‘This is a moment to dream’: 24th annual Peoplehood Parade marches through West Philly

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More than 500 people marched from the Paul Robeson House to Clark Park for the 24th annual Peoplehood Parade.

Jennifer Turnbull, co-executive director of Spiral Q and parade and pageant organizer, said it was an important day to focus on causes that are important to community members while using art and joy as a form of resistance.

They said that following Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, “there’s a critical mass of folks who will remain awake and remain aware and and are now also feeling scared for their existence, for their ways of life.”

“We are inextricably intertwined and all of the issues, all of the separate seeming issues, of the seemingly separate people are actually all the same issue,” Turnbull said. “And they’re all caused by the same exact greed, avarice and gluttony of the few. And so for us to be able to gather today in the face of what we know is going to be an extremely harsh landscape for all of us, again, some of us more so than others, this is a moment to hold on to. This is a moment to remember. This is a moment to dream.”

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.