Musicians are using their voices to protest ICE. Meet North Texans adding to the chorus

From KERA News:

It’s not just big names like Bad Bunny and Bruce Springsteen speaking out against ICE.

Local musicians in Minnesota and beyond are also speaking out and writing songs.

They’re adding to the canon of artists of using music as protest. In the U.S. it’s a rich tradition that spans generations, causes and political boundaries.

Meet three musicians from North Texas who are adding their voices to the mix.

Emily Elbert

Emily Elbert didn’t plan on writing about ICE or Liam Conejo Ramos. He’s the five-year-old boy whose photo went viral when he and his father were detained by ICE and sent to a detention facility.

The Coppell High School alum was trying to finish other songs but struggled to focus.

“I just couldn’t stop thinking about it,” she said. “I just kept seeing his face in my mind, and I just couldn’t shake it.”

Writing music is her way of bearing witness, and acknowledging the grief and fear coursing through her community.

“My way of responding to my feelings is through music. In my mind, that visual was so unshakable that that’s why I opened the song by describing what I saw.”

She shared the song because she hoped it might help others slow their scrolling and take time to process this moment.

“When I am on social media, I feel so overwhelmed, and it’s really easy to feel powerless,” she said. “It is by nature a dissociative medium, so I think there’s this power in hearing a thoughtful song.”

Many of the musicians that inspire Elbert also wrote songs in response to the politics of their times, like Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix and The Staple Singers.

“[Music] helps us understand ourselves, our feelings, our experiences. It brings people together. It galvanizes us into action,” Elbert said. “It helps me understand who I am and how I feel and my own positionality in the world. It feels very connected.”

Alex O’aiza

Alex O’aiza lives in Dallas. He is a first-generation U.S. citizen with family roots in Mexico.

“At an early age, I realized how political my life, my existence is,” he said.

“I’ve lived through family members being deported. I’ve lived through seeing how brutal the system can be. It feels personal.”

After reading the news about the killing of Alex Pretti and seeing anonymous commenters supporting the federal agents’ actions, O’aiza had trouble sleeping.

He grabbed his guitar and started playing. Within 30 minutes or so, he had a song. The video he posted to Instagram drew support and criticism.

Editor’s note: This video contains language that some may find objectionable.

“It’s kind of hard when you see the little messages ding up and people are calling you all sorts of stuff. … telling me that I don’t deserve to live,” he said. “It gets tough, but I’m asking for it too. I’m building a platform, and it is what it is. That’s just what it comes with.”

When Springsteen released his new song “Streets of Minneapolis” it made O’aiza feel like public opinion was moving “in the right direction.”

“This is giving a voice to the tenseness of the moment and the hurt and the pain and the anger that people are feeling,” O’aiza said. “[Music] is a vehicle for people to not only be seen to feel understood, but to also give them a voice.”

TRVR?

TRVR? is a musician based in Fort Worth. He was advised to steer clear of politics to prevent alienating potential fans.

“But the troubles of the world, they deeply impact me. I can’t just turn it off and go about my day and have apathy,” he said.

Some of his lyrics point to a specific grievance: “Do you feel safe? Do you feel alive? When you’re brutalizing parents right in front of their kids’ eyes?”

Other lyrics leave more room for interpretation: “Hell is getting empty because the demons are all here.”

TRVR? said the response to his music has mostly been positive – including when he’s played in the Fort Worth Stockyards or other venues where some might expect patrons to lean conservative.

“There’s people in their cowboy boots telling me that they love my political music. It’s really cool to see how unifying that is to me,” he said.

Ahead of a trip to Dollywood with his mom, TRVR? listened to old folk music from Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and was struck by the relevance of their music today – decades after it was written.

“Everybody has the same problems, and I think most people think that way,” he said. “I really hope that music can be the combining force to make people realize they’re really not that different.”

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