Lantern Procession + Parade
Session 5 | August 10–22
Students and community members with their lanterns at the Great Halloween Lantern Parade in Baltimore, made collaboratively in the "Puppetry and Performing Objects" course at MICA. Lanterns completed 2019, 2021-2024. Photo by Dorret Oosterhoff.
Processions and parades are ancient collective performance practices that build community, metabolize big feelings, and mark time! In this workshop, we will collaboratively build an illuminated procession inspired by the temporal nature of our summer community. We will work with basket reed, wire, paper, fabric, and responsibly foraged materials to craft lanterns and wearables. Play with movement and narrative ideas will animate our processional performance. The session will include facilitated community-building activities, tips for hosting art builds, and opportunities for co-facilitation. All levels welcome.
Valeska Populoh (she/her) works as an artist, performer, educator, and cultural organizer in Baltimore, MD, unceded land of the Piscataway Conoy and other Chesapeake First Families. Embracing a wide array of tactics, from puppetry to participatory performance, Populoh’s work is motivated by an interest in healing and repair, in our relationships to each other, and to the natural world. Her practice has been deeply influenced by Bread and Puppet Theater, Black Cherry Puppet Theater, the Fiber Department at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and working in community.