By Invitation Only New Day Films Sociology Women’s Studies

Mardi Gras in New Orleans is my favorite time of year. It’s a celebration that’s hard to explain in a city I’ve been trying to make sense of. For two weeks straight, organizations called crews parade through the streets in a great outdoor party where millions come let loose. [crowd cheers, brass band plays] But there is a secret side to Mardi Gras that most people never get to see. For the crew members, the masked men on the floats, the end of the parade route is where the real party begins… at a private ball. [jazz] the oldest balls are considered to be the most socially prestigious. These are the ones the men in my family belong to.

Every year, each crew honors one member by choosing his daughter to be the queen of the ball. My mother was a carnival queen and her mother and her mother and so on. My grandmother told me I’d be a queen one day too, with a beautiful gown a scepter and a throne.

I dreamed of the day I’d curtsy to my king. [regal trumpets play] [cymbal crash] Later, I decided to leave this world.

But I’ve struggled to understand it ever since. So, I’m back! And though no one is ever allowed in to document these events, I’ve been granted special permission to be here with the camera because someone said, “She’s one of us.” My father agreed to show me his costume box. I can’t reveal which organizations he’s in or which crews I may have been queen of.

Mm, here’s a typical Mardi Gras float mask. -Ha! -Here’s a.…Here’s a…. -Oh my god. Please put it on. -…kind of head gear. [camera clicks, both laugh] Only if you’ll put the wig on. -So, you put this on? -No. -You don’t winna put it on. OK, we’ll do the mask. You can put the mask on? – I really would rather not because that’s sort of a I don’t know.

That’s sort of almost crossing one of those lines. You mean of associating? Yeah, sort of the association of the secrecy in that kind of stuff.

It’s almost sort of mocking it. -You mean to put it on? -Yeah. Yeah, I do because those are sort of the crew… those kinds of masks are exclusive. It’s not like that’s a mask. I mean that’s exclusive to organizations. -OK.

So, I’d rather not. The men in the old-line crews have a legacy of secrecy, but I have found a way to explore the role that the daughters are expected to play.

A family friend, Emily, is going to be a queen next year, and I’m going to follow her as she prepares. I finally have a chance to get some answers. What does it mean to be the queen of the masked men?

And why is this world so exclusive? So, for better or worse, I’m reentering my childhood fantasy. [regal music] -OK. The secret of moving the scepter is looking into the audience. Come turn your body around.

OK, you’re at a leader position right here. And you’re going to drop down, and then you just roll it forward. See how your wrist almost feels like it’s broken right here? I caught it going thumbs down. You slice the scepter back to your body, roll it back into position, and lift that hand up.

And it’s good. Another truism of scepters….

What was it like when the men came and asked you to be their queen? -When they came, they were pretty strict about saying don’t tell anybody. It’s supposed to be a big secret.

So, like we didn’t even tell my aunt and uncle. My mom didn’t tell her best friend she talks to every day.

And I didn’t tell anybody because I was scared because I know one of my friends that was queen of something told me, and it ended up, she told someone else, and it got out. So, I knew from that, mm-mm. -That’s OK. -I don’t know if I…. -OK. Let’s work on this….

I’ve been going to curtsy lessons and scepter lessons and stuff because I mean doesn’t really come to naturally to anybody. -But by learning how to do the Queen’s walk it makes you look like you’re going to float across the floor. I’ve seen pictures, and my grandfathers from here.

My grandmother’s family’s from here, so she obviously had connections in New Orleans. In high school, my mom started to say when you’re 21 or when you’re junior you’re going to do this too.

[pensive music] -I found an old book about our family’s carnival traditions. My great-grandfather was Rex, the king of Carnival. And a few years later, his daughter was queen.

Every Mardi Gras morning, Rex arrives on the Mississippi River and gets the keys to the city of New Orleans from the mayor. He then rules over the citizens for the day. Whenever I see all these southerners dressed up as royalty, I think about how they are all white. And I want to know more about how this tradition has been tied to race relations here. But there’s no answer to that question in this book I recognize the names of people I grew up with.

And my family names keep showing up year after year. The most recent queen in my family is my cousin Charlotte. We used to play dress-up together.

It is comforting in a way being queen. When you look around and you know that these are the people in your community, you feel proud to, you know, you’re representing your family in front of them, and but they’re also like, OK, she’s So and So’s daughter.

And we remember when she was born and seeing her grow up. And now she’s becoming a woman, and you know, it’s nice to be fussed over sometimes. I like being pampered too. Somehow, wearing a fancy gown affects how you feel inside and changes who you are when you wear it.

But in these rows are some additional carnival outfits: the more Queen’s gowns, some debutante gowns further down the line, some Kings outfits, captains, pages, Dukes, lieutenants.

From the moment you get an invitation to a ball, you have this feeling like I’m going to go somewhere far special. Well, I tend to go back to our childhood terminology and use the word make-believe because we do believe that it’s real. We are treating carnival royalty like they are real monarchs. So, they are attired as if they are real monarchs. The crew members allow their guests to be carried away in their own fantasies.

It’s just magical. You just can’t help but be lost in the experience if that’s the kind of experience that you value.

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