The long-running lunchtime series Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives — a cooperative project of the Michigan Traditional Arts Program and Michigan State University’s Labor Education Program organized by labor educator and historian John Beck — returns for 2026-2027, and the Labor Heritage Foundation is excited to join the series as a co-sponsor.
An ongoing lunchtime series focusing on the artistic traditions of workers and on workplaces as contexts for the expression of workers’ culture, Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives will continue in-person in the fall before moving exclusively to Zoom in the spring. Beck notes that recent online audiences have sometimes exceeded attendance in the Green Room itself, allowing the series to reach a broader national audience.
The upcoming lineup already includes the incomparable Sally Potter singing labor songs, along with presentations on the Teamsters in Detroit, the Wobblies and populism, and the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, among other topics.
LHF will help promote the series through our newsletter, website, social media, and radio programming, and selected sessions may later be featured in edited form on Labor Heritage broadcasts and podcasts.
Beck is also looking for additional presenters, so if you’ve got ideas for future programs, drop him a line at beckj@msu.edu