Introduction

Kids on the subway who need to work, a professor who keeps teaching til his last days and other memorable moments in the past and present lives of city workers are captured in images and words by the City University of New York students who won prizes in 2026. Their efforts fulfill the goal of this CUNY/LaborArts contest—to expand student thinking about the history of work, and to provide opportunities for students who are workers to make links between individual lived experience and larger social issues.

Medgar Evers College student Layla Sandoval’s artwork First Day.

Sandoval writes: “Beneath our shared environment lie vastly different journeys within the everyday grind. We live in a world that ticks the same 24-hour clock indiscriminately, with each second an ongoing battle for many to meet the barest needs, while others drift through hours of ease; realities faced by both immigrants and locals alike.”

We sincerely hope that these young authors and artists continue on with their work—their voices demand to be heard.

Now in its fourteenth year, the contest is open to all CUNY undergraduates. Entries are judged according to originality, content and style. Guidelines used for this 2025 contest are here. Student writers and artists draw upon history, their close observation of the world around them, and a wealth of first hand experiences to link their work to the spirit of labor arts. Every year professors judging the contest reflect on the value of providing opportunities for the students to seriously interrogate their own life experiences and that of those around them.

LaborArts is enormously grateful for ongoing support from the Brooklyn College Graduate Center for Worker Education.

Photographs by May Ying Chen and Rachel Bernstein.