46 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 taking and some printed protest posters for people to use and distribute. One day, the officers from the Sherrif’s Department were trying to move protestors. They announced that they would be deploying tear case and instructed people to move back. Some people came prepared with gas masks. They were not going to back down. I feel a tap on my shoulder. A White woman, who appears to be in her 60’s, says to me and a Black woman standing beside me, “Please move. We want to keep you safe. This for us to do. We got this.” I don’t how the woman next to me reacted, but I do know that I broke down in tears. It was too much. The terror and the compassion. I don’t know that are bodies are meant for these kinds of extremes. On Fridays I would join tens of thousands of others, and we’d march across downtown Minneapolis, demonstrating our collective demand for the end to the occupation. We’d chant and hold us our protest signs. Who knew there were so many puns about ICE?! It felt like the entire metro population was there. Kids and their parents. Teenagers, skipping school to make their voice heard. Every ethnicity and race, putting their bodies on the line, because they had no choice. We’d all read the poem, “First they came for the Communists…” we knew how it ends, and we were determined to write a different ending. I run a theater company called Mixed Blood Theatre. Our mission is to “disrupt injustices, advance racial equity, and build community.” We were made for this moment. We kicked into rapid response mode, commissioning plays to help –Mark Valdez Studies have proven that places with high social cohesion are able to withstand disasters, recover faster from shocks, and adapt to change.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTA0OTQ5OA==