Faz says. The image also carries layered refer- ences. Faz noted the comic-book force of the central figure and subtle nods in the player’s design that point to broader politi- cal solidarities. But the core idea is plain enough to hit in a second: Fear is in the goal, and somebody has to kick it out. “I wanted people to feel the joy of the game and the seriousness of protecting that joy,” Faz says. That line may be the cleanest summary of the campaign’s artistic ambition. “No ICE in the Cup” is not asking art to simply illus- trate a message after the fact. It is asking art- ists to help build on public sentiments of courage, visibility, defiance and welcome- ness. The campaign launched with works by Faz and New York artist Cristy Road, while also inviting artists around the country to submit their own responses. A Cup of Community Faz says they appreciated that the organiz- ers gave artists room to interpret the prompt on their own terms. They also valued the fact that the campaign links artists with var- ious community groups rather than treating culture as an isolated lane. “It creates much more of a movement with artists, small businesses, faith leaders, workers and community groups all rally- ing,” Faz says. That coalition-minded approach also mirrors what Faz sees in Dallas itself. Asked about the city’s art scene, they pointed less to major institutions than to artists creating their own spaces and public spaces. That, in their view, is where some of the city’s most vital work is happening. “When I see the evolution, it’s people making their own spaces, not looking to insti- tutions or these larger art groups to include them,” Faz says. “They’re creating their own spaces, and I think that’s freaking rad.” That DIY civic energy matters here. Dal- las has always had more creative power than it gets credit for, but some of its most mean- ingful cultural work happens where art and organizing overlap in neighborhood actions, mutual aid networks, grassroots exhibitions and collaborations that do not wait for per- mission. Faz looks to the city’s tight-knit ac- tivism as one of its strengths, especially when art connects to actual work on the ground. For them, this campaign is one chapter in a broader practice. They are also involved in Indigenous-led land and water work in Dallas, including efforts tied to the renaming of lakes near the Trinity. So, what would success look like for “No ICE in the Cup” and the artists involved? ▼ Culture Artwork by Angel Faz Angel Faz’s protest poster for the “No ICE in the Cup” campaign depicts a soccer player striking down fear and intimidation with a decisive kick. “WE’VE BEEN HERE SINCE BEFORE TEXAS WAS TEXAS.” - ANGEL FAZ
