Three days before the Republican National Convention nominated George W. Bush for president, Philadelphia police raided the headquarters of the Spiral Q Puppet Theater, at 13th and Sansom. The organization, along with the Kensington Welfare Rights Union and Asian-Americans United, was working to put together puppets and other props for protesters to carry in the demonstrations planned for the convention. A few days later, protesters and members of Spiral Q, thinking that the city had already made its pre-emptive strike, gathered at 40th and Haverford to prepare new puppets for the day's protests. However, in the early afternoon, mounted police surrounded the building, claiming that they possessed contraband -- handcuffs and chains that the protesters were going to use to lock themselves together. Police dropped from helicopters onto the roof, while Matthew "Mattyboy" Hart, the 28-year-old founder of Spiral Q, was on the phone with the media and members of the City Council, working to end the standoff. It took hours, as the police waited for a search warrant until 4 p.m., in the end, not finding anything. But the sides eventually reached an agreement. "The cops lied to us," Hart says now. "They said that we would be released if we left the building." Instead, about 80 activists were loaded onto police pickup vans, schoolbuses painted blue. Hart considered it the end of his puppeteering days and applied for and received a fellowship to finish his bachelor's degree in geography/urban studies and cultural anthropology at Temple University.
"I have to warn you -- we've been busy. The office is really messy," says Hart. Spiral Q's new headquarters, at 31st and Spring Garden, is not truly a mess as much as it is beautifully organized chaos: an old warehouse with high ceilings holds some choice work from Spiral Q's history. The office in the front is more of an art studio than a conventional workspace. There are cubicles, but they are open and colorfully decorated, and sunlight flows into a makeshift lounge in the corner filled with plants. Matty Hart is still the director, and though he says that he has had a bad week and claims to be grouchy, there is still a spring in his voice when he discusses the organization he founded.
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Beth Nixon (left), a Spiral Q staff artist, puts together a mock radio antenna for a Radio Prometheus demonstration that will be held that will be held later today in Richmond, Va.
[Angie Louie/The Daily Pennsylvanian]
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[Angie Louie/The Daily Pennsylvanian]
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Some of the accumulated work of the Spiral Q sits at the "Living Loft" at 31st and Spring Garden Streets in West Philadelphia.
[Angie Louie/The Daily Pennsylvanian]
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One way Spiral Q retains ties to Philadelphia's radical community is through its "Justice Works" program. As part of that, staff artist Beth Nixon found herself at Calvary Church on Sunday night, helping a group of activists from Prometheus Radio -- an organization that advocates community control of the media -- prepare for a protest in Richmond against media deregulation. These workshops, as well as the necessary materials for making props, are provided free by Spiral Q to the activists. "It's with an understanding," Nixon says, "that hopefully they'll continue to give back in ways that are not necessarily monetary. It's usually ordinary, broke citizens who are trying to get together and create something." Nixon came to Spiral Q two years ago as a contract artist after leaving Providence, where she had worked independently. The Q gave her the opportunity to work with others on projects that she had personal interest in. "I'm just a small column of flesh and bones. I can build something that's larger than me... I really get a kick out of it as a way to tell stories and to make humans bigger than they are or to examine different parts of everyday people's lives in a way that I think is more interesting than real life. It's an awesome way to interpret who we are."
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[Angie Louie/The Daily Pennsylvanian]
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"I never thought I'd be doing the things I'm doing," says Beth Pulcinella, Spiral Q's lead artist, who has worked with the group for three years. Her real passion, and challenge, in the organization is teaching puppetry. Currently, she is involved in working with Philadelphia students who have been put in a Pre-Twilight program. These are students who, for one reason or another, have not stayed in high school. Either they have either dropped out, been kicked out, been arrested or had a baby. Students in the Twilight program actually receive their degree versus the Pre-Twilight is for people who have not earned enough credits to qualify. "I keep advocating for longer programs," Pulcinella says. "I just think that longer is better when you're trying to make social change." The students have been working on Web sites and mapping projects in an effort to develop, Pulcinella says, a sense of place and an idea of the benefits of such work.
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[Angie Louie/The Daily Pennsylvanian]
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But in the end, for everyone associated with Spiral Q, it all comes down to Peoplehood. "If nothing else," Pulcinella says, "when we come together at Peoplehood, there's a common denominator. I think that that's really amazing and it doesn't happen very often. And people can say it's just a parade, but it's huge to see that many different people from different parts of the city hanging out together." This year, Jennifer Hilinski experienced Peoplehood for herself. A recreation therapist at Girard Medical Center, she has led a group of men in recovery from mental illness and addiction -- many of whom had criminal records -- in collaborating with the Q on Peoplehood. In two six-hour sessions, the men, with help from Pulcinella and Susie Turpening, another Q staff artist, put together a part of the parade to tell their personal narratives. "The common story was about recovery and getting back into the real world as contributing members of society. And they took a theme of going from hell -- which was the streets and using -- to this kind of angelic transformation and re-entering the world and the streets but not as a street person," Hilinski says. It is an experience she is eager to repeat this fall. "They're so real. There's no judging. They were just so open and genuine and compassionate. And I felt like they internalized these guys' stories to be able to help them build these things. I loved when they showed up in the minivan and there were 80 pieces of cardboard and plywood. They're just real -- they're totally in it." In many ways, Spiral Q is like the puppets it makes. It is crafted out of simple materials by people who never knew that they could build the 20-foot-tall puppet they ended up creating. But it is that simplicity that keeps them all going. "We illuminate the victories, frustrations and possibilities of living in Philadelphia by giant puppet parades, park pageantry and toy theater," Matthew Hart says, and he smiles. "That's what we do"
