Reflections from the LA Women’s March

Savannah’s Reflection:

Friday January 20th and frankly the night before, were not good days for me. I felt numb, depressed, and angered as the days’ headlines rolled along. I tried to get to bed early since I knew I would be marching the next morning, but my sleep was spotty and I couldn’t shut off the terror in my mind.

The Los Angeles Women’s March was the first time in long time I have not only felt at peace of mind, but physically felt myself become a beacon of hope. A solid team of WOW members met up near work to travel downtown to the start of the march so that we could protest as a team. We quickly discovered that all the trains were overpacked, so we all hopped into separate ubers to reconvene.

As we arrived in downtown we met up at the historic Walt Disney Concert Hall to buddy up and venture into the feminine abyss. The march simply put, was an amazing historical event that I will never forget. I’m a lesbian who went to an all-girl Catholic high school, so being around lots of women isn’t new to me, but this march felt different. I kept exclaiming to my friend, “I’ve never been surrounded by so many women before”, and while that may not be succinct statement, what I really was trying to say, was that I had never been in a safe space where I had been around so many DIVERSE and DIFFERENT women.

Women from all wakes of life marched around me as I began to feel the most secure and encouraged then I have in a long time. With LA’s sister march being the most colossal, I felt a sense of pride and privilege. This march reminded me that one, I am very lucky to be living in an area with so many like-minded people who understand the implications of this election. The second realization, was that LA lives in a bubble. While there were 750,000 people marching for Women’s rights in LA that enormous number was not replicated in Middle America, and that’s something we all need to be aware of.

If 750,000 people can march in solidarity for a honorable cause, there’s no doubt in my mind that we can’t use that figure of people to guide influence into areas of ignorance.

[Photos by Dominic Wendel]

Jake’s Reflections:

The combination of blasting “Formation”  on repeat from your Toyota Corolla with a Venti in one hand, and the other steering the wheel to the Women’s March is the most giddy sensation I’ve felt in a long time I’ve had since pre-2016. Part adrenaline, part sleep deprivation, there’s a lot of planning that goes into a protest: which color beret should I don? Will my cordless rechargeable phone battery last for more than two hours? How many water bottles is too many? And in the end, like life, nothing went the way I planned it (and I wouldn’t want it to have been any other way!)

I organized a large group of WOWers to meet in Hollywood and the setting felt much like in the first chapter of Harry Potter & The Sorceror’s Stone. You know, when the wizarding world is partying over the victory of Voldemort? Only instead of emerald robes in the non-wizarding world, you could spot who were magic folk by all the fabulous protest posters. We had to ditch the whole subway thing because in retrospect, the public transportation in Los Angeles isn’t equipped for three quarters of a million people going back and forth from 9AM-5PM in one day. Once we got our uber close enough, we started to see more wizards with posters and told our driver we’d walk the rest of the way.

As we waited for the official start of the march (which was lead by Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Miley Cyrus), I remember a sense of sereneness pour over me as I saw all walks of life: women of color, children, LGBTQIA, men, friends I hadn’t seen in awhile, co-workers, dogs even, with all their colorful t-shirts and beautiful posters. I just inhaled and exhaled and was reminded that the America I believe in, was submerged all around me behind my wildest dreams and expectations for the day and for my future, and it’s more comfort than I’ve felt since November Eighth.

I ran into four separate groups of friends though out the march and every stranger I encountered became a new symbol of love, compassion, and friendship because the energy and optimism radiating from them made me just want to give it back ten times as much. I saw Ricki Lake (she looks amazing) and Rumor Willis taking selfies with people in costumes. After an excruciating long wait on the train platform back (even the train conductor said he was proud of all of us) the positive vibes kept coming. My group of friends and I went to the furthest stop on the red line (North Hollywood) and every person at every restaurant, bar, and cafe had been at the March, so it was like Part Two of the resistance party where we were met from hugs, compliments, and extra margaritas from bar patrons alike.

My take away from the day is to infuse that sense of pride, understanding, and openness in my every day life and apply it to my civic duty, my responsibility to continue to create change, and rebuild my soul and remind others that they can too, after November Eighth.

[Photos by Angel Alzona]

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