{"id":30067,"date":"2014-08-21T17:37:32","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T21:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2014\/08\/21\/necc-student-plays-key-role-in-lawrences-bread-and-roses-heritage-festival\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T16:33:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:33:58","slug":"necc-student-plays-key-role-in-lawrences-bread-and-roses-heritage-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2014\/08\/21\/necc-student-plays-key-role-in-lawrences-bread-and-roses-heritage-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"NECC Student Plays Key Role in Lawrence\u2019s Bread and Roses Heritage Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_9234\" style=\"width: 176px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2014\/08\/Joshua-Alba-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9234\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9234\" alt=\"Joshua Alba (2)\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2014\/08\/Joshua-Alba-2-166x300.jpg\" width=\"166\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-9234\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joshua Alba, NECC student and producer director of the Lawrence Bread &amp; Roses Festival<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/\">Northern Essex Community College<\/a> student, Joshua Alba of Lawrence, is providing leadership for this year\u2019s 30th Annual Bread and Roses Festival, which will be held on the Lawrence Common on Monday, September 1 from 12 to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Alba is serving as producer director for the festival which is a free, open-air event that celebrates Lawrence\u2019s rich labor and social justice history with food, arts &amp; crafts, community groups, music, theater, dance, children\u2019s activities, and more.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very challenging and exciting,\u201d says Alba. \u201cI\u2019ve never had this much responsibility in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A 2002 graduate of Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School, Alba first became involved with the festival while he was participating in the Lawrence Community Works PODER Leadership Institute in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>As part of a class project on cultural inclusion, his class joined the Bread &amp; Roses Heritage Committee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI learned so much about Lawrence\u2019s history, including the first waves of immigrants. It made me aware of the similarities between our cultures, our continuing struggles, and our common interest in creating stronger and more resourceful communities,\u201d says Alba, who was hooked and has continued to be involved with the festival ever since then.<\/p>\n<p>Alba is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/academics\/courses-programs\/areas\/liberal-arts\/\">liberal arts major<\/a> at Northern Essex and he plans to graduate in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Steven Slaner of the Global Studies Department speaks highly of Alba.\u00a0 &#8220;Joshua was a student in my Vietnam War class and composed an essay that managed to be both poetic and analytical, an impressive combination. He is well attuned to issues of social justice and the environment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In addition to his role in the Bread &amp; Roses Festival,\u00a0 Alba is on the board of the Greater Lawrence Young Professionals Network, and he is the father of two, an 8 and 11 years old.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on the festival visit <a href=\"https:\/\/breadandrosesheritage.org\/\">www.breadandrosesheritage.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Northern Essex Community College student, Joshua Alba of Lawrence, is providing leadership for this year\u2019s 30th Annual Bread and Roses Festival, which will be held on the Lawrence Common [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":30069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - 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