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(RNS) — At Middle Church, a historic congregation in Manhattan’s East Village, hundreds gathered on Thursday evening (Feb. 26) for a two-hour “ICE Out, Sing-In” service, where prospective protesters were trained to “try to touch the hearts” of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as they confront them, said Middle Church’s senior pastor, the Rev. Jacqui Lewis.
The singalong, the second such service held at the church this month, included movement and testimony as well as song and honored one congregant’s husband who was absent because he’d been detained.
Two weeks ago, Middle Church hosted its first sing-in, drawing more than 1,000 people online and in person, with crowds spilling onto the street, according to Lewis.
Thursday’s service began with Middle Church’s Jerriese Johnson Gospel Choir, followed by the Resistance Revival Chorus. The groups trained attendees on songs originating in the Civil Rights Movement as well as newer music written by activists in Minneapolis. Selections included the chorus of “Ella’s Song,” about civil rights activist Ella Baker, the Christian hymn “This Joy” and “All You Fascists Bound to Lose.”
At one point, the gospel choir led an original song in Spanish with lyrics that said: “You are not alone. Together we create liberation.”
The crowd included community members, churchgoers and activists, many of whom cried throughout the two-hour event. Nina Resnick, who has attended both sing-ins at Middle Church, though she is not a member, said she views singing as both therapeutic and communal. “I think almost physically, my heart is so open, and physically I feel so much tingling and alive,” Resnick said. “And I love singing anyway, but I think singing songs with meaning, with protest, about important aspects of life — I can’t think of anything that’s more therapeutic.”
Organized in solidarity with faith groups in Minneapolis by the national network Interfaith Alliance, the events are an outgrowth of the Singing Resistance movement that began six weeks ago as ICE combed the city’s streets for immigrants. The movement gained attention on social media as participants sang outside hotel rooms where ICE agents are staying, leading church choirs and clergy to hold similar sing-ins inside sanctuaries and during marches to protest ICE arrests.
“We’re going to sing while we’re walking. We’re going to sing as we mourn those who have been murdered. I’m so deeply moved by it, and it is a repeated response,” said Lewis, who has led Middle Church for more than a decade.
Lewis said longstanding relationships with clergy and members in Minneapolis, including friends whose church helped launch the sing-ins, inspired her to host a similar event in New York. “We’ve seen our family in Minnesota singing as resistance,” Lewis said. “The singing is memory, the singing is hope, the singing is prayer, the singing is power.”
Paola Mendoza, co-founder of the Resistance Revival Chorus, described the group as a small collective of women, trans women and nonbinary people who have performed around the city for the past decade. She said the chorus partnered with Middle Church and Interfaith Alliance to use music to counter what she described as isolation and fear.
“We saw what was happening in Minneapolis, and we saw the people singing on the streets, and we were like, ‘This is what we do,’” Mendoza said. “Tonight, we are teaching songs of resistance and protest specifically for this moment.”
Before the Resistance Revival Chorus performed, Matthew Colin Marrero, a member of the congregation and its gospel choir since 2015, told the crowd that his husband has been detained by ICE since the Monday before Thanksgiving.
“I am here to sing and protest against ICE, also in solidarity, because my husband has been detained,” Marrero told RNS.
“Middle Church has been the foundation that I needed, especially when things like this happen to you and your faith can seem to waver,” Marrero said. “We’ll carry you. We’ll hold you in this moment,” he added, referring to the faith community.
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Shari Carpenter, a member of Middle Church for 20 years, said she attended the sing-in to find solace during a politically tumultuous time, “because things are pretty terrible right now, and I need to do anything that’s going to make me feel better and make me feel like I’m contributing in some small way to making things better.”
Gloria Tate, a member of the Middle Church congregation, said she came after seeing singing protests on Instagram. “I have been a part of protest movements here since Black Lives Matter in New York City, but singing has not really been a part of that experience,” Tate said. “So, I was really intrigued by the whole effort.”
Tate said the sing-in stirs strong emotions. “Whenever I hear the choir, the tears are always falling,” Tate said. “It feels like a release for me. In this context of resistance, there’s another element layered on top of that, a collective release. A sense that we’re all in this together and can get through this.”
On Saturday (Feb. 28) at 1 p.m., the social justice organization Hands Off NYC, which made an announcement at the end of the sing-in on Thursday, will host a sing-in at Foley Square in Manhattan as part of a national weekend of action organized by Singing Resistance. The event, held in partnership with Singing Resistance NYC, aims to draw attention to sites of ICE-related violence and to protest detention at facilities, specifically the Dilley Detention Center in Texas.
