Students Revel in Absurdity of Annual FireFish Festival

Leela Miller

Senior Staff Writer

The annual Lorain FireFish Festival took place in Downtown Lorain last Saturday. The festival is a lively celebration of art, culture, and community that culminates in the ceremonial burning of a giant fish sculpture. Programming included glassblowing demonstrations, a New Orleans-style jazz band, stilt walkers, puppeteers from the eerie-yet-magical Bread and Puppet Theater, and a performance from Oberlin’s own steelpan band, OSteel. Several students attended the festival.

The FireFish Festival has been a Lorain tradition since 2015, but this was the first time that OSteel was included in the event. College fourth-year Charlotte Connamacher is the current administrative director of OSteel and has been involved with the group since taking the steelpan ExCo during her first year at Oberlin. According to Connamacher, OSteel was first approached about participating in the FireFish Festival after performing in Oberlin’s Big Parade this past spring.

At Big Parade, Joan Perch, executive director of the Lorain-based non-profit FireFish Arts, sported a colorful butterfly costume when she approached the band to compliment the musicianship of the pan players. She then pitched her own event: another parade, but this one with a whimsical procession and a dramatic display of fire and fireworks. That description alone was enough to get OSteel on board.

With the FireFish Festival scheduled to take place less than a month into the school year, OSteel didn’t have long to prepare for the performance, but they were able to pull together an exciting concert nonetheless. The quality of the show was a testament to the dedication of the band.

OSteel’s main point person for involvement in the festival was multimedia artist and FireFish Festival Creative Director Daniel McNamara, who directs the parade and “burning pageant” and has built the giant fish multiple times in past years. According to Connamacher, McNamara described the festival as a big buildup to a moment of intentional chaos — chaos that facilitates creativity. This concept of “intentional chaos” took the form of multiple musical groups all playing at once on closely-situated stages during the hours leading up to the burning of the fish.

“The idea behind the burning fish was that you can create art, and you can destroy art, but the creative energy involved in the process can’t be destroyed,” Connamacher said. “It can’t be dampened.”

The frenetic, artistic energy of the all-day event made a lasting impression on attendees. College

The FireFish sculpture goes up in flames. Photo by Lanie Cheatham

See Annual, page 12

Magic Fosters Community, Encourages Creativity

Shawn Lisann

Throughout its nearly 200-year history, Oberlin College and Conservatory has been a mainstage for worldclass musicians, comedians, dancers, studio artists, and more. However, there is one artistic tradition that has yet to find its time in the Oberlin spotlight: magic. Magic was the cause of some truly transformative experiences for me in high school. I was known as “MagicMan,” spending my free time in the halls showing card tricks and also performing alongside my closest friends for hundreds of audience members. Magic is more than a skill to showcase; it is something that can be used to invoke a unique enthusiasm in one’s community, and I am excited to now bring it to Oberlin.

Magic is about friendship, unity, creativity, and engagement within a community. There is no better way to start an interaction with someone than by blowing their mind with a simple card trick. College third-year Rohan Gold likes the interactivity and intimacy of magic in comparison to other performing arts offered at Oberlin.

“Magic inherently requires more engagement from the audience,” Gold said.

I was able to demonstrate my magic skills earlier this month during Oberlin’s annual Variety Showcase, hosted by the Obertones. For me, as a first-year at Oberlin who has been performing magic for over five years, the opportunity to showcase magic as artistic expression in Finney Chapel was extraordinary.

While magic is certainly a means of self-expression, magic enthusiasts like Professor of Jewish Studies Matthew Berkman are equally invested in the art of designing a quality trick.

“As a writer, I appreciate the design of a good magic trick,” Berkman said. “Performing magic well is like crafting a compelling written argument. Good magicians, like persuasive writers, leave you no alternative but to believe in the reality they’re constructing for you ... imagine walking across Wilder Bowl and people are just pulling rabbits out of hats left and right. A practicing [magic community] would certainly bring a greater sense of childlike wonder to campus. Sure, we’d soon have a massive rabbit infestation, but I think it’d be worth it.”

Holly Yelton, Staff Cartoonist

Having students, professors, and Oberlin community members learn the ins and outs of a few tricks can go a long way in normalizing magic as a form of artistic expression. With any luck, and a rabbit or two, the creativity and wonder of magic will hopefully soon conjure its way into Oberlin.