CBH Talk: How Movements Are Built
A free evening at the Center for Brooklyn History exploring the mechanics of social movement building — how ordinary people have changed the arc of history.
Why we picked this
Drawing on the conviction that 'you and two friends can change the world,' this evening takes Saul Alinsky's organizing legacy seriously — examining not the mythology of movements but the actual mechanics of building them.
The Center for Brooklyn History hosts this free public evening examining how social movements are actually built — not through sudden eruptions of popular fury, but through sustained, strategic organizing by small groups of committed people. The program draws on the organizing tradition articulated by Saul Alinsky and explored through decades of successful campaigns for civil rights, labor rights, and community power.
The evening is framed around a deceptively simple premise: that pessimism about one’s ability to change things is often itself a political choice, and that the history of successful movements reveals consistent patterns of coalition-building, conflict, and power analysis that can be learned and applied. Speakers will explore case studies from Brooklyn’s own history of community organizing alongside broader American examples.
This is part of the Center’s regular public programming, which brings historians, organizers, and community leaders into conversation with the archival record. Registration recommended but the event is free to attend.