Channeling joy as resistance through Take a Stand! Sit in!

By Karina Hartley
Staff Reporter

In the spirit of exploring joy as resistance, LCC is partnering with Capital City Film Festival (CCFF) to host a couple days of activities featuring films, comedy, art, dance and community creative expressions, both on and off LCC’s campus. This is the third consecutive year that LCC is partnering with CCFF to bring the Take a Stand! Sit in! event to Lansing. In 2025, this event centered around environmental justice, and in 2024 it was held in the name of incarceration reform. LCC is proud to hold “Joy as Resistance” as the theme for this year’s upcoming event. Melissa Kaplan, LCC’s arts outreach and academic coordinator who is helping organize and promote the event, shares that she’s excited about “creating an event that will bring people together to explore and experience joy.” Kaplan also shared, “We’re offering a wonderful variety of creative activities, and I’m excited that our faculty and staff are sharing their talents.”

On April 14 at 6 p.m., the first part of this event kicked off at the Central United Methodist Church on Capital Avenue. The event began with a community sing led by Sally Potter, a mid-Michigan based folk singer known for leading community sings and her involvement in community music groups like Sistrum. This was followed by a performance by the musical group Emma’s Revolution, with origins in Oakland, California. The duo consists of songwriters Pat Humphries and Sandy Opatow, who focus on composing music across genres in the name of environmentalism and social justice. After the musical events, there was a showing of five short films highlighting resistance and a panel discussion with the artists behind the films.

The second part of this event will take place on Thursday, April 16 throughout the day at LCC’s Downtown Campus in the Gannon Building. Kaplan is particularly excited about the dance session happening at noon in the dance studio (GB 3119). “It’s being co-led by LCC dance instructor Lauren Mudry and LCC alum Jared Autrey, and it’s a workshop exploring how hip-hop dance is a way to build joy as resistance. People can come and watch—or they can join in,” said Kaplan. She is also looking forward to the comedy and improv workshop event at 3:10 p.m. in the Black Box Theatre (GB 1422), which is led by April Dreeke, who teaches sociology at LCC. “That’s unique, I think!” said Kaplan.

Activities on Thursday will also include a community mural-making event all day in the Gannon Highway, as well as an open creative space throughout the afternoon for people to play games, paint, make macrame, pot plants and craft in GB 2144. Students, faculty and staff are welcome to drop in and experience the joy of community, creativity, and the collective heartbeat of resistance.