Encore in New Orleans
by Tod Seelie
When I photographed the Mardi Gras Eris parade in New Orleans in 2011, it ended in police violence and chaos. I was lucky enough to return in 2019 to photograph the same parade—and this time, it was a different story. No police, no pepper spray, no batons, no arrests; instead it was pure joy and revelry.
We paraded through the French Quarter, overflowing onto the streets of the Bywater and filling intersections with spontaneous dance parties before launching out to the end of a levee to dance and gather around a small fire, the party occasionally lit up by a passing barge. I remember climbing on top of a dumpster to photograph the blocks-long mass of paraders squeezed between houses, and catching glimpses of the faces of dancers lost in sheer elation.
Keep us breathing fire!
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