On June 20, the day of Cherry Grove’s 22nd annual Pride Parade, the Arts Project of Cherry Grove (APCG) held a virtual contest for Homecoming Queen, videotaped at the Community House by Ray Bagnuolo, and shown on YouTube▸ and Vimeo▸
The contest was hosted by Panzi, Homecoming Queen 1976 and 1977, Grove Invasion of the Pines founder, and President of APCG, and the winner, besting two other contestants, was our resident Viking royal, Ikea!
True to her Danish ancestry, Ikea promised us Minnesota Viking fan club memberships, reindeer hunts in the Meat Rack, and herring and Carlsberg beer, among other delights. Her winning performance, in which she was assisted by her “soldiers in crime,” Lute and Fisk, who protect her when people “throw bottles at [her] head,” was a merry, folksy “Fish Head” song (“Roly-Poly fish heads x floating in the soup),” with dance, and with the trio sporting Valkyrie horns and blonde braids.
The other contenders, performers as well, were Levonia Jenkins, who maintained “I’ve been a member of the Cherry Grove community for over 75 years,” dating from the era of the Hurricane of 1938, and giving us the nude look, from the rear, for her number, and Davida Jones, in a unicorn-horn-with-rainbow headdress, and performing “Livin’ La Vida Loca” as “Livin’ Davida Loca,” complete with high kick, split, and confetti shower.
Preceding the contest were a public service announcement by Philomena, Homecoming Queen 1990, about distancing; a lively stepdown number from Victoria Falls, Homecoming Queen 2019, wishing luck to the contestants and addressing Cherry Grove with love; Ariel Sinclair, Homecoming Queen 2002, on her top five reasons for being Queen: gifts of shoes, drinks, and food, ribbon cuttings first thing on Sunday mornings, and Invasion; and Ginger Snap, Homecoming Queen 2017, with Dolly Parton song “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” encouragement during this difficult time of pandemic, and advice for the new Queen: “Have the time of your life.”
May Ikea have a successful and satisfying reign. |
