One year after the record-breaking women’s marches across the country after President Donald Trump took office, Seattle will do much more than march to mark the event’s anniversary.
“We want people to take direct action,” said Liz Hunter-Keller, communications chair for Seattle Womxn Marching Forward, the group that organized last year’s march and is marking the Jan. 21 anniversary with a “day of action” that includes a food drive, voter registration and other events.
This year, on Saturday, Jan. 20, a coalition of groups, including Be The Change Network, CAIR-WA and others, are organizing the Seattle Women’s March 2.0, which will start at Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill at 10 a.m., and head to Seattle Center, walking a route through downtown Seattle.
The following day, Sunday Jan. 21, Seattle Womxn Marching Forward has organized dozens of events throughout the Seattle area for a day of action called Womxn ACT on Seattle.
Hunter-Keller is proud of last year’s public resistance in numbers, with Seattle doubling its anticipated turnout with more than 150,000 people marching. But this year, she said, the Seattle Womxn Marching Forward wanted to offer more tangible change than protesting — they wanted to do the work and talk the talk.
Dozens of events all over the Seattle area on Sunday include panels, workshops, potlucks, performances, food bank drives, voter registration and much more.
Hunter-Keller said the events address a vast number of issues at the intersection of people’s different identities. For instance, the Muslim Association of Puget Sound in Redmond is holding a legal clinic and the Phinney Neighborhood Association is conducting anti-racism training.
Other issues will include entrepreneurship, sexual harassment and the arts, violence against indigenous women and homelessness. There are nearly 30 different venues, including Theatre Puget Sound in Queen Anne, Crossroads Bellevue shopping center, Casa Latina in Seattle and many more throughout Seattle and in surrounding cities,
“All issues are women’s issues,” Hunter-Keller said. “When one community is harmed all communities are harmed.”
For a schedule of events that are part of Womxn ACT on Seattle, go to Seattle Womxn Marching Forward’s website.
