Now That’s a Movement: The Creativity of the Women’s March

It may feel that murky clouds are looming over 2017, but this weekend the human spirit lit up, showing a possible path through what look to be difficult times. In cities around the world, from Warsaw to Washington D.C., millions of people came together with positive energy, camaraderie,determination and ingenuity for the Women’s March. It was a display of human creativity at its most democratic – something we can all draw inspiration from.

The protesters marched for a kaleidoscope of causes. Catalysed by the election of Donald Trump, they took to the street to protect reproductive rights, to demand respect, to defend the planet and its resources,to show solidarity – and to show that they would hold those in power to account.

In an age where governments treat Orwell as an instruction manual rather than a dystopian warning, re-branding lies and falsehoods as ‘alternative facts’, people took to the streets to bear witness and to donate their undeniable presence to a movement.

The creativity on show was something to behold as the marchers took home made banners bearing all manner of slogans and images: witty, wise, angry, funny, pointed. In our industry, we tend to talk about creativity as this rarefied and exclusive thing, and, with the multitude of award shows around, we tend to see it as a competitive thing too. Look what happens when creativity escapes these confines and people combine it with whatever skills and resources they have in order to have their voices heard.

The Amplifier Project spread that creativity even further, sharing hi-res images of posters designed by the likes of Shepard Fairey and Jessica Sabogal for protesters to print and use as banners. This too was an act of creative generosity.

Director Alma Har’el came across a group of singers who had come together online to learn a song for the protest. Orchestrated by the LosAngeles-based musician MILCK, the choir sang the now unofficial anthem of the Women’s March ‘I Can’t Keep Quiet’ when Alma stumbled upon them. She captured this act of unity and togetherness in a video that has since spread all over the internet.

The Women’s March offered many in the US, and also around the world, a chance to show that we have not all succumbed to apathy yet. Wherever you lie on the political spectrum, a violence- and arrest-free protest of such numbers should be a heartening sight. Freedom of speech and of assembly are cornerstones of a robust democracy. And so too, it seems, is collective creativity.