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A Guide to the All Souls' Procession
WHAT
A large, public, non-motorized, multicultural parade celebrating the living and the dead. An opportunity to experience grieving, reverence, release, opening, joy, and closure with thousands of other participants in a safe environment, at the level you wish to participate. There is no formal distinction between participant and onlooker: people flow in and out of the parade. There is no fee, though as organizers, Many Mouths One Stomach accepts tax-deductible donations and sponsorships from select businesses and organizations to cover our costs so everyone can be a part of the festivities.
WHEN/WHERE
After months of preparation we assemble on Fourth Avenue, just south of University Boulevard, between 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM on Sunday, November 6th. From there the procession will head downtown, ending at the Franklin St. docks, west of Stone, south of Sixth St. The finale will take place around 7:30-8:00 PM, and will be followed by an after-party at the Rialto Theatre on Congress at 9:00 PM. The after-party will cost $5 for adults (children are free), featuring a cash bar, multiple performances, altar installations, and truly the most interesting crowd you will ever experience in Tucson.
DO…
Come and enjoy the experience in a way that works for you. Dress up, get out of your regular regimen and persona; make a mask, a puppet, an art installation, an altar; some way of honoring those who have gone before, who we remember, honor, release, and embrace. Allow yourself to flow into an experience of real community, where we interact in ways that are different, authentic to our nature, and open to our feelings.
DON’T…
Be high, drunk, or in anyone else’s space in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable. This event should be safe to bring a newborn infant to, or your dear aging grandmother. What allows the magic to happen is for everyone to feel safe. It is your job to create this kind of space. The moment we require help from police or any other authority to make sure that happens, we have lost something truly precious.
DO…
Recognize this amazing opportunity to interact with each other in the streets, in ways we would like the rest of the world to experience. This does not mean an abandonment of responsibility; just the opposite. The freedom we can express during this event is EARNED through our responsibility. Anybody with a different agenda needs to go do that someplace else.
WHAT TO BRING/HOW TO PREPARE/WHAT TO EXPECT
Bring your own water and hydrate.
Wear comfortable shoes.
We will be walking on streets that are designed for cars, not people. They are uneven, have trolley tracks in them, holes and bumps. If you want to push a float or a stroller, please do, but know that it takes a little work. The route is about a mile and a half, and we walk slowly.
It takes 60-90 minutes to walk that distance. It is an interesting phenomenon that no matter how slowly the front of the procession walks, the back seems to have trouble keeping up. Try to close gaps and keep moving at a comfortable pace. If there are stragglers, usually the police will remind them to keep up with the group. There are thousands of us, and people flow into the parade and back onto the sidewalks. This is okay: just be mindful, especially of traffic and obey the procession ushers and the police at all times, especially along Toole Avenue. There will be performances and art installations worth spending a little time with. We will have time to mill around for about 20-30 minutes between Sixth Avenue and Stone, before crossing over to the finale location.
We will be following a large prayer urn the whole way. Everyone is invited to make offerings, which will be burnt in the finale. People typically write down prayers and dreams, habits they are letting go of or initiating, the names of loved ones, pictures, trinkets, etc. Anything that isn’t toxic (like plastic) is cool to put into the urn. The combined energy of all of our wishes, prayers and remembrances and the ritual burning of them is a defining part of the whole experience.
PARTICIPATE IN WORKSHOPS/
MAKE THIS EVENT YOUR OWN
For three months in advance of the procession we run multiple fundraising events, workshops, potlucks, and related gatherings, all dedicated to offering different ways for people to plug in and support this event. As these are winding down, start planning for next year NOW. If you want to be a performer, make a float, a big head puppet, a mask, or costume, we have an amazing crew of professional performers, artists, and puppeteers who are teachers in their own right and are willing to help. We are blessed with a unique, diverse, and world class community of these folks here in Tucson: Use them, learn from then, hire them, feed them. The creative spirit you save may be your own.
WHO WE ARE/
HOW YOU CAN HELP
We are a small nonprofit called Many Mouths One Stomach. We are a diverse group of artists, performers, community activists, and teachers who all hold a clear vision of our culture returning to a more humane value system, where we shirk off commercialism and the trappings of social convention, embracing our fullest potential and supporting the things that promote healthy, self-sufficient communities. To support ourselves we form relationships with people who represent businesses, government, arts and cultural organizations, arts patrons, schools, nonprofits and loosely affiliated interest groups, and a whole lot of amazingly creative and resourceful people. It takes a pretty fair chunk of change to make this all happen, and we envision it growing into something significantly more established as an organization, where we can afford to pay our people, our performers, the artists, our bills, and seed money for new projects throughout the year.
There is no other organization quite like this one. There is no other group seeking cultural transformation at such a primal, archetypal level in Tucson, and we dare say, your donations will go farther toward supporting artists and performers in the most efficient way possible. Please support us to the extent you can.
WHERE TO LEARN MORE
Two websites: www.allsoulsprocession.org is a great place for all procession-related information. Also, www.manymouths.org is our nonprofit’s website, where you can read all about the overarching and underlying reasons and rationale for doing what we’re doing. We have done a lot of really beautiful organizational work that shows. Let us know what you think.
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