When people think of activism, they're more likely to think of petitions and protest signs than food trucks and festivities. But expect both of the latter at Let Equality Bloom: An Activism Festival, an event dreamed up by the six volunteer organizers behind Women's March Vermont. This Sunday, September 23, in Burlington's Old North End, the eight-hour fest will offer political speakers and voter registration tables, but also art-making workshops, live music, a drag show and more. People know the Women's March "as a once-a-year event," said WMV cochair Kristen Vrancken. But "this is a really important year. It's an election year," she went on. "The idea was to have something that would bring people that don't normally come out for things like this. We wanted to create a space of joy, a festival-like environment ... a place of inclusivity." To that end, the WMV team has assembled an impressive list of speakers and guests. Democratic nominee for governor Christine Hallquist and Rep. Kiah Morris (D-Bennington) will deliver keynotes. Young activists will be much in evidence, too, including March for Our Lives Vermont organizers Mackenzie Murdoch and Madison Knoop; and MaryAnn Songhurst, a student who was involved in raising the Black Lives Matter flag at Montpelier High School in February. In keeping with the youth theme, one nationally prominent guest at Let Equality Bloom will be best-selling young-adult novelist Maureen Johnson, who edited a recently published anthology called How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation. (She's also been in the news lately, and unrelatedly, for sharing a cat-related tweet so popular that the New York Times asked feline behavior experts to weigh in on it.) "I reached out to Maureen cold," said Vrancken, noting that Johnson's latest novel, Truly Devious, is set in Vermont. "She immediately said yes." After doing a Saturday, September 22, book signing at Phoenix Books Burlington, Johnson will lead a workshop on Sunday with Rajnii Alexander Gibson Eddins, artistic director of Burlington's Young Writers' Project. Johnson's friend Julie Polk, an actor and writer who's taught at the Moth, will offer her own workshop on "Finding Your Voice: Empowerment Through Storytelling." Eddins said participants in YWP's all-ages workshop with Johnson will get "a number of writing prompts exploring issues of race, identity, homophobia, Islamophobia." The aim is to "provide a creative outlet to people who are vulnerable" and to "encourage folks to let…
When people think of activism, they're more likely to think of petitions and protest signs than food trucks and festivities. But expect both of the latter at Let Equality Bloom: An Activism Festival, an event dreamed up by the six volunteer organizers behind Women's March Vermont. This Sunday, September 23, in Burlington's Old North End, the eight-hour fest will offer political speakers and voter registration tables, but also art-making workshops, live music, a drag show and more. People know the Women's March "as a once-a-year event," said WMV cochair Kristen Vrancken. But "this is a really important year. It's an election year," she went on. "The idea was to have something that would bring people that don't normally come out for things like this. We wanted to create a space of joy, a festival-like environment ... a place of inclusivity." To that end, the WMV team has assembled an impressive list of speakers and guests. Democratic nominee for governor Christine Hallquist and Rep. Kiah Morris (D-Bennington) will deliver keynotes. Young activists will be much in evidence, too, including March for Our Lives Vermont organizers Mackenzie Murdoch and Madison Knoop; and MaryAnn Songhurst, a student who was involved in raising the Black Lives Matter flag at Montpelier High School in February. In keeping with the youth theme, one nationally prominent guest at Let Equality Bloom will be best-selling young-adult novelist Maureen Johnson, who edited a recently published anthology called How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation. (She's also been in the news lately, and unrelatedly, for sharing a cat-related tweet so popular that the New York Times asked feline behavior experts to weigh in on it.) "I reached out to Maureen cold," said Vrancken, noting that Johnson's latest novel, Truly Devious, is set in Vermont. "She immediately said yes." After doing a Saturday, September 22, book signing at Phoenix Books Burlington, Johnson will lead a workshop on Sunday with Rajnii Alexander Gibson Eddins, artistic director of Burlington's Young Writers' Project. Johnson's friend Julie Polk, an actor and writer who's taught at the Moth, will offer her own workshop on "Finding Your Voice: Empowerment Through Storytelling." Eddins said participants in YWP's all-ages workshop with Johnson will get "a number of writing prompts exploring issues of race, identity, homophobia, Islamophobia." The aim is to "provide a creative outlet to people who are vulnerable" and to "encourage folks to let…