The AWAKENING: MOTION Kickoff Parade on Saturday, April 28 officially marks the beginning of Enough Pie and Charleston Moves’ collaborative effort to shine a light on creative, community-based solutions to the Upper Peninsula’s transportation challenges. AWAKENING: MOTION is a series of public art projects like creative crosswalks and bus stops, that aims to transform the streets of Charleston’s Upper Peninsula by showcasing what’s possible when communities unite to create safe, connected, dignified transportation.

The kickoff parade will begin at 4pm on April 28th at Enough Pie’s Butterfly Book Nook, located at First African Child Development Center (1020 King Street) across from Food Lion. The community is invited to create signs and noisemakers, hear speakers, and learn about Charleston’s new affordable bike share membership for people of low-moderate income levels. The parade itself will start at 5 pm, featuring local musicians like percussionist Willie Frasier and Noodle McDoodle, and organizations such as the Lowcountry High Rollers roller derby team, as well as all citizens who join. We will march, bike, and skate up King Street to see the new creative crosswalks along this road. All are invited to participate in the parade, culminating at another MOTION project, an art installation called FRAMEwork located at 0 Mt. Pleasant Street across from Santi’s. Upon arriving around 6pm, there will be a celebration at FRAMEwork with vendors, cupcakes by South State Bank, chips & salsa by Santi’s and a food truck.

Enough Pie Executive Director Cathryn Zommer shares, “This parade is an important way for the community to gather together and experience how it feels if it were actually safe and joyful to get around Charleston outside a car.  We invite everyone to join us to walk, ride, skate, scoot, dance and roll up King Street in the hopes that we experience and remember — as a community — that we own the streets.”

Katie Zimmerman, Executive Director of Charleston Moves, has this to say about the AWAKENING: MOTION Kickoff Parade, “Bringing the community together in mindful and celebratory ways is vital. We want to make beautiful, safe, and noticeable the spaces in which all of us travel for every little adventure of the day. Our Kickoff Parade is a great way to introduce the community to the experience of enjoying our streets.”

The parade is free and open to the public and residents, families, children, tourists, and transportation advocates are encouraged to come out to show their mutual support for safer, more connected, and more dignified transportation in the Upper Peninsula.

About AWAKENING: MOTION

Enough Pie, a non-profit that uses creativity to connect and empower our community, has teamed up with Charleston Moves, a non-profit that encourages mobility by bicycle and on foot for the improved health and well-being of greater Charleston, to shine a light on the need to make transportation safer, more accessible and more affordable through public art and events from April 28 through May 31, 2018 for AWAKENING: MOTION.  More than 20 public art installations and 15 events will be coordinated for the month-long AWAKENING.