For the last 5 years, we have been hosting free puppet builds leading up to our annual Community Parade with Black Cherry Puppet Theater, as part of the Sowebo Arts Festival. The timing of these builds always coincides with a very busy end of semester season at MICA, where I teach full time. Every year, I think I can’t manage the additional responsibilities, but the magic of collaboration and the momentum of the builds pulls me through. This year’s theme is Stone Soup, inspired by the folk tale with roots in various parts of the world, where a poor traveler comes into a village and tricks community members into contributing one vegetable to a communal pot. By the end of the tale, everyone’s contributions are enough to feed everyone a nourishing meal. The idea for a soup theme came from our collaborator on the builds, Loam Nelson, who walked into our builds in 2023 and has been a critical member of our team since. We have done this parade build without funding. We pool cardboard, paints, brushes, tools, snacks, skills and inspiration. Nicole deWald and Michael Lamason, members of Black Cherry, have been critical collaborators. Below are some photos of this year’s build. The parade is this weekend!
Haystack Mountain School of Craft / August 2025
In August, I had the immense honor to teach a 2-week lantern parade and processions workshop at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Deer Isle, Maine. I do not identify as an accomplished craftsperson of lanterns, since I am mostly self-taught, and was at first concerned about teaching at this renowned craft school. Perry Price, the director of the school, assured me that the most important goal for the workshop would be for participants to feel like they had the skills and capacity to organize their own community parade in their own town once they got back home. That felt like a worthwhile and exciting outcome for me, and one I did feel equipped to handle.
The two-week experience was extraordinary. Fourteen artists and cultural organizers from across the United States and Canada, from a diversity of backgrounds, ages and experiences came to the session. The two-week session included daily explorations of community building and facilitation techniques that I have learned from so many community artists and groups over the years. Everyone built a basket reed and paper lantern, and together we built a collaborative score for the lantern performance and procession, presented on one of the last days at Haystack. We learned so much from each other, and I from them, from ways of making their lanterns to facilitation techniques. Below are a few photos from the experience. So much gratitude to Abel, our Studio Assistant, Ann, Auds, Allison, Avery, Yosh, David, Ursula, Jessica, Sarah, Christine, Mila, Sofia and Claire, to the Haystack staff, the ocean, spruce, granite and loons.
