No Kings, Brussels, Reflections on Goya and Nadja, October Escape.
“Take our democracy back right now,” screamed Americans abroad at the NO kings Rally last Saturday afternoon in Brussels.
I heard about No Kings in New York after I booked for my October escape. But found a similar rally there.
“What do we want?”
“Democracy!”
“When do we want it?
“Now.”
Car after car honk supporting us, in opposition to the tyrannical turn in the US. The cemeteries of Europe are filled with graves of people who died fighting fascists, says one sign.
“Love not hate, don't take the MAGA bait.”
“Don't touch our vote,” says one man, telling us about his sign, written in French. He tells me about the safe act, a bill that proposes that Americans re-register to vote, further restricting the franchise in the US, as the supreme court guts the remaining elements of the voting rights act.
“This madness ends when we all rise up and say no,” says another.
The fight against fascism, says a woman from Italy when asked why she is here. A person with mobility challenges, this is her first demonstration.
Passing out lyric sheets, a group invites us to sing “We Shall Overcome” and other old freedom songs, with a Sing Out Louise culture jam twist. I find myself becoming moved as we sing a few verses and talk with others about the mess we find ourselves in.
“Please just resign,” we sing to the tune of the old Neil Diamond anthem, “Sweet Caroline.”
“Honk for democracy” says another sign imploding a driver's outside the US Consulate. Many do just that.
“Fuck Trump,” screams one driver.
“This country does not belong to kings, dictators, or tyrants; it belongs to us. Protests in cities around the world,” says Move On. Saturday's No Kings Day might turn out to be the biggest day of protest in modern American history.”
A woman plays a kazoo as we sing we shall not be moved.
Kids run about. Others carry signs.
Democrats Abroad posted a note about the Brussels NO Kings rally October 18, 2025 at 03:00 PM across from the US Embassy, at the intersection of Rue Guimard and Ave des Arts, Brussels 1000, Belgium.
“Join us in Brussels for our latest protest as we join the next No Tyrants Day with Democrats Abroad. If you don't think the President should be sending troops into American cities then show up! Bring your signs, your friends, and your energy as we stand united! … The first round of Hands Off! protests on April 5th were a huge success drawing an estimated 3 million participants across 1400 locations. Since then we haven't stopped. The first No Kings Day on June 14th drew an estimated 5 million participants across 2100 locations! We've seen results with Elon Musk stepping down from DOGE and now threatening to start his own party.”
Finishing the rally, I walked back to Ave Louise and dropped a note to the millions about to hit the streets in the US as our event was ending.
“Great turnout here!!! Bonne chance dans la rue mes amis!!! Courage! Vous entrez dans l'histoire!”
The French of you making history, sounds like we are literally entering the street, entering history. Feels about right for this moment.
By the end of the day, my friend Kate Barnhart, who volunteered to marshal the US march with Rise and Resist, would write:
Earlier in the afternoon, I walked past Patrice Lumumba Square. The square is named in honor of the Congolese independence leader and first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba. Situated at the entrance of the Matongé district, an area with a large Congolese population, the square is steeped in symbolism as a step by Belgium to acknowledge its brutal colonial past in the Congo, as Belgian complicity in Lumumba's 1961 assassination has been recognized. The square is located near a statue of King Leopold II, who was responsible for horrific atrocities during his rule over the Congo. Lumumba is remembered as a pivotal anti-colonial and Pan-African leader, as well as a symbol of resistance against imperialist forces and a national hero who fought for a united, independent Congo.
No Kings
It had been a full weekend of history.
"At times to be silent is to lie," says Miguel de Unamuno, the Spanish essayist and philosopher, whose work The Tragic Sense of Life, used to captivate Dad.
I found myself gazing at his portrait on Friday after I arrived, walking through Bozar to the Goya show and contemporary exhibitions.
"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly," said John Baldessari to his students at UCLA. Walking through the exhibition of his work, the hot combos, juxtaposed ideas, I wondered about the strange ways we are asked to live, to confront history, to join it, to think about our world, images of the world, the way we shape them, combing and separating, story after story.
I was there for the exhibition "Luz y sombra: Goya and Spanish realism" at the Bozar - Brussels Center for Fine Arts, for EUROPALIA ESPAÑA:
“Francisco de Goya (1746-1828) became famous for his monumental portraits of the upper classes and traditional scenes of popular festivals. However, in stark contrast, he was also known for his fierce, gripping depictions of the injustices, abuses and horrors of his time. EUROPALIA ESPAÑA's main exhibition brings together engravings and paintings by Goya from collections around the world, in dialogue with works by his contemporaries as well as by artists from more recent generations, right up to the present day. The exhibition explores the formal, conceptual and ideological legacy of Goya, whose work has played a major role in shaping the collective imaginary of what is perceived as ‘Spanish’, and which continues to intrigue, move and inspire audiences today.”
Taking in the show, I thought of seeing Goya’s work at the Prado, in Madrid, of the kids, of their sketches of his etchings of Velázquez's painting Las Meninas, as interpretive "translations".
Looking at his struggles with censors, his nude maja and the dressed maja, and darker works on war and violence, his images of a society, and its horrors, I wonder what is the best way to move forward.
Dad used to read the Spanish Miguel de Unamuno. Even he seemed to stumble. Everyone does.
Yet, he still understood we have to try.
"Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible."
His portrait in the exhibition is striking.
Finishing the show, I step out to find a bus and then tram up to Ave Louise to find my hosts, James and Irene, who gossiped with me into the evening, beginning a conversation that spanned throughout the weekend, from my last trip to Brussels, to their trip to New York, arranging dinner with mutual college friends, another fall trip, another conversation, another stroll through lovely Brussels, with its distinct flair, brasseries and history, born of a complex mix of Celtic, Germanic, Roman, and medieval influences. Some of it - politics, mostly about our lives, the ways we grow up, find ourselves, school, friends, look at heroes, and struggles, the ways Europe and the US converge and differ, as well grow older, looking at our lives.
“I think we should be talking about the Posse Comitatus Act more,” I say, referring to the reconstruction era law forbidding armies from invading American cities that a federal judge said the president was violating by invading US cities.
We chat about our trip to Paris last summer, their upcoming travel plans to Romania.
"You know, Voltaire contracted syphilis two blocks from here," James reminded us over dinner after the demo.
And stayed up all night, chatting, before my trip back to Dublin, on my way back to New York.
Back home we met at Barbalu BKLYN, on Bergen Street.
Over dinner Baby C and I talked about Nadja, the Surrealist romance by André Breton I read between Brussels and Brooklyn. Nadja is the original pixie dream girl said Baby C. André Breton's 1928 novel Nadja might be its precursor. Eccentric, mysterious, inspiring, a movement of thought, in between this part of the city and that part of the heart, this continent and that dream. Breton asks Nadja who she is. She replies “I am the soul in limbo”... She's the reason we read. We look about at what the world could be... Nadja is a meditation on the "shape of a city." Says Breton, “I have taken Nadja, from the first day to the last, for a free genius, something like one of those spirits of the air which certain magical practices momentarily permit us to entertain but which we can never overcome.” And so the story reminds us... she's there in my dreams...movies, in book club, in memories, waiters drop plates when they see her.
On we chat at book group once I get home, taking notes on this homage to crazy love, an aftermath, state of being beyond. “Beyond W.B. Yeats A Vision,” says one man.
Reflecting on Surrealism a hundred years later, we discuss this story of a man putting a woman in desperate straights on a pedestal. He sees her as a disaster and a muse, a femme fatale and a dream. Her mask begins to slip.
"Beauty will be convulsive or not at all" says André Breton; beauty should be powerful, shocking, and intense—like a convulsion—rather than calm or conventional…. beauty is found in the unexpected, the marvelous, and the passionate.
Lovely disconnected between who she is or what he’s projecting?
Nadja as a ghost or projection. object or ghost or non person.
"It is not for me to ponder what is the 'shape of the city.' says André Breton.
Both Rexroth and Breton hold disdain for psychological doctors.
It's more interesting to listen to the crazies.
It's a story of wandering.
Chance encounters.
Walking as a celebration of our freedom.
My feet took me.
The waiter sees her, dropping eleven plates.
Everyone reacts to her.
She’s kind of magic.
"The simplest surrealist act consists, with revolvers in hand, of descending into the street and shooting at random, as much as possible, into the crowd" writes Andre Breton Second manifesto of surrealism, 1929
At 9:23 PM, Sid wrote:
“hi All. Love to hear all the wonderful comments. I found myself having difficult at first but then even though I thought I wasn’t getting it, I could stop reading - stream of C etc. I also was affected by the S&V comment and the critique of mental hospitals (loved the section about the revolver in the moment of clarity) but also of Work. And I found the Nadja was a prime example of someone who rejected work and also of a beautiful e.g. of a Surreal person. Not consciously but she couldn’t help be that way - which was I guess what attracted Breton to her. I felt that she was perhaps a classic (?) e.g. of a “crazy” person but not crazy — someone perhaps on some psychedelic drugs probably not but something about her chemistry and the way she was really was very revolutionary or at least very Surrealist.. And avoiding work which was a big part of the book and the activity of both Breton and Nadja.yes walking all over. Reminded me of the Situ’s Derive. And chance encounters and even making appts but not keeping them and then chance meeting while passing each other…..”
I do too.
Looking at mail I find a letter from Move On:
Dear MoveOn member,
Yesterday, something extraordinary happened across America!
7 million people gathered at 2,700 No Kings events in all 50 states and abroad, making it the single largest day of protest in modern U.S. history. WE DID IT!
Young and old. Urban and rural. First-time protesters standing alongside movement veterans. People waving American flags, wearing frog and unicorn costumes, carrying handmade signs saying, "Democracy Doesn't Fear Protest. Dictators Do," "We Dumped Tea for Less," and "Melt ICE." All of us united by one simple truth: America is a democracy, not a dictatorship. This country does not belong to kings.
Donald Trump and Republicans tried to silence us, dismiss us, and convince America we don't exist. They failed.
Trump said on Wednesday, "They have their day coming up. I hear very few people are gonna be there, by the way. But they have their day coming up and they want to have their day in the sun."1
MAGA House Speaker Mike Johnson called it a "hate-America rally" that would draw "the pro-Hamas wing" of the Democratic Party and "the antifa people."2
They wanted us to stay home. They wanted us isolated, afraid, and silent.
Instead, 7 million of us filled the streets. We were loud. We were joyful. And we were everywhere.
But here's what matters even more than the numbers: This movement is building the strength and momentum we need to stop authoritarianism in America.
As Maria Stephan, co-author of "Why Civil Resistance Works," explains, "The research on nonviolent resistance movements really focuses on the importance of momentum. It's not just a lot of people showing up for mass demonstrations; it's about sustained engagement."3
…when you look at our trajectory, you see something very different:
April: 3 million people at 1,300 Hands Off! events.
June: 5 million people at 2,100 No Kings events.
October: 7 million people at 2,700 No Kings events.
Our movement isn't just growing, it's surging.
The "3.5% rule" from historical research tells us that few authoritarian governments have survived when 3.5% of the population mobilizes peacefully in a sustained way.5 For the U.S., that's roughly 11 million people showing up again and again.
We're building toward that number, and yesterday was a huge step…”
