Voodoo on the Bayou

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A Wake Up Call

And now here we are. My class on New Orleans has ended, but the city still lives on. When first began my explorations of New Orleans, I was very interested in the mystique that surrounds the city, the myth of New Orleans. Now I’m not so sure what I’m more interested in. Over the last few weeks I have explored the reality of New Orleans in all its gritty detail, and I’ve come to realize that this view of the city is just as interesting as the mythical New Orleans. It’s so easy to get lots in the Mardi Gras celebrations, the voodoo, and the mysteries that New Orleans has to offer; the funny thing is, all of these things are part of the reality of New Orleans and not just the myth.

 As I’ve said many times before, New Orleans is one of the few places that exist in a state of surreal being. The realistic side of this being is just as prominent as the mythical side of things, especially in the ongoing aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Sure myth may be interesting, but people are what is really important here, and the more I learn, the more I see that people in New Orleans are still suffering from the hurricane. They need help; the struggle to get this help is not an easy one. Even the culture of New Orleans has been impacted by Katrina and is considerably weaker than what used to exist in its place.

New Orleans is far from recovered – the city itself still needs something to bring it back to the way it used to be, not only for the city itself, but for its people. No people deserve to have their city wiped out and then ignored by the government. No other city in America has undergone this type of disaster and not received relief. No other city has what New Orleans has, at least in my opinion.

NOLA deserves better. People have been immersed in myth too long. We need to wake up and face the reality of the New Orleans nightmare. More than that, we need to make it right.

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Drum circle in Congo Square

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A 19th century view of Bayou St. John, New Orleans

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Dr. John, a prominent member of the New Orleans jazz community

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A house in the Lower Ninth Ward four years after Katrina

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Southern Pacific Transfer across the Mississippi River, New Orleans, 1920s.

Source: New Orleans Public Library website

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French Quarter in the 1940’s

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One view of the abandoned Six Flags New Orleans

I find the lack of care for the area quite fascinating, actually. The park is scheduled to be torn down (if it hasn't been already) to make room for a new mall. From what I've heard, there was no real love for the park before Katrina hit (it was Six Flags' least visited park), and the abandonment of the area seems to confirm this.  Perhaps this is because New Orleans has enough adventures to entertain people with besides a theme park, but who knows. A fair amount of urban exploration has taken place in the area since Katrina, and personally I'd love to get a look at the overgrown park before its gone.

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Six Flags New Orleans

To go along with my previous post about the abandoned Six Flags New Orleans site, here’s a video taken in November 2010, five years after Katrina. These guys even climbed to the top of Megadeath to give a full view of the park. By the end it looks eerie, as if they were driving around on the set of a Scooby-Doo movie (those meddling kids!). Watch out if you don’t like shaky camera footage. Though technically trespassing, they captured the devastation wrought on the amusement park. Six Flags regards the park as a financial loss and is not willing to reinvest in it. 

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Jean Lafitte National Park, Louisiana

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Jean Lafitte, pirate and hero of New Orleans

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The Myth of New Orleans: Revisited

I’m going to preface this post by saying that I’ve dealt with myth and New Orleans before, but it is such a vast topic to cover that I’d say it warrants another post. This time however, I’ll be dealing more with the why of the myth rather than how it differs from reality.

                Let’s start with a popular New Orleans myth – the myth of Marie Laveau, a voodoo priestess who worked her magic in the 19th century. It’s speculated that Marie was born in the French Quarter in 1794. She was married, but her husband died less than a year into the marriage. It was after his death that Marie Laveau started to practice voodoo. From here the story becomes somewhat murky. Marie was rumored to have powers of divination and curative abilities. To add to the mystery, Laveau was purported to have a snake named Zombi. Laveau quickly became known as a voodoo queen, and after she died rumors abounded that she was still alive (though it seemed that her daughter, who shared her name, had taken her place). Today, any visitor to New Orleans is able to see her supposed grave at #1 Saint Louis Cemetery.

First, location matters. New Orleans an incredibly unique city, situated between east and west, between the U.S. and the outside world. Not only is New Orleans a port city, it is an isolated port city set in the South and on the bayou. This combination of frontier outpost, port town and isolated city in the swamp lends itself well to having a certain mystique. Other major U.S. cities cannot pull this off well: New York is much too civilized, Chicago is surrounded by farmland, and Los Angeles lacks isolation. New Orleans’ location lends itself remarkably well to mystery and mythology.

Next, New Orleans has an incredible amount of diversity. The city encompasses immigrants and locals, Cajuns and Creoles, musicians, artists, and all sorts of travelers. It is the home of the law-abiding citizen and the criminal, the devout Catholic and the voodoo shaman, sometimes all rolled into one. It wouldn’t be surprising, then, to run into any sort of character roaming the streets. The diversity lend s itself well to the belief that you can run into anybody, fictional or not. Also contributing to this view is the fact that everyone is a celebrity in New Orleans. In a city where everyone is a character, it is not hard to add in mysterious strangers to the mix.

Third, New Orleans is, to say the least, has always been a colorful town both in terms of actual color and all sorts of illicit activities. Prostitution and drugs have a reverent place in New Orleans’ past and are still seen in the city today. The city has a swamp heritage, and was home to several battles going back to the 19th century, battles in which pirates played prominent roles. It’s safe to say that New Orleans has its share of ghost stories as well. When a town has a history involving pirates, prostitutes, voodoo, and ghosts, something is wrong if there isn’t a deep mythology.

Such myths are perpetuated as much by locals as they are by tourists. This fact, combined with the city’s isolation, leads me to believe that the myth of New Orleans came about organically, through local tall tales, travelers’ stories, and collective experiences. Despite trade being a centerpiece of its economy, New Orleans has always managed to avoid being a commercial city. The myth of New Orleans was not a commercial effort at all, but was rather a natural development of the city’s culture. Perhaps this is why people are so drawn to the city.

Ultimately, the myth of New Orleans exists because the city itself exists. The two are forever intertwined, which is for the best. After all, we all need a little mystery in our lives, and I can’t think of a better place for that mystery to dwell.

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The posters of New Orleans

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Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

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A view of New Orleans from a different perspective...

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Still from Treme

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On Treme

Remember that last post where I was saying how New Orleans is generally fantasized in pop culture? Well the HBO show Treme goes against all that, instead showing a much more realistic New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. If you're looking for reality with your New Orleans, then I'd definitely recommend the show.