Peace. Love. Protests.

GEORGE TOCCI
57; Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn

Then: Student, musician Now: Produces music events, musician (as “Ellsworth”), husband of TONY president Alison Tocci

How did you become a protester?
Things like the police beatings at the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the Kent State University shootings in 1970 radicalized my age group.

What is your most striking memory?
Seeing the riot squads with the gas masks. At the May Day antiwar protest in ’71, the streets were lined with squads and you knew they were expecting trouble.

What did the protests achieve?
Ultimately they ended the war, but beyond that they created an awareness that welded people together. It’s a sense that a lot of people in my age group still hold on to.

Ellsworth’s protest album, American Compost, is available on iTunes and at cdbaby.com.

—Olivia Myers

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