http://www.detnews.com/article/20090614/OPINION03/...

Circus veteran returns home to lighten the mood | detnews.com | The Detroit News

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Just sharing :) This article was pubished during the Sunday Feast for Spacewalk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKUZuv6_bus

a woman speaking about the state of her country while filming the rooftop shouting of "Allah-o Akbar"

Spacewalk is born out of the movements in the 80’s that followed the Kool-Aid Acid Test, and was reviving Dad-ism.  Burning Man, Cirque du Soleil, and the Oerol Festival in Holland all come from the same seed.  Before Burning man was the Cacaphony Society and before that the urban exploring Suicide Club. These groups brought art into the city, and took risks.
I was in a class called “ Art and healing in the community.”  When the teacher was lecturing, I just suddenly sat up and saw before me the idea, people walking between venues, in costume, as if they were traveling on the playa going from theme camp to theme camp.

Spacewalk in 1997 was amazing. I first sat down after weeks of planning. I had five meetings and no one showed up, until I went to Burning Man and gave away flyers and vegetarian sushi, and could talk to people about the idea.   The first meeting I had after Black Rock had 50 people at it. And as the weeks (six weeks) went on, 50 new people came every week.   My “right hand guy” came up to me right away, and began to help delegate responsibilities.
500 Artists participated, creating over 80 events, which dispersed over 30 city blocks, covering the Mission District with a new and fresh feeling. With a circus sideshow on the corner of the park, a soap opera scene in the tennis court, and a man in a dress singing “Spiderman” in the local coffee shop. The serpentine part of the festival, or the Soap Opera, moved throughout the area in order to help direct the audience to the next phase of events that would be occurring in a specified area.  This event had no permission, planned to engulf the city, and feed the homeless.  We succeeded, with the police driving by and saying, “we don’t have enough people to handle all of you.” And having them drive off, smiling and waving goodbye.
Spacewalk was special because of the energy of “hanging out” with the homeless. The two Spacewalks involved a man named  “Rex” was very close to the homeless folk who lived near the apartment where he lived.  He was always key in helping to create a way to interact, share, and “be” with the homeless.  The first year we watched a b movie on a stretched t-shirt in a vacant lot. The second year, we joined the homeless, in their hidden encampment and stretched a t-shirt again. 
Spacewalk’s attempt in Los Angeles, felt pretty fraught with bad luck.   A fundraiser party proved to be problematic after the venue was shut down for not having their proper permits.  We lost a lot of our paying audience to having to relocate at the last minute. I stood outside the old venue in a clown suit and handed out flyers with the new location on it.
I then left the country and began to travel with different little circus troupes all over Europe, and I attended circus school, and worked as a human statue. I got to know the network of artists in the different countries and by doing experiments like “Flash mobs” I could see where a spacewalk might work, and where it would be too hard to gather enough people to help organize. I found Barcelona to be bad, as the performers all live off their craft and aren’t interested in giving it away. Amsterdam and London have tight artistic networks that would be very interested in doing this.  One thing is that we also do community service with Spacewalk. Feeding the homeless or cleaning the streets wouldn’t work in Barcelona. The streets are immaculate, and the homeless are they because they choose to.
After 7 years of travel, some nightmarish experiences, and some times I never want to forget – and would love to return to sometimes – I returned home to be near my family during a cancer crisis.  Over the years of having been gone, I saw the news and what was happening in Detroit, and many times I thought I should be there to fight and help with change.   I returned to have my own personal tragedy draw out and within two years both my parents have had cancer procedures, and I have not been able to get a job. As I considered leaving Detroit, I had promised myself that I would not leave until I created another Spacewalk event to help bring some new energy to Detroit.
I set the date, as a desperate, depressed person, looking for something else to think about. Immediately, I was contacted by San Francisco, New Orleans, and Kansas City by past Spacewalkers, who begged for me to produce the event there. That filled my wings to be able to continue as I started to hold meetings and no one came. I began to make flyers and get out to events and start talking to people. Two weeks into the planning, I was begging for my “right hand guy” to step up to the plate. I got two!! Stephen Fuzzytek Boyle, and D.C. Moons.  Fuzzytek had the networking connections and the activist spirit; D.C. had the strategy and logistics specialty to pull from.  Together we created an event that went through some special ups and downs.
I first contacted Detroit Evolution Lab to help with the feast for the homeless.   They were going through some difficult times, with a new baby, and struggling business, and couldn’t add another complication to their plate.  We found a replacement who dropped out, overwhelmed, two weeks before the event.  D.C. Moons moved quickly to find the next solutions, which turned into a $1500 donation, and a group of very generous men from The Players Club who cooked. Thanks to Emergence Theater, we were able to add a vegetarian chef, and a group from Innate Healing Center’s Café.  The Stone Soup, also led by D.C. Moons was a very tasty tomato based vegetable soup, and a creamy potato soup.  The Stone Soup begins at the opening ceremonies where people bring some vegetables to stir into the pot as it simmers on the back of a pickup truck for the entire length of the event. It is then served to the homeless and the Spacewalkers as part of the finale feast.
The opening ceremonies were moved on Belle Isle due to a family reunion, so already we had to live by the “flow with it “ standard that we needed to adopt in order for this rogue art festival to work smoothly.  Chinonye performed a beautiful Nigerian offering ceremony where it appeared as though she danced out the embodiment of destruction and re-creation.  Audra and her group of merry musicians arrived with Jean D’Arc, the bus that had collected the donated clothes for the homeless.  I opened the event by speaking of the donors that somehow didn’t make it on to the printed version of the program, like CokeZero’s generous donation of 40 cases of soda, and our last minute donation of water that came from Barbara Barefield.  Kymm Loch brought us 200 pair of shoes from a shoe drive that she organized, and the 24 Hours of yoga started in Eastern Market’s Gazebo.
The ceremonies were experienced, the prayers were put in the cauldron, (intention notes for Detroit), and the group began to head out. I walked with Banzai Vitale to our next location, the Aquarium where we didn’t find more Spacewalkers, we got into a car, (two of us smashed in the front seat) and rode to the fountain for the next location.   The belly dancers met us there, and we happened upon some visitors, an Indian family, and various passers by that joined us to look at the spectacle with 10 belly dancers around the fountain, and people dressed up blowing bubbles. The Red Bull Air Race pilots seemed to like us too, and dipped their wings at us as they flew overhead.
After running through three of the Superhero Soap Opera scenes, “Warrior Girl’s Baffling, Bubbling; Bailout, “ that were supposed to be performed every hour, but we were “flowing with it.”  After this we headed out to the Dequindre cut, where we left the vehicles and walked, rode or bladed (I rollerbladed) the mile trek decorated with impressive graffiti and the feeling of a “real “ bike community of Detroit.
Passing out flyers to every person who would take one, we ended up with some people following for a bit, and then slowly returning to their initial direction.  Every stop of the way, there were people that would join, and leave, return, and follow everything.
At Eastern Market, there were all the yogis waiting for us, we did a scene from the soap opera, and the girls did their aerial act, and those that wanted to did 15 minutes of yoga, and others passed out flyers.  We stayed for about 45 minutes.  As we piled into the vehicles for the 14-mile trek to Artist Village, our security got a little bit more tense, as they dressed like swat with “Bounty Hunter” badges  - had we gone too far?  Of course, our journey was effortless, the Art Cars had joined us and some more people were waiting, in addition to Alicia, Chazz and John at Artist Village. The coffee and juice donations had already arrived, and immediately we gathered for the 6pm Amazing Grace song.   The goal was that at 6pm all over the city, churches would have choirs singing amazing grace for the future of Detroit. Maybe that happened somewhere, but we don’t know. I kindof like the fact that I really could never know all that happened during a spacewalk, because it doesn’t all have to be communicated.
We entered Artist Village after amazing grace, and letting the kids play on the bouncy castle.  People gathered around the bagels and pastries, while a barbecue was being cooked in the courtyard, and the projector was showing the screen saver while Parliament rang out of the speakers. The energy was alive, and brilliant. We all talked, gathered, ate, and vibed together. The festivities began with a tour showing all the progress that Artist Village is making in transforming their community.  Then two scenes from the soap opera, and music by Chinonye and the other drummers, aerial from Chantal, and Beatrice Badinoff.  Chazz was painting an interactive mural, and offering up gooey old pieces of paint to use as a brush to create the masterpiece.
As we left the space D.C. reminded me that I had not stirred the soup yet. So I jumped onto the pickup truck, placed my hands on the stirring stick, and took a deep breath, smelling the soup full of the love and intention of all those that came near it. I bowed my head and prayed for Detroit’s new beginning.  This was my point of bliss, Artist Village, where it really felt like we created something, People were laughing with us, and sharing stories and experience with us.  That is what this festival is all about.
Next location, somewhere downtown near Campus Martius.   We hadn’t checked out this location enough, so I was simply looking for a quiet place that would take a bus, an RV, and 8 cars. The security had a different idea, of course, which split up the cars. After much deliberation, I finally convinced the other cars to join us.   Here we stayed for about three hours. First debating on moving, and then finally doing three scenes of the soap opera and fire spinning. Many people had gathered for the midnight events that were great, even though I know we could do so much better.
After we poured the last of the fuel on the ground and lit it on fire, the security guys lost it. They were incredibly mad, and scared, so they began to usher us out quickly, as if a bomb was about to go off in the parking lot. We didn’t think and just got in our cars, according to them the cops were on their way, or something….
Clearly, when we are scattered after the parking lot, we lost a few cars, but managed to work our way to the parking area to prepare for the tiptoe parade – starting at Comerica Park and ending at Mack and Woodward.   Again, our “protection” was more afraid then anyone else, and we were dressed in tutus and wings, with various colored wigs, and bubble machines, goodness knows, we SHOULD have been scared. Tiptoeing a mile is actually quite a work out.  Your calves, also known as your “second heart” gets going pretty well, and the hip muscles can feel pretty sore. But, every time a car goes by, you perk up, and tip-toe right, and wave a peace sign and a smile as you pass a restaurant full of late night eaters. “What the hell was that?” we  imagine them saying after the 20 person parade meanders by.  Potentially grumpy faces look bewildered and then a light turns on which brings a smile and the ridiculousness of the sight kicks in.
The Fishbones bus driver “Vic” picked us up at the predetermined corner, and drove us back to our cars.  We headed to the next two locations, and didn’t stay as long as we wanted, but we learned some important lessons about security.
At my house, people rested, drank coffee, and Maria, who we noticed was gone, finally arrived, very slowly and painfully dragging her poor body to the bed. She had crashed from the medicines she is on after three battles of cancer, and the security took no notice of the fact that she was going into some sort of shock.  Luckily people were there to take care and she returned with her meds and just needed to rest. 
She stayed while we headed out to Project Heidelberg, where we enjoyed the sunrise at 7am over the urban art-scape.  At about 7:30 or so we sang happy birthday to the neighbors of the artist who created Heidelberg. 
We arrived at the vacant lot for the feast at about 8:30. The stone soup prepared to be served, Ricardo and Dr. Bob showed up with the vegan feast, and Jean D’Arc with the clothing. We started by picking up trash.  One woman approached me and said, “People come to help us all the time, but they never notice how dirty it is here.” I appreciated it, as we removed all the garbage that had taken over the lot.  Once the food and clothes were out, we enjoyed watching people sit and eat, talk and share stories with us, and amongst themselves. At one point, Dixon came up to me and said, I have ot share the compliment I just got,  a woman came up to me and said, “I’ve been coming to this location for 41 years, and I have never seen an event like this so peaceful.”  I was overwhelmed by the sentiment, and overjoyed that they understood what we were trying to do. 
As the day wore on, the hot dog team arrived, and setup a corral of cars to make those hot dogs.  Eventually, people were dancing together in the middle of the vacant lot, surrounded by people, food, new clothes. Shoes, glasses, and love. We hung out with the other people in our city, that we never knew before. It makes a large difference when we realize that those people we see from a distance are actually human, and all of them have a story!
After this experience, we noticed that we were really making a connection to the people living on the street. We shared food, and fun, and our interest in art, which we want to believe can be healing.   Our next step may be a concert and more performances for the homeless, to share with them, and invite them to participate in something they may not always have the chance to do.  We want to help bring them in instead of pushing them to the outside.  One thing to remember, we never know what our future holds, and having a community where ever we may be is very important. Also, we believe that it really does take a village to support human existence, you need a village, I need a village, we all need a village of support around us.
I feel like we accomplished a great thing, and fired up others to do the same, and anything we can do to make others feel good, and have some hope – is what I would like to do.

Donations are being accepted to continue the Spacewalk journey through Detroit throughout the year, as well as create Spacewalks in other cities like New Orleans and San Francisco .  The current goal is to reach 50,000 dollars to create 4 Spacewalks in various locations over the next 4 years.  For more information please contact:
Warrior Girl
248-885-4530
info@spacewalk.org

** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE **
Contact: Warrior Girl
Telephone: 248.885.4530
Website: http://www.spacewalk.org
E-mail: info@spacewalk.org
24 Hour Community SPACEWALK - DETROIT
Area Creatives Utilize Talent to Draw Interest and Give to Detroit
24 hours of art, prayer, and a feast for the homeless to uplift the City.
June 1, 2009
DETROIT –This month, Detroit will witness a transformation. The 24 Hour Community Spacewalk
transforms the city into a multi-media production, created by talented designers, painters, and
builders. It will be performed by actors, dancers, poets, singers and many other artists.
Spacewalk is a non-profit group with a vision for a NEW, healthy Detroit, to include such things as
art projected on abandoned buildings, thousands of participants, and an unbelievable feast for the
homeless, with clothing, showers, shoes, eyeglasses and more all gifted to the needy. A number of
area churches will also show support with different types of prayer services, one notable
contribution comes from the Church of the Messiah which will hold a Health Fair and prayer
service prior to the events. Many other area churches will be holding 24 hour prayer services
during this walk.
The event will kick off at noon on June 13th at the Belle Isle Fishing Area with an Opening
Ceremony. A highlight of the ceremony is a Nigerian ceremonial performance of collecting
messages of felicity for the city from guests. These wishes of abundance, radiance and happiness
for Detroit will set the event in motion. At this time guests can also enjoy a unique kite flying
display.
Throughout the 24 Hours, Spacewalkers will journey throughout the city on an Odyssey that
highlights important monuments and points of interest. They will experience various ideas, and
follow the 24 Hour Superhero Soap Opera, "Warrior Girl's Baffling Bubbling Bailout."
The primary movement of Spacewalk, after having moved throughout the night, will be complete
by 9AM. At that time, food will be served to the homeless, as provided by a number of generous
people and organizations local to the Detroit Metro Area.
We need volunteers for preparation, cooking, catering, and food service during the event. We
have received a donation for the food budget, and can still use more to truly make this a feast.
We have quite a number of people that will already help, we need those who can help prepare and
deliver the food.
For those who are looking to do more, after the event, please join in a parade of Prayer from
3-5PM on Sunday, June 14 to begin at Campus Martius.
This event is open to others who are interested in sharing their gifts and talent by joining the
group for any portion of this time. Participation from the community to support by viewing the
event is also welcome.
There is also a unique call for plein air (open air) artists to join the festivities by painting during
the event. For those interested, please contact us in advance so that materials may be purchased
for you. All involved artwork will be sold at auction on a subsequent date with a percentage of the
proceeds supporting Spacewalk related charities. This group also has an interest in involving
Photographers and Videographers. Visit the blog at Spacewalk.org or the Facebook.com group for
more information.
For those with an ability to financially contribute to this initiative, proceeds will go toward the
cost of a shower trailer to assist the homeless.
# # #
If you'd like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview, please call Warrior
Girl directly at 248.885.4530 or e-mail her at info@spacewalk.org. General information is also
available at Spacewalk.org.

http://transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=91990&...

Spacewalk Detroit Makes the NEWS!!

4/29/09
Spacewalk Meeting #2

We met at Goldfish Tea in Royal Oak specifically to connect with the
Twitter Community that will help us spread the word throughout the
city about this event.

Present:
Fuzzytek
Bad Andy
Motordoll
Mike M
Dc moons
curly
Bugz
Warrior Girl
and a large number of Tweaters who'se information i didnt get... cuz
Im silly like that.
(Any of the people from Tweatea can contact me if they would like to
be on the "paper" mailing list.)

SILENT RADIOWAVE RAVE:
I contacted DJ Shhh from Chicago today. Hopefully will hear something soon.
IF the Better Detroit Youth Movement gets involved, we will be calling
it a SHOW, or DANCE , but not a RAVE . The connotations are not good
with Rave. Everyone supported that.

TIMELINE:
These are the dealine dates for Accomplishments:
Going backwards from start of event.
June13-14 event
Final Program / Final Map June 12 (sponsors will probably
be accepted until the end)
Program / Map Draft June 6
Art for Advertising (sponsors) May 30th
Who's donating food May 30th
Where are we feeding the homeless May 30th
Security in place May 30th
Churches participating list May 16th
Metro Times/ night/day ~May 16th
Real Detroit ~May 16th
Fiscal sponsor determined May 9th
Press Release - just event May 9th
knowledge of all laws May 9th
Division of precincts throughout May 9th
Mass USA Mailing May 9th

What we are working on :

Stone Soup Cart/Car - Is it an artcar/pickup truck? Is it motorized or
not? Where do we fit a propane tank and a 40 quart soup pot?

One question, the 24 Hour mural, could be a 24 Hour art car!

Pee Stops / Crash points!

heidelberg - potential morning pre-feast location
Capuchin - potential morning feast location

Poparazzi Posse - Group of media people covering event
Contra Poparazzi Posse - group fo media people covering the media
people.

24 hour soap Opera - Starting to get a nice steampunk western story. -
Need a greek- style chorus who can sing and can-can dance. Will be 24
- 15 minute vignettes

Ths soap opera is acting out the bailout situation from a comic point
of view with relation to time=money.

Motordoll is a textile seamstress and artist who wants to help with
costumes if anyone is interested.

we want to connect with Norml.com

Thank you all who came. It was very productive.

Next meeting: Mark Your Calendars!

WEDNESDAY
MAY 6TH 8PM
LOCO'S IN GREEKTOWN
http://locobarandgrill.net/
Full-screen
Address:
454 E Lafayette Ave
Detroit, MI 48226

We will be working on the committees and progress.
so far:
Curly has joined the Food Crew - with Sarah, Gregg, and Angela
Christy is Costumes and Community Outreach - with wg, DC, and more
Lailee is helping with map and graphics
John B is working on the Silent radio show with Jason? I believe
Im counting on Oblivion for the Security but also apparantly Detroit
has some ANGELS??
We also need to connect with Ken about how he does it.
First Aid, - ideally our security knows first aid, if not we will find
a solution
Events - Everyone has their hands in that pie
City Ordinance - Bugz is on that, as well as connecting with Len.

Committee List:
Food
Community Outreach
Map
Security / First Aid
Events
City Ordinances

We need projectionists who are into decorating buildings.

Spacewalkers will be asked to give an offering to the opening
ceremonies. That info will come later.

PLEASE JOIN THE GOOGLE GROUP at http://www.spacewalk.org
Check there for posts about the Superhero Soap Opera and the Law
http://groups.google.com/group/the-24-hour-community-spacewalk

Is at this location

http://groups.google.com/group/the-24-hour-community-spacewalk

Please join if you want to be part of organizing

or email the.warriorgirl@gmail.com

We got our first donation from http://www.shanalogic.com
Thank you Shana for your generosity!
Spacewalk is lifted by you!
Thanks!!

Hosted By:
Warrior Girl

When:
Friday, June 12, 2009

Where:
Detroit
All Over
Detroit

Description:
The Spacewalk will involve various events throughout the Detroit City Area. The events last for 24 hours, and spread out all over the city. We are looking for volunteers so join us!! please send an email to get involved. You can be an artist, you can be an organizer, and you can simply come and experience this crazy evolutionary happening.

Click Here To View Event

Spacewalk provides an opportunity to bridge class, gender and racial
boundaries through interaction and creation. This is not just another
art opening, festival or carnival, our projects teach and demand
communication, teamwork, imagination, and organization. Through the
support of local organizations, each individual, business or non-profit
group works together to produce the festival. These unique adventures
are comprised of mobile art, performance, theatre, life-sized
interactive games, non-motorized vehicle parades, theme camp
headquarters, late night silent parades, and anything else you can
possibly imagine.



WE PROMOTE FUN, PEACE, HEALING, AND ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN AREAS IN NEED OF CHANGE.

Statement of purpose



The 24 Hour Community Spacewalk is a twenty-four hour long creative
adventure. It takes place in a participating area of a city and
incorporates the local community, artists, restaurants, non-profits,
and churches. The Spacewalk festival begins at noon in a designated
location with a collective event. Then, with program and map in hand,
Spacewalkers begin their own odyssey. Spacewalks conclude with another
collective event in a particular location with the focus on
contributions, for example, in-kind donations by restaurants to feed
the local needy, or cleaning the streets, where needed. The Spacewalk
creates an opportunity for individuals to work, create, collaborate,
organize and celebrate as a community team. It encourages the
individual to take on the responsibility for their own ideas and how
they can interact within and affect their community.



Spacewalk events have already occured in San Francisco, and Los
Angeles. Spacewalk potential has been sited in London, Amsterdam,
Berlin, and Barcelona.



In 1997 and 1998 Spacewalk collaborated with the San Francisco Arts
Commission. In 1999 the Hollywood Arts Council fiscally sponsored the
event.



Spacewalk's future includes travel to art schools, organizations,
community groups, and businesses giving talks and teaching
collaboration workshops.

Now accepting donations at :
http://www.spacewalk.org