Lauren Hudson

Lauren Hudson is a peer educator with the Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York, an organization that she and other collective members of SolidarityNYC, a solidarity economy advocacy collective, co-founded. In addition to her organizing work, she is a recent PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the CUNY Graduate Center and an adjunct in Africana Studies at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She is also a lecturer with ThinkOlio, where she teaches subjects related to feminist urban geography, and a member of her neighborhood mutual aid group.


Past Olios with Lauren Hudson


Money, Space & The Body: A Day of Myth

We’ll be gathering old and new Olio greats for a day-long festival in a historic Clinton Hill Mansion using the theme of myth to guide the way. Our teachers will explore stories of Economics, Geography, and the Body before we go into the nighttime hours with a dance party. All of the programming will take place outdoors and there will be a cash bar on-site with a snack break to explore the great restaurants in the neighborhood.

Venue: None

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

Sept. 19, 2021, 1 p.m.

Money, Space & the Body: A Day of Myth

We’ll be gathering old and new Olio greats for a day-long festival in a historic Clinton Hill Mansion using the theme of myth to guide the way. Our teachers will explore stories of Economics, Geography, and the Body before we go into the nighttime hours with a dance party. All of the programming will take place outdoors and there will be a cash bar on-site with a snack break to explore the great restaurants in the neighborhood.

Venue: None

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

Sept. 19, 2021, 2 p.m.

"Seeds Beneath the Snow": Utopia through Ecological Crisis

As we experience climate disaster, how do we not succumb to doomsday scenarios, but instead recognize the current “seeds beneath the snow” and imagine the possibilities of climate utopia? What might climate utopia even look like? In this Olio, we will explore these questions and more, with Out of the Woods collective, who explores ecological crisis from the perspective of political theory, and Olio mainstay, Lauren Hudson, a geographer and activist.

Venue: None

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

May 21, 2021, 6 p.m.

Communities Fight Back: Meeting our Needs During Capitalist Crisis

This 6-week OlioCourse, will go in-depth on three different ‘crises’ of Social Reproduction: housework, food, and housing. These sectors are in an acute crisis today, but have been historically neglected forms of reproduction since the transition to capitalism. We’ll also explore how people have organized out of crisis, collectivized their efforts, and pushed back against scarcity. The purpose of these sessions is to recognize crisis when it occurs, and work towards solutions that don’t further legitimate state failure.

Venue: None

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

Jan. 27, 2021, 7:30 p.m.

Labor & Space

To geographers, everything that happens to us happens in space. This includes the ways we work. From company towns to working from home, all work happens in some space--even as that space becomes more and more abstract or we become further and further alienated from production.

Venue: None

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

May 6, 2020, 8 p.m.

What Does a Feminist City Look Like?

Cities are not merely containers for social action or politics, but political projects in and of themselves. Join Lauren Hudson at Federal Hall as we think through the relationship between gender, urban space, and labor.

Venue: None

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

March 16, 2020, 12:30 p.m.

The Production of Nature

Let's gather for an intimate living room Olio to discuss some overlooked ecological questions. If nature/natural resources are threatened at a global scale, who benefits when we think of solutions as individual?

Venue: None

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

Jan. 15, 2020, 7:30 p.m.

The Production of Nature

Let's gather for an intimate living room Olio to discuss some overlooked ecological questions. If nature/natural resources are threatened at a global scale, who benefits when we think of solutions as individual?

Venue: Living Room

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

Dec. 11, 2019, 7:30 p.m.

Black Friday | Life in a Material World

If nature/natural resources are threatened at a global scale, who benefits when we think of solutions as individual? Join Lauren Hudson in a West Village apartment for a special Black Friday Olio.

Venue: Living Room

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

Nov. 29, 2019, 3 p.m.

New York, The Neoliberal City

Join us at the historic Old Stone House in Park Slope to discuss the specific form of capitalism we are living in and how New York City become Neoliberal.

Venue: The Old Stone House

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

Sept. 23, 2019, 7:30 p.m.

OlioHouse Weekend | Scenius (Un)Skillshare

Join us for a weekend of shared learning and an Olio on worker-owned cooperatives! This is the second to last OlioHouse Weekend so let's soak up the sun and good energy. We'll be harvesting from the garden and cooking, hiking and swimming, and lounging around with books in all the soon-to-be-missed nooks and crannies.

Venue: OlioHouse | Wassaic, NY

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

Aug. 17, 2019, 2 p.m.

*Sold Out* New York City: From Reconstruction to Universal Rent Control

The opening event in a brand new partnership with the National Park Service will be an Olio exploring reconstruction as context for NYC's current housing situation.

Venue: Grant's Tomb

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

June 2, 2019, 2 p.m.

OlioHouse | The Production of Nature

Memorial Day weekend at OlioHouse includes Olios on the topic of Nature, a natural plant dye workshop, yoga, bbq and more!

Venue: OlioHouse | Wassaic, NY

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

May 25, 2019, noon

Urban Development: From Reconstruction to Gentrification

We'll gather at Berg'n beerhall with urban geographer Lauren Hudson for the story of how U.S cities became what they are today. We'll discuss rural outmigration, changes in our food, homeownership, and gentrification over drinks and dinner.

Venue: Berg'n

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

March 27, 2019, 7:30 p.m.

Time is Political: Understanding Modern Labor

In this seminar at Berg'n beerhall, we'll learn about the history of labor in the US, how it functions now and discuss, together, ways that we can change our relationship to our work and our time.

Venue: Berg'n

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

Feb. 13, 2019, 7:30 p.m.

What Does a Feminist City Look Like?

We will think through the relationship between gender, urban space, and labor, from the advent of the suburbs, to ‘pink-collar ghettos’, and suburban McMansions.

Venue: Blender Workspace

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

Dec. 7, 2018, 7:30 p.m.

Halloween Weekend | How the Witch was Born and Hunted: Progress, Capitalism, and the Commons

We'll explore how the ‘witch’ was born and hunted and how great social upheaval around labor and gender helped capitalism unfold.

Venue: OlioHouse | Wassaic, NY

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

Oct. 27, 2018, noon

Selective Histories: Memory, Aesthetics, & Urban Art

This Olio will focus on the many conflicting intents of urban art, from its use as state propaganda to its many forms of resistance to oppression.

Venue: Strand Bookstore

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

Aug. 31, 2018, 7 p.m.

There's No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster

Using examples from Hurricanes Katrina and Maria, this Olio will unpack several antagonistic social relationships that not only create the conditions for ‘natural’ disasters, but extend far beyond the single event.

Venue: Nowadays

Teacher: Lauren Hudson

June 26, 2018, 7:30 p.m.


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Olio: A miscellaneous collection of art and literature.