Labor Arts

Join us on Wednesday March 25, 2026 from 11:30 am – 1 pm for the he Official Commemoration of the 115th Anniversary of the Triangle Factory Fire
at Washington Place and Greene Street in NYC

Special guest speakers and ceremonial ladder raising by FDNY
We’ll also be laying 146 flowers honoring the workers who died that day

More information available at rememberthetrianglefire.org

The Clara Lemlich awards for social activism celebrate the lives of incredible women whose many decades of brilliant activism have made real and lasting change in the world.
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The 2025 Honorees
Bev Grant is a musician, photographer, filmmaker, single parent, grandmother and activist. Winner of the2017 ASCAP Foundation Jay Gorney award, the 2017 Labor Heritage Foundation Joe Hill Award and the 2022 Brooklyn For Peace PathMaker to Peace award, Bev Grant grew up singing and playing in Portland, Oregon in a band with two of her sisters.
She moved to New York City in 1962 and worked full time as a clerical worker until 2007 while devoting herself to topical songwriting and social activism. She joined New York Radical Women and NY Newsreel (now Third World Newsreel) in 1967. A book of her black and white photographs, Bev Grant Photography: 1968-1972 (2018) includes documentation of the 1968 Miss America Beauty Pageant protest, the Black Panther Party’s free breakfast for children programs and the Moratorium Against the
Viet Nam war.
She formed her band The Human Condition in 1971, featured on the Grammy-nominated Best of Broadside collection, and recorded The Working People Gonna Rise and Kulonyaka. She was founder and director of the Brooklyn Women’s Chorus from 1997 until she retired in 2022, producing two cds.

Read more at LaborArts.org

SAVE THE DATE!

Join us for the 16th Annual Clara Lemlich Awards for Social Activism on Monday, May 4th, 2O26 @ 6 PM

York Society for Ethical Culture
2 West 64th Street, New York City

For more information, visit laborarts.org

Layla Sandoval
2025, First Prize - Visual Arts
Medgar Evers College

“Growing up in Brooklyn, the subway was a special place. A magic carpet that connected us all in a fleeting intersection. And as a child, I’d find myself people-watching, crafting stories in my head about the lives they led, the kinds of jobs they were on their way to, and all the potential adventures in store for them…”

For the complete entry, past and present winners, and more information, visit laborarts.org/contest/2025/introduction/

Katryna Alexis
2025, First Prize - Fiction
Brooklyn College

“Most New Yorkers can unite under the shared experience of riding the subway. Swapping stories about train mishaps. Complaining about a particularly long delay to a stranger on the platform. Helping a tourist find what train they need to transfer to…”

For the complete entry, past and present winners, and more information, visit laborarts.org/contest/2025/introduction/

Sophia Guelke
2025, First Prize - Non-Fiction
Hunter College

“Most New Yorkers can unite under the shared experience of riding the subway. Swapping stories about train mishaps. Complaining about a particularly long delay to a stranger on the platform. Helping a tourist find what train they need to transfer to…”

For the complete entry, past and present winners, and more information, visit laborarts.org/contest/2025/introduction/

Xinhui Li
2025, Second Prize - Visual Arts
Hunter College

“My work Spine of Steel is a watercolor painting that takes a construction worker as its visual focus. By capturing a moment of his labor, I make visible the individual effort behind urban construction—effort that is often overlooked. Through my brushstrokes, I highlight the dignity of work, using this to deeply interpret the spirit of Labor Arts…”

For the complete entry, past and present winners, and more information, visit laborarts.org/contest/2025/introduction/

Mariam Elkhateeb
2025, Second Prize - Fiction
Baruch College

“Oh, please, young woman. I need to see more colors.” The man is nearly on the floor, palms trembling, voice cracking with a desperation I’ve seen only in the truly deprived. And yet, he isn’t blind. He isn’t even color‑deficient. He is simply greedy for more…”

For the complete entry, past and present winners, and more information, visit laborarts.org/contest/2025/introduction/

Anthony Agudelo
2025, Second Prize - Non-Fiction
Baruch College

“To market is to understand people—a skill I never felt I held. But, the feeling of growing in excitement about a brand—I loved it. I’ve always believed that when we are passionate about our work, the money will come later. I can never visualize waking up and dreading what I pursue, even if the profession allowed for decent living…”

For the complete entry, past and present winners, and more information, visit laborarts.org/contest/2025/introduction/

Daniella Rodriguez
2025, Third Prize - Visual Arts
Hunter College

“Michael Berube was my art professor for my first semester at Hunter College. Unfortunately, he passed away from cancer during this same semester. I want this piece to represent my appreciation for the labor that my professor, who at times could barely get through a lecture without having to stop to catch his breath, put forth…”

For the complete entry, past and present winners, and more information, visit laborarts.org/contest/2025/introduction/

LaborArts, along with our friends from the Little Environmentalists Society, celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the New York Society for Ethical Culture on Monday, January 19th.

Imani Anthony
2025, Third Prize - Non-Fiction
New York City College of Technology

“I work for Children of Promise, a summer camp/after school program for kids who have incarcerated parents. According to their website, children of promise was founded by Sharon Content in 2009, in Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York to strictly meet the needs and concerns of children who are left behind by their parents. Bedford Stuyvesant is a predominantly black neighborhood where the crime rate is slightly higher than other neighborhoods in Brooklyn and mainly in poverty…”

For the complete entry, past and present winners, and more information, visit laborarts.org/contest/2025/introduction/