(ThyBlackMan.com) New Orleans is a place of serious superstition. Regardless of which faith one subscribes to the natives know bad things can happen here when the city is unsettled. All we have to do is find a pattern of activity for this belief to be confirmed. If doesn’t matter who doesn’t practice we know where the real priestesses are (not the one’s masquerading in The Quarter for money), and the ancestral spirit is not one to take lightly. There isn’t much that happens in this place for no reason. this can be difficult to explain to transplants and tourists. What some of them feel is New Orleans charming mystic is deeper than they realize. No one wanted to listen to natives in quiet conversations when we began to speak about the Hard Rock Café situation.
No one wanted to believe us when we started talking about the city being unsettled…that something in the air felt angry. We were just tripping when we said some people should make this a vacation destination, but not a place of residence. They weren’t paying attention when the Priestesses started showing up to mass. Mardi Gras is more than a collection of parades with cool throws, and grooving bands. It can be said that the nature of the city, at the time, shows itself during carnival. Unfortunately, this year it showed itself to be angry.
It was shocking to hear that someone was killed by tandem floats at the Nyx parade. Though it can be considered by some as one of the newer parades (Est 2012) it’s a large parade and usually a lot of fun. That made many parade-goers hearts hurt as many were trying to remember the last time anything like this happened. However, we were hoping carnival would continue in a positive manner. For many natives’ parades such as Endymion, Bacchus, Zulu, and Rex are among the largest most celebrated parades during season. When someone died on Endymion’s route, again related to tandem floats with the whisper of murder, that struck hard. At that point the superstitious conversation starts, and we begin to hear about two bodies exposes, and now two people dead on the routes from the same thing.
The talk could have been silence, but later there would be two people injured from falling off floats, and two people injured from falling from balconies. From that point there would be whispers calling this the potential cursed carnival of two. That might sound funny if you’re not from here, but it’s serious business in New Orleans amongst native. In our mind those are the sets of twos we know about, and it would lead to speculation about others. in addition to this there was the heartbreaking reality that EMS answered more than 3,000 plus calls in the city over a 12-day period. I am of the mind of many natives…the city is angry; our ancestors are angry, and they should be. So many horrible things have happened to natives since 2005. Those that need to be here are finding it hard to survive, while transplants move into the neighborhoods that were occupied by families for generations. They move into these spaces with entitlement, no sense of community, and blatant disrespect. Many of us are treated like mere vessels in our home.
I hate death and violence. I hate the lack of harmony. Mardi Gras always has its issue, but this season is shaping up to be something different. Do I personally believe there is a curse of sorts and the city is angry…absolutely? I’m of the culture completely. On Ash Wednesday I’ll be praying about the state of my city, and the battle many of us see coming that we have no intention of losing.
Staff Writer; Chelle’ St James
May also connect with this sister via Twitter; ChelleStJames.
