Illustration by Anna Horowitz. Image courtesy of The Every Day Project.

President Trump’s first 100 days are not easily digestible for many MADS students and alumni. Before Inauguration Day, alumna Mae Wiskin (MA Design Studies, 2016) helped launch The Every Day Project, which aimed to bring achievable everyday acts of activism to subscriber’s inboxes. In light of the current events following January 20, 2017, The Every Day Project has relaunched and renewed its commitment to bringing awareness to the types of initiatives that are crucial to maintain engagement with.

From the project’s website:

“The Every Day Project works like a political juice cleanse. Quitting smoking. You do it every day to create a new habit. It’s not always going to be fun, but that’s sort of the point. Political activism isn’t always difficult, but sometimes it is uncomfortable, and we have to do it together.”

The project will continue to send emails but on a weekly, rather than daily, basis. In the meantime, Mae offered some ways to get involved from now until your next inbox notification.

1. Pick up the phone: 5 Calls is a website that makes it easy for you to make do on those promises you’ve tweeted so much about. Type in your location, choose an issue that’s important to you (such as “Reject the Muslim Ban,” or “Reject the Appointment of Steve Bannon to the National Security Council”) and find easy-to-follow instructions on how to voice your opinion including specific phone numbers and scripts to get you started.
2. Visit A/D/O: This creative space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, is dedicated to “exploring the boundaries of design” and offers full, part-time, and “Aficionado” membership access to its resources. Recent graduates of design programs will find an open-space studio that allows for plenty of opportunity to collaborate with other designers as well as access to a fabrication lab with available tools such as 3D printers, laser cutters, sewing machines, screen-printing kits, and photography, video, and lighting kits. In addition to its workspace, A/D/O runs “The Design Academy” which explores three themes each year through a speaker series, installation, and exhibition. The current theme “Utopia vs. Dystopia: Designing Our Imagined Futures” features many events open to the public.
3. Finally ask for that raise (and other workplace support from Ladies Get Paid): Mae turned us on to this website which aims to help women navigate the realities of gender inequality in the workplace. Mae suggests it’s an excellent resource for recent graduates to continue honing in the fine skills of networking while taking courses such as “Salary Negotiation 101.” While you’re there, and if you still need convincing on how easy it is to make a difference in scalable ways, read her piece titled “8 Ways to be an Activist When You Don’t Have the Time.”