The Backstreet Museum finds a new home

14th February 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

Just in time for Mardi Gras, the Backstreet Cultural Museum, “A Powerhouse of Knowledge,” has found a new place to call home in the Treme neighborhood. Executive Director Dominique Dilling-Francis, the daughter of the museum’s founder, the much loved Sylvester Francis, who passed away on September 1, 2020, has signed a year-long lease with the African American Museum to rent one of the four houses that share the sizable, gated property.

Dominique was especially eager to find a location in order to carry on the Lundi Gras and Carnival Day traditions that made the Backstreet’s former locale on nearby Henriette Delille Street such a popular destination for the holidays. The original building, the former historic Blandin funeral home, that the museum rented had long been in disrepair and received a final blow when a huge branch of a pecan tree fell on it during Hurricane Ida.

The small, blue shotgun house at 1114 North Villere Street will serve as a temporary site for the museum while Dominique continues to search for a larger building that can house the many Black Indian suits, photos, film, videos, jazz funeral items and social and pleasure club paraphernalia that have been part of the Backstreet’s permanent collection. For now, the delicate feathered and beaded suits remain in climate controlled storage units while photos and as many other items as possible will eventually be on display at the new locale. Plans are to rotate these items every six months or so making them relevant to various community occasions.

“It is important to be in the Treme,” Dominique says echoing the sentiment of everyone in the neighborhood and probably beyond. “It is a tourist route and has a lot of the history embedded in it. We’re still on historic grounds and [the location] ties in well. The culture is still the culture.”

“I was born into the culture,” says Dominique who first masked when she was eight years old and for about four years remained the Little Queen of the Mandingo Warriors, led by Big Chief Victor Harris the Spirit of Fi Yi Yi. “I liked how beautiful it was, I liked the music and the dancing. I just wanted to put on a suit and smile because I saw everybody else around me was doing it. It seemed like so much fun. I was happy around it.”

Dominique’s maternal great, great grandmother, Anita Thompson, was also very much involved with the Black street culture. She was a baby doll with the Satin Sinners and Big Queen of the 8th Ward Hunters. Thompson’s photo as Queen will once again hang in the museum.

The family’s generational tradition with the Mardi Gras Indians will continue this Carnival when Dominique’s daughter, three-year-old Ador Pigott, comes out of the new locale as Little Queen with Big Chief Victor and the Mandingo Warriors. Her suit is being made by Second Chief Jeremy “Lil Pie” Stevenson of the Monogram Hunters. The design will be in tribute to her grandfather, Sylvester Francis. Lil Pie and the tribe will be coming out of his home at the corner of Ursulines Avenue and Henriette Delille Street, just a couple of doors down from the original Backstreet Cultural Museum.

Few will forget the look of joyful pride on Sylvester Francis’ face while watching Little Queen Ador walk down Henriette Delille Street in 2020 in a suit that was sewn and beaded by Big Chief Little Charles of the White Cloud Hunters. “That was his [her father’s] thrill,” Dominique vividly remembers.

In keeping with the spirit and fun of Carnival Day at the original Backstreet, Big Chief Victor and the Mandingo Warriors will start their rhythmic wanderings from the area around the African American Museum. Because the little blue house is still a work in progress, whether the gang takes off from there or the nearby garden remains in question. Whatever the case, there will be the usual frivolity with Dominique’s brother Dwayne Dilling acting as deejay, plus there will be food and drinks for purchase and lavatory facilities available both inside the main museum and outdoors via port-o-lets. Expect other Black Indian gangs, baby dolls and costumed revelers to stop by throughout the day. The celebrations begin at 10 a.m. and end at 6 p.m.

Folks might remember when the day before Fat Tuesday was fairly nondescript and a time for getting costumes and make-up together for the big day. That was, of course before the start of Zulu’s Lundi Gras Festival out by the river and the Krewe of Red Beans parade that began in the Marigny and ended with a party at the Backstreet Cultural Museum. The Red Beans, an organization that has provided much needed and appreciated help to the Backstreet following its closure, will wind up its parade at the new locale on Lundi Gras between 4 and 4:30 p.m., and as always will be led by the mighty Treme Brass Band. Though tours of the museum remain down the road, the Lundi Gras festivities will be held from noon to 5 p.m.

“It’s been so amazing,” Dominique exclaims of the support she’s received in her effort to keep her father’s dream and endeavor vital. “All these people came out on the strength of my dad and the Backstreet Museum. Knowing how much support there was made me push myself harder to open a location somewhere. I got a boost of my drive. It took the support for me to see.”

This article originally published in the February 14, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.