Fifty hours in, the ‘Northwestern Liberation Zone’ entered its third day with no signs of imminent escalation from administration or University Police.
Around 10:15 p.m. Friday night, Josh — a representative for NU Divestment Coalition organizer — announced that organizers expected no arrests or suspensions overnight.
“We won a huge f— battle today,” he said. He encouraged those who needed rest to spend the night at home given the development.
The announcement — which the University neither confirmed nor denied — came about two and a half hours after organizers announced that negotiations with administrators for the day had concluded.
The second night on Deering Meadow was marked by heavy rain, poetry and music.
Demonstrators expanded the encampment to the East side of Deering Meadow with twelve new canopy tents. Protesters entered the “Art Tent” to paint messages on paper and cardboard, including, “NU Jews Demand Divestment,” “Let the Revolution Bloom” and “Protect Olive Trees, Stop Genocide.”
Several members of the dance and rhythm group Boomshaka performed around 6:30 p.m. Demonstrators chanted “Up, up with liberation, down, down with occupation” and “free, free, free Palestine,” as drummers provided a steady beat.
After a moment of silence at sunset, members of NU Jewish Voices for Peace led a Shabbat service for demonstrators.
Eye to Eye — a poetry collective started by students of color and inspired by feminist poet Audre Lorde — then hosted a poetry open mic on Deering Meadow.
“This is a space where we’re bringing grief, we’re bringing pain and we’re bringing love,” a representative of Eye to Eye said.
At the open mic, Nicole Lombardi — a demonstrator from Oak Park — read a letter expressing support for the encampment on behalf of Black alumni who participated in the 1968 Bursar’s Office Takeover.
One demonstrator read “If I Must Die,” a poem by Palestinian writer Refaat Alareer, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip in December 2023, while Chicago-based performer and civil rights organizer Djana Youssef read three poems and shared their parents’ experience under Israeli occupation in Lebanon.
“I’s people like you and these crowds that I get to send photos of to my dad that remind us that what they want to kill in us can’t die,” Youssef said.
A performer named Coco also sang an acoustic version of Ed Sheeran’s “I See Fire.”
Demonstrators chanted “Settlers, settlers go back home. Palestine is ours alone” in a circle on the meadow before protesters settled down and retreated into tents or left the encampment for the night.
— Pavan Acharya, Aviva Bechky, Nicole Markus, Saul Pink, Samantha Powers, William Tong, Beatrice Villaflor, Jacob Wendler
