Join us for a conversation about organizing and activism in the sixties and seventies and today with someone from the front lines: Michael Ansara.
Ansara will be speaking with Drew Darien, Associate Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences at Salem State University, about The Hard Work of Hope, Ansara’s latest book that traces his arc of discovery from the hope and moral clarity of the Civil Rights Movement to the ten-year struggle to end the war in Vietnam, with
sit-ins, marches, confrontations, and antiwar riots.
He also explores the issues that remain urgent: How does a movement build support when large parts of the country are opposed to its goals? How do you connect with people who disagree with you? How do you build organizations that unite across racial lines? How can we make progress on the unfinished business of the hard work of hope? Be a part of the conversation and find out!
Michael Ansara spent many years as an activist and an organizer starting with the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, going on to be a regional organizer for SDS (Students for a Democratic Society). He spent 10 years organizing opposition to the war in Vietnam. He was for 15 years a community organizer including directing Mass Fair Share. He has worked on political campaigns, coordinated voter registration efforts, and trained many organizers. He is the co-founder of Mass Poetry. He currently serves on the Board of the Redress Movement and the organizing team for Volunteer Blue. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and his essays have appeared in Vox, Arrowsmith, Solstice and Cognoscenti. His first book of poems, What Remains, was published in June of 2022 by Kelsay Books. His memoir, The Hard Work of Hope, was published by Cornell University Press in July 2025.
Andrew Darien is Associate Dean for the College of Arts & Sciences at Salem State University, where he has taught as a history professor since 2004. He specializes in modern United States history and oral history. He is the author of Becoming New York’s Finest: Race, Gender and the Integration of the NYPD, 1935-1980, and Building the Sacred and the Progressive: A History of Temple Sinai in Brookline. He has been the project director for Student, Citizen, and Soldier, which has recorded and shared dozens of interviews with college veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He most recently completed an oral history project to document the queer history of Lynn through a series of gay and lesbian bars going back to the early 20th century. The American Association of State and Local History awarded Darien and United Lynn Pride the Corey Award for the best grassroots public history project in 2025.
Tickets: $20 | $10 Members | Card to Culture
This is a hybrid event. Zoom link will be sent to all registrants an hour before the program starts.