Watch The Cast Of 'Hamilton' Perform 'Let It Be' At Chicago Women's March

By aaroncynic in News on Jan 21, 2017 10:26PM

Members of the cast of Hamilton performed for the estimated 250,000 people who attended the Chicago Women’s March on Saturday afternoon as part of the rally and subsequent march, which included an hours-long set of speeches from activists, community groups, politicians and more.

“I march to stop giving power to the media controlling our perception of what a woman should look like and how she must behave,” Ari Afsar, who described the scrutiny her appearance, demeanor and more were under when she was Miss California, told the crowd. “Somehow every decade thanks to commercials, magazines, fashion and cartoons we are made to believe that there is an ideal woman...that is all a lie. There is no one woman,” she said.

Afsar was joined onstage prior to the group’s performance by fellow cast members Karen Olivo and Samantha Marie Ware, who also told the crowd why they planned to march that day.

“I march for the scared and humiliated, the survivors and the fighters, the sisters and the daughters, for the parents who refuse to live in a world where sexual assault is normalized or tolerated,” said Olivo.

“I march for young black girls who grow up in a white society forced to assimilate to European beauty standards,” said Ware. “They are led to believe that their organic beauty is not enough...when I was young I was made to believe my dreams were invalid because I was black. I march to encourage the dreams of young black girls in places like Chicago who dream of being doctors, lawyers, actors, mothers or even the President of the United States.”

After the set of speeches, the cast performed “Let It Be” by the Beatles.