Housed in a former funeral home, the Backstreet Cultural Museum is one of the most important small museums in the United States, preserving the living cultural traditions of Black New Orleans with an intimacy and authenticity that no larger institution has matched. Sylvester Francis, a Tremé resident and dedicated community historian, founded the Backstreet Cultural Museum in 1999 to document and celebrate the traditions that define his neighborhood: the Mardi Gras Indians, the second-line parades, the baby dolls, the skeleton gangs. The Mardi Gras Indians are perhaps the most extraordinary cultural phenomenon in the museum's collection: Black New Orleanians who have, since the nineteenth century, sewn elaborate hand-beaded and feathered suits inspired by Native American regalia, organized into tribes with names like the Wild Magnolias and the Golden Eagles, and paraded through the streets on Mardi Gras Day and St. Joseph's Night in a tradition that honors the Native Americans who sheltered and assisted escaped slaves.
A single suit can weigh 150 pounds and take an entire year to sew, with thousands of hours of work going into the beadwork, feathers, and sequins. The finished suits are worn once and then either retired or partially disassembled for the next year's creation. The museum holds dozens of these suits, their brilliance preserved under glass.
Walk slowly through them.