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Everyone Is Essential! - Creatives Rebuild New York

CRNY partnered with CreativeStudy, Art.coop, and Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund (GRO) to launch an educational course designed to spread awareness about the guaranteed income movement. 

Everyone is Essential!, which includes a mini-documentary and a learning module, places artists at the forefront of crucial economic security and guaranteed income conversations and educates viewers about guaranteed income as a tool to create a better and more sustainable future for all.

This course is part of a free Solidarity Economy Series from CreativeStudy made in partnership with Art.Coop. The course includes a four-minute, 101-style learning module as well as a thirteen-minute mini-documentary. The mini-documentary takes place in Harlem’s Riverside Church where CRNY artists discuss their experiences with creating art while receiving no-strings attached cash payments. The course features artist and CRNY staff member Naja Gordon and GRO Narrative and Cultural Strategist Eshe Shukura who argue why guaranteed income is crucial to providing economic security to artists. They also dive into the history of unconditional cash payments in the United States and Guaranteed Income’s role in making our nation more economically just.

Visit the CreativeStudy website for the full curriculum.

Watch this mini-documentary to witness a snapshot of a regional gathering in Harlem’s Riverside Church, where artists shared testimony about their experience receiving guaranteed income. Video by Neglakay Productions, courtesy of Creative Study and Creatives Rebuild New York.
Artists and culture workers Naja Gordon and Eshe Shukura begin this video with the economic realities of many people in the creative workforce, which echo the financial precarities faced by a majority of people in the United States. Video by Neglakay Productions, courtesy of Creative Study and Creatives Rebuild New York

Guaranteed income is one part of building a better safety net for people. That safety net includes higher wages, free childcare, and free higher education, all of which are common in social democracies. In countries where the solidarity economy is strong, consistent income is one part of a larger project of ensuring that all people have an economic floor.


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A new course, launched today by Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY), CreativeStudy, Art.coop, and Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund (GRO), will spread awareness about the guaranteed income movement.
Visit the Solidarity Economy series of courses on the CreativeStudy website. Creatives around the world are working together, placing people and the planet over profit to create thriving homes, businesses, investments, and creative work. You can too.
The Artist Power Building School was a home to support artists, arts collectives, and organizations in NYS and nationwide to spread knowledge about economic justice and foster base-building within the guaranteed income movement.