People Join Puppets, Paper Cranes To Cry, “No Kings!”

by Paul Bass The New Haven independent

One hundred cranes are expected to descend on the New Haven Green Saturday to shift America’s political winds in a new direction.

The flock of cranes — paper cranes — are part of the plan for the latest “No Kings” rally called to “defend democratic values and reject authoritarianism” by opposing the policies of President Donald Trump.

The rally is scheduled to run from 3-5 p.m. Organizers say they expect 10,000 people to attend. Millions of Americans are expected to attend similar “No Kings!” rallies Saturday in an estimated 2,700 communities around the country in protest of Trump administration immigration polices, health care cuts, environmental rollbacks attacks, on civil rights, and war in Iran.

Besides the cranes, New Haven’s rally schedule features puppets as well as musical performances (from Doron Monk Flake and Model Decoy, Singing Resistance, and the SCSU Blue Steel).

Rally planners wanted to make sure that fun is a big part of the mix, said Janis Underwood of Greater Westville Indivisible, which is organizing the protest along with ACLU CT, CT for All, New Haven Rising, and New Haven Federation of Teachers.

“Joy is a form of resistance, because that is one of the things that they appear to be trying to destroy, along with a lot of our rights,” Underwood said during a pre-rally interview Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program (found here).

Participants will parade through downtown streets after hearing speeches by, among others, teachers union President Leslie Blatteau, Mayor Justin Elicker, New Have Rising’s Rev. Scott Marks, and state Attorney General William Tong.

Underwood said organizers learned from the last “No Kings” rally, on Oct. 18, that they need a better sound system so people can hear the speeches. They’ve enlisted New Haven’s DJ Prime to make that happen, she said.

The organizers also heard from people at that rally that participants wanted opportunities to follow up with action: “This is an amazing rally, but now what?” Underwood recalled hearing. So this time around organizers have enlisted more than 30 community organizations to set up tables with information about concrete issue-oriented steps people can take to continue the resistance.