by Jessica Bauman On a Sunday evening in October, I found myself on a plane to Vienna to join a delegation of people I did not know, spending a week in a city I had never been to, learning about social housing, something I knew almost nothing about. What was I thinking? I am a […]
A few days after the midterms, close to 50 organizers, policy advocates, lawyers, journalists, scholars and funders joined us at The Action Lab to discuss and debate ways to use policy & rules changes to build mass-membership organizations that are able to prevail against growing oligarchic power in the US. What’s a simple way to […]
The Freedom Forward film series is a virtual series which brings together social impact storytellers, social justice practitioners, and artists dedicated to imagining a world with freedom, justice, and well-being for all people. Featuring films which highlight different themes and issues across the social justice landscape, Freedom Forward offers a space for reflection on histories […]
In August, The Action Lab, the Law and Political Economy Project at Yale, and the Initiative for Community Power at NYU hosted students from a variety of law schools across NYC at our inaugural Summer Academy on Law Organizing, and Power Building, which focused on law and political economy and organizing frameworks in the areas […]
We are thrilled that Joo-Hyun Kang is joining The Action Lab in October as the Director of our Innovation and Justice Initiatives. Joo-Hyun is a long-time organizer, trainer and strategist. She was the director of Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) for a decade, where she worked with over 200 local, state and national organizations […]
In partnership with the Housing Justice for All coalition, The Action Lab is bringing a delegation of tenant leaders, housing organizers, policy-makers, and elected officials to Vienna from October 16-23, 2022. Impressively, more than 60% of Vienna’s population lives in social housing. While there, we will tour Vienna’s model of social housing and meet with […]
We are thrilled to announce that Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and producer Aloe Blacc is The Action Lab’s inaugural Belafonte Fellow. The Action Lab’s Belafonte Initiative envisions a dual purpose: to support artists committed to social justice whose vision will point the way to a new, more equitable world and leverage the tools of artistic practice to […]
The Action Lab, the Law and Political Economy (LPE) Project and the Initiative for Community Power will hold the first ever Summer Academy on Law, Organizing, and Power Building this August at The Action Lab’s upstate retreat center. Amid the escalating and interlocking crises that define our current moment, the work of progressive lawyers must […]
Now in its second year, The Action Lab’s Summer Justice Corps engages students in racial and economic justice work in partnership with community or labor organizations. This year, twenty undergraduate students from CUNY, the vast majority of whom were students of color, participated in this year’s Summer Justice Corps with Instructor Carolina Bank Muñoz, Professor […]
Building a people-centered and -led movement demands care for the well-being of those whose love, imagination, and labor are so deeply invested in our collective future. Rooted in the traditions of healing justice, which have nourished and sustained resistance and social change work in this country since its founding, The Action Lab’s Take a Breath […]
Facebook Live event organized by the Center for Popular Democracy Learn more and to RSVP On June 2nd, The Action Lab co-sponsored Resisting Austerity: International lmpact and Solutions, a live streaming event organized by the Center for Popular Democracy. Communities around the world are resisting the negative impacts of austerity and profiteering at the hands […]
The Action lab is pleased to announced that we are accepting applications for two opportunities this summer: Take a Breath Residencies offer a space for individual movement organizers, artists, healers, and other leaders to rest, reflect, and cultivate practices that will nourish and strengthen their efforts to imagine and create a more just and equitable […]
Join our team! The Action Lab is seeking a Director for one or – ideally – two closely-connected core initiatives. The Director will lead and manage several emerging bodies of programmatic work: The Innovation Initiative catalyzes change by generating cross-discipline, cross-movement, cross-generation spaces of study, exploration, experimentation, and shared strategy in action among social justice […]
In her new book, Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands, MacArthur “Genius” awardee and The Action Lab advisory board member Kelly Lytle Hernández upends entrenched ideas about the Mexican Revolution in her new book, putting front and center the role of the magonistas, the motley band of migrant workers, journalists, miners, and others who organized thousands […]
In March and April of 2022, The Action Lab led a learning delegation of some of the most dynamic community and labor organizers in the US and Puerto Rico to build with left and base organizations in Chile around the shared international project of ending neoliberalism and constructing a world based in human dignity and […]
The Urban Democracy Lab and the Initiative for Community Power at NYU Law collaborated with The Action Lab to present an in-person and virtual screening of We Still Here / Nos Tenemos. This documentary follows Mariangelie Ortiz, 24, and Jerriel “Yeyo” Cátala, 19, on a journey that transforms their lives as they rebuild their community […]
In February 2022, The Action Lab welcomed a diverse team of seasoned, energetic and talented new staff to fortify and propel our work of imagining and strategizing new ways forward. Marinieves Alba and Dmitri Holtzman join us as Directors of TAL’s four pillar initiatives. Mari brings her deep experience and leadership to execute, coordinate and […]
