Event
Baby Dolls of New Orleans – A Mardi Gras Tradition
Fee:
Free. Free and open to the public.Location: LAT/LONG: 30.000000, -90.000000
National Park Service French Quarter visitor center in Dutch Alley - 916 N Peters St, New Orleans, LA 70116
Dates & Times
Date:
Time:
Duration:
Type of Event
12:00 noon to 1:00 pm Central Time
Description
The New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park
and the
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park & Preserve
present
Baby Doll Kit of the N’awlins D’awlins
and Joel Lee, Founder Original Black Seminole Baby Dolls
At the National Park Service French Quarter visitor center in Dutch Alley
916 N Peters St, New Orleans
This program is free and open to the public.
Learn about the history and culture of New Orleans’ Baby Dolls from a modern practitioner.
The story of the Baby Dolls began in Black Storyville, which was an area just a few blocks from Storyville, said author and women's studies scholar Kim Vaz-Deville. The so-called Red Light District, which operated from 1897 to 1917, was an area known for bars, gambling and prostitution. The Baby Dolls emerged in the brothels and dance halls of New Orleans around 1910 and the tradition was born from a competition between women vying for business on Mardi Gras. The women took to the streets wearing bonnets and bloomers and they smoked cigars. Vaz-Deville documents the history of the tradition in her book, "The Baby Dolls: Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition" . . . Baby Dolls were proud, defiant women in a male-dominated world. . . . By the 1930s, the Baby Dolls were an iconic part of black Mardi Gras and evolved into a social group, much like the Mardi Gras Indians and the social aid and pleasure clubs created by African-American men. (Nola.com article “Baby Doll tradition remains a rich part of New Orleans’ and Mardi Gras culture” by Kathleen Flynn - 3/19/205)