Over 80 people came out to get an early start on Labor Day when Traction showed The Uprising of ‘34 at Culture Crawl in downtown Durham on 8/18/06.
Mary Coles, whose father was president of Durham’s textile union during this walk-out and mass movement, graced us with her presence and shared memories from the perspective of an 11-year old girl. We also heard from Durham historian Jim Wise and Tractivists working on modern-day labor issues — including the Justice as Smithfield campaign — through Student Action with Farmworkers, National FarmWorker Ministries, and IUE-CWA, a local union for the employees of non-profits.
Turns out Frank Stasio (host of The State of Things) was there in the audience, and their show today will be about this historical moment, plus the fight at Smithfield. So listen in! We’re thrilled that Traction had a role in inspiring the show and raising more awareness of labor issues, past and present.
Many thanks to Theo, JoAnne, Dave Z., Lori, Tony, Denise, Becky & Devin, Veronica, Kelly, Tom & Tema, and the Transom Gallery (and probably many others) for helping with this event! And to Wessel for taking pictures under tough conditions. We’ll see if we can resize this one and do it justice…
I’ll listening at noon today to the State of Things. Artsramble has published and will publish two posts about activism and art.(1. And Babies? And Babies. www.artsramble.com/wordpress/?p=40
2.Botero’s Abu Ghraib www.artsramble.com/wordpress/?p=159)
The first post received some commentary from old school protestors of the 60’s generation, but nothing from anyone younger. The second is scheduled for sometime this month.
We sent out a trial balloon letter to various social/political activist groups around the state about sponsoring a prize for creative art expressions during a protest–simply in an effort to engage students and try to garner interest through whatever avenues we could contribute. We received only one response, to which we eagerly responded. This was never answered. In other words, our efforts have been frustrated.
So we are pleased to hear about you and the show this afternoon.
Comment by artsrambler — January 16, 2007 @ 9:24 am