Protests, I assume, have their own terms of art. I’d openly wondered what you’d call the person who is leading the crowd in chants and, this being a notorious soccer town, someone suggested to me capo—which I don’t think is correct but I’m now too enamored of it not to use it.

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/427203467]

All of which is by way of getting around to mentioning that one of the things which struck me about the capo at the Black Lives Matter/“defund the police” demonstration on Sunday in downtown St. Johns was the bringing a chant to a close with the flourish, “Woo-hoo!”

It was this striking bit of extra emotional work, whereby after leading it in heavy, meaningful chants — say, the call and response of, “Hands up! (Don’t shoot!)”—the crowd is invited to let out the tension with cheers and applause.