On March 8, community members and families from all over Seattle take to the streets for International Women’s Day, a global day of action that brings visibility to women’s work within the home, the streets, unions, and schools by celebrating their resilience with music and art. A march and rally that begins on S. Jackson Street will end with a rally at Hing Hay Park in the International District. The march is labeled a “musical brigade,” so bring your noisemakers, musical instruments, shakers, and loud voices.
Gender justice organizations will speak out against human trafficking, sexual violence and abuse, the military and prison industrial complex, forced migration, and sexual exploitation.
Luzviminda Uzuri “Lulu” Carpenter of Green Bodies is one of the event organizers.
“We chose to not just focus on the injustice, but also name that yes, harm is being done to women every day and they are surviving and being resilient every day by creating joy for themselves and others,” Carpenter said in a statement. “We are going to bring voice to our struggles by being loud and we are going to show how resilient we are with music, song, dance, and art.”
The musical brigade, co-led by [email protected] sa Seattle and Green Bodies, was described as a vision to bring people to create a new culture of protest based on the resilience of communities of color. Event organizers are calling on the community to “gather around women-identified people and genderqueer people and center the celebration of what bodies have to endure within the material world and the oppressions they experience due to gender roles, expression, and identity.”
Speakers include Councilmember Kshama Sawant, community organizers like Annaliza Torres from Radical Women, and Precious Butiu of [email protected] sa Seattle, who will be speaking on trafficking and victims of Super-Typhoon Yolanda. Christa Bell will serve as goddess of ceremonies.
Donna Denina, GABRIELA USA Political Education officer and founding member of [email protected] sa Seattle said in a statement: “We must continue to connect struggles of women, be it violence, state repression, labor exploitation, accessibility to healthcare, to the struggle of all oppressed and marginalized people across the globe. Women’s issues are people’s issues.”
Saturday, March 8 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
11:00 a.m.: Gather at Pratt Park (1800 S Main St Seattle, WA 98122)
12:30 p.m.: March/Musical Brigade westbound on S Jackson Street
1:30 p.m.: Rally at Hing Hay Park (423 Maynard Ave S Seattle, WA 98104)