It’s Thanksgiving, 2025, and the Syracuse Cultural Workers are in the midst of a very busy season. The SCW staff is shipping the 2026 Peace Calendar, the Women Artists Datebook 2026 and other items to consumers across the United States. Locally, they are gearing up for the 55th Annual Plowshares Craftsfair and Peace Festival at Nottingham High School December 6-7, where sales are always brisk.
The Cultural Workers create these products in-house and mail them not only to individual households but also to organizations and small businesses—independent bookstores, labor unions, Indivisible groups and gift shops at museums.
Business is good for several reasons, one of which is the presence of Donald Trump in the White House. When he’s President, the Cultural Workers sell more items. That situation is ironic, notes Andy Mager, SCW’s coordinator and Social Movements Liaison. The Cultural Workers, with their emphasis on peace, social justice and environmental concerns, certainly didn’t wish for a second term for Trump. On the contrary, they advocate for non-violent resistance to his administration.
And yet, the Cultural Workers’ bottom line has improved. Among things, SCW was able to enhance its salary structure, increasing wages by a dollar per hour.
In terms of ongoing operations, the Cultural Workers continue to sell thousands of Peace Calendars each year; that’s their best-selling product by far. Dozens of calendars are published annually, but the Peace Calendar is within a tiny niche, that of socially conscious calendars. Amnesty International, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and The Progressive magazine all publish such calendars.
The Peace Calendar, it’s worth noting, has its own identity. It’s not organized from a template. Instead, the calendar committee builds each calendar from the ground up, matching up issues and possibilities for illustrations including oils, acrylics, murals, photos and more. Mager says discussion of issues is important, but so is consideration of whether there’s a strong artwork to help explore an issue.
Like its predecessors, the 2026 Peace Calendar blends issues and images. It incorporates a theme of Hold Strong, encompassing historical and contemporary examples of resistance.
For October, Sanily Viera Alarcon’s digital painting recalls an event from Syracuse’s past, the “Jerry Rescue of 1851. It centered on local abolitionists’ open defiance of the Fugitive Slave Act. That law mandated that local governments, and even ordinary citizens, assist slave owners trying to arrest individuals who had escaped from slavery.
William “Jerry” Henry broke away from a slave owner and fled to Syracuse where he worked as a barrel maker. When he was arrested, Syracuse abolitionists were outraged. On October 1, 1851, a crowd freed him from a downtown police station. He was hidden at several locations before traveling to Kingston, Canada where he lived in freedom before dying in 1853.
In addition, the May calendar page focuses on current-day acts of resistance. An AP photo taken by Jae C. Hong documents a demonstration on June 14, 2025. This was the day of the national No Kings Protest which encompassed marches in more than 2,000 cities and towns in the United States. In places ranging from Anchorage, Alaska to Mobile, Alabama and Boise, Idaho, people demonstrated to protest assaults on human rights and democracy. It’s estimated that over 5 million people marched that day.
Another illustration, an oil created by Ashley Longshore, portrays activist Nadia Murad and celebrates her advocacy for the right of women and children to be free from sexual exploitation and persecution. In 2014, she lived in a Yazidi village in Iraq which was attacked by Islamic State troops. They killed most of the villagers and forced several women, including Nadia Murad, into sexual slavery.
Ultimately, she fled to Germany and began advocating against sexual trafficking and for the rights of women and children. In 2018, she and Dr. Denis Mukwege, a doctor from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were named co-recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Beyond that, the Peace Calendar references climate change by focusing on small islands where entire communities are threatened by rising sea levels. “Flood in De Main Road,” a mixed-media work by Kvita Mongroo, depicts small buildings on stilts but still menaced by the ocean. The artist incorporates deep blue color and conveys the notion of a community under siege.
The calendar displays other media as well: Caitlin Blunnie’s digital artwork discussing the disability community’s ongoing fight for community-based, comprehensive services; “The Man Who Built a Library,” an oil by Eric Velasquez recognizing the contributions of A. A. Schomberg who established a massive collection of art, books and music devoted to the heritage of the African diaspora; a mural done with acrylic paint and aerosol by Joel Bergner and a group of helpers who live in public housing in Brooklyn.
The mural, titled “Three Generations Working to Open Doors,” integrates vivid colors and portraits of several local residents.
This is just one example of Bergner’s collaboration with community groups. He’s worked with people living in refugee camps in Iraq, favalas in Brazil and villages in India.
Finally, the 2026 calendar has a press run of 11,500, with the printing done by union workers at Finger Lakes Press in Auburn, New York.
Mager says that the 2026 calendar explores complex issues including political repression, celebrates resistance in various forms and urges that people act on their beliefs. Most importantly, it provides messages of hope.
The 2026 Peace Calendar, which sells for $16.95, can be purchased on online (SyracuseCulturalWorkers.com) or at SCW’s showroom at 400 Lodi St., Syracuse. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call 315-474-1132.
Carl Mellor covered visual arts for the Syracuse New Times from 1994 through 2016. He continues to write about artists and exhibitions in the Syracuse area.