Downtown Tucsonan - November 2008 - (Page 24)

The Al l Souls Procession continued from page 20 volvement, it’s clear this event would not be the same. The Grand Finale. after winding its way down Fourth ave, passing through the sixth avenue underpass and snaking its way downtown, the asP eventually finds itself in a parking lot by the railroad tracks at the northeast corner of Franklin and stone. there, the concrete loading docks at the back of a lot act as an expansive stage where the bizarro meets the surreal. “the Finale is Flam chen’s area,” says Hagen with a sense of propriety and pride. “we rent the cranes, choreograph the performers, work with the sculptors. this year there will be 75 performers on the stage including 12 aerialists, 10 fire dancers, 8 stilt walkers, (at least a dozen or so members of) the Fine stream Gamelan, and 8 attendants for the urn. Hagen promises this will easily be the largest Grand finale to date, all of which will culminate with the ceremonial burning of the urn. The Urn. More than anything this may in fact represent the spiritual heart and soul of the asP. although the skeleton of its structure is of permanently welded steel, the urn, eight feet tall and six feet wide takes on a new look and new life with each passing year. “the urn represents a way for the community to have hands on involvement and interaction,” says Hagen. “Everyone can put a prayer into the urn. Everyone has the opportunity to honor an ancestor. It’s very real, very touching and emotional. It’s not abstract.” the urn is carried by several attendant/spirit walkers who also carry smaller urns used to receive the offerings of various prayers, mementos and artifacts collected from all those who are wanting to honor their ancestors and passed loved ones. the urn leads the procession, and its ceremonial burning at the conclusion of the Grand Finale, two stories above the ground, marks the official end of the asP. Tucson Puppet Works. charles swanson and Matt cotten have been making their outrageous big head and big bodied puppets and masks since the mid 1990s and have been involved with the asP for the past 12 years. “we’ve been having workshops for this from the beginning,” says swanson, “although at the beginning, they weren’t always open to the public.” swanson says tucson Puppet works, with the help of different grants and donations, offers more than a dozen workshops, beginning in mid-september, to help “a couple of hundred people” create custom puppets and masks for the asP. their fliers blanket downtown and Fourth avenue neighborhoods encouraging all those who want to participate, to give this a try. “we make new puppets every year…sometimes around a theme, but it’s always really loose. Mostly it’s about honoring the dead, ancestry and celebrating life and its struggles.” several times they have hosted the official after party. The Actual Processional. If you wanted to (or had to), you could call it a parade, but that would imply a certain amount of organization that may or may not be present. Mostly the organizing is in the pre-planning—creating the costumes, puppets, masks, prayers for the dead, getting together with other musicians or artists with the intention of doing something, and of course the Grand Finale. But other than that, it’s pretty much just show up around university and Fourth avenue at 5 p.m. and as swanson says, “be ready to step off of the curb and into the street.” there, individuals and groups will magically find their place in line and proceed down Fourth avenue towards downtown. copeira and samba groups, bagpipes, drummers, makeshift bands, individuals and groups are all meshing together in a way that can be extremely chaotic and yet is somehow devoid of chaos. although it can be, asP is best experienced not as a spectator sport, but from within. crowds in recent years have been estimated to be at 6,000 people. From start to finish you can expect about a twohour experience. Many Mouths/One Stomach. Many Mouths one stomach (MMos) is the 501c.3 non profit created so that the asP could apply for grants and accept tax deductible donations to help pay for what has become an annual $40K endeavor. Hagen explains that the name is representative of the many diverse factions that have come together to make the asP possible, “as in so many mouths feeding into one stomach.” to paraphrase its mission, MMos is all about perpetuating “festal culture” in southern arizona. Festal culture is defined as “the expression and fulfillment of core human needs through public celebration, ceremony, and ritual.” Event coordinator and MMos Board chair Meyers stresses the need to keep the asP a “homespun event” and to make sure the asP will never take on a “titled sponsor” or corporate backing. at the same time he acknowledges it was only a couple of months ago that the debts from last year’s asP were finally paid off. “If everyone that showed up gave just $1 or $2, we could pay for it all up front.” (donations are also accepted into the urns.) In addition to the asP on sunday, MMos sponsors a full weekend of activities including the family friendly Procession of Little angels event on saturday at the downtown Library. they also collect the images for the ancestor’s Project which projects large random images of those passed onto buildings throughout the procession route. this March MMos will also sponsor a ceremonial event marking the rites of spring. For more info on the asP, how to contribute to the ancestor’s Project and MMos, visit their interactive website at www.manymouths.org. 24 downtown tucsonan.november.08 http://www.manymouths.org

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Downtown Tucsonan - November 2008 Contents Downtown Lowdown Vital Signs Downtown Live Arts Galleries Performing Arts Events Film Historic Downtown Museums Billboard Classifieds

Downtown Tucsonan - November 2008

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