On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour, we bring you highlights from the 2026 Great Labor Arts Exchange at Labor Notes in Chicago, where thousands of labor activists, artists, musicians, writers, and organizers gathered to explore how culture helps build worker power.
Our featured segment is Art Is a Hammer to Shape the World, a panel moderated by longtime union organizer and author Ken Grossinger (Art Works: How Organizers and Artists Are Creating a Better World Together). Panelists include textile artist Tabitha Arnold, Puerto Rican labor organizer Edwin Morales, artist and organizer Josh MacPhee, and Labor Heritage Foundation board member and DC Labor Chorus director Elise Bryant. Together they explore how art and culture strengthen movements, build community, preserve memory, and help workers imagine a better future.
We also sample two of the new Labor Culture moments introduced at this year’s Great Labor Arts Exchange—brief performances woven into Labor Notes workshops and panels—including appearances by Jordan Bridges of the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice and singer-songwriter Joe Jencks.
Plus: Harold Phillips with Labor Arts & Culture News, Labor History in 2:00 visits Chicago’s historic stockyards, another installment of the People’s 250 project, lifting up the stories of working people who shaped America, and music from the Great Labor Arts Exchange.
The Labor Heritage Power Hour is heard Thursdays at 1 p.m. Eastern on WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington, DC and on stations across the country via the Pacifica Network. The show is also available through the Labor Radio Podcast Network.
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