An exhibition chronicling the lives of contemporary migrant farm workers will be on display at Kansas City, Kansas, Public Library now through Dec. 17.
“In the Fields of the North / En los Campos del Norte” features photojournalist David Bacon’s evocative, powerful photographs alongside moving oral narratives from migrant farm workers.
The exhibition, fully translated into both English and Spanish, gives viewers a reality check on the food they eat and the lives of the people who harvest it.
Traveling with migrant workers as the fruit and harvest season moves from the Mexican border to Washington state, “In the Fields of the North / En los Campos del Norte” sheds light on some basic questions: How much do we know about the lives of the people who feed us? Where do they live? How does it feel to do some of the hardest repetitive labor imaginable? And, what answers do farm workers themselves have to end their poverty and endless migration?
To complement the exhibit, the library will have a Zoom program appearance by Suzanne Gladney, attorney and director of the Migrant Farmworkers Assistance Fund, for a virtual program discussion on Migrant Workers: Past, Present, and Future. This will take place over Zoom on Nov. 15. More information can be found on the library’s website at kckpl.org.
Photographer, journalist, and activist David Bacon has spent over three decades documenting the lives of migrant workers, building upon his previous work as a union organizer. The exhibition is based upon the book of the same name, recently published by University of California Press. As Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center, writes, “Bacon captures the humanity of workers who work each day in demanding physical labor, in the hot sun, and for poverty wages. This is one of the few publications that captures the authentic stories of California farm workers, through their own voices and with the images of their living and working conditions.” Bacon is also the author of The Children of NAFTA, Communities Without Borders, Illegal People, and The Right to Stay Home.
“In the Fields of the North / En los Campos del Norte” features the works of David Bacon; is produced in partnership with the California Rural Legal Assistance, the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations, and History San José; and is touring the U.S. through Exhibit Envoy.
Exhibit Envoy provides traveling exhibitions and professional services to museums throughout California. Exhibit Envoy’s mission is to provide institutions with diverse and meaningful traveling exhibitions to strengthen their communities. For more information, visit www.exhibitenvoy.org.