Characters abound at the DC No Kings rally

By Jimmy Henderson

Washington, D.C. 

Some 200,000 protesters rallied around a stage in Northwest Washington D.C. this afternoon, according to organizers. From the main stage where Mehdi Hassan, Bill Nye, Bernie Sanders and others spoke, the crowd spanned as far as you could see up the accessways of Pennsylvania Avenue and 3rd Street. 

People came from all around the area and beyond, protesting the administration’s overreach on immigration crackdowns, disappearing community members, and chilling of free speech. What stood out to me at this one particular event among the thousands of other No Kings rallies today, was the cartoonishly massive divide between what peacefully protesting and showing up in unity with your fellow Americans looks like, and what the administration and its allies have attempted to characterize as anything but peaceful. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana called the No Kings event a “hate America rally”.

Some 200 organizations partnered for this nationwide event, such as 50501 and Indivisible groups, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the American Federation of Teachers, Common Defense, the Human Rights Campaign, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), the League of Conservation Voters, MoveOn, Public Citizen, United We Dream, and Working Families Power, according to The Guardian and USA Today.

The events took place across over an estimated 2,500 sites in the U.S. in more than 35 states and the District of Columbia. I came back to this rally which by comparison to the Flag Day No Kings protest, was equally jaw dropping to see up close and personal. 

First off, the drive up to the main stage at Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest and 3rd Street Northwest was peppered with protesters along town roads and on sidewalks overpassing the interstate in southern Springfield, Burke, Central Springfield, and eastern Fairfax.

People carried signs out to covered walkways that line the main roads and pass over interstate 395 or along the entrance ramps to i-495 with signs reading, “No Kings,” and “Deport Fascism,” to cite a few. 

The main stage was a bit of a walk from any streets not already shut down in the immediate area of the rally. I saw people carrying signs and playing songs of protest, or just hosting dance parties on the corners of 3rd and 4th streets and down Constitution avenue, and up Pennsylvania avenue.

When I got to the main stage, people were all you could see, as far as you could see up every accessway. I swam through seas of people unified to the common purpose of standing up and speaking out as is their constitutionally protected right in this nation, to rebuke government overreach and violation of the rights of all people protected in this nation under our constitution.

Signs read as you might expect in one of these events, but one common thread I couldn’t help but be reminded of Portland by was the extraordinary turnout of costumed protesters, from Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, Patrick Star, and Squidward Tentacles, to Reptar from Rugrats, to multiple theropod dinosaurs, the district was a block party of dancing characters. Pikachu and Uncle Sam could be seen marching in the crowds, and even the Lorax took a moment to join a percussion circle on the whistle. 

One dinosaur I spoke with who shall remain nameless as well as an electric unicycle riding Jesus impersonator were both hauling huge speakers — I think one of them was a JBL tower at least 40 inches tall — and played songs of protest for the crowds making their way to the main stage. 

The music was a common thread throughout my walk about the Capitol. Donald Trump is a convicted felon by Jonathan Mann blasted by one speaker, and further down the road a jazz trombonist with Singing for Peace played This Land is Our Land among many other patriotic and protest songs. 

The power of the unifying themes that brought out protesters from all over the area was apparent in their joy to see each other. Not that they are here to celebrate a joyous occasion, oh no. But a joyful and united people seem to be imposing in a good way against the creeping threat of authoritarianism. Against the backdrop of Republican silence or jeering, or mischaracterizations of the events, I can’t help but laugh whenever I turn a corner and see the creativity and passion in our people. 

I can’t help but laugh, when I think of getting all the clips in the news on how these rallies were anticipated, as presented by comedians like Jimmy Kimmel.

I’m interested in spreading what I’ve seen at these protests, I’ve been out to them in DC since the protests over the killing of George Floyd in 2020, to those against crackdowns on free speech and government overreach here such as these No Kings rallies today and in June, and the Free America Weekend. One stand out performance I saw today by street performers and lifetime musicians, Krishna Rajpara, and Adrian Haley, who only just met for the first time at the rally today, playing a protest song in an apparently impromptu jam around the end of the rally highlights the positivity behind what drives some protesters out to drive back oppression. 

“I saw his trombone, and I was like, yo dude, I got my saxophone, I got my guitar,” Rajpara said. “Let’s make it happen.”

They were joined by another trombone player wearing a sign that read “singing for peace,” to grace us with a little Herbie Hancock. 

“I think right now there’s a movement to try and frame these things as violent — as aggressive," Haley said. “We need to be ridiculous. We need to be having fun. We need to show that we are standing on our values, and we’re going to protest peacefully for it.”

Rajpara continued on that thought.

“It’s an encapsulation of joy itself,” Rajpara said. “This is what it means to be an American. To really like transcend value, transcend difference, transcend creed, transcend race, transcend religion. We’re all here. We’re all together. It’s an outlet for us to really see that.”

As for where these singers for peace can be found. Just look around. The D.C. Activists Street Band are out there and bringing the beats to the streets, and reminding us about the joy that motivates us to stand up for what’s right.

“Jimmi Hendrix in Woodstock in 1969, he was asked to play the Star-Spangled Banner,” Rajpara said. “And the way he did it on his electric guitar quite literally changed the meaning and the nature of the song from something that’s supposed to be orchestral and beautiful and kind of like a cascade. He turned it into a raucous mess symbolizing at the time, the Vietnam War — made sounds like bombs on his guitar. And music’s always been a tool of protest and an important outlet for us to speak out to the world.”