Women’s March WNY 2022

All members of the WNY community are invited for solidarity, healing, inspiration, and shared learning and perspectives. This event is organized/presented by the WNY Peace Center and hosted by Riverside Salem UCC/DC.

The community will meet at Lafayette Avenue & Niagara Street at 12:45 PM, then at 1 PM march together to Broderick Park (foot of Ferry) for the event. We will have a family area, guest speakers and performers, and a comfortable environment for all to stand in solidarity.

Parking: There will be some lot and street parking available around the meeting point. If you plan to park at Broderick Park, please do so by 12:30 PM as it will be closed off to vehicles after that for the event.

If you are able, please wear a shade of blue to the event; a color that represents peace and healing, as well as connects us to the mission of the Afghan Peace Volunteers: “a human family to live without wars, to share our resources and to take care of our earth under the same blue sky.”

Program

Opening Ceremonies

• Welcome: Deidra EmEl, WNYPC Executive Director
• Gnonyoh: Jill Yagwoneest Clause, Tuscarora
• Land Acknowledgement: Sarah Kirschner, WNYPC MSW Intern
• Underground Railroad Acknowledgement: Ras Jomo

Speakers & Performances (Please check in with a WNYPC Volunteer.)

• Talia Rodriguez, J.D., WNYPC Gender Justice Task Force Chair, WNYPC Board Member, WM Planning Committee
• Valerie Malia, Senior Legislative Assistant, Office of Councilman David Rivera
• Leslie Logan, Seneca Mothers of the Nation
• Angel Krempa, Starbucks Workers United
• Gamileh Jamil, Yemeni-American
• Dayatra Hassan, Open Buffalo Emerging Leader 2017, Ujima Theatre
• Kareema Morris, Bury the Violence, former WNYPC Board Member, WM Planning Committee
• Gail Wells, Freedom Gardens
• Lukia Costello, Ukranian-American
• Dawn Wells-Clyburn, PUSH Buffalo
• Vonetta (Halima) Rhodes: poetry performance
• Betty Jean Grant, former Erie County Legislator, former WNYPC Board Member
• Diana Lynne Patton, We Exist Coalition
• Kim Smith, VOCAL Legislative Director (and first woman councilperson in Rochester)
• Shaina Merchant: Tae Kwon Do performance
• Shyana Broughton, Doula, Our Mommie Village
• Cariol Horne, Cariol’s Law
• Rev. Denise Glenn, VOICE Buffalo director
• Vicki Ross, WNYPC Board Co-Chair, WNYPC Community Coordinator

Special thanks to Ras Muata, DJ and sound system!

Closing

• Remarks: Deidra EmEl, WNYPC Executive Director
• Strong Woman Song & Healing Ceremony at the water: Jill Yagwoneest Clause, Tuscarora

Stop by our Welcome table to become a WNYPC Member ($20 minimum) and receive your Peace Pin for Social Justice made by Stitch Buffalo artisans as a special membership gift to wear in solidarity at the March! (If you donate online or by mail, please email office@wnypeace.org to arrange pickup of your pin!)

If your organization or business would like to support (i.e., affirms our principles and goals, and will publicize) the event, please complete our supporter interest form at https://forms.gle/wEsTYu5x2ysD59Ln9.

• 2022 co-sponsors (organizations) currently include: Bury the Violence, Citizen Action of WNY, Coalition for Economic Justice (CEJ Buffalo), Confident Girl Mentoring Program, Healthcare Education Project, Indigenous Women’s Initiatives, Latinaherstory, Nekanęhsakt: Friends of Ękwehęwę, Partnership for the Public Good, Spark Filmmakers Collaborative, Stitch Buffalo, Vocal of WNY, VOICE Buffalo, We are Women Warriors, We Exist Coalition, Western New York Drilling Defense.
• 2022 friends (businesses/ faith-based institutions/ public servants/ political campaigns/ etc.) currently include: Buffalo Teachers Federation, Cabrera for Public Schools, Hector the Photographer, BPS West District Board of Education Member Jennifer Mecozzi, Justice & Witness Team of Pilgrim St. Luke’s United Church of Christ Councilman David Rivera’s Office (Niagara District), Union of Black Episcopalians, Young Democratic Socialists of America at UB.

If you are interested in being a volunteer at the event, please complete our volunteer interest form at https://forms.gle/qZV98GKz3i8KVktr9.

Please share our 2022 Women’s March flyers!

Questions? Call the office at 716-332-3904, text our Google Voice at ‪(716) 253-1486‬, or email womensmarch@wnypeace.org.

Mission: The Women’s March of Buffalo/WNY, opposed to all forms of oppression, seeks to increase equity and equality for women and all oppressed people by ensuring structural and systemic changes in our local government, local businesses and organizations, and within society at large in order to guarantee a women’s right to health, safety and freedom from violence. We seek this regardless of racial, economic, or citizenship status; and value the dignity and humanity of women of color, women with disabilities, and LGBT/queer and gender non-conforming people, and everyone’s equal place in the movement and in society.

Talking Peace taping: Childcare Now!

With Vonetta Rhodes, WNY Childcare Action Team Leadership Representative, and mom; Maureen Milligan, Research Administrator at UB, Co-Chair of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee of her union (United University Professions); Deidra EmEl, WNYPC Executive Director, and mom; and Vicki Ross, WNYPC Community Coordinator.

Discussion:

• Values we bring
• What are childcare needs?
• What’s happening with current childcare legislation?
• What needs does it fill (and how)? What needs doesn’t it fill?
• How can we support quality childcare? (e.g., union organizing at UB)
• Ways people can get involved, and help promote the childcare we need

Webinar: Global Solidarity with Women & Gender-Oppressed Workers

The Women and Oppressed Gender Caucus of Workers World Party is proud to host the “Global Solidarity with Women and Gender Oppressed Workers” webinar.

The panel, discussing struggles and how they relate to an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist perspective, will include:

• Norma Pérez from A Call to Action on Puerto Rico and a former teacher
• Kisha James, a leader of the United American Indians of New England and a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag/Oglala Lakota tribal nations
• Marie Kelly, a registered nurse and an at-large member of National Nurses United

This webinar is dedicated to women workers who are organizing everywhere from India to Haiti to right here in the belly of the beast, the U.S., like the Memphis 7, mainly Black and Brown women workers fired for attempting to organize a Starbucks union at their work place in Tennessee.

Join us for this exciting discussion where you can also bring your questions. The panel will be co-facilitated by mYia X, a member of the Disability Justice and Rights Caucus and Ted Kelly, a member of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer+ Caucus.