Last month co-Facilitator Daniel Littlewood and I took the subway from StoryCorps’ Brooklyn headquarters to New York City’s East Harlem neighborhood to visit Art for Change, an organization that uses art and media programs to inspire people to take an active role in social justice. AFC is a non profit that has survived nearly nine years primarily on the passion and the commitment of its volunteers.

During the recording day, artists and volunteers stopped by to talk about their backgrounds, their relationship to art, and the work they do for the organization. Lester A. Laboy remembered meeting AFC Founder Eliana Godoy one evening in El Barrio, a neighborhood where he was born and raised. He credits AFC with showing him that art wasn’t something that belonged only in textbooks. He soon realized that art could play a part in his life. Through his work with the organization, Lester has helped his neighborhood tackle immigration, education, and environmental issues with the inclusion of the arts in their everyday lives.

Art For Change, its volunteers and its artists, work every day to answer the question asked by this post and is similar to StoryCorps: How can one conversation change anything at all?

You should stop by one of our booths and see.