Respect Our Labor

Labor Pains Collective is committed to presenting historical facts from coast-to-coast in ways that immerse and inspire audiences into action.

Spanning across historically Black neighborhoods in Albany, NY and Oakland, CA, the Labor Pains Collective is a group of individuals, clubs, and organizations pursuing rigorous research and direct public engagement to heal America’s marginalized communities through artistic expression. We turn passive play into civic practice.

Dominant history, and capitalism, depends on us as a collective disconnecting our labor from our bodies, feelings, and sense of purpose. Capitalism benefits from our belief that the value of our labor is tied to the value of our assets.

Black American women have always had to reject that belief. Black American women have long been the cornerstones of culture and civic duty simply because we want the opportunity to pursue our happiness too. America has never allowed that. Our experiences of America, both varied and eerily similar, are distinct. We’ve tended to lead the democratic charge in this nation because we’ve always seen the promise of the Declaration of Independence: the promise of autonomy.

Labor Pains Collective employs a myriad of creative means – dance, theater, drama, singing, playing music- to facilitate community gatherings that investigate labor and its impact on our bodies.

Historical omission and historical revision are dangerous. Each day we experience with horror the consequence of that reality.

Our forward-thinking approach to communal healing, public history, and civic engagement meet the needs of the America we are right now.