Cajun mardi gras masks. Cajun Mardi Gras Masks 2022-10-23

Cajun Mardi Gras Masks by Carl Lindahl, Carolyn Ware

They use window screens, chicken feathers, yarn, hair, Magic Markers, and hot glue as they create fanciful, even bizarre masks that will be worn just one day in the year. Such creations transform their wearers into wild revelers who move through the countryside singing, dancing, and begging for money and food. And since riders wear the masks for so long, we just try to make them a little more comfortable now. Potic Rider and the Moreau and LeBlue families represent the largely male maskmaking traditions of Basile, Louisiana. The wire masks of Church Point, for instance, are known to be plain, featuring regular human noses. The most famous and well-documented of these wire mask makers are Allen and Georgie Manuel of Eunice, whose ancestors have been making masks and running the Courir de Mardi Gras since the 1930s.

Cajun Mardi Gras Masks by Carl Lindahl

Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter of New Orleans and in the permanent exhibit at the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center in Eunice. At first we had to sew a lot of the stuff on there, but now we use glue guns, plus we have access to more trim and braid than when I first started. Suson Launey, Renee Fruge, and Jackie Miller portray the female role in festivities held in the rural region of Tee Mamou. Between the photos and the obscure details, I'd still recommend the book to people with a deep interest in cajun life and rural Mardi Gras celebrations, but maybe not anyone else. There is a photo of a Mardi Gras in this context, a participant in the courir, or procession in blackface wearing a David Duke button.

Cajun Mardi Gras masks : Lindahl, Carl, 1947

The wire keeps the molded face shape, but then the plastic is easier on the skin. Out of necessity their captivating masks combine the ingredients of durability, shock value, and allure with age-old folk patterns and innovations from contemporary culture. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter of New Orleans and in the permanent exhibit at the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center in Eunice. As the communities celebrate, their masks become an intrinsic component of the annual rites. Between the photos and the obscure details, I'd still recommend the book to people with a deep interest in cajun life and rural Mardi Gras celebrations, but maybe not anyone else. Cajun Mardi Gras celebrants are unlike their counterparts in New Orleans, where masked revelers ride through the streets on floats or parade serenely through ballrooms. For 20 years, Trahan has been one of two people making traditional wire masks for the Egan community southwest-ish of Iota, between Crowley and Jennings.

Mardi Gras Masks

Egan happily stands in the shadow of the much larger Tee Mamou parade just to the west. Carolyn Ware is Coordinator of the Pine Hills Culture Program at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. Potic Rider and the Moreau and LeBlue families represent the male maskmaking traditions of Basile, Louisiana. Then about eight years ago the descendants started it up again. Every winter a handful of Cajun Louisiana folk artists assembles unlikely mixtures of material to shape masks for their Cajun Mardi Gras celebrations. Unlike other mask-makers, Lou Trahan covers her masks with colored felt, yarn, buttons, lace and other knickknacks.

The Story Behind Cajun Mardi Gras Masks

Suson Launey, Renee Fruge, and Jackie Miller are the female counterparts in festivities held in Tee Mamou. This book introduces the artists, the performances, and processes of creating the fantastical masks. The mask helps erase consequence. The capitaines leave their faces exposed to let everyone know who is in charge. As the communities celebrate, their masks become an intrinsic ingredient in the annual rites. They use window screens, chicken feathers, yarn, hair, Magic Markers, and hot glue as they create fanciful, even bizarre masks that will be worn just one day in the year.

Cajun Mardi Gras Masks

On horseback, flatbed trucks and ATVs, hordes of colorfully garbed riders blaze through the middle of big, Cajun crowds while singing, shouting and begging for nickels, trinkets and ingredients for a gumbo meal to be shared by the community later that night. The drunken, debauched riders, however, hide their human identities behind various parish-specific masks made and molded out of wire mesh. Of course, admiring friends soon wanted their own masks, which Trahan obligingly made. Wherever Mardi Gras is celebrated, the mask is key. Unlike other mask-makers, Lou Trahan covers her masks with colored felt, yarn, buttons, lace and other knickknacks. As they generate merriment, they climb trees, chase chickens, and create a general and playful havoc.

And since riders wear the masks for so long, we just try to make them a little more comfortable now. Potic Rider and the Moreau and LeBlue families represent the male maskmaking traditions of Basile, Louisiana. Egan happily stands in the shadow of the much larger Tee Mamou parade just to the west. The masked country Cajuns engage in rousing, physically energetic performances as they cavort through the countryside. Nonetheless, it covers the mask-making and the courir de Mardi Gras of Tee Mamou and Basile in detail that I've not seen elsewhere. At first we had to sew a lot of the stuff on there, but now we use glue guns, plus we have access to more trim and braid than when I first started.

Now the mask is just pay-acting, for the element of surprise. Here is a study of the Cajun Mardi Gras tradition and its manifestation in the work of six of the most creative and popular folk artists in two rural communities. It just takes somebody to keep at it and keep pushing it. . As they generate merriment, they climb trees, chase chickens, and create a general and playful havoc. As the communities celebrate, their masks become an intrinsic component of the annual rites.

Carl Lindahl, co-editor of Swapping Stories: Folktales from Louisiana University Press of Mississippi , is a professor of English at the University of Houston. Although the authors obviously spoke with several of the maskmakers in these small towns and neighborhoods, the book contains only a small number of quotes. They use window screens, chicken feathers, yarn, hair, Magic Markers, and hot glue as they create fanciful, even bizarre masks that will be worn just one day in the year. Such creations transform their wearers into wild revelers who move through the countryside singing, dancing, and begging for money and food. The book could have benefited from more details in their own words.

Nonetheless, it covers the mask-making and the courir de Mardi Gras of Tee Mamou and Basile in detail that I've not seen elsewhere. It just takes somebody to keep at it and keep pushing it. Here is a study of the Cajun Mardi Gras tradition and its manifestation in the work of six of the most creative and popular folk artists in two rural communities. She began making masks for her husband and two boys to wear while running with Mermentau. Cajun Mardi Gras celebrants are unlike their counterparts in New Orleans, where masked revelers ride through the streets on floats or parade serenely through ballrooms. Her work can be seen at the Presbytere of the St. Such creations transform their wearers into wild revel Every winter a handful of Cajun Louisiana folk artists assembles unlikely mixtures of material to shape masks for their Cajun Mardi Gras celebrations.