Yes Lab Tuesdays 

The Yes Lab is now on Tuesdays 4pm-6pm! Please email us for location.

The Yes Lab @ Hemi involves students, faculty, local activists, and the occasional government official in strategizing and accomplishing funny media-getting actions. 

This spring, we are partnering with several organizations focused on issues that range from the local to the global.  The organizations we are working with are: 

War Resisters League
The United States’ oldest secular pacifist organization, the War Resisters League has been resisting war at home and war abroad since 1923.  Their campaign and storytelling project, “Facing Tear Gas”, aims to end the international and local transfer of US-made tear gas, and in the process change the story about tear gas globally and (militarized) police locally. 

Breakthrough
Breakthrough is a global human rights organization that brings human rights issues and values into the mainstream and make human rights real and relevant. Their campaign, #ImHere, is an urgent and innovative call to action for the rights of immigrant women in the United States. A multimedia campaign, #ImHere seeks to highlight the ways in immigrant women in the U.S. are an increasingly vulnerable population - the goal of the campaign is to raise awareness about the issues faced by immigrant women and bring them into the wider, mainstream conversation about women's rights that is gaining so much traction in the run-up to the elections.

Restaurant Opportunities Centers United
The only national organization that is dedicated exclusively to the needs of restaurant workers was founded after 9/11 by former workers at Windows to the World on the Twin Towers.  Their current workplace justice campaign, “Dignity at Darden”, is aimed at Capital Grille restaurants where workers of color complain that they cannot access living wage jobs in the restaurants because of their race and ethnicity, that they are being clocked out early, have to share their tips with non-tipped workers, and other examples of wage theft. Many workers have also brought up the need for paid sick days – not only to protect their own health but also the health of customers.

Change the Stakes
An NYC parent, teacher, and educator organization, developed out of the longstanding educator group Grassroots Education Movement, with membership from across the 5 boroughs. The organization aims to stop the destructive practice of high-stakes testing in NYC public schools, with a particular emphasis on the testing regime in grades 3-8.  They aim to increase awareness about the narrowing of curriculum in schools due to undue emphasis on testing; educate parents and communities regarding the top down and opaque process of test development, distribution, and grading facilitated by the multinational corporation, Pearson Inc; and increase numbers of parents who choose to opt out of the state tests next spring. 

Participation is easy; just show up! But please RSVP first!

Breakfast and lunch for the October 13th Yes Lab launch was generously donated by: