Angela Farley and her team deliver over 3,000 meals each week to people living with critical and chronic illnesses, 87 percent of whom are considered low income. But due to the Trump administration’s flurry of budget cuts and layoffs across federal agencies, the fate of her 13-year non-profit Teen Kitchen Project is now under threat.
“As a nonprofit, we will not be able to absorb the impact of those cuts,” Farley said. “It would be heartbreaking for me to have to sit down with my team and decide who deserves food. Food is a human right, [we] all deserve food.”
Farley’s experience isn’t unique. She was one of the 4,000 attendees at the Santa Cruz “Hands Off!” rally who are personally affected or outraged by the Trump administration’s budget cuts and oppressive executive orders.
“Every day we wake up, there’s some new executive order that’s stripping away people’s rights, and there’s so much damage being done by the federal government,” said Justin Cummings, third district supervisor for Santa Cruz County, in an interview with City on a Hill Press. “I think [the rally] is an opportunity for us to come together and say we want to do something about it.”
A crowd of 4,000 community members gather around the entrance of the Santa Cruz County Courthouse, the surrounding parking lot, and spill onto Ocean Street. Photo 1, 2 by Arzu Azeem. Photo 3 by Nidhi Bhat. Photo 4, 5 by Reggie Sasaki.
Attendees showed up to the Courthouse with large signs, upside-down American flags and even a huge blow-up whale to protest Trump’s anti-environment policies. The people filled the grassy area and the subsequent ramp leading up to the front of the courthouse, spilling into the street and sidewalk on Ocean Street.
In the spirit of uniting voices and struggles, the rally served as a space for people to uplift each other, share emotions and freely express their frustrations. Gretchen Reyes, a volunteer for Indivisible Santa Cruz County, feels these sentiments have reached a tipping point.
“It is really hard to sit at home and just watch it all happening, or to try to ignore it,” Reyes said. “We’re beyond ignoring it. We’ve got to take this country back, and this is exactly the kind of movement we’re going to need to do it.”
Santa Cruz’s “Hands Off!” rally was not the only one that occurred on April 5. In all 50 states, people rose up and mobilized against the current administration. Indivisible, 50501 Movement and MoveOn organized more than 1,400 protests nationwide, with Indivisible Santa Cruz County’s chapter overseeing the local rally.
“We’re sending a clear message to Donald Trump and Elon Musk to get your hands off our democracy, to get your hands off our community and to get your hands off of everything that belongs to us,” said Ayo Banjo, a prominent local activist and emcee of the Santa Cruz event. “We’re saying hands off our rights and hands on new solutions, a new vision.”
Ayo Banjo leading a chant. Behind the stage, organizers hung an upside-down American flag, a historic symbol of protest. Photo by Nidhi Bhat.
Despite the dire circumstances that brought many attendees to the event, a desire for action was palpable throughout the crowd. While some speakers took the opportunity to detail the current impacts of Trump’s policies, others focused on resistance, and the sentiment of a united struggle rang through.
Krazy George, professional cheerleader and inventor of “The Wave,” a now common sight at sporting events, stepped onto the stage in between speeches carrying a handheld drum. He led three consecutive waves amongst the attendees that he has now rebranded as the “Blue Wave.”
“In 1981 I invented the wave and it went around the world. Why? Because it interconnects people for a cause,” he energetically shouted to the crowd. “We’re gonna do a Blue Wave right here … to connect everybody for democracy and freedom.”
Krazy George cheering onstage with Ayo Banjo. Photo by Nidhi Bhat.
LGBTQIA+ rights under the Trump administration have become a primary target of their policies. A recent executive order aiming to restrict access to gender-affirming medical care for transgender people under 19 has resulted in many hospitals nationwide abruptly cutting off treatment for trans youth.
These attacks were a shared focus amongst multiple speakers, one being Madeline Aliah, a teen LGBTQIA+ activist. She is the author of the book This Is My Body and also gave a TEDx Talk titled “How You Can Create Safe Spaces.” She said that transgender people are “never going away,” and hopes that the community can emerge stronger from these attacks and fight back.
Signs held by attendees calling for the protection of transgender rights. Photo 1 by Arzu Azeem. Photo 1, 2 by Reggie Sasaki.
“I’m here because I owe my life to a trans-affirmative education,” said Aliah in an interview with City on a Hill Press. “Being men or women or nonbinary or loving men or women or nonbinary folks, it’s a part of who we are down to the marrow, the soul, and it’s time to declare our presence with authority and audacity and to move from education to revolution,” she said to the crowd.
Elaine Johnson, President of the Santa Cruz chapter of the NAACP, followed Aliah’s speech and spoke on democracy and freedom — or rather, the recent attacks on these values and how to combat it. She began by reading Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech.
Various signs held by demonstrators during the rally. Photo 1, 2, 3 by Nidhi Bhat. Photo 4, 5 by Reggie Sasaki.
“‘Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit declaring eternal hostility, hostility to poverty, racism and militarism,’” Johnson said, quoting King. “‘With this powerful commitment, we shall boldly challenge the status quo. A genuine revolution of values means every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to humanity as a whole.’”
“Today I share the speech, not only as a historical reflection, but as a reminder,” she said. “A reminder that Doctor King’s words remain painfully relevant, that justice requires courage and that silence in the face of injustice is not an option.”
Additional reporting by Nick Carter, Paulina Garcia, and Gwenyth Rodriguez-Holguin.
