Organization dedicated to improving the lives of day laborers in the United States
LOS ANGELES (April 7, 2016) – The Norman Lear Center’s Popular Music Project is proud to announce the National Day Laborer Organizing Network as its 2016-2017 Distinguished Artist in Residence.
The National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) was officially founded in July 2001 in Northridge California at the first ever national gathering of day laborer organizations. It was formed as an alliance of 12 community-based organizations and worker centers dedicated to improving the lives of day laborers in the United States.
NDLON works to unify and strengthen its member organizations to be more strategic and effective in their efforts to develop leadership, mobilize, and organize day laborers in order to protect and expand their civil, labor and human rights. NDLON fosters safer, more humane environments for day laborers, both men and women, to earn a living, contribute to society, and integrate into the community.
“The singular ways that NDLON has engaged music as a tool of organizing, protest, and mobilization is both inspiring and instructive,” says PMP Director and USC Professor Josh Kun. “It will be an honor to learn with them and collaborate at USC.”
From Fall 2016 through Fall 2017, the Popular Music Project will focus on the cultural work practiced by NDLON in its efforts to encourage, record and celebrate the unique song-crafting and performing skills of day laborers, telling stories of their lives, histories, joys, sorrows and tales of work in corridos. In tandem with NDLON, PMP will coordinate two song-writing works followed by recording sessions to capture the finished songs and thus create a series of jornalero (day laborer) songbooks.
“We know that projects in art and culture are powerful tools in telling stories, building community and are a vehicle for lifting the voices of the day laborer,” says Xochi Flores, NDLON development associate and project coordinator. “We look forward to being facilitators, alongside PMP, of the creation of the jornalera/o songbook.”
The Norman Lear Center is a multidisciplinary research and public policy center that studies and shapes the impact of entertainment and media on society. From its base in the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the Lear Center builds bridges between faculty who study aspects of entertainment, media and culture. Beyond campus, it bridges the gap between entertainment industry and academia, and between them and the public. For more information, visit www.learcenter.org.
The Popular Music Project (www.learcenter.org/project/pmp/) is a one-stop home for the interdisciplinary study and analysis of popular music. Bringing together faculty and students from across the USC campus with musicians, critics, and industry innovators, the PMP takes pop music seriously as an object of sustained critical inquiry through a mix of public events, research projects, listening lunches, course development, podcasts, publications, databases, blogs and Los Angeles campus residencies. The project’s goal is to treat the making of pop music as a key site for education and pedagogy and for re-thinking questions of society, culture, history, and communication.
Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism (www.annenberg.usc.edu) is a national leader in education and scholarship in the fields of communication, journalism, public diplomacy and public relations. With an enrollment of more than 2,200 students, USC Annenberg offers al, graduate and undergraduate degree programs, as well as continuing development programs for working professionals across a broad scope of academic inquiry. The school’s comprehensive curriculum emphasizes the core skills of leadership, innovation, service and entrepreneurship and draws upon the resources of a networked university located in the media capital of the world.
Please contact PMP director and USC Annenberg Professor Josh Kun with any questions or comments at jkun@usc.edu. For questions about The Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, please contact Scott McGibbon at mcgibbon@usc.edu.
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USC Norman Lear Center, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089