Mardi Gras, beyond the beads

updated 10:45 a.m. ET Feb. 28, 2006

NEW ORLEANS - Mardi Gras in New Orleans means more than the girls who go wild on balconies for beads.

Members of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club are hosting what they call a family-friendly party today that’s nothing compared to what awaits on Fat Tuesday.

The 90-year-old group is throwing the Lundi Gras Festival at the foot of Canal Street by the French Quarter. It’s a Mississippi riverfront affair with music, food and introduction of the Zulu king and queen and other parade characters. And there’ll be the traditional decorated coconuts, beads and trinkets handed out.

Members say the Zulu club wants to help the city recover from Hurricane Katrina.

Nothing ‘fake’ in Lower Ninth
A steady stream of cars winding their way past the twisted wreckage and beat-up vehicles of what was a lower-income, mostly black neighborhood shows the Lower Ninth Ward has become a tourist attraction itself, said resident Darrel Jackson.

“This ain’t fake. You see it -- this is as real as you’re going to get it,” he said.

The area is not far from the famous French Quarter that is the epicenter of Mardi Gras partying -- which culminates on Tuesday after a shortened schedule of parades and other events in the ailing city called “The Big Easy.”

Some in the ward see things differently. They believe the carnival is a good opportunity to give outsiders a first-hand look at a neighborhood still in a state of ruin and starved of electricity and other basic services.

“It brings awareness, not just that it looks like this, but about how it’s still looking like this after six months, and why that is,” said Jess Niederer, who works with aid group Common Ground Relief. Its makeshift office is in the worst-hit part of the ward, near the Industrial Canal levee.

“There’s a discrepancy between different areas and how quickly some places have come back,” said the 22-year-old student. The group welcomes tourists who have trickled over from Mardi Gras, answering their questions and passing out brochures.

T(-shirt) time
New Orleans’ French Quarter may not have invented the crazy T-shirt -- but, over the years, it’s perfected it to an art form. Some are funny, some are profane and some are topical. This year, there are plenty of shirts bearing commentary about Hurricane Katrina.

One shirt says “Twisted Sister — Katrina and Rita” the two storms that pummeled Louisiana. Another plays off the Katrina and Rita theme — but calls them “Girls Gone Wild.”

There are shirts that criticize the Federal Emergency Management Agency too. One says, “FEMA — Federal Employees Missing Again.” Another reads “FEMA — the new four-letter word.”

The New Orleans Police Department is also derided for its performance during Katrina. There’s a shirt that reads “NOPD: Not Our Problem, Dude.”

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