2016: Radical Returnings

2016: Radical Returnings

The 42nd Annual MayDay Parade and Festival

MayDay History - May 1, 2016

From the core of our hearts, we turn to each other.

Happy Mayday!
On this mayday we honor our role as humans,
relatives of each other and all the earth.
But what is it to be human, to fully inhabit the skin
and soul of our humanity?
And how do we live together?

This is the time for Reparations--for the land and
water, for our ancestors, and for each other.
This is a time to admit and address the systematic theft
and exploitation of land and people; a crime that has
benefitted and continues to privilege whiteness.
What do we each offer, give up, bring forward to heal
the oppressive relationships
of injustice we've grown accustomed to?

Let us believe that it is possible to step into the core of our humanity to care
for the world we share,
free from domination, flourishing in imagination, shaped by love and honesty,
and nurtured with joy. A world of freedom!

mayday2016poster

Parade Outline:

Radical Returnings is about turning towards each other rather than away from each other, repairing our relationships and the earth, finding redemption and freedom in tune with the turning of the earth and the return of spring.

The parade begins with a turning indigenous Medicine Wheel, and neighborhood kids of the Phillips Project as wolves Howling for the Whole Earth.

SECTION 1 Humbly We Shape our World in Turn
The humility of knowing that we return to the earth, coupled with the power that we have to create. We share clay with the audience.

SECTION 2 The Earth is Our Home is our Body is...
Hermit crabs show us how to share resources and take only what we need.

SECTION 3 Safety is Measured in Human Kindness
Imagine a world where a prison becomes a community center, as it did during the protest at the fourth precinct in North Minneapolis; a world where we are all safe because all are housed and fed.

SECTION 4 Reparations on Our Soul: Have Heart, De-Mask, Wild Seed
Tending to the needs of our hearts; removing the masks that limit us; honoring our ancestors by speaking their truth; dancing the resilient creativity of free Blackness.

SECTION 5 Turning, Turning, the Earth is Returning
We are honored by our ancestors to care for earth’s waters, land and skies, celebrating life together with all creatures. We relegate domination and poisoning to the past.