“It’s very hard for black people in this country to live, exist, and survive in any kind of peaceful way.”īarnes says that in addition to serving an educational purpose for the community’s disadvantaged youth, the gang helps keep ancient African traditions alive. It’s a school of hard knocks,” says Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, chief of the Skull and Bone gang, in Victoria Rivera’s short documentary, Skull + Bone. “When you’re a young person living in this environment, you have a choice that you have to make-to steer clear of it or get caught up directly in it. Its mission: To warn local teenagers of violence and gunplay. Embodying the undead is the Northside Skull and Bone Gang, comprised of descendants of Native Americans and slaves. For 200 years, its residents have awakened on the first day of the carnival to the clattering of bones and oversized skulls. Sadly, the museum building sustained major damage in Hurricane Ida in 2021 and is closed while it looks for a new facility.įor more about the Treme neighborhood, click here.On the morning of Mardi Gras, before the first light of dawn, dozens of skeletons flood the streets of the 6th Ward neighborhood of Tremé in New Orleans. As the Treme undergoes post-Katrina gentrification, the Backstreet remains an anchor for the city’s Black parading traditions in their historic cradle near Congo Square. The Backstreet is a popular destination on Mardi Gras Day, when crowds gather to witness visits from Mardi Gras Indians, Baby Dolls, and the North Side Skull and Bone Gang. Though he passed away in 2020, his daughter Dominique Dilling Francis keeps the tradition alive today.

Francis became a cultural ambassador, educating visitors about the social context of the spectacles that might otherwise go unexplained. Francis, though, was known and respected by these tradition bearers, who donated artifacts to the museum and trusted him to present their rituals with care.

Artists were not always compensated for their contributions, and could find their sacred practices misrepresented to the outside world. Francis drew from his collection to curate exhibitions at the Essence Festival and Jazz Fest every year.įrancis’ work was especially valuable considering that, for years, depictions of these parading and masking rituals were created and disseminated by people from outside the community of practitioners. The collection also includes walls of photographs and an extensive video library of street processions. There are a variety of other objects, too, like sashes from social aid and pleasure clubs and programs from jazz funerals. The museum displays several Mardi Gras Indian suits, offering visitors a chance to see their beadwork up close. The Backstreet was established by Sylvester Francis, a longtime follower and documenter of second lines, jazz funerals, Mardi Gras Indians, Baby Dolls, and Skull and Bone gangs, whose collection of artifacts has been displayed here since 1999, in what used to be the Blandin Funeral Home. The Backstreet Cultural Museum is a showplace for artifacts of the city’s African-American parading traditions, and a base of activity in the cultural community.

Northside skull and bones gang