Things have been so heavy in Minnesota for this whole year so far. People are stretched so thin trying to protect our neighbors and not get murdered by our own Government ourselves while we’re at it. The need is constant, from delivering and feeding, to giving rides, babysitting, protecting schools, protesting, marching, fundraising … it’s a lot and it’s constant. There are so many serious ways to resist, that when I heard about a fun way to resist, I immediately signed up.
Big Animal Productions, the folks behind the big animals and things you see at the May Day Parade at Powderhorn Park, and at other events around town all year long, had a big idea. They decided to make a 1,000 person Monarch Butterfly on Saturday in Powderhorn – the symbol of migration, with a heart at its center – the symbol of the People of Minneapolis and its very good heart.
We got coloured placards with a poem or pictures on the other side
Organizers asked that people show up at noon sharp to get into formation. There were volunteers going around in monarch wings, answering questions and doing their best to get everyone where they needed to be (note the red Resistance hat!).
Groups were divided up by numbers, then given a laminated placard that had one side in either orange or black, and the other side in my case was red with a great resistance poem written on it. Others had other pictures on the backs, but we soon found out that ours were red because we were going to wind up being the heart at the center of the butterfly. Perfect. We had a little bit of practice with the moves, but not much. “Shimmer!” meant wiggle the cards to look like motion. “Pump” meant push your card up twice to look like a heartbeat. There would be a chime and gong sounds, to tell us when to do movements, but the park is so big, you kind of just had to wing it and copy people around you.
There was a lot of standing around while things got organized, and it was cold, but hearts and spirits were warm. Everyone was happy to be there doing something cool and fun for a nice change of pace, and the overall mood was superb. I don’t think I’ve ever hugged more strangers, sincerely. We’re all in this thing together, and we all get it
Poetry reading before the butterfly formation
Once all the groups were in place, there were a whole bunch of poets reading, from Heid Erdrich to Minneapolis Poet Laureate Junauda Petrus. All of the poems were great, but they might have saved that for after because some were starting to grumble. It was cold, we’d been standing in one spot for over two hours, and there seemed to be a mutiny starting. The Singing Resistance was there though, and once we all started singing together, everyone was back into it. I finally got an invitation to be in The Singing Resistance, and I’m so excited! Thank you, fellow Brush Stroke!
Then it got serious about forming the butterfly
Once the poems and songs were complete, it was time to get into formation. The body of the butterfly entered first, and everyone else cheered as the people holding black body cards streamed in to form the base.
Then it was time for the rest of us to fill in the wings, and it was total chaos. We never practiced it as a whole group before we did the thing, and rows of people immediately got separated. You were supposed to stick with the people around you from the beginning, so I just looked for my people and kept going. I was entirely convinced it was one huge mess … and then I looked up at the big screen they had in front with a drone shooting us from overhead. All of a sudden we were all a huge, perfect Monarch Butterfly! We all gasped. It happened exactly how it was supposed to. It really was magic, and so beautiful I immediately choked up. And I was not alone.
Once the Butterfly was in shape, other people dressed in black spelled out words above us, like LOVE. We would all chant “Worders! Worders!” and then see them take shape on the screen. Below is the raw footage from above as it all happened (unedited). BEAUTIFUL Kaleidoscope of Love!
We could see the butterfly on the screen in front
We could see all of this happening on the screen in front of us, so that helped everyone stay in the right spots. Someone would yell out “Shimmer!” and we’d all wiggle the wings. Looking around under the placards reminded me of when you were a kid and ran underneath the parachute in gym class together. Just fun. Literally every face was smiling, and everyone was truly so happy to be there with their Community, you could just tell.
The most moving thing for me was when the organizer shouted for everyone but the heart to branch off, leaving just the pumping heart of the neighborhood there, to show what this is really all about. love. It is the only thing that can combat all of the hate in the world at present, and Minnesotans are really good at it.
We had just gone to War with Iran in the middle of the night (The Board of Peace. What a terrible joke.), and everyone was rightfully upset about it. To participate in something beautiful like this in the immediate aftermath of hearing that awful news made us feel like somehow we’re still going to be OK. Because we know that we have each other. And we protect us.
We had fun instead of being gassed or beaten
The moment the Kaleidoscope of Love Butterfly was complete, the Solidarity Brass Band entered like it was a Second Line in New Orleans. They kicked it off with ‘Lovely Day’ by Bill Withers, and there was no truer sentiment to describe our afternoon together.
After standing around for so long, it seemed that nobody wanted to leave! One song led into the next, and people just danced around, singing with their neighbors on a cold winter’s day. The vibes were so good, and we were getting to have fun together instead of being gassed or beaten or chased or otherwise terrorized in the city, and it was a blast
It’s so life affirming to be among your people, and the entire Powderhorn Park was filled with my people on Saturday. Even if you weren’t a brush stroke in the butterfly, it was cool just to be there. The whole park bowl was surrounded by neighbors watching it take shape from above, and I bet that was just as cool to see. It was so Minneapolis, and once again, I couldn’t be more proud to say that this is where I’m from, and this is who we are.
The war isn’t stopping arrests and horror in Minneapolis
The news has moved on to other horrors. but please know that things are just as intense in Minneapolis as ever. Violent arrests to peaceful protestors happened again just yesterday at The Whipple Building … but not a single person at the SAG Awards even mentioned any crises happening in the country – as we’re at War. Both domestically and abroad. This is not time to act like it’s business as usual. People are going to have real rude awakenings when this b.s. distraction from the Epstein Files hits everyone’s towns. Which it will, unless you all start paying attention and getting involved. It’s truly shocking to me how anyone can just go around like usual times right now. Your freedom isn’t free, and it isn’t fair for the whole country to let Minnesota fight the battle for it alone. Think about it. Then act.
Love will conquer
As crazy as things are, the good people of Minneapolis still came together to make something beautiful together. I think that’s the lesson, right there. Love will conquer all.
Thank you to the organizers, Big Animal Productions, Christopeher Ludder-Gardella, The Singing Resistance, The Poets, the Volunteers, the Ushers, The fire maker, the Brush Strokes, the placard makers that let us take them home, Powderhorn Park, and the fine citizens of Minnesota, for making this day a beautiful memory for all time.
Read trhe original post on CJ Gronner’s Substack.
