photo: Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee
From a bead-bedecked gallery on St. Charles Ave., masked revelers designed by Sean Gautreaux peer down the parade route for the bands that will play again next Mardi Gras.
When the mayor of New Orleans cancelled Mardi Gras 2021 late last November, crews sheathed their half-built floats in plastic to await better times, and Caroline Thomas, a Mardi Gras artist, called her old friend Devin De Wulf with an idea.
Since March, De Wulf, founder of the Krewe of Red Beans, has spearheaded efforts to support New Orleanians effected by the pandemic through Feed the Front Line and Feed the Second Line, hiring out-of-work musicians and restaurant workers to prepare and deliver food to E.R. staff and Mardi Gras Indians, members of Social Aid & Pleasure clubs and other community elders. Now, there was a new opportunity to help those who create and sustain New Orleans’s culture.
2 catholic sisters create the Women of Light house float to inspire everyone during these dark times
The float’s symbolism comes from Nano Nagle, who carried a lantern during very dark times in Ireland in the 1780s. Author: Devin Bartolotta / Eyewitness News (WWL) Published: 10:29 PM CST January 31, 2021 Updated: 10:29 PM CST January 31, 2021
NEW ORLEANS A lantern now lights the way to South Saratoga Street. House Float “Women of Light” was installed Friday in Central City at the home of two Sisters of the Presentation from Dubuque, Iowa.
Sisters Mary Lou Specha and Julie Marsh set and met a goal in December to raise 10-thousand dollars and participate in the Krewe of Red Beans’ Hire A Mardi Gras Artist Project.