Celebrating All the Good Trouble We Make Together

I’ve been thinking a lot about the quote Ana Maria Archila, activist and co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, shared on Saturday, words of activist Valarie Kaur: 

“What if America is not a nation dying, but a nation waiting to be born? What does the midwife say? Before she says push, she says breathe, because if we don’t breathe, we die.” 

(If you haven’t listened to Valarie Kaur’s TedTalk on revolutionary love, do it now. It’s beautiful.) 

The People’s Celebration is an opportunity to celebrate the progress of our movement over the past year. This year wasn’t about wins and losses. It was about learning to breathe, together, in unison.   

The progress of the past year was all about alignment—getting clear about our values, deepening our collaborations, and ensuring that our visions for the future included all of us.  

On Saturday, we brought together changemakers, magic makers, and troublemakers from the Twin Cities, Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center, Duluth, St. Cloud, Grand Rapids, Big Stone County and more.  People from across our movements fighting for justice and democracy. Community members. Elected officials. Workers. Candidates. Organizers. Leaders.    

We celebrated our investment in movementbuilders who will lead a people-centered democracy.  

We celebrated all the people-power in our progressive movement. 

And we celebrated the commitment that we collectively make to building a democracy that’s by us and for us.   

We are making more possible—in our movements, in our state, and across the country. Now is the time to be bold.

 We have big fights ahead of us in 2019. We’re ready to push to build a better, brighter Minnesota together. As Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan said on Saturday night, it’s time to get ready for “the most badass inside-outside game we’ve ever seen at the Capitol.”