NYC Women's March 2018
photo by Stephanie Augello

Yoko Ono, Neil Young, Best Coast & more participated in Women's Marches (pics)

The one year anniversary of 2017’s worldwide Women’s Marches found people taking to the street again all weekend (1/20-1/21). We posted pictures from the 2018 Women’s March in NYC and Chicago, both of which brought out thousands of marchers. Above, find a second set of pictures from NYC.

While many marched this weekend, this year’s Women’s March main event moved from Washington D.C. to Las Vegas, NV, where the Women’s March Anniversary: Power to the Polls rally was held. Speakers included Cher and Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, as The Washington Post reports:

Singer and actress Cher is urging thousands of people at a Las Vegas women’s march and rally to make themselves heard at the polls.

The music icon showed up to take to the podium and remind the crowd that if they don’t vote, they don’t have a voice.

She says the current administration represents “one of the worst times in our history” and that “women are going to be the ones that fix it.”

The gathering in Las Vegas marks the launching of an effort to recruit 1 million voters and impact swing states such as Nevada in this year’s midterm elections, which could shift control of Congress.

Along with Cher, and like last year, plenty of musicians participated in the Women’s March in 2018. Musicians we know that participated (or at least showed support on social media) include Yoko Ono, Neil Young, Best Coast, Haim, Lana Del Rey, St Vincent, Torres, The Blow, Eleanor Friedberger, Kaki King, Amber Coffman, Adele, and Mark Quinlan of Hop Along. Comedian Aparna Nancherla was an NYC co-host, where Halsey delivered a powerful, moving poem. Check out pictures, and watch Halsey deliver her poem, below.

Natalie Portman, Viola Davis, and Scarlett Johansson were among the celebrities who spoke at the Los Angeles Women’s March. Natalie Portman spoke about experiencing “sexual terrorism” at the age of 13, while Scarlett Johansson called out James Franco for wearing a Time’s Up pin while allegedly “privately preying on people who have no power.” “I want my pin back, by the way,” she then added.

Viola Davis spoke about Jim Crow laws and the the #MeToo movement, quoted Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X, and shared statistics about sexual assault, as well as a little of her own experience. “Listen,” she said, “I am always introduced as an award-winning actor. But my testimony is one of poverty. My testimony is one of being sexually assaulted and very much seeing a childhood that was robbed from me. And I know that every single day, when I think of that, I know that the trauma of those events are still with me today. And that’s what drives me to the voting booth. That’s what allows me to listen to the women who are still in silence. That’s what allows me to even be a citizen on this planet.” Watch Viola’s powerful speech in full below.

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photos by Stephanie Augello