The Golden Globes, broadcasting on Sunday night (January 7), will be making a huge statement on the red carpet: After months of sexual misconduct allegations that have shaken the industry and toppled its most powerful men, actresses and actors will be wearing black as a way to make a statement about the events. The questions they're asked on the red carpet—usually something about what designer they're wearing—are rumored to be switching up to questions about the stars' actual work. But those aren't the only statements being made: According to a press release, eight Golden Globes attendees, including Meryl Streep, Emma Stone, and Amy Poehler, will be bringing gender and racial activists with them to the event "in a show of support for victims of sexual harassment and assault." And we're talking some truly incredible women.
"Our goal in attending the Golden Globes is to shift the focus back to survivors and on systemic, lasting solutions," the activists said in a collective statement. "Each of us will be highlighting legislative, community-level, and interpersonal solutions that contribute to ending violence against women in all our communities. It is our hope that in doing so, we will also help to broaden conversations about the connection to power, privilege, and other systemic inequalities."
The statement continues, "Many of us identify as survivors of sexual harassment, assault, and violence ourselves, and we believe we are nearing a tipping point in transforming the culture of violence in the countries where we live and work. It’s a moment to transform both the written and unwritten rules that devalue the lives and experiences of women. We believe that people of all genders and ages should live free of violence against us. And we believe that women of color, and women who have faced generations of exclusion—indigenous, black, brown and Asian women, farmworkers and domestic workers, disabled women, undocumented and queer and trans women—should be at the center of our solutions. This moment in time calls for us to use the power of our collective voices to find solutions that leave no woman behind."
Read on to find out who's bringing whom, as well as about the powerful work each of the activists has done in her field.
Michelle Williams is bringing Tarana Burke.Tarana Burke is perhaps best known for starting the #MeToo movement an entire decade ago. It began as a way to help sexual assault survivors in underprivileged communities who didn't have access to care, like counseling or crisis centers, following an assault. "It wasn’t built to be a viral campaign or a hashtag that is here today and forgotten tomorrow,” Burke told Ebony. “It was a catchphrase to be used from survivor to survivor to let folks know that they were not alone and that a movement for radical healing was happening and possible.” Burke is also a cofounder of the youth organization Just Be, Inc., which focuses on the holistic well-being of girls of color.
Emma Watson is bringing Marai Larasi.Marai Larasi is the executive director of Imkaan in the U.K., which is a prominent black-feminist network that includes specialist women's organizations and community groups focusing on ending violence against black and "minority ethnic" women and girls. In addition to her work as cochair of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, the country's biggest network of related organizations, she actively contributes to books and related literature and has been named one of the 100 most influential LGBT people of the year on the World Pride Power List in 2013.
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Susan Sarandon is bringing Rosa Clemente.Rosa Clemente is a leading scholar on Afro-Latinx identity (known for her groundbreaking, discussion-catalyzing 2001 article "Who Is Black?") and is the founder of Know Thy Self Productions, which produces community activism tours and consults on hip-hop feminism, media justice, and the right of Puerto Rico to be an independent nation. She also founded PR (Puerto Rico on the Map) after Hurricane Maria, an "independent, unapologetic" media collective centered on Afro-Latinx issues. Clemente also made history as the first Afro-Latina woman to run for vice-president of the U.S. in 2008 on the Green Party ticket.
Meryl Streep is bringing Ai-jen Poo.Ai-gen Poo has been a leader in organizing female immigrant workers for more than 20 years, leads the National Domestic Workers Alliance as its director, and also codirects the Caring Across Generations campaign. She's also a 2014 MacArthur fellow and has been listed as one of Fortune's 50 World's Greatest Leaders.
Laura Dern is bringing Mónica Ramírez.Mónica Ramírez is the founder of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, the organization that wrote a stirring and powerful letter of solidarity to women in Hollywood in November. The daughter and granddaughter of migrant farmworkers, she now serves female farmworkers, Latina, and immigrant women as an attorney and advocate. Ramírez has also founded art activism projects and a legal initiative for immigrant women at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Shailene Woodley is bringing Calina Lawrence.Calina Lawrence is an indigenous activist who draws on her passion of singing and music to lead her work advocating for Native Treaty Rights, the Mni Wiconi (Water is Life) movement led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and the "#NoLNG253" movement, led by the Puyallup Tribe. Other focuses of her activism include mass incarceration, police brutality, gentrification, climate injustice, foster youth, the misrepresentation of Native Americans in education and the media, and many other topics.
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Emma Stone is bringing Billie Jean King.Emma Stone and Billie Jean King have developed something of an offscreen friendship following Stone's portrayal of the tennis legend in Battle of the Sexes. Beyond her incredible career in tennis, King founded the Women's Tennis Association, the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative, and the Women's Sports foundation. King also cofounded World TeamTennis.
Amy Poehler is bringing Saru Jayaraman.Saru Jayaraman founded Restaurant Opportunities Centers United after 9/11 with displaced World Trade Center workers. Today the organization is the leader of the One Fair Wage campaign, which is working to eliminate lower wages for tipped workers, like bartenders and servers in the food industry. In her work with ROC, Jayaraman also carries out activist efforts for workplace justice campaigns for those in the industry, launches cooperative restaurants, and conducts research and policy work.
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