Product Description

Every winter a handful of Cajun Louisiana folk artists assembles unlikely mixtures of material to shape masks for their Cajun Mardi Gras celebrations. They use window screens, chicken feathers, yarn, hair, Magic Markers, and hot glue as they create fanciful, even bizarre masks that will be worn just one day in the year.

Such creations transform their wearers into wild revelers who move through the countryside singing, dancing, and begging for money and food. As they generate merriment, they climb trees, chase chickens, and create a general and playful havoc.

Cajun Mardi Gras celebrants are unlike their counterparts in New Orleans, where masked revelers ride through the streets on floats or parade serenely through ballrooms. The masked country Cajuns engage in rousing, physically energetic performances as they cavort through the countryside. Out of necessity their captivating masks combine the ingredients of durability, shock value, and allure with age-old folk patterns and innovations from contemporary culture.

Here is a study of the Cajun Mardi Gras tradition and its manifestation in the work of six of the most creative and popular folk artists in two rural communities. Potic Rider and the Moreau and LeBlue families represent the male maskmaking traditions of Basile, Louisiana. Suson Launey, Renee Fruge, and Jackie Miller portray the female role in festivities held in the rural region of Tee Mamou. As the communities celebrate, their masks become an intrinsic component of the annual rites. This book introduces the artists, the performances, and processes of creating the fantastical masks.

Carl Lindahl, co-editor of Swapping Stories: Folktales from Louisiana (University Press of Mississippi), is a professor of English at the University of Houston.

Carolyn Ware is Coordinator of the Pine Hills Culture Program at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #365619 in Books
• Published on: 1997-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 96 pages

From the Inside Flap
A study of Cajun Mardi Gras and its traditional mask making

Customer Reviews

I just wish it were longer . . .
I guess if your only complaint about a book is that it's too short, that's not so bad.

I love this book. The pictures are terrific. I even used it to make a doll-sized Mardi Gras outfit. Definitely recommended.

FROM A PERSON WHO LIVES IN THE AREA DEPICTED IN THE BOOK
I PERSONALLY KNOW JUST ABOUT EVERYONE MENTIONED IN THIS BOOK. CAROLYN DID A WONDERFUL JOB IN RELAYING OUR CULTURE INTO A BOOK. I REMEMBER WHEN SHE WAS INTERVIEWING SUSAN LAUNEY FOR THIS BOOK I ABSOLUTELY FELL IN LOVE WITH CAROLYN'S WORK. I JUST RESENTLY SEEN CAROLYN WARE AT A FESTIVAL IN MONROE, LA AND SHE IS STILL WORKING HARDER THAN EVER TO PROMOTE CAJUN HISTORY. IF YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN OUR MARDI GRAS PLEASE RECOMEND THIS PARTICULAR BOOK. IT DESCRIBES OUR TRADITION (WHICH HAPPENS TO BE THE FIRST AND ORIGINAL MARDI GRAS) TO THE TEE. I APPLAUDE YOU CAROLYN WARE FOR YOUR MAGNIFISENT JOB ON THIS AND ALL OF YOUR WORK. I DO HAVE TO SAY THAT THIS IS MY FAVORITE BOOK ON CAJUN CULTURE BECAUSE I HAD TAKEN PART IN THIS ACTUAL BOOK. I LEARNED FROM MY FRIEND SUSAN LAUNEY HOW TO MAKE THE MASK IN THIS BOOK AND IT IS A REALLY NEAT AND INTERESTING ACTIVITY FOR ADULTS AND KIDS TO TAKE PART IN. THANK YOU CAROLYN FOR YOUR HARD WORK AND INTEREST IN OUR CULTURE. SEE YOU AT JAZZ FEST 2000 SINCERELY, RYAN FONTENOT