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While ninety-nine percent of the people I know oppose President Trump, only about half of them have marched in protest. When I ask them why, tactfully, of course, they look at me sheepishly as if to suggest that, while they abhor the President and everything he stands for, walking down a crowded sidewalk thrusting a placard in the air isn’t something they’ve done in the past or something they plan to do now, no matter how grave the situation.
To their credit, members of Indivisible Palo Alto Plus, a local grassroots organization, created a novel way to engage not only those willing to express their outrage by marching but also those who normally would sit out. Their secret sauce? A Democracy Fair held at Palo Alto’s Rinconada Park that took place following the June 14th No Kings parade down Embarcadero Road. Truth be told, when I first heard about the fair, I was skeptical. I consider myself well-informed and didn’t think attending a Democracy Fair—whatever that entailed—would do much to show me how I could bring about change. As it turned out, I was sick, so I couldn’t attend the fair anyway.
But when I learned that approximately 6,000 people showed up, I wanted to know more about what I’d missed and, even more important, what to expect at October 18th’s Democracy Fair II. It takes about a hundred volunteers to launch this massive undertaking. In the interest of time, I spoke with the two most public facing members of the team: David Waksberg, the visionary behind the fair and Melissa Dinwiddie, the founder and president of Indivisible Palo Alto Plus (IPA+).
Retired executive and longtime activist David Waksberg had worked tirelessly on Kamala Harris’ Presidential campaign, only to spiral into a months-long funk starting the day after her defeat. Then he received a phone call from a friend who told him to buck up and do something productive. David took his friend’s advice and, soon after, attended a meeting of the new Indivisible chapter, IPA+, where he met the chapter’s founder Melissa Dinwiddie.
Melissa and her long-time political activist mom had been co-hosting a weekly letter- and postcard-writing party on Zoom since 2020, but, following the 2024 election, Melissa realized that, if she was going to survive the Trump Presidency, she needed to build an in-person community that not only would work together to defend democracy but also was, in Melissa’s words, “playful, joyful, and fun.” Not finding that kind of org, she started IPA+.
Melissa has a successful business as a keynote speaker, consultant, and facilitator who works with corporate clients to create innovation fueled by play, an approach Melissa employs at IPA+ meetings. It wasn’t surprising, then, that at the first IPA+ meeting David attended, people didn’t simply sign up for the area in which they wanted to work. Rather, Melissa asked anyone who’d expressed interest in an area to do a “fist-to-five,” that is, to form a fist and then show, by unfurling from one to five fingers, their willingness to take the lead on work in that area. When it came time for people interested in communications to do a fist-to-five, David was the only attendee with five fingers in the air. He left the meeting in charge of communication for IPA+.
Retired from a career that included leadership roles in both non-profits and a tech startup, David knew a thing or two about strategic communications. That said, he wasn’t quite prepared for his first assignment: developing, in two weeks, a communications strategy to promote the April 5th Hands Off protest at Palo Alto’s Tesla showroom. Despite the short timeline, about 1,800 protesters showed up. Clearly our community was eager to express their displeasure about the current regime, and David was primed to do more.
The Democracy Fair is born
The June 14th No Kings event was scheduled for the same day President Trump had ordered a military parade. But instead of a parade with missiles and tanks, IPA+’s parade would incorporate kids, families, music, costumes, maybe a juggler or two. That was the easy part. But then the question became, “What happens when the parade gets to wherever it’s going?”
David knew he wanted No Kings to go beyond a traditional protest where marchers gather at an end point, listen to a few speeches, and disperse. Rather he wanted to create a way to showcase democracy—the form of government autocrats hope to crush—by giving people the opportunity to learn together about implementing change. The Democracy Fair David envisioned would do just that. And it would appeal to people who typically don’t attend marches or rallies.
With the concept in place, David had no qualms about thinking big. “I often have these very grand ambitions that are unrealistic, and this was unrealistic,” David says. “It was a very grandiose vision. And we only had one month. One month. But we really wanted to do something different.”
As it turned out, Melissa’s MO, confirmed by the tagline for her business: ”Create the Impossible™”— dovetailed perfectly with David’s audacious vision. That said, the entire event was so all encompassing that the planning team decided to consider the first Democracy Fair a trial run, then improve on it next time. The attendees, of course, didn’t view it that way at all.
The June 14th Democracy Fair incorporated multiple events including workshops where participants could learn from experts about issues relevant to our democracy like reproductive rights, LGBT rights, immigrants’ rights; open-air town hall meetings with elected officials; an art show, kids craft activities, and more. The most highly attended workshop was a protest music singalong. The closing program culminated with a performance by Joan Baez.
As far as David knows, Palo Alto’s June 14th Democracy Fair was the only event of its kind among more than 2,000 No Kings protests across all 50 states.
Take two
David, Melissa, and Palo Alto resident Jason Titus, along with about a hundred additional volunteers, are now in the throes of planning the October 18th No Kings II. While the parade will be similar to the June parade, this Democracy Fair aims to provide attendees many tangible ways to exercise their rights as citizens of a democracy. One addition is a Democracy Academy consisting of action-oriented workshops that attendees can sign up for prior to the event.
“This time, it’s more than just coming out and saying, ‘Down with autocracy, down with Trump,’ but rather, ‘Here’s a way that I can contribute.’ And my hope is that people will leave that day having not only been inspired and with their hope buoyed by being surrounded by thousands of others who share their perspective, but also leave being able to say, ‘This is the path I’m on now’,” David says.
Putting on an event of this magnitude is a logistical chess game with teams of volunteers focused on security, space optimization, fundraising, public relations, workshops, music, logistics, organizational outreach, and more. As it turns out, David and Melissa have unwittingly been preparing to lead this effort for decades.
David, a lifetime of advocacy
When David was 13 years old, a group of 12 Russian Jews plotted to steal an airplane that they’d planned to use to escape from the Soviet Union to Israel. The KGB learned of the plot and the dissidents were arrested. Two were sentenced to death and the others received lengthy prison sentences. In solidarity, David went to high school wearing an oversized Jewish star engraved with the name of one of the dissidents who had been sentenced to death. (The dissident’s name was Mark Dimchitz, which, David quips, was not a good name for a teenage boy to have hanging around his neck.) The public outcry surrounding the case coupled with other factors resulted in the death sentences being commuted and the prison sentences reduced.
That turn of history was the first of many that would convince David of the power of collective action.
Beginning as a student at Brandeis University, David became active in the anti-apartheid movement, going as far as to travel to South Africa where he was arrested for not having a permit to visit Soweto. After college David moved to the Bay Area and, soon after, became director of the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews, a human rights organization whose mission was to advocate for the rights of Jews and dissidents in the USSR. In this position, David’s responsibilities included organizing mass protests and vigils in front of the Soviet Embassy in San Francisco.
“Much of the time that I was doing that work, which was advocacy work here and supporting those movements inside the Soviet Union, many people told me I was wasting my time,” David recalls. David ignored the naysayers and continued in that role for almost 15 years. By 1989, diplomatic pressure was a key factor in the USSR’s decision to permit hundreds of thousands of Jews to emigrate and release hundreds of political prisoners.
“I saw a superpower crumble in part because of what individual people did. And I saw it in other autocracies as well in the world,” David says. “It’s not unprecedented.”
After leaving the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews, David shifted gears and got a job at a tech startup, explaining, “After the win for Soviet Union Jewry, I didn’t want to be like the March of Dimes after polio is cured.” In that position he focused on logistics, another handy skill for planning a Democracy Fair. An idealist at his core, David left the for-profit world to become CEO of Jewish LearningWorks, an organization advocating for Jewish education in Northern California.
Melissa, a lifetime of creativity
Melissa views her work on the Democracy Fair as just one of many “impossible” challenges she has attempted that have become a reality.
Born and raised in Palo Alto, Melissa took her first dance class at age 16, dreaming of Juilliard. Three years later, she was admitted. When her dance career was cut short by an injury, she attended UC Berkeley; then, in her 20s, she again achieved what often is viewed as impossible: supporting herself as an artist. But after several years Melissa realized that her business was standing in the way of her own creativity.
“I needed to change, to get back to living a creative life. And I realized that the doorway to that life was through play, but I had forgotten how to play because I’d spent all these years making art for other people,” Melissa says.
Melissa made a set of rules to get herself back into the mindset of being a kid again. She wrote about that process in a blog called Living a Creative Life. Within a few years she was collaborating with teams at companies like Facebook, Google, Uber, and Salesforce to use play to foster a culture where innovation is the norm.
“The energy and approach of IPA+, in terms of innovation and creativity and in terms of its spirit, has been infused with my vibe of playfulness and joy which I credit at least in part for what we have achieved so far and the impact I know we’ll have in the future,” Melissa says.
Postscript
When I suggest that people participate in No Kings, they often reply by telling me that protesting in the Bay Area is preaching to the choir. At that point I usually mention the 3.5% rule, a finding by political scientist Erica Chenoweth that, when 3.5 percent of a country’s population participates in nonviolent protest against a government, that government is likely to lose power. (Based on estimates that five million people in the US attended a June 14th No Kings Day event, the US is almost halfway toward reaching that goal.) The obvious corollary is that, as Woody Allan famously said, “80 percent of success is showing up.” Woody Allen certainly has his issues, but he’s right about this. So get off the couch and come to the Democracy Fair. I know you won’t regret it, not now and definitely not five years from now.
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