All-City People's Parade Joins Forces With Summer of Peace

With a giant cardboard bullet on my head, I menaced citizens in 2009. The following year, I caused a giant puppet Mother Earth to rise up healed. Last year, I cavorted to Aztec music. Thus, my last three Labor Days were spent parading from the Downtown Boston Store to the Summerfest grounds in the All-City People's Parade, an extravaganza of community-inspired visual art, music and theater under the loving direction of Milwaukee Public Theatre and Milwaukee Mask &amp; Puppet Theatre.<br /><br />When this year's recall election put Laborfest's plans on hold, the All-City People's Parade decided to team with the 10th annual Summer of Peace Parade and Peace Rally to make one great cathartic community shout. Summer of Peace is a program for teens that teaches principles of nonviolence, racial justice and civic responsibility. Allied with the city's major youth agencies, the annual highlight is a parade through city neighborhoods ending with a rally that is both a memorial for Milwaukeeans who have died by violence and a celebration of nonviolence with entertainment by young performers.<br /><br />On Friday, July 27, you can watch or join the mega-parade. Fittingly, there is a role for everyone. No rehearsal is required. Those who register at the Mary Ryan Boys &amp; Girls Club in Sherman Park at 9:30 a.m. that morning will enjoy a free lunch when the parade ends at the Washington Park Bandshell.<br /><br />A series of loose music-theater performances with elaborate visuals, the All-City show is designed by community artists based on listening sessions sponsored by a score of civic organizations. The aim is to give a face to the hopes and fears of Milwaukeeans. Working with Summer of Peace, the organizers heard high-school students speak about a "school to prison pipeline"&mdash;kids expelled from class virtually straight into police custody&mdash;and fears about job prospects, climate change, bullying and feelings of isolation. The theme this year is "Finding Your Voice."<br /><br />Among many imaginative floats, a miniature city will be pushed along on shopping carts. Each house will hold paper messages conveying dreams expressed in listening sessions, to be handed out en route.<em><br /><br />The parade will leave Sherman Park at 10 a.m. and travel south on Sherman Boulevard to Washington Park for food, entertainment and anti-violence organizing until 6 p.m.</em>