Labor Heritage
Foundation
Presents:
“Links on A Chain= Solidarity Forever!!!”
32nd Annual
Great Labor Arts Exchange
JUNE 18 – 21, 2010
AFSCME Council 25
600 Layfayette
Detroit, Michigan
32nd Annual GREAT LABOR ARTS
EXCHANGE (GLAE)
Welcome to the 2010 “Links On A Chain= Solidarity Forever.” The Labor Heritage Foundation
executive director, board, staff, and volunteers hope you enjoy your time with us this year; learn, share,
come back next year and bring someone with you.
Of all we do at the Labor Heritage Foundation, these events are the most important; they provide an
opportunity for our sisters and brothers from all walks of life and diverse communities to share in the
triumphs and challenges of being trade unionists, artists, community organizers, activists, and leaders.
Please take time while you are here in the great city of Detroit, Michigan, to reflect on the legacy we give
and leave to the labor movement and the progressive movement agendas. Be sure to take in some of the
local sites, cultural and historical landmarks and local flavor.
Maybe you will make a new friend, share a pivotal moment in your life, learn something, or have “The
Great Idea Exchange.” Maybe you will write a poem or song, sketch a new idea, storyboard a new film,
or maybe- just maybe- you will be both inspired and inspire someone else. Whatever happens, it will be
powerful and unforgettable.
We are the artists, activists, organizers and leaders who make up our movement; without all of us the
movement would be absent its heart, soul, and synergy. Together we make a difference in every
individual, family, and community. You will find that we have a full slate of events and activities for
you including plenty of time for artist and creative exchanges!!!
Please get to know someone better while you are here, make plans to collaborate, or build your network
of activists and artists for your work at home. Remember the Labor Heritage Foundation is proud to be
part of your work and legacy in building the ‘Links On our Chain’… AND SO MUCH MORE!!
In Solidarity, welcome,
Darryl! L.C. Moch, Executive Director; Elise Bryant, Chair;
Board members: Saul Schniderman, Secretary; Betty Smith, Treasurer; Joyce Flynn, Lakeisha Harrison,
Shelley Kessler, Ricardo Levins Morales, Kirsten Spaulding (Board members)
“. . .What does labor want? It wants the earth and the fullness thereof. There is nothing too precious, there is nothing
too beautiful, too lofty, too ennobling unless it is within the scope and comprehension of labor’s aspirations and wants
… We want more school houses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more
constant work and less crime; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the
opportunities to cultivate our better natures…”
Samuel Gompers, President of the AFL What Does Labor Want? Read Before the International Labor Congress,
Chicago, Illinois August 28, 1893
The Labor Heritage Foundation’s
32nd Annual Great Labor Arts Exchange
GLAE- Friday, June 18
1:00 pm
Artist/Vendor load in and informal gathering
2:00 pm
Registration BEGINS
2:00 – 5:00
General Session – Mini Labor Film Fest
Featuring:
The Ghosts of Duffy's Cut; 52 minutes
Children in the Fields; 11 minutes
The Great Pretenders; 30 minutes
Fired!; 71 minutes
5:00 – 7:00
DINNER on Your Own
7:00 pm
Great Labor Arts Exchange Begins
Registration continues
7:15 – 8:30
The Great Gathering:
Welcome, Logistics, & Overview
Introductions
Essential Labor Songs/Chants
(Auditorium)
8:30 – 10:30
Arts Exchange- Hosted by LynnMarie Smith (Auditorium)
11:00 - until
Open Mic and Relaxing in the Lounge
(Host Hotel: Hilton Garden Inn)
GLAE- Saturday, June 19
9:00 – 10:15
Arts Exchange Hosted by Anne Feeney (Auditorium)
10:30 – 11:45
Workshop I –
A) Puppet Making- Matrix Theatre- A. Ken Srdjak (Room 1)
B) Building Our Voices as Worker Writers- Workshop leaders:
John P. Beck and Aurora Harris (Room 3)
C) The Movement in words and songs- Joe Jencks & Anne
Feeney (auditorium)
11:50 – 1:00
LUNCH & Plenary Session:
LABOR ARTS & CULTURE: Tools in the movement- not just
entertainment -A Prospective and Prescription conversation.
1:00 – 2:15
Workshop II –
D) Picket-line Pizzazz – Jon & Fromer & Shelley Kessler (Room 1)
E) Building a Working Class Audience/Promoting and Presenting
Worker Writing. Workshop leaders: John P. Beck and Larry
Smith (Room 2)
F) Seattle '99 to Copenhagen '09 - where do we go from here?
(Global Community Activism) - Anne Feeney (Room 3)
G) GLAE Chorus (Auditorium)
2:30- 3:15
Arts Exchange: (Featuring songs & chants from the workshops)- Hosted
by Shelley Kessler (LHF/Western Workers Labor Heritage Festival)
3:15 – 4:30
Arts Exchange- SpeakFire!! (Written and Spoken word)
(Hosted by John Beck & Elise Bryant)
4:45- 7:00pm
Action Prep, Travel, & Action,
7:00 – 8:30
(Travel) DINNER & Debriefing
8:30 – 10:30
Arts Exchange (Led by Jon Fromer) (Auditorium)
11:00 until
Open Mic and Relaxing in the Lounge
(Host Hotel: Hilton Garden Inn)
GLAE- Sunday, June 20
9:00- 10:45
Arts Exchange- Led By Joe Jencks (Auditorium)
Essential Labor Songs & Acknowledge Youth Scholarship Recipients
11:00 – 12:15
Workshop III –
H) Parody Writing For Social Movements- Tom Neilson (Room 1)
I) Theatre & Oral History – Bill Shields (Room 2)
J) Songs for Issues and Causes- Bobbie R. (Room 3)
K) GLAE Chorus (Auditorium)
12:15 – 1:30
LUNCH
Culture in Cuba: A Slide Show Presentation
based on a visit in November 2009- Bobbie Rabinowitz (Room 1)
&
Informal Gathering Chat on current struggles and issues
in our local areas) (Room 3)
1:45 – 3:00
Plenary: “Brother Can You Spare A Dime?”
Charlie King & Karen Brandow
3:15 – 4:00
Evaluations (Auditorium)
4:00 – 4:45
Concert review
4:45- 5:15
GLAE Chorus rehearsal and Personal Performance prep time
5:15 – 6:15
Rehearsal & Free Time
6:15 – 7:15
DINNER
7:30
Concert Call; house opens at 7:45
8:00- 10:30
Evening of Labor Music & Culture Concert Joe Hill Award
(Auditorium)
11:00 on
Open Mic & Relaxation in the Lounge
(Host Hotel: Hilton Garden Inn)
GLAE- Monday, June 21
10:30- 11:00
USSF- Overview (Auditorium)
Essential Labor Songs & Acknowledgment of
Julius Margolin Youth Scholarships Recipients (Auditorium)
11:00 – 12:00
LHF Council Meeting
This council meets during the annual event and throughout the
year via conference call and e-communication brainstorming ideas and
offering insight to the executive director
GLAE 2011 and beyond
Arts Presenting- Artists Connecting & Showcases
12:00 – 1:00
LUNCH
1:00
Labor Art, History, and Cultural Tours
Note: All GLAE Meals are provided by The Wobbly Kitchen, a rag tag group of activists and union
supporters dedicated to making sure working people have good meals to fuel them in doing their work
organizing changing the world.
John L. Handcox Scholarship Fund - encourages the promotion of a movement that is
multi-ethnic, multi racial, and provides for a diversity of activities by providing opportunities for
organizers, artists, and activists of color to participate in the labor movement via The Great Labor Arts
Exchange and the Conference on Creative Organizing.
The Julius Margolin Youth in Labor Scholarship fund was created to help bring young
union activists and artists to two labor cultural festivals that are held each year, the Great Labor Arts
Exchange, held each June.
Program At- A- Glance
2010 Mini-Labor FilmFest Showings
Explore the use of film to promote ideas and express views. Consider having a film festival of your
own, this session will offer tools and resources to get you started. Join us for an afternoon of film
showings before we kick off the full arts exchange.
Arts Exchange Labor Chorus
WANTED!!!!- Interested persons, strong singers, shower singers, part-time singers, and maybe-one-day
singers to form the annual Arts Exchange Labor Chorus. Choose from various times to learn and prepare
songs for the concert performance Sunday night. From the West Coast to the East Coast Labor Choruses
inspire and lead us in actions and events. Join in for this convention chorus and sing the songs that
provide the Links On A Chain= Solidarity Forever. Directed by Pat Wynn and Steve Jones
Essential Labor Songs
In this series we will learn and sing essential labor songs that can be taken back and shared with unions,
communities, and organizations interested in using music to sing labor and other progressive movement
themes. You don’t have to be a great singer to learn and share these songs
Building Our Voices as Worker Writers
Part of the Writer’s Exchange for this year’s Arts Exchange, this workshop will allow all of us to share
and develop our work and to talk about ourselves as worker writers. ~ Aurora Harris & John P. Beck
Building a Working Class Audience/Promoting and Presenting Worker Writing
A second feature in the Writer’s Exchange, this workshop will look at ways to build worker writing into
the life of the local union and working class community. Attention will be made to getting worker
writing published and performed, experienced and appreciated. ~John P. Beck and Larry Smith
Puppet Making (with the Matrix Theatre)
This workshop focuses on the skills, techniques, and everyday items that can be used to build large and
small puppets for creative actions. Participants will make puppets to be used in our Action with ROCMI during this weekend. Note puppets at GLAE are from Matrix Theatre.
Parody Writing for Social Movements - A brief intro on what parody is as an art form, and how satire
can be effective doing social change work; or just fun to do. This will be an interactive workshop that
can create songs for specific issues and/or about historical and current issues. Participants will also get
to song swap parody songs. Come sing your songs or just listen. ~Tom Neilson
Brother Can You Spare a Dime?. The 1930’s, from the Crash to the War. A performance of songs,
power point images and stories of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the rise of the CIO and the
build-up to WW II. ~Presented by Charlie King & Karen Brandow
Culture in Cuba
A slide-show presentation based on a recent trip to Cuba in Nov. 2009; showing the culture and workers
of this small island nation. ~ Bobbie Rabinowitz
The Movement in Words and Music
Joe Jencks & Anne Feeney Spanning 150 years + the music from the American Labor Movement is full
of rich cultural history that is often overlooked in the history books. The historian Howard Zinn once
said, “Often it is the victors, the conquerors, the rich and the powerful that commission history books.
They tell us the story of kings and generals and captains of industry. But songs preserve the history of
the people.” We could not agree more! In spoken word and song this workshop will present some of
those histories and link them to the modern labor movement. This performance and educational
workshop on the history of music in the labour movement includes singing songs, telling stories, and
providing some historical perspective on music from the movement. ~ Joe Jencks & Anne Feeney
Seattle ‘99 to Copenhagen ’09: Where do we go from here?
On November 30, 1999 tens of thousands of activists shut down the WTO ministerial in Seattle and
permanently changed the discourse on world trade. Ten years later, tens of thousands of activists were
shut out of the Copenhagen Climate summit… thousands arrested... and Copenhagen became a virtual
police state. Are we winning or losing? Which tactics are working for us, and which need to be
overhauled? Is the Teamster/Turtle alliance that was formed in Seattle still working? Anne Feeney is a
veteran of both of these demonstrations (and many in between) and will moderate this discussion. ~
Anne Feeney
Songs for Issues and Causes
We Still Need National Single payer Universal Health Care for working people, actually all people. I
have amassed about 30 plus health care reform songs and put them in songbook form. They would form
the basis of a workshop on writing and singing health care songs and creating new songs for other issues
and causes - immigration, full employment, job creation, union and labor movement, etc. – Bobbie
Rabinowitz
Picket-line Pizzazz
More than just singing songs and chanting; what it takes to make a successful event. This workshop will
give you a checklist for planning to participation in your actions. This means tools of the trade,
instruments, songs, chants, roles and responsibilities, and the do’s and don’ts for a good event. - Shelley
Kessler & Jon Fromer
Labor Heritage Foundation is proud to produce these programs but they would not be
possible without the generous donations and support both financial and in-kind from:
AFL-CIO International Headquarters
Executive Offices
Broadcast Department
Information Technologies Department
Media Department
Publications Department
Purchasing Department
Support Services Department
Michigan State University; School of Labor and Industrial Relations
National Labor College
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA)
Kraig Williams
Minsu Longiaru & ROC-Michigan
Jessie Cook
Cindy O’Neal
Patricia Bryant
Timothy Bussey
Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture
Saad Asad
Brenda Moon
Bill Meyer
Skip Turner
LynnMarie Smith
Debi Munci
Ellis Boal
Elise Bryant
Sandra Esparza
Marti Harris
John Beck
Sandra Williams & Tanise Hill - AFL-CIO Metro Council
Al Garrett, Betty Smith, & Ed Harris -AFSCME Council 25
Community Support for the John Handcox Scholarship
George Mann & The Julius Margolin Scholarship fund
And our generous supports who contribute annually to LHF programs and dinner
Special Thanks to: LHF Staff, Interns, Volunteers, Board Members,
& our dynamic instructors and program leaders
NOTES: