“It’s just a picture of a woman in an apron offering a cup of hot coffee. But shot from below, with the sun peeking around the paper cup, the coffee looks as if it’s being handed down directly from the heavens.”
-- Peter Jennings, ABC World News Tonight
“The images in unseenamerica are worth millions of words, and thousands of artificial images from Hollywood and Madison Avenue. They are a gift to those who are visible, and all with eyes to see.”
-- Gloria Steinem
“Chalk up another major artistic contribution for the Bread & Roses Cultural Project…This is authentic peoples’ history--working people showing their own lives and telling their own stories.”
-- Coretta Scott King
“Workers are creators and they should be at the head of the list of the valuable members of our society and unseenamerica puts them in their rightful place.”
-- Ossie Davis
“Rarely do we stop to talk to a janitor about her ambitions in life, or to ask a doorman his long-held dreams. unseenamerica posed those questions to ‘ordinary’ immigrant workers and this exhibit documents the extraordinary things they had to say.”
-- Andrew L. Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union
“This stunning book, about the truly beautiful people of our country, will hopefully be seen by every American--especially those in the corridors of power. We are blessed: this work is a gift that makes us all very proud.”
-- Dennis Rivera, President 1199SEIU
“unseenamerica gracefully lifts this country’s greatest asset, its working men and women, from the shroud of obscurity. This awe-inspiring book provides a face, meaning, and substance to our working heroes.”
-- Denis Hughes, President of the New York State AFL-CIO
“unseenamerica invites us to personally experience the workers’ world. It reminds us that work is meaningful and that all workers have dignity. It calls upon us to stop for a moment, reflect, and appreciate the often invisible labor that makes America work every day.”
-- Elaine L. Chao, Secretary of Labor
remarks made at the unseenamerica exhibit at the Department of Labor
May 13th 2003
To be a part of this project, please call Shaila George at 212.767.0025 x 7