Haitian Veves and French Mosaics

Hey all –

Here’s a little bit about the research I’ve been doing…

In Haitian culture, the God of water is called Agwe and the Goddess of Love is Erzulie. The spirit of the Gods appear in representations called Veves, often used in rituals. Here’s one of Erzulie:

Vévés (often spelled with accents) change a little according to region and artist but are most often very vibrant glittery creations, appearing on flags. Here’s one of Agwe:

Because boats and the water are very important to Haitians and Haitian culture, and because many have journeyed away from the country by boat, Agwe flags are used ritualistically to request safety. You’ll also see the image on the side of a home sometimes.

---

From France comes a mosaic practice called picassiette. La Maison Picassiette near Chartres, is a house and garden that are completely covered in broken crockey, pottery, porcelain and china. It was executed by Raymonde Isidore, a manual laborer, who lived there. The story goes that one day he found a pretty piece of broken pottery and glued it to his fence. From there, he just kept going. 30,000 people visit this place yearly. Here’s a picture of part of it… (Inside the home, even the meat grinder is mosaicked).

When people say that they’re a mosaicist working in picassiette, that means that they mainly used broken china, pottery, earthenware, etc.

---

Inspired by Haitan and French cultures, I’d like to create a mosaicked Veve bringing Erzulie and Agwe, love and water together, in effort toward healing. I’d like to get a few music boxes to include on the back on the piece, ones that might play various kinds of music that come out of NOLA. I need one that plays the National Anthem or America the Beautiful too (in order to speak to another kind of healing necessary). I’d like to include little vases in the piece too where we can tuck wishes or trinkets, etc.

For the materials for the piece, I’ll collect items from New Orleans such as this tiny doll’s tea cup (which I found at an antique store today!):

as well as pieces of things found as we’re combing the streets. I hope Karen and I can hit a few second hand stores while we’re there in June in order to collect other NOLA pieces that can be broken and used as tesserae. Perhaps even you have something you'd like to contribute?

So, depending on how it turns out, we might be able to donate or even sell the mosaic and give the proceeds away. We can see about that…

Anyway, I’d love to hear your ideas and would be happy to hear any questions. Hope we can use the piece as part of our set, installation, something or other…

Looking forward to reading about your research!

Thanks,

Lisa Arnold

Death and books

This has been a fascinating research project that has led me in so many different directions that I've gotten a little overwhelmed. I thought maybe I needed to focus in on one topic that would force me to narrow my search, and where I ended up was with DEATH.

Here are three DEATH sites (in no particular order) that I've explored that intersect with the work that others are doing:



1. The tomb of Marie Laveau
Marie Laveau was a free woman of color and a devout Catholic who became the "Voodoo Queen" in New Orleans in the late 19th century. Her manipulation of political secrets gained as a hairdresser to the upper echelons of NO society and her business acumen (commercializing rituals) made her an acknowledged leader in the community. Her powerful gris-gris, knowledge of spells, and her snake Zombi made her arguably the most powerful American voodooienne in history. Today, her tomb is revered by those who petition her (by marking 3 X's on the stone) to help them with their spells.

I think that Marie's tomb serves as a complex metaphor for a number of the issues we are exploring: Karen mentioned the free people of color community, of which Marie was a part. Also, there was a real performativity in her creation of a unified voodoo practice that expands how we might think about "new orleans theatre." Finally, the fact that her tomb is still a literal site of interaction with the past shows the way in which history is still very much alive in the present In NOLA.



2. The disappearance of Jacques Lafitte
Jacques Lafitte, pirate, American hero, French Creole, entrepreneur, Jew, civil engineer, diplomat. Lafitte is perhaps most well known for organizing his Baratarian army to support Andrew Jackson in fighting the battle of New Orleans during the war of 1812. For his efforts, he was pardoned of all his crimes. The establishment of NO was in great part due to the vibrant black market trade that Lafitte ran through the bayous from which he supplied discounted necessaries and goods to the city. After being made legitimate, however, Lafitte ran into increasing trouble with rumours that he remained a thief, which interferred with his participation in high society. He left NO for Texas, where he served as a privateer in the Texas war of independence. Once that was over, he was commanded to give up his fleet, so he set fire to everything and disappeared.

No one knows when, where, or how Lafitte died. The lack of a grave has led to rumors that he is buried in "every backyard." In many ways, I think this LACK points to some of the major issues surrounding NO of the past and today. First, there are a number of issues that have been overlooked, have disappeared, or been erased. Is our performance an act of recovery? Of archeology? In other ways, the absence of certain things have brought them more clearly to the public eye. (This may be particularly true of reconstruction efforts following Katrina.) Also, Lafitte lived in a period in NOLA history when it was a truly fascinating blend of culture, race, and religion. (See Quadroon Balls, for example).

3. Finally, a death practice that is entirely indigenous to NOLA is the jazz funeral. Youtube has got some clips of this--http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jazz+funeral&search=Search.

I am really taken with the notion of a dirge before "cutting loose the body" and a celebration following it. This may suggest a structure--solemnity to reverence to celebration.

Some project ideas and thoughts

I’m taking a break from my thesis to share a few thoughts I had this week; they are a bit random and may not be related to each other, so I hope any of them make sense. I’m also writing this before looking at others’ responses, so I hope I don’t repeat someone too much. I guess if I do, there’s some common ground:

--I’ve been talking to one of my mentors, Tisch Jones, about her research: Antebellum Theatres of Free People of Color in New Orleans; her article is coming out later this fall. She discovered that some of the first theatres in America were in New Orleans, including two African American theatres (French-speaking) before the Civil War. In fact, one of the first Spanish-speaking theatres were located where one of the local bars reside now (Pat O’Briens??) The interesting thing is that there are few to no theatres left in New Orleans; so why does a place with so much theatrical history have a dearth of theatres? Some blame it (economically) on Mardi Gras, probably the most theatrical thing left in N.O. I can get access to more information about her research, if interested.

--Speaking of Mardi Gras, one of the attractions of the event is the appearance of the Black Indians, or Mardi Gras Indians, of New Orleans. These are real Indians who wear full authentic garb and perform ritual dances. One of the professors at Iowa, Richard Turner, wrote a book about them, and actually tried to get one of the members, Chief Montana, to speak at a symposium at Iowa; problem is, many local groups were offended by the idea of this person coming in his Indian garb—maybe not realizing that he was truly of American Indian heritage himself. I should be able to contact Prof. Turner about getting contact information for Chief Montana and the Mardi Gras Indians, if we’re interested in doing something with the group.

--On the current theatre front, I learned more about a donation project that a few Iowa theatres started to help Dillard University. Dillard lost much of their theatre, including all of their costumes. Professors from a few colleges in Iowa, who worked with Dillard as guest artists in the past, decided to help by cleaning out their excess costume storage and donating costumes to Dillard. The group plans to take the costumes to Dillard in mid-May; by that time, they will know how much more the college needs in terms of costumes or other resources, based on their storage capacity. The rep from Iowa told me that she would let me know if I should ask this group or others for donation assistance after they drop off what they have in May.

But this brings up a larger topic: the effect of the hurricanes on the theatre programs. While my mentor has contacts at Dillard, we’re not sure what’s going on with other schools in the area, including U. of New Orleans, Tulane, and Loyola. The unfortunate situation for theatres especially at many historical black colleges is their department does not get as much support from the college as does the music department or other fields of study. In fact, the theatre space is not respected as a practical space for theatre as a lab room would be for science; instead, the college will use the space for almost every administrative function or admission event—thus affecting the quality of the space. All this, before the hurricanes hit. This obviously could be a common occurrence at other smaller schools, but it’s important to maintain a legacy of quality in theatre departments in all colleges.

One of us suggested working with and helping out an organization or school in the area, so I thought we should also consider any of the many colleges that are trying to their legs up. We could easily incorporate a music component to any project with them..

--Which leads to my final idea: jazz. I mentioned this in the past, but I’m just curious about what happened to the musicians who were displaced by the storm—did they come back? Also, did any of them stay around and weather the storm? I have a colleague who said that when she recently went to N.O., the sound and tone of jazz and music was much different than it was before the hurricanes. That’s quite a statement, and I can only imagine what that means and sounds like. It’s something else to consider.

So that’s what I have; I just hope any of them complement yours or can serve our purpose. I welcome any comments or thoughts. Thanks for you time.

--bryan moore

Postcards from New Orleans

I thought these postcards could be interesting paired with the other kinds of "images" we've seen of New Orleans since Katrina (particularly the photo essays of the destruction). I purchased them myself while visiting a friend in New Orleans in March, 2001.

While I know that we're interested in more than "outsider" responses to and ideas about New Orleans, I thought that the concept of the postcard might also be a productive way to think about the image that New Orleans projects of itself. What do these images "say" about the city? How are these images affected by other kinds of images, perhaps other photos or texts? (For example, how were the images of the destruction altered by reports of looting, people taking advantage of the aid provided to victims, the corrupt city governance, and the delayed national response?) And moving forward, how do we "picture" New Orleans now?

I also think this ties in nicely with Karen's research (tv watching is a totally acceptable form in my opinion). How have images of New Orleans come to represent "America" in general?

New Orleans Postcards

Postcards from New Orleans, Part II

Here's another round of postcards that present some slightly different, but interestingly similar, images of New Orleans. I found these in my parents home several years ago. My mom doesn't remember who bought them, but she does remember going on a trip to New Orleans with her family when she was a young girl. I think my grandmother may have picked them up as a way to document their trip. If they were purchased then, it would have been sometime around 1946-48. The postcard with the image of the Academy of the Sacred Heart on the front (my grandmother, mother, and I all attended a Sacred Heart school here in St. Louis) was mailed to my grandmother with a 1 cent stamp. According to some minimal net surfing, this was the US postcard rate until 1952. So I'm guessing they're roughly from the same era.

An idea that strikes me as I look at these postcards - what spaces in New Orleans seem to define the city? What monuments, buildings, or parks? How are they a part of New Orleans history and imagery? Were they damaged during the hurricane? What new kinds of "monuments" do we now associate with the city (the 9th ward, the Superdome)? My general sense is that the French Quarter did not suffer as much damage as other parts of the city. Can such a "monument" survive when the people do not (I don't simply mean lives lost, but also those forced to relocate)? What kind of significance do these places and spaces now hold?

New Orleans Vintage Postcards

Questions for NO theatres

Hi there,
I'd like to pose a list of questions to NO theatres in order to get a local perspective on theatre after Katrina. Before I start calling organizations (my thought was to work down that internet list of NO theatres, calling only the relevant or major ones), I'd like to run these questions by the group. They are meant to be general in nature and therefore serve our project in whatever direction it ends up taking; we don't want to be too Katrina-focused, but theatre after Katrina focuses on rebuilding and regenerating so in light of the conference's theme I feel grounded starting there.

Here are some questions, for your approval/discussion:

Initially, I'll give the person on the other end of the phone a schpeel about ATHE and how I'm part of a small group of theatre researchers looking into Katrina's effects on the industry. I'll say that any information they provide is going to be used in a presentation at ATHE geared for raising awareness about the local theatre scene post-K (aka they should provide public information but I'm not asking for anything that may be sensitive or internal, and I'm not a journalist).

First, three questions about the event itself:

1. Was your physical plant (theatre) damaged by Katrina? Has it been rebuilt, and if so, how was this financed?

2. Did your organization hold any specific events directly after the event to encourage rebuilding of physical and/or social structures?

3. Even if your building wasn't affected, how did the disaster affect your patron base?

And a few questions about post-K regeneration:

1. How has your programme of events changed since Katrina? Is there a new focus in your work at all?

2. Has theatre attendance bounced back? How do numbers compare to before the event?

3. Is there anything special that your theatre is doing/has done since Katrina that ATHE should know about?


*Any comments or revisions from the Actions group would be much appreciated!

Kathleen

Philanthropy

Before I forget...

And before I head to the airport to hop the early flight to Kansas (not all conferences can be in New Orleans)...

As we mentioned in our initial email, Lisa and I are really hip to the idea of giving something back to the New Orleans community. Bryan noted in his response the work his mentor Tisch was doing to raise costumes for Dillard, and Kathleen provided some great links that could hook us up with other organizations equally as in need.

What do you all think about trying to organize some sort of philanthropic aspect of our project? Is there a way to really personalize our efforts (not just give $$, say)?

New Orleans as Geographic Oddity and Cultural Rarity

The other day I was watching a PBS special on New Orleans (that counts as research and not TV watching, right?) and I realized how little I knew of the history of NO and yet how much I thought I knew (which resonates with what Meg said in her post, about how she and her sister would listen to the album that is linked to her dad's time there and how her understanding of NO is infused with and inseparable from her own personal stories and memories, which in turn links to what Louise brought up in her initial email about the importance of personal narratives, histories, and languages to tap into the feeling and sound of the place, which speaks to what Bryan discussed about the importance of Jazz as a musical form that is so unique to NO and how the arts have been supported and how that support is in danger, which brings up the financial survey proposed by Kathleen (and the great websites she gave us links to) and how theatre, as an art form that often struggles during times of economic hardship, is or is not being supported in NO now, which gets all wrapped up by Shelley's insights into the mosaic as a working model for our project through which we gather all of these fragments to create something powerfully new that doesn't erase the old).

Phew! I hope you are impressed with my parenthetical summarizing skills.

Two things struck me when I watched this special (remember that I started with the TV special?) that I wanted to throw into the mix:

1. Geographically, New Orleans both should not exist and must exist. It shouldn't exist because there isn't much worse terrain in the world on which to build a city. The heat, the swamp, the whole below sea level thing - it really isn't meant to support the infrastructure of an urban metropolis. And yet it must exist, also because of geography, especially when we remember that, for much of US history, waterways were the way to transport both people and goods. And with New Orleans at the delta of the Mississippi and on the Gulf, it simply had to be a point of entry to the nation. And so there had to be a city there, one that oversaw an incredible market economy. I like the necessary contradiction in this, the seeming impossibility of something (NO shouldn't exist) and its opposite (NO must exist) being true at the exact same time.

2. New Orleans had a unique history and considered itself to be a world city set apart from America. This is interesting to me in light of the whole Katrina thing because both Republicans and Democrats (and just about everyone else who spoke about New Orleans in any way - insert your own binary here) sought to define New Orleans as "America's City" after the disaster so as to shape the idea of NO to suit their objectives. And yet the history of the place, as so many of our group already mentioned in their emails, was one of extreme difference. There was a substantial (and substantially wealthy) community of Free People of Color, and as a result race relations and racism did not take the same form as it did in other Southern locales (in fact, the special pulled some comments from some 19C NO folks blaming the rise in racial tension on the influx of the Americans, meaning the white Protestants who moved into this Francophone Catholic town). The city was originally developed to model European/French cities (duh, the French Quarter) and aspired to be extremely progressive and cosmopolitan. That New Orleans held itself apart from the rest of the nation and now has come to represent in contradictory ways what it is to be an American intrigues me.

I'd like to play with these sorts of contradictions in our research and in our final project. This can be done in many ways - through movement, through juxtaposed images, through the presentation of more thorough research on these themes, through music and language. I like how these opposites can exist in tension and in harmony with each other.

A list of interesting sites to get us started

The date for reference of Hurricane Katrina was August 29, 2005.

http://www.crt.state.la.us/LouisianaRebirth/Plan/

The above is a really helpful first-glance look at Louisiana's main 'Louisiana Rebirth' campaign, which seems to be the government's main project for cultural regeneration.

http://neworleanswebsites.com/cat/ar/th/th.html

The above is a directory for reference; it claims to be a list of all live theatre venues in New Orleans.

http://www.afterthestormfoundation.org/

The above is an example of a theatre/film company engaging with the aftermath of Katrina.

http://www.cripplecreekplayers.org/

The above is an example of a theatre company which formed after Katrina (in December 05). They have a particularly political bent and work "in order to provoke the general public into social action." They have a dramaturg, Colin Mannex, who currently writes for the daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon. As I'm also from the Northwest, I'll get in touch once we have a more well-defined direction for questions for him.