CHARLOTTESVILLE (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — Indivisible Charlottesville will be premiering the “Jazz Parade for Democracy,” a three-act political work featuring local musicians, two choirs and costumed actors this Saturday from 3-4 p.m. on the Downtown Mall.

Production coordinator and Indivisible Charlottesville member Isabelle McMahon told WINA the event is inspired by New Orleans-style jazz funeral parades, and its organizers hopes to use the event as a celebration “to keep democracy alive.”

“We really believe there is power in art to convey messages, and that by working with local musicians, local singing groups, a local choreographer, we can really make people understand that it’s important to act but we all need to participate and be together on this,” she said.

The parade will begin at the Ting Pavilion, with the groups of musicians and other performers, led by UVA’s former director of jazz performance John D’earth, making its way down to the Whiskey Jar before turning back around, stopping at various point for performances along the way.

“It’s loosely based on a New Orleans funeral,” D’earth told WINA, “where you march slowly and sadly to the gravesite and then you come back with jubilance and joyful music.”

D’earth said the idea behind basing this event on a funeral was due to the feeling that many aspects of American Democracy, like free press, separation of church and state and USAid, are under attack.

“A lot of things are being trashed,” he said, “and we know this.”

He also said the everyone is encouraged to bring an instrument or just their voice and participate in the event, which will feature plenty of improvisation as the musicians play a number of blues songs, including an original composition from D’earth called “Elegy,” which he wrote when he was just 20 years old.

The parade will also feature choreography from Susan McCulley, movement instructor and organizer of the group “Keep Going Together” which focuses on working with nonprofits impacted by the Trump Administration and Project 2025. The group also participates in protests, including Indvisible’s local version of the “No Kings” Protest last month. McCulley told Cville Right Now that working on this event has been “a wonderful experience of cooperative creativity.”

She said her approach to choreographing the event was to make the movements “very simple and very inclusive,” with the aim to make the moves accessible to both those in the event and those watching it.

“Just like we have common goals and common values that we are fighting for,” she said, “we have this simple common pattern that we are all doing together. But just like our activism is an individual as we are, so is the movement. So, if I’m someone who would feel more comfortable seated, I can do it and I can still participate from a chair or sitting on the wall at the mall.”

McCulley said she believes events like this are important because she believes more people are feeling alone, especially when spending time online viewing news that can be “despair-inducing.”

“That’s often who I’m thinking about, is someone who feels like things are bad and they think maybe it’s just them who feels that way, and even if they think there are other people who feel that way, they don’t know what to do,” she said, “and by seeing an event like this, they can say, ‘Oh, there are lots of people.'”