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FEATUREFriday 5 February 2016
Glitter, feathers, paint: New Orleans preps for Mardi Gras
REBECCA SANTANA
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It’s
glitter season in New Or-
leans. A time for feathers,
paper mache, sequins,
paint, bailing wire, bones,
and just about any other
item that can be used for
decoration. Across ga-
rages, kitchen tables and
warehouses, residents are
feverishly sewing elabo-
rate costumes, painting
floats and decorating cus-
tom throws.
Outside of New Or-
leans, Mardi Gras has of-
ten been perceived as a
raucous time of drinking
too much beer, throwing
beads and nudity. But to
those who live here and
essentially put on the show
Chanel Lafargue decorates coconuts, gorgeous pieces often
referred to as “Golden Nuggets,” inside her studio in New Or-
leans, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016. Lafargue has decorated tens of
thousands of coconuts for her husband and his friends over the
years.
for the world, it’s a wildly
creative time of personal
expression, rich history and
family fun. Behind the pa-
rades and pageantry are
regular citizens who spend
all year and often a lot of
their own money to trans-
form the city and them-
selves for a few days.
The Associated Press talked
to some of the men and
women who make the
magic happen.
___
Cari Rhoton uses glitter as a Rhoton gathers shoes all
verb. In the garage of her
Kenner, Louisiana, home
she and her friends gather
the Extra-Terrestrial” and his first suit and in 1980 he
ride bikes, and Krewe du became the chief of the
Who, which celebrates the Mohawk Hunters, the only
TV show Dr. Who. tribe on the Mississippi River
“For a lot of people city’s west bank.
who have never experi- Casby said the Indian out-
enced Mardi Gras they fits are, in part, a tribute
think it’s like girls gone wild. to the Native Americans
There’s the cheap plastic who would hide runaway
beads. There’s a bunch slaves. But the drumbeats,
of people who get really singing and chanting are
drunk,” said Ballard. “But also an expression of the
that’s really not what Mar- African culture from which
di Gras is about. Mar- they came. At the begin-
di Gras is about, it’s an art ning, the outfits were made
form ... We’re making the out of whatever people
universe one little drop bet- could find, and were
Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, head of the Mardi Gras North Side Skull
& Bone Gang, poses with his accoutrements for upcoming Mar-
di Gras day, in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016.
Associated Press
or thrift stores. Sunday eve- A costume worn by Chief of the Mohawk Hunters Mardi Gras
nings she sits in her “Glitter- Tribe Tyrone Casby in 2009 greets visitors to his home in New
age” — a two-car garage Orleans, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. This costume depicts the white
where she has organized buffalo, a sacred animal in Native American lore. The Mohawk
boxes of different colors of Hunters Mardi Gras Tribe is an African American group that cel-
glitter, sequins and beads, ebrates Mardi Gras by dancing and performing in a newly cre-
Associated Press a glue gun and boxes of ated hand-made costume each year.
embellishments that she’ll
Sunday evenings to glit- put on the shoes. Associated Press
ter shoes and decorate “They’re little pieces of
boots, ballet flats and sti- folk art I believe,” she said. ter by doing this crazy, silly, burned after Mardi Gras,
lettos. Rhoton is a member “You hand them off the whimsical thing we do.” said Casby. But over time,
of the all-female Krewe of float to people who come ___ they have evolved into
Muses whose 1,030 mem- to the parade and it is a For Tyrone Casby it was the elaborate works of art that
bers will parade on Feb. 4. treasure. Once you give a sound of the drums that take months to complete
The women throw beads shoe to someone you want lured him in. Casby is the and are often preserved
and other “throws” to the to keep making shoes ev- big chief of the Mohawk for posterity.
crowd, but the real prizes ery year.” Hunters, a Mardi Gras Indi- Come Fat Tuesday morn-
are the roughly 30 custom- ___ an tribe in New Orleans. As ing, the tribe will congre-
designed shoes that each Like all good New Orleans a young boy, he remem- gate at one spot in their
woman is encouraged to creative projects, the Inter- bers sneaking off to watch outfits, and commence
make and hand out to galactic Krewe of Chew- and listen to his brother the day by singing “Indian
lucky parade watchers. bacchus was conceived practice the drums with Red,” a prayer asking God
in a bar, said Ryan Ballard, his tribe. In 1967 he made to guide them.q
year round. Friends drop who is the group’s “Over-
them off at her house or she lord.” Ballard and a friend
finds them at garage sales were talking about how
there was no crossover
between the science fic-
tion and fantasy fans who
dressed up for events like
Comic-Con and Mar-
di Gras.
The name is a mash-up
of Chewbacca, the furry
Wookiee from “Star Wars”
who was longtime friend
to Han Solo, and Bacchus,
the god of wine. Started
six years ago, as a small
group of sci-fi fans, Chew-
bacchus has grown into
a parade of roughly 2,500
people and includes such
diverse sub-krewes as the
Rolling Elliotts, who dress up
as Elliott from the film “E.T.