As I mentioned in a previous post, I attended the 44th annual In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre's MayDay parade in Minneapolis last Sunday, May 6. This year's MayDay theme was "What You Feed, Grows! (It's All About Love)."
As I've noted previously, the MayDay parade never fails to embody story and ritual at their best. And because the themes of the parade are always concerned in one way or another with journeying, growth, transformation, and the seeking and embodying of the best qualities of the human condition, I have no hesitation in calling it a religious ritual. It feeds my spirit – and the spirits of the hundreds who participate in it and the thousands who line the streets of Bloomington Ave. in south Minneapolis to witness it.
Following is the beautiful and profound welcoming statement from this year's MayDay celebration program.
Let us celebrate youth and love, two universal, cross-cultural, powerful and inspiring elements that make our neighborhoods and our world bearable, and even exquisite, in these troubling times.
The might and power of youth are leading us. Their vision, action, courage and wisdom are a potent channel for transformation. May we hold one another in love and support, and join in this important movement.
Love. Perhaps our most basic human need, core function, means of healing. Love, an answer to the question of what we must plant and nourish in these times.
As I've done in previous years, I spent time before the start of this year's MayDay parade walking around and taking photos in the staging area. That's where the images in this first of two Mayday 2017 posts were taken. Enjoy!
Note the good folks at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre:
Puppetry's power lies in the act of transformation – of bringing something inanimate to life. This act in itself speaks to our lives, which rise and fall and rise again. As we share this act of building and performing, we find that art brings people together. It creates and expands community.
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Photo of the Day – May 6, 2018
• "Imagine, Heal, Resist" – MayDay 2017 (Part 1)
• "Imagine, Heal, Resist" – MayDay 2017 (Part 2)
• Photo of the Day – May 7, 2017
• "Radical Returnings" – MayDay 2016 (Part 1)
• "Radical Returnings" – MayDay 2016 (Part 2)
• "Our New Possibility": Photo of the Day – May 1, 2016
• "And Still We Rise!" – MayDay 2015 (Part I)
• "And Still We Rise!" – MayDay 2015 (Part II)
• Mystics of Wonder, Agents of Change (MayDay 2014 – Part 1)
• "The Spiritual Dialectic of WONDER?!" (MayDay 2014 – Part 2)
• See the World! (MayDay 2013)
• The End of the World as We Know It (2012)
• "Uproar!" on the Streets of South Minneapolis: Part 1 (2010)
• "Uproar!" on the Streets of South Minneapolis: Part 2 (2010)
• Getting Started: MayDay 2009 (Part 1)
• Celebrating Our Common Treasury: MayDay 2009 (Part 2)
• MayDay and a "New Bridge" (2008)
• The Time is Now! (2006)
Images: Michael J. Bayly.
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