As Mardi Gras–Fat Tuesday–is celebrated today in New Orleans, we take a look at a newly revealed women’s “masking” tradition that has been revived in the city. The “Baby Doll” masking tradition at Mardi Gras in New Orleans developed from women who worked in “Black Storyville”–the “uptown” part of the legal red-light district that operated […]
Author: Kim Marie Vaz
Kim Marie Vaz is the associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of education at Xavier University of Louisiana. Her area of research is the use of expressive arts as a response to large-group social trauma. Her book, The Baby Dolls: Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition, is available from LSU Press. She is guest co-curator of the Louisiana state Museum’s Presbytere’s exhibit: They Call Baby Doll: A Mardi Gras Tradition. The exhibit opened on January 19, 2013 and will run for one year.