While many will be anticipating the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on Friday, businesses and protest organizers in Bloomington are aiming to make the historic day one of resistance.
Inaugurate the Revolution is a city-wide event bringing in workshops, teach-ins, discussions and projects.
Many events, such as letter-writing for prisoners, discussions on support for indigenous people after Standing Rock, and lectures on public schools and conditional inclusion, are free and open to the public.
Most deadlines to register for workshops — on topics such as feminist activism, refugee crises, media literacy and climate change — have passed, though a few are still open.
Look at the entire list of event descriptions at https://www.inauguratetherevolution.com/workshops.
Events will last between one and two hours, though some may be extended.
Organizations present at the event include the IU Black Student Union, National Lawyers Guild, College Democrats at IU, Prism Youth Community, Bloomington Food Policy Council and the Bloomington Green Party.
Bloomington Solidarity Network, a volunteer network to support tenants and employees, has planned to lead a march at 12 p.m. from the Monroe County Public Library to the office of an unnamed landlord to demand compensation.
Businesses involved include Boxcar Books and the Back Door.
The event will wrap up with a march at 5:15 p.m. through downtown Bloomington and a rally with performances and speeches from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. Both are free and open to the public.
Stanley Njuguna, sophomore and event organizer, said he came up with the idea after the election and sought to be different from other local protests.
“It was initiated by the idea that I had to do something on Inauguration Day beyond the typical protests I kept seeing in Bloomington,” he said.
Though Trump is not explicitly named in any of the event’s promotion, the event’s website states it declines to inaugurate a new president. Avoiding his name is deliberate, Njuguna said.
“One of the core goals of Inaugurate the Revolution is to refocus the power to the community,” Njuguna said. “He’s going to be all over the media, all over the press, and he feeds off that.”
Njuguna said he was lucky to have worked with people who could assist in quickly organizing this event after the election. He has been managing student involvement for the event and said he encourages any student who has any degree of rejection of Trump to participate.
“We don’t want this just to be an opposition or anti-Trump event but a show a strength of unity and affirmation of our principles,” he said.
