On May Day this week, left-wing radicals from various organizations gathered in Duncan Park not to overthrow capitalism but to eat and fellowship.

May Day, or International Workers’ Day, is celebrated every year on May 1 in honor of workers and organized labor movements. It was an official state holiday in the Soviet Union and remains an official holiday in many post-Soviet countries. In the United States, it is generally associated with radical and anti-capitalist movements and “working-class militancy.”

Representatives of the Lexington Democratic Socialists of America, Anti-Racist Action, Food Not Bombs, the Kentucky Green Party, and the Kentucky Socialist Party were in attendance, as were several candidates for local office, who attended in solidarity or support. Winter, an attendee from the Kentucky Socialist Party, noted that the event was an opportunity to bring together many single-issue “radical groups” in solidarity against the “real enemies.”

Matt Wilmore ’08 represented Lexington Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a local chapter of a national organization. Locally, DSA is working to end cash bail in Lexington jails and to fight gentrification in North Limestone neighborhoods. Nationally, DSA, which has been described by Dr. Cornel West as “the major organization on the American left with an all embracing moral vision, systematic social analysis, and political praxis rooted in the quest for radical democracy, social freedom, and individual liberties,” advocates for Medicare for All. It has around 37,000 members, up from 6,000 prior to 2016.

Kent “Swampy” Glade attended in support of the Kentucky Green Party. He said that the Green Party stood for “nonviolence, local decision-making, ecological wisdom, and decentralization of power,” and characterized its work as in keeping with Kentucky’s tradition of moral seriousness, dating back to the Christian Revival Movement. The issues he emphasized included ranked-choice voting, legalization of medical and recreational cannabis, and revitalization of the industrial hemp economy.

Jake and Zoey, who declined to give their last names for reasons of personal safety, attended as representatives of Anti-Racist Action. They defined their work as an effort to combat local fascism by providing community support to those who are targeted by fascist activity. They described ARA as a non-sectarian movement committed to “taking care of each other… to self-reliance outside capitalism, [which] ignores the needs of people” in favor of corporate interests. They emphasized the intersectionality of anti-capitalism and anti-racism.

Dr. Arnold Farr, professor of philosophy at the University of Kentucky, is a non-partisan candidate for an at-large city council seat. He stated that he was attending in solidarity with the tradition of May Day and that he worked to fight “any form of injustice.” He is a local organizer for the Poor People’s Campaign, an effort begun by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and recently revived with the leadership of Rev. William J. Barber II.

Mister Broyles is a Democratic candidate for Constable District 1 who said that the office is not currently being used as effectively as it could be. In Kentucky, Constables are responsible for performing all evictions, and Broyles pointed to disparities in how those evictions are handled “on the North Side,” where people’s belongings are often placed on the curb to shame them, versus in other parts of Lexington, where such a sight is not as common. He argued that the Constable should try to provide informational resources to people at risk of eviction and offer moving services to those who are evicted and avoid the risk of eviction by helping people with their utility bills.

Food (vegan) was provided by Food Not Bombs (FNB), a “solidarity, not charity” organization that feeds the homeless in Phoenix Park every Thursday at 5 pm. Representing that group was Lyndon Diggins ’19, who said that FNB has a box at Third Street Stuff for donations, which are urgently needed, especially produce and dry goods. Diggins said that FNB tries to use food that would otherwise go to waste and that they need volunteers to help cook so that the group can continue to grow.

The May Day event clearly demonstrated the intersection of national and local politics. While attending organizers variously dubbed themselves “socialists,” “left libertarians,” or “anarchists,” the event was amicable, free of sectarian conflict, and entirely peaceful. Attendees enjoyed a meal, conversed, and went to Al’s Bar afterward.

This Saturday, April 28, from 10 AM to 3 PM, several locations on Lexington’s Main Street were home to the Listen Up! Festival. This festival, inspired by the momentum gained by the #MeToo movement, was created to provide community-wide support for survivors and victims of interpersonal violence, which Stephanie Theakston, the Program Coordinator of the Domestic Violence Prevention Board, described in a press release as “including dating violence, domestic violence, sexual violence, and stalking”.

Theakston, who is coordinating the event, explained that the event is a continuation of the strides made with the #MeToo movement.

“At the end of last year there was a lot of momentum for this topic from the #MeToo movement, and we wanted to build on that before public attention shifted,” said Theakston on the beginnings of this festival.

In addition to bringing attention to the topic of interpersonal violence, the festival will also serve to educate the community on preventing and handling it. This event is not just for professionals, victims, or survivors but for the entire community.

“We wanted it to be something that highlighted the voices of survivors themselves, that built empathy for their experiences, that educated the general public on the diversity of those experiences and why victims might respond in different ways to violence, and we wanted it to be something that made solutions accessible to people so they could begin to see and participate in ways that make a difference for victims and survivors,” said Theakston.

The hope for the festival is that the Lexington community can come together to stop domestic violence. Many of its activities will be focused on ending violence but also on how to support the victims of it.

Anyone can be a victim of interpersonal violence, so one goal of the festival is to show the diverse groups of people it affects.

“We also are hoping this will be an opportunity to demonstrate there is support for victims and survivors of different identities, including survivors within LGBTQ communities, survivors that speak various languages, survivors of color, survivors of multiple ethnicities and different ages, survivors that are immigrants, survivors with varying abilities, and more,” said Theakston.

Theaskton explained that one of the biggest highlights of the festival is that there are many opportunities for survivors of interpersonal violence to speak out and share their experiences. One such space for this is the Soapbox Area that will be located by the fountains in front of the Chase Bank Building.

“If any survivors are just now hearing about the festival and would like to make their voice heard, the Soapbox is the perfect area to do so, and that will be happening during the whole festival,” said Theakston, encouraging survivors to speak out.

This festival has many community sponsors, including Transy. “Through the Office of Student Wellbeing, Transy has injected wonderful energy and creativity into our planning process. There are several activities taking place at the festival that have been created and organized by Transy staff, and there will be several students volunteering – especially from It’s On Us,” said Theakston.

Theakston wants everyone to know that, “The festival is free and family friendly, and the weather is supposed to be gorgeous!”

Visit the festival’s Facebook event page here.