Mayday 2009, or one more reason why Minneapolis is a great place to live

The Mayday parade; an annual and much loved south Minneapolis community event. Each year, the celebration begins as a planning session made up of a small and dedicated group of local residents. They engage in a sort of ‘idea storm’, toss around socially topical themes, and strategize as to how to express these concepts in a creative and energizing way - with giant puppets, sweet music, and adorably rambunctious children dressed as an assortment of critters. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to experience one of these parades, you know that they never disappoint.

More events: May 1 March and Festival To Go Ahead--Community Calls for Immigrants' and Labor Rights • Folk music project: Mayday Picnic• ¡Únete con el bloque anticapilatista en este primero de mayo! • Anti-Capitalist Bloc call-out for May 1 March

While entertaining, an important part of the Mayday parade is to connect themes of the natural world with those of the social and political. HOBT describes this as the marriage of the “green root” - the beginning of spring, and the “red root,” or humanity’s engagement with the natural world through social change and collectivity.

This year, the good folks organizing the shindig have selected to cast a glance at current economic issues, and as stated on the theater’s website, “to rebuild an economic system that protects and sustains our Earth as a common treasury for all.” For more details and a complete schedule of events, check out HOTB’s website at http://www.hobt.org/mayday.

This lazy journalist had planned on volunteering with the theater to help build Mayday, but alas, time grew short, life got hectic and the parade is rapidly approaching this coming Sunday, May 2nd. Some advice – arrive early and find a sweet place to post up along Bloomington Ave – because spots along the sidewalk disappear faster than a Minnesota spring.