Commissioned by the Art Gallery of York University, and two-years in the making, Ring of Fire is a 300-person strong street procession by internationally renowned Trinidadian artist Marlon Griffith. Created for the people of Toronto and staged at the TO2015 Parapan American Games that took place on Sunday, August 9th. This procession is inspired by the seven grandfather teachings:
- Aakode’ewin Courage)
- Dabaadendiziwin (Humility)
- Debwewin (Truth)
- Gwayakwaadiziwin (Honesty)
- Minaadendamowin (Respect)
- Nibwaakaawin (Wisdom)
- Zaagi’idiwin (Love)
We had several of members from our Equal Grounds ‘Dance, Act & Drive’ program and the Enables Me team participate in this powerful street procession started at Queen’s Park and ended at Nathan Phillips Square with a large circle dance.
The sun was shining for the procession and was a beautiful hot day for it. The bright and colourful costumes were designed and built by Marlon along with many talented volunteers from York University, SKETCH and other partner organizations.
The most surreal part was when all of us entered Nathan Phillips Square, with the drummers in the middle of the circle dance along with the general public blending together.
As one of our team member, Leo Xu puts it, “Ring of Fire really captured the imagination and showed how vibrant the disability community in this city is.”
Even though the street procession is over, the experience is not over yet. For those of you that missed out in taking part in the procession, there will be exhibition that will take place at the Art Gallery of York University in September.
Great read Terrence!