Looking for progressive events in DC over Inauguration weekend?  You found them!  We will keep adding events as we hear of them, so please check back and let us know if we’ve missed any: info(at)washingtonpeacecenter.org.  Also, please check with the organizers of each individual event for updates and details – we cannot promise all this information is up-to-date.

Summary of Events (details below):

Saturday, Jan 19

  • 8:00am- 3:30 pm: Progressive Central: The Peoples’ Inauguration.  A one-day mini-conference organized by Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). 
  • 9:30 am: 2013 MLK PeaceWalk
  • 12:00 noon: Anti-Walmart Rally on MLK Day – in Baltimore at the Super Walmart
  • 4:00pm – 6:00pm: No Blank Check for Israel! – Rally and March.  Farragut Square to White House.
  • 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM: Progressive Central Party.  After-party for PDA’s mini-conference.

Sunday, Jan 20

  • 12 noon til late: A Punk-Rock Counter Inaugural Ball & Festival of Resistance:  Conference,  12pm-4pm (Free Entry), Concert: doors 6pm ($16-$20).  Catharsis reunion concert and other bands.
  • 4:00 pm: Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice hosts an interfaith service of welcome for Congressional allies.
  • 7:30 pm – 1:00 am:  Peace Ball: Voices of Hope and Resistance.  Party with Amy Goodman, Ralph Nader and more.  Tickets are $135.
  • 8:00-10:00 Statehood Countdown to the Inauguration at Busboys and Poets

Mon, Jan 21

  • Inauguration ceremony on Mall.  Ceremony in morning, parade at 2:30 pm.  http://www.inaugural.senate.gov/
  • 9:00am until 2:00pm: GMO-Free Inauguration.  March to Mall together to raise awareness about GMO and to demand that President Obama follow-up with his promise to label GMO foods.
  • 9:00 am: Arc of Justice March and Rally: multi-issue and anti-war march.
  • All day: Outreach with the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
  • 12:00 noon: UNauguration 2013: a loud, colorful demonstration of dissent with Chesapeake Earth First!
  • 6-8:00 pm: We Have Not Been Moved: Resisting Racism and Militarism in The 21st Century book event.  Reading, signing and discussion of new book in honor of MLK Day. 

All Weekend

  • Presidential Inaugural Pow Wow and Youth Gala – organized by Native Youth Alliance. 

 

 

Detailed Event Listings:

SATURDAY:

Progressive Central: The Peoples’ Inauguration
Sat, Jan 19, 2020
8:00 AM – 3:30 PM

Location:
UDC Auditorium
4200 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20008

Join leading progressives for a special one-day event in Washington, D.C.  Organized by Progressive Democrats of America (PDA).

John Nichols (The Nation magazine writer, MSNBC Contributor, Author) will moderate a series of panel discussions focused on the most critical issues of today. PDA presents Progressive Central III in partnership with The Nation Magazine, Co-Sponsored by National Nurses United (NNU) and Busboys and Poets.

$30.00 Regular Ticket, $75.00 Progressive Central and After Party Combo Ticket, $200.00 Organization Table

Click here to buy tickets and for more info. 

2013 MLK PeaceWalk
Celebrate the Life and Contributions of Dr. King.  A locally organized DC tradition with marching bands, drummers and more.  Meet at 2500 MLK Ave. S.E. at the United Black Fund across from the Anacostia Metro Station for END THE VIOLENCE RALLY:  Speakers, Chourus and Gospel Singers, Spoken Word.

10:00 a.m.: STEP-OFF and BEGIN THE OFFICIAL 6th ANNUAL MLK PEACEWALK, proceed up MLK Ave. to Shepard Park at  King and Malcom X Aves. S.E., arrive at 12:00 noon.

More info here:  http://mlkholidaydc.org/

March with Empower DC to protest school closures and the Mayor’s plan for bus parking in Crummel School.  Click here for info.

Anti-Walmart Rally on MLK Day

RECLAIM REV. DR. KING JR’S DREAM
MAKE DR. KING’S BIRTHDAY a WORKER’S & POOR PEOPLES RIGHTS DAY!
PICKET & RALLY AT WALMART

Location: Super Walmart Store, 360l Washington Blvd. Baltimore, MD 21227

Sat. January 19, 2020
12 Noon to 1 P.M.

• Demand justice for low wage workers from Walmart to McDonalds.
• Stand for workers rights from Michigan to Maryland!
• Say NO to so-called “right to work” laws and YES to raising the minimum wage!
• No to inadequate health care and lack of right’s on the job!

Initiated by: Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Baltimore and the Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly
For more info: call 410-500-2168 or 410-218-4835 Join the Maryland Justice for Low Wage Workers! J4LWW a focus group of the Peoples Power Assembly

Facebook invite here. 

No Blank Check for Israel! – Rally and March
Saturday, January 19, 2020, 4:00pm – 6:00pm at Farragut Square
Come join the protest rally and march in Washington, DC. on January 19th. We will start off with a rousing rally at Farrugut Square (Connecticut Ave., 17th and K Streets, NW) and march to the White House in a candlelight procession.

Speakers and live music to be announced shortly
Please mark your calendar and spread the word far and wide!

No U.S. tax dollars should go toward violating Palestinian rights!

Sponsors:
Jewish Voice for Peace
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace
Endorsers:
US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
CODEPINK
More info – Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/395853747160182/?__req=1z

Progressive Central Party
Sat, Jan 19, 2020
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Location: Busboys and Poets Langston Hughes Room
2021 14th Street Northwest
Washington, DC 20009

Organized by Progressive Democrats of America.  Be treated to a night of laughs courtesy of Rick Overton. Special Award ceremony: Thank old friend Rep. Jim McGovern
Special guests: Mimi Kennedy, John Nichols, Jim Hightower, Andy Shallal–many more expected!

$65.00 Party Ticket Only, $75.00 Combo Ticket – Progressive Central and After Party

Click here to buy tickets and for more info.

SUNDAY:

Nevermind the Inauguration  *A Punk-Rock Counter Inaugural Ball & Festival of Resistance*   
Sunday, January 20, 2020 at 6:00pm at The Warehouse 645 New York Avenue NW Washington, DC

A Benefit for Grassroots Defense of Civil Liberties and to Support Political Prisoners in the United States
12pm-5pm // Free Entry: A Conference on Organized Resistance to Capitalism and the State.   Conference includes performances, panels, discussions.  Click here for details.

6pm-12pm: Punk Rock Counter-Inaugural Ball.  $16 Advanced tix here. 

CATHARSIS
(One of four reunion shows of the influential 90’s hardcore punk band.)
MAGRUDERGRIND
(D.C. Grindcore, 10 Year Anniversary Show!)
TROPHY WIFE
(Liminal space travelers. From Philly. Just back from first West Coast tour!)
DEAD IN THE DIRT
(Hardcore punk from Atlanta, GA)

A benefit show for the Rosenberg Fund for Children (www.rfc.org), which has awarded millions of dollars to benefit hundreds of children in the U.S. whose parents have been targeted because of their involvement in progressive movements, and a welcome home fund for NYC based environmentalist and recently release political prisoner Daniel McGowan (www.supportdaniel.org).

Facebook invite here: https://www.facebook.com/events/123695294458599/

WALKING TOGETHER: Love, Justice, Action
A Service of Blessing & Welcome for Our Friends in Congress, the Returning Administration, and Their Staffs with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

Sunday, January 20
4:00 PM
Washington, DC

In the same year that Roe v. Wade was decided, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice was founded by clergy and laity to defend the newly secured right to privacy in reproductive decisions. We remain America’s largest and most diverse interfaith organization dedicated to achieving reproductive justice.

Join elected officials, their staff colleagues, national faith leaders, and musical guests for “Walking Together: Love, Justice, Action,” an interfaith service of welcome and blessing for our allies in Congress and the returning Administration that celebrates our s/heroes of the last 40 years — and looks to a future where women are empowered to make decisions regarding their health, the health of their families, and their communities in an environment of universal values of justice.
We’d love to see you! Please RSVP here: https://rcrc.wufoo.com/forms/rsvp-walking-together-love-justice-action/

The Peace Ball: Voices of Hope and Resistance
Sunday, January 20, 2020
7:30 PM – 1:00 AM
Arena Stage at The Mead Center
1101 6th Street Southwest, Washington, DC 20024

The Peace Ball: Voices of Hope and Resistance will take place in Washington, D.C.’s historic Arena Stage at The Meade Center For American Theater on the evening of January 20, 2020, the night before President Obama’s Inauguration.  This event will pay tribute to the continuing struggle for peace and justice here in The United States and throughout the world.

This gathering is a reminder for all who work tirelessly to make our world a safer more just place, that our work does not stop when we elect a president, it continues beyond national elections and despite the political climate in Washington, D.C.  We need to continue to build a movement for a better world where the end to war, justice and respect for the environment are at the forefront of our national and global agendas.

Confirmed Guests:
Amy Goodman, Ralph Nader, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Alice Walker, Van Jones, Nicole Lee, Avis Jones-DeWeever, Julian Bond, Marian Wright Edelman, Medea Benjamin, Etan Thomas, Dave Zirin, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., Barbara Ehrenreich, Phyllis Bennis,Jack Halberstam and more!

Plus surprise musical guests, food and open bar.  Tickets are $135. 
More info and tickets: http://busboysandpoets.com/events/info/peace-ball-2013

Statehood Countdown to the Inauguration

Sunday, January 20th 8pm – 10pm
The DC Statehood Coalition is sponsoring a rocking party to celebrate President Obama’s second term!  The event will be at Busboys & Poets 5th & K location (1025 K Street, NW). 
Tickets are $25
Click here for info.

 

MONDAY:

GMO-Free Inauguration
Monday, January 21, 2020, 9:00am until 2:00pm
As the world comes to Washington, DC to celebrate the inauguration of President Barack Obama, safe food activists will be gathering to demand the President follow up with his campaign promise to label genetically engineered foods
On Monday, January 21, come join us on the National Mall in Washington, DC to raise awareness about GMO and to demand that President Obama follow-up with his promise to label GMO foods.

We will be meeting up at Dupont Circle at 9:00am and marching down to the National Mall at 9:30am.

Questions: GCU@Occupy-Monsanto.com
Online: http://occupy-monsanto.com/gmo-free-inauguration/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/472851029428523/

Arc of Justice Parade
Monday, January 21st , 2013. 
9:00-10:00am: Rally at Malcolm X Park. (16th and Euclid St NW)
10:00 am march to K and 15th St Nw.

Set to coincide with the Presidential Inauguration Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the third anniversary of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, the Arc of Justice rally and parade will be a determined but hopeful expression of our concern and dissent against the wars, occupations, loss of civil liberties, overwhelming corporate and big money power over our lives, environmental degradation, and many other important issues mostly abused, ignored, or minimized by recent administrations and Congress.  It is a call to action to those in power and to those who would join us to create real change and to renew our drive to build a strong, cohesive peace and to build lasting justice and civil rights movements.

Let us work together to realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

Organized by DC-based local peace activists.  
Contact: arcofjustice2013@gmail.com 0r follow us on Twitter: @arcofjustice13

Outreach with the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

Join the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation at the Inauguration to educate and organize people to end aid to Israel.  They’ll be distributing flyers and postcards to the president to end $30 billion in weapons to Israel. 

Click here to sign up.

UNauguration 2013
Mon, Jan 21 at 12 noon
Meet at McPherson Square at 15th and K St NW. 

Sickened by the pompous orgy of self-congratulation that is the upcoming presidential inauguration? Chesapeake Earth First! has the cure! Join us in DC for UNauguration 2013, a loud, colorful demonstration of dissent against the culture of corporate kleptocracy.

We’ll meet at McPherson Square at noon on January 21, 2020 to mock, ridicule, and generally display blatant disrespect for the warmongering crony capitalism that brought us mountaintop removal, fracking, tar sands, drone warfare, the surveillance state, and so much more. Chesapeake Earth First!:  the bane of business-as-usual DC!  Also organized by the Anarchist Alliance DC.

Contact chesapeakeearthfirst[at]riseup.net or 703-946-6804 with any questions or comments.
Click here for Facebook event.

Book Release Party for “We Have Not Been Moved: Resisting Racism and Militarism in The 21st Century”
Martin Luther King Day, Monday, January 21, 2020, 6-8pm, St. Stephen’s Church, 1525 Newton St NW

Edited by Elizabeth ‘Betita’ Martínez, Mandy Carter, and Matt Meyer with an introduction by Cornel West and afterwords by Alice Walker and Sonia Sanchez.

The Washington DC event on MLK Day will feature actor Erik Todd Dellums doing a dramatic reading as Bayard Rustin (from a never-before-published speech in the book). With additional presentations by co-editors Mandy Carter (co-founder of the National Black Justice Coalition) and Matt Meyer (convener of the War Resisters International Africa Working Group).

Inspired by the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who called for a “true revolution of values” against the racism, militarism, and materialism which he saw as the heart of a society “approaching spiritual death,” this book recognizes that-for the most part-the traditional peace movement has not been moved far beyond the half-century-old call for a deepening critique of its own prejudices. While reviewing the major points of intersection between white supremacy and the war machine through both historic and contemporary articles from a diverse range of scholars and activists, the editors emphasize what needs to be done now to move forward for lasting social change.

Among the historic texts included in the book is a timely dialogue between Dr. King, revolutionary nationalist Robert F. Williams, Dave Dellinger, and Dorothy Day. See more info and preview the book here.

Co-Sponsored by Positive Force DC and the Washington Peace Center
Click here for Facebook event.

 
ALL WEEKEND:

Presidential Inaugural Pow Wow/Youth Gala
The Presidential Inaugural Pow Wow/Youth Gala is a traditional gathering honoring the 7th generation, all youth and elders and the office of the President of the United States.
Jan 18-21
Sheraton Pentagon City
900 S Orme St, Arlington VA

Jan 18 evening – Opening reception and social dancing
Jan 19 – Grand Entry 7 pm
Jan 20 – Grand Entry: Noon and 7 pm
Jan 21 – Youth Ball – all ages (evening)

For more information, please see our website and the Native Youth Alliance Facebook page. Contact us at NativeYouthAlliance@gmail.com or by phone at 202.423.6679.