Bread and Roses Missouri amplifies and elevates the stories of working people through the arts and humanities. We are proud to be celebrating our 10th anniversary as the ONLY arts organization in Missouri focused on the stories of the working class and their families.
Our Workers Theatre Project brings original work about the working class struggle for social and economic justice to St. Louis audiences. Recent Workers Theatre Projects include our podcast of an original play, Mrs. Palmer's Honey by Cassandra Medley, based on the 1940s novel by Fannie Cook, now available on Spotify. We presented 1877, a play by Colin McLaughlin about the General Strike of 1877 in St. Louis. This was a critical event in St. Louis history as well as Labor Movement history, and we brought this little-known story to St. Louis audiences in November, 2023 at the Missouri History Museum Lee Auditorium. In August, 2024 we premiered The Caregiving Project, an original play by St. Louis playwright Mariah Richardson, based on the collected stories of St. Louis caregivers, both paid and unpaid.
We are currently working on our latest premiere play for the Workers' Theater Project, A Brick and A Bible, the story of the Funsten Nutpickers Strike. In the 1930s, Black women led a strike at five St. Louis nut factories to protest their poor pay and working conditions. This new play by Colin McLaughlin and Kathryn Bentley, will music by Alicia Reve Like, will bring this story of faith and solidarity to life at the Missouri History Museum in February, 2026.
The Workers Theatre Project also produces The Workers' Opera, performed by St. Louis "workers turned actors." They bring the legacy of the labor movement and contemporary stories to life through word, song and historical reenactments to illuminate the ongoing struggle for economic justice and workers' rights. The Workers' Opera gives an opportunity for working class people to participate in a creative process, and raise their voices to tell the audience what matters to them. In 2023 we partnered with the Missouri Workers' Center to include the stories of Amazon workers fighting to organize and form a union in the St. Louis area and nationally. In 2024 we toured our Workers' Opera to Columbia, Springfield and Kansas City.
Your donation on Give STL Day 2025 will help support our Workers' Theater Projects.
The Youth Initiative combines art and activism in summer program settings. Through visual, verbal, performing arts, we empower "community actors" who can begin to use their creative skills to engage in actions that lead to social change. The program connects youth ages 7-12 with professional teaching artists who work with them to create high-quality art projects; to explore healthy choices for themselves and their mental and physical well-being; and to explore how the arts can be a tool to make change in their own communities.
We pay artists to lead workshops at St. Louis City Parks and Recreation centers that mostly serve Black and immigrant youth. This year we will also provide workshops to immigrant youth at the International Welcome Center, and at several St. Louis County venues, including St. Louis County Libraries. The program served over 570 youth in Summer 2024, and we are currently preparing for another busy summer at 16 different sites.
Read our 2024 Impact report.