The Democratic National Convention is set to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris as the first Black and Asian American woman for president on Thursday, just days before Women’s Equality Day on Monday.
To mark the annual holiday, the nonprofit organization Take the Lead is celebrating its 10th anniversary by hosting the Women’s Equality Day Power Up Concert at the Kennedy Center on Sunday at 6:30 p.m.
“Take the Lead’s mission is to prepare, develop, inspire and propel all women of all diversities and all intersectionalities to take their fair and equal share of leadership positions across every sector,” Co-Founder and President Gloria Feldt told WTOP. “It started when I was trying to figure out why we had opened doors and changed laws and seen a women’s ‘first’ of almost everything, but women were still so far from parity.”
Sunday’s genre-bending concert will feature live music performances by world-renowned pianist and composer Marina Arsenijevic, as well as the indie-pop band Betty and three-time Grammy nominees Sweet Honey in the Rock, D.C.’s Black female a cappella group that combines song, dance and sign language.
“It’s a great lineup,” Feldt said. “We have three incredible performers.”
The event will also honor TV’s original “Wonder Woman” star Lynda Carter.
“The cherry on top of the icing on the cake is that we will be giving our Leading Woman Award, which we give every year, to none other than Lynda Carter,” Feldt said. “What young girl and what women hasn’t been inspired by a ‘Wonder Woman’ character? Whether it was Lynda’s version or Gal Gadot, there are many different versions, but we have all been inspired by that woman who owns her power and uses it for good.”
Carter, who lives in the D.C. area, shared her gratitude in a statement to the nonprofit organization.
“There is nothing more powerful than a group of women working on a shared goal,” Carter said. “We are a force to be reckoned with, filled with rich determination. I look forward to joining Take the Lead Women in community for this important event.”
The day after the concert, Carter will also attend Take the Lead’s fifth annual Power Up: Together We Lead Conference at the National Housing Center located on 15th Street, Northwest. Monday’s event intentionally falls on actual Women’s Equality Day, which Congress permanently recognized in 1973.
“The Equal Rights Amendment still has not been formally put into the constitution, so we’ll be talking about that,” Feldt said. “We’ll kick off the morning with a proclamation by the mayor of D.C., then we’ll launch into Together We Lead for Health talking about women’s health. … Then we will have a Leading Man Award [for Doug Emhoff], but since the time we first invited him to receive it, his life has changed dramatically.”
Feldt says there’s extra energy in the air this year with the potential of America’s first woman president.
“I actually believe this is the most consequential Women’s Equality Day of the 21st century, so we are so excited to be hosting this conference and concert,” Feldt said. “We have seen women ascend to very high levels, including a woman at the top of a major party ticket for president who is doing pretty well in the polls right now, so this is probably the closest we have come to breaking that highest and hardest glass ceiling.”
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Listen to our full conversation on the podcast below:
