2011 MayDay Tree of Life Ceremony
Once There Was a King Who Stole the Sun
Darkness Descended
Take Your Broken Wings and Fly
Arise!
Caw! Welcome Back the Sun
The Tree of Life, Gift for Us All!
Where Do We Go From Here
"I want to say to you… as we talk about 'where do we go from here,' that we honestly face the fact that the movement address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. ... We must ask the question, 'why are there forty million poor people in America?' And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you being to question the capitalistic economy… You see, my friends, when you deal with this, you begin to ask the question, 'Who owns the oil?' You begin to ask the question, 'Who owns the iron ore?' You begin to ask the question, 'why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that is two-thirds water?' These are questions that must be asked…
Now, when I say question the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are triple evils that are interrelated."
-Martin Luther King, Jr. - Where Do We Go From Here, 1967
"The nameless will be no surprise. Their passion will be part of the new flowering. They kept it alive when it was menaced; their anonymous deaths now will be named. Here on the air our sounds begin again… We come from four directions. The isolated selves then merge in the long snake line shedding its private skin…listening as one body, they merge, they begin to glow as one body, a million cells, greetings from other cells around the world. You can't think about it; you have to appear… you have to dance all night, yes, give your body to the great body…"
Meridel Le Sueur - "Wounded Knee"
"I want to break people out of their cynicism, because the level of cynicism that we have been indulging in is a luxury that we cannot afford. It is indulgent to live in the richest, most advanced technological society in history and say 'we cannot do it'..."
-Van Jones, "Bridging the Green Divide: Van Jones on Jobs, Jails, and Environment Justice,"
The Sun Magazine, 2008.
"…We would rather be ruined than changed, We would rather die in our dread Than climb the cross of the moment And let our illusions die…."
- W.H. Auden The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue
"Not to believe in the possibility of dramatic change is to forget that things have changed, not enough, of course, but enough to show what is possible. We have been surprised before in history. We can be surprised again. Indeed, we can do the surprising."
-Howard Zinn - "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times", 2002
"If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago."
-Sir George Porter -The Observer, 1973
The MayDay Ceremony in Powderhorn Park has become a joyous annual ritual
for nearly 50,000 people in the Twin Cities.
Each year, a 200-person pageant
re-tells the story of that year's parade,
with children and adult dancers, puppeteers, a live orchestra and four giant
serene puppets who represent the Prairie, Sky, River, and Woods.
It culminates in the Tree of Life Ceremony: to the steady beating of
drums, a resplendent red Sun Flotilla paddles the Sun from across the lake
to the shore where the Tree of Life sleeps, waiting to be reawakened.
Audio/Visual Assistance
The Tree of Life Ceremony is audio described and also presented in American
Sign Language (ASL). If you or someone in your party need these services, please
meet by the seating area next to the ceremony ring after the parade.
