2023 Community Sponsors
Parade Location
Gather @ Japanese Historical Plaza along Tom McCall Waterfront Park
Located between NW Davis and Burnside along the downtown waterfront.
Located between NW Davis and Burnside along the downtown waterfront.
Event Schedule
12 noon Merfolk Gather
12:30 Opening Ceremony Begins
2pm Parade Starts
3:00pm Mermaid Beach Party and Group Photo Shoot
12:30 Opening Ceremony Begins
2pm Parade Starts
3:00pm Mermaid Beach Party and Group Photo Shoot
2023 Parade Theme
We as merfolk by our very existence challenge conventional norms. We are nothing without drag; for this is the glam and glitz of the mermaid industry! The art of drag has deep roots in our entertainment history and also serves as a meaningful form of creative expression for many. We are born naked, the rest is drag! This year, in honor of our recently departed Queen Darcelle XV, the Portlandia Mermaid Parade shellabrates the art of drag in only the way we merfolk can... with shells, bobbles, wigs, sequins, (eco-friendly) glitter and of course a Mer-drag race! Join us as we dive into the waters of creativity and honor this performance art.
Parade Route
The parade route will take approx. 30-45 minutes depending on the size of our group. We will launch from the Japanese Historical Plaza and casually make our way down the waterfront to Poets Beach! The route is along flat sidewalks, no streets, and is ADA friendly. Individuals utilizing mobility devices may need assistance getting on to the beach. There is a paved pathway that leads down to the sand.
The application process has now closed. Thank you to our 11 applicants! Winners announced July 10th!
This year the Portlandia Mermaid Parade will be selecting 3 special individuals to become our official mer-ambassadors of 2023! Our three categories are: Guppy (ages 8-11), Goldfish (ages 12-15), and Starfish (ages 16-19). Winners will be granted a full mer-transformation which will include a mer-makeover, help with mersona development, a swim tail & monofin, accessories, a mer-swag bag, and a group swim photo shoot with Una the Mermaid & the Traveling Fanta-Sea Cove! Most importantly all three winners will lead the 2023 Portlandia Mermaid Parade as our grand marshals! See qualification details and application link below!
- Applicants must fall within the age requirements, fill out the application and include a 1-page (non-double spaced) written essay or a 2-minute video discussing why you believe you would be a good candidate to become a mer-ambassador for the Portlandia Mermaid Parade. Your application should also share why you feel you can use the help of the mer-community to do this.
- Applicants under the age of 18 must have their legal parent or guardian sign the permission form.
- All applicants must also complete the media release and liability waiver.
- No prior mer experience required, in fact we will be looking very closely at applicants who are not yet a merperson but desire very much to be so!
- This is a gender and identity inclusive opportunity! All who qualify are encouraged to apply!
- Applicants must be from the Pacific NW and be able to attend the Portlandia Mermaid Parade in person, as well as be able to commit to 2 ambassador events in 2023, (1 community service project involving the stewardship or protection of water, and 1 community engagement activity that brings joy and magic to others in their new mersona).
- Applications are due by July 1st. Winners to be announced by July 10th!
Merfolk & Social Justice
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A letter to our Portland community...
The Portlandia Mermaid Parade openly supports the pursuits of racial equity and justice. We support a reimagining of public safety; a vision that includes restorative justice, and an END to institutional violence, and white supremacy, and an END to the killing and murders of black citizens. Black Lives Matter, period. The wisdom of the merfolk stems from depths of consciousness, and egalitarian values which support truth and justice. For too long white culture has perpetuated perceptions of our world as being made up of entirely of white, thin, cis gendered females. Our world is far more diverse and colorful than the imagination of colonial history would tell you!
Here on land there is much work to be done to dismantle racism. The mermaid industry is no exception. Often these sub-communities (despite their intentions) simply become microcosms of the greater social ills of human society. People often view racism as some large social issue happening somewhere “out there” rather than an issue happening ‘right here’. Many Americans narrowly define racism as only overt violence or egregious behaviors towards people of color. Folks that don’t participate in those behaviors often think that they are not complicit or participating in a system of racism, so they exempt themselves from critical self-reflection. They will vehemently deny any responsibility or complacency. Racism is far more complex and often includes less overt behaviors, words, and thoughts that occur in our daily lives-- be it at home, in the work place, hobby circles, or in places of racial comfort. To dismantle racism, we must go inward and unpack our own implicit bias. We must be willing to allow ourselves to be vulnerable to discomfort so we can become consciously aware of the myriad of ways our racist culture has shaped and conditioned our thinking. Even the greatest allies among us have serious work to do.
The Portlandia Mermaid Parade is committed to hearing and doing the difficult work of vulnerability. White silence is violence. The fear of the loss of white support, money, and social capital often prevents groups, organizations and businesses from speaking out in matters of injustice. We are not afraid to speak the truth that needs to be said. Those who would no longer support the parade after hearing this truth, are not those we would wish to align ourselves with. We shall stand on the right side of history. This is not a matter of politics, but a matter of human rights, and the values of democracy. We stand and rise with you. Black mermaids matter! Black and brown lives matter! There can be no justice, until there is justice for all.
Here on land there is much work to be done to dismantle racism. The mermaid industry is no exception. Often these sub-communities (despite their intentions) simply become microcosms of the greater social ills of human society. People often view racism as some large social issue happening somewhere “out there” rather than an issue happening ‘right here’. Many Americans narrowly define racism as only overt violence or egregious behaviors towards people of color. Folks that don’t participate in those behaviors often think that they are not complicit or participating in a system of racism, so they exempt themselves from critical self-reflection. They will vehemently deny any responsibility or complacency. Racism is far more complex and often includes less overt behaviors, words, and thoughts that occur in our daily lives-- be it at home, in the work place, hobby circles, or in places of racial comfort. To dismantle racism, we must go inward and unpack our own implicit bias. We must be willing to allow ourselves to be vulnerable to discomfort so we can become consciously aware of the myriad of ways our racist culture has shaped and conditioned our thinking. Even the greatest allies among us have serious work to do.
The Portlandia Mermaid Parade is committed to hearing and doing the difficult work of vulnerability. White silence is violence. The fear of the loss of white support, money, and social capital often prevents groups, organizations and businesses from speaking out in matters of injustice. We are not afraid to speak the truth that needs to be said. Those who would no longer support the parade after hearing this truth, are not those we would wish to align ourselves with. We shall stand on the right side of history. This is not a matter of politics, but a matter of human rights, and the values of democracy. We stand and rise with you. Black mermaids matter! Black and brown lives matter! There can be no justice, until there is justice for all.
Black Mermaid Book List
Mermaids Have Always Been Black
A relief sculpture of the goddess Mami Wata on the wall of a voodoo temple in Benin.
NEW YORK TIMES- Opinion July 10th 2019
Mermaids Have Always Been Black
By Tracy Baptiste
As a young child growing up in Trinidad and Tobago within sight and walking distance of the Caribbean Sea, I was gripped by the intrigue of mermaids. I was introduced to one version of a mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, whose tale of a magical girl creature, an impossible location and an outrageous desire was thrilling.
But I already knew mermaids. We spent most weekends on the beach. There were plenty about. Every cousin, aunt and uncle who threw me in the waves and laugh-shouted at me to swim back to shore seemed to know that we were all part of the sea.
My father, in particular, was a surrogate Poseidon. He would strike out into open water, disappearing for minutes at a time behind huge waves, then appear again, hanging off the side of a fishing boat, where he rested, chatted with the fishermen and then swam back to shore. I didn’t need a Danish fairy tale to tell me that he was part fish. By the time I came across Andersen’s tale, I already knew that mermaids were black and brown people: my family. Besides, what happens when you stay out on the sea? You get darker and darker, deepening to shades of black and brown that glow from absorbing the sun.
It was in this state last week that I first heard about Disney’s decision to cast the black teenage actress and singer Halle Bailey (of Chloe x Halle fame) in the title role for “The Little Mermaid,” and the flood of white people’s tears over it. When the announcement was made, I was swimming in the sea off the Bahamas, getting sunburned as fish swam past me. A lifeguard had just warned me that there were baby sharks about. Was I concerned? Honey, please. This was my natural state.
Back in my hotel room, I turned on my phone for a bit, and several notifications came in, people tagging me in social media posts. The Wi-Fi was spotty, so it was another day or so before I figured out what was going on. I laughed. It was so laughable, this idea that a mermaid couldn’t be black. Didn’t they know?
When I wrote Mama D’Leau into my series of middle grade novels, The Jumbies, I didn’t have to stretch my imagination very far from home. Aiming at kids who don’t know Caribbean folklore, and Caribbean parents who maybe had forgotten it, I reimagined supernatural creatures I had known since I was a child.
Mama D’Leau in the oral tradition was huge and hideous, fierce and unstoppable. She ruled the water, both river and sea alike, and reveled in upturning fishing boats by whipping her powerful anaconda tail and watching her victims drown in the blue. As a young feminist, I was delighted by the idea of such a powerful and free woman, the murder notwithstanding. In my story, I made her as beautiful and well coifed as any of my aunts, and just as fearsome as the stories — or again, any of the aunties.
Mama D’Leau always existed in my imagination. I worried when my father swam out so far that I couldn’t see him, and worried again that the creature would capsize the boat he was hanging on to before he could swim back. In the stories, Mama D’Leau never cared whom she killed. It was sport. Though, same as any fisherman, I suppose. I don’t remember when I figured out that this was only a story.
The story likely started during chattel slavery, when people were kidnapped from the west coast of Africa and brought to the Caribbean and the Americas. The mother of the sea came with them because she already existed in West Africa as Mami Wata, a deity who promised fertility and prosperity to her devotees. It was incredibly good luck to encounter her in person. In West Africa, the goddess was beautiful, sometimes appearing fully as a woman, sometimes as a woman with a fish tail, sometimes with two fish tails. Check your Starbucks cup to see how she’s been co-opted.
LINK TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/07/16/the-black-mermaid-booklist/?fbclid=IwAR3JROEJ1O23zjASY0ynSrW0c5qlJ4r0SRgmYmLSVCuihVo7bwUCHja6WRw
MORE ARTICLES:
ourtimepress.com/discovering-the-myth-and-folklore-of-black-mermaids/
https://www.tor.com/2021/11/09/black-mermaids-the-waters-beyond-eurocentric-mythology/
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/black-mermaids-ariel-history
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/09/30/black-mermaids-the-little-disney
https://manyheadedmonster.com/2022/11/28/black-mermaids-and-the-long-legacy-of-eighteenth-century-racism/
ourtimepress.com/discovering-the-myth-and-folklore-of-black-mermaids/
https://www.tor.com/2021/11/09/black-mermaids-the-waters-beyond-eurocentric-mythology/
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/black-mermaids-ariel-history
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/09/30/black-mermaids-the-little-disney
https://manyheadedmonster.com/2022/11/28/black-mermaids-and-the-long-legacy-of-eighteenth-century-racism/
Merfolk are here, and many of us are Queer!
Here are some Queer friendly merfolk tales, and resources:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/queer-merfolk
https://abitlit.co/history/sacha-coward-on-queer-history-museums-and-mermaids/
https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/I/I-ve-Heard-the-Mermaids-Singing
https://pankmagazine.com/piece/mermaids/
http://queercomicsdatabase.com/series/thirsty-mermaids/
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/the-little-mermaid-lgbtq-fans-ursula_uk_5dce8608e4b0d2e79f8adb51
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/queer-merfolk
https://abitlit.co/history/sacha-coward-on-queer-history-museums-and-mermaids/
https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/I/I-ve-Heard-the-Mermaids-Singing
https://pankmagazine.com/piece/mermaids/
http://queercomicsdatabase.com/series/thirsty-mermaids/
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/the-little-mermaid-lgbtq-fans-ursula_uk_5dce8608e4b0d2e79f8adb51
Have a question? Please reach out!
