From the Streets of New Orleans ~ Mardi Gras Indian Super Sunday

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From the Streets of New Orleans ~ Mardi Gras Indian Super Sunday

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More from the Streets of New Orleans.  Every year following the Mardi Gras Indian's annual St. Joseph's Night celebration, the city's uptown Indians parade through the streets again in the Uptown Super Sunday.  

It starts at that most venerable of corners, at Washington and LaSalle Streets, where the Magnolia public housing project was located before the Bush admin's HUD demolished it....it is still one of the most important corners in American musical and cultural history though and where the Dew Drop Inn is also located, the birthplace of  rhythm & blues and rock'n'roll.  Ray Charles, Little Richard, Shirley & Lee, Huey 'Piano' Smith, Fats Domino and many more were regulars at the Dew Drop.  

On Super Sunday, Indians, brass bands, social aid & pleasure clubs all come out and it is a rolling, dancing celebration that moves through the streets of uptown New Orleans, from Washington and LaSalle to MLK Boulevard to Clairborne to Marcus Garvey Park....

No other American city does this and New Orleans does this on a regular basis, something lots of folks who come here to visit do not know about, as the tourism industry isn't real comfortable with visitors getting down with the regular folk here and as a result much of America has gotten left outta the mix - and New Orleans knows how to mix it up!  That's unfortunate, as New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians may be America's most unique social and cultural phenomenon and there is so much to learn from them.  What they do encompassesso much, from music, art, dance and theater to history and politics.  Both the Mardi Gras Indian events and the weekly secondlines by various social aid and pleasure clubs out on the city's backstreets are quite possibly some of the most democratic activities occurring in the country these days, but because it comes from and happens in New Orleans most marginalized neighborhoods, the mainstream tourism industry here steers visitors away from such events.  At the same time is interesting though how many visitors are aware of these events and do make it out to the backstreets..... not so many American tourists, or even those from the south, but rather foreign tourists, from Europe and Japan, Latin America.... it is curious that those from much farther away seem so much more astute about the city's music and culture.  That so many others are steered away says a lot about the bigotry and appropriation of mainstream tourism industry interests, which are hurting New Orleans more than helping the city, while at the same time the bulk of the music and cultural production activities that supports the tourism industry comes from the city's most marginalized neighborhoods, as do the low-wage workers at the hotels.  These neighborhoods - Central City, the Ninth Ward, Treme and the 7th Ward have suffered decades upon decades of disinvestment.

It is believed by many in the city that the tourism industry in New Orleans has a vested interest in making sure our public education system remains bad, disabled, so they my continue to maintain this large pool of low-wage labor to support their profits, while also keeping so many of our most creative residents living in poverty. 

Downtown gangs will hold their Super Sunday in a few weeks, starting at Bayou St. John and proceeding down Orleans Avenue to the Treme, America's oldest African American neighborhood - so come!  Dance with the Indians!