From our pals at The Foundry:

OUT OF THE GLOBAL CITY LAUNCHES THIS SATURDAY

Over the past decades, New York City – alongside London, Tokyo and an increasing number of urban centers around the world – has emerged as a global city – a geographic node where global finance is organized, concentrated, re-dispersed, and circulated. Decisions made in these metropolitan centers impact the lives of countless people across the world. As the recent economic upheaval illustrates, this is simultaneously a powerful and vulnerable reality. In New York, we bear witness to the ways in which the basic elements of our livelihood – from work to housing to education to health care – are increasingly shaped by the needs of global finance that put profits before people.

Join us as we explore what living in the global city of New York means. Through this series, we hope to nurture deeper engagement between the arts and social justice sectors to imagine and work toward a more just city (and world).

WORK AND LABOR

SATURDAY, JANUARY 24TH

4-6PM

Spanish-English Interpretation

Childcare provided

Parish Hall at St. Mark’s Church

131 E. 10TH Street at the corner or 2ND Avenue.

RSVP TO: INFO@THEFOUNDRYTHEATRE.ORG

OR CALL: 212.777.1444

January’s launch will focus on how Work and Labor is organized in the global city – highlighting the dynamic work of immigrant workers centers alongside that of academics and media makers, including DAVID HARVEY, DOMESTIC WORKERS UNITED, ESTHER KAPLAN, MAX FRASER, RESTAURANT OPPORTUNITIES CENTER OF NEW YORK,AND VAMOS UNIDOS.

David Harvey, the Director, Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, CUNY Graduate Center; a Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York (CUNY); and author of various books, articles, and lectures. He has been teaching Karl Marx’s Capital for nearly 40 years.

Domestic Workers United, an organization of Caribbean, Latina and African nannies, housekeepers, and elderly caregivers in New York, organizes for power, respect, fair labor standards

Esther Kaplan is a radio and print journalist and a community activist. She is investigative editor at the Nation Institute and writes for The Nation, The American Prospect, The Village Voice, and other publications. For ten years, she has been co-host of Beyond the Pale, a weekly radio program covering Jewish culture and politics on WBAI/New York, and she is the producer of The Communique, which covers labor and public policy, on WNYE/New York. Her book, With God on Their Side, came out in paperback from The New Press in November 2005.

Max Fraser is a writer and the director of The Nation Institute’s journalism internship program. He writes about labor, housing, and economics for The Nation, New Labor Forum, and elsewhere.

Founded initially after September 11th, 2001 to provide support to restaurant workers displaced as a result of the World Trade Center tragedy, the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY) has grown to support restaurant workers citywide and advocate for improved working conditions.

VAMOS Unidos (Vendedoras Ambulantes Movilizando y Organizando en Solidaridad – Street Vendors Mobilizing and Organizing in Solidarity).

PARTNER INFORMATION

THE FOUNDRY THEATRE aspires to assemble a community of artists with revolutionary ideas for the theatre and the world in which it is situated We commission, develop, premiere, and tour new works of artistic rigor that invite audiences to visit unexplored landscapes of thought and provoke new questions for our times. In addition, The Foundry hosts ongoing public dialogues — roundtables, conferences, town meetings — bringing artists together with other public thinkers to unpack the workings of a changing polis. These activities together constitute The Foundry as an ongoing performance of ideas which invites as many as people as possible to consider what we mean to be as citizens of a world that must be changed.

THE CENTER FOR PLACE, CULTURE AND POLITICS is an interdisciplinary center providing an intellectual forum for the discussion of a wide range of vital contemporary topics. As the name suggests, most of the pressing political and economic issues of today occur at the nexus of place and culture. The ambition of the Center is to become an eminent intellectual and public nucleus for these kinds of issues.

Founded in 1966, THE NATION INSTITUTE has a fundamental commitment to the values of free speech and open discourse. The Institute places particular importance on strengthening the independent press in the face of America’s increasingly corporate-controlled flow of information, and through its programs the Institute promotes progressive values on a variety of media platforms. The Institute sponsors conferences, investigative research, seminars, televised town-hall meetings, original web content, book publishing, film production, fellowships, internships, and awards for truth-telling and social activism.