Temperatures dipped well below freezing on Saturday as Carbondale’s Sophia Jackson joined 20 other singers, shivering on the Aspen pedestrian mall.
“One must open their eyes and look about,” Jackson said. “There's a lot of harm going on — a lot of hurt going on.”
Jackson sings with the Joyful Resistance Choir regularly at Carbondale’s Third Street Center, but she and the group decided to hold an outdoor event ahead of the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s second inauguration.
The choir invited people who were anxious about the future to join them in song over the weekend, and one issue really compelled Jackson to participate.
“ICE in particular, it’s harming lots of communities,” Jackson said.
Similar demonstrations have been organized across the country since a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Macklin Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
However, organizers in Aspen didn’t explicitly advertise the event as an anti-ICE protest.
“We're singing for connection with each other,” said Katia Galambos, a singer with the Joyful Resistance Choir. She organized Saturday’s event with Mountain Action Indivisible and the Raging Grannies.
Galambos wants people to connect over a shared vision for the future, not feel divided on specific issues.
“You might ask, why are we singing?” Galambos said to attendees. “I've learned that you cannot convince anyone of anything. You can only show them that what you're doing is a better way.”
“People can know something in their heads without knowing something in their hearts. We're here to know it in our hearts,” she said.
In between songs, Galambos spoke out against arbitrary immigration detention, the frequent lack of legal representation in immigration court, and other Trump administration policies.
Joyful resistance
Jennifer Ho, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, gave a presentation last fall about how joyful experiences — like singing — play a role in her anti-racism work.
She said joy can improve an activist’s endurance as they oppose federal government overreach and abuse.
“Fascist authoritarianism is exhausting,” Ho said.
She recognized that some people won’t agree that the U.S. has become an authoritarian regime, but they might concede that it’s draining to watch viral images and videos of immigration agents pulling people from cars and throwing them against the ground.
“It’s really hard to live with. How are we living with watching people being kidnapped and then deported?” Ho asked.
Protest songs have been key to many resistance efforts throughout history, including the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Ho said joy can keep people engaged, rather than turning away from their constant discomfort.
“I think what's dangerous is people who are going to check out, like I've heard some people saying, ‘I just can't watch the news anymore,’” Ho said.
“I think I’d rather have people pay attention to the news, and also when you need to take a break, when you need to listen to music, when you need to dance, when you need to scream … just take a moment,” she said.
At Aspen’s protest on Saturday, Galambos called upon the choir singers to stay engaged and avoid this type of disassociation.
“I will never shut off my empathy, even if it's inconvenient for other people, and when we can hold each other's pain, that makes us stronger, and that's freedom, and that's community,” Galambos said.
After singing for an hour and a half, Sophia Jackson packed up her signs at sunset, clutching her numb fingers.
Despite the cold, she beamed with optimism, saying the whole experience made her feel lighter.
“The things we sing about aren't funny, but the words are,” Jackson said. “So yes, my heart feels connected, and I don't feel alone in my sorrow. I feel lifted.”
