Congratulations to the ten young authors of this year’s winning essays and poems—they inspire us all with their writing—and their hard work.

The name of the contest has evolved—from “Making Labor’s History Visible,” to “Making Work Visible”—in no small part due to lessons learned from entries submitted in the previous two years. CUNY undergraduate student writers saw clearly that their own lives could provide a wealth of firsthand experiences that add insight to analytical and creative writing about the issues of labor history.

Surprises abound in these works—one author commissioned a piece of art to accompany his story Fire; another carefully addresses the question of how Zora Neal Hurston could write about black Americans and not write about oppression; a third analyzes her own work in the restaurant industry; and another composed his gripping story of a dystopia in an English as a second language class.

Read them all—you will be moved, surprised, impressed.

We sincerely hope that these young authors continue to write—their voices demand to be heard.

Background & Credits

The CUNY/Labor Arts essay contest is dedicated to expanding and revitalizing the study of work and workers at CUNY, and is open to any undergraduate attending a CUNY college. Begun in 2010, it encourages students to write creatively and analytically about work and workers, and to link their efforts to labor arts. Art by or about working people, including photographs, paintings, buttons, banners, posters and songs are all included in our definition of labor arts.

We would like to thank all of the students who submitted work for the 2012 contest, and to congratulate the authors of the prize-winning essays and poems featured in this exhibit. The 2012 contest guidelines are here.

The contest is funded by The Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, and was made possible this year through the efforts of The Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation and Don Rubin and Bruce Payne; Lehman College/CUNY and Dean Timothy Alborn, and Acting Associate Dean Terrence Cheng; and LaborArts and Rachel Bernstein, Henry Foner and Evelyn Jones Rich.

Special thanks go to our judges: Professors Salita Bryant (Narrative, Fiction/non-fiction); Nicole Cooley (Poetry); and Vincent DiGirolamo (Essays).

The photographs of students were all taken by photographer Gary Schoichet at the Awards Ceremony, held at the CUNY Graduate Center on May 8, 2012.

Credits

Essays
Emma Rock
Harvest. Painting by Jules Smith.

Zachary Amendt
TV3 newsroom, Cleveland, Ohio, 1962.

Justin Keslowitz
The strike in Brooklyn—Firing at the mob. Illustration from Harper’s Weekly.
Author’s note: This illustration served as the inspiration for my essay.

Meagean De La Cruz
Really Good Career. Cartoon by Barry Deutsch.

Poetry
Laquann Jenkins
Bitter Chocolate. Photograph by Daniel Rosenthal, Ivory Coast.

Renisha Pierre
Workers lunch break at Warbasse houses, United Housing Foundation. Photograph by Sam Reiss, Manhattan, 1963.

Allison Dillon
Striking cafeteria workers listen to a Chanukah message of solidarity from Rabbinical student Ben Greenberg. Photograph by Arieh Lebowitz, Madison Square Park, NYC, December 6, 2011. Courtesy of J.ewish Labor Committee.

Rukma Dhakal
Solidarity Day I Washington, D.C. Photograph by George Cohen, September 19, 1981.
Author’s note: I love the way the Washington Monument points upward, indicating to us that we all, no matter what age or race or whatever, we the people, with legitimate reasons of course, should reach for the sky whenever fighting forms of injustice.

Narratives
Anonymous
No Place to Go. Painting by Maynard Dixon, 1935.

Allison Dillon
Street shrine to bicycle messengers near Ground Zero in the months after the disaster. Photograph by Martha Cooper, Lower Broadway, NYC, January 14, 2002.

Edgar Mendez Fire. Illustration by Richard J. Rodriguez, May, 2012. (Commissioned for this essay.)

Gwan Sing Au
Untitled [Inspired by a quote from A. Philip Randolph]. Painting by Marshall Arisman, 1980.
Author’s note: I like his face. It is so broken, as if it is hardly patched together.