© Kayla Miller | kmille17@mlive.com/mlive.com/TNS Nearly 3,000 people marched from Western Michigan University to Bronson Park for the 2018 Kalamazoo Women's March Sunday, Jan. 21. Kayla Miller | MLive.com

KALAMAZOO, MI — A women-led march and rally will take place in downtown Kalamazoo Saturday, focused on empowering diversity in the community on a day where similar events will take place across the nation.

The Women’s March Kalamazoo is hosted by the local YWCA and planned in collaboration with a number of community members. The theme of the march is “building power together,” said Coreen Ellis, YWCA special project and training coordinator.

In line with that theme, Ellis said organizers are from diverse backgrounds and came together to plan the event, which will take place Saturday, Jan. 18.

“We wanted to know what the Kalamazoo community wanted,” Ellis said. “It is a truly women-led event."

Women’s March Kalamazoo will begin at 11 a.m. with an outdoor march starting in Bronson Park. The route will lead participants to South Street, then onto South Westnedge Avenue, then West Michigan Avenue and will end at First Congregational Church, 345 W. Michigan Ave., at noon for speakers and presentations.

“We thought the march needed to represent all women in Kalamazoo regardless of background,” Ellis said. “It’s an opportunity to be part of a greater movement.”

Shannon Cohen and State Rep. Sarah Anthony are the guest speakers and they will discuss women’s role in the workplace and the community and how women can “take their stand back” and rise from any situation, Ellis said.

Six Women’s Talk speakers, leaders from the Kalamazoo community, will take stage discussing triumphs and there will also be presentations from a number of performance arts groups, she said.

The YWCA’s mission is to eliminate racism and empower women, which aligns with the mission of the national Women’s March to empower diverse women to create social change, Ellis said.

Similar women-led marches will take place around the country on Saturday and Kalamazoo’s event was created in solidarity with the national movement, Ellis said. YWCA of the U.S.A. is an official partner with the Women’s March on Washington, she added.

In addition to hosting the march and rally, the YWCA will be collecting donations of personal care items for the women in the shelter as well as monetary donations.

Online donation options and additional information are on the YWCA website.

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