Robin Nagle on the City’s relationship to Sanitation

12.21.10

Thanks to the huge crowd that came out to Robin Nagle’s talk in our lecture series two weeks back.  Standing in front of a fascinating slideshow featuring many of the men and women who keep New York City clean (or–more than that–keep New York City alive, as artist Mierle Ukeles famously phrased it), Robin discussed her academic approach to Sanitation, the stigma we attach to the work San Men and Women do and some hypotheses as to how those stigmas develop and why they stick.  It was a passionate and heartfelt address about the value of Sanitation workers that also included some explanation of the mechanics of Sanitation vehicles and the skills required to operate them.  Thanks go to Robin, most of all, for volunteering her insights to the appreciative crowd.

You can stream the entire audio of the talk, below, or download it directly as an MP3 (74 minutes, 68MB).

Tags: audio/video, Department of Sanitation, events, FKP Talks, garbage, history, research