Walking Raddy: The Baby Dolls of New OrleansKim Vaz-Deville 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. |
Contents
| 1953 | |
| 1968 | |
| 1971 | |
I Know My Ancestors Are Happy | 1977 |
Fighting for Freedom | 1994 |
Protectors of the Inheritance | |
Women Maskers | |
Is the Unruly Woman Masker Still Relevant? | |
Reinvention | |
The World That Antoinette KDoe Made | |
Sass and Circumstance | |
Mora J BeauchampByrd | |
CultureBuilding and Contemporary Visual Arts Practice | |
Beyond Objectification and Fetishization | |
Contemporary Artists Respond to the Baby Dolls | |
Ulrick JeanPierre | |
How the Baby Dolls Became an Iconic Part of Mardi Gras | |
Uncle Lionel Batiste February 11 1932July 8 2012 | |
Baby Doll Addendum and Mardi Gras | |
Dancing Women of New Orleans | |
Ruth Owens | |
Steve Prince | |
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Common terms and phrases
Accessed July African American African descent Alice Dunbar-Nelson Antoinette K-Doe artists Baby Doll maskers Baby Doll tradition Baby Dolls Baton Rouge black women body Brass Band Carnival Congo Square contemporary costume Creole culture dance dancers Digger Baby Dolls dress enslaved Ernie K-Doe free women Gender girls Gold Digger Gold Digger Baby Hogan Jazz Archive Hurricane Katrina images jazz funerals Jim Crow K-Doe Baby Dolls krewes Lionel Batiste lived Louisiana State University Mardi Gras Day Mardi Gras Indians Mardi Gras Tradition masquerade McCrady McCrady's Million Dollar Baby Miss Antoinette Mother-in-Law Lounge musicians Orleanians Orleans Baby Dolls Orleans's parade performance Photo photograph played Pleasure Club poems Race racial Ralston Crawford Reproduced with permission Saloy second line segregation Seventh Ward sexual slave social song stories Storyville street style Treme Trepagnier Uncle Lionel University Press unruly woman Voodoo women of African women of color York