"Always preach the gospel," goes a quote often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. "And if necessary, use words."
Or, as the members of the Carnival de Resistance might add, a bicycle-powered sound system. Or a clock piñata. Or even, yes, a kitchen sink (powered by a foot pedal).
First started in 2013, the Carnival de Resistance is a traveling arts carnival using dance, music, participatory theater, and fire performance to recover the ecological themes in the gospels and the Hebrew scriptures. During the carnival, midway games, costumed characters, and theater performance under the big top "enchant people of all ages with a holy wildness that questions faith in progress and technology."
Earlier this fall, the Carnival crew gathered for a week of rehearsals and then two days of performances in Charlotte, North Carolina.
All photos by Tim Nafziger.
For more information about the Carnival, visit www.carnivalderesistance.com
Tim Nafziger is a member of Community Peacemaker Teams and the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery. For more on the November 2023 events, visit dismantlediscovery.org/novfour.
As an award-winning media producer, JP Keenan has worked on a variety of projects, most recently as the Multimedia Director at Sojourners.
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