The
Times‐Picayune
Local
parading
heritage
finds
its
own
stomping
grounds
at
Treme
museum
By
Lolis
Eric
Elie
October
31,
2009
Eliot
Kamenitz
/
The
Times‐Picayune
‐
Sylvester
Francis,
founder
of
the
Backstreet
Cultural
Museum,
celebrates
the
10th
anniversary
of
the
museum
on
Thursday.
From
his
office
at
the
old
Blandin
Funeral
Home,
Sylvester
Francis
is
redefining
the
word
museum.
He
is
the
founder,
the
curator,
the
docent,
the
archivist
and
the
visionary
behind
what
has
become
the
premier
venue
devoted
to
the
celebration,
documentation
and
preservation
of
the
cultures
of
New
Orleans
street
parades.
Unlike
the
professional
photographers
and
anthropologists
who
have
come
into
black
New
Orleans
and
attempted
to
interpret
its
folkways,
Francis
conceived
of
his
Backstreet
Cultural
Museum
as
a
chronicle
of,
and
for,
participants
in
the
culture.
The
museum
is
celebrating
its
10th
anniversary
Sunday
with
a
second‐line
parade
through
the
6th
and
7th
wards.
And
thanks
to
grants
from
several
entities,
ranging
from
the
New
Orleans
Jazz
and
Heritage
Foundation
to
the
Ford
Foundation,
Francis'
humble
museum
is
becoming
established.
The
museum
now
has
a
three‐year
strategic
plan
and
has
worked
with
the
Tulane
School
of
Architecture's
City
Program
on
plans
to
renovate
its
space
in
an
old
house.
It
all
began
not
with
a
grand
vision
but
with
Francis'
dissatisfaction
about
the
way
in
which
his
own
image
was
preserved
but
not
accessible.
"I
was
in
a
club
named
Gentlemen
of
Leisure,"
Francis,
63,
said
one
recent
afternoon,
sitting
behind
the
desk
of
an
office
crammed
full
of
file
folders,
videotapes,
newspaper
clippings
and
other
artifacts.
"One
year,
after
I
paraded,
I
didn't
have
a
picture
of
myself.
The
guy
who
took
the
picture,
I
asked
him
about
my
picture.
He
wanted
$35.
I
got
mad
‐‐
$35
for
my
own
picture.
"So
I
bought
a
camera,
and
I
bought
a
home
movie
video
and
I
started
videoing
and
taking
home
pictures,"
he
said.
"I
always
said,
if
I
take
your
picture,
I
was
going
to
give
you
one."
That
was
in
the
late
1970s.
Francis
soon
earned
a
reputation
as
a
man
who
never
missed
a
parade,
be
it
a
second‐line,
a
jazz
funeral
or
a
Carnival
celebration.
Hawk
Mini,
people
started
calling
him,
because
of
the
miniature
videocamera
he
always
carried.
By
1984,
he
was
displaying
his
photographs
and
films
annually
at
Jazzfest.
It
was
then
that
he
started
to
develop
his
concept
for
a
cultural
museum.
It
would
be
different
from
other
displays
he
had
seen.
"I
went
to
the
Mint
and
the
Wax
Museum,"
he
said.
"Both
of
them
had
one
little
Indian
suit
stuck
in
the
back
with
no
name
or
nothing.
So
I
said
'Man,
if
I
ever
open
a
museum,
I'm
going
to
put
the
people's
name
and
what
tribe
they're
from.'
That
was
in
the
'80s."
2
Kamenitz
/
The
Times‐Picayune
‐
The
Backstreet
Cultural
Museum
is
with
rich
museum‐worthy
artifacts
that
Francis
has
been
collecting
for
more
two
decades.
His
chance
came
in
1999.
Years
before,
Rhodes
Funeral
Home
had
bought
the
Blandin
Undertaking
Co.
on
St.
Claude
Avenue
in
Treme.
When
it
closed,
Joan
Rhodes
approached
Francis
about
opening
a
museum
in
the
building.
"I
told
her
'no'
three
or
four
times,"
Francis
recalled.
"The
reason
why
I
told
her
no
was
I
didn't
have
no
money
to
open
a
museum
‐‐
I
didn't
know
the
first
thing
about
a
museum."
The
truth
is,
he
had
been
collecting
museum‐worthy
artifacts
for
two
decades.
He
has
binders
full
of
obituaries
of
jazz
musicians
and
New
Orleans
luminaries,
videotapes
of
parades,
programs
from
funerals,
Mardi
Gras
Indian
costumes,
costumes
from
second‐line
organizations
and
a
huge
collection
of
the
memorial
T‐
shirts
that
have
become
fashionable
tributes
to
the
dead.
He
also
had
invaluable
connections
to
people
who
were
creating
the
very
artifacts
3
his
museum
would
feature.
"People
started
calling
me
and
giving
me
all
this
stuff,"
he
said.
"The
majority
of
the
people
giving
me
this
was
people
I
had
given
a
picture
to."
Francis
didn't
see
the
museum
as
a
tourist
attraction.
He
saw
it
as
a
commemoration
of
his
community.
"This
is
a
museum
for
local
people
to
display
their
stuff.
It's
not
like
a
museum
where
you
got
to
have
a
big‐time
name
to
get
in,"
he
said.
"We
got
guys
with
Indian
suits
who
only
masked
one
year."
Perhaps
the
thing
that
excites
him
most
is
when
schoolchildren
visit
and
see
the
work
of
their
fathers,
aunts
and
cousins.
"After
I
opened
it,
then
I
saw
that
there
was
a
need
to
have
something
like
this,"
he
said.
"When
I
opened
it,
I
guess
it
was
just
for
us.
I
didn't
know
nothing
about
a
museum
and
I
still
don't
know
nothing
about
a
museum."
Second‐line
parades
start
and
end
at
the
museum.
On
Mardi
Gras,
Indian
gangs
congregate
there.
And
on
average
weekdays,
men
and
women
gather
on
the
steps.
Indeed,
the
Backstreet
Cultural
Museum
is
as
much
a
community
center
as
it
is
a
repository
of
artifacts.
Thursday
morning,
Bryson
Colbert
and
Francis'
son
were
making
a
sign
for
Sunday's
anniversary
parade.
"He
has
shown
people
another
side
of
Treme,"
said
Colbert,
who
lives
next
door.
"Everything's
just
blossomed
from
there,
like
the
flowers
after
a
rain.
This
is
a
gathering
place."
The
museum
lacks
the
polish
of
most
institutions
that
boast
that
authoritative
moniker.
But
some
say
that
is
what
makes
is
so
important.
"You
get
an
initial
sense,
even
in
the
location
in
Treme,
of
its
authenticity.
Most
museums
don't
have
that,"
said
Joy
Glidden,
director
of
Louisiana
ArtWorks,
a
downtown
New
Orleans
visual‐arts
complex.
"A
lot
of
museum
shows
are
transported,
they
are
staged
and
they
feel
staged.
The
fact
that
it
is
in
a
house
is
4
Eliot
Kamenitz
/
The
Times‐Picayune
an
interesting
component.
It's
probably
the
kind
of
house
where
most
(Mardi
Gras)
Indians
live."
Jolie
Preau,
a
doctoral
candidate
at
the
City
University
of
New
York,
did
her
master's
thesis
at
the
University
of
New
Orleans
on
Francis
and
his
museum,
and
believes
he
fills
an
unmet
need,
as
one
who
documents
traditions
of
the
parading
community.
"I
also
see
Sylvester
now
as
a
bridge
between
tourists
and
other
'outsiders'
and
the
participants
in
the
parading
traditions,"
said
Preau,
secretary
of
the
museum's
board
of
directors.
"Visitors
come
and
tour
the
museum,
and
hear
a
first‐hand
participant's
stories
about
these
traditions,
their
purpose
and
meaning
to
the
community
itself."
The
museum
counters
"efforts
to
erase
or
regulate
the
traditions
of
working‐class
people
in
the
neighborhood,"
said
Michael
Crutcher,
professor
of
geography
at
the
University
of
Kentucky
and
a
member
of
the
Northside
Skull
and
Bones
Gang,
5
whose
Mardi
Gras
parade
starts
at
the
museum.
"The
museum
is
saying
our
art
forms
are
valuable."
One
of
Francis'
challenges
is
how
best
to
document
an
ephemeral
culture.
Mardi
Gras
Indian
costumes
and
second‐line
outfits,
no
matter
how
intricately
realized
or
well‐displayed,
can't
capture
the
feeling
of
being
on
the
street
when
the
tuba
and
tambourines
are
doing
their
work.
Francis'
videos
come
closer
to
chronicling
the
range
of
New
Orleans
street
processions.
"I
got
500
jazz
funerals
alone.
That's
not
counting,
30
years
of
Mardi
Gras,
30
years
of
Super
Sunday,
30
years
of
second‐line
clubs,"
he
said.
"If
we
were
going
to
count
tapes,
it's
way
into
the
thousands."
As
a
cameraman,
Francis
is
more
workman
than
artist.
But
he
has
videotaped
so
many
parades
he
has
captured
magical
moments
others
have
missed.
For
example,
how
often
have
you
seen
a
one‐legged
second‐line
dancer,
holding
his
own,
without
benefit
of
crutches
or
prosthetics,
with
his
two‐legged
counterparts?
A
more
polished
photographer
might
have
made
a
more
polished
video.
But
would
he
have
been
there?
"Some
of
the
films
that
he
makes,
they
are
very
crude,
but
they
are
terrific.
They
really
capture
the
essence
of
Mardi
Gras
Indian
tradition
and
parade
tradition
in
a
way
that
no
other
pieces
of
the
period
do,"
said
Jeffrey
Ehrenreich,
professor
of
anthropology
at
the
University
of
New
Orleans.
"One
of
the
things
about
the
museum
and
the
way
it
displays
stuff
is
that
it
really
represents
the
insider's
point
of
view,"
Ehrenreich
said.
"It
is
the
thought
process
of
an
insider
who
appreciates
it
as
a
member
of
the
culture
as
opposed
to
someone
simply
collecting
cultural
artifacts.
"As
an
anthropologist,
I
am
impressed
with
the
degree
of
savvy
he
has
been
able
to
develop,"
Ehrenreich
said.
"This
is
a
very,
very
smart,
savvy
guy,
who
knows
6
what
he
wants."
The
Backstreet
Cultural
Museum
is
at
1116
St.
Claude
Avenue,
between
Ursulines
and
Gov.
Nicholls
streets.
It's
open
Tuesday
to
Saturday,
10
a.m.
to
5
p.m.
Admission
is
$8.
For
information,
call
504.522.4806
or
visit
www.backstreetmuseum.org.
http://videos.nola.com/times‐picayune/2009/10/video_backstreet_cultural_muse.html
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