January 18, 2017, is a day to Teach, Organize, Resist.
Poised between Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the presidential inauguration, #J18 is an opportunity to affirm the role of critical thinking and knowledge in challenging Trumpism. #J18 is meant to be a day of actions, ideas, dreams, dialogues, performances, and alliances created by many in a multitude of spaces and places. We invite educators, students, and community partners to plan programs and activities on that day and to share information via the #J18 website. We will together build a platform that connects education and protest across the United States and links these to actions of solidarity in other parts of the world.
On that day, we intend to teach about the agendas and policies of the new administration, be it the proposed dismantling of economic and environmental regulations or the threatened rollback of the hard-won rights that form the fragile scaffolding of American democracy. On that day, we intend to organize against the proposed expansion of state violence targeting people of color, undocumented people, queer communities, women, Muslims, and many others. On that day, we intend to resist the institutionalization of ideologies of separation and subordination, including white supremacy, misogyny, homophobia, Islamophobia, and virulent nationalism.
Confirmed speakers and performers include:
Patrisse Cullors, Co-Founder of #BLACKLIVESMATTER, Founder & Board Member of Dignity and Power Now, UCLA Alumna
Jeff Chang, author of We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation and Executive Director, the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, Stanford University
Erika L. Sánchez, author of poetry collection Lessons on Expulsion and the novel I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
Peter Sellars, theater, festival, and opera director and professor at UCLA
Ilse Escobar, migrant, muxer, and activist born in Mexico and organizer in Los Angeles
Bryonn Bain, artist/activist, prison abolitionist professor developing UCLA’s prison education program, creator of Lyrics From Lockdown
Maya Jupiter, hip-hop artist, songwriter, co-founder of Artivist Entertainment
Share your #J18 activity here: #J18 Event Registration
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