Minneapolis, MN (MinnPost)

In life, "Front Row" Paul Engebretson championed music and musicians, and railed against the creeping right-wing fascism of the day. After his death from pancreatic cancer in March, Engebretson's legacy is forever cemented in the fledgling action group he co-founded, The Minnesota Music Resistance.

Said Engebretsen's widow, Sheila Knight: "Paul hated Trump and so do I, and he was so angry when he was elected again that he wanted to do any little thing to stand up against this autocrat, this fascist, and all this hate, and he wanted to do it with people who shared that idea. He wanted to take action. Paul was a political science major in college, and back then he distrusted Reagan and the entire system who gave to the rich and didn't care about the masses. [The Minnesota Music Resistance (MMR)] is an extension of that. It started there."

So far, the self-described "nimble little group" exists as a small but growing collective with a website and a mission statement that reads, "The Minnesota Music Resistance uses music, good trouble and grassroots collective activism to raise resources and support and connect communities. We are committed to human rights, inclusion, and the fight against authoritarianism that threatens all our livelihoods and existence."

Claire Luger, frontwoman for punk rockers The Silent Treatment, put it this way: "We are an organization that is really figuring out how we can support human rights and inclusion and fight back against authoritarianism and fascism, and how we can do that is with people involved in the music community."

"The election was so appalling, and Paul had this idea, and the whole thing started in December. We met and said, "What do we want to do? We need to do something, and so how are we going to do it?" At this point, we're really in the infancy of it, but we've planned our first event, and we're looking to do more fundraisers for organizations that are really needing the funds and the support in order for them to support our most marginalized communities."

Said singer/songwriter Edie Rae, who wrote the Minnesota Music Resistance's successful proposal for the Lift Up Lake Street grant: "Paul is the one who kind of shepherded this, and one of the things we were talking about was how musicians have a lot of power. Throughout history, music has often spoken truth to power, and we have a fantastic music community here. Paul's perspective was, "What can we as a music community do to make our voices known and resist this authoritarian regime?" So we certainly all know how to organize, do events, and fundraise."

The first Minnesota Music Resistance (MMR) event is a "Fight For Your Civil Rights" benefit for the American Civil Liberties Union June 22 at the Hook & Ladder Theater and Lounge, with Ganser, Christy Costello, Turn Turn Turn, The Silent Treatment, The Muatas, Dad Bod, M.A.Y., Strong Buffalo, Walken Schweigert & August Judd, and The Daily Norm.

"We wanted to make it really inclusive and a diverse representation of what we have in Minneapolis and St. Paul," Luger said. "And we've invited different organizations to come to the table. ACLU will be there, and I know Minnesota Women's March will be there. We'll have the MMR banner there, and then we'll have actions that people can do. I'm gonna set up a phone booth so people can make calls to their representatives. We'll have postcards. We will have QR codes for us and all the organizations. We'll have voter registration, too. We're really trying all these ideas, and trying to balance out all the ideas with all of the legwork that goes into being a force for good, for resistance."

In the wake of Trumpism, one of the most common rallying cries has been joy as an act of resistance, and all concerned agree that one way to create and engage in that joy is through live music and the community it naturally fosters.

"Music can become such a rich part of our life if we want it to," MMR member Mikkel Bee said. "And music, increasingly, from what I'm hearing from people who come to the shows I'm involved with, is that music has become a lifeline for them, live music as a way to break their isolation and connect with others as a reprieve from what has become an hourly onslaught of bad news around authoritarianism and things that are happening. I think music is a part of the entirety of a way to resist, but it certainly needs to be a part of the way that people can experience connection. Meet other people, break out of their routines, break out of their isolation.

"Part of our mission is [to provide] that sense of music as a way to give people energy and courage and positivity and hope and to deal with their emotions around all of this. The other part is that music is a way musicians who do really feel strongly about what's happening can show some leadership around resistance by hosting opportunities for people to organize events, but it's also about taking a public stance.

"If you're in a band that's involved in a fundraiser for the ACLU as a way to resist, then you are publicly saying, "Democratic values are important to me, the rights of individuals are important to me and my band." And that's just a way to spread that courage for other people to step up and say, "Yes, I also believe that civil and human rights are important, that values of a democracy are important and worth defending." You know, it's pretty much that simple. We want to instill hope in community, and we also want to provide material assistance to organizations in the community doing good work."

So far, so good. Next up for the Minnesota Music Resistance is more events, a Kickstarter campaign, and ongoing pointed, passionate activity in the face of so much political paralysis.

"When Paul was still with us, one of the things we talked about when we first all got together was, "I'm actually kind of tired of talking about it," right?," Rae said. "We can complain and vent. There's nothing wrong with complaining and venting, you've got to have an outlet. But this makes me feel like I am doing something. It's kind of like the concept of "put your money where your mouth is." If you really feel this way and strongly and you still want to retain some level of civil rights in this country, we have to do something about it."

"We naturally, as musicians, are promoters and we're naturally organizers," Luger said. "I mean, it's a lot of cat-herding, a lot of organizing goes into it, which is why I like it, it's like a lot of my union [organizing] stuff, because you use the same strategies to put together a bill that you use to put together an event. Or you use the same audience that you use to promote your show, to promote doing good. Whether that's making phone calls, whether that's writing postcards, whether that's just telling people, "Hey, this is bullshit, and this [bleeper], he's got to stop, and it's going on right in front of our eyes, and if you don't speak up now..." I mean, it's all hands on deck.

"Everybody's got these inherent skills and inherent communication styles of how we get that messaging out and that's just how it works with art. So many forms of art are, by just existing, our resistance. Born out of that push to resist. So using that voice and reaching people who might otherwise not be watching the news is really critical, and it's really critical to build community and build a force and a broader multi-tiered fight against evil."

Somewhere, somehow, "Front Row" Paul is throwing his fist in the air in solidarity.

This story is provided as a service of the Institute for Nonprofit News’ On the Ground news wire. The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) is a network of more than 475 independent, nonprofit newsrooms serving communities throughout the US, Canada, and globally. On the Ground is a service of INN, which aggregates the best of its members’ elections and political content, and provides it free for republication. Read more about INN here: https://inn.org/.

Please coordinate with edunbar@minnpost.com should you want to publish photos for this piece. This content cannot be modified, apart from rewriting the headline. To view the original version, visit: http://www.minnpost.com/arts-culture/music/2025/05/all-hands-on-deck-the-minnesota-music-resistance-launches-in-response-to-trump-2-0/