Saturday, October 15, 2005
Tribe on the move
After being evacuated to Austin, Big Chief Kevin Goodman plans to rekindle the Flaming Arrows' Mardi Gras Indian tradition in his new Texas home
Thursday, October 13, 2005
By Keith Spera
Music writer
AUSTIN -- For more than a century, the Mardi Gras Indians have symbolized a unique New Orleans culture.
On Fat Tuesday, the various tribes paraded through mostly African-American neighborhoods in elaborate Indian "suits," painstakingly sewn by hand for months on end. The Indian rhythms and chants passed down from one generation to the next inform and invigorate New Orleans music, from the Dixie Cups' 1965 smash "Iko Iko" to the Neville Brothers' catalog and beyond.
Before Katrina, it was inconceivable that the Mardi Gras Indian tradition could take root anywhere other than the city of its birth.
Post-Katrina, at least one Big Chief plans to rekindle that tradition in Austin.
Big Chief Kevin Goodman leads the Flaming Arrows, the downtown Mardi Gras Indian tribe founded in 1963 by his father. For 43 of his 45 years, he has either "masked Indian" or participated in some other way. He has even nurtured his family tribe's third generation by masking his 5-year-old daughter, Kevon, and 6-year-old son, Dillon, with the Young Flaming Arrows.
However, in the wake of Katrina and its hellish aftermath, "my spirit for Mardi Gras was just gone," Goodman said recently. "But after we got to Austin and folks started showing us love and giving us hugs and welcome, it made me want to give something back.
"(My Mardi Gras spirit) is coming back more and more. When you already have something in your soul and heart, it's not hard to get it back."
(via globalistas) ¶ 10/15/2005 06:57:00 AM
After being evacuated to Austin, Big Chief Kevin Goodman plans to rekindle the Flaming Arrows' Mardi Gras Indian tradition in his new Texas home
Thursday, October 13, 2005
By Keith Spera
Music writer
AUSTIN -- For more than a century, the Mardi Gras Indians have symbolized a unique New Orleans culture.
On Fat Tuesday, the various tribes paraded through mostly African-American neighborhoods in elaborate Indian "suits," painstakingly sewn by hand for months on end. The Indian rhythms and chants passed down from one generation to the next inform and invigorate New Orleans music, from the Dixie Cups' 1965 smash "Iko Iko" to the Neville Brothers' catalog and beyond.
Before Katrina, it was inconceivable that the Mardi Gras Indian tradition could take root anywhere other than the city of its birth.
Post-Katrina, at least one Big Chief plans to rekindle that tradition in Austin.
Big Chief Kevin Goodman leads the Flaming Arrows, the downtown Mardi Gras Indian tribe founded in 1963 by his father. For 43 of his 45 years, he has either "masked Indian" or participated in some other way. He has even nurtured his family tribe's third generation by masking his 5-year-old daughter, Kevon, and 6-year-old son, Dillon, with the Young Flaming Arrows.
However, in the wake of Katrina and its hellish aftermath, "my spirit for Mardi Gras was just gone," Goodman said recently. "But after we got to Austin and folks started showing us love and giving us hugs and welcome, it made me want to give something back.
"(My Mardi Gras spirit) is coming back more and more. When you already have something in your soul and heart, it's not hard to get it back."
(via globalistas) ¶ 10/15/2005 06:57:00 AM
