“This here is no blackface. This is protest. Every Mardi Gras the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club takes to the streets of New Orleans in an exhibition of celebration and resistance. They masquerade like no other Krewe in New Orleans. Like many others in the Deep South, Caribbean, Central and South America, the Zulu Krewe highlights African cultural practices and traditions while masquerading during Carnival. But in protest to the deeply rooted traditions of racism in the Deep South, the Zulu Krewe adorn themselves with black paint. This Krewe is one of the first black Mardi Gras Krewes to walk along the historic parade route in New Orleans. Their existence is a form of protest to segregation and exclusionary policy. The Zulu Krewe and its parade have been a exhibition of pride for black people in New Orleans. They bring together the cultural life force that is the spirit of New Orleans during their Mardi Gras celebration.”
About the artist: When she is not studying and not holding a pipette in her hand, these words of Nayyirah Waheed are words Briaunna Minor lives by.
i want to see
brown and black folks
photographed
by
brown and black eyes
— eyes