Minneapolis celebrated another May Day on Sunday, May 3, with a parade and celebration at Powerderhorn Park by The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater. I interviewed people along the way in the style of Humans of New York, asking the question, “What does May Day mean to you?”
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Andrea Bebel, Rebecca Conrin, Corrie Semi, Selena Eischens [Comments from all four of them, mixed together] All four of us are in recovery. A big part of being able to stay sober is finding fun things to do and having fellowship with friends. We like to take it to the next level and participate quite a bit. We're all in different parts of our sobriety, and we absolutely adore being around each other. We walked (unofficially) at the end of the parade. I [Andrea] was up until 4 in the morning making my crown. Two of us came last year, but we weren't dressed up. We were so disappointed. We love dressing up. So the whole day we were a little bit beside ourselves we weren't dressed up. This year we had a plan!
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Shelley Martin May Day is originally a celebration of resistance. For those of us who are fighting for justice sometimes we don't recognize that we can use our imaginations to fight for justice and it can be beautiful and colorful and creative and long and wide and deep. I'm part of the Black is Sacred section, this year's parade theme is Black Lives Matter. Our section is going to be filled with rollerskating goddesses, grandmothers in a Cadillac, food, abundance, and affirmations and quotes from prominent African Americans. I'm representing Octavia Butler, an African American science fiction writer.
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Banji Lawal May Day means celebrating the beginning of summer. People coming about and making goofy floats and costumes that have a message.
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Jill Galstad I've been doing may day since 2001. It's a way to be creative and make music -- I'm a nurse. I have friends I've made over the years and it's a special time to see them again. Big things have happened in my life around May Day. My son was born around this time. It's personal and a day for everyone to get together and send good energy out into the world.
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Makaylah Grose and Lucy Kaufman Lucy: I've been going to May Day since I was 2, I've grown up with it. It's really given me appreciation for difference. Every time I come here I learn so much. It's an inspiration to me -- it's why I love Minneapolis. There's so much diversity. You see so much beauty in people's lives. Being alive is art, that's how I look at it. Makaylah: Me, I think it's a long winter and stuff. Coming to May Day is uplifting. It's warm out, everybody's gathering. It's the end of hibernation. It's everybody's chance to come together and be with each other again after winter. It's a celebration.
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Kat Luna I've been a part of May Day my whole life. It's really important to me. It's the thing the brings everyone together after the winter. I'm a puppeteer, and I've worked with this whole scene. To me May Day is about coming together and sharing in the community that revolves around recognizing the season. And recognizing that we're together and there's this environmental aspect and a political aspect. It's about being really happy and being with the people I love and building something together that reflects our greater community while staying true to our Minneapolis roots.
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Jerry Anderson For me May Day means a celebration of unity. Everybody comes together as one. It's a day to put everything aside and celebrate life.
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Greta and Jenny Bolling Jenny asked her daughter some questions: Did you like having a chance to be with the community and put all your crafts together? nod Do you like being in a big community? nod. That's the part we like -- being a part of the community. Arts are a really important part of our lives. I work at the children's theater and so she's grown up in that world. Also the social justice part of the parade is very important to our family.
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Nick Svoboda May Day means to me a day of action and celebration. It's an international day of workers' struggle.
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Susana DeLeon May Day really means the struggle of the workers giving us the eight hour day -- and giving up their lives. It also means having a day with my best friends and being in this environment, which is free of violence. It's a contrast from something necessary that was so violent and so clashing. We get this day when Sandy [Spieler of Heart of the Beast] and the puppets bring us all this hope.
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Xena Huff May Day means a celebration of light and sun coming back to our community. Lots of people coming together and making art. Joy. Craziness. Spontaneity. The first time I saw the May Day parade I was amazed and I knew this was the right city for me. We had just moved here from Seattle and came to the parade and saw the most incredible things. I couldn't believe what people had done! I thought this must be a great place to live.
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Jake Polsfuss It's fun and the people are kind and just great to be around. It makes me happy that I can participate.
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Miré Regulus May Day is when spring really starts. Sometimes we get lucky and it gets warm before, and sometimes May Day itself is really cold. There's something about that transformation with everybody making an effort to be out, and the reconnection with people -- people you haven't seen for months and months.
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