NYC’s WNBA team reads the Emma Lazarus sonnet ‘The New Colossus’

In New York Harbor, 300 feet up, stands a French immigrant with a poem on her pedestal celebrating the inflows of tired and hungry and poor people from all over the planet that has made this nation a vibrant, productive, complicated, pluralistic place, the envy of the world.

Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus,” penned 140 years ago and affixed to the Statue of Liberty 120 years ago, is an enduring celebration of that legacy. And now, the New York Liberty, the city’s WNBA team, pays tribute to the poem with an inspiring reading of its verses.

Center Han Xu hails from China. Guard Marine Johannès, from France. Forward Jonquel Jones, from the Bahamas. Forward Nyara Sabally, from Germany. Head coach Sandy Brondello is from Australia. Others were born here — but have family roots elsewhere. Like their namesake, these women stand tall.

This is our team. This is our city. This is our country as long as she continues to lift her lamp beside the golden door.