A Sense of NOLA

Everyone loves New Orleans! There’s Bourbon Street, lined with bars selling hurricanes, frozen daiquiris and “big-ass” beers, where closing time has no meaning. There are all the great restaurants and the music clubs in the French Quarter and along Frenchman Street. And there’s Harrah’s Casino for those who like to gamble.

That’s the New Orleans most visitors experience. Tennessee Williams once said, “America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco and New Orleans. All the rest are Cleveland.” New Orleans culture is unlike any other. What if you could explore the city in a way that no guide today could match? What if you could explore the city through all five heightened senses to get to the heart of it? Peeling back the layers of each, you would uncover there’s another New Orleans that’s quite magical. 

With this multisensorial perspective in hand, we invite you to see, hear, taste, smell and feel the city and prepare to share your strongest sensual experiences during your time in NOLA for IDC. 

If you want to get a real sense of New Orleans, you may wish to begin by understanding that it—the most northern outpost of the Caribbean—is the only major city in America with a surviving indigenous culture, one derived primarily from West Africa. We want to describe some of the components of this culture for those who, while in New Orleans, want to peel off some of the layers of the onion that it is.

Get in Touch with the Mardi Gras Indians
There are approximately 40 surviving Mardi Gras Indian “tribes” or “gangs.” The tradition goes back to the days of slavery, but somewhere along the line, they branded themselves as “Indian tribes,” with names like the Mohawk Hunters and the Creole Wild West. What they really are, though, in my opinion, are surviving West African secret societies. Many of the cultures in the areas of West Africa where the enslaved people came from have secret societies with well-defined hierarchies, rituals they perform in private, and musical traditions that often include call and response. 

The Mardi Gras Indians—Big Chief, Spy Boy, Big Queen, Wild Man—follow a very structured hierarchy. They also perform call-and-response chants that include all sorts of words that nobody now knows the meaning of—“pocky way,” “jock-a-mo-fe-nah-hey,” “iko iko”—which surely derive from the languages the enslaved people brought with them. They used to have more or less secret Monday night “practices,” which were, to us, traditional African-derived rituals, but these practices are now much less secret. They usually take place in neighborhood bars. In general, the Indians have come out of the shadows over the past few years, so they are much easier for visitors to get a feel for.

The Indians make their own elaborate beaded and feathered suits and parade on Mardi Gras Day as well as certain other days, such as St. Joseph’s Day. These days, some of the Indians perform around town, so if you check the listings in Gambit or Offbeat, you might get a chance to see them.

The Origin Story of Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs
Because you can’t dig a grave in New Orleans (the water table is too high), you need to spend your afterlife above ground (Catholics, at least historically, didn’t believe in cremation). An aboveground tomb tends to cost a lot more than a traditional grave, so the cost of burial was historically a difficult issue for those who were financially challenged. Enter the Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs. Their traditional function was to provide tombs for their members by collecting small regular fees and creating their own mausoleums. They gradually expanded to become engines of social cohesion, providing health insurance and other services. 

There are still about 70 such clubs. At some point, they came up with the idea of holding an annual parade to recruit new members. These “second-line” parades happen year-round and are a great pleasure to join, or at least to watch. They also provide enough gigs for the brass bands to keep them alive, even during otherwise dry times. Check the listings to see if you can catch a second-line parade, where you can see brass bands and also stepping clubs.​

The True Sounds of NOLA
The true indigenous music that oozes from the streets of New Orleans is that of the marching brass bands. Every second-line parade needs at least one brass band, usually a few. Their tradition was to play traditional jazz, but a few years back, beginning with the Dirty Dozen, and continuing today with bands like the Hot 8, Rebirth, Newbirth and the Stooges, they began to expand their repertoire to include soul, zydeco, R&B and even hip-hop. In addition to performing in the parades, many of them perform around town at the music clubs or, for the up and comers, in the streets of the French Quarter.

 If you have parades, you need colorful groups to march in them. The stepping clubs are groups who march (well, sort of dance while they march) in the second-line parades. They wear flashy suits, and many of them carry colorful handmade umbrellas. They’ve developed elaborate stepping routines that they perform in the parades.​

Symphony of Smells
Although most visitors will have plenty to say about Bourbon Street’s smell, walking around town until the early hours of the morning you will be surprised that it’s not only about spilled liquor. You are in for an olfactory experience in NOLA that will keep transporting you back there for years to come. According to local writer Scott Gold, “the aromatic pulchritude of New Orleans is unrivaled” and includes “Confederate jasmine, the sweet olive, gardenias, magnolia flowers, and, if you’re lucky, blooming angels’ trumpets.” Now if you get within a block of boiled crawfish, beignets, fried shrimp or warm French bread, make sure to indulge yourself with whatever your nose caught a whiff of.   ​

Rich and Decadent
For those of you who are self-proclaimed foodies, you are in for a culinary rollercoaster ride. If you can explain the difference between Cajun and Creole, then make sure to explain it to the rest of the IDC attendees. A simple way to differentiate the two cuisines is that Creole is city food (not particularly spicy with subtle flavors made possible by spices from around the world that the port afforded), while Cajun is country food fortified by strong local peppers. One simple difference is that Creole cuisine uses lots of tomatoes and proper Cajun food doesn’t. Tasting the differences between these famous cuisines allows you to truly appreciate the people who cook them. 

We have taken these traditions, which used to be largely private affairs in neighborhoods where tourists were afraid to venture, and have illustrated them using their dominant sensual experience and made them much more accessible. While in New Orleans, we urge you to wallow in sensual indulgences. You might get a chance to experience the real sense of New Orleans, which is more than getting liquored up on Bourbon Street and bearing your breasts for Mardi Gras beads (two things, by the way, that hardly any natives do). Oh, and don’t forget, IDC is happening there, too!