Quinoa Pear Salad {Vegan + GF}

Happy Monday!

I’m (finally! finally?) going back to school this week and this weekend was a seriously eventful one to end break with.

My friend came to visit me for the Women’s March on Washington, which was inspiring and empowering.

Not only was it great to see all the women (and others!) united for progress and standing up for various important issues, but there were fabulous speeches by Tamika Mallory and Angela Davis, as well as a wonderful and heartbreaking performance by Janelle Monae, featuring several of the mothers of African American citizens who were victims of police violence.

The March drew celebrities like Madonna, Scarlett Johansson, Alicia Keys, and Amy Schumer, and yet the tone of the march and the rally were set primarily by the masses- us. The speakers gave great emphasis to the fact that we weren’t just walking for women’s reproductive rights or to call out Trump, but also to show that black lives matter, to end gun violence, to support climate change’s reality, to end mass incarceration, to protect undocumented Americans, to stave off xenophobia and promote inclusivity for all ethnic and religious backgrounds, and to unite against an administration that, in its first two days, has already proven to be poorly run, unfocused, and corrupt.

On Sunday, my friend and I woke up at 6:30am to get the only 4 tickets offered daily to the National Museum of African American History & Culture, which opened just this fall. It was amazing. We spent the evening downtown in the U Street Corridor, a neighborhood that was the heart and soul of the AfAm community in D.C., but is now increasingly being gentrified.

I was so glad to be in D.C. and call this city my home this weekend, and I was equally proud of the protests that erupted across America, and even around the world. I hope we continue to use our platforms, whatever they may be, to talk about.

“To those of you who have, for the first time, felt the pain that my people have felt since they were brought here in chains shackled on our legs – Today, I say to you: Welcome to our country. Welcome to our world. I stand here as a Black woman, the descendant of slaves. My ancestors literally nursed our slave masters. Through their blood and tears, my people, we, built this country. America cannot be great without me, you, and all of us who are here today. Today you may be feeling a grief, but our country has been hostile to its people for a long time. For some of you, it is new. For some of us, it is not so new at all. This day I am marching for Black and Brown lives. For Sandra Bland. For Philando Castile. For Tamir Rice. For Aiyana Stanley Jones. For Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin. And for those nine people who were shot at the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. We have a chance, brothers and sisters, to get this thing right. We can do it if women rise up and take this nation back.” -Tamika Mallory, Women’s March Organizer