#krewe

krewe: Ready to take on a day in the French Quarter, the talented @ darrencriss and his wonderful wife, Mia visited us for some fresh frames and NOLA flair.

I started this blog almost exactly 10 years ago.  I had just arrived in New Orleans to embark on a four month adventure and research exercise.  At the time I was just entering the data collection stage of my PhD and my focus was on the Krewe of Muses, an all-female Mardi Gras krewe.

As a Canadian, Mardi Gras parades and parade culture were a pretty foreign concept and an even stranger subject for a doctoral thesis at a Canadian university.  What started as a feminist investigation became a much broader look at the important role that art and creativity play in community building, community identity, and friendship.  

When I returned home to Canada, I wrote a number of different versions of my dissertation but never defended.  The version that resonated with my research participants, did not resonate at all with my dissertation committee.  

‘Complicated” is one of the most common words writers use to describe New Orleans.  It is a city of contradictions, which all make total sense when you are here, but are almost impossible to explain and to understand if you have never visited or had to opportunity to wander the streets to explore and experience all the city, and its people have to offer.

Last night I heard author Janis F Kearney read from her recent book Only on Sundays at Octavia Books.  She spoke that as a writer, you need to “speak your truth”.  I think that is the reason I never defended my thesis or received my PhD.  I needed and wanted to speak the truth that the female members of the Krewe of Muses shared with me.  I wanted to capture the spirit, the sense of magic, and excitement they shared with me.  The experience of riding in Muses, glittering shoes, or watching the parade hoping to catch one of their coveted shoes or specialty throws did not fit neatly within a framework of critical race or feminist theory.  It was complicated!

LIGHT MY FIRE 

1960s Mardi Gras flambeaux torch . Wood / brass and tin . The first official Flambeaux debuted with the Mistick Krewe of Comus on Fat Tuesday, 1857 . A tradition that arouse out of necessity but turned into a spectacle in its own right as the carriers waved and twirled the torches while dancing down the streets.

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