neighborly conversation

11/10/2012, 6th St near train tracks, Tucson, Arizona

Spoken like a Javalina

This beautiful Javalina was wandering around the BICAS booth during Saturday's Community Bicycle swap meet.  Made predominately out of bicycle spokes.  Very well done, I'd say.   My understanding is that it will be one of the items up for silent auction at the upcoming BICAS bicycle art auction/fundraiser in December.

Procession of Little Angels (2012)

Here are a few of my pictures of the Procession of Little Angels (PoLA) held on Saturday afternoon/evening, November 3rd, 2012 in Armory Park as part of the All Souls Procession weekend.

This family-friendly event focuses on acknowledging and celebrating deceased loved ones from the perspective of the child.  The kids all looked like they really enjoyed having their faces painted and working with arts and crafts to make wings, stars, and painted sugar skulls.

Painting wings

The picture below is actually among my favorite shots for the whole weekend.  Somehow, to me at least, it seems to capture the spirit of angels and stars looking down and watching the activities, memories, and celebration by those still on earth of those who have passed on.

There were a number of very nice memorial altars in the park.

There was some great harp music during the afternoon to go with the angels.  All angels should have harp music, right?

and of course, lots of photos to be taken by everyone

As evening approached, there were a number of great performances, including stilt walkers and performers who are students of Tucson Circus Arts.  I like the picture of Nadia Hagen pictured below on the right.  The look, the smile, the hand out: challenge, support, confidence, success, happiness -- says a lot about how their student program must work.

Once it got dark, the Procession of Little Angels began, walking around the Armory Park block, led by a great bagpipe player and stilt walkers.  Everyone was having fun.

Every Procession needs some great drumbeats, and they delivered.

Just like the bigger All Souls Procession held downtown Sunday night (also family friendly), some children carried pictures of loved ones who have passed on.

This group were having a total blast dancing, clapping, and jumping in the air as they walked along to the beat!

Back at the main stage, more performances to enjoy.

A lot of the kids really got into dancing to the drum beat at the end of the evening, a great way to end the day.

Also at the PoLA, the new water cut stainless steel urn for this year.  This urn is filled with people's notes of memories, wishes, and remembrances during the PoLA and the next day's All Souls Procession and then burnt up during the finale (as shown in my prior post).  Amazing work and designs on this new urn!

Congrats and kudos to Jhon Sanders and all the other folks who put so much tireless effort and spirit into making this a successful event!

Here is a Flickr slideshow of my full set of PoLA pictures (click lower right icon to expand fullscreen)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23727418@N02/sets/72157631949784585/with/8163118880/

All Souls Procession (2012)

Here are a few pictures that I took at last Sunday's All Souls Procession held in downtown Tucson, an event I look forward to attending every year.  Amazing creativity among participants during this Dia de Los Muertos influenced event.

Many people carry pictures of relatives and pets who have passed on.

Procession participants become spectators and spectators become participants, everyone is in the remembrance celebration / ceremony in one way or another.  All 30 to 40 thousand of us.

Cameras are quite literally everywhere.  This is a picture that I took from inside the procession looking out at spectators lining the street.

This guy was playing a great mournful jazzy saxophone.  Other parts of the Procession had drummers, bag pipe players, and a trumpet player.

I was surprised by this shot.  As the procession neared the finale grounds one of the people lining the street was holding up a somewhat dimly lit painting.  I fired off a shot with flash to expose this very nice painting was being held up over the other people's heads.   It almost looks like a postcard photoshopped into my picture, but it was really there.  Nice!

As is the norm for the All Souls Procession every year, Urn attendants in elaborate handmade costumes collect notes of remembrance / wishes from participants along the procession route.   They then transfer the notes from their handheld urns to the very large metal urn that will be lit on fire during the finale ceremony.

A beautiful, brand new, stainless steel urn that was pulled by hand through the procession route is lowered by crane onto a tall platform during the finale.

At the end of the finale, the urn is lit on fire and to the cheers of the crowd everyone watches their notes burn up and head skyward.  Isn't that cool and intricate work on the metal urn designs?

Here is a slideshow on flickr of my full set of event photos for this year (click lower right corner icon to expand to full screen):



http://www.flickr.com/photos/23727418@N02/sets/72157631957972622/

In the next few days I'll post pictures of last Saturday's Procession of Little Angels which was held at Armory Park as part of the All Souls Procession weekend.

If you are interested in seeing all of my blog post related to the All Souls Procession over the last few years, click here.