Do What You Can!
Be like the hummingbird- and do what you can! If enough of us participate in this movement, we can accomplish anything.
So many of you have asked about our logo and its story.. The designer chose the hummingbird because birds in flight often symbolize freedom and the hummingbird is colorful, quick and precise.
The drop could be for a drop of water.. Many drops create a tsunami of change.
Or the drop could be of blood.. For all the women who will die with their reproductive rights taken away.
The four hummingbirds with the drop in the middle take on a story and symbolism of their own. People see a crab, a woman’s curves, a vagina, an eye… all with their own clear meaning.
When the designer showed her idea to our group, one member asked if anyone had ever heard of the African proverb of the hummingbird. She pulled up this video, the story of the hummingbird, as told by Professor Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental and political activist, Nobel Laureate, and writer.
After watching, everyone’s eyes welled up with tears. We’re doing what we can! Just like the hummingbird. It must be a sign. This must be right. But we need to make sure we aren’t appropriating anything. Our founder got to work with her amazing networking skills and contacted the foundation associated with the story, informing them of our mission and seeking approval. They agreed.
Click Here to DO WHAT YOU CAN.
Read the full story from our designer, Ruthie.
Learn more about Professor Wangari Maathai and her group the Greenbelt Movement.
How Can You Help?
Be like the hummingbird- and do what you can! If enough of us participate in this movement, we can accomplish anything.
We at Strike for America understand that not everyone can officially strike and take off work – but many of us can contribute in other ways.
Strike, if you can!
We are asking everyone to start to strike back on July 13th - Amazon Prime Day! No Work. No Spending. No Shopping. If you are able to continue your strike, please do so, until our demands are met!
If you are unable to take a day off work, that’s okay! There are lots of other ways you can make an impact.
Stay Home if you can!
If you’re able save your labor for yourself! Show them how valuable your labor is by staying home. Use that time to get started on your Strike Back! Homework and recharge for the battles to come.
KEEP your wallets closed!
Join us on 'Prime 'Day' (July 13th) as we make our first united stand. 'Prime Day' is one of the top 5 shopping days of the year. DO NOT SPEND A DIME WITH ANY CORPORATE RETAILERS FOR THIS 24 HOURS. Continue to not spend money at companies that do not support us. See 'Where to Shop' on our Resources page to learn more about where your money is going.
We Need Numbers - Sign the Pledge!
Signing the pledge signifies that you support the movement and will do what you can. It is important that we get numbers of signups to show lawmakers that we have real support behind the movement. If you do nothing else- SIGN THE PLEDGE TODAY!
Use your voice!
Join a protest, hit up a rally, MAKE SOME NOISE! Keep the cash registers quiet and turn you passion all the way up!
Spread the Word!
Share our social media channels, website and information with your friends and family by any means you have - we are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. Utilize our hashtags to get more traction!
#strikeforamerica
#takebackourpower
Donate to Supportive Organizations
Help out those hit hardest by donating time, supplies, or money to organizations that directly support the immediate needs of our community.
Show Your Solidarity
When/if you strike, we ask that you express yourself in ways to show solidarity to the movement. Wear black, paint your nails black, or wear black makeup.
We are just getting started...
July 13 is the first punch. Get plugged in with Daily Actions that will be emailed to you when you sign the pledge and stay in the loop for larger events in your area and nationwide on our website.
The Birth of a Logo
Ruthie Gentileschi: July 6, 2022
How do you represent what an entire movement stands for with a single icon?
How does one go about that?
You must think of what the core beliefs of the movement are.
You must take an entire idea and condense it into a tiny little image.
At the same time, you want to create something new, something that has never been seen before, something that sparks the imagination and begs the question: What is this? Where did it come from? What does it mean?
I struggled with this a lot since I joined the movement; going back and forth, listening to a lot of external feedback; constantly reminding myself that it is literally impossible to please everyone. I even spent a whole day researching flags and color meanings only to come up with a beautiful image that fell short.
I began doing research on the symbology related to freedom because ultimately that is what we are fighting for.
How do I represent freedom without using the symbol (the American Flag) that has been attached to it for decades? How do we show that our freedoms are being taken away by the GOP, Religious Extremists and a SCOTUS that seems to be running unchecked. How do I show the shadow they have cast upon our country? The darkness that we all feel right now.
Then, the aha moment: That’s it! The flag is under the shadow of those people who want to take our rights away. There is a thunderstorm looming over our heads threatening to become a hurricane and whisk away everything about this country that we have come to know and love. Why not take the flag colors but make them darker? The white is no longer white but gray, the blue is muddled and has lost its original vibrance, the red leans more towards pink but has a tone to it that just feels a bit uneasy, like we all do.
I had to ask people what they thought, comms director, the founder, our operations leader, our advocacy, and diversity team lead. They agreed.
At this point I was still lost, but at least I had colors in mind. Our blue would be #1E3361, our red would be #79112C and our gray would be #979797 eventually changed to #696969 just for giggles.
For those who may be a bit confused at this point, the numbers are called hex codes and they are how the graphics and design people identify them to make sure they are using the exact right color out of the millions available.
I could see the brand coming to life in my head, I knew there was a new symbol on the verge of being created, I was excited, shaking, blood pumping so hard my face was red. I went back to researching symbology. I needed to find a symbol to begin with, a starting point if you will. Something that is not culturally tied to anything yet and does not clash with a religion.
Another Aha moment: A bird in flight. Birds in flight have been recognized as a symbol for freedom worldwide for decades. But which bird would be just right?
I knew off the bat I wasn’t going to use an eagle and I will let your imaginations fill in the blanks there. I didn’t want a bird that was commonly used so the phoenix and the dove were out. I wanted something that represented the diversity of people affected by recent events, something colorful. A hummingbird! They are colorful, quick, and precise. Exactly what we need to be. They are small but mighty, they are beautiful. That’s it, that’s the bird I will run with.
I pulled out my iPad and opened procreate and started doodling. I laid my colors down first then found a hummingbird silhouette and played around with it until it felt ok enough for a draft. But it still felt like it fell short, it didn’t encompass everything about the movement, it wasn’t enough.
I’ve been really into creating patterns lately, so I decided to tile four hummingbirds together to see what it looked like. It was awesome, the curvy negative space they created hinted at femininity and a uterus, the wings poked out sharply like a knife cutting through injustice. It felt good but it was still missing something. There was a lack of power a lack of grief, how could I convey those two things with something in that negative space
The Final aha moment: A droplet. But a droplet of what? Of blood? Of Water? Of Tears? Perhaps it is all three. I decided to add it in, and the logo felt complete.
The droplet would symbolize blood, water, tears. A representation of the lives that will sadly be lost due to the recent rulings but also a representation of each of us. We are each a droplet of water, and we are coming together to create an unstoppable tsunami that will force the hands of the government to ensure that all humans have the rights they need to live a full and happy life.
After taking a quick break I realized that the four birds could also be symbols for:
Age,
race/ethnicity/culture,
sex/gender/sexual orientation/,
religion/spirituality.
I never made this part official, but it has been on my mind ever since. Can a symbol have too many meanings? Personally, I don’t think so. A symbol is what you make it, isn’t it? It’s art, and while the artist can assign any meaning they want, each individual person will attach their own meaning to it.
I sketched up a brand concept page and took it back to everyone else. They loved it. We decided to run with it and then our comms director asked me if I had ever heard the story of the hummingbird. I had not. She shared her screen and we all watched; our eyes welled up with tears. It must be a sign. This must be right. But we need to make sure we aren’t appropriating anything. Our founder got to work with her amazing networking skills and contacted the foundation associated with the story, informing them of our mission and seeking approval. They agreed.
Here’s the story of the hummingbird, as told by Professor Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental and political activist, Nobel Laureate, and writer.
It felt like kismet. After days of grueling work and trying to organize and find our places in this movement it felt like we had made something.
Minutes later we hopped on a call with our marketing and website guru, she loved it. She took it, she polished it and made it perfect. She took my sketch and turned it into the symbol that it is today.
It is now a symbol we can unite under, a symbol of hope, of the shadow that hangs over us, of the freedoms we are fighting for. A symbol that says all we can do is our best at any given moment. A symbol that gives us grace and motivates us to continue to fight, and hopefully, one day a symbol of freedom and a reminder to learn from our past.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Please feel free to share it with anyone who is curious.
Now, let’s all get back to organizing this strike!
If you are not working directly with the organization, I would like to take a minute to remind you of just how powerful you are as an individual. There are over 40 thousand of us here. If each of us takes the time follow all the @strikeforamerica accounts across all social media platforms and to reach out directly to and bring ten people into the movement and then those ten people do the same there is no reason why we cannot have over 4 million people if not, 40 million people participate on the 13th. You may only be one hummingbird carrying one drop of water to the fire but if you get millions of hummingbirds, those drops of water become a deluge and that fire will extinguished, the clouds will part, and we will once again have the freedom to live full, happy, and equal lives.
With kindness, love, and hope,
Ruthie Gentileschi