Portraits of Essential Workers
Online
Many of Forklift Danceworks’ collaborators, such as utility employees and sanitation workers, do the jobs that keep our communities running. As our lives changed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we sought to celebrate all those who kept going to work so that many of us could stay safe at home. On the Job shared the voices and experiences of Forklift’s collaborators working through this public health crisis.
Continuing relationships built through 20 years of community-based dance making, Forklift artists called past collaborators from Austin city departments, partnering college campuses, and Urbaser, a waste collection and street cleaning company in Barcelona, Spain. Each employee shared what they were working on, how they’ve thought about their job differently because of Covid-19, and they wanted people to know.
On the Job was possible through partnerships with collaborating city departments and institutions. The project featured collaborators from The Trash Project, PowerUP, Served – Williams College, On Campus at Wesleyan University, and Urbaser through the International Community Arts Festival Summer School.
Photo by Amitava Sarkar
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