Women to reprise city march

march director Tracy Baton.

Asked to predict a crowd Sunday, Ms. Baton offered a tentative estimate of 2,500. But whatever the number of attendees, she said, the goal was to engage them in voter registration and other grassroots political advocacy. “Only by talking to friends and neighbors can we get them to vote about the issues we care about,” she said

Recently installed Bellevue Mayor Emily Marburger has seen firsthand how such an approach can succeed.

Ms. Marburger attended the centerpiece women’s march in Washington D.C. last year. “It was just a wall of people when we got off the Metro,” she said. “It was surreal: There was just this energy.

Just weeks after the march, a session in Pittsburgh drew 170 women — over twice the normal attendance. “There were a It was inspiring to see number of women who’d what more I could do to push never been to a march before,” for some positive change.” Ms. Brown said. “And

She did so by running for they were telling us that the mayor of her Ohio River march allowed them to connect town, where she beat Republican with women in their Tom Fodi by 58 to 42 communities they didn’t percent last fall. know before.”

“I did feel like I was riding Some disconnections a wave,” she said. “I had a lot were also in evidence last of moms, a lot of women year, when tensions between helping the campaign,” African-American many of whom had attended women and some march organizers the East Liberty march last nearly scuttled the year. march. Ms. Baton called it “a

Ms. Marburger is not an very complicated moment, isolated case, said Dana between people who had Brown, who heads very complicated histories Chatham’s Pennsylvania with each other.” Center for Women and Politics. Last year’s East Liberty After last year’s march, march, meanwhile, seems the center saw a spike in interest unlikely to be repeated. for its “Ready to Run” “I feel like that was a moment, training, which teaches the and I’m going to let it basics of running for office, be a moment,” said Alona Williams, one of that event’s organizers.

The East Liberty gathering foregrounded “intersectionality” — the notion that categories like race, gender and class combine to create various forms of discrimination. “When we talk about oppression, everything begins and ends with the black women,” said Ms. Williams. But the march itself, she stressed, was “a celebration more than anything. It was about channeling people’s energy into celebrating black women, black queer people.”

Ms. Williams said she wasn’t surprised there would be another march Downtown: “As long as Trump is in office, it’s going to be a thing.” But as a model for her own efforts, she pointed to a “Bey-B Shower” event last May which provided baby and other supplies to pregnant women of color. “The way activism looks to me has changed a lot,” she said.

Ms. Baton said speakers at the Downtown march will include women of color to provide a diverse range of voices. But she said the 2017 marches in Pittsburgh and across the country reflected “a fundam e n t a l culture shift. People recognized that liberal democracy is not inevitable, and said ‘ We can take ownership of our culture.’ I would attribute that at least in part to the fact that they saw tens of thousands of people on the streets.”

Ms. McGreevy, the Chatham student, hopes for the same heady atmosphere this Sunday.

“I definitely hope to see the same unity and passion, the same mix of hope and despair,” Ms. McGreevy said. “You need them both.”