#krewes

one hundred forty-four leagues as a crow sails or the diabolical scientist mystified

on tuesday, i found a krewe of caesar doubloon half-buried in the mud on the banks of the chattahoochee river, a place forty years and five hundred miles from its home, but time has been so slippery lately, maybe space is getting in on the fun too

Music is a form of prayer in New Orleans and across the sea in Haiti. It connects the living and the dead, the present with the past. Every year, in February and March, people all over the western hemisphere gather together to sing, dance, parade, and celebrate Carnival. The most famous Carnival celebration in the United States is New Orleans’ Mardi Gras. ⁠ Krewe Du Kanaval is back for its fourth year, February 9-12, celebrating the cultural connection shared by New Orleans and Haiti. This year’s theme and “bal” will honor the Warrior Women of Ayiti and Nouvelle-Orléans and feature Cimafunk & DJ Garo, RAM, 79rs Gang, DJ San Farafina, and surprise guests on Friday, February 10 at 8 p.m. in the Civic Theatre.⁠ ⁠ According to Krewe’s website, Anacaona was “The indigenous Queen of the Tainos who heroically held the Spanish at bay longer than any other and kept her kingdom under the rule of its people.” Adbaraya Toya, an elite African warrior of the Dahomey Kingdom, was captured and brought to Haiti as a slave but ended up raising the famous Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Lastly, New Orleans’ famed “vaudou queen” Marie Laveau will be celebrated for the “rare multiracial community” she built and sustained in New Orleans.⁠

SourceL L’Union Suite, Krewe Du Kanaval

Visit www.attawellsummer.com/forthosebefore to learn more about Black history and read new blog posts first.

"A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the best of men."

Phunny Phorty Phellows Motto

A photo by Mitchel Osborne showcases the Phunny Phorty Phellows (PPP) commencing in their annual street car ride on Twelfth Night. Resurfacing from an extended hiatus, the krewe has steadily gathered since 1981; the PPP is known for loads of satire and champagne. 

Today we celebrate Mardi Gras! This raucous celebration has a rich history, and the holiday has evolved much in the two hundred plus years it’s existed in New Orleans. Did you know these seven facts about Mardi Gras?

Mardi Gras in Louisiana owes its origins to the region’s French, Spanish, and Afro-Caribbean population.

Informal parades and festive masquerades date to the early nineteenth century.

The modern Mardi Gras began in 1857 with the establishment of the city’s first exclusive Carnival organization, the “Mystick Krewe of Comus.”

All-white “krewes” like Rex, Momus, and Proteus soon arose after 1857 and quickly became social networks for the city’s Anglo and Creole elites.

In 1909, members of New Orleans’ black middle class created the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club as a sly critique of white stereotypes of African Americans as savages, and as a protest against the city’s harsh Jim Crow culture.

Beginning in the 1880s, away from the center city, the black “Mardi Gras Indians” masqueraded in highly stylized Plains Indians costumes that played upon white stereotypes of both Indians and African Americans.

By the late 1990s more than seventy krewes paraded in the two weeks leading up to and including Mardi Gras day.