Ways To Resist Trump In NYC This Month
by David Colon in News on Jan 4, 2017 4:08 pm
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The fight goes on. (Photo by Adam Volerich)
Well, the last ditch Electoral College flipping effort went nowhere. So at the end of the month, Donald Trump will be sworn in as president at an inauguration that, I don’t know, RATT will play at. Take a little time to consider the idiocy of it all, but don’t forget that the actual work of resisting a Trump presidency begins now. To help you along with that, here are a few actions you can get involved with in January:
Bridges and Powerlines, The Aye-Ayes, Stereo Off Planned Parenthood/ACLU Benefit
Planned Parenthood and the ACLU will be two groups in need of your help during the coming wave of repression of both reproductive and free speech rights. Helping them out can be more fun than filling out an online donation form though, and in the first of many benefits for both organizations this month, you can listen to some good old fashioned indie pop live while also getting a nice warm feeling in your chest knowing that the proceeds from the show will be split between both groups.
$8/$10, 8 p.m., January 6th, Union Hall, 702 Union Street
Bystander Intervention/De-escalation Workshop
Did you miss last month’s class on what to do if you see someone getting harassed on the street? Lucky you, here’s a second chance to learn from the same organizer, Rachel S Blum Levy. Like last month, you can learn the four D’s of intervention: direct, distract, delay, and delegate, so that you can help out your fellow New Yorker without having the situation devolve into violence and chaos. Just make sure you RSVP, people are real interested in this for some reason.
FREE, 6 p.m., January 7th, SOHO20 Gallery, 56 Bogart Street
Day Against Denial
Denial…it’s not just a river in Egypt! It’s also a shortsighted worldview that puts profits ahead of human survival as people say “Well if it’s snowing I sure can use some of that global warming” as if it’s funny or original. Climate justice organization 350 is sponsoring rallies against Trump’s Cabinet picks who are friendly to Big Oil, like Rex Tillerson and Rick Perry. Here in NYC you can either join up with crowds putting pressure on Chuck Schumer in front of his Park Slope home, or get slightly less personal by rallying outside of the Manhattan office he shares with fellow New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Either way, the message will be the same: keep climate change skeptics and deniers out of the decision-making process.
FREE, 12:30 p.m. (Manhattan rally) or 7 p.m. (Brooklyn rally), January 9th
ResistTrumpTuesdays: Senator Schumer: Resist Trump
If you can’t make it out to the rallies against Trump’s Cabinet picks on Monday, there’s also one on Tuesday. This march, from Grand Army Plaza down past Schumer’s home, will be less focused specifically on people like Rex Tillerson and more focused on a general message of telling Schumer to keep that spine he seems to have found.
FREE, 6 p.m., January 10th, Grand Army Plaza
Decolonize the Resistance
On the other hand, maybe you aren’t a huge Chuck Schumer fan and instead of rallying on his turf to let him know you want him to stand strong against Trump, you just want to tell him to get out of the way and let more marginalized people take the lead. In that case, there’s this other march that’s also going from Grand Army Plaza to Schumer’s home that’s happening in order to let Schumer, and the people putting their faith in him, know that it isn’t just Trump and Schumer who are the problem but that “white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, and imperialism are the problem.”
FREE, 6 p.m., January 10th, Grand Army Plaza
NASTY WOMEN Exhibition
Put the claim that a Trump administration will mean there’s some great art to the test at this four day art exhibition featuring “artists who identify with being a Nasty Woman in the face of recent and ongoing threats to women’s rights.” Self-identifying nasty women are invited to submit artwork to the show to be sold for $100 or less, with all the proceeds going towards Planned Parenthood. While the exhibition will be free during the day, Friday and Saturday nights will feature concerts that benefit the Callen-Lorde Community Heath Center and the New York Immigration Coalition on Friday and Girls for Gender Equity and SisterSong on Saturday.
January 12th – January 15th, Knockdown Center, 52-19 Flushing Avenuenockdown Center, 52-19 Flushing Avenue
