| Method | Sample | Procedure | |--------|--------|-----------| | Participant Observation | 3 days of the parade (pre‑parade prep, parade day, post‑parade debrief) | Field notes (≈ 12 h) focused on spatial arrangements, costume design, audience reactions. | | Semi‑structured Interviews | N = 42 (15 parade organizers, 12 local residents, 10 journalists, 5 performers, 5 members of Sherni’s studio) | Interviews (30–45 min) recorded, transcribed, and coded. | | Media Corpus | 78 articles/posts (local newspapers, regional TV, Twitter, Instagram) from Jan 2024 – Sep 2024 | Collected via Factiva and social‑media APIs; subjected to frame‑analysis coding. |
The annual Ass Parade—a long‑standing, community‑driven spectacle celebrating bodily humor, subversive performance, and local identity—underwent a notable transformation in 2024 when the performance artist Jasmine Sherni joined the procession. This paper examines the sociocultural impact of Sherni’s participation, exploring how her artistic practice intersects with the parade’s folkloric roots, gender dynamics, and the evolving discourse on bodily autonomy in public space. Drawing on participant observation, semi‑structured interviews (N = 42), and a discourse‑analytic reading of media coverage, the study finds that Sherni’s involvement catalyzed three principal shifts: (1) a re‑negotiation of the parade’s gendered symbolism; (2) heightened media attention that reframed the event from “low‑brow” entertainment to a site of critical cultural production; and (3) the emergence of hybrid performative practices that blend traditional “ass‑centric” humor with contemporary feminist aesthetics. The paper concludes by situating the Ass Parade within broader debates on community festivals as platforms for contested identities and by suggesting avenues for future research on participatory performance in marginal spaces.
Analysis of the parade’s choreography revealed three new hybrid elements: assparade jasmine sherni joins the parade link
These hybridizations were corroborated by post‑parade surveys (N = 215), where 81 % indicated that “the parade felt more modern while still feeling like a hometown celebration.”
All participants gave informed consent; pseudonyms are used for interviewees. The study adhered to the American Anthropological Association Code of Ethics and was approved by the University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB #2024‑0147). Analysis of the parade’s choreography revealed three new
Sherni’s involvement illustrates how artist‑community collaborations can up‑grade the perceived cultural capital of a folk event without erasing its roots. The shift aligns with Schechner’s (2002) notion of “performance as a site of negotiation,” where the community retains agency while embracing new symbolic repertoires.
| Theme | Core Works | Relevance to Study | |-------|------------|--------------------| | Festival Anthropology | Turner (1969); Cohen (1985); Falassi (1987) | Provides a theoretical lens for viewing festivals as liminal, communitas‑building events. | | Bodily Humor & Subversion | Bakhtin (1984); Rutter (2006) | Highlights how bodily excess functions as a site of social critique. | | Gender & Performance | Butler (1990); Phelan (1993); McRobbie (1999) | Explains the construction and destabilization of gender through embodied performance. | | Artistic Interventions in Folk Rituals | Schechner (2002); Kwon (2002) | Offers precedent for contemporary artists entering traditional events. | | Media Framing of Community Events | Entman (1993); Couldry (2003) | Informs analysis of how local media re‑positioned the parade post‑intervention. | 2002) and discursive re‑framing (Entman
Collectively, these bodies of work suggest that the insertion of a high‑profile, gender‑critical artist into a historically “low‑brow” parade can generate both cultural hybridity (Schechner, 2002) and discursive re‑framing (Entman, 1993).