October 2010-11th Annual Peoplehood Parade and Pageant

Spiral Q’s Peoplehood Parade and Pageant is Saturday, October 23rd

The Giant Puppet Extravaganza Brings Neighbors Together,
Celebrates Our Stories and Creativity

PEOPLEHOOD is Spiral Q’s annual artistic response to the times. It is our joyful, festive demonstration that we as people can come together, grapple with the issues of the day, and respond meaningfully in the streets. Through a giant puppet parade and pageant we offer a magical, relevant and participatory process for Philadelphians to create a new vision for our world…

This year, Spiral Q has been engaging with groups to discuss how we creatively respond to discrimination. See how heartfelt concerns that lay deep in the fabric of our community are conveyed through the loving and creative process of giant puppet pageantry. See your neighbors carrying personal symbols of identity and transcendence through the streets of West Philadelphia. See young and old perform together in Clark Park. See Philadelphians of every shape, size and hue work things out through play and creativity.

Peoplehood is much more than the spectacle of a giant puppet parade and performance that annually brightens the streets of West Philadelphia on a fun October, Saturday. Peoplehood is a community-building process that brings neighbors together to think about issues and topics that are important to us. Then, in working with Spiral Q artists, these ideas are transformed into huge puppet art, and finally worked into meaningful parade and pageant performances that EVERYONE gets to perform. It’s a fantastic way to get to know your neighbors and community.

Come out to Peoplehood. Walk in the parade or wait for it to arrive at Clark Park and then watch the giant puppet pageant tell a true community story. Peoplehood is like no other Philadelphia tradition. Help us bring this year’s Peoplehood parade and pageant to life! This year’s Peoplehood is made possible through the generous support of PNC ArtsAlive, letting everyone “be part of art.”

PARADE: 1pm at The Paul Robeson House, 50th and Walnut Streets
12pm if you want to join in!

PAGEANT: Watch the pageant around 2pm at Chester and 45th streets. Pack a picnic!
Bring friends and family!

September 2010-Pulse of the People Meeting

SHARE YOUR STORIES
Tuesday, September 14th,
6pm to 8pm
@ Spiral Q
3114 Spring Garden Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

You can feel it in today’s air. Opposition. Conflict. Fear. Battles over immigration. Battles in foreign wars. Right versus left. High school students menacing one another. Pastors wanting to burn holy books. Cheesesteak shop owners in the news. Outrage over mosques. Passion about Ground Zero. Spiral Q invites you to look around at today’s moment and join us in conversation. We want to SHARE STORIES about ENCOUNTERS WITH DISCRIMINATION. Come to Spiral Q and be part of the conversation. We can’t wait to hear and learn from each other. We’re taking the pulse of the people.

July 2010- Silkscreen Resistance and Dissent: Teens Revolt

Spiral Q Presents:
Teens Revolt: What’s On Our Minds and Culture and Resistance:
South Africa, Then and Now
Opening Reception
NEXUS/foundation for today’s art
Thursday July 8, 2010
6 PM
1400 North American Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122

Join Spiral Q for the opening of two exhibits that explore the role of printmaking in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and in current struggles for justice in Philadelphia.

Teens Revolt: What’s On Our Minds is an exhibition of original silkscreen posters created by Parkway Northwest High School students through Spiral Q’s Education Initiatives. Inspired by the use of posters in the South African anti-apartheid movement, students designed and printed posters that make bold statments about “what’s on their minds.”

This March, Spiral Q traveled to South Africa to meet with artists who were at the center of the anti-apartheid poster movement. Culture and Resistance: South Africa, Then and Now displays images, interviews, and anecdotes from Spiral Q’s trip, and tells the story of the courageous artists who dedicated their lives and work to the struggle for freedom. The exhibit highlights the role of the Medu Art Ensemble and Community Arts Project, two South African collectives of artists and cultural workers.

This program is part of Art in Resistance, Spiral Q’s study and celebration of art’s historic and ongoing role as a liberating force in justice movements throughout the world.

July 2010-Spiral Q Receives 2010 George Bartol Arts Education Award

STOCKTON RUSH BARTOL FOUNDATION SELECTS
SPIRAL Q PUPPET THEATER TO RECEIVE
2010 GEORGE BARTOL ARTS EDUCATION AWARD

Award Honors Artistic Excellence and Commitment to Community

Spiral Q Leads Grass-Roots Artmaking as a Vehicle for Social Change

Philadelphia, PA—The Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation announced that it has selected Spiral Q Puppet Theater as the 2010 recipient of the George Bartol Arts Education Award. As part of its annual grant review process, the Foundation designates one grantee to receive this additional award of $5,000 to further support its arts education programs. More information on the award and the Bartol Foundation is available at www.bartol.org

The George Bartol Arts Education Award was established in 2001 to recognize outstanding arts education programs by a non-profit cultural organization. Each year, a grant of $5,000 is made in memory of George Bartol, founder of the Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation, who believed that the key to a thriving arts community was an investment in arts education for its children. This year’s award is made possible through a gift from Mr. Bartol’s children.

The Award is given to an organization that provides sustained, meaningful exposure and participation in the arts; that demonstrates an active engagement in the lives of its students and community; and that maintains high artistic standards for its faculty and students.

Spiral Q is a community-based arts organization that mobilizes and empowers low-income communities to promote social change and justice. Through extended work in communities, Spiral Q brings together intergenerational and multicultural groups to articulate their most compelling stories and to animate these stories with large-scale puppets, parades, printmaking and pageants. Programs like Spiral Q’s annual Peoplehood event brings together these communities, culminating in a citywide parade and performance highlighting pressing neighborhood concerns.

“This $5,000 award is made to Spiral Q for its commitment to arts excellence and to the diverse communities it serves,” said Beth Feldman Brandt, Executive Director of the Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation. “Through its extended and rigorous educational programs, people learn the value of their story, uncover the assets of their community, and experience the power that comes from being an engaged citizen.”

“There is a long history of the arts being used as a tool to promote issues of social justice,” explained Tracy Broyles, Executive Director of Spiral Q. “This award recognizes not only Spiral Q but the power of the arts to galvanize people toward making social change a reality.”

The Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation, as the only local Foundation devoted solely to supporting local arts organizations, seeks to foster an environment where arts and culture can flourish. Created in 1984, the Foundation provides financial and technical support to non-profit arts and cultural organizations in Philadelphia. Through its grantmaking, the Foundation works to ensure a vibrant cultural life for all of its citizens through programs that use art as a catalyst for meaningful communication and connections, strengthening the social fabric of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods.

June 2010-Struggle to Freedom:Remembering the Medu Art Ensemble

Spiral Q Puppet Theater Presents:
Struggle to Freedom: Remembering the Medu Art Ensemble
Spiral Q invites you to join us in rememberance of the Medu Art Ensemble with Medu Survivor Judy Seidman and South African multiinstrumentalist Mogauwane Mahloele.

Monday, June 14, 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Church of the Advocate
1801 West Diamond Street
Philadelphia, 19121

Free

On June 14, 1985 the South African Defense Force raided a small community in Gaborone, Botswana assassinating twelve Medu Art Ensemble artists and community members whose community influence and political involvement posed a tremendous threat to the brutally inhuman and oppressive system of apartheid.

The Medu Art Ensemble was an exiled arts and culture organization that brandished songs, poems, photos, and performance art to unite South Africans and international allies against one of the most oppressive and inhuman regimes of our times. In 1982, Medu organized the Culture and Resistance Festival which brought together artists throughout South Africa and catalyzed many of them to commit their work to the anti-apartheid struggle. After the assassinations in 1985, Medu’s work as a collective ceased.

Twenty-five years later, Spiral Q remembers the Medu Art Ensemble with a multimedia performance and special presentation from Judy Seidman- printmaker, cultural worker, educator and Medu survivor- who comes from South Africa for the occasion. Also joining the conversation is Philadelphia based Mogauwane Mahloele, a South African musician, artist, and activist who remembers Medu well and attended the Culture and Resistance Festival. Spiral Q invites all of Philadelphia to join us as we remember the Medu Art Ensemble and reflect on the role of art in shaping our communities. A small reception will follow the event.

June 2010-Norris Square Parade and Celebration

Norris Square Parade & Celebration
Norris Square Park Diamond and Hancock Streets Friday, June 4th
Children’s Pageant at 4:30 PM
Parade at 5:30 PM
Open Mic Performances 6:30 to 8:30 PM

Join the Norris Square community and Spiral Q as we parade together in celebration of neighborhood leaders who helped make Norris Square a safer and more unified place! On Friday, June 4th, residents, students, civic leaders, faith-based groups, politicians, performance ensembles, and recovery groups will come together for a celebratory performance and parade to encourage an increased committment to safety and unity within the neighborhood.
Through song, dance, artwork and other performances, students from Hunter School, McKinley Elementary School, and Kensington CAPA will commemorate community leaders who worked to beautify the neighborhood and bring residents together. Among those honored are Rosemary Cubas, Rafael Feliciano, Tomasita Romero, Pat DeCarlo, Stanley Sautner, Iris Brown, Reverend William Gage and Sister Carol Ceck.

The artwork and symbols created for the parade and celebration were inspired by a series of community dialogues during which residents related that the community is safest when all generations are connected to each other. We hope to see you on Friday at this beautiful multigenerational expression of hope and pride for the Norris Square community!

May 2010 – Feltonville Intermediate "Lifting Our Cultures and Families" Parade

On Friday, May 28th Feltonville students and community members will parade together through the streets of Feltonville, sharing and celebrating the many beautiful cultures in their vibrant community. This parade is a culmination of Feltonville Intermediate’s exploration of identity, culture, and relationships within the community. For the past six weeks, Spiral Q led Feltonville third, fourth, and fifth graders, their older siblings, parents, and faculty in dialogues and hands-on activities about their families, their backgrounds, and the diversity of cultures in their community. Students worked together to create giant puppets that represent community members and the relationships between them: mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, and teachers and students. Come see the magnificent giant puppets created by the students and join Feltonville and Spiral Q in appreciation of all the colorful places and cultures we come from!
The parade will step off from Feltonville Intermediate, 238 East Wyoming Avenue, Philadelphia, 19120 at 1:00 PM.
This is a great example of one of the 10-15 partnerships that we lead with Philadelphia schools annually. Our Education Initiatives offer participants creative, engaging and sequential project-based art education and youth development programs that build community within schools while teaching collaboration and communication skills through creative group settings and processes.