Theatre Artists Against the Trump Administration Protest with Flashmob

Host Intro: Today at campuses across the country, students, faculty and community members are staging protests under the name National Day of Action for Higher Education. The protests, in response to policies of the Trump administration surrounding higher education,... and here in New York protesters turned out at Adelphi in the Bronx, SUNY Farmingdale, Plattsburg. Caroline McCarthy reports from the protest this afternoon at New York University, and Washington Square Park.

Caroline McCarthy: It’s just after noon here at Greenwich Village, and about twenty NYU Tisch students and faculty are congregating at the East side of the Washington Square Fountain. The Theatre Artists Against the Trump Administration, an unofficial NYU group, will protest the best way they know how - dance. 

This faculty member at NYU Tisch asked to be unnamed, he said the current administration has had a lot to say about how we use our bodies, and this group of performers have something to say back. 

Caroline McCarthy:  think it's fair to say that a. Flash Mob is a non-traditional form of

protest. And I'd love to hear your thoughts on that, and how you think it would be more

effective.

Professor: What the administration is doing is ridiculous and ridiculous. Actions need to

be responded to ridiculously. So often we engage with one another in a very formalized

way. Where we've got all kinds of prescriptions about how we can, how far we have to

be from one another, um, what we can say or do to one another. dancing and

performing has a way of breaking all that and saying, you know what, if we can express

ourself this joyfully, this playfully, this ridiculously, uh, then maybe we can do other 

things. We can challenge other norms that exist around us.  And, and therefore, you know, get under the skin of the people in power who, uh, might disagree with that. 

McCarthy: The group performed a choreographed chant, which they had posted online so others could join in. Gwendolyn Alker is a professor at NYU. She leads the Theatre Artists Against the Trump Administration. She also teaches Latinx Theatre, which inspired the today’s performance. 

Alker:  So, we are theater artists. We like to have fun, and we find sometimes humor is

the best way to handle fascism. So we're trying to think as theater artists, how can we

bring a little levity into the situation, and then more politically, we are inspired by a lot of

the flash mobs done by Latin American feminists who use this. Technique to raise

awareness and get people involved in a political movement so that it can spread beyond

this particular moment in time.

 People who are standing with Trump, they often don't know what to do with people who

are creative or take a little bit more of a, um, different perspective on how to protest.

McCarthy: The troupe repeated their dance four times during the flashmob, drawing a crowd of between 50-100 who stopped to watch. Some began chanting along, others took photos and videos. The group has a clear message for the Trump Administration. Avery is a student at NYU. She participated in the dance  and asked not to use her last name.. 

Avery:  I was really worried about, I think that the current administration's attack on education and educational institutions is something to not be taken lightly. I think it's something that we've seen historically in other totalitarian authoritarian regimes, and I think it's something we need to continue to fight against.

And also just as a citizen of America to be complacent and to be complicit.

McCarthy: At 3 p.m. the day of protests concluded with a march. The group walked  from Washington Square Park to Foley Square in the financial district, where the New York Civil Liberty Union held a rally called “Rally for the Right to Learn”.

For Columbia Radio News, I’m Caroline McCarthy.