New Orleans Baby Dolls Bless The Streets
The New Orleans Baby Dolls held their annual “Blessing of The Streets” on Saturday, May 1, at their annual gathering on the North Peters side of the New Orleans Jazz Museum. The ceremony serves as a welcoming induction for new members and a reunion for women who continue to represent a Mardi Gras masking tradition that has evolved over more than a century.
In her definitive book on the cultural practice,
Walking Raddy: The Baby Dolls of New Orleans, Kim Vaz-Deville chronicles Baby Dolls from their origins in Black Storyville, dating back to 1912. In a 2105 article for
Black Mardi Gras society raising COVID-19 vaccine awareness during Mobile festivities
Updated Feb 14, 2021;
Posted Feb 14, 2021
Members of the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association celebrate Carnival during a private event at their downtown Mobile headquarters on Feb. 14, 2021.
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TeNerah Rice was sickened with the coronavirus in July. Isadore Sims spent two weeks hospitalized with the deadly virus in October.
Together, the top two officials with Alabama’s largest Black Mardi Gras society are hopeful they can spread the message of vaccinating against the deadly virus this week. The Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association, an all-Black organization founded 82 years ago, is hosted the first of two membership parties on Sunday.
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.
Parades may not be rolling this Carnival season, but floats still bring joy for Mardi Gras lovers. Author: Rudy Williams Updated: 10:28 PM CST February 9, 2021
MEMPHIS, Tenn. Fat Tuesday is a week away and while this Carnival season may not look like years past it s not been halted by COVID. The spirit of New Orleans most festive time of year lives on.
Pre-COVID, Dr. Maurice Sholas says the streets of the Big Easy would be filled with revelers, marching bands and parade floats. You can sit around and mope or we can makeup something else, said Sholas.
Coronavirus restrictions have put the breaks on America s biggest street festival.