Tidbits – May 12, 2022 – Reader Comments: Abortion; Trickle Down Economics; Self-Determination and the War in Ukraine; French Left-Wing Bloc; Kathy Boudin; State of Working America; Lots of Announcements; More…
Re: W.E.B. DuBois’ Abolition Democracy (Carl Davidson)
Re: How Did Abortion Rights Come to This? (Van Caldwell)
For Mother's Day -- cartoon by Ali Solomon
Arise Sisters - Fight Back Against the Republican War on Women
Re: Abortion Rights Are Workers’ Rights (Precarious life and times)
The Roberts Court - A Court to Remember -- cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz
Making Decisions About Healthcare for Others
Re: High Crimes and Lingering Consequences: How Land Sale Contracts Looted Black Wealth and Gutted Chicago Communities (Stephanie Holstein)
Trickle Down Economic Has Never Gotten Billionaires to Spread the Wealth ... -- meme (UFCW Local 1625)
Re: Starbucks Workers Have the Company on Its Back Foot (Eleanor Roosevelt)
Re: Self-Determination and the War in Ukraine (Susan Rosenthal; Carl Davidson; Steve Leeper)
Re: When Should We Stop Excusing the Russian Invasion? (Rob Prince; John Woodford)
Re: War and Peace (Stan Nadel)
Re: In France, a Left-Wing Bloc Is Uniting To Stop Macron (David Marley; Phil Fiermonte)
Kathy Boudin - 1943–2022 (Michael Steven Smith)
Resources:
State of Working America - Measuring wages in the pandemic labor market (Economic Policy Institute)
Appeal by the independent labor unions of Ukraine - To the workers of the world: we need your help! (Independent Union of Labor Protection “Zakhist Pratsi”)
Announcements:
The opening of Political Intimacy: The R3turn - Brooklyn - May 13 (Pratt Institute's Political Intimacy class)
Global Repercussions: The Ukraine War, Russia, and U.S.-China - A Webinar May 18 (Committee for a Sane U.S.-China Policy)
Book Talk - Revolution Around the Corner: Voices From the Puerto Rican Socialist Party in the United States - May 20 (The People's Forum)
Civil Rights & Labor Relations Issues in Baseball: Past, Present and Future - May 25 (The New York Labor History Association)
Metro NY Labor Communications Council 46th Annual Convention - June 3
Dylan and the Beats - Three-day symposium June 3-5 (University of Tulsa’s Institute for Bob Dylan Studies)
Re: W.E.B. DuBois’ Abolition Democracy
Excellent overview by Horne. I've long argued 'Black Reconstruction' is one of three books all Americans need to read to understand who they are. The other two are Ted Allen's 'Invention of the White Race' and Amiri Baraka's 'Blues People.' Today I would add Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's Indigenous Peoples History of the US',
Carl Davidson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: How Did Abortion Rights Come to This?
What Can Be Done?
“Whether the current trend toward loss of reproductive rights can be turned around depends greatly on revitalizing the Women’s Liberation Movement. That will take the work of many and a refocusing away from fracturing “self-empowerment” and “self-expression” to uniting women with enough collective clout to make a difference. Divisions among feminists abound, much as they always have, but while some seek to understand and settle them justly, others seek to maintain, if not deepen, them. The defeatist ideology of postmodernism reduces everything to individual perception and demands that any idea or theory that might lead to unity be “deconstructed” and “fractured” until it is useless. Without cogent theory and a united movement, we will lose.”
Van Caldwell
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
For Mother's Day -- cartoon by Ali Solomon
Ali Solomon
May 5, 2022
The New Yorker
Arise Sisters - Fight Back Against the Republican War on Women
new poster based on original painting by Paul Honore, "The Spirit of Woman Power".
Re: Abortion Rights Are Workers’ Rights
(posting on Portside Labor)
The Supreme Court’s plan to strike down reproductive freedom is an attack on workers everywhere. The labor movement should treat it that way—by taking urgent action. At this very moment, protesters are gathering in cities across the country to decry the Supreme Court’s looming decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that established a person’s constitutional right to have an abortion.
Politicians, civil rights organizations, and reproductive rights groups have released statements railing against this latest rollback of our rights. Several unions and labor leaders have also stepped up by issuing impassioned responses to the decision, including National Nurses United Co-President Jean Ross, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) President Sara Nelson, and AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, who wrote that, “Access to health care without fear and intimidation is every person’s right. We must be able to control our own bodies — which has a direct impact on economic justice and the ability of working people to make a better life for themselves and their families.” This public dissent is welcome, but the labor movement needs to do more. Anything less than a full-throated defense of workers’ rights — including their right to make their own decisions about their health, body and sexual life — is unacceptable.
There is no time to mince words: Abortion rights are a labor issue, and this is a moment in which the labor movement needs to make clear that bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom are core issues that unions will fight tooth and nail to preserve. The right to control our bodies is part and parcel of our centuries-old battle to control our labor, and they cannot be separated from one another...
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
The Roberts Court - A Court to Remember -- cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz
Lalo Alcaraz
May 5, 2022
Mexican Judge
Making Decisions About Healthcare for Others
This is the best way to show case the absurdity of men in elective office or the courts, making decisions about women's healthcare choices.
Contract sellers bought houses, often from white families attempting to flee racially changing neighborhoods, then marked up the prices of the homes and sold them to Black buyers on contract. The buyers would pull together hefty down payments, followed by monthly payments at higher-than-average interest rates. Contract buyers also were responsible for covering the cost of all home maintenance. Despite making payments, buyers did not build equity in their homes—and importantly, contract sellers kept the titles until the last contract payment was made. If a buyer missed even one payment, the seller could evict them and the buyer lost the money they invested in the home, without recourse to recover it.
Making the case for reparations in a 2014 article in The Atlantic, author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates described contract buying as “a predatory agreement that combined all the responsibilities of homeownership with all the disadvantages of renting—while offering the benefits of neither.” Indeed, scores of contract buyers got an exceptionally raw deal and were ultimately left with nothing to show for it.
Stephanie Holstein
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Our job is to create better working conditions for those who work in health care, at Disney, truck drivers, and more. You are the Union. We support you!
5600 US Hwy 98 N
Lakeland, FL 33809
(863) 686-1625
Re: Starbucks Workers Have the Company on Its Back Foot
(posting on Portside Labor)
There are no "progressive companies." Sooner we all realize that the better. Capitalism is exploitation whether it comes in a pinstripe suit or a flannel shirt.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Self-Determination and the War in Ukraine
What's missing from this article is the US/NATO's stated aim of weakening the Russian empire in order to strengthen its own empire. It cannot benefit the people of Ukraine to trade one imperial master for another.
Susan Rosenthal
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Indeed, but who decides? At the moment, Russia is trying to impose its will by killing Ukrainians by invading and occupying. My guesstimate is Ukraine will force the Russians out. With that experience under their belt, I doubt they will handily submit to being subjugated by another, even if they join the EU. Putin made a major blunder here. It should not be our task to clean up after him.
Carl Davidson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Carl Davidson: No nation ‘chooses’ to be subjugated. At every level, our world is arranged in a power hierarchy, where the more powerful subjugate the less powerful, and grow even more powerful.
Just as no neighborhood store can stand against Walmart, no small nation can stand against the world's most powerful empire. Ukraine is deeply indebted to US/NATO for billions of dollars in weaponry. There is always a price for such support.
The American Empire is determined to defeat the Russian Empire as a prelude to challenging the Chinese Empire. It is naïve to ignore this larger context.
Susan Rosenthal
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Susan Rosenthal: I immediately think of Vietnam, where the people there waged a just war against the most powerful nation in the world, and they won. They had many friends helping out, but that was part of their strategy too. We need to understand how the imperialists think, but we do not have to think like them.
Carl Davidson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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I am writing in response to Taras Bilous’ Self Determination and the War in Ukraine.
I do not at all object to having erroneous opinions like his appear in Portside, but he is woefully ignorant of 1) the critical importance of peace and nonviolence and 2) Western or US imperialism. His admonition that the Western left must "take the correct stance on this war” shows that he is either ignorant or a propagandist for Western imperialism.
What has happened and what will happen in Ukraine is far, far worse than what would have happened if the Ukrainians had gotten down on their knees when the Russians arrived, offering them chocolate and flowers for their gun barrels. They could then have fought the Russians the way the Indians fought the British, but starting with implementing the Minsk Accords.
This did not happen and could not happen because testosterone-driven Neanderthals addicted to their own adrenaline have been fighting for decades, especially in the Donbas Region, over ideology, language, territory, race, ethnicity, wealth and power, which all comes down to the chimpanzee concept of dominance.
Bilous’ demand that Western leftists help the Ukrainians violently defeat the Russians is merely atavistic right-wing bullshit in socialist garb. I hope you will now print a good defense of the left-wing demand that both sides stop being such idiots and start restoring both Ukraine and our planetary ecosystem. We do not have time for this childishness.
Steve Leeper
Re: When Should We Stop Excusing the Russian Invasion?
a disappointing - but not surprising - piece...
Rob Prince
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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What a lame piece. Nowhere is the evidence from the interception of Victoria Nuland's (e.e. the USA's) role in setting up the 2014 government even mentioned. That's just one glaring symptom of opportunism. The article amounts to an apology for NATO and an accommodation with imperialism.
John Woodford
Desperately seeking to find a way to blame someone, anyone, other than the Russian leadership for this atrocious war. Here Grossman reminds me of the anguish of US Communists desperate to hold on to their beliefs in the USSR after Khrushchev's anti-Stalin speech.
Stan Nadel
Re: In France, a Left-Wing Bloc Is Uniting To Stop Macron
“In general, they were aware that the left-wing electorate in France now does not want only a shy move away from Macron’s policies but radical change. People want to tax the rich, cap the salaries of big CEOs, take control over multinational corporations, find homes for homeless people, increase pensions and social benefits to all the lowest-income households, increase wages, regulate dividends, and so on. And they also want radical action for the climate. They no longer believe Macron’s false promises; they want immediate action, because young people know that their very future is at stake. And I think the Socialists finally understood that, which is a really important move.”
David Marley
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Thank you for this excellent interview!
Phil Fiermonte
By Michael Steven Smith
May 11, 2022
LA Progressive
Kathy Boudin, a significant figure in the fight against mass incarceration, died on May 1 in New York City. She would’ve been 79 years old on May 19, a birthdate she proudly shared with Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh.
Kathy was the cofounder with Cheryl Wilkins of the Center for Justice at Columbia University in New York City. She had served 22 years in Bedford Hills prison, a maximum-security prison for women in New York, after pleading guilty to robbery and felony murder in connection with the 1983 Brinks armored truck heist where she was a passenger in the getaway van. She was a white supporter of the small Black Liberation Army, which was formed in New York City after the government’s destruction of the Black Panther Party. In order to raise funds for the Black Liberation Army, Kathy had agreed to support the action by being in the getaway van to act as a decoy.
The robbery went awry. Two police officers and a security guard were killed. Kathy was quickly arrested. She was unarmed and did not kill anyone but the felony murder law in New York defines a person as guilty if they are a participant in a crime where someone dies.
Kathy Boudin was an extraordinarily kind and empathetic person, widely admired, with many friends, including Michael Smith, the cohost of Law and Disorder Radio She was proof of the fact that people cannot and should not be defined by the worst thing they’ve ever done in their lives and that they are capable of change, transformation and redemption.
An extraordinary organizer, Kathy was able to modify the composition of the New York State parole board. Instead of understanding the potential for human transformation, the board at parole hearings used to only focus on the original crime committed by the applicant, and disregarded the good work they had performed in prison and the remorse they had expressed for their crime.
The United States holds more people in prison, 2.3 million, than any other country in the world. Millions of Black people are in the criminal justice system, including on probation and parole. Hundreds of thousands have been denied the right to vote and receive public assistance of any kind. Michelle Alexander calls the situation “the new Jim Crow.“
Kathy understood that the phenomena of mass incarceration was a reaction to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. She was a co-founder of RAPP, Release Aging People from Prison, and a leader in prison justice reform which has led to a significant drop in the number of incarcerated people in New York State.
Kathy was the first woman in the State of New York to earn a masters degree while in prison, where she developed programs to educate people about AIDS, parenting from afar, and the securing of a college education after the Pell Grant program was discontinued.
Kathy was the daughter of the great civil liberties attorney Leonard Boudin, who represented Paul Robeson and Daniel Ellsberg. She was the mother of Chesa Boudin, the progressive district attorney in San Francisco, and the sister of retired federal court judge Michael Boudin. Her lifelong companion David Gilbert, who served 40 years in prison for the Brinks robbery and who was released six months before Kathy died, was by her side when her time came.
Kathy Boudin, Presente.
More here:
The Radical Life of Kathy Boudin
She became infamous for her involvement in acts of political violence. Then she found her way out of the abyss.
By Rachael Bedard
May 07, 2022
The New Yorker
Kathy Boudin: A Great Life and A Great Loss
Celebrating the life and mourning the loss of our co-founder and co-director Kathy Boudin
May 02, 2022
Center for Justice, Columbia University
State of Working America - Measuring wages in the pandemic labor market (Economic Policy Institute)
Report • By Elise Gould and Jori Kandra • April 27, 2022
Wage growth is a key indicator of labor market health. Accurate measurement of wage changes is important for assessing labor market tightness, workers’ bargaining power, and the appropriate policy response.
But the pandemic labor market has distorted our picture of wage growth. Because low-wage workers lost their jobs in disproportionate numbers in 2020, the average wage shot up—making it look like the U.S. was experiencing historically high wage growth. When many of these workers reentered the workforce in 2021, the average wage fell.
While these wage fluctuations appear at first glance to be dramatic, they are actually more modest when we take into account the shifts in workforce composition. When we adjust for composition, we can also see more clearly unusual patterns of wage growth occurring across the wage distribution—most notably, wage growth that was higher for low-wage workers than for middle- and high-wage workers.
Key findings
- Using a measure that controls for the unusual composition of the pandemic labor market, we find that the average wage grew 4.4% in the first year of the pandemic and fell 1.7% in the second year.
- Over the last year, low-wage workers experienced faster wage growth than middle- and higher-wage workers.
- Despite experiencing faster wage growth, low-wage workers still suffer from grossly inadequate wages.
- Wage levels remain vastly unequal across the U.S. labor market. Disparities among workers by wage level, gender, and race/ethnicity remain stark.
- Although low-wage workers have recently had more leverage to bid up their wages, it may be short-lived if the recovery is cut short.
The State of Working America project. This report is the latest in EPI’s annual series looking at State of Working America wage data. For decades, EPI’s State of Working America project has been tracking wages, incomes, poverty, and wealth in order to answer the question, “How well is the economy working for working families in the U.S.?” Originally published biennially in book form from 1988 to 2012, the State of Working America data library is now available online at epi.org/data.
1225 Eye St. NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-775-8810 • epi@epi.org
The Independent Trade Union of Ukraine “Zakhist Pratsi” is directly involved in the resistance to the invasion by Russian imperialism. We are fighting along side the working class and the Ukrainian people on various fronts of resistance. Some organizations of our union, such as the “Zakhista Pratsi” miners’ union at the “Selidov-ugol” firm, are protecting us and our future with weapons in their hands and in the most difficult conditions of the hostilities. Many activists of our union are now resisting the rocket and bomb attacks of the Russian troops, supporting the difficult conditions of the bomb shelters, saving their children and their families from certain death.
The war unleashed by Vladimir Putin united the trade union and labor movement in Ukraine. The invaders were counting on a quick lightning victory and on being accepted by Ukrainians as “liberators.” However, they met rejection and resistance everywhere. They failed to win the support of the Russian-speaking population of eastern Ukraine, who faced the Russian army as invaders and bravely resisted the armed aggression for more than 20 days.
We have never had any illusions about the intentions of the NATO bloc in Ukraine. And now we see all its cynicism, which convinced us of the correctness of our criticism of NATO even before the war and of our position against all the imperialist blocs.
Dear comrades of the labor and trade union movement: We know that anti-war mobilizations and actions against Russia’s military aggression are taking place all over the world. Thank you for this support! We are facing a very strong enemy who, desperate due to the popular resistance to its aggression, is willing to transgress the entire framework of international humanitarian law. Therefore, we now need increasingly active international solidarity with our anti-imperialist resistance movement.
We reiterate our labor appeal to the Russian working class and its trade union organizations to stop the aggression of the Russian government and the authoritarian-bureaucratic regime of Putin against Ukraine. And we call on all the workers and peoples of the world, on political, labor and social organizations to mobilize resolutely against the war!
We resolutely oppose the anti-social policy of our government, aimed at the adoption of anti-worker and anti-union laws to please Ukrainian and foreign oligarchs. The armed aggression of Russian imperialist capitalism complicated the direct struggle for workers’ rights, for the rights of trade unions and free workers’ associations. But it set the immediate agenda for the Ukrainian labor movement: stop the Russian armed aggression against Ukraine!
Our classist trade union “Zakhist Pratsi” defends the demands of the working class against the interests of national oligarchic capital and right-wing politicians.
Many of our union members have lost their jobs, are on the front lines, were forced to move to other cities or take shelter from bombs in shelters. Our families are doing their best to survive without surrendering to the Russian occupiers. For these reasons, we also urgently need your financial and other aid. Fighting, eating and healing wounds are daily tasks for which we need the support of the world’s frontline workers. Therefore, we appeal to strengthen active solidarity actions with the Ukrainian labor movement and, in particular, with our independent trade union.
Workers of the world, unite!
Oleg Vernyk, President of the Independent Union of Labor Protection “Zakhist Pratsi”
Kiev, March 18, 2022
This Friday, May 13 between 6-8 PM at Recess Art in Brooklyn for the opening of Political Intimacy: The R3turn.
This will be an action-packed afternoon and evening! The celebration will kick off with a community BBQ in Fort Greene Park, from 2-5pm.
The exhibition features 20+ collages made by different artists from Pratt and Recess: Assembly and made collaboratively with New York City Council Members Shahana Hanif and Chi Ossé, New York State Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forest, and former NY Congressional Candidate Maya Contreras. The exhibition will be up all summer!
In front of Recess, a group of artists will be screenprinting on bags for you to take home! Think: queer pride, melt ICE, no new jails
You won’t want to miss this! Come join us!
Political Intimacy demystifies and humanizes how we interact with our local electoral system. Through interviews and art-making sessions with our representatives, we aim to empower young people to engage in civic deliberations around issues they care about- abolition, housing, environmental justice, queer and gender liberation, education, mental health - to push for radical change in politics. The exhibition includes individual and collaborative collages made with elected officials, and artists from Recess: Assembly and Pratt Institute.
Recess: Assembly is a program that offers system-impacted young people an inroad to art and connections to working artists while serving as an alternative to incarceration and its intersecting systems of oppression.
Come join us in Fort Greene Park for a "Warm-Up Barbecue!"
Dan Fethke will be cooking up recipes in collaboration with Recess: Assembly members. We'll be at the NW corner of the park (corner of St. Edwards & Myrtle) from 2-5pm. This event will kick off a full day of festivities as Political Intimacy: The Return Opens at Recess Art Space from 6PM-8PM.
GLOBAL REPERCUSSIONS: THE UKRAINE WAR, RUSSIA, AND U.S.-CHINA - A Webinar May 18, 7:00-8:30 PM EDT
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is having global repercussions. Aside from reordering the security architecture in Europe, it is having a profound impact on U.S.-China relations and their mutual competition for power and influence in the Asia-Pacific region.
Before the war began, Russia and China avowed that their cooperation has “no limits,” but after its onset, China has sought to play a neutral role, neither condemning Moscow for its invasion nor, from what can be determined, providing Russia with significant material assistance. But as the war has drawn on and the casualties have mounted, many in Washington are calling on Beijing to play a more assertive role in forcing Putin to desist in Ukraine – or face negative consequences itself. Anger over the Russian invasion is also leading many U.S. leaders to call for tougher measures aimed at deterring a Chinese invasion of Taiwan – measures that are sure to infuriate Beijing and increase tensions in the Asia-Pacific.
With the world’s geopolitical disorder undergoing its most profound and dangerous upset since the end of the Cold War, the Committee for a Sane U.S.-China Policy has organized this uniquely important webinar to assess the impact of the Ukraine war on strategic developments in Asia.
Our panelists will include:
- Shihoko Goto is Director for Geoeconomics and Indo-Pacific Enterprise and Deputy Director for the Asia Program at the Wilson Center. Her research focuses on the economics and politics of Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, as well as U.S. policy in Northeast Asia. A seasoned journalist and analyst, she has reported from Tokyo and Washington for Dow Jones and UPI and serves as a columnist for The Diplomat and contributing editor to The Globalist
- Michael T. Klare, The Nation’s defense correspondent, is professor emeritus of peace and world-security studies at Hampshire College, senior visiting fellow at the Arms Control Association in Washington, D.C., and co-founder of the Committee for a Sane U.S.- China Policy. His most recent book is All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon’s Perspective on Climate Change
- Zhiqun Zhu is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Bucknell University. He was Bucknell’s inaugural Director of the China Institute (2013–2017) and MacArthur Chair in East Asian politics (2008–2014). He previously taught at Hamilton College, University of Bridgeport, and Shanghai International Studies University. His books include U.S.-China Relations in the 21st Century: Power Transition and Peace.
This webinar is organized by the Committee for a Sane U.S.-China Policy.
Co-sponsored by the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security
The Committee for a SANE U.S.-China Policy
SaneChinaPolicy@gmail.com / Follow us on Twitter at @NoWarWithChina
Join us for an in-person book talk on Revolution Around The Corner: Voices From the Puerto Rican Socialist Party in the United States with Moderator Kazembe Balagun, Co-Editors José E. Velázquez & Carmen Vivian Rivera, and book contributors Ted Glick & Lenina Nadal.
Revolution Around the Corner chronicles this unique social movement, describing various mass campaigns and the inner workings of the organization. The editors and contributors—all former members, leaders, and supporters of the PSP—offer a range of views and interpretations of their experience.
Combining historical accounts, personal stories, interviews, and retrospective analysis, Revolution Around the Corner examines specific actions such as the National Day of Solidarity ( El Acto Nacional), the Bicentennial without Colonies, the Save Hostos struggle, and the Vieques campaign. Testimonies recount the pros and cons of membership diversity, as well as issues of loyalty and compañerismo. In addition, essays describe the PSP’s participation in coalitions and alliances with Left and progressive movements. The book concludes with the editors’ reflections on the PSP’s achievements, mistakes, and contributions.
This event will be hybrid and streamed on our YouTube. If attending in-person, please be prepared to show proof of vaccination and ID at the door.
Revolution Around the Corner: Voices from the Puerto Rican Socialist Party in the United States
Friday, May 20, 2022 • 7:00 PM
The People's Forum
320 W 37th St,
New York, NY 10018
Host Contact Info: kate.g@peoplesforum.org
Please join us!
Civil Rights & Labor Relations Issues in Baseball: Past, Present and Future
Wednesday, May 25, 2022 @ 7pm ET
Register Here for the Online Event
(Limited to 100 registrants)
Metro NY Labor Communications Council 46th Annual Convention - June 3
Please join us for Metro’s 46th Annual Convention
Friday, June 3, 2022, 10 am, Zoom event
Honoring Jessica Ramos, NY State Senator, and Paula Finn, Director, Center for Labor, Community & Public Policy, CUNY SLU
Panel Discussion: Media and Labor – A New Relationship or a Fleeting Moment?
What’s new in media coverage of labor? Is there a new attitude towards labor in mainstream media, and if so, how do we capitalize on this moment? What is the pandemic’s role in the recent coverage of labor? Is the public more sympathetic to union members since they held jobs deemed essential and helped us all deal with the pandemic.
Panelists:
- Chelsea Connor, RWDSU, Communications Director
- Kim Kelly, journalist, organizer, author of the recently published Fight Like Hell
- Richard Steier, UFT, Communications Specialist, former publisher of The Chief
- Leanne Tory-Murphy, Workers United Communications Director, NY/NJ Joint Board
- Moderated by Bill Fletcher, Jr.
FREE and open to the public. Registration is required.
Metro NY Labor Communications Council
Register for a three-day symposium this June 3-5, 2022 hosted by the University of Tulsa’s Institute for Bob Dylan Studies. This event will mark the centenary of Jack Kerouac’s birth and the opening of the new Bob Dylan Center by exploring the musical, cultural and creative legacy of the vibrant poetic movement that helped Dylan create a new American language.
Each of the three days will have a different focus, starting first with a deep dive into the “raging beauty” of the Beats, which inspired Dylan’s own writing while reshaping our view of art, politics, religion, and sexuality. The second day’s focus will shift to an exploration of road stories in American history, music, and art, with panels and keynotes that examine the Rolling
Thunder Revue, the art of being on the road, and the way our experiences of the open road are shaped by race, gender, and sexuality. On the final day, we’ll widen our focus to explore the broader contexts and legacies of the Beat movement both within and beyond Dylan’s music, looking at everything from obscenity trials and protest movements to blues, jazz, and rock. We will provide regular announcements about keynote sessions and events on this site and across our social media channels.
The symposium will be a hybrid event with a limited number of in-person tickets available. We will also stream the sessions live at a reduced price to accommodate the challenges presented by the ongoing pandemic. Those who join us in Tulsa will be able to visit the new Bob Dylan Center and join in a number of ancillary events including a special exhibition on Dylan and the Beats, an outdoor concert, and a pub crawl through Tulsa’s buzzing Arts District.
The symposium will take place at the Henry Zarrow Center for Arts & Education, 124 E Reconciliation Way, Tulsa, OK, 74103. Looking for a hotel to book? Check out our hotel recommendations.
If you have questions about research access to the Bob Dylan Archive, please email librarian@bobdylanarchive.com.