Every spring, junior Nora Sylvestre and her family attend the May Day Parade, but this was the first year Sylvestre realized the powerful impact of the event.

“When I was younger I thought it was just a celebration of spring, but especially this year, with the racial injustice theme, I realized that the parade is about much more than that,” Sylvestre said.

According to interim executive director of the parade Catherine Jordan, the May Day Parade, put on by In the Heart of the Beast and Puppet Theater, celebrates community in addition to spring.

“It’s the big beginning of spring. The May Day Parade says come out of your hibernation and celebrate spring in a community ritual that honors what’s going on in the community,” Jordan said.

Jordan said the parade brings the community together to talk about issues happening in the community and creates a theme around that.

“This year the theme was ‘And Still We Rise,’” Jordan said. “It’s all about what’s going on in the African-American community and the racial injustice going on. That was the underlying theme and then out of that there are five sections of the parade. Each section shows some part of the big theme.”

After the five sections of the parade were finished, the festivities moved to the park for the ceremony.

According to Jordan, the ceremony is very symbolic, ending with the icon of the tree of life. Following the ceremony is the festival.

“The audience gets up and dances around the maypole. Everyone goes into the festival filled with bands, a big drum circle of 20-30 people, free boat rides and information booths to learn about the things going on in the community,” Jordan said.

The parade took place May 1 at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis.