Women’s March 2018: Telluride & Beyond, 1/20

Women’s March 2018: Telluride & Beyond, 1/20

On January 2017, an estimated 3 million people  – women, men, children – participated in 500 sister marches around the world. L.A. had between a half million and three-quarters of a million. New York had almost a half million. Chicago had a quarter million. And Telluride? About 500 people took part. (Or was the number closer to 1000?) Regardless, locally it was a large chunk of a small but determined population. And the general turnout was historic and unexpected everywhere: all in all, one in every 100 Americans participated. No wonder the short-fingered vulgarian and current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave was in denial. And it’s happening again – but in Telluride on January 20 instead of January 21, 2018. The event begins at 10 a.m. at Telluride Town Hall. It ends around noon. Meanwhile, “Here What To Know About The 2018 Women’s March,” a blog in the Huff Post by Laura Basset. Dust off your pink pussy hat and read on….

WASHINGTON, DC. – JAN. 21: Organizers put the Women’s March on Washington in Washington D.C. on Saturday Jan. 21, 2017. (Photo by Damon Dahlen, Huffington Post)

And back home….

Women’s March, Telluride, 2017. With luck it will snow again here as predicted – and the White House will be snowed once again by the protests. Both local images by Alessandra Jacobson of Alessandra Massage.

Almost a year ago, millions of women donning pink-knitted “pussy hats” made the 2017 Women’s March the largest single-day protest in American history. This weekend, the event returns with the aim of re-energizing the resistance against Donald Trump’s agenda and registering new voters across the country.

“This year we’ve rallied, we’ve marched, we’ve held town halls, we’ve huddled, we’ve written postcards, and we’ve run for office in bigger numbers than before,” Bob Bland, a co-founder of the original march, told HuffPost. “All of it was culminating in this moment, which is the anniversary of the Women’s March, where we convert our collective power that we all felt last year on January 21st into a groundswell of political power.”

The main event for the 2018 Women’s March, themed “Power to the Polls,” will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sunday, Jan. 21. The organizers chose Nevada because it’s a key battleground state in the 2018 midterm elections, and because the city “was rocked by the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history” this year, according to the Women’s March website.

The Las Vegas kickoff event, held at Sam Boyd Stadium at 10 a.m., will feature singer Faith Evans and speakers such as Melissa Harris-Perry and actress Marisa Tomei, along with activists from organizations including Planned Parenthood and Black Lives Matter. It will be streamed live on the event website for those who can’t make it.

Elsewhere in the country and in several cities around the world, more than 250 anniversary marches and events are planned for Saturday, Jan. 20. The official Women’s March website has a searchable directory of them by zip code.

The Washington, D.C., and New York City marches are expected to be the largest. The D.C. march begins at 11 a.m. at the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. In New York, a pre-march rally will take place at Central Park West and 61st/62nd Streets at 11:30 a.m., with the march following at 12:30 p.m. from Central Park West and 72nd Street. More information is on the event’s Facebook page.

Following the anniversary events, the founders of the Women’s March will start a national tour of 10 swing states to motivate citizens into political action. They’ll partner with local progressive groups in each place to host town halls, candidate trainings, rallies and voter registration events ahead of the next wave of elections.

The march now has state coordinators across 35 states, as well as 5,500 local groups called “huddles” across all 50 states with the goal of keeping the momentum of resistance going year-round.

“The whole point of the women’s march is for women to take agency over their own lives,” Bland said. “We are the leaders we’ve been waiting for. Now’s the time to step up.”

2 Comments
  • Laurie Lundquist
    Posted at 16:45h, 18 January

    Lets rock Colorado ave with pink signs and hats! Saturday 10 AM !

    • admin
      Posted at 18:51h, 02 February

      Laurie, sorry I missed this when it was pertinent.