“Ring the bells that still can ring!” Clancy Emanuel sang, in a voice that came from deep in his belly. Around him, two dozen people anchored themselves to the floor, and began to sing the words back. “Forget your perfect offering!”The sound bloomed around them. “There is a crack in everything!” Within seconds, a rollicking call-and-response to Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” had reached the high, arched ceiling. “That’s how! The light! Gets in!”
That focus on artmaking as an integral part of resistance came to downtown New Haven, and then the city’s East Rock neighborhood, on Wednesday evening, as members of Unidad Latina en Acción, the New Haven Peace Commission, Singing Resistance New Haven, the New Haven Immigrants Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) came together over two separate events within two miles of each other.
First, ULA gathered people in a rally at City Hall, speakers pressed up against Ed Hamilton’s memorial of the Amistad Rebellion. Then, the organizing spirit travelled to Whitney Avenue, where Singing Resistance rehearses each week, and NHIC had joined for an art build.
Both responded to recent sweeps from Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Danbury and Bridgeport last week, during which ICE arrested and detained nearly 100 people, and left families shaken and traumatized on the first day of a new school year. Both events acknowledged the power of collecting artmaking as a way into organizing and activism.
Throughout, a refrain remained the same across languages and organizing tactics: solo el pueblo salva el pueblo—only the people can save the people.
“We have to speak every day, we have to organize every day,” said ULA Co-Founder John Jairo Lugo, surrounded by both immigrant families and ULA supporters who are U.S. citizens, many wearing masks and baseball caps to protect their identities. “Only the people can save the people. We don’t want solidarity alone.”
Solo El Pueblo Salva El Pueblo
Millie Grenough and Frank Panzarella, who both performed original songs, sit behind organizer John Lugo.