{"id":8824,"date":"2021-02-03T13:52:31","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T13:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=8824"},"modified":"2022-01-21T20:19:35","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T20:19:35","slug":"new-orleans-mardi-gras-black-then-til-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=8824","title":{"rendered":"New Orleans Mardi Gras, Black-Then \u2019Til Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Orleans Mardi Gras, Black-Then \u2019Til Now<\/b><\/h3>\n
Written by Trelani Michelle<\/span><\/pre>\n
Many folk outside of New Orleans hear Mardi Gras and think beads, booze, and boobs. While that\u2019s one side of it, there\u2019s so many sides to the festive holiday that became famous in New Orleans. One of those Mardi Gras sides includes a for-us-by-us version: a Black Mardi Gras.<\/span><\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with the first misconception about Mardi Gras\u2014that you have to show something to get something, beads in particular. That\u2019s a Bourbon Street phenomenon that goes on all through the year as well as during Mardi Gras. That\u2019s where the tourists hang out. But anyone who\u2019s participated outside of Bourbon Street knows that beads are everywhere. Everyone is going home with beads and the street sweepers are pushing even more away the next day. Furthermore, beads are the least prized Mardi Gras \u201cthrow.\u201d Why break your neck for beads, when you could go for a hand-painted umbrella, purse, shoe, or coconut?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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Another misconception is that Mardi Gras is a parade. It’s actually a day that literally translates to Fat Tuesday. The date changes every year like Easter, but Mardi Gras is always the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which is also the first day of Lent. Lent lasts for about six weeks and ends on Easter. Though it\u2019s a Christian holiday like Easter and Ash Wednesday, Christians and non-Christians participate, fasting from that which means them no good\u2014physically, spiritually, and mentally. One might ask, \u201cWhat you giving up for Lent?\u201d The response is probably \u201cdranking,\u201d fried food, or, these days, social media. Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is your chance to get it all out of your system before you start your fast.<\/span><\/p>\n
Ash Wednesday, Lent, and Easter are primarily for the church. By far, most people celebrating Mardi Gras, however, ain’t bothering with none of those other holidays. They\u2019re just having a good time. That\u2019s why the overall theme of Mardi Gras is \u201c<\/span>Laissez\u00a0<\/span>les<\/span>\u00a0bons\u00a0<\/span>temps rouler,\u201d meaning \u201clet the good times roll.\u201d And while Mardi Gras might be one day, Mardi Gras season is damn near a whole month. It’s bigger than Christmas in New Orleans. Banks and schools close. Restaurants too. It’s serious.<\/span><\/p>\n
During Mardi Gras season, parades are happening in and around the city every single day for about two weeks, and every parade\/krewe got its own style and signature throw. Krewes ain\u2019t just the people who march in the parades. They\u2019re social clubs that host events throughout the year. Every historically black New Orleans ward (comparable to a district or precinct) had a social club. These organizations also helped pay for proper funeral and burials for underprivileged folk in the neighborhood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club was the first African-American parading social club, formally created for black folk by black folk in 1909. During that time and for more than 80 years afterwards, most krewes were all-white and usually all-male. This especially went for the city\u2019s most exclusive and elite krewes. Black krewes couldn\u2019t even parade main streets like St. Charles Avenue. They had to take the back streets. Though colored purple, green, and gold\u2014symbolizing justice, faith, and power\u2014black and white played distinct roles on Fat Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n
Until 19-freaking-92, New Orleans krewes could legally segregate by race. The Mystick Krewe of Comus, the city\u2019s oldest continuous krewe, established before emancipation in 1856, barred black folk and women from participating. So intent on its all white-male rider status, Comus chose to sit the 1992 parades out rather than integrate. The same for the Krewe of Momus, a secret society which formed in 1857. Though black people couldn\u2019t join all-white krewes or ride on their floats until after 1992, they could help with the flambeaus and horses, and attend the parade following the city\u2019s desegregation in the late \u201850s, early \u201860s. Just because you could go, however, didn\u2019t mean they had to throw you something. The white folk would leave the parades with bags of goods while the black folk beside and behind them went home with next to nothing. That\u2019s a complaint that still echoes \u2018til this day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
As black folk do, though, we launched multiple efforts in the name of justice. While some fought for integration, others worked diligently to create something beautiful and powerful of our own and, dare I say, better. That\u2019s how Zulu came to be. You also have New Orleans Most Talked Of Club (NOMTOC), a black krewe that started in 1969. Both are something beautiful to see, so much so that, depending where you are on the parade route, it\u2019s likely more white patrons than black.<\/span><\/p>\n
The Mardi Gras Indians are another treat. Though black, they call themselves Indians to honor the local indigenous tribes who, once upon a time, helped enslaved black folk escape slavery. What\u2019s particularly special about the Indians are their carefully handcrafted suits and crowns, costing plenty time and money.<\/span><\/p>\n
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The sewing and beadwork incorporated in Mardi Gras Indian suits is one of the finest examples of traditional black folk art in the United States, and the same one is never worn twice. Indians redesign a new suit every single year. According to Larry Bannock, President of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian Council, \u201cDowntown Indians use sequins, feathers; Uptown Indians use beads, rhinestones, feathers. The only time Downtown and Uptown Indians come together is to parade on St. Joseph’s day.\u201d Otherwise, they\u2019re rivals. Back in the day, that rivaling would get violent. These days, however, donning elaborate suits weighing more than 100 pounds, when the chiefs meet during the parade, it\u2019s more of a stare-down, as they silently judge who\u2019s \u201cprettier.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
And the Indians aren\u2019t one big collective group; there are various tribes. You have the <\/span>Mohawk Hunters<\/span><\/a>, the Wild Magnolias, the Fi Yi Yi, Cherokee Nation, and more than 20 more. And, unlike the parading krewes, Mardi Gras Indians have their own ranking structure and their own parading style. Whereas krewes have kings, the Indians have chiefs. Krewes\u2019 parading schedules are published weeks in advance. Indians, on the other hand, don\u2019t have an advertised time and place. It\u2019s up the chief to announce when he gets ready. The Treme\u2019s Backstreet Cultural Museum is a wonderful place to visit for more history and artifacts of the Mardi Gras Indians.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
The Baby Dolls, who made their first Mardi Gras appearance in 1912, are a treat too. Their history is definitely one for the books. In the days of Jim Crow, prostitution was legal for white New Orleans and illegal (but accepted) for black New Orleans. In 1912, a group of black sex workers heard that their white counterparts were dressing up for the parade. Not to be outdone, they decided to do it even better. Since their patrons affectionately called them \u201cbaby doll\u201d and because having an actual doll baby in those days was such a rarity, let alone a black one, that\u2019s the character they chose <\/span>to<\/span> bring to life.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Photo Credit: NPR, \u201cThe ‘Baby Dolls’ Of Mardi Gras,\u201d 2013<\/p><\/div>\n
The construction of I-10, beginning in 1969, cut through the Treme, America\u2019s oldest black suburb, where Black Mardi Gras flourished prior to desegregation. That construction subtracted many jewels from Black New Orleans including the longest single strand of oak trees in the country, hundreds of black-owned homes and businesses, and long-standing traditions such as the Baby Dolls. Mardi Gras 2013, the Baby Dolls made a comeback, parading with the krewe of black and gold better known as the Zulu.<\/span><\/p>\n
Resilient is New Orleans\u2019s second name, and, if \u201cone monkey don\u2019t stop no show\u201d was a city, it\u2019d be New Orleans. Since parades aren\u2019t happening in 2021 due to Covid, people are paying artists to design porch floats for them. It\u2019s being referred to as Yardi Gras. So, instead of pulling up to a parade to catch throws from floats, you can walk by decorated homes and catch trinkets thrown from porches and balconies. Some krewes are also facilitating scavenger hunts.<\/span><\/p>\n
New Orleans Councilman and 2016 Zulu King, Jay H. Banks, decorated his home with painted coconuts (the krewe\u2019s most prized throw), flags, and tribal masks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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Photo Credit: Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, Inc., 2021<\/p><\/div>\n
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The Big Chief Timbuktu Warriors (Dow & Lisa Edwards) House<\/p><\/div>\n
Gone are the days of being limited to back streets. We\u2019re headlining. And more black krewes and even krewes of black women are increasingly being added to the roster, adding to the display of what black New Orleans culture was and is all about: revering our ancestors and ancestral allies by way of masking, movement, and music. It\u2019s about building on the equally vibrant and\u00a0 complicated past to create new inclusive, attention-grabbing manifestations of justice, faith, and power. <\/span><\/p>\n
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\"\"TRELANI MICHELLE<\/b>\u00a0is a writer, editor, and a historian who\u2019s helped over 1,500 teens and grown folk write and showcase their personal stories through memoirs, poetry, podcasts, and visual art. She wrote her first book,\u00a0What the Devil Meant for Bad<\/i>, in 2012 while a senior at Savannah State University. In 2016, she received a Master\u2019s in Writing from the Savannah College of Art and Design. While a graduate student, she started Zora Neale Hurstoning, interviewing 19 black elders over the age of 80 in Savannah, and wrote a book called\u00a0Krak Teet<\/i>\u00a0with their stories. Michelle co-created a curriculum that centered social issues, self-exploration, writing, and ethnography and taught it to high schoolers in an after-school program for two years. In the summer of 2018, she completed a 10-week internship at the Library of Congress\u2019s American Folklife Center where she curated and digitized\u00a0Gullah Geechee\u00a0collections, wrote and recorded podcast scripts, and held original handwritten manuscripts of\u00a0Zora Neale Hurston. In addition to The Library of Congress, Michelle has partnered with UNC\u2019s Black Communities Conference, the City of Savannah, the Jepson Center, Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Highlander Research and Education Center, the Deep Center, and the Life Balance and Wellness Institute to help people share their personal stories.<\/p>\n
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