“A New Dawn Blooms” At The Biden/Harris Inauguration With Women Of Color Front & Center

Welcome to a very special edition of Feminist Friday! The column where we typically share 3 videos centered around an intersectional feminist theme. This edition is one that has been thrilling to put together because of the momentous occasion it marks!

This week, on January 20, 2021, we saw Joe Biden be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, and alongside him we saw history, pardon us, HERstory being made with the swearing in of Kamala Harris as Vice President! The former Democratic Senator from California becomes the first woman, the first Black woman and first South Asian woman to hold the position next to a legacy of exclusively white male VPs. What made this moment even more historical was the fact that she was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor who is the first Latina to become a judge in the highest court in the country! Needless to say, this was a day of inspiration for many women of color who have for too long been excluded from positions of power. In case you missed it, watch history unfold again below:

The entire inauguration, MC’d by Democratic Senator from Minnesota (as well as Republican Senator Roy Blunt from Missouri), saw women of color front and center rising up to positions of leadership, and raising their voices loud and clear. One of those was Los Angeles-based poet Amanda Gorman, who has since taking the internet, social media and arguably the entire world by storm with the poem she recited called ‘The Hill We Climb’ (which you can read in full here). Amanda, 22, is an author and was named the nation’s First Youth Poet Laureate at the age of 19. In the searing and inspiring poem she weaves in anecdotes about her own personal story, while giving Americans hope for the future.

Finally, it wouldn’t be an historic inauguration without the presence of some of the biggest pop stars on the planet! Lady Gaga was present to sing the national anthem, and Jennifer Lopez turned up the heat by performing Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land is Your Land’. During the emotional performance, she spoke Spanish from the Inauguration stage, saying: “una nación bajo Dios, indivisible, con libertad y justicia para todos” (one nation under God, indivisible, with freedom and justice for all”, followed by the rallying cry from one of her most popular anthems “Let’s Get Loud!”

It may be a line from one of her catchiest pop anthems, but this week it became our rallying cry to raise our voices, stand front and center and GET LOUD!