One more review of my carnival book

By Kathleen Spivack on May 24, 2014
author of “With Robert Lowell and His Circle: Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz, others.” ISBN # 978-1-55553-788-3.University Press of New England 2012.
Reviewed in Goodreads

This book is an absolute must for any reader, scholar, reveler, tourist, historian, admirer, expatriate, resident or non- resident lover of this city. O’Neill writes for the obsessed lovers, whether unrequited or fulfilled, of the real and the imagined New Orleans. "New Orleans Carnival Krewes" describes social and political structure, past, present and future, and the history and mystery of the Carnival. Through Carnival, the author takes us in to the heart of the planning, the rituals, and the magic. O’Neill shows us the rituals; race, class and and membership. As in all of O'Neills books based on New Orleans, as well as her plays, we discover the lure of this half drowned city, still bravely calling to us with siren insistence.The author shows us how the rich traditions of New Orleans have been preserved.

Her work reveals tales of gentle care and family and district stewardship,. But it also finds perfidy, base betrayal, and illicit passions. Generations of feuds, murder even, seethe just below the surface of O'Neills celebration of her city and its writers and artists. In hectic gaiety the Mardi Gras proclaims the brevity of life: it rivals the city of Venice in its feverish celebrations. Professor O’Neill takes us behind the scenes, shows us the organizations and the planning, the oaths and scandals, the sexuality, the magnetism, the exclusions and the inclusions. And she describes some of the wonderfully artistic and original conceptions, some unbelievably wild and imaginative. We learn of their origins, ideas and their construction, and of the planning that goes into each detail of the citywide spectacle.

Archival illustrations accompany the history of progression of the city, its politics, and its Carnival. Prof. O’Neill is a specialist and knows her mysterious and legendary city intimately. The author open the doors to the magic of New Orleans, with its arcane rites and celebrations, its multi -cultural history and politics, its celebrations, its music, its peoples and joyous survival.

"New Orleans Carnival Krewes" as well as O'Neill's other works on her beloved city should be in everyone's travel kit: at any airport, hotel, restaurant , conference center, travel bookstore, or house of good or “ill “repute, as they say—wherever people might want a bit of time on their hands, unobserved, to absorb a very special city, its magnificent secret societies and rites and festivals, its febrile gaiety, its influence on art and literary production, and of course,its thrilling shadow-side.

Yet another Carnival book review

(This time an Editor's pick for Technorati)

by Carole DiTosti

May 18, 2014

Review Overview

Summary : 'New Orleans Carnival Krewes' by Rosary O'Neill reveals the traditions, the secret societies, the history and the evolution of how New Orleans and Mardi Gras came to be as integral to each other as red beans and rice, an emblematic dish of Louisiana Creole cuisine.

Carnival is an ancient festivity with traditions harkening back to Roman Catholic Europe. Carnival is steeped in majesty and mystery, revelry and masking (wearing costumes and dancing). It is a time for excess, for feasting, drinking, and indulging all of the senses. Carnival occurs before Lent and is a complete blowout because Lent is the penitential season when one is supposed to expiate the fleshly body’s hungers by prayer and abstinence from certain food, drink, and other activities. The idea is that by giving up something you love for Lent,  the soul and the spirit can be made stronger to appreciate and remember Christ’s death and resurrection at Easter.

We don’t celebrate Carnival in the US. We have something better - Mardi Gras. New Orleanians have transformed Carnival into their own unique creation which is an affirmation of community, family, and all the greatness and passion that life offers. Unlike Europe’s Carnival, Mardi Gras isn’t only about that special time when the tourists come down to party. It is an extravaganza that continues for a good part of the year. The preparations, social networking, grandstanding by different ethnic and economic groups, the plans  for the parades and balls, and courts and banquets are the cultural fabric of New Orleans and all aspects of its society.

These behind the scenes activities, as well as the traditions and the spirit of this celebration are illuminated by a fascinating book recently published about Mardi Gras and New Orleans by Rosary O’Neill, New Orleans Carnival Krewes.  As a native New Orleanian O’Neill is able to bring credibility and interest to her revelations about the secret traditions and the secret societies that have been the underpinnings of the history of New Orleans and the drama and revelry of Mardi Gras. Her investigations reveal how Mardi Gras is New Orleans; there is no differentiating one from the other. Mardi Gras has come to fuel and energize the city. The various cultures, ethnic groups, and social classes with their values, mores, and attitudes, in turn have created Mardi Gras and made it evolve into an ever-changing historical and cultural phenomenon.

In revealing this intricate dynamic, O’Neill has contributed vital ideas to help us better understand this city that tourists and newly minted residents find elusive. She discloses the never-before-seen or recognized elements of social tradition and folkways; it is a place of familial generations unlike most cities in the US. This generational aspect of the city’s culture and society and how it has been sustained to its benefit and to its woe offers new insights into appreciating what makes New Orleans so incredible. It also helps elucidate how Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath were both a great blessing and an irretrievable loss for the city.

O’Neill explores how the secret societies established by and within the Mardi Gras social structure propelled discriminatory practices toward groups that were ostracized by the ruling elites and prosperous social circles. She also reveals how this changed and thus began the gradual democratization and inclusion so that diverse groups were able to participate in the parades and join some of the Krewes (a more recent occurrence). She touches upon how and why the social and cultural groups fueled by Mardi Gras maintained entrenched political and economic systems which divided the city, ironically enriched it but also endangered it. All was brought to bear during and after Hurricane Katrina.

O’Neill has written an amazing work about New Orleans and Mardi Gras.  To understand the history of New Orleans you must also understand how Mardi Gras is inseparable from the city in its beauty, its racial issues, its secret societies, its roots in folklore, its parochialism, its near destruction by Hurricane Katrina, and its resurrection as it burgeons today. New Orleans Carnival Krewes is an account that will entertain and enlighten from beginning to end. And if you visit after reading this comprehensive and interesting work,  you will have a deeper understanding of how the phrase, “Let the good times roll,” is faithfully followed and embraced by New Orleanians year round.

Yet another Amazon review of my carnival book

I picked this up for research on a novel I'm working on. My wife and I had our honeymoon in New Orleans, years before Katrina, and so I've always been fascinated with the city--even though I'm not a resident. That said, I had NO idea about the extensive history of Maris Gras and the krewes behind it. What an incredible journey into an exclusive subculture the rest of the country (or world) likely has no idea about. For lovers of history, revelry and the Big Easy--check this out.

From what I can see, no other author has been able to have such incredible access to these secret societies and she does a delicious job in lifting the veil. Well done!

--Christopher Grey

MY ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS FROM THE OMEGA INSTITUTE

What is your approach to teaching your craft?

Three points: First I give a brief lecture on the material i want to cover, then demonstrate these points for the class. Finally, class members try their hand at doing what has been taught. I use the SOCRATIC METHOD OF EXTRACTING THE BEST FROM STUDENT BY POINTING OUT IN DETAIL WHAT IS WORKING AND ENCOURAGING THEIR DEEPEST WRITING BY SO DOING. GETTING THEM TO PARTICIPATE. EVERYONE READS ALOUD THE WORK THEY WRITE IN CLASS. EVERYONE HAS TO DARE AND JUMP IN. WE LEARN WHAT WE LIKE BY LISTENING TO OTHERS AND SEEING WHERE OUR HEART LEAPS IN THE WORK

What does art or creativity mean to you?

It means everything to me. To look at life, people, situations and settings in a unique way give me great joy. And this joy is magnified exponentially if I can impart this to an audience.  WRITING IS MY LIFE RAFT THROUGH PAIN, WHERE I CAN BE AN OBSERVER AND A PARTICIPANT CRAFTING MY WAY THROUGH AN OCEAN OF PROBLEMS. WHERE I CAN FIND INSIGHT JOY AND GRATITUDE PASS IT ON; CREATIVITY GOT ME THROUGH 2 BROKEN ANKLES. ON MY BACK AND SMILING FOR 3 MONTHS. COURSE IT WAS MY ANKLES NOT MY ARMS THAT WENT. THANK GOD

How important is art in our lives?

Very important. It gives life meaning, happiness and joy when we observe/participate/experience something unique and different and beautiful. ART IS SPIRITUAL: BEAUTY THAT BRINGS US TO GOD.

How do you celebrate art in your own life?

When not researching and writing my own plays or novels, I enjoy an evening of theatre, a beautiful song on the radio or cd player or watching academy award nominated movies. I AM ADDICTED TO LISTENING TO OPERA NOW AS I WRITE MY THIRD NOVEL. IT PUSHES ME INTO EMOTIONAL AND VISUALAWARENESS OF MY CHARACTERS; ART IS FOOD FOR THE SOUL. EVERY NIGHT EVERY MORNING OUR SOUL IS HUNGRY AND WE HAVE TO FEED OUR CHILD SELF AND MAKE IT GROW

Do you have any favorite quotes about art or creativity you would like to share?

There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.

---Sophia Loren

WE WILL EITHER FIND A WAY OR MAKE ONE.

--- HANNIBAL

LIFE IS EITHER A DARING ADVENTURE OF NOTHING

---HELEN KELLER

Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that's easy. What's hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. 

--Charles Mingus

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.

--Edgar Degas

AND ALSO 

ON HIS DOOR IN LOUISIANA "I AM ALMOST A SON OF LOUISIANA

ON HIS TOMBSTONE "I LOVE TO PAINT".

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

--Dr. Suess

Another Carnival book review posted on Amazon

The Length and Depth of Mardi Gras

May 6, 2014

Beyond the day itself, beyond the street parades and outdoor festivities, beyond the riotous clamor of Bourbon Street, there are the “mystic krewes” of Carnival.  What are, who are, and from whence came these mysterious, fraternal organizations?  These questions are answered in a captivatingly thorough and touchingly affectionate way in Rosary O’Neill’s book of history, heritage, and drama.  Yes, drama!  And I mean that in the truest sense.  If you think you knew a little about Mardi Gras, get ready for a most comprehensive yet fanciful and fascinating look at its genesis.

Even though this reader grew up in the “birth place of Mardi Gras, Mobile, Alabama,” and whose knowledge of Mardi Gras was more of the “promiscuous masker” type, that is, masking on Mardi Gras day and roaming the streets, this history completes the dots in the crazy puzzle of Mardi Gras lore, fact and fiction.  It relates a vision of bygone customs, of theatrical whimsy, and, especially, of insider politics that are still very much in existence in present day New Orleans Mardi Gras.

Even as it chronicles Mardi Gras’s past, it reveals the history of the deep south, never “masking” the inherent racism of the Krewes.  I appreciated very much this aspect of the book, for, as it is so masterfully portrayed, Mardi Gras is truly a dramatic reflection of the city, its society, and its people.

Chapters on krewe budgets and ball expenses were interesting but slowed down the “experience” a bit.  However, the myriad sections on all aspects of Carnival will leave you hungry for more.  Comprehensively indexed and exhaustively sourced, this account of the history, spirit, and secrets of Mardi Gras will definitely whet your appetite for a real experience of the most wonderful day in the New Orleans year.

Raymond A. Vrazel Jr. "Teacher/Director/Actor"