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New Orleans is now in
modified phase 3, where social distancing and masks are still required, but gatherings of 500 people and live music are permitted. City officials say second line parades are only allowed with permits. Second line parading is an integral part of our cultural tradition and organically engages gatherings of people,” Lisa Alexis, director of the Office of Cultural Economy, said in an email. The safety of our community is at the forefront. Second lines will be allowed when it is safe to do so.”
Though the city isn’t completely open yet, participants said this parade was a step toward healing and a reunion with the cultural aspects of the city they have missed.
NEW ORLEANS
As a frigid dawn broke here on Fat Tuesday better known as Mardi Gras the streets of Treme were unusually hushed.
No skeletons tromped through the historically Black neighborhood pounding on drums and knocking on doors to wake up residents and warn them of their mortality, a ritual that its practitioners say dates to 1819.
As a trickle of locals and tourists approached the Backstreet Cultural Museum, a tiny treasure trove of Black culture that is an early gathering point for the Northside Skull and Bone Gang, they found the front door shut and the lights off.
“No events will be scheduled on Mardi Gras day here due to COVID restrictions,” said a note scrawled on the porch. “Sorry.”
A Carnival Season Like No Other Seeks to Bring New Orleans Together From a Distance
All over New Orleans, thousands of house floats were decorated in lieu of parade floats amid the paradeless 2021 Mardi Gras celebrations. Courtesy of Janet McConnaughey/Associated Press. by Anne Gisleson |
February 11, 2021
The New Orleans parade known as the Krewe of Jeanne d’Arc rolls every year on January 6th Joan of Arc’s birthday, and also the day that the Carnival season begins. The small walking parade usually winds through a crowded, glittering French Quarter. Marchers playact Joan’s biography, adorned in medieval attire with beautifully handcrafted props symbolizing her journey to sainthood. It’s a lively and loving celebration of female heroism, spiritual fortitude in the face of ruthless authority, and the city’s French history.
Multimedia artist Ceaux s 2021 Mardi Gras poster.
Every year since 2016, New Orleans-born-and-raised multimedia artist Courtney “Ceaux” Buckley, of Axiom Gallery on Freret Street, has been painting vibrant and detailed posters that depict the Black Mardi Gras experience.
Through this annual poster series, Buckley said, he not only aims to provide a representation of the Black experience during Carnival season, but that he also intends to normalize it.
“I don’t think we should always be presented like a big deal,” he said. “These things go on all the time, every year, it’s recurring.”
He adds that it is important for Black people from New Orleans to see representations of their culture in this more generalized way opposed to only packaged news stories and documentaries.