The Talk Shop
3936 Main St.
May 1st, 2015. 6-9 PM
I, Too, Am America by The Langston Hughes Club.
The Langston Hughes Club is an arts and culture committee of fast food and low-wage workers fighting for $15 an hour and the right to form a union. Workers have trained with professional photographers over the last year. Their original work gives a window into the hopes, fear, dreams, and daily struggles of America's working poor.
History of the LHC and the movement
When Kansas City fast food workers joined the Fight for $15 movement in 2013, they stood with workers in just seven other cities. Today, the movement has grown into an international movement of low-wage workers with workers in over 200 US cities organizing for a living wage and a voice on the job.
Kansas City fast food and low-wage workers have been at the forefront of the national movement, organizing against wage theft and unsafe working conditions and winning on-the-job victories. Workers in Kansas City have gone on strike six times, engaged in civil disobedience, led mass meetings, given countless speeches, and recently, led an international delegation to meet with Irish workers and elected leaders-most notably, President Michael Higgins.
In 2015, the movement continues to grow: more workers and community allies join the call for employers to put an end to the poverty wages that restrain our economy. In addition to fast food workers, home health care workers, working students, and adjunct professors have joined the movement to challenge the economic and racial inequality that plagues our nation.
Fast food workers launched the Langston Hughes Club in February 2014. The committee brings together workers interested in the visual and performing arts and allows them to train with professional artists in various mediums. The mission is to allow workers to train in the arts in order to document their lives and tell their own stories.
The first project of the LHC allows workers interested in photography to train with NYT photojournalist in monthly meetings. Fast food workers honed their craft and throughout monthly meetings and created photographs that document their lives, tell their stories and transmit their hopes, dreams, and fears. The first premiere of their work is set for a First Friday on May 1, 2015.
The second chapter of the LHC will focus on poetry and will begin in the second half of 2015. Opens May 1st, 2015.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1540391709533181/
