See You in the Streets: Art, Action, and Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (Humanities and Public Life)
A nonfiction book by Ruth Sergel that uses See you in the streets to explore art and safety measures, with clothing factories in view.
Work Information
A story where art meets safety measures.
Ruth Sergel's nonfiction book See you in the streets centers on art and safety measures while extending into clothing factories and social aspects.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Univ of Iowa Pr
- Published
- 2016-06-01
- Pages
- 209 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.24 x 2.03 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781609384173
- ISBN-10
- 1609384172
- Price
- 8342 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/History/Americas/United States/20th Century
2017 American Book Award Winner from the Before Columbus Foundation In 1911, a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City took the lives of 146 workers, most of them young immigrant women and girls. Their deaths galvanized a movement for social and economic justice then, but today’s laborers continue to battle dire working conditions. How can we bring the lessons of the Triangle fire back into practice today? For artist Ruth Sergel, the answer was to fuse art, activism, and collective memory to create a large-scale public commemoration that invites broad participation and incites civic engagement. See You in the Streets showcases her work. It all began modestly in 2004 with Chalk, an invitation to all New Yorkers to remember the 146 victims of the fire by inscribing their names and ages in chalk in front of their former homes. This project inspired Sergel to found the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, a broad alliance of artists and activists, universities and unions—more than 250 partners nationwide—to mark the 2011 centennial of the infamous blaze. Putting the coalition together and figuring what to do and how to do it were not easy. This book provides a lively account of the unexpected partnerships, false steps, joyous collective actions, and sustainability of such large public works. Much more than an object lesson from the past, See You in the Streets offers an exuberant perspective on building a social art practice and doing public history through argument and agitation, creativity and celebration with an engaged public.
Ruth Sergel is an artist whose projects bridge art and technology, memory and public history to create compassionate works that invite active civic engagement. She lives in Berlin. For more on her work please visit streetpictures.org.
Reviews
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This book CANNOT be missed. It's a revelation, not only of the artist's growth and arrival at what is an incredibly touching and meaningful expression of honor, advocacy, and strength, but of her personal upbringing, a culture, time, and a community, all of which shaped it and allowed the ultimate creation of CHALK, and the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, to come into existence. You read it wanting to be a better person, wanting to get involved, and being overwhelmed by Ms. Sergel's gift. A meaningful and important story that must be read and heard, and reread and supported and honored - just like the victims and their memories that Ms. Sergel so beautifully keeps alive.
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Ruth Sergel's inspiring and exciting book gives me hope, even in these dangerous and regressive times. The reader will come away convinced that another world is possible. This is a truly riveting story of collective activism, and could not be more vital in today's environment. We’re with the author as she experiences and ultimately surmounts the challenges and obstacles of organizing a massive international lineup of artistic, political, and often deeply personal remembrances of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.
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Approaching the 2017 anniversary of the Triangle Factory Fire, I read Ruth's book cover to cover. It is a great story, not only for the labor history, but also to inform current movements and actions - for workers' rights, immigrants' rights, women's rights, coalition-building, the intersection of culture and progressive action... I love the way she wove in so many diverse voices with her strong, clear words.
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Ruth Sergel explores some of our history that we as a society might prefer to forget. Look at it she says – see it so we can learn from it and make it less likely that tragedies like The Triangle Fire will happen again. We should follow Ruth’s lead and seek a way to put ourselves on a better path through art, understanding, action. I hope that each person who reads this beautifully crafted book will want to take action. You’ll find me in the streets.
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This important anthology by gifted artist and organizer Ruth Sergel is a chorus of interesting voices about deep social problems and how we, every single one of us, can play a part in making life better. Impossible not to read this collection without wanting to join Ruth Sergel and these writers in the streets.