Our Story: Women in the Capital Region

Opening Reception
September 9 from 6-8 pm
Free and open to the public

Rensselaer County Historical Society
57 Second Street, Troy, NY





We twelve women, all from the Capital Region, took a course in photography and writing. We learned about art, ourselves, and new ways to use our voices. Our pictures, words, and audio portraits will tell you Our Story.

We share a common need to be seen and heard. Our time together has been rich with stories of family, tradition, travel, reflection, motherhood, strength, and healing. We are reawakened artists. We have waited patiently while rearing our children. We have triumphed through brain injuries, disabilities, and illness. We find joy in our families, communities, flowering vines and, most recently, in one another.

At some point in our journey through writing and storytelling, it became obvious that this was more than a class. For many of us it was a safe sanctuary where we felt supported and finally able to share our precious memories. For each story shared, there were many more.

Stories poured out of us. It was as if no one had ever taken the time to see or hear our untold stories before; not even us. For two hours each week we knew someone would listen. We never seemed to have enough time. Our class gave us a place to bring our lives into the light. For this we will be forever grateful. The class awakened something in each of us that won’t ever be extinguished.

We hope to keep talking, keep exploring and keep creating. It is up to us to write the next chapters on our lives.

Our Story was sponsored by the Workforce Development Institute (WDI) in collaboration with the NYS AFL-CIO and Rensselaer County Historical Society. It was taught by Victoria Kereszi, Melinda McDaniel, and Erin Shannon at the WDI office on Fourth Street in Troy, NY. WDI supports organized labor and working families across New York State through economic development, education and training, cultural enrichment, family support, and disabled and dislocated workers services. For more information contact Erin at 518-272-3500 or eshannon@wdiny.org.

Our Story provided art classes for children of the workshop participants, facilitated by Caitlin Foley. Their stories will be on display alongside their mothers’ on September 9. The exhibit will be open through December 19 and can be viewed Thurs – Sat from 12 to 5 pm or by appointment.

http://www.wdiny.org/
http://www.rchsonline.org/

The Art of Labor

"Thousands of people have seen the visions, hopes, struggles, and daily lives of working people. We continue sharing their stories in the hope that it will bring us closer to a more just society."-Ed Murphy, Executive Director, WDI

The rising tide of obstacles faced by working people is swollen because they are often misrepresented and even missing from the popular media. The Workforce Development Institute (WDI) provides cultural programs aimed at increasing worker visibility and dignity with the understanding that being seen is often the first step toward being heard.
This video highlights 3 successful cultural projects sponsored by WDI: 1)Hip Hop Meets Labor, 2) Graphic Work, and 3) Unseenamerica NYS.

To watch The Art of Labor, please click on the image below.

Bea's Mom

Please watch "Bea's Mom", a digital story created from a recent unseenamericaNYS class held in Mineola, Long Island. Here Beatrice Reiser, tells the story of photographing her mother who is recovering from a stroke and broken hip.

The Workforce Development Institute’s (WDI) unseenamerica NYS program provided retail store workers from Waldbaums, a homecare worker from The Republic of Georgia, an immigrant and mother from Iceland, social workers, teachers, and several others an opportunity to tell the stories of what they see as a way of revealing who they are. They studied for 10 weeks with professional photographers, depicting their lives on film. Their pictures tell stories of loss, of seeking, of family roots and of debilitating disease. These revealing photographs are some of the surprising results. Please watch Bea's Mom in our Video Section or Below


Unseenamerica NYS is funded by WDI with support from New York State. Special thanks to the NYS AFL-CIO, Bread & Roses Cultural Project 1199 SEIU, the Long Island Federation of Labor, RWDSU Local 338,
and Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi.

Pictures of Working Lives Taken by Working Hands

"The crew is waiting for directions. Create something attractive!"Photo by Miguel Angel Alvarado, Construction Worker in Kingston

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Unseenamerica New York State is an innovative arts project where seeing and being seen become the subject and object of original photographs. So far, workers have participated in 25 workshops throughout New York State, from Buffalo to Long Island. This photography program was designed to help them tell their visual life stories. Professional photographers taught twelve-week classes to janitors, bus drivers, teachers, hospital workers, new immigrants, refugees and scores of others who create a surprising and unexpected portrait of New York State from the perspective if its people. Unseenamerica New York State was underwritten by the Workforce Development Institute (WDI) with support from the New York State Senate Majority. It is a collaboration of WDI, Bread and Roses Cultural Project 1199 SEIU and the NYS AFL-CIO.

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For more information contact WDI Cultural Program Coordinator Erin Shannon at 518.272.3500x119 or eshannon@wdiny.org