Voices of a People's History of the United States

05/20/2026

Join us on May 28 as we celebrate another year of Voices in the Classroom with students from The Judith S. Kaye School, Urban Academy, N.Y.C Lab School, and Spruce Street School. Featuring Special Guests Isa Bruder and Quique Avilés.

Since 2014, Lincoln Center has collaborated with Voices of a People’s History to keep Howard Zinn’s message of grassroots egalitarianism alive. The heroic voices featured in Zinn’s books will be brought to life in performance by a chorus of young student activists who have been mentored by artist-activists to find personal meaning in these timeless texts. Using the words of the rebels, dissenters, and visionaries of our past and present as a blueprint, this evening will inspire us all to take collective action to shape our future.

03/02/2026

03/02/2026

Last month at Lincoln Center we celebrated the beauty and resilience of Black history with a performance of “Black History Is For Everyone”, inspired by the new book from Brian Jones. The study of Black history is under constant attack, for studying this history allows us to challenge the systemic forces of the past and present, and gives us the tools to imagine and build new futures. Thank you to the amazing cast of our February 19th performance for uplifting these important voices that refuse to be erased.

During February and beyond, we honor the legacy of Black history, because Black history is for everyone.

📸 By Lawrence Sumulong and Shade Adeyemo

02/12/2026

Join us next week for Black History is for Everyone! ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

🗓 Thursday, February 19, 2026
⏰ 7:30 PM
📍David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center

Highlighting the rich history featured in Brian Jones’s newest book Black History is For Everyone, this performance will expand our understanding of race, nation, and the stories we tell about who we are. The study of Black History challenges our assumptions, helps us see larger forces at work, and gives us glimpses of alternate futures.

Featuring Brian Jones, Haley Pessin, Jordan Mahome, Kelly "GreenLight" Thomas, Mahogany L. Browne, Margaret Odette, Martha Redbone, Aaron Whitby, Regine Jean Louis, and Ty Jones

Visit the link below for more information about this free event. We’ll see you there!

https://www.lincolncenter.org/series/lincoln-center-presents/black-history-is-for-everyone-896

02/04/2026

This weekend on the steps of the Public Theater, over 200 artists and community leaders gathered for The People’s Filibuster, a demonstration in solidarity with anti-ICE protestors in Minnesota. The result was a call-to-action against state-sanctioned violence, and a reminder of our collective power.

At this event, Daphne-Rubin Vega lifted up the words of Elvira Arellano, an undocumented migrant from Mexico who took sanctuary at a Chicago church in 2006. Her words remain painfully relevant 20 years later.

02/04/2026

Shout out by Comrade Sinque on TikTok for "The People Speak," edited by Howard Zinn. (Learn about the book here: https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/people-speak-american-voices)

https://www.tiktok.com//video/7588493030085119287?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

12/31/2025

Earlier this fall, we introduced you to Jake and Lorraine. As we close out the year, and our first fundraising campaign, we want you to hear about their performance experience and what that process has meant to them!

There is still time to help us reach our fundraising goal for 2025! Visit the link in our bio to hear more from Jake and Lorraine, and to donate to support students like them.

12/31/2025

“Education becomes most rich and alive when it confronts the reality of moral conflict in the world.” — our co-founder, Howard Zinn

Earlier this fall, we introduced you to Jake and Lorraine. As we close out the year, and our first fundraising campaign, we want you to hear about their performance experience and what that process has meant to them!

There is still time to help us reach our fundraising goal for 2025! Visit the link below to donate to support students like Jake and Lorraine.

https://secure.givelively.org/donate/voices-of-a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states/make-our-voices-heard

12/27/2025

“Taking quotes and statements from the past, bringing them to the present and having students connect that with their life experiences and their work is powerful. And that’s a tool they can use as they move forward.”
— Harold Butler
Assistant Principal, The Judith S. Kaye School

Each year, Voices students at The Judith S. Kaye School lift up their own words alongside the words of the activists and organizers they’ve been introduced to throughout the school year to create a multimedia call-and-response to historical texts. Here is a small excerpt of the Voices Class of 2024’s final project “We Are JSK,” where students read the words of Marge Piercy’s 1980 poem “the low road” and then responded to the poem in their own words, bringing the past and present together.

Help us continue to bring the lessons of the past to the students of today with a donation to Voices education!

Visit GiveLively to support: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/voices-of-a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states/make-our-voices-heard

12/23/2025

“Voices…allows us to be responsive to the political ideas and questions and challenges that we’re grappling with today. It is so powerful, it’s so rich, it’s so multi-faceted—and it’s fun!”

Brian Jones, in addition to being on the Board of Voices, has taught many ages and grades in New York City’s public schools and the City University of New York. He served as the inaugural director of the Center for Educators and Schools at the New York Public Library and was the associate director of education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He is the author of The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History, and Black History Is for Everyone.

Our work would not be possible without access to the rich history of social justice that is unlocked through primary source materials, such as the words of the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Your donation to Voices helps ensure that a new generation can discover and be inspired by these powerful narratives—and you can secure a signed copy for yourself!

Visit the link below to donate today!

https://secure.givelively.org/donate/voices-of-a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states/make-our-voices-heard

12/19/2025

"Our Voices performances with students remind me that young people shape tomorrow; our voices matter most when we listen, amplify truth and love, in community.”
— Martha Redbone, proud Voices board member

Martha Redbone is a vocalist, songwriter, composer, music educator, 2021 United States Artist Fellow, and proud Voices of a People’s History board member. She is celebrated for her tasty gumbo of American roots music embodying the folk and mountain blues sounds of her childhood in the Appalachian hills of Kentucky, mixed with the eclectic grit of her teenage years in pre-gentrified Brooklyn. Martha's music broadens the boundaries of American music with songs and storytelling that share her life experience as an Afro-Indigenous woman and mother in the 21st century.

Voices has been honored to not only have Martha as a board member and frequent artistic collaborator bringing songs like Lauryn Hill’s “Black Rage” to the stage, but also as a tireless advocate for Voices education programs. Please join us today in supporting Voices so we can continue to share the art of resistance with young people to remind them that their voices deserve to be listened to.

Visit the link below to donate!
https://secure.givelively.org/donate/voices-of-a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states/make-our-voices-heard