Youth leaders stir ‘Good Trouble’ at Northampton rally in honor of civil rights activist and congressman John Lewis

NORTHAMPTON — Alice Jenkins, Marisol Pierce-Bonifaz and Joey Pisani are still technically teenagers. But in Pulaski Park on Thursday, the three youths led a rally of more than 100 participants with all the verve and vigor of veteran organizers.

The “Good Trouble” rally was one of several held across the state and the nation on Thursday in honor of the late civil rights activist and congressman John Lewis, who died five years to the day of the rally. Like numerous other protests that have taken place in the last year in Northampton, it took aim at the policies of President Donald Trump since he took office, particularly pertaining to the administrations targeting of immigrants, college campuses and transgender rights.

“I’m angry that I’m living in a reality in which I have fewer rights than my mother, that we continue to take one step forward and three steps back in achieving constitutional gender equality and bodily autonomy for all,” said Pierce-Bonifaz, 18, a 2025 graduate of Amherst Regional High School who will attend Barnard College in the fall. “I’m angry that we are accepting sexual offenders into the highest federal positions, and I am angry that we are bowing down to their policies.”

Pierce-Bonifaz, along with Jenkins and Pisani, both of whom are 19, have coordinated with other activist groups like youth women’s rights group Feminist Generation on projects, but the Northampton rally was led solely by the trio, who have become a familiar presence on other rallies held in the city.

“We’re just teenagers looking to make a difference,” said Jenkins, a 2024 Hampshire Regional High School graduate who now attends Syracuse University, in an interview. “As a young person, looking at all the problems that I’m growing into and inheriting, it’s really easy to get discouraged. But being able to have this power and take control of a crowd, and just have a community built around you that is supporting us, it really keeps me going and gives me a lot of hope for the future.”

Pisani, originally from the Hampden County town of Russell who now attends Suffolk University in Boston, drew rousing cheers and applause from the crowd as he spoke of the need for greater human rights and wider social programs in the country.

“As much as Donald Trump and [House Speaker] Mike Johnson and these crazy people in Congress try to kill your hope, as much as they try to scare you, as much as they try to take all these social programs away and things that we rely on, you still have hope in our democracy,” Pisani said. “You care about a future where nobody has to die in a parking lot because somebody has banned their bodily autonomy. You care about a future where people who have been working here for decades, built their families here, that they are whisked off of the streets by some rogue agencies, dudes in mask,” referring to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Speaking to the Gazette, Pisani credited Jenkins for inspiring him to become devoted to supporting progressive causes.

“If I can inspire through words, get somebody else to pick up a phone and make a few more calls to support getting good candidates elected up and down the ballot, that’s worth it to me,” Pisani said. “This time is one of incredible loneliness for a lot of people. There’s concern, fear and sadness for our democracy and for what we’re seeing happen across the country. So it’s vital to maintaining everybody’s hope that we bring people together to know they’re not alone.”

In addition to the youth organizers, the event also included the participation of Northampton Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, who called on activists to come together in opposing the Trump administration.

“They [the administration] want us to turn on each other and scapegoat each other for problems they have personally caused, and when they consolidate power, they will trample on the Constitution as they are right now,” Sciarra said. “We will not stop speaking out. We won’t quit standing up until democracy is restored.”

The crowd also heard from Sasha Morsmith, a member of the River Valley Democratic Socialists of America. Morsmith spoke about her background in union organizing and coming out as transgender, while voicing support for New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who also is a member of the DSA.

“Mamdani shows that you can stand up for trans people, you can support Palestine, you can stand up against oppression and fight for all working people,” Morsmith said. “That’s the winning message, that’s the politics of the future and Donald Trump’s worst nightmare.”