March For Our Lives & Sankofa Present "Into Action" Featuring John Legend, Usher, Stacey Abrams, Billy Porter, and More

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Presented by March For Our Lives & Sankofa.org, INTO ACTION is a celebration of community power and cultural resistance that spans August 2020 and brings together hundreds of our nation's most prolific and talented visual artists, young activists, musicians, poets, policymakers and community leaders. Even as our cities literally smolder and our leadership fails us, we will come together to lift our voices, assert our rights, reclaim our power, and manifest a vision for our future where everyone can live with dignity, freedom, and hope.

Four days of programming streams including panel discussions, live performances, and dynamic community-building activities await. Together we will lift our voices, have brave conversations, face the pain and beauty of the last few years while planning and organizing for the upcoming election. 

For those who aren't registered to vote, they can do so in less than two minutes via March For Our Lives

INTO ACTION consists of four events which are centered around key social justice moments in August:

• TAKE BLACK THE VOTE (August 6, 2020)
• August 6th marks the 55th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. We will kick off the INTO ACTION with a broadcast from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Miami, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Washington DC and other locations focused building black political power, mobilizing the vote and honoring the legacy and the ongoing work to address issues of voter suppression and the ongoing battle for voting rights, particularly for the BIPOC community.
  
  In the legacy of the great cultural movement that drove the Voting Rights Act, we will celebrate this day with high profile speakers, thought-provoking panel discussions, intimate interviews, musical performances, spoken word and visual art - mixing the wisdom of our elder organizers with the next generation of leaders taking the reins to fight for justice.
• Featuring: John Legend, Stacey Abrams, Common, Philip Agnew, Chuck D, Billy Porter, Christian McBride, Usher, Kendrick Sampson, The Wide Awakes featuring the Blacksmiths, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Mumu Fresh, Ashlee Marie Preston, Leah Daughtry and more.
• ART + ACTIVISM (August 7, 2020)
• Artists are the tip of the spear of social change. In collaboration with the Kennedy Center, join artists + activists using their talents to build momentum towards lasting change.
• OUR VOICE OUR POWER (August 12, 2020)
• From climate justice to ending mass incarceration, from gun violence to rising student debt, young people are showing up to face these challenges, showing up to vote and taking the future into our own hands. We will continue to push everyone to be better, to take seriously our legacy and to take on problems you wrote off as insurmountable. On International Youth Day, we bring together young leaders from across the intersecting movements they lead and celebrate the young people who are stepping into power and using their voice to demand justice.
• RATIFIED (August 18, 2020)
• Black Lives Matter was created by three black women. The climate justice movement is being driven by women. The fight to end mass incarceration and deportation is being driven by women.  In fact, women drive social and cultural change - period. Yet, inequity persists. From pay to power, from self-determination to protecting the air we all breathe, we will celebrate the women who continue to drive change in and out of government. We will explore the beautiful struggle of political, organizing, and emotional work that women leaders carry, look back at how much we have achieved, and recommit to changing all that still must evolve.

For complete details, including full list of participants/performers, streaming information, daily schedules, and to register to vote, visit www.into-action.us.

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

Presenting Partners:
March For Our Lives, Sankofa.org

Movement Partners:
Color of Change, MOVEON.org, League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, And I Still Vote, For Freedoms, African Pride, TaskForce

Community Partners:
A Little Piece of Light, All Voting is Local, American's Black Holocaust Museum, American Friends Service Committee, Black Church Action Fund, Blacksmiths, BLD PWR, Equal Justice Initiative, Faith in Action, GENVOTE, Hank Willis Thomas Studios, Hip Hop Caucus, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NAN Youth Huddle, New Georgia Project, People for the American Way, REVOLT TV, Right Now, Street Dance Activism, Vote Riders, Wide Awakes, Women's March Foundation.

About March For Our Lives
March For Our Lives is a national student-led movement to end gun violence in America. Its mission is to harness the power of young people across the country to fight for sensible gun violence prevention policies that save lives. Since the historic march in the nation's capital and 800+ sibling marches in 2018, March For Our Lives registered thousands of new voters, helped to pass more than 50 gun safety laws around the country, held the 2020 Presidential Gun Safety Forum, and released the bold gun safety plan Peace Plan For A Safer America. Concurrently March For Our Lives has established nearly 300 youth-led chapters across the country, continuously growing this chapter network to give young people a local forum to exercise their activism. For more information visit www.marchforourlives.com

About Sankofa.org
Founded by Harry Belafonte, Sankofa.org educates, motivates, and activates artists and allies in service of grassroots movements and equitable change. Through art, culture, and media Sankofa.org addresses injustice and creates change at multiple levels. In support of our grassroots partners, we enlist artists, performers, and prominent individuals to deliver messages of moral and political consequence. We stage a wide range of events to further amplify our message and elevate the voices of those already doing this critical work. Additionally, we employ online and offline media to increase the awareness and spirit of activism. Money raised by Sankofa.org is re-granted to our coalition partners working on the ground for lasting change and towards building a self-sustaining endowment to continue our work.
https://www.sankofa.org 

About Taskforce
TaskForce is a creative agency that collaborates with the most influential non-profits, brands, and people taking on the most pressing challenges facing our state, our nation, and our world. We build capacity and community for those shaping a more empathetic society through public opinion and policy. We understand the role that creative culture plays in shaping public opinion and policy and invest heavily in creating lasting relationships with the communities and partners we engage in. We work primarily at the intersection of Arts/Culture and Social Impact, and our work has resulted in some of the most highly acclaimed and influential earned media campaigns on behalf of clients that include The United Nations Foundation, The White House, The California Endowment, The Nature Conservancy, The MacArthur Foundation, Rock The Vote and Amnesty International.
http://taskforce.pr 

Media Contact:
[email protected]

SOURCE For Freedoms