Denver March History - Womxn's March Denver

Co-Founders and leadership team of the first march

Karen Hinkel

Cheetah McClellan

Jessica Rogers

The day after the 2016 election was memorable for many women in the world, but here in Colorado, it was especially meaningful for three community members. Karen Hinkel, Cheetah McClellan, and Jessica Rogers had begun organizing a Women's March independently and were put in touch with each other via the Women’s March on Washington - Colorado. They joined forces roughly ten days after the 2016 election to begin planning the January 21st, 2017 Women’s March. With marches held on every continent around the world, the 2017 Women’s March was the largest global event in history. Denver hosted approximately 180,000 marchers that year. Denver marchers came together from all over the Centennial state, as well as surrounding states such as Wyoming and Utah. Additionally, several other marches were hosted across Colorado by local community members. (Note: If you hosted one of these marches, or know someone who did, please send us your story! Email: [email protected]).

The 2018 March welcomed new members to the leadership team and a name change that was more aligned with the sister organizations that had furthered a grassroots movement in their own communities. This entity is still known as the National March On group. Denver is one of the founding cities of this organization, as well as the namesake! Jessica Rogers remained on leadership and welcomed Jolie Brawner and Lisa Cutter (who were key supporters of the 2016 team) and Tish Beauford, who had taken a group from Colorado to Washington for the 2017 March.

THE MARCH LEADERS CONTINUED TO LEARN AND GROW AND WELCOME NEW LEADERSHIP. AFTER ALL, GRASSROOTS MOVEMENTS ARE INCREDIBLY HARD WORK BUT THIS HISTORIC COMING TOGETHER OF WOMEN HAS INSPIRED MANY TO JOIN THE EFFORT. WHILE ALL OF THE CORE MEMBERS FROM 2018 WERE STILL INVOLVED IN AN ADVISORY CAPACITY, THE 2019 LEADERSHIP TEAM WAS COMPRISED OF ANGELA ASTLE (WHO HAS COORDINATED PROGRAMMING SINCE THE DENVER MOVEMENT’S INCEPTION), KERRY O’GRADY (WHO COORDINATED LOGISTICS FOR THE 2018 MARCH AND DIRECTLY SUPPORTED LEADERSHIP) SHARON HWANG (WHO SUPPORTED LOGISTICS for THE LEADERSHIP TEAM DIRECTLY IN 2018), AND NEW TEAM MEMBERS REGAN BYRD AND BRENDA HERRERA MORENO, WHO WERE INSPIRED TO JOIN US.

While our alignment is with our sister marches that share the namesake of March On, we decided to change the name to Womxn's March Denver, recognizing the importance of inclusion of all people experiencing sexism by using the “x” in the spelling of Womxn.

As we move toward 2021, we are passionately working on creating more opportunities for future leaders and volunteers to join us in highlighting the work that is being done in our communities. We plan to keep marching on until all marginalized voices are heard, and organizations that are doing the work to support those voices are lifted up.