Art & Activism

A Mothers' Day Project Helps Organize "Nannies"

 

People's Production House
New Day New Standard


Tune in to Nannies in the Know!
New Day New Standard 

Launch: Live Now! Launched on May Day and just in time for Mother's Day, 2012
Hotline: (646) 699-3989 and available online here
Like what you hear? Help us reach thousands of Latina domestic workers by contributing today to make the Spanish version possible. Our goal is to raise $6,600 by July 1!  

Collaborating Organizations: People's Production House, REV-, Domestic Workers United, MIT Center for Civic Media, the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), National Employment Law Project (NELP)

'New Day New Standard' is an interactive hotline that informs nannies, housekeepers, eldercaregivers, and their employers about the landmark Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights, passed in New York State in November 2010. Built on an open source framework, 'New Day New Standard' is a hybrid application that combines regular touchtone phones, Internet-based telephony, and performance art to create an interactive Spanish/English know-your-rights audio campaign for domestic workers and their employers in New York State. But  this is no drab and dry reading of the law. When you call the 'New Day  New  Standard' hotline number, you hear what sounds like a radio talk  show, 'hosted' by Christine Lewis, a real nanny in New York whose charisma as a social justice organizer landed her a guest spot on The Colbert Report.

Equal  parts advice and humor-think NPR's "Car Talk" for nannies-the episodes  cover topics ranging from minimum and overtime wages, vacation time and  paying your taxes, to modern day slavery and trafficking. Listeners can  also get connected directly to different social services, such as legal  support or community organizations  working around a variety of needs. Listeners can also leave their ten digit telephone number to receive SMS updates about nanny convos in their neighborhood! Launched in time for Mother's Day, 'New Day New Standard' functions as a key media component of a New York City-wide campaign-starting in Park  Slope, Brooklyn, in Spring 2012-that seeks to encourage domestic  workers and their employers to comply with the law.

Artistic Director: Marisa Jahn, People's Production House & REV-

Voicing: Jen Cohn, Alexandra Garcia, Christine Lewis, Maria Mercedes Rosales

Music: Matthew Fowler (aka "Mumbles")

Audio Editing & Communications: Abdulai Bah, Sylvia Guerrero, Anjum Asharia, People's Production House; Andalusia Knoll, Families for Freedom

Support: Center for Civic Media at MIT, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and North Star Fund. In addition, this performance/variable media art work was made possible, in part, by the Franklin Furnace Fund supported by stimulus funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; the Lambent Fund of Tides Foundation; and Jerome Foundation.