Singing along and resist with Indivisible Whidbey

Published 1:30 am Friday, February 27, 2026

By KATE POSS

Special to the Record

If you’re feeling powerless while feeding on a steady diet of despair from mainstream news, try singing to get recharged this Sunday, March 1 at the United Methodist Church in Langley.

“Singing as Resistance: a community protest sing along,” organized by Indivisible Whidbey, is part of a grassroots movement spreading across the country in the wake of ICE crackdowns in Minneapolis. The singing is from 4-5:15 p.m.

Sunday’s sing along is a prelude to Indivisible Whidbey’s third No King’s March planned for Oak Harbor March 28.

Singing Resistance Twin Cities formed early this year to nonviolently oppose ICE activities and support immigrant rights. The group conducts vigils, marches, and rallies in local neighborhoods.

The song “It’s Okay to Change Your Mind” was sung by hundreds outside Twin City hotels housing ICE agents. The words: “It’s okay to change your mind/Show us your courage/Leave this behind/It’s okay to change your mind/And you can join us/Join us here anytime.”

Singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile, who owns a boat on Whidbey, invited the group to join her in singing their song, “It’s Okay,” at a sold-out concert in Minneapolis Feb. 21, which raised $600,000 for local legal aid. Now with its movement going viral, Singing Resistance Twin Cities has published toolkits and songbooks for others to adopt.

This inspired a local woman to bring music to support Indivisible Whidbey, which is part of the nationwide movement Indivisible.org founded in 2016 by former Congress members who wished to preserve democracy and honor the Constitution. Now, with more than a million members in over 2,000 locations, the group’s aim is to promote and defend democracy against authoritarian rule.

Barbara Dunn, a South Whidbey therapist who uses the power of music in her practice, has formed a music brigade, inspired by the Singing Resistance movement. The group meets monthly to sing and play uplifting music, while practicing to musically support coalitions, protests and rallies.

“Music Brigade is a way to use music to respond to this moment,” Dunn said in an interview last month with her friend, South Whidbey psychotherapist Sarri Gilman, author of “Transform Your Boundaries.”

“This moment is exponentially intense,” she added. “Music Brigade is part of our pro-democracy coalition which includes SOS Whidbey (Solidarity over Supremacy), Indivisible Whidbey and the League of Women Voters.”

When food stamp benefits — known as the SNAP program — were threatened in the federal government shutdown last October, Dunn quickly organized her musical friends to support a fundraising concert in Coupeville. More than 350 people showed up and raised over $10,000 to support Whidbey families who relied on SNAP subsidies.

The music brigade was formed and has continued to meet since then.

“This Sunday we’re tapping into the singing resistance movement going on in Minneapolis,” Dunn said. “They have a songbook and toolkit. I did the training with them, and they’re really dynamic. Our music is heartwarming, and a way to be engaged without being dragged down. This weekend, there is action around the country for singing resistance. It is connecting to a bigger picture of people singing around the country as a way to speak out.”

Singing en masse has ended dictatorships. The Singing Resistance Minnesota group, for instance was inspired by singers in Serbia, whose nonviolent protest movement led by youth group Otpor! — meaning resistance — helped topple the Slobodan Milosevic government in 2000.

Likewise, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians rallied with national songs and demonstrations for five years to regain independence from the former Soviet Union, which granted their independence shortly before its dissolution. Their success story is seen in the documentary “The Singing Revolution.”

Dunn was also inspired by the film, “Pray the Devil back to Hell,” a 2008 documentary celebrating the peaceful protest by thousands of singing and praying Liberian women of Muslim and Christian faiths, protesting violence in their own government. Their dedication resulted in the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman president in the African nations.

Dunn is immersed in transforming conflict with music, and earned her PhD in that field.

“I do a monthly support group, “Navigating the Chaos,” on how to have conversations with people on the other side,” she said. “How to move forward. How to navigate feeling overwhelmed.”

The group meets on fourth Tuesdays at the South Whidbey Community Center.

In addition to the support group, Dunn and her musical friends are dedicated to using music to create real political change. Dunn is co-director of the Open Circle Singers choir, a non-audition South Whidbey community choir which sings world music and has been gathering for the past two decades. Its performances deeply reach the emotions. It’s a natural that Dunn would organize the music brigade with her dedication to music’s power.

“Collecting musicians who want to be part of the movement is ongoing,” Dunn added. “Kimmer Morris (a South Whidbey health practitioner and musician) and I played instrumental music before our meeting last week. We believe there are places in this whole picture where music can soften, help us with our resolve to speak up, speak out, express our sorrow.”

Whidbey Island’s Third No Kings Movement will take place at 12-2 p.m., on March 28 in Oak Harbor at the corner of Northeast Fouth and Highway 20.

Indivisible Whidbey’s mission, meanwhile, is to defend “our democracy, civic institutions and civil rights. We work to ensure free, fair, and on-time elections and to hold power accountable at every level. We support the election of representatives who are committed to the Constitution and responsive to the people they serve.”

The group meets at libraries once a month from 6-7:30 p.m. They meet in Oak Harbor on the first Wednesdays, Coupeville on the fourth Tuesdays and and Freeland on the third Thursdays.

Visit Indivisible Whidbey at Indivisiblewhidbey.org.

The Music Brigade meets at 2-4 p.m., on the second Wednesday of the month at Trinity Lutheran Church (in the small building closer to the highway).

To learn more about the Music Brigade and other ways to become engaged with the world, visit barbaradunn.com/calendar.