This Weekend in DC Is More Than Marches

The Anti-Ball Women's March After Party and Planned Parenthood Benefit will take place at the Black Cat venue in DC on January 21, for those of you looking to ease your post-inauguration woes in solidarity with a group of likeminded artists and indomitable attendees.  A night of music and protest, the anti-ball features a bevy of artists such as Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio), Kimya Dawson, Trixie Whitley, Jeffrey Lewis, Holly Miranda, Nels Cline (Wilco), Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto) and TEEN, among others.

The event was put together by organizers Deenah Vollmer (Brooklyn writer and member of The Pizza Underground), Stuart Bogie (Superhuman Happiness, pictured above), Amanda, and Ali Philippides with help from a network of friends and musicians along the way.

"After the election, I knew Trump wouldn't get any musicians for inauguration," explains Amanda. "I thought it would be great to not only see musicians sitting out, but standing up in resistance. And so Stuart and I started poking around to see what people were doing and how we could help. After the election, we had also formed a small organizing group with some friends—we call it the Think Tank—to take specific actions and to help out on other group's actions, so once we started organizing this, everyone jumped on board. Someone is coordinating merchandise, a friend of mine made granola bars for the trip, another friend wrote up the press release, a lot of people donated their time."

Bogie, acting as musical director of the event, will be performing with his band Superhuman Happiness as well as the house band, featuring members of Antibalas. The curation of the lineup, he said, was a group effort, and the decision to turn the event into a benefit for Planned Parenthood was a no-brainer.

"Planned Parenthood is one of the institutions that is in greatest danger of being destroyed, and they work for women's health," said Bogie. "It's an institution we could all get behind and one that related to the march. We wanted to perform for the demonstrators, to offer them music from our hearts after they gave their time and bodies to be there. So a sense a gratitude motivated us to make it an after-party. Also, and just importantly, most of the people performing and organizing this were headed to DC to march already, or were considering it."

In addition to their event, the Anti-Ball's organizing team also created a website called All Together Now DC to showcase all of the music and arts events happening in the U.S. capitol in support of the women's march and in resistance to the inauguration.

"I want to inspire people to take action," said Amanda. "This one Stuart, Deenah, my friend Ali and I took the initial lead on, but for the next months I will be the supporter on the actions that my friends or people in my community are taking. It was a crazy undertaking for us, but in my opinion, the more crazy undertakings people do, the better."

Bogie adds: "The event is important because people need music, and we need to share it. With the current turmoil, this fact is amplified."

See you there, or at the march, or at any one of the plethora of events happening in D.C. from today.