“Just like the flock, our human bodies are designed to exist together. But we are out of practice,” observes Hattie Grimm, the Milwaukee artist and educator who created the “Bird Puppet Parade” in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood on the evening of July 1, 2026, as the culmination of her spring residency at the nonprofit Arts @ Large.
Participants were invited to “wear blue and join the flock.” Which was a giant soaring blue bird puppet, and smaller bird puppets and flags and banners that Grimm made with community members. It was Panadanza Dance Co. and Tamarind Dance Co., with music by Samba Da Vida, with faces painted by Ladasia Bryant, with bird knowledge from Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, with treats from Maria’s Cafe.
“Inspired by the instincts of birds and the natural world, Grimm’s work explores how we can be more receptive to our own animal bodies’ intuitive wisdom,” according to Arts @ Large in Milwaukee.
“Through FLOCK, we invite the community to imagine what it might mean to move together differently—to practice freedom, care, creativity, and connection as a flock,” Grimm told WTMJ-TV in June, before the parade.
“Perhaps we can try moving like starlings in a murmuration, or geese in a V formation, exploring new shapes as a collective,” Grimm writes me. “In a world where our social and ecological webs have been deeply disrupted, this ‘Bird Puppet Parade’ was created to offer the space to practice these shapes of connection. We embodied the flock by dancing, marching, imagining, creating, and screaming together, in the hopes of rediscovering something more true and alive–in each other and in ourselves.”
One waving blue flag read: “Migration is our right.” Another read: “May all beings be free.”
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