I was lucky enough to be able to attend the March for Women this past weekend (April 25). It was - and I'm not exaggerating a bit here - a momentous, life-changing thing to see.

Arriving at the March was a quick (in theory) drive for me. We picked up a Bostonian blog pal in Northern VA on my way up. We came up Saturday evening, checked into a hotel and visited with some of my blogging friends before heading down to the NARAL/Punk Voter show at the 9:30 Club. The energy there was electrifying - the music, the fun, the sense of gearing up for something huge! The speakers and the bands were inspiring, but no one could top Kate Michelman. I also got a chance to meet up with some out of town friends from LiveJournal - some of them had gotten to the March all the way from Washington by soliciting donations from strangers. We had dinner, talked about how beautiful all the women of different ages and sizes had been at the club, and grabbed a big group hug.

Sunday morning we walked down to the Mall to meet our little coalition of people we knew from real life and online (known throughout this site as the "posse"), and that's where these pictures take up the story. I marched with such amazing people - including my best friend from college and my best friend from sixth grade.

I took nearly 100 pictures of the crowds - they were overwhelming - the contingent of people I marched with, and other things we saw during the March and rally. I did not, unfortunately, bring a camera with me to the 9:30 Club the night before. I'd love to see some photos of the mosh pit at that show - it was amazing! If you have any, let me know

I'm not a practiced photographer, and the majority of these pictures were taken while everything around me (self included!) was in motion. The result was a lot of happy accidents, where I ended up with interesting photos - just not of the things I'd intended to take pictures of. My intention was to post these pictures to share with my friends and March posse, but as I walked through them later that night, I realized they told a story of their own. It's a story I wanted to narrate a bit, so those who were there could remember and those who weren't could better imagine. So, a photolog was born.

If you were at the March, I suspect you'll see a lot of yourself in these pictures (hey, you might literally see your own picture). Every group there was doing the same things as us we geared up - decorating themselves, taking digital photos, calling each other on their cell phones (or trying to call - cell service was really spotty throughout the day, since so many people were calling in such a tiny area).

And if you weren't at the March, I hope this serves as a small record of what it was like to be there. It was amazing, trust me.

Or heck, don't just trust me, trust my friends. The people I marched with and/or met up with:
Kim's photos Tiff's story Laura's story Delia's story Cinnamon's story Roni's story Laura's pictures Delia & Corey's pictures

If you have an interest in using any of these photos in your own documentation of the March, I welcome you to do so. I'd prefer you credit this page.