You ever just stop and think about how the president doesn't read? Pretty cool stuff, not ever being at all curious enough about a subject or a story to pick up a damn book. Just one book man, holy moly. Anyway, just in case you needed an extra boost to get yourself out the door and over to a rally or meeting this week, think about that.
Citywide Planning Meeting for May Day at Union Square
April Fool's Day will be here before you know it, and that means that May Day is just around the corner as well. This year, with a right wing Leninist in the White House trying to burn the down the state, it seems especially important for the left to make some noise on International Worker's Day. So, bring your ideas about how to build solidarity to the Solidarity Center, and help make this upcoming May Day one to remember.
FREE, Monday, March 20, 6 p.m., Solidarity Center, 147 W 24th Street, 2nd Floor
Don't Release IDNYC Data
The lawsuit stopping the city from destroying records of who has an NYCID is still being heard in court, and there's some obvious concern among immigration activists that if the data isn't destroyed that it will put undocumented immigrants in the city in harm's way. So, Council member Richie Torres and the Muslim and Immigrant Coalition for Justice are holding a rally on the steps of City Hall in which they invite people to come speak out against the idea of releasing the data to any government agency that asks for it.
FREE, Tuesday, March 21, 11:30 a.m., City Hall
Medicaid Block Grants Kill
Congressional Republicans don't want to touch the idea of totally destroying Medicaid, which is good. On the other hand, they have no problem in turning the program into a block grant, which would limit what states can spend on the program, which in turn pressures state governments to enact the tough cuts that reduced funding for the program would entail. Get out and say no to this idea at a rally put together by Rise and Resist, in which they speak out against the idea and educate people on what block grants could mean for health insurance for the poor. (The organizers of the rally, Rise and Resist, will also hold a general meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m.)
FREE, Tuesday, March 21, noon, Federal Plaza
2HAW: Self Care Workshop : This is a Marathon, Not a Sprint
You have to take care of yourself out there while you're fighting the good fight, since a cranky, exhausted activist is no help to anyone. So, take a couple hours to sit down and learn how to plan ways to balance your activist life with seeing your friends and maintaining relationships and staying emotionally healthy.
FREE, Tuesday, March 21, 5 p.m., Hunter College, 205 Hudson Street, 2nd Floor
Cocktails with a Conscience: Feminism in America
Sometimes it might feel like there's a lot of protest and action, but not a lot of tangible victory. So here's a chance to hear from Jerin Arifa, who won a victory when she helped create CUNY's sexual assault policy, and who works with young feminists as the founder and chair of NOW's first virtual chapter, Young Feminists and Allies. Learn from Arifa, meet some people who you can work with, and oh yeah, have some cocktails, because why should Tuesday be alcohol-free?
FREE, Tuesday, March 21, 7 p.m., Repair the World NYC, 808 Nostrand Avenue
Reproductive Health Rights and Justice
Cuts to Medicaid, Planned Parenthood and the possibility of eliminating certain coverage requirements regarding contraception and pre-natal care are just some of the fun ways that women's health is under assault at the moment. Get the whole story at this panel discussion featuring experts in women's health and reproductive justice, and learn the many ways that switching over to "Medicare for All" can help women, so that you can then tell your skeptical or lazy friends about how important the idea is.
FREE, Tuesday, March 21, 7:30 p.m., 10 Union Square East
Lunch At Cuomo's—Rally for Reproductive Rights
Andrew Cuomo needs your votes if he's going to become governor again, or if he runs for president which he almost definitely is doing. Don't forget to remind him to earn those votes, this time at yet another lunchtime rally outside his office calling for the passage of the Reproductive Health Act, which would enshrine Roe v. Wade in New York State law.
FREE, Wednesday, March 22, noon, 633 3rd Ave
Indivisible Nation BK
You've been giving it to Chuck Schumer for the last couple of months, and it turns out that all that yelling is having some results. Not only will this meeting of Indivisible Nation give you an update on what the group has been up to and give you some opportunities to get involved in their work on the city, state and federal level, but Martin Brenan, Chuck Schumer's Digital Director, will be on hand to give everyone some tips on how to keep effectively fighting the Trump agenda.
FREE, Wednesday, March 22, 6:30 p.m., Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, 53 Prospect Park West
Action Working Group Meeting
Standing Up for Racial Justice, a group of white people confronting structures that uphold white supremacy, will be having their monthly meeting tonight, during which you can learn all about power mapping and how to transform your desire for an inclusive society into some coherent strategies to get it there. That seems pretty useful.
FREE, Wednesday, March 22, 6:30 p.m., Project Reach, 39 Eldridge Street
Citizens' Climate Lobby Brooklyn Meeting
A cool thing about living on one of the three islands that make up four of the five boroughs of New York City is that on top of everything else going wrong all over the world, you live with inescapable thought that the the angry ocean is taking more and more inches from us every year. Instead of just giving up and walking into the sea though, you should join up with the Citizens Climate Lobby in order to help push for politicians to take some positive steps on curbing climate change on both the state and local level.
FREE, Wednesday, March 22, 6:30 p.m., Friends and Lovers, 641 Classon Avenue
Concert for Immigration Rights
Even if Donald Trump gave an address tomorrow where he sat in front of another late 90s computer game FMV background and said "Folks, being president sucks and I'm done with it," anti-immigrant attitudes in the country wouldn't go away. So help the New York Immigration Coalition build a fairer society for immigrants by checking out this benefit concert that will feature folk music in Spanish, a fusion of Eastern European folk and Western classical music and afrobeat, among other performances.
$25, Wednesday, March 22, 7 p.m., (le) poisson rouge, 158 Bleecker Street
SDNYC Meeting on Immigration
Being in a queer person in the Trump/Pence era won't be easy. Being an immigrant in the Trump/Pence era won't be easy either. Being a queer immigrant will be even more difficult, so it's a good thing that the Stonewall Democrats are going to host a discussion with Council member Carlos Menchaca, Luis Mancheno, an Immigration and LGBT attorney who helped free five people at JFK, and other speakers who'll be able to explain the needs of LGBTQ immigrants and how you can help them.
FREE, Wednesday, March 22, 8 p.m., LGBT Center, 208 West 13th Street
Resist Trump! Volunteer Meeting
Trump and the environment go together like oil (spills) and water. Since you won't be able to count on the government to make sure that the water is clean, check out tonight's meeting that will go over how you can get involved with Food and Water Watch's campaigns to oppose environmental regulation rollbacks on a federal level, and keep up the pressure on Andrew Cuomo to move New York towards renewable energy on a state level.
FREE, Thursday, March 23, 6 p.m., New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th Street
Pipeline Politics
What will environmental policy look like under a Trump administration, besides a big blinking red sign that says "DOOM"? Get the lowdown at this first edition of Signal vs. Noise, what will be a monthly series looking at the fate of the environment under President Trump. Tonight's inaugural panel will feature three experts in law, policy and the environment going over what it means that the Trump administration is backing both the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines.
FREE, Friday, March 24, 4:30 p.m., NYU Silver Center, 31 Washington Place, Room 207
S.A.D. Party 2017: Drink. Dance. Resist.
Dance for a good cause at this annual party to shake off the winter SADs, which will be a rockin' good time along with a funky way to give money to Planned Parenthood, who will use that money to stay open, be good to women and be a thorn in the side of right wing extremists who have no respect for women making their own decisions about their bodies.
$40, Friday, March 24, 9 pm., The Bell House, 149 7th Street
People for Free Press - Rally and March
If you ask me (and frankly not enough people do), everyone should buy America's reporters drinks at every opportunity. That could just be my bias talking though, I don't know. On the other hand, a whole bunch of New Yorkers are coming out to march from Bryant Park to the New York Times building in support of the institution of the free press this weekend and against "against a constant barrage of outright lies, propaganda, and slander" directed at any media person who doubts the president. It's not free drinks, but it's good nonetheless.
FREE, Saturday, March 25, noon, Bryant Park
March Against Bathroom Bills
As this weekend's attack on a pair of transgender women showed, trans individuals need our support. One way to show it is to come out to this march against bills requiring that trans people use the bathroom corresponding to the gender on their birth certificates. Maybe one day you won't have to take to the streets just to stand for the rights of people to take a piss in peace, but today is clearly not that day.
FREE, Saturday, March 25, 10 a.m., Stonewall Inn, 63 Christopher Street
Before The Wall: A Benefit to Support Immigrant Communities
If you can't make it to Wednesday's concert supporting immigrants, you've got a second chance here. This show at Littlefield will feature Afrobeat, Moroccan gnawa music and jazz, with proceeds going to benefit Community Voices Heard, a "multi-racial organization, principally women of color and low-income families in New York State that builds power to secure social, economic and racial justice for all" and the Arab American Association of NYC.
$12 - $50, Saturday, March 25, 7 p.m., Littlefield, 622 Degraw Street
