Carnival Time With The Baby Doll Ladies
By Guest Contributor Jaz
New Orleans and Mardi Gras has fascinated me since my first trip to the Crescent City for Mardi Gras in 2008. While many people associate beads, booze, balconies and Bourbon Street with it, some local friends (thankfully!) exposed me to a rich tradition and history, particularly in the African-American community, that has nothing to do with “showing tits” for plastic trinkets.
The Baby Doll Ladies. Courtesy: Jaz
When I returned to New York after that trip, I learned a bit about the sassy Baby Dolls in the documentary, All On A Mardi Gras Day, about black Mardi Gras, but I never found too much else. Fast forward to September, 2011: I heard Millisia White, founderof the New Orleans Society of Dance, on the New Orleans local radio station WWOZ (I listen online) discuss their upcoming 2012 Baby Dolls Centennial. They were looking for “women of excellence” to mask with them for Mardi Gras and join them throughout the year. I reached out to Millisia…and Chicava HoneyChild and I were chosen! We represented our own sassy troupe of women of color, Brown Girls Burlesque.
Though I’ve watched the parade before (and jumped for coconuts), being a part of this historic tradition was pure magic. I was out of breath and my feet hurt from walking almost 3 miles (and on 2 hours of sleep, no less), but the excitement of the people–especially the children–fueled me. And I knew I had to come back and share the herstory and present of the Baby Dolls to show a different side of Mardi Gras. There’s more than the debauchery that’s highlighted on TV–there’s a powerful history, especially of the Black women who are Mardi Gras legends.
I interviewed Millisia White, founder of the New Orleans Society of Dance (she can move!) and Dr. Kim Vaz, Associate Dean of Arts and Science at Xavier University, who is the community advisor and guest curator of the upcoming Baby Doll Ladies Centennial exhibition.
Who are the Baby Doll Ladies? How were they founded?
Millisia White: More than anything else, “Baby Doll Ladies” are the beautiful women who inspire the joy of life in the hearts of the people through dance.
The New Orleans Society of Dance (NOSD) was established March, 2005. Post Hurricane Katrina (August ’05), the NOSD has poured its time into a deeply personal mission coined the “New Orleans’ Resurrection,” which is in part about continuing the living history of our endearing Mardi Gras legacy of pageantry referred to as “Baby Dolls.” As it is noted, the most popular family group of Baby Dolls were members of the Golden Slipper Social Club and their Dirty Dozen Kazoo Band circa 1930, led by the late Alma Trepaignier-Batiste around 1930-1980. Alma’s family/descendants would parade on Mardi Gras day dancing and singing ribald songs, looking like the toys that continue to be so precious to children. I was deeply honored when “Uncle Lionel” Batiste and Ms. Miriam Batiste-Reed, son and daughter of the late Alma Trepaignier-Batiste, gave me handmade novelty bonnets for me as an heirloom. This priceless gesture of love and appreciation was also consecrated by a sister and brother, both now in their eighties, who dedicated their time, talents, and untold stories to the resurrection of our Baby Doll Ladies, the new generation keeper of the “Baby Dolls” birthright.
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