Posts Tagged ‘greed’

Peoples’ Climate March with Bread and Puppet

Sunday, October 19th, 2014

The Peoples’ Climate March in New York City in September was the first time since the late 80’s that I carried a puppet for Bread and Puppet in a protest setting. The march was dedicated to climate change and the collective outrage of 400,000 folks who want a sustainable future for all life as we know it.

Jay with Skull, 1

Jay with Skull, 2

The Bread and Puppet contingent performed the following sequence of street theater in protest of the Tar Sands, which are nothing more than death and destruction. Seventy caribou got killed by the tar sands monster (operated by 4-6 people) that then animated 8 or so dancing corporate skeletons. The evil system (operated by me and 9 others) then reveled in our awful power but got beaten down by a dancing woman and a crew of 10-20 butterflies, followed by the “fists of resistance” (10-20 people) who raised up the chant “No tar sands!” The giant skull we are carrying features a maple leaf in the center of the skull symbolizing the Canadian government, the skull being the symbol of death. At the end of this sequence, the band would strike up a raucous tune, and keep us moving.

Brightening Local May Day Occupy Event

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

I participated in a May Day celebration in Lebanon, New Hampshire in solidarity with the national “Occupy” events that were happening all over on 1 May. I brought the sun puppet to brighten up the cold dreary day and also to remind folks that the sun is truly our main power source.

The picture of the stilt figures are of me and Kim Reinlander, another stilt walker. We did a little skit in which I played “Winter” the curmudgeon who is stuck in his ways and wants to maintain the status quo in which the rich get richer and the rest of us just have to deal. This is America after all, the land of opportunity (for some of us). Winter, however, loves freazing everything: frozen assets, frozen wages… if you are left out in the cold get over it. “Spring,” on the other hand, is planting seeds of hope and is all about change. To Winter she is chaos and a threat to his existence. He tried to hold on but fortunately the audience was on the side of Spring and eventually they blew Winter off the stage. The crowd celebrated by dancing around the May Pole.

Reflections

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

My life continues to be an unpredictable journey in which I strive to maintain a balance between creativity and sustainability, or what sometimes feels like a choice between the practical and the impractical: Shall I grow food or make art? Can growing food be art? What am I called to do in this life? What really matters?

As we find ourselves on the edge of either a “great turning” where humanity realizes it’s potential and enters a new type of enlightenment and prosperity, or we plunge off the cliff toward mutually assured destruction because of greed and short sightedness, such questioning seems all the more poignant.

Being an optimist, and having brought children into this world, I believe we have no choice but to try to make the world a better place. For me that sometimes means growing things in my backyard, empowering others to be creative or making something beautiful out of stuff that’s been thrown away. It’s why I have been living in an eco-village for the past decade and have struggled to find a balance between self, family, and community.