The Fresno Womxn’s Rally was an event on March 7, that gathered people together to celebrateWomxn’s History month. Along with other womxn sharing a space at the Fresno Courthouse Park sharing stories, participating in activities while also listening to poetry, music, and watching performances. Lastly marching down to the ICE detention center down the street chanting for Womxn’s and Immigrant rights.

 The orgs that were present were focused on helping the community, supporting queer and trans folk, supporting womxn’s rights and reproductive health, and actively rallying and protesting against ICE.

During the event, the activities that took place were story time hour where folks gathered around the “Anna Woodward Memorial Fountain” and sat on blankets along with their children to hear story time from a drag queen, “Morriganna.” Later on into the event, people were encouraged to join in a traditional dance where everyone held hands and danced around the memorial fountain. On the side lines, there was a face painting station for kids to get their face painted by organizers working the booth.

Womxn’s History month takes place during March because according to Britannica, “By the 1970s American feminist groups extended the now-mainstream International Women’s Day to Women’s History Week, an effort to amplify women’s history in schools. In 1975 the United Nations moved to formally sponsor an annual celebration of International Women’s Day. The force behind the movement made itself irresistible, and, as more and more groups began celebrating the full week—as well as lobbying for it to be nationally recognized—President Jimmy Carter designated the first National Women’s History Week, the week including March 8, in 1980.”

The reason they use “Womxn” instead of “Woman” is because it is used as a gender neutral term to include other genders. Not to say that everyone uses this term for woman/ gender neutral folk, since there are trans and non-binary people who feel that this term is limiting for their gender identity and would rather not be put under a category of “woman.”

These speeches were about Womxn sharing their stories on not being listened to or helped when it came to reproductive health, SA/ R*pe, and not being taken seriously due to their gender. These speeches were to empower and encourage others to fight for their rights and to speak up and hopefully get the community to work and help one another to make a change.

The March was about understanding the struggle, exploitation, and hierarchy in the patriarchy we live in and how it affects womxn everyday, especially those who are being detained and sent to the ICE detention Facility in Fresno.

“It was the Womxn around me, who reminded me that there is still life. That there is still love and that there is still hope. For me, for you, for us.” – Elvia Olea, A Nuu Savi Woman

My experience at the Womxn’s Rally was pretty positive. The vibe was very welcoming and calm, along with it being lively. Everyone was walking around talking to each other and going up to booths that were stationed there and talking to different organizers. Everyone was friendly and I met and talked to some wonderful people who just happened to be there or were part of the organizations there. The stories I heard being shared did touch my heart along with feeling angry for them as well when hearing that little to no justice was done when these tragic events happened to them. During the march down to the detention center, I felt that we were all in this together. We all chanted, we all wanted justice, we wanted change, we wanted nothing more than to be listened to and taken seriously. We were all in this together as a community.