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In the months before the parade, activists, community members and young people came together to build the giant puppets and banners displayed during the parade and pageant.
“Bringing people together through arts and cultural practices is as old as humanity,” she said. “We connected to one another through art, visual art, through song and music and sound, through movement and dance, before we were even homo sapien, and you can look around at other species and know that they also communicate, and it is one of the things that defines us as human, and it’s important for us to remember that, because that is how we win.”
For pageant participant Jeanette Lloyd, that message came through.
“This was just overwhelmingly nurturing to be here,” she said.
Participating groups included Asian Americans United, Families for Ceasefire Philly, Ginger Arts Center, Neighborhood Bike Works, No Arena in Chinatown Solidarity, Philly Tenants Union, Save the Meadows and The Bearded Ladies Cabaret.
This year, as in years past, the pageant focused on advocacy issues, including the pro-Palestine ceasefire movement, efforts to save Chinatown and fight the 76ers’ arena proposal, gentrification and policing in Kensington, bicycle safety and more.