The Mardi Gras Indians—Stories from New Orleans

The Kitchen Sisters Present

The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2024

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jelly Roll Morton talks of being a “Spy Boy” in the Mardi Gras Indian parades of his youth. Bo Dollis, of the Wild Magnolias, tells of sewing his suit of feathers and beads all night long. Tootie Montana masks for the first time as Mardi Gras starts up again after World War II. Big Queen Ausettua makes connections between the black Mardi Gras Indian traditions of New Orleans and Africa. Sister Alison McCrary, a Catholic nun and social justice attorney, tells of Big Chief Tootie Montana’s death at the podium in city council chambers defending the rights of the Mardi Gras Indians to parade without harassment.

A collection of stories and interviews in honor of the Mardi Gras Indian tradition in New Orleans. With special thanks and a shout out to all of the “Keepers” who have documented, preserved and shared these stories, including the Folklife Center Collection at the Library of Congress, Nick Spitzer and American Routes, filmmaker Lisa Katzman, and WWOZ in New Orleans.

The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of PRX’s Radiotopia network and is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson), with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Radio Topia, welcome to the Kitchen Sisters Presently.
0:04.0	We're the Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nicki Silva.
0:09.0	I want to tell you about a new mini series from Benjamin Walker's Theory of Everything.
0:14.7	It's called Not All Propaganda is Art.
0:18.1	Back in the 1950s, spy agencies like the CIA used writers and artists to fight a cultural cold war.
0:27.0	Three writers got caught up in this war as collaborators and as targets.
0:32.9	The propaganda from this time period didn't just win the Cold War, it made the world we live in today.
0:39.8	Not all propaganda is art is running on the Theory of Everything podcast with weekly episodes.
0:45.6	Find it wherever you get your podcasts.
0:48.0	Ogeha!
0:50.0	Ogeha! Oh, Geeha! That's the sign of the Indian.
0:55.0	That's the sign of the Indians.
0:57.0	That would be some of the boys when they would be traveling instead of New Orleans.
1:02.0	That is during the monograph.
1:04.0	That's legendary jazz piano player Jelly Roll Morton, talking to musicologist and audio archivist
1:11.6	Alan Lomax in 1938 about the Mardi Gras Indians in his hometown of New Orleans.
1:18.0	Today, the Kitchen Sisters present this interview and a collection of stories in honor of the Black Mardi Gras Indian
1:24.8	tradition in its long history, its rituals, and deep-rooted significance to New Orleans
1:29.5	culture. And this episode is a shout out, to the generations of keepers who have documented, preserved, and shared these stories.
1:38.0	Nick Spitzer and his award-winning radio show American Roots, W.W.O. Z. in New Orleans, filmmaker Lisa Katzmann and
1:46.7	Alan Lomex in the American Folklife Collection at the Library of Congress.
1:51.2	Here's more from Jelly Roll Morton.
	...

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