Evelyn Avoglia, an educator and songwriter, sounds more like a coach than someone teaching protest songs to a group of people at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Stamford (UUC).
“Come on, move it,” Avoglia said. “Come on, because you'll be outside and it will be cold, and it will help keep you warm.”
Avoglia and the people gathered inside of the worship space are rehearsing songs to sing weekly, outside of the Stamford-Norwalk superior courthouse in downtown Stamford.
The weekly protest at the courthouse, is in direct response to migrants being detained at the location. Two men were taken into custody there by ICE when they showed up for a court hearing on their immigration status in August of last year, according to previous reporting by Connecticut Public.
Avoglia and the others are part of Moral Mondays Fairfield County. The protests, led by clergy, are part of the larger Moral Monday’s CT initiative in Hartford, which was born out of the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Avoglia’s group has rallied outside of the courthouse in Stamford since late 2025.
Many people across Connecticut are using a variety of tactics to push back against the federal immigration crackdowns. Some of those tactics include advocating to elected officials and counter-surveilling Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
But UUC protestsers say music, a time-worn tool used as a form of resistance, also acts as a weekly reminder the local community cares about the people entering the courthouse.
Avoglia commands the attention of the singers and coaches them on how to pivot in case they forget lyrics to a song.
Avoglia uses her guitar to help the group find the rhythm.
“If you want to be a song leader, you're gonna make mistakes, and that's OK, because we're not talking about production values,” Avoglia said. “We're talking about building community.”
Rev. Terri Dennehy, a minister at UUC, rehearsed the songs with Avoglia. Dennehy said much of their inspiration for the rehearsal came from protesters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who also used music while rallying earlier this year.
“We saw how the National Movement was building the singing resistance,” Dennehy said. “People in Minneapolis, in the streets and all of these groups were starting to hold events.”
Nearby, a few people walked inside the courthouse. Dennehy said just a few days prior someone witnessed a group of ICE agents take someone away down the street.
Rev. Joe Rose, of St. Francis Episcopal Church in Stamford, said some people have actually walked out of the courthouse and joined in on the protest.
Rose shared how he gets inspiration from a secular song.
“There's a favorite song of mine from John Prine, where the lyric is, "I'm going to kick the darkness till it bleeds daylight,” Rose said. “I think that's what we're doing here.”
