Filed under: St Paul
The People’s March ended an hour ago. I’m just getting the feeling back in my toes, but my heart is full. The march was hosted by Women’s March Minnesota. We started talking about an event immediately after the election in 2024. We started planning a march in earnest about 10 days later. So that’s two months to play a huge event, with no budget on what could be the coldest day of the year.
Thankfully people stepped up. Really awesome people showed up and brought their skills and enthusiasm. We needed it. The trials and tribulations of planning an event like this deserve an instructive post all its own and hopefully we will do one but for now I’ll just say – freedom of speech takes a lot of time, talent and money – especially if you want to be heard.
It was a cold day, but people still showed up – we’re estimating 4-5,000. In spirit of full disclosure, I suggested we do the event inside once I heard the temperature was forecast to be 5 degrees (-11 windchill). Luckily, I lost that vote. Not that it wasn’t cold, the forecast was 100 percent right – but it was worth it. We marched from St Paul College to the St Paul Capitol, led by native dancers from Kalpulli KetzalCoatlicue and Kalpulli Mictlan Tonatiuh. I livestreamed most of the event, so I got a front row seat. The vision of the dancers heading down John Ireland Blvd was priceless.
When we reached Capitol, I was honored and terrified to give a quick welcome. The speeches were inspiring. It was a terrific lineup. My only sadness was that my phone just froze up after 90 minutes in the cold. We had a charging break in the Capitol for 15 minutes and were able to continue. Much as I needed the warmup, I was sad to miss things. (Also big thanks to Mary Magnuson for her help!)
Here are the speakers:
- Emcee Miss Shannan
- Abortion Access Front Chief Creative Officer Lizz Winstead
- Gender Justice Speaker Megan Peterson
- Youth and Transgender Rights Activist, Jayce Wepplo
- Carolina Ortiz from COPAL/ Immigrant Defense Network and Sarah Silva from North STAR Alliance
- Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Speaker Senator Mary Kunesh
- ACLU Speaker Alicia Granse
- Intergenerational Partnerships & Uplifting Youth Speaker Quincy Powe
- Environmental Justice Speaker Gina Peltier
- Infertility and Healthcare Cuts Miraya Gran
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We ended the day livestreaming a chat with the partners inside. It was a fantastic way to get to learn about what people are doing and hear about how we could help. I won’t detail every conversation – you can watch them in the third video on the playlist below, or you can check out an even more complete list of actions and events where you can follow up on the Women’s March MN website. I encourage you to check it out. I am going to try to make it to a bunch of the special days at the legislature to livestream for Women’s March. You should pick an action too – maybe I’ll see you soon at the Capitol.
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