Colleges promote anti-Trump Women's March. One offers free poster supplies.

Students on campuses across the country are being offered opportunities to prepare posters for next Saturday’s Women’s March events scheduled to occur in multiple cities, with one of those colleges even providing students with the supplies.

At Iowa State University, students are encouraged to stop by the union and be inspired by a playlist of Beyonce, Nina Simone, and Gloria Gaynor as they make posters with materials provided at no cost to the attendees. Students will also have the chance to pick up a feminist button or make their own for $0.50.

At the University of California, Berkeley, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive will offer an opportunity to make posters with artist Masako Miki, who is currently a solo exhibitor there. Miki has already commissioned a print to commemorate the 2019 Women’s March. Miki’s art piece continues “the tradition of collaborating with artists and activists to create political poster art using the museum’s Risograph print resource,” according to the event’s webpage.

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And, at the University of Pennsylvania, residents of  Riepe College House are invited to make posters with the Ware Women in Leadership residential program in preparation for the Philadelphia Women’s March. 

The Women’s March is an annual protest event that started on Jan. 21, 2017, the day after Donald Trump became president. The movement’s website specifically names two of its leaders, Linda Sarsour, whom critics have accused of being anti-Semitic and having a favorable view of Sharia law, and Tamika Mallory, who once referred to Louis Farrakhan as the “greatest of all time.” Mallory, who is scheduled to speak at the University of North Carolina, Asheville for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, said she disagrees with Farrakhan on his views of women, Jews, and LGBT people. 

On Monday, during an appearance on ABC’s The View, co-host Meghan McCain asked Mallory if she condemns Farrakhan’s past rhetoric. Mallory did not. 

 

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”We recognize the danger of hate rhetoric by public figures,” a Nov. 8, 2018 Women’s March Facebook post stated. “It’s important to remember that many on the right are thrilled to use any tool they can find to divide and undermine our movement....We all know the real cause of violence and oppression of our communities. This is well-documented and inspired by vile rhetoric coming from the Trump administration and from members of the Republican Party.”

The 2019 Women’s March is scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 19. Dozens of other “sister marches” are also scheduled to occur around the world. 

None of the three universities hosting the events responded to Campus Reform in time for publication. 

Follow the authors of this article on Twitter: @VSnitsarUSA and @JonStreet