|
 The event, which drew smiles from onlookers, was in contrast to
more charged protests, including a night earlier in Seattle, where
people threw rocks at police, and in Berkeley, California, where
looters smashed store windows.
In the reimagined songs, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" became "O
Little Town of Ferguson," the Missouri city where Michael Brown, an
unarmed 18-year-old, was shot dead in August by a white police
officer. A grand jury declined last month to indict the officer,
Darren Wilson, sparking a nationwide wave of protests.
Other songs included "All I Want for Christmas is an Indictment" and
"Little Drummer Boy," which was remade into a dirge for Eric Garner,
who died in July after being choked by a New York police officer in
Staten Island. That officer also avoided indictment in a decision
handed down last week.
 Organizer Cassandra Oliveras, 35, a self-described "choral freak,"
said the idea of adapting carols to the current controversies came
to her after a recent protest in Manhattan aimed at stopping the
lighting of the city's Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. Police
blocked protesters from reaching the site.
"I was so angry and I felt so incredibly hopeless," she said. "I
couldn't sleep that night and I just stayed up writing these things
because they just poured out of me."
The carolers, who began singing at Penn Station before shifting
locations, ranged from sign-bearing activists to professional opera
singers.
Susanna Mentzer, a mezzo soprano who will perform in "Marriage of
Figaro" on Monday at the Metropolitan Opera, said the event marked
her first protest.
[to top of second column] |
"I think what's so unique about current protests is that everyone I
know seems outraged," said Mentzer, 57, who attended with a fellow
cast member after learning of the protest on social media.
For some more experienced protesters, the singing represented a
welcome change of pace.
"Friday there was a definite sense of anger. All you could do is
scream," said Katie Carman, 33, a Manhattan filmmaker, referring to
protests in New York.
"Today I wanted to come out and show people we can deliver this
message in other ways. But I may be back on the streets shouting."
(Editing by Jonathan Kaminsky and Eric Walsh)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
