WOMEN IN SOUTH QUEENS JOIN HUNDREDS OF
COMMUNITIES NATIONWIDE TO RALLY VOTERS
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
The South Queens Women’s
March is bringing awareness
on the importance of voting on
Election Day.
The organization, which
was established in January
2020, hosted a sign-holding
event on Saturday, Oct. 17, outside
of The Figure Studio, located
at 111-49 Lefferts Blvd. in
South Ozone Park, in coordination
with the fifth Women’s
March on Washington and 207
other protests held by sister
actions in cities and communities
across the nation.
The South Queens Women’s
March highlights gender
equality issues, specifically
how women have suffered
greatly under the Trump Administration
and this has been
even more so exacerbated by
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aminta Kilawan-Narine,
founder and executive director
of the South Queens Women’s
March, said women in the
U.S. are bearing the brunt of
multiple crises — including
the COVID-19 pandemic, white
supremacy and nationalism,
an ever-deepening economic
disaster, a worsening climate
crisis and a family/domestic
care crisis. From New York to
California, women are rising
up to demand a new government
of, by, and for the people,
according to Kilawan-Narine.
“We the people are going to
deliver a democracy in November,”
Kilawan-Narine said to
attendees, encouraging them
all to vote.
Kilawan-Narine is proud
that her organization is able to
bring accessible information to
people in the community from
all different backgrounds.
“Today, we really wanted
to do something, even if it’s
small, in south Queens because
this is where we live,”
Kilawan-Narine said. “We are
joining together as women
from all walks of life to vote in
record numbers, demand that
every single vote is counted,
and return our democracy to
its rightful state.”
An attendee at the event,
Mohamed Amin, founder and
executive director of the Caribbean
Equality Project, said
he created the organization after
experiencing a hate crime
incident with his brother in
2013 on Richmond Avenue.
The Caribbean Equality
Project offers counseling,
The South Queens Women’s March in Ozone Park is encouraging voters to head to the polls on Election Day. Photo by Dean Moses
Aminta Kilawan-Narine, founder and executive director of Queens
South Women’s March.
mental health, immigration
support and more for LGBTQ
in Richmond Hill.
“Why do we have to leave
our Caribbean, immigrant
community to access mental
health services and to seek
support?” said Amin, who realized
after the incident that
there wasn’t a space for LGBTQ
voices to be heard, particularly
immigrants.
According to Kilawan-Narine,
they will fight to secure
the progress they have made
as a country.
“We have suffered through
years of crisis compounded
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.26 COM | OCT. 23-OCT. 29, 2020
upon crisis, and we have had
enough,” Kilawan-Narine
said. “We are rising up here
in our own community to take
our power back. We commit
ourselves to fight to secure
immigrant rights, LGBTQ+
rights, reproductive rights,
women’s rights, and the lives
of black and brown people
across this nation which has
run afoul at the hands of law
enforcement.”
Reach reporter Carlotta
Mohamed by e-mail at cmohamed@
schnepsmedia.com or
by phone at (718) 260–4526.
A young attendee holds a sign with the names of Indo-Caribbean
women who have died as a result of domestic violence.
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