Earlier that same day, Josh Fox who created the film GASLAND that featured Scott Stringer, took part. In the film, and members from 350.org were calling on to divest in fracking and the DAPL pipeline outside 1 Centre Street. “I watch the books and I watch the money in the city and I can tell you in this day and age, men make more than women although, women work harder than men. We know that women continue to be exploited in so many ways in this country”. “And what this generation must be feeling like knowing that the Republicans and Donald Trump are going to roll back the health and reproductive rights of women if we don’t stop him”.

Valarie Kaur is a seasoned activist, civil rights lawyer, award-winning filmmaker, media commentator, educator, entrepreneur, and Sikh interfaith leader. Her new venture, the Revolutionary Love Project at the University of Southern California, champions the ethic of love in an era of rage. Latest at @valariekaur.

Kaur (pronounced “Core”) has made award-winning films and led national campaigns on civil rights for 15 years. Her activism focuses on hate crimes, racism and profiling, gun violence, immigration, solitary confinement, LGBTQI equality, and Internet freedom. She is the founder of Groundswell Movement, America’s largest multifaith online organizing community of 300,000+ known for “dynamically strengthening faith-based organizing in the 21st century.” She also founded the Yale Visual Law Project where she trained students at Yale Law School to make films that change policy. Kaur recently served as the Media and Justice Fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, where she co-founded Faithful Internet to equip faith leaders in the fight for Internet freedom. Now as the Scholar-in-Residence at Middle Collegiate Church and Senior Fellow at Auburn Theological Seminary, she speakers on #RevolutionaryLove as a public ethic — a political and moral response to injustice and wellspring for social action.

Make Valentine’s Day a Day of Revolutionary Love and Resistance

Join Artists, Activist in Washington Square Park for an “ARTISTIC UPRISING – A CALL FOR REVOLUTIONARY LOVE”

JOIN: Ryan Amador, Donna Auston, BETTY, Great Caesar, Staceyann Chin, Kate Clinton, Julissa Contreras, Michael Cunningham, Lea DeLaria, Eve Ensler, Laura Flanders, Dan Fogler, Alixa Garcia of Climbing PoeTree, Suzanne Gardinier, Valarie Kaur, James Lecesne, Amy León, Dana Levinson, Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, Middle Collegiate Church, Ian Pai, Ally Sheedy, Casey Spooner, Elizabeth Streb, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Imani Uzuri, Kiah Victoria, Women’s March, and more to be announced.

This Tuesday, February 14, women and men throughout the US and in 200 countries worldwide came together for the RISE to end violence against all women and girls (cis, transgender and gender non-conforming) as part of V-Day’s massive annual One Billion Rising campaign, including this just-announced rally – “Artistic Uprising – A Call for Revolutionary Love” – to take place in Washington Square Park. The rally will feature performances and speeches by artists and activists.

The event is being called in a response to the current racist, misogynist, xenophobic political climate where the rights of women, refugees, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQIAGNC people, African Americans, the indigenous, and the poor are at serious risk.

The rally will be a collective experience. Audience members will be invited on stage to rant as part of the Where We Meet artist collective, called the Ranting Box.

WHAT: ARTISTIC UPRISING – A CALL FOR REVOLUTIONARY LOVE
WHERE: Washington Square Arch. North side of Washington Square Park at Fifth Avenue
WHEN: 6:00-9:00PM

This high-profile group will gather, resist, RISE, and dance, connecting directly to the global One Billion Rising campaign, which will be happening in full force across the planet, broadcast en masse across all social media channels. What happens in NYC will be broadcast immediately throughout the world via Facebook Live, Twitter, Instagram, and more, joining the hundreds of thousands of ONE BILLION RISING activists harnessing radical forms of artistic, creative and political resistance through rallies, protests and events. The actions will connect individuals, networks, and organizations that are organizing to hold our governments and other patriarchal institutions accountable.

One Billion Rising Activists declared February 14th a “Day of Revolutionary Love, Day of RISING,” putting out a call for solidarity amongst movements:

“We declare our love for all who are in harm’s way, including refugees, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQIAGNC people, Black people, the indigenous, the poor, and women and girls at risk of violence. We vow to see you as our brothers and sisters and fight by your side…We join forces and stand together with the millions of people across the planet who are rising to end violence against and girls and resist racist patriarchy. To protect women who are most often the most vulnerable within marginalized communities. We take part in it to honor our mothers whose bodies and beings and blood carved the path we are walking on. We are rising – we are dancing – to find the new language of these times – built on a deeper education, radical listening, humility and empathy.”

Activists will RISE against the neo fascist, racist patriarchy taking hold in governments throughout the world, against bigotry, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, anti-immigration, nativism, white nationalism, climate change denial, imperialist and capitalist aggressions, misogyny and hate. From Standing Rock to financial deregulation to the “Muslim Ban”, activists will demand the new regime’s agenda be dismantled. A particular focus will be on women’s rights. With a “Predator in Chief” at the helm of the White House that is fueled by rape culture, a war on women is being waged.

Let us RISE
against neo-fascism, racist patriarchy, misogyny and sexism.
Rise against rape culture and all those who escalate and normalize it.
Rise against racism, discrimination and inequality.
Rise against neoliberal policies that place profit over people.
Rise against environmental plunder and Rise to protect Indigenous people, land and water.
Rise against homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, exclusion and hate.
Rise against imperialist wars, occupation, internal and international displacement and militarization.
Rise for food, land and justice.

Rise against fear mongering and division.
Rise against international capitalist and imperialist systems that perpetuate poverty.
Rise against the corporations and the rich making more profit off the backs of people’s suffering.
Rise against economic, labor and sexual exploitation.
Rise against human and sex trafficking.
Rise against the violence of poverty, exploitation and marginalization.
Rise for freedom, dignity, equality and respect.

How to Rise?

We need TO DISRUPT with active and radical defiance!

Disrupt in order to INCITE, MOBILIZE, AROUSE, AWAKEN, and INSPIRE.
Disrupt in order to shake the present global structure characterized by patriarchy and capitalist greed.
Disrupt to show how strong a creative “people power” force can be.
Disrupt to keep radicalizing our creative resistance.

We need to CONNECT and expand our political consciousness.
Connect by educating ourselves on all issues.
Connect by uniting in all our struggles and fighting for ALL rights.
Connect by hearing and listening and learning.
Connect by deepening our understanding of issues within the context of race and class analysis.
Connect by joining organizations and mass actions.
Connect by organizing our communities.

COME TOGETHER.
HOLD YOUR GOVERNMENTS and other exploitative patriarchal institutions ACCOUNTABLE.
And RESIST.
Resist with Rage.
Resist with fierce hope.

Resist with unwavering insistence on a future where freedom, equality and dignity is possible.
Resist with collective defiance.
Resist all together. With and For each other.

Rise In Solidarity!
Rise For Revolution! JOIN ONE BILLION RISING 2017

For more info see here.