Gearing up for Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras

20th February 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

As Al Johnson has joyfully sung for some 57 years, “It’s Carnival time…” and that means folks are seriously gearing up for Mardi Gras day. There are as many different ways of doing that as there are for preparing a delicious gumbo or potato salad. Everyone around New Orleans has their own style, their own take, on making ready for the holiday.

Mardi Gras Indians are, of course, busy with the needle and thread eager to finish their magnificent suits for their entrance onto the streets on the big day. Revelers too, many with glue guns in their hands, affix sequins and glitter to costumes they’ll wear during the Krewe of St. Ann’s lively procession, strolling through the Quarter or on a parade route to make sure they’re noticed.

Families are cookin’, layin’ in supplies and dragging out ladders that have been in storage for a year. To get in the spirit of the holiday, WYES-TV Channel 12 is airing several important, highly informative and, of course, colorful and rhythmic Mardi Gras Indian Council documentaries produced by the Ohio State University of Newark. First up this week, is “The Big Queens of Carnival,” which will be shown on Monday, February 20 at 11:30 p.m.. (Get your digital recorders programmed.) At 8 p.m. on Saturday, February 25, the station will air another film made possible by the Council and produced by the university, “The Big Chiefs of Carnival,” followed by a re-airing of the Queens documentary. Both programs will be shown again on Mardi Gras day at 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m., respectively. Don’t miss these dynamic programs.

Fortunately, WYES annually airs producer Royce Osborn’s brilliant, award-winning, 2003 film, “All On a Mardi Gras Day.” Through historical footage and photos, it captures the Black Carnival experience as it was when neighborhood folks celebrated along North Claiborne Avenue and the Dirty Dozen Kazoo Band entertained old and young in the streets. It will be shown again on Channel 12 at 10 p.m. on Saturday, February 25.

Parades begin rolling Uptown on Wednesday, February 22, and continue straight through Carnival day. Highlights include the all-women’s Krewe of Muses with its coveted decorated shoes. The Endymion procession stands as the only parade in New Orleans that doesn’t travel down St. Charles Avenue. Gratefully, it has held its Mid-City home ground and moves down Canal Street on Saturday, February 25. Big Bacchus rules on Sunday night.

That brings us to Monday, February 27th and the 24th anniversary of the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club Lundi Gras Festival. Held along the banks of the mighty Mississippi River in Woldenberg Park, this event transformed what once was a rather quiet, and yes, even a bit dull Mardi Gras eve day into a ton of fun and music. The festival begins at 10 a.m. and rolls with three stages including one for children. The Zulu characters like Mr. Big Shot, the Governor and the Ambassador, who once didn’t really have a chance to carry on before Mardi Gras Day, emerge, wander and amuse beginning at 11 a.m. Return acts and fan favorites like zydeco get-down man, accordionist Dwayne Dopsie & His Zydeco Hellraisers and DJ Jubilee keep the party going until King Zulu’s arrival by boat that is celebrated by the Rebirth Brass Band.

Actually, it’s difficult to comprehend how the Zulus can party all day and rise and shine for their parade that begins at 8 a.m. on Carnival Day. Probably the same way the rest of the Mardi Gras loving citizens of New Orleans keep going – they just do.

At one time, it seems, Mardi Gras Indians were more allusive – or just harder to find. Many still start their day, as was the custom, in their Uptown and Downtown neighborhoods. In that way, they serve their communities and provide enjoyment to the elders. There are certain locales, however, where the Black Indians traditionally can be spotted like at North Claiborne Avenue and Basin Street, a spot that, despite the razing of the beautiful oak trees and the construction of the I-10 overpass remains on the route. Uptown, the corner of Second and Dryades streets is a sure place to catch Indians like Bo Dollis Jr. and the Wild Magnolias, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and the Golden Eagles and Chief Roderick Sylvas & the Wild Tchoupitoulas.

A newer destination for Black Indians, skeletons, baby dolls and costumed revelers is the Backstreet Cultural Museum’s Annual Mardi Gras Open House. Located in the heart of Treme at 1116 Henriette Delille Street, the museum offers breakfast with the historic Skull & Bone Gang beginning at 7 a.m. It has food, usually red beans and rice and hot dogs, plus beverages for sale and accommodates with port-o-lets. It’s an easy move from there to the Quarter or to pass by Al Jackson’s soon-to-be-open Treme Petit Jazz Museum, 1500 Gov. Nicholls Street. Jackson, who was an original member of the Skull & Bone Gang and a cousin to its late chief Al Morris, advises, however, that he won’t be at the museum from about 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. as he’ll be out catching the Zulu parade.

This route takes Indian seekers and fun lovers out to North Claiborne Avenue and just a few blocks away from Kermit’s Mother-In-Law Lounge. It’s the headquarters of the baby dolls, a tradition that was revived for the most part by Ernie K-Doe’s wife, Antoinette, and a stop for many Black Indians.

“Let’s go get ‘em…”

This article originally published in the February 20, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.