By Rita LaDoux,
Commentary
The power of community.
That is the focus of the St. Anthony Park Arts Festival. The day-long annual arts event is built on getting together, greeting friends and neighbors, and coming together as a community to celebrate our common love of art, music, neighbors and the St. Anthony Park Library.
This past winter, the SAP community and others throughout St. Paul, Minneapolis and all of Minnesota gathered together to resist ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) and to support our neighbors.
Watchers at street corners with whistles and neon jackets stood every day to protect children on their way to and from school.
Others provided transportation for workers and students who feared being picked up.
Murray Middle School parents held bake and craft sales to raise money for families in need.
The International Institute of Minnesota provided food and legal assistance to its many clients. Thousands showed up for response actions and city-wide marches.
Singing Resistance
But standing out and leading the response was Singing Resistance.
This decentralized but deeply dedicated group is united by core values of “building a mass movement of singers to protect and care for our communities in the face of rising authoritarianism.”
Singing Resistance gathered on street corners and near protest scenes; marched in the SAP Luminary Festival; rallied at the Whipple Detention Center and outside ICE-occupied hotels; and led many protest marches throughout the Twin Cities. Their voices welcomed all of our voices, and as a community we were united in song—singing joyfully and powerfully about our strengths and commitment to loving community ties and the cause of pushing ICE out of Minnesota, while also voicing the grief and anger of losing our neighbors, and losing Rene Good and Alex Pretti.
Singing Resistance—our friends and neighbors, some known, some stranger—represent the power of community, of working together and holding “this little light of mine” that each of us treasure in our hearts. There is power in song.
Songs have been shared for ages—songs of love, of loss, of faith, of patriotism, of beauty, of strength. Songs united and empowered the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s. And in Minnesota in 2026, songs helped drive ICE out of town.
Now communities across the U.S. are asking our song leaders to teach them how to build resistance through song.
Singing on June 6
Singing Resistance will take a stand for community at the SAP Arts Festival on Saturday June 6. Members of the group will gather at the library stage at 3:50 p.m. to rise in song. All are welcome to join in.
After the gathering songs, Arts Fest favorites Pig’s Eye Jass Band and crooner Nancy Hite will join in the spirit of community with some great New Orlean’s jazz.
Singing Resistance will then return to the stage and invite visitors to join them in singing several classic jazz songs including “Down by the Riverside” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.” All voices are welcome!
Rita LaDoux is chair of the St. Anthony Park Branch Library.