Episode Details

Can the right song, painting, or museum exhibit spark real political change? What if culture is the missing strategy in today’s social movements?

If you’ve ever felt like your efforts for justice aren’t hitting deep enough, it might be because the culture hasn’t caught up with your message. In this episode, labor organizer and social change strategist Ken Grossinger shares how his journey from labor organizing to cultural advocacy revealed a truth many overlook: policy changes fade, but stories—and the art that tells them—have staying power. In this episode:

• Discover how blending power analysis with artistic expression can amplify grassroots campaigns and drive long-term social change.
• Hear powerful case studies—from a revolutionary museum exhibit in Louisville to a musical uprising in Alaska—that reveal how art can expose injustice and build movements.
• Learn from real-world collaborations between artists and organizers that shift narratives, challenge power, and activate communities in ways no policy paper ever could.

Tune in now to hear how Ken Grossinger’s book ART WORKS and his work in communities across the U.S. show us why art isn’t just a reflection of justice—it’s how we get there.

Notable Mentions

People

Ken Grossinger — Longtime movement strategist and author of Art Works: How Organizers and Artists Are Creating a Better World Together, which explores the strategic partnership between artists and organizers across decades of social-justice campaigns.

Richard Cloward — Columbia University sociologist and organizer whose power-analysis framework shaped generations of strategists; co-founder of the National Welfare Rights Organization and a chief architect of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act ("Motor Voter" law).

Bernice Johnson Reagon — Civil rights song leader who co-founded the Freedom Singers with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later founded the a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Si Kahn — Veteran folk musician, author, and organizer who has spent decades writing songs in direct collaboration with the communities he serves, including the fishermen and Alaska Native communities fighting the Pebble Mine.

Harry Belafonte — Singer and actor who became one of the civil rights movement's most trusted strategists and financiers, sitting at the strategy tables of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference alongside Martin Luther King Jr.

Bryan Stevenson — Founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of Just Mercy; created the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

Amy Sherald