In 2016, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, I wrote a post about my grandmother, who—born before women had the right to vote—hadn’t lived to see the first women nominated for president. That post was titled This Night’s for You, Gram.

Now in 2024, the DNC is in my city, Chicago, and we are nominating Vice President Kamala Harris for the office of president. While of course I still wish my smart and politically-minded grandmother was around to experience it, I’m dedicating this night to another smart and politically-minded woman: me.

I guess what I really should be calling myself these days is a smart, politically-minded childless cat lady.

One thing I admire about VP Harris, is that is that she controls the narrative. When creepy dudes blather on with the same old racist and misogynistic schtick, she doesn’t need to engage with it. Normally, I too will not allow smarmy politicians to define me, but in fact, it is quite accurate that I’m a childless cat lady, and—most importantly—it is certainly a great way to organize a large voting pool. Hey cat ladies, where are you at, how are we getting the vote out, and is there a sale on litter?

In 2016 women like me joined secret political groups and we had a lot of inside jokes about pantsuits. In 2024 we’re still joining groups, but the groups aren’t secret (and they’re not just women). A few weeks ago, when Vice President Harris unexpectedly became Presidential Candidate Harris, Black women immediately organized a 44,000 person Zoom and raised 1.5 million dollars. Other groups organized; gen z, dudes, comics, cat ladies, the LGBTQ community; we love to see it.

In 2016 I understood data, but I was just getting started with a specialty in using grassroots outreach to bring new audiences to the arts. Now I’m damn good at it.

Grassroots works the same in politics as it does in the arts—from person to person, organically, ground up. Listen to me: lawn signs don’t vote, memes don’t vote. People vote. Talk to people. (And give their cats a scratch behind their ears, while you’re at it.)

Now is the time to use your gifts. Everyone has gifts, everyone has interests, everyone knows people. Use this to organize your community to take action. Now until November 5, you can encourage folks to register to vote, canvas, donate, and of course, vote.

Find your people, organize. Then find other people. Work together and we’ll call that a coalition.

It took some time for me to write this because, in addition to taking frequent breaks to play with my cats, I couldn’t stop scrolling through pictures of folks pouring into Chicago for the DNC tomorrow, full of excitement about my gorgeous city and to nominate Kamala Harris.

Welcome to Chicago, friends. This night’s for us.