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OPEN THREAD: Happy Mardi Gras 2012! Show us your pics!

The Cheyenne gang. So pretty!!
Photo by @pbraniffsr. Posted originally as http://twitpic.com/8mvme4

Congo Nation Big Chief Donald Harrison, Jr outside Backstreet Museum.
Photo by @Magpieluvsyou posted originally as http://twitpic.com/8mwn60

Who Dat Indian?
Photo by @iTWEET_REALish9 posted originally as
pic.twitter.com/ay0lmTzW

Mardi Gras Indians are all over social media channels this Mardi Gras 2012

Thanks to all the photographers, professional and amateur!

Share links to your favorite photos and videos from this holiday
in the comments section of this post (somewhat limited utility)
or
post to the wall of the Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame Facebook page

HAPPY MARDI GRAS!

UPDATE: Louisiana Weekly Profile of Yellow Jackets Big Chief Thomas Sparks, Senior (Was: Volunteer Seamstress or Tailor Needed ASAP)

65 years of new suits for 80-year-old Mardi Gras Indian

20th February 2012  By Geraldine Wyckoff
The Louisiana Weekly

Thomas Sparks Sr., the Big Chief of the Yellow Jacket Mardi Gras Indian gang, marks two momentous milestones this month. On February 17, 2012, he celebrated his 80th birthday and Carnival Day stands as the 65th anniversary of when he began masking Indian. He again has needle and thread in his calloused hand, sewing his suit for his appearance this Mardi Gras. When the Big Chief steps out with the Yellow Jackets, which he’s led since 1955, he’ll be the oldest Black Indian on the streets.

Read the whole article on the Louisiana Weekly website

•••••

Thanks to those who helped spread the word and who offered assistance. 

Yellow Jackets Big Chief Thomas Sparks requests the volunteer assistance of a local seamstress or tailor to sew his jumpsuit ASAP.

The Chief requires an all-in-one jumpsuit out of velvet. The Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame has a pattern, but it was cut to fit a small Indian; the Chief is 6'1".

At 80 years old, Big Chief Sparks is the oldest known Mardi Gras Indian still masking.

Please get in touch with Cherice Harrison-Nelson at xxx-xxx-xxxx if you can help.

UPDATE: Jockomo-fee-nahnay: A forum on Mardi Gras Indian history

UPDATE:



Interview with Golden Start Hunters Big Chief Larry Bannock.
From the archives of Producer/Director Jim Gabour. Copyright 2012.

Jim Gabour has made some of his vintage Indian video available via his YouTube Channel.
 
Beautiful stuff. Thanks, Jim!

•••••

The Music Industry Studies Program at Loyola University – New Orleans presents “Jockomo-fee-nahnay,” a forum about the history of the Mardi Gras Indians, at 5:00 pm on Monday, February 13, 2012 in Nunemaker Auditorium in Monroe Hall. Convened by Jim Gabour, professor of video technology, the forum will feature never-before-seen footage of some of New Orleans’ most legendary Indian tribes. The event is free and open to the public.

Jim Gabour is an award-winning film producer and director whose work focuses on music and the diversity of cultures. He began shooting interviews with and action footage of Mardi Gras Indians in the late 1970s.

In celebration of the Mardi Gras season, Gabour will screen and discuss clips including a 1986 interview on beading and suit-making with Bo Dollis, Big Chief of the Wild Magnolias; a “meeting of the tribes” at Tipitina’s in 1985 with the Big Chiefs of the Wild Magnolia, Golden Eagle, and Creole Wild West; and the Wild Magnolias performing with the Neville Brothers at the 1984 World’s Fair jazz and gospel tent.The forum will also feature footage of street runs, performances and interviews with three different chiefs of Wild Tchoupitoulas between 1978 and 1984, including Big Chief Jolly, the late George Landry.


More information about the forum via the Loyola University Newsroom