Singing Resistance members paused at noon on Feb. 7 on the steps of St. Cyril Catholic Church while its church bells rang for 10 minutes across the neighborhood. (Patti Hoffmann)
Café Marguerite owner Melissa Borgmann and her employees know firsthand the fear that arises when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) comes knocking.
In December, when Operation Metro Surge first began, a café employee saw their son taken into custody, held for 48 hours and then released. The emotional strain of ICE presence in Minneapolis has taken a toll on the entire community. In response, many have found that nonviolent protest and collective action offer hope and healing.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January, Borgmann hosted an after-hours gathering at the café’s location, 300 13th Ave NE, to pray for peace. At that event, she met a member of the Singing Resistance, who invited her to join a gathering of nearly two thousand people singing together at Westminster Presbyterian Church in early February.
According to their social media, the Singing Resistance is “a movement of singers across the US, singing in grief, power, and solidarity” that is “building a mass movement of singers to protect and care for our communities in the face of rising authoritarianism. … We sing publicly in the streets for the sake of solace, strength, solidarity, to voice our dissent, and to refuse cooperation with oppressive and autocratic forces.”
Singing Resistance members led a community sing-along with call-and-response songs in English and Spanish on 13th Ave. NE. (Patti Hoffmann)
Moved by these experiences, Borgmann felt compelled to host an event of her own to support and “sing to our neighbors and uplift the many Spanish-speaking immigrant staff and church members on our block.”
On Saturday, February 7, neighbors and friends gathered at the café alongside Singing Resistance song leaders to learn two call-and-response songs in English and Spanish. The group stepped out into the cold to march along 13th Avenue, singing to neighbors and passersby.
During the procession, church bells began to fill the air in the neighborhood, and across Minnesota, as a signal of hope to the community. Organized by Rebecca Jorgenson Sundquist, founder of the nonprofit City of Bells, the initiative calls for church tower bells, hand bells and electronic bells to ring at noon for a full ten minutes each Saturday through April 4. “Bells have been used to spread messages to people in times of need and distress,” Jorgenson Sundquist said. “When there are no words, listen to the bells.”
Borgmann believes that “singing together when fear, grief, and sorrow are running rampant is a way to resist, lament, and extend a spirit of hope through the solidarity of song.”