Poor People’s Campaign Art and Culture Workshop

On Sunday August 13 beginning at 2pm, the New York State Poor People’s Campaign Art & Culture Committee will conclude its weekend retreat with a public workshop at Bethany Arts Community (www.bethanyarts.org) in Ossining, NY, in partnership with the local community and youth organization ENUBuilds (www.enubuilds.com). The workshop will explore how Art and Culture infuses the spirit of collectivity into struggle, helping to transform “Me” into “We”.

At 2pm, coordinators from the Hudson Valley Poor People’s Campaign will lead a community art build, an opportunity to share messages of justice through the art of silk screening and other media. Participants will have the chance to take away pieces to display at home or bring to future events. Children of all ages are welcome to participate with an adult/caregiver present.

At 4pm, the Arts and Culture team will share selections from the Poor People’s Campaign’s “Movement Songbook”, as the NY State campaign moves toward its first album of movement songs. Participants will hear how these songs continue to evolve in 21st century movement organizing through the creativity of artists and communities.  We will also hear from the NY State PPC’s Media Team, which will explore filmmaking as a powerful way to “shift the narrative by shifting the narrator”, exemplified in the recently-completed documentary “Face of the State”.

More About The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

In 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and many others called for a “revolution of values” in America. They sought to build a broad, fusion movement that could unite poor and impacted communities across the country. Their name was a direct cry from the underside of history: The Poor People’s Campaign.

Today, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up this unfinished work. From Alaska to Arkansas, the Bronx to the border, people are coming together to confront the interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. We understand that as a nation we are at a critical juncture — that we need a movement that will shift the moral narrative, impact policies and elections at every level of government, and build lasting power for poor and impacted people