How can Emory University students effectively engage with systemic issues that threaten those who live just a few miles from campus? It is a tough question to address, especially when many students at Emory did not grow up in Atlanta and some are even from outside of the United States. While we may not have personal stakes in the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, otherwise known as Cop City, there are still ways to play an active role in this movement.
On the rainy evening of Nov. 10, I entered a dimly lit basement retrofitted into a concert venue. I had already received a pair of earplugs and two flyers from a greeter upstairs. One sheet featured QR codes for donations to Stop Cop City, the broader movement against the project, and the other was lined with lyrics to “Bella Ciao” (1906) with certain verses altered for a rendition unique to Stop Cop City, some mentioning the sovereignty and beauty of the South River forest. Inside, a menagerie of chairs lined the wall opposite to a makeshift stage where a drum kit and a handful of mic stands and amps huddled together. This intimate space grew even cozier as the crowd flowed in with smiles and casual banter. Emory undergraduates, alumni and older community members alike were among the roughly 65 attendees at the Emory Musician’'s Network’s Stop Cop City benefit concert. After all the chairs filled up, the venue owner passed out cushions for people to sit comfortably on the floor.
Bands from Emory and the greater Atlanta area, like Motherfolker, Pen and Bow, Lady Gadget & the Rig and Penelope Road, formed the night’s musical lineup, in addition to an open-mic portion. The tunes raised the crowd’s spirits, with audience members clapping, singing and dancing along to the performances. We stomped our feet to the beat, and each thump vibrated through my body.
After Motherfolker left the stage, Emory Stop Cop City members hosted a teach-in. This combination of entertainment and education was a smart way to provide a lowkey space to discuss an issue as serious as Cop City. The teach-in provided basic information on the Stop Cop City movement and the history of the training center’s site, the South River Forest, also known by its Muscogee (Creek) name, “Weelaunee.” Organizers additionally held a moment of silence for Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán, a forest defender who was shot and killed by police in a camp raid on Jan. 18.
Following performances from Pen and Bow and Lady Gadget & the Rig, organizers led a direct action workshop, which I had never engaged in before. Through some partner and larger group work, everyone there, including musicians, strategized in how to claim a space against police force. I got a dose of the action firsthand by getting yanked out of a human chain — my pants almost fell off in the process, and I learned I may be too faint of heart to protest on the front lines.
The final teach-in drew all the elements of the concert together to show why moments of song and community matter. Discussion surrounding the dispossession of the Muscogee people was the heart of the night’s events: a history of loss that far predates the threat of Cop City on Atlanta residents’ welfare.
Music plays a salient role in political movements, the Emory Stop Cop City educators remarked. The coalition is a labor of love for the people affected — showing up for one another in support is liberation in its own right, the unifying force of music aiding in that process. Altogether, the benefit concert highlighted the essence of communal love and joy that fuels Stop Cop City, palpable in the renditions of “Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)” (1961) and “Rich Man’s House” (2020), led by the Stop Cop City Choir.
Although I often feel powerless in the face of Cop City, I left the event feeling more motivated. Just attending the concert among a crowd chock-full of exuberant passion and unity spoke volumes. No matter what happens in the future, a demand for more benefit concerts like this will persist. In the presence of Cop City, this is not a desire, but a need.
