Jillian Elba, Fordham University sophomore interviewed publisher Lynne Elizabeth in fall, 2020 for LaborArts.org

If my conversation with Lynne Elizabeth could be summed up into one life lesson, it would be the power that storytelling holds.

Lynne Elizabeth is the founder of the New Village Press, a book publishing company, so a large part of her life revolves around the art of storytelling. The New Village Press differs from a normal book publishing press due to its emphasis on community. Lynne described her desire to found the New Village Press due to her interest in the “revitalization of distressed communities”. Therefore, it is unsurprising that the press focuses on both the stories of these ignored communities and solutions to social justice issues that are unfortunately extremely prevalent in these communities. Lynne Elizabeth finds these community stories so important due to the fact that she believes that much can be learned from the history of “distressed” communities, mostly the fact that anyone could create more empathy and understanding for those different from them simply by paying attention to and hearing these stories.

To further differentiate Lynne Elizabeth and the New Village Press, even the way that the press creates these stories is distinctive. To begin, Lynne Elizabeth does not simply look for community stories that only focus on the negative aspects. Rather, she strives to publish stories that portray all aspects of the community, with a special emphasis on the joy and positivity in these communities that are hidden from the public eye or outsiders. In addition, the New Village Press does not view all “distressed” communities as the same, but instead recognizes the individuality and uniqueness that each one holds. With this in mind, when publishing stories that reflect on the social justice issues that affect the communities and the inhabitants, the New Village Press does not create “polemic” works that “just focus on the problem” at hand. Instead, the New Village Press avoids “cookie cutter models” and provides “what can be done” through its incorporation of solutions that have been useful and successful in these specific communities.

The main focus of the New Village Press books that describe the “revitalization” of communities emphasize cultural expression, more specifically art. Lynne Elizabeth describes cultural expression as “nourishing to the whole being” and all throughout our conversation, it was extremely obvious that Lynne Elizabeth cherishes art and truly understands and advocates for its power. One way that Lynne Elizabeth demonstrated this passion of hers was through her storytelling of an artist named Lily Yeh. In one instance, Lynne described to me how Lily Yeh, with the help of middle school students, transformed an abandoned factory in Beijing into a “beautiful” school campus for children of migrant workers where art is emphasized. This story entirely epitomizes the beliefs of Lynne Elizabeth and the New Village Press, for it tells of the impact that art can have on the community and how art encourages community engagement and orchestrates community change and empowerment.

The main takeaway that Lynne Elizabeth wishes for her readers to receive from her books is the ability for connection and empathy. Lynne founded the New Village Press because she wanted to share stories she found inspiring. She hopes that readers find her stories as inspiring as she has and that they are “transformative”. Lynne wishes for a connection with the authors and that readers are able to “think about things differently, see other people’s lives, be more compassionate and empathetic” and “see possibilities” from reading her books. Overall, Lynne wants her books to teach all of us the importance we must place on the stories of others and in the recognition of those different from us as humans.

Lynne Elizabeth is an incredible woman who has dedicated her life to story-telling in hopes that she will provide solutions and inspire others. She allows people who are forgotten and often silenced to speak about themselves and share their valuable stories with us. To conclude with the amazing and inspiring words from Lynne Elizabeth herself: There’s so much we can do (to build better communities around us). If I had to distill it, I would say is to open our hearts. Be open hearted. When I feel that our country loses that, loses its empathy, loses its ability to imagine themselves in other people’s shoes, that’s when we get into trouble.

Rachel Benner, sophmore at Fordham University, interviewed longtime activist Sonia Goldstein in fall 2020 for LaborArts.org

Last week, I had the privilege of talking with Sonia Goldstein and hearing her brilliant life story. Sonia is a lifelong activist who has dedicated her time to righting social issues. She was raised in Washington, D.C., by her parents, both Russian immigrants. Growing up during World War II, she became a global thinker at a young age. It was her parents’ devotion to caring for others that first sparked her passion for activism.

As a young adult and married to a WWII veteran, Sonia’s first social fight was to desegregate D.C. In the late 1940s, she marched to desegregate her local pool where only white people were allowed. During the demonstration, people built a burning cross in front of her. Despite this threat—and an encounter with the police—her community was able to secure everyone’s access to the pool. (You can read more about Sonia’s police encounter during an integrated party here.)

One of the most striking things Sonia shared was that she has attended hundreds of marches and protests. This is where she felt most “full,” being surrounded by like-minded people to remind her that she was not alone. Just as her parents did when she was a child, Sonia and her husband passed their activist spirits to their children. Feeling as though they did not understand what real life was like, she took her two oldest children to the 1968 March on Washington where they heard Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. A defining moment for Sonia was bringing her kids to the Washington Monument and telling them, “Look in all directions; everybody here agrees with us. We all think alike.”

Sonia practiced what she preached, spending her time helping others. Living in a Bronx co-op, she held youth groups and taught young people their rights. She assisted with local elections in New York doing whatever jobs were necessary. When she moved to Long Island in 1953, she helped build schools and worked with children who were handicapped. Her most significant impact in the community was creating the Planview Cooperative Nursery School in 1956, which still exists today. They hired teachers and worked to create a positive environment for children. When asked who helped start it, she responded, “our gang, our people, our friends.”

Hearing Sonia’s stories, it is evident how highly she values community and family: “We took care of each other, in our lives as well as the work we did.” To her, we all have a duty to look after one another.

I cannot overstate how inspiring it was to hear Sonia’s thoughts on the United State’s current situation. Amidst a country tackling political differences, civil rights issues, and a global pandemic, Sonia maintains great hope for the next generation. As a woman who has lived through 92 years of crucial history, she understands that it is a struggle to fight for social justice, but she thinks we are making significant progress. With vigilance and collective support, she believes activists can continue fighting for what is right, just as she has done all her life.

Sonia’s closing words were, “Now is the time! This is the time.”

For LaborArt.org, Jack Craven, Fordham University sophomore, interviewed labor activist Ed Murphy in fall, 2020

This past week, I had the great pleasure of sitting down with Ed Murphy, executive director of the Workforce Development Institute (WDI) to talk about his career and the work he’s done with both social justice campaigns and the labor movement. Now, Murphy’s road to co-founding the WDI was by no means a straight cut road. To truly understand how the WDI came to be, I need to take you back to Murphy’s beginnings in 1963 when he was in seminary school.

Early on in life, Ed Murphy had cultivated and developed a passion for social and economic justice which is what prompted him to join the seminary out of high school. Both at the time and when reflecting upon his life, Murphy calls upon his year of silence in the woods as a transformative period where he became acutely aware of what he wanted to do with his life. Completely cut off from the outside world and left alone only with his thoughts, he realized priesthood was not where he could act on his interest and passion of social and economic justice at the level he wanted to. He then left the seminary, and enlisted in the army. It was here where he would soon become an intelligence officer. Murphy was also chosen to go to Vietnamese language school and spent most of his time in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. During his career with the military, Murphy always held an anti war stance and thought the war was “stupid”. These beliefs can be seen in the work he accomplished post Vietnam.

One of these accomplishments was after the war, where Ed Murphy was one of the first people to create and advocate for a program that aided veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Murphy also took advantage of the G.I Bill and returned to college where he engaged in anti war work and studied politics. Building up an impressive resume even before he finished college, Murphy’s passion for politics and social justice also ended up connecting him with his future wife when they were both arrested in Washington D.C for civil disobedience. It was truly a match made in heaven.

Now if I were to write about all the amazing work Ed Murphy has done throughout his career I could most definitely turn this piece into a full fledged book. So skipping ahead in time a little bit to when the WDI was taking its first steps into becoming reality, Murphy was approached by an old friend Denis Hughes who at the time was the President of the New York State AFL-CIO. Familiar with Murphy’s history and abilities, Hughes asked Murphy if he would come work for him at the AFL-CIO and work on a grant with them. It was this crucial connection that eventually led the AFL-CIO to support the creation of the WDI which Murphy would become the executive director of.

The WDI’s main mission is to grow and keep good jobs in New York State. Combining both the social justice and labor reforms ideals, the WDI facilitates projects that build workforce skills and strengthen employers’ ability to hire, promote, and retain workers. The WDI has grown to have over 13 million dollars to fund projects, subsidy programs, and independent publishing.

Ed Murphy is truly one of the most dedicated and accomplished people I have ever met and is still working to guide future generations on paths that will help them accomplish their own goals and achievements just like him. In a graceful display of a balance between work and personal life, Murphy has never lost sight of both the needs of his family and the people he serves and will continue to serve as a model for all future generations of activists.

By Jenna Lofaro

Sitting in the entrance to one of Fordham’s upperclassman residence halls is Yehya Balewa. an immigrant from Ghana. His job is to ensure and care for the safety of all residents living in his building between the hours of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Yehya came to the United States 11 years ago. The Bronx is the first place he came to in the United States and he has never left. Yehya is a husband and father of 3 children. His wife left Ghana a year before him, and he soon followed with his children a year later.

When asked what the transition into American life was like, Yehya said he believes how one handles such a drastic change depends on the individual. For him, he found the transition was made easier by trying to maintain the same life style he formerly had. His focus remains on family and providing for them just as it did over a decade ago in Ghana. He says, “my children are my friends and that is all I need.”

Before Fordham, Yehya worked security at a different organization in the Bronx for five years. Now in his sixth year at Fordham, he enjoys the community of working in a university, especially when he gets the chance to work security at sporting events and witness the unity of the student body first hand.

This is a story available here from the Washington Post.

The janitor felt invisible to Georgetown students                                        — until one changed his life

Georgetown student Febin Bellamy with janitor Oneil Batchelor. (Washington Post/Andy Hoff/UnSung Heroes)

By Petula Dvorak Columnist October 13, 2016

Every night, they had the same routine.

The Georgetown University business student would settle in for his cram session — soda, chips, books lined up.                                                    And the janitor would come in to start his night shift — polishing each of the windows in the study room, moving amid all those books and chips and sodas. Invisible.                                                                                         “There was this space, like ice separating us,” said Oneil Batchelor, an immigrant from Jamaica. The janitor worked around the students — many of them in their 20s like him, many with entrepreneurial ambitions like him — for nearly a decade before one of them finally broke that ice last year.                                                                                                     A nod one night. A hello the next.                                                                             And within weeks, Batchelor and the student, Febin Bellamy, were having long talks about being immigrants, about wanting to be entrepreneurs, about politics and history and music. Bellamy even went to Batchelor’s church and met his 6-year-old daughter. After he formed that bond with the once-invisible worker, Bellamy couldn’t stop noticing the others. “Once you see it, you can’t unsee it,” the 22-year-old said.                                                                                                                        The minimum-wage cafeteria workers dishing up food, the locker-room attendant scrubbing the stinkiest places, the maintenance man doing backbreaking work in the garden while students maneuver around him, heads bowed to their phones. It’s not just affluence, age and pedigree that create this yawning gap at a school where tuition and room and board run more than $65,000 a year. “Everybody’s in their own world,” Bellamy said. “A lot of students have good hearts and were raised right, it’s just not always easy for them to get to know people around them.” Each of those workers has a story. Many of them are immigrants, and their collective histories of war and flight and families left behind offer a master class in geopolitics. No tuition needed.                                                                                                                            Bellamy understands because these are his people. His family Continue reading →