A mini-Carnaval at 4:30 p.m., Friday, June 8, outside the University of Iowa Theatre Building will feature music, dance, masks, and puppets, as well as stilt-walkers from Canada's Swizzlestick Theatre.

A 2013 Iowa City Carnaval parade is planned, and this preview will enable the public to ask questions and share ideas, and even find out how to build carnaval costumes and floats or become a sponsor for the parade.

Masks and puppets from the weeklong Theatre for Social Outreach: A Carnaval Arts Workshop—sponsored by the Department of Theatre Arts , the Division of Performing Arts, International Programs, and the Division of Continuing Education—will be on display.

The workshop focuses on community-building among diverse populations through the Carnaval arts; the relationship between the Carnaval arts and immigrant and migrant populations; the process of democratic dialogue about controversial issues, especially race, class, and immigration; and community involvement to improve the common good through storytelling and the Carnaval arts.

For more information or accommodations, contact Theatre Arts faculty member Loyce Arthur, the leader of the Carnaval Arts Workshop, at 319-353-2409 or loyce-arthur@uiowa.edu.