Fall greetings to you, friends and family! Once again the temporal wheel turns and we find ourselves entering into the season of the dead, where we remember and celebrate what is most important in our fleeting, mortal lives….the great love that sustains us in this world. May it always be uppermost in our hearts and minds as we choose our action paths from moment to moment, that the best of ourselves will shine through.
• The colors and theme for the Urn and its attendant Spirit Group this year will be red and the fiery element, as inspired by the tattva system of eastern mysticism.
And we are graced this year by the presence of several performers from across the Americas: Nemcatacoa Teatro (from Columbia), Hojarasca Musica Andina (also from Columbia, the Andean musical accompaniment for Nemcatacoa), A Tribe Called Red (Canadian Aboriginal Pow Wow-Step DJ’s), and our old friends Carpetbag Brigade Physical Theater (hailing from the S.F. Bay Area). Also, returning from last year’s stirring performance rite to initiate the Procession’s Grand Finale will be Tucson’s own Danza Azteca Calpulli Tonantzin to again enact the opening blessing.An amazing line-up for the Finale ceremony and several peripheral events as well!
This year’s Grand Finale will run a cost of approximately $26,275 to cover technical costs, purchase materials, and compensate directors and musicians. If you attend the Urn burning at the Finale, are inspired by the experience and wish to contribute to our fundraiser campaign on usaprojects.org (where we’re aiming for $12,000 with an equal match from USA Projects if we meet that goal), then we invite you to come visit our page there and offer whatever your heart moves you to, from $1 on up. As of the writing of this news update we are 8% to our goal with $1,031 of the $12,000 goal raised and an October 15th deadline. As always, we thank you for your support!
www.usaprojects.org/project/2013_all_souls_procession_ceremony_and_finale
• On Saturday, September 28th, the 2nd annual Cardboard Ball will be held to fundraise for the All Souls Procession Workshops! Come join us for a night of art, music and fashion fun starting 7:30 pm at the Steinfeld Warehouse, 101 W. 6th Street in Tucson. Tickets are $7 pre-event (available at Borderlands Brewery, Pop Cycle, and Yikes Toys), and $10 at the door.
Proceeds from the Cardboard Ball will pay for the All Souls Procession Workshop’s space rental (also at Steinfeld), materials costs, and workshop publicity. The budget for the workshops this year will be produced by this event, so let’s pack ’em in there, friends! Cardboard fashions are encouraged (it’ll get you in free, in fact) but certainly not required to enjoy the sights and sounds prepared for you this night.
What awaits you at the Cardboard Ball? Well, amazing sculptures and other creative forms based in cardboard and recycled materials; beats by Elva De La Torre (KXCI’s Wire Service), DJ Carl Hanni, and Toby Roberts (KXCI’s Electric Feel) for your dancing pleasure; food trucks; a photo booth; free snow-cones; Borderlands beer; and an opportunity to support the many years old tradition of community workshops for the All Souls Procession with your patronage….all for just a mere $7-$10!
Going? Invite some friends! Not going? Tell some friends! We hope to see you there!
• As for the workshops themselves, they begin Saturday, October 5th and will continue every Saturday and Sunday through the month’s end from 11 am to 5 pm, all at the Steinfeld Warehouse. Here, as always, these free-to-attend workshops will provide instruction and materials for building masks, floats, lanterns, and other objects of creative memorialization and festal expression. The creative powerhouse Mykl Wells is your host, and he’s there to help you give form to your love.
Though the workshops are nominally free (to attend), they of course cost a fair amount of money to produce. If you’re not attending the Cardboard Ball fundraiser, and find value in your workshop experience present or past, please consider supporting this invaluable effort that has given so much to so many over the years. You can give directly at the workshop, or earmark a donation for them online at www.allsoulsprocession.org/donate. And when you’re there, do give Mykl a word of thanks too for all he does to keep the fire burning.
• AND! The 6th annual kid’s Costuming Workshops for the Procession of Little Angels begins Sunday, October 6th at the brand new Maker House, 283 N. Stone Ave in Tucson and continues every Sunday afternoon (1 pm to 4 pm) and Wednesday evening (6 pm to 9 pm) throughout the month of October, ending Wednesday, October 30th. FREE!
Families are invited to come down and work with our sewing team on the creation of a costume to wear for the Little Angels festival , with an RSVP to littleangelsart@gmail.com or 520-834-3151. Free fabric and remnants available while they last! And if you’d like to bring your own hand-picked fabrics to use or donate to the common pile, please do! Families are also encouraged to come down and help out with the common effort by cutting their own cardboard wings during workshop hours or picking up a sheet of cardboard to work on at home (we’ll tell you how to do it!)
The Costuming Workshops are proud to offer a Wing-Crafting class during Costume Workshop hours on Sunday, October 6th and also Sunday, October 20th from 1 pm to 4 pm, taught by costume designers Veronica, Bianca and Yvette Judy (who are also Urn Attendants in Spirit Group!).
Here you will learn “hands-on” how to make your own pair of wire and fabric-based wings for your children to wear for the Procession of Little Angels. No previous experience of any kind is needed to participate, and it’s easier than you might think for you and your child to create a beautiful pair of wings that will likely last for many years to come!
Materials fee is $15 (cash only please) which includes wire, fabric, glue, paints and other decorations. Kids ages 8 and up are invited to work on wing-crafting with parents, and we’ll have helpers on hand to engage children with other activities if parents are crafting on their own. For more information on these wing-crafting classes, please send an email to littleangelsart@gmail.com or call 520-834-3151 and we’ll be happy to answer your questions.
• Back on the fundraising front, we also have the annual Pop Cycle and Surly Wench Silent Art Auction for the All Souls Procession coming up on Thursday, October 24th from 6 pm to 8 pm at the Surly Wench on 424 N. 4th Ave in Tucson. Come down and bid on some fantastic Day of the Dead-related pieces crafted by local artists to benefit the All Souls Procession, and afterward enjoy performance from Black Cherry Burlesque and The Mission Creeps! Kid’s activities will be offered next door at Pop Cycle for those parents in need of such assistance while attending the auction. This production is still coming together so stay tuned for more details , coming up soon!
And if you’re an artist who’s interested in donating work for this cause, you can contact Pop Cycle at 520-622-3297 and let them know about it. The work can be in any medium, but subject matter must pertain to the Procession and Day of the Dead. Please RSVP by October 1st, and deadline for submission is October 20th.
• And now, on to Night of the Living Fest: an all-ages, daylong music and arts festival showcasing creative talent both local and from around the States! Night of the Living Fest will be held on Saturday, November 2nd from 12 noon to 1 am at Old Tucson Studios, 201 S. Kinney Rd.
WHAT A LINE-UP! On the musical front alone we have People Under the Stairs, Deerhoof, The Meat Puppets, THEESatisfaction, Bob Log III, NOBUNNY, Shannon and the Clams, White Mystery, Tweak bird, Lenguas Largas, Pork Torta, Vox Urbana, Acorn Bcorn, Bombón, The Monster Women, Golden Boots, Ranch Ghost, Lonesome Shack, Bebe McPhereson, Headlock, Shaun Harris, Fur Family, Cherie Cherie, and Laser Dad.
In addition to bands there will be live art and interactive happenings, artisans and local vendors, a hand-crafted miniature golf course, rides, and much more!
Now then, what is the relationship of Night of the Living Fest to the All Souls Procession, you ask? This brand new venture was proposed to us last year by local musician and young upstart Ben Schneider as another means to help raise funds for the Procession while also raising cultural clout for Tucson in general. Tickets are ranging anywhere from $25 to $39 (including VIP tickets) depending on what and when you buy, with one dollar per ticket sold going toward Many Mouths One Stomach’s fund for the All Souls Procession! Also our All Souls Procession merchandise table will be in attendance, where you can further support the effort by making a purchase there.
All the information you seek for this event can be found at www.nightofthelivingfest.com. Please do help publicize by sharing the word with your friends, for the success of the Fest and to help support your Procession!
• This year’s Finale and Dance of the Dead musical performers, A Tribe Called Red, will be offering a DJ workshop for youth on Saturday, November 2nd from 7 pm to 9 pm at Solar Culture, 31 E. Toole Ave in Tucson, with a $5 suggested donation for this event.
Come experience the power of contemporary Native music like you have never heard before! Learn how they create their music, what inspires them and how they’re bringing Native music to the cultural forefront. Huge inspiration for young minds! (This is not a formal concert)
A Tribe Called Red is a group of three aboriginal DJ-producers from Ottawa, Canada: DJ Shub (Cayuga, Six Nations), DJ NDN (Ojibway, Nipissing First Nation) and Bear Witness (Cayuga, Six Nations).
Seriously, listen to these guys: http://atribecalledred.com http://electricpowwow.com
And you can watch video about them here.
We count on the community to help get the word out, so please share!
• On November 3rd, the day of this year’s All Souls Procession, streets in the area of 6th Ave and 7th St downtown will close at 3:00 pm as we begin to gather and prepare for Procession hour at 6 pm dusk. From 4 pm until 6 pm there will be a facepainter’s arcade to offer you their services. Also in that time and place, Procession finale musicians Hojarasca Musica Andina will be performing atop a bus to evoke the spirit of the evening, and MC/Dirty Verbs Poet- Logan Phillips of VERBOBALA will be on hand to help guide the proceedings along.
Nearby Borderlands Brewery at 119 E. Toole Ave will be offering, Las Almas Ale,a custom-brewed dark beer that is a benefit item for the All Souls Procession, with $5 going to MMOS for every beer sold. These brews will also be available for sale at the Mercado San Agustin that evening.
• In addition, there will also be a booth at the Procession gathering site on 6th Ave and 7th St jointly run by Tucson-Pima Arts Council and Visit Tucson that is a very important part of the tax study they’re conducting in partnership with MMOS to determine the revenue benefit to the City of Tucson afforded by the All Souls Procession Weekend. The purpose of the booth is to conduct 2 to 3 minute interviews with people gathered there on the street that evening. The sort of questions asked will be along the lines of estimates of how much money individuals have spent in town related in any way to the All Souls Procession Weekend, to what extent do they participate in the Procession, their favorite aspects of the festival, etc.
Please do take a moment to visit this booth if you can! It will greatly assist us in our effort to demonstrate the revenues provided to the City of Tucson by the All Souls Procession Weekend. This would be a major step toward recognition of what the event does on the more mundane yet nonetheless fiscally valued level of civic income and provide MMOS with the bona fides necessary to help secure increased city backing for the Procession in years to come.
• Finally, we want to call your attention to the Hungry Ghost Street Theater troupe that will appear at the 6th and 7th gathering point and along the Procession route, collecting donation from the crowds to help defray the cost of the All Souls Procession Weekend. They will accompany the now-familar pedi-cab top-hat donation bikes, and each team will also carry an All Souls Procession flag or banner, so you’ll know they’re the real deal!
Look for them in the 3pm to 6 pm time frame prior to Procession, and offer a few dollars or whatever your heart moves you to give in support of this collective expression of grief and joy that we all share in together each year. MMOS is aiming to have the debt paid on this year’s event –expected to cost over $90,000– by New Year’s Day 2014. Hungry Ghost will be out in the streets to accept your donations large and small to meet that goal that very night if possible! And it is possible, if everyone in attendance gives even $2 or $3 to make it happen. We can do this….together!
We’ll see you all on the All Souls Procession Weekend!