Thousands of people gathered in south Minneapolis for the Mayday parade, ceremony and festival on Sunday. The annual spring celebration was marked by themes of resilience, grief and anti-ICE sentiments.
On Bloomington Avenue in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood, a community particularly hard-hit by immigration enforcement activity in December and January, a life-size snowplow float shoveled a pile of mangled U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles while a brigade of paper mache whistles on bicycles swooped back and forth.
Organizers balanced Mayday’s celebratory hallmarks — like the raucous Southside Battletrain and resplendent sun flotilla — with acknowledging the trauma and grief many south Minneapolis neighbors say they are feeling as a result of the immigration enforcement surge over the winter.
The Tree of Life Ceremony included a tribute to Renee Good, Alex Pretti and others lost to state violence, as well as a transformative scene where a family’s cocoon of grief following an ICE raid is transformed into a butterfly.
The festival’s finale featured the raising of the majestic Tree of Life puppet, surrounded by dozens of twirling fabric monarch butterflies, while local street band Brass Solidarity played a cover of the O’Jay’s “Love Train.”
