The letter comes from People’s Joy Parade LLC, an organization started by a trio of longtime parade organizers and registered with the state one year ago. Its lawyer says it owns the name “People’s Joy Parade” — and will do what it takes to protect it, including blocking the Cherokee Street Foundation from continuing the event on its usual date (Cinco de Mayo) and location (Cherokee Street).
For a parade designed to bring joy and build community, the bitter tug-of-war may seem more than a bit ironic. But the future of the event now hangs in the balance.
It’s a future many south city residents feel invested in. Since 2009, the weird and wacky parade with its ragtag bands, quirky costumes and community spirit has been a key part of Cherokee Street’s Cinco de Mayo celebration.
That’s why neighbors were shocked to see posts in neighborhood Facebook groups on March 6, announcing, “Cinco de Mayo canceled the People’s Joy Parade.”
Emily Thenhaus, executive director of the Cherokee Street Foundation, which mounts Cinco de Mayo, says the nonprofit did no such thing. She told the RFT last week that the announcement followed a dispute between the nonprofit and the People’s Joy Parade LLC that began last year.
Thenhaus says the foundation was surprised to see some of the parade’s longtime organizers, including its principal coordinator Jenny Callen, create an LLC under its name last March. And soon after, the LLC posted on social media that the event would be moving away from Cherokee Street. It took the foundation hiring the LLC to run the parade to forge a fragile peace.
This year, Thenhaus says, the foundation had decided not to pay the LLC to run the parade and instead give grants directly to participating artists. When it shared that news last week, the LLC responded the next day by putting up the cancellation notices.
Thenhaus vowed last week that the parade would go on, same time, same place. But that situation has gotten more complicated.
Earlier this week, a lawyer representing People’s Joy Parade LLC wrote a letter to Thenhaus and also shared it with the RFT. In it, attorney Steven Hoffmann wrote, “Let me be clear: the People’s Joy Parade will not be subject to a hostile takeover by the Foundation, and you are hereby directed to cease and desist any and all activities that constitute trade name, trademark, and/or servicemark infringement, as described below.”
Hoffmann continued, “In short, the People’s Joy Parade is not an asset that the Foundation or Cinco de Mayo may own, control, or use to secure grants for itself. This letter is an attempt to make clear that unfair and underhanded tactics will not be tolerated, and that the People’s Joy Parade and its legal entity, People’s Joy Parade, LLC, reserve to themselves the continuing, exclusive right to use and control all of their logos, trade marks, service marks, trade names, and other intellectual property. Accordingly, they may take any appropriate actions in the future to secure these rights in accordance with law.”
In a statement to the RFT on Wednesday, the Cherokee Street Foundation says it’s been surprised by attempts to wrest control of an event that’s long been a collaboration between artists and Cherokee Street residents and business owners. “How could a few individuals unilaterally decide to take a parade away from the people and place in which it was started?” their statement asks.
The statement continues, “The Cherokee Street Foundation is not trying to own the parade; we don’t believe it can be owned. Anyone is welcome to celebrate the People’s Joy. We are simply changing the way our organization supports this grassroots effort by offering direct grants to artists and parade participants instead of providing funding exclusively for Peoples Joy Parade, LLC. We believe this is a more equitable and transparent use of funds that will result in broader participation and future stability for the parade.”
Hoffmann’s letter, however, says the dispute is about more than funding. He writes that there has been a “breakdown in communication between the People’s Joy Parade organizers and the Cinco de Mayo organizers” that has been “centered around the People’s Joy Parade’s request for an altered parade route that would be more accessible to disabled persons. The expression of these concerns seems to have morphed into an ‘us versus them’ attitude on the part of the Foundation. That is regrettable.”
Asked for details, Callen explains that the route Cinco de Mayo put in place in 2022 without others’ input “has an incline up a hill that prevented artists who use wheelchairs and other differently abled persons from completing the parade route.” Last year, as a compromise, the foundation offered a golf cart for those with mobility issues.
Callen also writes that the Cherokee Street Foundation’s decision to seek funding for the parade from the Missouri Arts Foundation came without her group’s knowledge — and presented problems. The LLC had hoped to apply for similar grants. “To our knowledge, we cannot apply for these grant opportunities if Cherokee Street Foundation has already applied for grant funding for People’s Joy Parade,” she writes.
In his letter, Hoffmann notes that his clients found Thenhaus’ comments to the RFT last week “demeaning and hurtful.” At this point, it’s hard to imagine the two sides working through their disagreement — and that has people who love the parade and the creativity it fosters worried.
Even so, a person who was there at the parade’s inception sees a simple solution. As the RFT reported in 2015, the People’s Joy Parade began after St. Louis-based artist Sarah Paulsen was inspired by a parade she witnessed in Peru. Paulsen and Lyndsey Scott, a staffer at the Cherokee-based Community, Arts & Movement Project, or CAMP, brought together artists and other community members to try something with a similar community feeling.
Paulsen notes that some key players at the Cherokee Street Foundation, including board member Jason Deem, were part of the planning from the beginning. The foundation, in its various permutations, has long handled everything from permits to barricades. “I don’t want them to be painted as villains in this story,” she says.
Paulsen also credits Callen for her work to keep the parade going all these years: “She’s done a great job sustaining it.”
But she doesn’t necessarily buy into Callen’s plans for the future: “To me, I just think if Jenny needs to own the name and do this in other places, that’s not the spirit of this. Cherokee Street should still be able to have a parade.”
Paulsen, for one, plans to keep going and participating, despite the call to cease and desist.
She adds that if Callen insists on owning the name, maybe the parade should just continue without it. “The parade was never just a name. It was about the bands who showed up and the people who showed up and rejoiced with each other, being fabulous in the street. That’s the point. Not the name.”
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