The National and Sleater Kinney Cover “Fortunate Son” at Women’s March Afterparty in DC

photo by Owen Ela

On January 21, over 5 Million people took to the streets worldwide and over 1 Million in Washington, D.C. to march in the name of women’s rights, which activists believe will be under threat from the actions of the new President. Marches were heavily attending by actors and singers alike and a powerful video of Ashley Judd declaring herself a “Nasty Girl” through slam poetry has been making its way around the internet in the following days.

I am not nasty like the combo of Trump and Pence being served up to me in my voting booths. I’m nasty like the battles my grandmothers fought to get me into that voting booth,” Judd read on Saturday. “I’m nasty like the fight for wage equality. Scarlett Johansson, why were the female actors paid less than half of what the male actors earned last year. See, even when we do go into higher paying jobs our wages are still cut with blades sharpened by testosterone. Why is the work of a black woman and a Hispanic woman worth only 63 and 54 cents of a white man’s privileged daughter? This is not a feminist myth. This is inequality. So we are not here to be debunked. We are here to be respected. We are here to be nasty.”- Ashley Judd

Musicians not only participated in the official march but also in the official after-party concert which took place at the 9:30 Club in D.C. The afterparty was planned as a benefit to raise money for Planned Parenthood who’s federal funding has recently come under fire by the new administration. The event was headlined by The National’s and featured a set from Sleater-Kinney. In a video (which you can view below) Sleater-Kinney covers Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Fortunate Son’ alongside The National’s Matt Berninger. Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth and Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards provided backing vocals for the powerful performance.

On the women’s march website they gave a little insight into the reasoning behind having a celeb-heavy and artistically backed movement stating “We strongly believe that the arts – whether visual or performing – play an important role in movements for social change. We also carry our hope in the arts as they serve as a conduit to shift narratives and become records of our social movements.”