The streets were considerably calmer in Baltimore Tuesday night in the hours before a citywide 10 p.m. curfew, as protesters responding to the death of Freddie Gray balanced out their chants for “no justice, no peace” with moments of levity to dissipate some of the tension, breaking into roller disco, drum lines — and a dance party.
Donning a bejeweled white baseball cap Lisa Gresham-Wilson told ThinkProgress she co-organized a dance party Tuesday evening “to take what’s negative and infuse it with positive.”
“I’m a retired correctional officer of 15 years, who became a social worker,” Gresham-Wilson said. “Our job is to show love to a hurting community. Some people in this community are explosive and angry and what they’re doing is showing their insides in a massive way. So today we’re having a party, the negative shall be changed into a positive act, and that’s what we’re looking towards.”
Dancers performed for about a half an hour as even police officers lining the streets bobbed their heads and tapped their feet.
Others turned the protests into a roller disco:
From a pep rally to roller disco #North&Penn pic.twitter.com/pJ0xCe5dU5
— George Lettis (@GeorgeLettis) April 29, 2015
A drum line:
Drum line crushing it in #Baltimore @ajam pic.twitter.com/XvlgEf2MyA
— (((Paul Beban))) (@paulbeban) April 29, 2015
And a dance-off:
For me, today was a day of beautiful things resulting from uprising yesterday. Dance-off at Ynot lot pic.twitter.com/1Tl7JmSNFY
— Baynard Woods (@baynardwoods) April 28, 2015
They also linked arms:
Young people link arms, form a line and push crowd back from officers. "We're not doing all that nonsense tonight" pic.twitter.com/Qet9rwDBKR
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) April 29, 2015
The entertainment scene built on an incident Monday night in which a Michael Jackson impersonator jumped up on top of a yellow van in the midst of rioting. Soon, others joined him on top of the van in a dance party that seemed to calm the crowd:
PEACEFUL MICHAEL JACKSON DANCE PARTY HAS ERUPTED IN #BALTIMORE. #FreddieGraypic.twitter.com/zuCSGcKiCX
— Bipartisan Report (@Bipartisanism) April 27, 2015
Wilson, reacting to a week of outrage that culminated in violent riots Monday night, told ThinkProgress she aimed to “reap a more positive reaction” with her dance party Tuesday night.
“At the end of the day, something traumatic happened that uncovered things that have been happening,” she said. “And when you have a traumatic event it triggers things from the past.”
Hours later, after the city’s curfew went into effect, the streets started to fill with tear gas, smoke bombs, and chaos:
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) April 29, 2015