Bang the Pots, Colorado Protests Palestinian Starvation in Capital

The quiet evening air is suddenly pierced by a dampened thwack. As the grey clouds start to tease above the still dry air, suggesting rain which will never fully arrive, the soft static crackle of a megaphone is followed by a short chorus of more muted metallic drum beats. Flags are unfurled and the dozen or so people standing outside of the Colorado Capitol in Denver raise their voices in response to the amplified call now coming from the front.

“Free, free Palestine!” they chant in unison, accompanying their message by hitting kitchen utensils against the bottoms of their cookware.

Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda had taken to her digital platforms only a few days earlier, highlighting the inhuman conditions her neighbors and peers were being made to live in because of the forced famine in their occupied territories.

Answering the call from Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda, hundreds of Coloradans gathered across the capital city to clang empty cookware in protest of the forced famine in the occupied Palestinian Territories on July 24, 2025. (Photo by Vince Chandler / Yellow Scene Magazine).

One third of those forced to live only inside the confines of the West Bank and Gaza are going days without eating. Because of Israeli blockades, food and aid have been long unable to reach their homes, some walk for hours in a desperate hope to secure the raw ingredients needed to feed their families. Too many are killed by soldiers as they search for something to eat, becoming targets at distribution centers.

The United Nations reports that one hundred thousand people in occupied Palestine are now suffering from “severe acute malnutrition,” and as empathetic Americans like the now-ostracized Ms. Rachel beg their audiences to recognize the humanitarian crisis, to see the starving children as they would their own, the world continues to choose to not intervene.

Human Rights Watch, an international organization which investigates abuses occurring globally, reported in 2024 that following the October attacks in Israel, the nation has intentionally deprived the Palestinian people of adequate clean water, necessary medical aid, and food.

With the intentional targeting of hospitals, schools, and religious institutions with their missiles, the United Nations has said that the concerted efforts of the Israeli Defense Forces have permanently put at risk the possibility of any future for Palestinians. 90% of educational facilities in Gaza – grade schools, universities, etc. – have been destroyed or converted for military staging, leaving nearly a quarter million children without access to learning nearly two years.

Now, more than one million Palestinian people suffer under the very real reality that they don’t know where, when, or even if, their next will come. 70% of the population is experiencing the most catastrophic levels of hunger, weakening their bodies past a point of no return. Forced famine, having your caloric intake dictated by a hostile government, is an internationally recognized war crime.

Journalist Bisan Owda, in Palestine, has bravely shone a spotlight on these cruel tactics’ impacts on her people. Around the world, people scroll through their feeds of baking tips and hyperspecific interests with the occasional mention of the atrocities being committed on the coasts of the Mediterranean. Too many quickly scroll past, searching for the next placating escape.

To circumvent this social media ennui, Owda made a simple request: get loud. Their pots, their pans, their stomachs are empty and while the Freedom Flotilla carves their way toward their shores, little other help seems to be fighting through the occupier’s embargo. So, the globe was asked to take their own empty kitchenware and demand that the Palestinian’s be filled.

In Denver, Colorado, under a grey sky threatening storms, hundreds of sympathetic people heard the call. The first sharp clanks or metal ladle on sauce pan were soon joined by the dull thuds of wooden spoons on lobster pots. Metal lids became improvised cymbals, 5-gallon paint buckets became plastic drums. A hammer hitting a sign post made a metallic rattle which could be heard blocks away.

“We don’t have the usual programming, we’re not doing speeches today,” organizers at the Capitol announced through their megaphones. “I don’t know what’s left to be said! We went from ‘free Palestine,’ to ‘ceasefire,’ to ‘stop starving them.’ What’s next?”

The discordant wind chime continued to percuss for another 90 minutes, the wall of sound surrounding attendees and drowning out the traffic sounds on the 5-lane wide boulevard before them. The air horns of passing trucks rose above the rumble as drivers pumped their arms and added their support. Cars honking and waving as they past certainly increased the decimals, though everything blended into an almost-melody as the hundreds banged their pots.

Protestors for Palestinian liberation demonstrate on the west side of Colorado’s capitol building in Denver Colorado. Answering the call from Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda, hundreds of Coloradans gathered across the capital city to clang empty cookware in protest of the forced famine in the occupied Palestinian Territories on July 24, 2025. (Photo by Vince Chandler / Yellow Scene Magazine).

No speeches, just the deafening – determined – sounds of empty pots demanding they be filled. No marches, this wasn’t about disrupting the day-to-day but about being sure to be seen and heard. They’d chosen this spot on the Capitol lawn not because of proximity to lawmakers, but because a majority of those leaving the city for their evening elsewhere would have to pass by.

They would have to consider the children being starved in the West Bank, to think about the father in Gaza dodging American bullets at an aid distribution site, to weigh what they would do if they were the mother not sure she’d see her family grow old.

Across the city, another group of dedicated Denverites heeded the call from Owda. Hearing the request to bang their pots everywhere, they opted to host a separate event in solidarity, aligned with the gathering at the Capitol. This one was along the city’s busy urban highway corridor, Speer Avenue, outside of Colorado’s senior Senator Michael Bennet.

Senator Bennet has continually ducked Palestinian liberation activists, often mis-characterizing the end of Palestinian subjugation as antisemitic. In February he voted to send an additional $3.8B in unconditional military aid to continue the occupation, while also introducing a non-binding resolution requesting that aid be allowed in.

Outside of his office, which had a layer of plywood encircling its ground floor to greet his nonviolent constituents with their cookware, 50 people banged and clanged. Occasionally they walked through the traffic paused at the red light, waving signs with the Senator’s phone number and asking folks to call their representative.

In front of the César E. Chavez Memorial Building, in Denver, Colorado, protestors gathered at the home of Senator Michael Bennet’s office answering the call from Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda, hundreds of Coloradans gathered across the capital city to clang empty cookware in protest of the forced famine in the occupied Palestinian Territories on July 24, 2025. (Photo by Vince Chandler / Yellow Scene Magazine).

On the plywood put up to protect the building from having empty pots bonked loudly out front, demonstrators affixed their signs, photos of dead children and journalists, and excerpts from internationally recognized reports on the forced famine.

Some passersby would roll their windows up, insulating themselves from the sound. An occasional sneer or thumbs-down toward protestors indicated definitely their disapproval of the advocates. One, enthusiastically needing their middle finger be seen, swerved their oversized truck into the next lane nearly colliding with a family sedan.

A majority of public feedback, however, was positive. Horns tooting in support were accompanied by flags, keffiyehs, smiles, and loving words put through their windows. One or two pulled over to join the fray.

Into the evening, as rush hour traffic slowed, the cacophony continued. No longer separated by multiple lanes of cars rushing past at more than 35 miles per hour, smiles were shared and streets were crossed to fill the sidewalks on each side. Banners were raised on the bridges over trickling Cherry Creek.

Like the famine they were protesting, there was no cataclysmic crescendo, no catastrophic point where it was easily identifiable as the end. Instead, simply the slow loss of sound as people quietly departed, the few who remain redoubling their efforts to remain as loud.

Until no one was left and there was silence.

Answering the call from Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda, hundreds of Coloradans gathered across the capital city to clang empty cookware in protest of the forced famine in the occupied Palestinian Territories on July 24, 2025. (Photo by Vince Chandler / Yellow Scene Magazine).

Best known for capturing striking content from the frontlines of social movements, Heartland EMMY-nominated filmmaker and photographer Vince Chandler has spent 20 years creating art and documentary visuals across the U.S. They served as Communications Director for Denver City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis, and Vince has earned national recognition for their work as a visual journalist for The Denver Post. Vince was the principal cinematographer for the feature documentary film Running With My Girls, which premiered at the 2021 Denver Film Festival.

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What does resistance & resilience look like in the Heartland of America?

Sometimes it’s a protest outside an ICE detention center. Sometimes it’s a rural nurse explaining how Medicaid cuts will shutter the town hospital. Sometimes, it’s a law professor teaching systemic racism at a University in a state where CRT is banned in public schools.

As Trump’s second term unfolds — and the One Big Beautiful Act guts healthcare, empowers ICE, and reshapes American life — independent journalism is more vital than ever. However, the national press rarely shows up in the places where policy has the most impact.

We do.

These American Crossroads is a collaboration between Vince Chandler, Emmy-nominated visual journalist, and Yellow Scene Magazine, Boulder County’s only independent newsroom.

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