V, artist formerly known as Eve Ensler, is an award-winning playwright and activist. She’s been at the forefront of the resistance against many of the most damaging policies undertaken by the Trump administration. As the founder of V-Day, a global movement aimed at ending violence against women and girls, V has drawn attention to the detrimental effects of recent governmental actions on marginalized communities.
The Trump administration has already received blistering national criticism for its proposed cuts to public broadcasting and other vital social services. These cuts have proven devastating to public institutions such as PBS and NPR. They have held up real, substantive progress to fight human trafficking. Cuts to Medicaid have removed millions of their vital health care. At the same time, their administration’s policies have violently separated families, ripping parents from their children’s lives. Advocates argue that these acts are a sign of systemic failure, that they undermine the social contract that holds our nation together.
Fortunately, V and activists like Viet Thanh Nguyen, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, Meena Jagannath, Michael Klein, and Reverend Mariann Budde are still on the frontlines fighting these policies. Together, they’re leaving an indelible mark on their community’s culture. For Nguyen, dissent is not an option, but a necessity. Being “disagreeable” Nguyen argues, is essential in periods marked by oppression.
Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, better known as the powerhouse activist and brilliant organizer that she is, delivered a fierce testimony on the need for glorious noncompliance.
“The thing that I love about being non-cooperative and non-compliant with the Trump administration,” – Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson
Henderson emphasized the importance of grassroots resistance. She implored people and companies to join the fight against hostile policies.
“What keeps you up at night enough to make you active? Trump says we shouldn’t ask people for warrants. We demand warrants. When a business puts a ‘No Kings’ sign up or a ‘No Ice’ sign in their window, they’re not complying. And we need more people to do that wherever they are,” – Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson
Yet the danger of the opposition exceeds this reach, beyond the individual protests, angering the repressive machinery targeted at activists it represents. Collective agency Meena Jagannath, a movement lawyer, provided useful context on collective agency. She concluded with a call to action to nurture communities’ sense of agency in the face of adversity.
“Our charge in these times is to support each other in building protagonism – a sense that we have agency to contest fascist narratives about how the world is and should be. It needs to be a collective, creative and responsive process that takes in what’s going out there and alchemizes it into a more expansive imagination of what could and should be.” – Meena Jagannath
The cumulative effect of the Trump administration’s policy has been staggering. In fact, ICE has gotten a lot of heat for such aggressive surveillance techniques. One primary purpose of these tactics is to silence critics of the government. Furthermore, alarming stories have emerged of food meant for poor communities of color being destroyed, deepening food insecurity among the most vulnerable populations.
Henderson summed up the importance of their calling, saying that climate is a new world, and things are getting hotter and angrier.
“It’s not decided where we go yet. Which is why it feels tense. What we know is that there’s no going back to an old normal because our economic system has failed us and our governmental structure is being destroyed. They’re trying to replace what was with this minority rule of disgustingly wealthy humans dictating what can happen not only in this country, but globally.” – Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson
The activists stress the importance of dual strategies: blocking harmful actions while building alternatives that empower communities. Henderson claimed being willing to challenge all elected leaders as well as corporations is key.
“We’ve gotta block and build at the same time. That means confronting both elected officials and the corporations that are lifting them up. We need to make sure that we are gumming up their ability to successfully implement any sort of action, whether it’s policy or otherwise, that takes more power and rights and access to life-saving resources away from our communities.” – Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson
As these activists continue their fight against the injustices perpetuated by the current administration, their voices resonate with urgency and determination. They stand together to reiterate their promise to fight hardest for those who need it most.