The 25th annual Peoplehood Parade and Pageant swelled through the streets of West Philadelphia on Saturday, with a tapestry of collective voices and vision.
Led by Spiral Q, a community arts organization that’s fused art and activism for more than two decades, this year’s milestone event celebrated a quarter century of turning creative expression into collective action.
Gaining common ground
Participants from 47 organizations and groups gathered early at the historic Paul Robeson House to unload and assemble giant puppets, fasten banners, tune drums, and share last-minute pep talks. Laughter and anticipation mingled with the sounds of bending cardboard and the tearing of duct tape.
The 2025 celebration opened with a spirited performance by Cookie Diorio of The Bearded Ladies Cabaret, setting an exuberant tone of radical joy before the first puppet even soared towards the sky.
Activism meets art
Every element of the parade is handmade and community-powered. The puppets and banners, constructed in Spiral Q’s open art-build sessions, speak to ongoing struggles: housing justice, racial equity, environmental protection, and public infrastructure that serves everyone. The crafting of this year’s Peoplehood art represented a total of 5,000 people hours, according to Jennifer Turnbull, Spiral Q’s co-director.
The route — movement with purpose
The procession began its journey through the leafy streets of West Philly from the Paul Robeson House toward Clark Park. The route winds through the neighborhood as a 1.25-mile, people-powered parade — no motorized vehicles, just wheels, feet, music, rhythm and imagination.
Along the way, neighborhood groups and longtime allies marched shoulder-to-shoulder, bringing their causes and creativity to the streets while neighbors waved from porches and steps.
Transit Forward Philadelphia carried banners and puppets promoting safe, accessible and sustainable public transit. Their contingent celebrated recent advocacy campaigns that helped oppose SEPTA service cuts while renewing the call for long-term, statewide transit funding to support the system that Philadelphians deserve. Philly Bike Action’s 2025 Peoplehood puppets brought attention to safety concerns in Fairmount Park for both bikers and pedestrians.
Save the Meadows, a grassroots organization opposing further deforestation in FDR Park and fighting for safe, healthy playing fields and the preservation of public spaces, animated a towering Turf Monster and a soaring Bald Eagle in this year’s Peoplehood Parade, rallying for the protection of FDR Park and Philadelphia’s green spaces.
Volunteers and coalition members processed proudly beside the towering puppets, reminding everyone that justice and joy can move in unison.
Anisa George of Save the Meadows loves participating in Peoplehood as a way to both raise awareness and to foster strategic partnerships: “We find a lot of solidarity with other causes and struggles being represented here,” George said.
Celebration in Clark Park
By midafternoon, the parade flowed into Clark Park’s Dog Bowl, transforming movement into gathering. The pageant portion of the event shifts the energy from spectacle to circle, from marching to meeting.
This year’s pageant unfolded with live music, storytelling and interactive art stations. Tables from local organizations offered resources to help attendees understand how to stay engaged with the issues that this year’s Peoplehood brought to the forefront, ensuring that Peoplehood remains a process rather than a singular gathering.
Closing reflections
The 2025 Peoplehood Parade served as an embodied act of resistance and renewal, marking 25 years of art, action and collective joy.
Spiral Q describes Peoplehood as a handmade and people-powered celebration of solidarity, creativity and courage. In its 25th year, the parade continued to ask vital questions about who we are together — about how communities can reclaim public space, celebrate collective power and use art to envision a more just and connected city.
As the sun dropped over Clark Park, the drums faded but the echoes remained — a reminder that public space belongs to the people, and that art can keep these spaces alive.
Spanning local and global issues alike, the puppets and performances in the 2025 Peoplehood Parade and Pageant carried the shared message that joy and justice are not in opposition, they thrive together.
