Wage/Working

A collection of stories about the working lives of residents of Greene and Columbia counties. A multimedia collaboration by Tennessee Watson & Laura Hadden.

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A brainstorm from our opening at the Cairo Public Library on May 28th. 

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We're thrilled that we now have all of our tracks from Greene & Columbia counties uploaded onto SoundCloud. Click on the "Listen" link above to dive into the stories!

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Wage/Working jukebox in her new home in the Teen Space at Cairo Public Library. Volume is set to library voices so get close!

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OPEN NOW! Stop by the Cairo Public Library and say hi! 

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Laura Hadden and Tennessee Watson retrofitted a jukebox with their own work during their residency at the Wave Farm in Cairo, NY.  As part of their project, Wage/Working, they collected stories about the working lives of residents of Greene and Columbia counties.  Each worker’s story was turned into an audio documentary with a duration equal to the amount of time it takes for each respective worker to earn $1.  The lawyer’s story lasts one minute; the prisoners, over an hour.

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Check it out at our opening at Cairo Public Library TODAY! The jukebox will move to the Teen Room on Wednesday where it will live for the next 6 months. 

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Wage/Working Opening & Celebration

Tuesday, May 28th

Open 10AM - 7PM 

Reception 5PM - 7PM

Cairo Public Library

15 Railroad Ave

Take a break and join us for the unveiling of the Wage/Working project's jukebox-based installation, featuring stories and sounds from the working lives of residents of Greene and Columbia counties.

Community members are also invited to bring their own CDs of locally produced sounds to trade for a CD that was in the original jukebox. The CDs can include any audio (music, interviews, etc.) as long as it originated in Greene or Columbia county, and will be considered for inclusion in the Wage/Working jukebox, which will be located for the next six months in the Cairo Public Library's Teen Room. (via WGXC Community Radio in Greene & Columbia Counties, NY: 90.7-FM)

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Liz prepares cheese.

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The immortal Studs Terkel doing an interview with StoryCorps in 2005.

Today is his 101st birthday.

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Happy birthday, Studs! We miss you. 

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Wave Farm Artist-in-residence Tennessee Watson hosts Part 2 of “Wage/Working” about earning money in Greene and Columbia counties.

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We all have to help each other out. If somebody didn’t do their job, it makes it harder for somebody else to do theirs. There are only like a few people that actually have specific jobs. I’m kind of like a floater. I do a little bit of everything. There’s a few of us like that. We all have to do it or it doesn’t get done. We work with the same people everyday. You do not have to necessarily get along, but we all get along. We’ll make jokes or poke fun at each other to get through the day.

Elizabeth (Liz) Fontaine, cheesemaker at Old Chatham Sheepherding Company

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Cindy Nguyen & Steven Chau. (at French Connection Nail Spa)

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Ryan Lane of Pre-Drift Longboarding Company.

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I call my life an accretion of accidents. I went to the University of Chicago Law School. I don’t know why . . . . I was not made out to be a lawyer. I was there—you know, contracts, real property and—it was driving me crazy. So, the Depression came along. My folks had this hotel. We didn’t lose the hotel, but vacancies more and more. And in the lobby of the hotel were all these guys. That hotel was my college; the lobby was. I romanticize it, but it’s true. There was a Wobbly. There was a fink. There was a scissor-bill. "Scissor-bill" is an old IWW word for someone who’s got—a capitalist with a hole in his pockets. It’s called a scissor-bill, one who loves his boss . . . . And so we had all these guys debating and hollering and arguing.

Studs Terkel, speaking to Amy Goodman for a May Day special on Democracy Now! in 1997.

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A Wage/Working field report from "Saturday Afternoon Show" live at Wave Farm in Acra, NY, featuring our interviews with Bryan Hunter (Catskill Cycles owner), Mary Spring (forester), & George Pitluga (ski lift operator).

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I ask myself just about everyday why I continue to try and do this. A lot of times I feel like I’m beating my head against the wall – trying to convince people that we do need to practice good forestry, yet economic realities don’t allow people to do that. If someone is trying to pay their property taxes and they need to come up with money, or heaven forbid they have some kind of emergency that they need cash, they are often times pushed into the wrong decision out of necessity. I could go out in the woods and be a commissioned forester and mark things and get a percentage of the sale and make a lot more money than I’m making right now. But my ethical responsibility is to do things the right way. I grew up in the Catskills and I've always enjoyed being out in the woods. I’ve had good influences and people that are very supportive of me. I have to try and make this my life’s mission rather than just a way to make money, because I’m certainly not in this for the money.

Mary Spring, Forester

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Look what came in the mail today! (at Wave Farm)

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Special on American bluegrass singer, songwriter, double bassist and guitarist Hazel Jane Dickens, just before anniversary of her death, April 22, 2011. From Tennessee Watson and Laura Hadden, Artists-in-Residency at Wave Farm, working on the Wage/Working project.

+ Other country & bluegrass music by women on the subject of work.