Many Mouths One Stomach

From Nadia Hagen, Many Mouths One Stomach founding board member and Artistic Director for the All Souls Procession Grand Finale ceremony.

 

THANK YOU ALL for participating, creating, building, walking, imagining and manifesting the 24^th Annual All Souls Procession, here in Chukson- T-Town, by the banks of the river Santa Cruz and in the shadow of A Mountain!!!

BIG THANKS to our favorite band- A Tribe Called Red and their incredible dancer J.J. How could such BIG Rock Starz be so darn sweet?

Big gratitude for Danza Azteca Calpulli Tonantzin. Tucson is very lucky to have you….very.

Our best and oldest friends from Carpetbag Brigade and our inspiring new friends from Columbia, Nemcatacoa Teatro  (I forgive you for eating all my cheese. )

So Much AWE and Thanks to all our BADASS Tech crews : Soundwave, Event Horizon and Stagedog who make us all look and sound better than we are- and Heather and Kipp and Andrew and Sharon and Howard and Ruben and Ron and Sharkey and every other dirty Miner that busted ass on site to build the transient magnificence that is Finale. …and the Port o Pots…and the trash.

I am blessed to be part of all the glamour that comes from the genius of the visionary Paul Weir, my mostly companion.

Thanks to the Huge and very industrious Media Crews …..Thank You Thank you! How would any of us even know our wigs were on straight?

Thanks to Access Tucson and Leslie Epperson for the video projection at the Finale that enabled so many more to see the ceremony this year.

Thanks to all for setting the scene on the Opening stage- Logan Phillips of Verbobala and master musicians Hojarasca Andina. Pan flutes rule!!

Thanks to all the wonderful sponsors – especially Buffalo Exchange–

Thanks to all the merchants up and down our route who survived the skeleton invasion, and to Pop-Cycle, Surly Wench , Solar Culture, Mr. Heads and Delectables On Fourth for giving of yourselves, your staff and your space to help us raise money!!

Thanks to the DTP, to FAMA, COT, ADOT, Parks and Rec, TPD and TFD– and most especially to our USHERS and the emergency responders who were fast and efficient and calm in the storm.

Thanks to Maker House, Xerocraft, WAMO and Galactic Center for hosting workshop and rehearsal spaces for us!

Thanks to Mykl Wells for putting on the Cardboard Ball and managing the All Souls Procession workshops again this year.

Thanks to The Loft for giving us space to set up our merch booth twice monthly at the Farmer’s Market.

Thanks to the folks at Artfire.com for our new online store and to Nick Tomazic for managing it.

Thanks to all of our Attendants and Ambassadors who pick glitter out of their teeth for weeks afterwards. Especially, To-Ree-Nee Wolf and Melanie Cooley, who have become my earth and sky bookends of sanity.

Thanks to our flyer crews who exercise the futility that is putting up posters only to have them stolen moments later.

A BIG Shout out to the new HUNGRY GHOST crew who set aside their personal Processional experience to gather donations from all of us for all of us- and did a fantastic job of enabling MMOS to pay all its debts on time!!!

A HUGE thanks to ALL VOLUNTEERS not mentioned yet who did everything from pick up trash post-Finale to sew kid’s outfits for Little Angels to drive stuff from Point A to Point B and everything else in between. None of this could ever happen without you and your beautiful willingness to step up and pitch in on this community-wide effort.

There is not enough thanks for all my Spirit Group Directors– YOU have all absorbed every lesson learned in Flam Chen and surpassed me in your creations!!! I am so proud of you!!

Thanks to Kira and Adam and all the folks at Gadsden for giving the Procession a place to be these past years, and all the folks at Mercado for throwing a Fat Party!!

Thanks to all the Party People who participated in the Night of 1000 Parties and to my amazing fundraising helpers and merchandise buddies who make this parade happen button by button, t-shirt by t-shirt, letter by letter.

Love to my kids who have endured the ruination of their Halloweens, perpetual late bedtimes and negligent mothering only to become my staunchest allies and bestest idea machines.

And most of all THANKS TO YOU….the face-painted, Dancing Skeletons who have the courage to laugh with death….who fill the streets and walk and cry, who send us pictures and fill the URN with prayers and give of your heart and your hands to create one of the most remarkable events on the planet.

If I forgot you, it’s only for lack of brain cells…forgive me.

 

Nadia Hagen, Artistic Director, MMOS