Parade the Circle 2018: Inspiring Creativity for 29 Years

For nearly three decades, the CMA’s FREE signature summer event, Parade the Circle, has been inspiring creativity throughout the greater Cleveland community and around the world. During parade, international and national guest artists join area artists, families, schools, and community groups in a spectacular display of bright costumes, giant puppets, stilt dancers, and colorful floats created in the five weeks prior to the event. It’s a feat of immense originality and a labor of love for the artists, the more than 1,250 participants who help put together the day’s festivities, and the crowd of nearly 80,000 attendees.

This year’s Parade the Circle, beginning at noon on Saturday, June 9, showcases the theme “Cadenza,” which signifies a flourish of individual creativity. Go behind the scenes of this “individual creativity” with artists Ian Petroni, Michael Lee Poy, and Wendy Mahon, who are working on this year’s parade.

What inspired you to join Parade the Circle, and what inspired you to continue working on the event over the years?

Wendy: I met Robin VanLear (Community Arts Director at the CMA) in 1995, taking an adult class at the museum. She was going to Trinidad — I’m from Trinidad. [At the time] I was living in Hiram and I felt lost professionally. I didn’t know what my niche was. After doing a few workshops with her, she asked if I would help run the mask room for parade. I said, “Sure!” Then I said, “Robin, I’ve never made a mask” and she said, “yes, but you can do it.”

Robin has the ability to see talent in people that we don’t even know we have. She also connected me to my country. Suddenly I was doing parade and Carnival [Trinidad’s annual street parade known for its colorful costumes and celebratory spirit]. [Before that] I was a scientific illustrator — it was art and nature but it wasn’t who I was. … She brought out the Trinidad in me that I didn’t know I had, that creative part of it. After that, my life changed. I moved from Hiram to here, and I’ve never looked back. The people I’m surrounded with are my friends. They inspire me. They are inventive, creative, intelligent — they are my tribe.

Michael: About the same year, ’95, I went to Trinidad to work with Peter Minshall, an international Trinidad and Tobago carnival artist. He’s done one winter and two summer Olympics.

I’m actually from Montreal, Canada, and my parents, who moved there to go to school, never called Canada home. It was always Trinidad. So I grew up in this household that was never called home. Although they never moved back, it was a dream [of mine]. We’d always go back and visit family. My mom was one of a few among her peers that kept her kids connected to their Caribbean roots. My parents kept us connected.

In ’95, I had just finished my undergraduate degree at Pratt Institute in architecture. I went to … work in the mask room [at Carnival] and that’s where I met Robin. Like Wendy, we sort of connected but I never came to Cleveland until she invited me. I was pursuing my master’s at Yale when one of her parade colleagues reintroduced us in 2001, and Robin invited me to be a technical assistant. That’s when I first came to Cleveland.

This is where I learned how to make stuff for parade. This is also where I learned how to stilt, which we called mocu jumbi in Trinidad. Since I now have kids their age, I started a workshop in Trinidad. It’s very popular.

Wendy: They say Carnival in Trinidad is the second largest in the world. I‘ve always seen that but I didn’t think it was a world for me. . . . It wasn’t until I came here [to Parade], I thought, “Wow. I can design my own things.” And that’s where I learned everything: papier-mâché, batik, construction. Everything. All my skills are from here. We all learn an amazing amount from each other.

Parade the Circle gives you a lot of opportunities to learn. We’re always having international artists come in, seeing how they make hands for puppets out of bottles. When Trinidadians came here for an exchange, we saw how they made giant puppets, how they learned from Peter Minshall’s engineers what we didn’t know. So the exchange is beautiful. We are always learning. That’s what keeps us here.

“The exchange is beautiful. We are always learning. That’s what keeps us here. “— Artist Wendy Mahon on Parade the Circle

Ian: I had a good friend in college, Carl Johnson, who grew up in Cleveland and worked on the parade in high school, and he would always talk about it: “There’s an event in Cleveland in the summer, you have to check it out. You would love it.” So finally one year I did, in 2001. I stayed with Carl and Michael, and I was Wendy’s assistant. The first year, I came before the parade and was here for a week. I didn’t see the actual parade. But I didn’t need to — I was hooked. I had so much fun making things. I made a giant dandelion flower with Carl, among other things. I remember how much fun it was coming up with an idea, figuring out how to make it. It got under my skin. I came back for a couple of years. And then, in 2005, I was at a place in my life where I was ready to move somewhere new. Because of my community and work here, Cleveland made sense to me and I moved here. I am self-employed, I work with theater and other events and festivals, and do some residential carpentry as well.

[Because of the parade] I realized how much I enjoyed working with my hands. I realized I’ve been making things throughout my life without making it a career. It took coming here for things to click. But parade also appeals to me because of the performance element, and all the arts involved in making it — visual arts, performance arts, theater, dance, music, and writing.

What projects are you working on specific to this year’s Parade the Circle?

Michael: I have an outreach group at Karamu House — ten kids from Bolton School. I’m teaching them to stilt walk, stilt dance, and bring in Afro-Caribbean, mocu jumbi elements.

Parade is about getting them to learn that skill set, learn to help with costume making and decorating. They’re 12 and 13 years old. They get bored easily — they’re kids! But it’s exciting to see this transformation, from “I can’t do this,” to “I got this,” all within the first 10 minutes or so. Then they become super confident. I love to see that transformation.

“It’s exciting to see this transformation, from “I can’t do this,” to “I got this,” all within the first 10 minutes or so. Then they become super confident. I love to see that transformation.” — Artist Michael Lee Poy on Parade the Circle outreach groups

Ian: I often have that experience with my outreach groups over the course of the whole work. They resist the work often. We’re papier-mâché-ing and they’ll say, “this is sticky,” or “this is boring.” It can be a bit of a slog getting them to stick with it and dedicate that time to it. But then you see them in the parade with the pieces they made. They’re getting love and feedback from the audience and it clicks with them. You see them beaming with huge smiles.

Michael: They don’t know what it’s like to be in front of 80,000 people. Most people don’t. You try to tell them it’s a lot of people. They don’t get it until you feel the energy of the crowd. They get the cheers and the feedback.

Ian: I’ll go back to the same place the next year and I’ll see how that kid now gets it. And they dedicate themselves to work and promote it to others.

Wendy: I had that experience with my outreach group. This is a group that had never done it before. [For this year’s project] I got the inspiration when I was hiking and saw a face in a tree. I said, that’s what we’re going to be, trees with faces, but it’s going to be moonlight, and when everybody’s gone, what happens in the forest. Well, the forest awakens and they have a masquerade ball. They are gentleman and lady trees. [The kids] made beautiful papier-mâché trees and head pieces. Yesterday was dress rehearsal, and one kid came early. He put on his costume and said “Oh, Miss Wendy, all the work you did for us! You guys really work hard for us.”

I said, “No! You did the work!” And now he gets what the choreographer is doing. The whole time, until the other kids came, he is practicing his walk; now he IS the tree. He’s doing his bowing. That’s the first time he got it. He transformed because now he is wearing what he made and now he has become it. Before it was just like, a headpiece, a collar, do we have to do this again? And now he IS it.

How does that make you feel?

Wendy: Great! Because he got it! Many of these kids haven’t been to parade before to know what the end result will be. The kids don’t get it until the dress rehearsal. And now they’re behaving because they have to step up and use the costume the way it is supposed to be used. And now they love how they look! Now they’re taking photos and acting fancy. It’s all part of the process.

Ian: If it wasn’t for the work they put into it, it wouldn’t have the same effect. If they just bought it in the store, it wouldn’t have the magic.

“If it wasn’t for the work they put into it, it wouldn’t have the same effect. If they just bought it in the store, it wouldn’t have the magic.” — Artist Ian Petroni on Parade the Circle costumes

Wendy: The first day they come in, they expect it to be finished that day. This is not a one-day project. This will not be done in one day, it is a six-week project. I say, chill out, talk to your friends, but you need to do it because this is how it is going to be. You let them know they may get bored at times but they need to stick with it because there will be a project that they will be proud of. That’s how you have to keep inspiring them and reinforcing that there will be a result that they will like in the end.

Ian: That’s something that I’m reminded of Robin VanLear saying: one of her main goals is to show people how much work goes in to art. When they go through this, whether it’s in outreach or workshops, people appreciate that.

Wendy: I think in a lot of schools, it’s a one-day project. They want things right away. And this is not it. You have to go through that repetitive process to get what you want. It can’t be quick and easy. You have to see value in that.

And I think even more now — everything is technology. There seems to be an anti-craft thing. [With parade] you use your hands to make everything. It’s so beautiful; that’s when people find their value and what’s inside of them, using their hands to build things.

How has working with other artists impacted your own artistry?

Ian: That’s one of, if not my favorite, parts. Working in the tent with other artists from all over the world, and just the spirit that’s there, I find it’s incredibly generous and open, there is a sharing of ideas. There is an environment where people feel comfortable making suggestions, and they’re comfortable if you don’t take their suggestions. There is a beautiful dialogue of how people would do things and how people work. I think that’s the best part, that workshop environment.

Michael: The collaborative environment that Robin has created over 29 years is phenomenal. It is a family, which is really nice. You don’t get that everywhere.

Wendy: What’s unique about Parade the Circle is that emphasis on the process. On the experience. You don’t buy things. The goal is to get people to make art, and to show it and perform it. It’s about empowering people to make their own art.

Who can participate in the parade?

Wendy: Anyone can participate in the parade. The whole mission of the parade is to teach people basic skills. In the beginning, our workshops were packed. We taught those people and now they’re doing it at home.

Ian: It’s always amazing. A lot is happening for the parade that is not happening right here at the CMA and that we’re not even aware of. It blows my mind. There are about 1300 participants. On the day of the parade, this stuff shows up that someone has been working on for 2 months. It’s incredible.

How do you feel on parade day?

Ian: Tired and stressed.

Wendy: I feel so lucky to be here, so privileged. I feel happy on that day to see my friends and the things they made. To see the community and the spirit of the community. All the kids and what they made. No matter how cold it gets in Cleveland in winter, I’m going to stay here because of the parade. I love my community.

Michael: I look forward to all the narratives that nobody sees. The spirit of bacchanal, the interesting side stories behind the scenes are what I enjoy.

Ian: There is big change that happens to me on parade morning when I stop doing everything and then step onto the street as a participant. Then I can let go of everything else and it’s a lot of fun. Seeing everyone enjoy performing their piece, that’s really magical, seeing all the hard work pay off and seeing them just beaming.

The group that’s been coming the longest, since the second parade, is Abington Arms. They are adults with physical disabilities. They make the costumes; they lead the parade. In that moment, they shed their disabilities. It’s awesome. I love seeing them on parade day, being in that magical sacred space where they are stars.

Check out the behind-the-scenes photos of the Parade the Circle tent below, and see the finished product in the parade on Sat, 6/9!