Gucci’s Chime for Change gender-equity campaign and new media outlet The Meteor rattled the cages of what feminist summits look like — as the unscripted event zigzagged between pressing issues with abandon.
On Tuesday night, the organizations teamed up for the live event kickoff to their “22 for ‘22: Visions for a Feminist Future,” a free global gender-equity summit that will be broadcast globally on May 9.
Gucci’s Chime for Change campaign was established in 2013 to spotlight the fight for gender equality, as told by the women and girls on the frontlines of issues around the world such as child marriage, gender-based violence, abortion rights and more. The campaign has since rippled into a zine (with the “Chime” tag line), spotlighting feminist trailblazers convened by platforms like U.N. Women, and now a recurring collaboration with The Meteor.
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Speakers at the summit included actress and activist Amandla Stenberg; labor rights activist Dolores Huerta (who, along with César Chávez, is a cofounder of the National Farm Workers Association); Janicza Bravo (director of “Zola” and “Lemon”); #MeToo movement founder Tarana Burke, and Chris Smalls (who led the first successful unionization efforts for an Amazon facility in the U.S., in Staten Island, N.Y.), among many others.
The summit was hosted in partnership with Barnard College and its Athena Center for Leadership. Symone D. Sanders, author, political strategist and host of MSNBC’s new show “Symone,” hosted the event.
Issues spanned the new labor movement, gender representation, journalism, human rights, reproductive rights and narrative bending climate and racial justice topics. Given recent union victories at REI and Amazon in New York, labor was one conversation of increasing interest to fashion.
“Well, I feel really great to see workers are finally being recognized….Labor unions are the foundation of our democracy,” said Dolores Huerta, who at 92 years old still led the crowd in a whooping “Sí, se puede,” (“Yes, we can”) chant homage to the tactics used by the organizing farm workers decades ago in California.
Smalls, leader of the Amazon Labor Union, and the ensuing organizing efforts after the Amazon JFK8 union victory, also had a clear message for retailers.
“I can tell you now, we’ve already been contacted by every [Amazon] building in the country,” said Smalls, wearing a vibrant tracksuit emblazoned with “eat the rich” lettering and endcapped with a pink cap and matching Nikes. “What we are planning on doing after this next victory [a second facility, LDJ5, in the midst of an election for roughly 1,600 people in Staten Island] is to have a national call with every building in the country. They won’t be able to avoid us….That’s what my focus is — to not just be successful here in New York — but to take it nationwide.” And it’s not just for Amazon, Smalls said, claiming workers also plan to implement unionization drives at Walmart, Target and Dollar General.
Actress and talk show host Busy Philipps took to the stage alongside Paula Ávila-Guillén, a Colombian lawyer and reproductive rights activist in Latin America, with a call to action on reproductive rights. The women rained green scarves, symbolizing the “green wave” movement that began as a feminist symbol in Latin America, onto the audience. The status of reproductive rights in the U.S. was on repeat focus as Americans remain divided on abortion and the potential overturn or even undercutting of Roe v. Wade in upcoming decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Afghan journalist Fatema Hosseini highlighted the waning focus on Afghanistan, amid the war in Ukraine, in an emotional conversation. “It’s sad to see the Taliban is taking the opportunity to increase the number of exclusions…but I do see hope coming in the distance.” Most of the resistance, she said, is from brave women rising up.
Activist and former national organizer for the Transgender Law Center Raquel Willis and breakout “The Hunger Games” star Amandla Stenberg rounded out the night with a discussion on representation.
“Everyone is dealing with expectations that they probably fall short of meeting. That’s what I want people to understand — we all are invested in gender liberation,” Willis said.