The CareForce™ is a public art project and mobile studio (the CareForce One™) that amplifies the voices of America's fastest growing workforce — caregivers. Initiated by Studio REV- (lead artist: Marisa Morán Jahn) in collaboration with Oscar and Emmy-winning filmmaker Yael Melamede (SALTY Features) and key organizations transforming how we see carework (Caring Across Generations, the National Domestic Workers Alliance), the CareForce™'s goal is to spark the public imagination around caregiving relationships. Join us for hands-on workshops, exhibitions, dance sessions, and pit-stops at museums, parks, libraries, worker centers, transit stops, and public spaces near you.
CONTEXT: Existing policies currently do not reflect the needs of caregivers nor the families they care for. By creatively thinking outside the box, we have the opportunity to redress this policy gap in order to strengthen caregivers economic security while ensuring quality care for families. Working with caregivers and a team of talented artists/filmmakers, the CareForce™ takes you along on the ride with powerful interactive stories from the front lines of this unstoppable force for justice and social change.
BOOK US to facilitate a workshop, showcase artwork and tools, enliven your outreach, and/or engage your audience to reflect and innovate at the nexus of art, domestic work, and care.
200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York 11238
As part of the AgitProp! exhibition on view, visitors are invited to point their phone at the collectible cards and poster to access animated micro-videos bringing you voices from the frontlines of care.
April 29th, 5-9 pm (dance at 5:15-6 pm) | Dance Workshop + Mobile Studio at Open Engagement 2016: Power. The Oakland Museum (Bay Area, CA)
Join the CareForce One + live singing by domestic worker superhero Guillermina Castellanos to kick off this annual conference about socially engaged art.
June 4th, 5-8 pm | Dance Workshop + Mobile Studio at Brooklyn Museum's Family Day (NYC)
200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York 11238
From 5-6 pm, the public is invited to join a workshop accompanying the AgitProp! exhibition. A workshop co-choreographed with facilitators Marisa Morán Jahn, Rockafella, and Vero Ramirez, participants will pick up new bumpin’ dance moves (for any levels and any body types) while learning about the family and worker-led movement based on the principle of Fair Care=Quality Care. At 6 pm, we’ll share out these moves around the CareForce One, hear live stories by The Moth, and passersby can pick up FairCare toolkits.
June 14, 8-6 pm | White House State of Women (Washington, D.C.)
A summit advancing the health, education, and socio-economic strength of women across America convened by the White House.
June 18, 1:30-5 pm (Boston) at Design Studio for Social Innovation Pop Rox and 6-8 pm at Matahari Womens' Worker Center
The CareForce One joins an afternoon of public art in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood followed by a party with Matahari celebrating International Domestic Workers' Day.
June 18, 4-6 pm (NYC) | Intl' Domestic Worker Day Celebration at Barnard College
Team CareForce joins up with NYC-based domestic workers to facilitate a CareForce Disco
Aug 26-Oct 21 | Exhibition at SPACES (Cleveland)
Prints, kits, and collectible cards included in a group exhibition curated by Yaelle Amir organized around the theme of invisible labor and global capital.
Nov 3/4, 2016-Jan 2017 | Exhibition at Newspace & Pacific Northwest College of Art (Portland, OR)
Prints, kits, and collectible cards included in a group exhibition curated by Yaelle Amir organized around the theme of invisible labor and global capital.
Tang Center, 2 Amherst Street, Floor 3, Cambridge, MA 02139
Hosts: Hosts: Matahari and CareAcademy
Join the CareForce One and 250 nannies in co-choreographing a new dance about the growing movement for caregivers’ rights! Our workshop will take place at lunchtime but you can catch the car on view throughout the conference and take home a CareForce Legal Kit and superhero-themed collectible cards featuring stories from those at the frontlines of care.
mid-Apr | Outreach + Mobile Studio (Boston)
Join the MA Coalition for Domestic Workers and Brazilian Worker Center for outreach to workers at pit stops throughout Boston’s libraries, parks, community centers, transit hubs, and public spaces.
March 30, 5-8 pm | Workshop + Mobile Studio Northeastern University's Center for the Arts (Boston)
“Designing a CareForce Toolkit for the Panini Generation”
Using drawing and movement, participants will brainstorm innovative tools to help bolster the FairCare movement and reach younger generations. This workshop is open to NEU students and is a component of Dr. Alessandra Renzi’s course, “The Border as Medium.”
March 29, 4:30-6 pm | Reception for CareForce One mobile studio
Northeastern Crossing (Boston)
1175 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02120
Hosts: Northeastern University’s Social Impact Lab in partnership with Social Justice Resource Center, Northeastern Crossing, Northeastern Center for the Arts, and Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning through Research.
Join the CareForce's Marisa Morán Jahn and Natalicia Tracy (Exec Dir, Brazilian Worker Center) for a reception that caps off a day-long symposium (“Making a Difference in a Complex World: Reimagining the Social Change Toolkit”) of thought-provoking conversations and practical workshops on responding to complex humanitarian crises, mapping networks and systems, collaborative problem solving, the power of policy and public office to address systemic problems and more.
Feb 27, 2016 | Workshop at EFA Project Space, NYC
Workshop for an accompanying exhibition entitled Let Down Reflex. Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (323 W. 39th St., 2nd Fl, NYC). Curated by Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn with sessions led by Maiko Tanaka, Christa Donner, and Marisa Morán Jahn, this workshop explores structural questions at the intersection of the art worker, care and social reproduction.
February 26, 2016 | Panel at Transcultural Exchange (Boston)
The Work of Art in the World: Civic Agency and Public Humanities. Marisa Morán Jahn joins author Harvard professor Doris Sommer and others in a panel about social engagement.
CareForce Matching Crowdfunding Campaign
Thank you for joining us in our crowdfunding campaign!
CareForce drawing workshops at Pay It Forward, a symposium at Fieldston Ethical Culture Society, The New School and New York University.
100 Miles 100 Women. The CareForce joins one hundred women on a 100-mile pilgrimage from a detention center in York County, Pennsylvania to Washington, DC. Set to arrive when the Pope will be speaking in Congress and meeting with the President, we will walk carrying stories from a site of human suffering to the Pope with a message of human dignity.
Domestic Worker Disco at the Allied Media Conference
Domestic Worker Disco Dance Practice to honor International Domestic Workers Day
Exhibition at Franklin Street Works: Acting on Dreams Exhibition curated by Yaelle Amir. Other artists: Andrea Bowers, CultureStrike & JustSeeds, Chitra Ganesh and Mariam Ghani, Ghana ThinkTank, Jenny Polak, Favianna Rodriguez, and QUEEROCRACY in collaboration with Carlos Motta.
In the 1930s and 40s, Southern lawmakers intentionally excluded domestic workers — who were then largely African American — from receiving the same basic rights (minimum wage, overtime wage, workers compensation) as other workers. While some rights for domestic workers have improved, most of the laws for the nation’s 2 million domestic workers have not.
The massive entry of women into the labor force over the past several decades has not been met with generous public policies related to maternity leave, family leave, child care, or elder care. This leaves many relying on professionally-paid domestic workers who themselves are often balancing their own families needs at an average median income of $13,000 a year.
As BabyBoomers retire, America needs to double the number of existing caretakers by 2020 to meet our nation’s basic daily needs. Current policies haven’t taken into account this unprecedented growth. We need real leadership and new systems to ensure this “elderboom” doesn’t fall onto the shoulders of younger generations and that we can age with dignity.
"Caring is a team sport. The CareForce is about winning the care system we need as a collective movement— and we need creativity to achieve this goal."
Artist Marisa Morán Jahn is part of the ‘Sandwich (or Panini) Generation’ who feels squeezed between the caregiving needs of both generations. “Caregivers play an essential role in teaching my toddler new skills, ensuring my grandmother stays healthy, and allowing me to go to work. The well-being of my family relies on these amazing women and I want to make sure they are in turn well-cared for. We together form a critically interdependent CareForce that inspires me.”
In 2012, Jahn and her teammates created the Domestic Worker App (accessible by even the most basic flip phone) — think Click and Clack on NPR’s Car Talk but for nannies — which CNN included on its list of “5 apps that can change the world.” Next came the NannyVan, a bright orange mobile design studio and sound lab that accelerates the movement for domestic workers rights. In 2014, the NannyVan drove over 3500 miles, reached 10,000 individuals, and millions more through international media. Gleaning and sharing tips along the way, we created a suite of other tools like a sample bilingual contract, know-your-rights tools (see below), and more. Framed under The CareForce, we continue forging new solutions with self-same superhero zeal.
In 2015, Emmy and Oscar-winning filmmaker Yael Melamede (SALTY Features) joined the team as a Co-Director/Co-Producer to shape the footage gathered on the journey and share the story to an even broader audience.
We are passionate about developing tools that impact the lives of domestic workers, parents, and all those involved in caregiving. Our secret mojo: sound research, creativity, and playfulness to render even the driest of policy fun and juicy. Check out these resources that we’ve developed over the past four years and contact us to see how we can support your needs.
The New York Times | Creative Time | Fusion TV
CNN Money |
Hyperallergic | GOOD Magazine
BBC Latino | Univision | La Prensa/El Diario
Know Your Rights Bus Cards
Massachusetts
Know Your Rights Poster
Massachusetts
CareForce Tips
Boogeying for Health
A CAREFORCE CONVO 250 STRONG
Boston's Nanny Training Day 2015
NannyVan Trailer
2.5 minutes
NannyVan A-Go-Go
Creative Media Jumpkit
Domestic Worker App Trailer
2.5 minutes
FAIR CARE COLORING PLACEMAT
Trickle up Tips for families!
CREATIVE STORYTELLING
Philippino Worker Center, Los Angeles, 2014
Domestic Worker Doo-Wop
Brazilian Worker Ctr, Boston 2014
DRAWING, ACTING, DANCING
CA Domestic Worker Coalition, 2014
NannyVan Grams
Boston's Nanny Training Day 2014
An artist of Ecuadorian and Chinese descent, Marisa Morán Jahn founded Studio REV- (as in, to "rev" an engine), an art + media + social justice non-profit public art studio. She has taught at the American Museum of Natural History, Northeastern University School of Law, MIT, Stanford Art Museum, and now at the New School. A graduate of MIT, Jahn’s work reaches diverse audiences at The White House, the Museum of Modern Art, grassroots worker centers, and coverage in Art Forum, The New York Times, Art in America, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, and more. Jahn is a Tribeca Film Institute and Creative Capital grantee.
Yael Melamede is the co-founder of SALTY Features, an independent production company based in NYC whose goal is to create media that is provocative, vital, and enhances the world. Her recent works include "(DIS)HONESTY: The Truth About Lies” (with Dan Ariely); INOCENTE (Oscar, Best Doc Short); WHEN I WALK (directed/written by Jason Da Silva and Alice Cook); BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN (written/directed by John Krasinski and based on the book by David Foster Wallace); THE INNER LIFE OF MARTIN FROST (written/directed by Paul Auster); and MY ARCHITECT (directed by Nathaniel Kahn and nominated for an Academy Award in 2004.
Founded by MacArthur “Genius” award recipient Ai-Jen Poo, the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) is the nation’s leading voice for dignity and fairness for the millions of domestic workers in the United States, most of whom are women.
Through culture change work; local, state and federal policy advocacy; online campaigning; and field activities and civic engagement, Caring Across Generations (CAG) is building a national movement to transform the way we care in this country.
Lead Artist + Co-Director, Co-Producer: Marisa Morán Jahn
Co-Director & Co-Producer: Yael Melamede
Co-Pilot: Anjum Asharia
Key Collaborators: Natalicia Tracy (Brazilian Worker Center), Guillermina Castellano (Mujeres Unidas), Jules Rochielle (NuLawLab), Steve Shada
Cinematographers: Marc Shavitz, Maggie Carroll
Strategy:
Ai-Jen Poo, Exec Dir, NDWA; Co-Founder, Caring Across Generations
Eric Siegel, Content Director, New York Hall of Science
Lina Srivastava, Media Impact Strategist
Christiane Paul, Curator (The Whitney Museum of American Art)
Tricia Wang, Tech Ethnographer
Aina Abiodun, Immersive Media Producer; Founder (StoryCode)
Mike Knowlton, Founder (StoryCode) and Partner (Murmur)
Mark Harris, Partner (Murmur)
Sunny Bates, Founding Board Member (TED Talks, Creative Capital, Kickstarter)
Kendal Henry, Director, New York Department of Cultural Affairs
Field: Anya Krawcheck, Ursula August, Chanelle Bell, Leo Burd, Narbada Chetri, Sasha Constanza-Chock, Sarah David Heydemann, Lydia Edwards, Katie Joaquin, Marijke Jorritsma, Irene Jor, Harold Moss, Monique Nguyen, Namrata Pradhan
NuLawLab at the Northeastern University School of Law, MIT Center for Civic Media, SALTY Features, Flickerlab, Murmur Terravoz, Brazilian Immigrant Center, MIT Open Doc Lab, Arizona State University Art Museum, Queens Museum, 18th St. Arts, Hand in Hand: Domestic Employer Association, National Employment Law Project, Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center , The California Coalition of Domestic Workers, affiliated and unaffiliated domestic worker groups across the nation.
Nicole Arendt, Shannon Brunette, Siddartha Lokandi, Cameron Russell, Students at MIT Center for Civic Media, NuLawLab at Northeastern University School of Law, University of Illinois Chicago, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and other schools.
