By Mary Tuomanen
Poised between news of the Brexit and the upcoming DNC, we in Philly stand at an interesting point in time. The atmosphere is decidedly politically charged. The rally for Orlando at City Hall brought us out in droves. Strangers were pressing hands, sharing tears, exchanging gestures of respect between communities as various as Muslim, Latinx, and LGBTQ allies. I’ve seen LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE signs outside houses of worship from South Philly to Bala Cynwood. In a city that knows how to make noise for a cause, I have no doubt the DNC will bring us out in the streets again, advocating for ourselves, our neighbors, our rights to education and healthcare. And as the national spotlight starts to swing toward us, we standing our ground and making ourselves heard. Whatever is gathering on the horizon — confrontations between different sets of values, the tearing asunder of alliances, the creation of new ones — it is going to be good weather for making change.
In a healthy political ecosystem, it is almost impossible to tell the difference between a “large” and “small” action. Any small gesture can have huge consequences, and any big action can be dwarfed by a powerful statement from an individual. Every seed is a future tree. Gearing up for our September show, FEED, we are thinking more and more about seeds as time capsules: encoded information sent into the future, blueprints for transformation.
Recently, we had a training night at Maria’s house for feminist Wiki-a-thon, in which Tommy educated us on how to create the missing Wiki pages for notable women heroes. (See his prior blogpost on Wiki-adventures here.) By the end of the evening, Blanka Zizka and Elaine Tuomanen, two Applied Mechanics heroes, had their names go from red (no page yet created) to blue. It made us proud — sending little bits of information into the future, blueprints for heroism and transformation. We are excited to have another one of these gatherings and make more of these Big/Small gestures. Even in the face of a hurricane, it feels good — necessary, even — to plant these seeds.