Walking Raddy: The Baby Dolls of New Orleans
Contributions by Jennifer Atkins, Vashni Balleste, Mora J. Beauchamp-Byrd, Ron Bechet, Melanie Bratcher, Jerry Brock, Ann Bruce, Violet Harrington Bryan, Rachel Carrico, Sarah Anita Clunis, Phillip Colwart, Keith Duncan, Rob Florence, Pamela R. Franco, Daniele Gair, Meryt Harding, Megan Holt, DeriAnne Meilleur Honora, Marielle Jeanpierre, Ulrick Jean-Pierre, Jessica Marie Johnson, Karen La Beau, D. Lammie-Hanson, Karen Trahan Leathem, Charles Lovell, Annie Odell, Ruth Owens, Steve Prince, Nathan "Nu'Awlons Natescott" Haynes Scott, LaKisha Michelle Simmons, Tia L. Smith, Gailene McGhee St.Amand, and Kim Vaz-Deville

Since 2004, the Baby Doll Mardi Gras tradition in New Orleans has gone from an obscure, almost forgotten practice to a flourishing cultural force. The original Baby Dolls were groups of black women, and some men, in the early Jim Crow era who adopted New Orleans street masking tradition as a unique form of fun and self-expression against a backdrop of racial discrimination. Wearing short dresses, bloomers, bonnets, and garters with money tucked tight, they strutted, sang ribald songs, chanted, and danced on Mardi Gras Day and on St. Joseph feast night. Today's Baby Dolls continue the tradition of one of the first street women's masking and marching groups in the United States. They joyfully and unabashedly defy gender roles, claiming public space and proclaiming through their performance their right to social citizenship.

Essayists draw on interviews, theoretical perspectives, archival material, and historical assessments to describe women's cultural performances that take place on the streets of New Orleans. They recount the history and contemporary resurgence of the Baby Dolls while delving into the larger cultural meaning of the phenomenon. Over 140 color photographs and personal narratives of immersive experiences provide passionate testimony of the impact of the Baby Dolls on their audiences. Fifteen artists offer statements regarding their work documenting and inspired by the tradition as it stimulates their imagination to present a practice that revitalizes the spirit.
1127458108
Walking Raddy: The Baby Dolls of New Orleans
Contributions by Jennifer Atkins, Vashni Balleste, Mora J. Beauchamp-Byrd, Ron Bechet, Melanie Bratcher, Jerry Brock, Ann Bruce, Violet Harrington Bryan, Rachel Carrico, Sarah Anita Clunis, Phillip Colwart, Keith Duncan, Rob Florence, Pamela R. Franco, Daniele Gair, Meryt Harding, Megan Holt, DeriAnne Meilleur Honora, Marielle Jeanpierre, Ulrick Jean-Pierre, Jessica Marie Johnson, Karen La Beau, D. Lammie-Hanson, Karen Trahan Leathem, Charles Lovell, Annie Odell, Ruth Owens, Steve Prince, Nathan "Nu'Awlons Natescott" Haynes Scott, LaKisha Michelle Simmons, Tia L. Smith, Gailene McGhee St.Amand, and Kim Vaz-Deville

Since 2004, the Baby Doll Mardi Gras tradition in New Orleans has gone from an obscure, almost forgotten practice to a flourishing cultural force. The original Baby Dolls were groups of black women, and some men, in the early Jim Crow era who adopted New Orleans street masking tradition as a unique form of fun and self-expression against a backdrop of racial discrimination. Wearing short dresses, bloomers, bonnets, and garters with money tucked tight, they strutted, sang ribald songs, chanted, and danced on Mardi Gras Day and on St. Joseph feast night. Today's Baby Dolls continue the tradition of one of the first street women's masking and marching groups in the United States. They joyfully and unabashedly defy gender roles, claiming public space and proclaiming through their performance their right to social citizenship.

Essayists draw on interviews, theoretical perspectives, archival material, and historical assessments to describe women's cultural performances that take place on the streets of New Orleans. They recount the history and contemporary resurgence of the Baby Dolls while delving into the larger cultural meaning of the phenomenon. Over 140 color photographs and personal narratives of immersive experiences provide passionate testimony of the impact of the Baby Dolls on their audiences. Fifteen artists offer statements regarding their work documenting and inspired by the tradition as it stimulates their imagination to present a practice that revitalizes the spirit.
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Walking Raddy: The Baby Dolls of New Orleans

Walking Raddy: The Baby Dolls of New Orleans

Walking Raddy: The Baby Dolls of New Orleans

Walking Raddy: The Baby Dolls of New Orleans

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Overview

Contributions by Jennifer Atkins, Vashni Balleste, Mora J. Beauchamp-Byrd, Ron Bechet, Melanie Bratcher, Jerry Brock, Ann Bruce, Violet Harrington Bryan, Rachel Carrico, Sarah Anita Clunis, Phillip Colwart, Keith Duncan, Rob Florence, Pamela R. Franco, Daniele Gair, Meryt Harding, Megan Holt, DeriAnne Meilleur Honora, Marielle Jeanpierre, Ulrick Jean-Pierre, Jessica Marie Johnson, Karen La Beau, D. Lammie-Hanson, Karen Trahan Leathem, Charles Lovell, Annie Odell, Ruth Owens, Steve Prince, Nathan "Nu'Awlons Natescott" Haynes Scott, LaKisha Michelle Simmons, Tia L. Smith, Gailene McGhee St.Amand, and Kim Vaz-Deville

Since 2004, the Baby Doll Mardi Gras tradition in New Orleans has gone from an obscure, almost forgotten practice to a flourishing cultural force. The original Baby Dolls were groups of black women, and some men, in the early Jim Crow era who adopted New Orleans street masking tradition as a unique form of fun and self-expression against a backdrop of racial discrimination. Wearing short dresses, bloomers, bonnets, and garters with money tucked tight, they strutted, sang ribald songs, chanted, and danced on Mardi Gras Day and on St. Joseph feast night. Today's Baby Dolls continue the tradition of one of the first street women's masking and marching groups in the United States. They joyfully and unabashedly defy gender roles, claiming public space and proclaiming through their performance their right to social citizenship.

Essayists draw on interviews, theoretical perspectives, archival material, and historical assessments to describe women's cultural performances that take place on the streets of New Orleans. They recount the history and contemporary resurgence of the Baby Dolls while delving into the larger cultural meaning of the phenomenon. Over 140 color photographs and personal narratives of immersive experiences provide passionate testimony of the impact of the Baby Dolls on their audiences. Fifteen artists offer statements regarding their work documenting and inspired by the tradition as it stimulates their imagination to present a practice that revitalizes the spirit.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781496817419
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Publication date: 05/17/2018
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 384
File size: 28 MB
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About the Author

Kim Vaz-Deville is professor of education and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Xavier University of Louisiana. Her book The "Baby Dolls": Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition was the basis for the Louisiana State Museum's installation "They Call Me Baby Doll: A Mardi Gras Tradition" and the Young Leadership Council's 2016 One Book One New Orleans selection.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Introduction xi

"I Know My Ancestors Are Happy" A Conversation with Merline Kimble Megan Holt 3

"True Doll Stories" A Conversation with Cinnamon Black Kim Vaz-Deville 7

Claiming Their Own Mardi Gras

Fighting for Freedom Free Women of African Descent in New Orleans and Beyond Jessica Marie Johnson 21

Geographies of Pain, Geographies of Pleasure Black Women in Jim Crow New Orleans LaKisha Michelle Simmons 31

Protectors of the Inheritance Black Women Writers of New Orleans Violet Harrington Bryan 45

Black Women and Carnival Performance Traditions

Women Maskers Critics of Social Issues Pamela R. Franco 61

Operationalizing "Baby" for Our Good A Critical Cultural Commentary on Early Twentieth-Century Songs about Women a Baby and Baby Doll Melanie Bratcher 75

From the Bamboula to the Baby Dolls Improvisation, Agency, and African American Dancing in New Orleans Jennifer Atkins 89

Is the Unruly Woman Masker Still Relevant? Kim Vaz-Deville 109

Memories and Musings

How the Baby Dolls Became an Iconic Part of Mardi Gras Kim Vaz-Deville 141

In Memory: Uncle Lionel Batiste (February 11, 1932-July 8, 2012) "Colorful in Life-Rich in Spirit" Jerry Brock 167

Baby Doll Addendum and Mardi Gras '49 Jerry Brock 189

Dancing Women of New Orleans: Mardi Gras Baby Dolls DeriAnne Meilleur Honora 195

Reinvention: Miss Antoinette K-Doe and Her Baby Dolls Rachel Carrico 203

The World That Antoinette K-Doe Made Rob Florence 213

Sass and Circumstance The Magic of the Baby Dolls Daniele Gair 223

Visual Artists Respond to the new Orleans Baby Dolls

John McCrady's "Southern Eccentric" Regionalism "Negro Maskers" from the Mardi Gras Day Series of 1948 Mora J. Beauchamp-Byrd 235

Culture-Building and Contemporary Visual Arts Practice: The Case of "Contemporary Artists Respond to the New Orleans Baby Dolls" Ron Bechet 261

Beyond Objectification and Fetishization: Telling the Story of the Baby Dolls through the Visual Arts Sarah Anita Clunis 273

Contemporary Artists Respond to the Baby Dolls Artists' Statements 285

Ann Bruce 285

Phillip Colwart 288

Keith Duncan 290

Marielle Jeanpierre 291

Ulrick Jean-Pierre 293

Karen La Beau 295

D. Lammie-Hanson 296

Meryt Harding 298

Annie Odell 301

Ruth Owens 302

Nathan "Nu'Awlons Natescott" Haynes Scott 305

Gailene McGhee St.Amand 307

Charles Lovell 309

Steve Prince 310

Vashni Balleste 312

Afterword 315

Acknowledgments 321

Contributors 323

Index 333

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