What’s New

The 2022 Clara Lemlich Awards Ceremony was held on May 12, watch the video here.

Check back soon for the honoree pages for our amazing 2022 honorees: 107 year old civil rights activist and educator Dorothy Burnham celebrated people’s poet Maria Mazziotti Gillan, labor pioneer Dolores Huerta, community health pioneer Jeannette Phillips, feminist women’s health and abortion rights advocate Kathie Sarachild.

ENTER the Bernhardt Labor Journalism Contest. Deadline August 30, 2022.

ENTER the “Making Work Visible” Contest for CUNY students. Prizes of $1,000 and $500 in four categories – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and visual art.

June 18, 10am – noon: Garment Workers Uprising in Chinatown Walking Tour with ILGWU historian Dan Katz and strike veteran May Chen. $40. Register here.

June 24, 9-10:30pm: Projection Night with Chinatown Art Brigade, celebrating Chinatown’s labor history through slogans, animation, and moving image. More here.

June 25, 2–4pm: WE ARE ONE – 40th Anniversary Celebration of the 1982 Chinatown Garment Workers Rallies (ILGWU, Local 23-25), with music, dance, children’s activities and veterans speaking about the strike. More here.

 

RECENT EXHIBITS

We Are One – The 1982 Chinatown Garment Workers Strike with photos, videos and additional resources.

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary paperback edition of the Bernhardt and Bernstein book Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives, A Pictorial History of Workers in New York City.

CALLING UP HENRY celebrated the life of our good friend and cherished colleague Henry Foner.  Find recordings of Henry singing some of his songs in our Thursdays TiIl Nine and Play it Again, Sam exhibits, and information about his book of verse here.

Remembering Ralph Fasanella featuring twelve remarkable paintings by this socially engaged artist who was often called an “artist of the people.”

 Meet Us in St. Louis – A collection of Labor Art from around the country and across the century.  Start with the image of the week and add your observations.

On Equal Terms – Women in trades, 35 years and still…. Poetry and mixed media by artist and electrician Susan Eisenberg.

Defending the Social Safety Net  

For Better or Verse  — video and audio of Henry Foner singing songs from the new book.

 Women Firefighters in New York City  

 

FEATURED EXHIBITS

Labor Art from St. Louis features highlights from the Feldacker collection of paintings, prints, drawings and sculpture on the theme of work and workers.

Why Unions — Art from the National Maritime Union  features graphic art from the 1940s by Harold Price, Rockwell Kent and William Gropper

Landscape of Lost Arts    Vanished Structures and Forgotten Skills  —  Janet Wells Greene curates images of artisans and union craftsmen building and rebuilding the NYC skyline

We Love A Parade Union Banners Then and Now  —  featuring four labor banners from the 19th century and 27 banners from the twentieth century NYC garment industry

Sisters in the Brotherhoods  — Jane Latour interviews women who were pioneers in skilled blue-collar jobs

The ILGWU:  Social Unionism in Action  — garment union initiatives in organizing, immigration, civil rights, health care and culture

Don’t forget — we need your support to continue this work.