[MUSIC PLAYING] “You know how it start from a seed and it be a beautiful masterpiece? Like a rose from the concrete.” “Sunshine is powerful, huh?” “You can’t stop spirit. Spirit doesn’t have a name, and neither does feeling. What is real is. You can’t stop spirit. Spirit doesn’t have a name, and neither does feeling. What is real is. You can’t stop spirit. Spirit doesn’t have a name, and neither does feeling. What is real is.” “Welcome to New Orleans.” “You can’t stop spirit. Spirit doesn’t have a name.” “Oh, baby. What they don’t say.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “My name is Cinnamon Black. I’m a Treme million-dollar baby dolls. I’m also second queen with Fi Yi Yi. They call me Voodoo baby doll queen, because I am a Voodoo priest here. I’d like to welcome you to our city.” “In the city of New Orleans we practice two things. We practice Carnival, and we practice Mardi Gras. There’s spirituality, and there’s also sensuality in this excitement here. So the two of them come together. Because Carnival starts out early in the morning. It’s practiced in several places in the world. But the bones and skeletons are what comes out first. They represent Papa Legba, the first spirit that is called. So they come out 4:00 in the morning to Congo Square, and they drum, and they drink. They have this large, big bone dripping blood. And they have these large signs that say no to drugs, listen to your parents, don’t join a gang or truly I will be back to get you. The second part of that is the baby dolls. We come out right after the bones and skeletons, not at the same time. We are the birth of Mardi Gras, the birth of Carnival. We dress as babies. We dress with satin dresses and bloomers. We carry parasols and a pacifier, and probably a bottle with some vodka in it. But it represents Oshun, the goddess of love.“ “Once I step out, yes, I am a queen. On Mardi Gras day and on every day when I put this trust on. Even when I don’t have the dress on —” [LAUGHING] “I had a head full of glitter, and it’s just leaving when it wants to leave.“ “Ain’t nothing wrong with beautiful sisters. That’s a queen, right here.” “He just wanted to take care of everything and wanted me to be this queen penthouse wife. And I’m like, no. I’m used to getting it on my own. So when I left him, that was my breakthrough.” “I said, ‘Shannon, are you going to make me a queen?’ And look what she said. ‘I’m the only queen.’” [LAUGHING] “All I could do is just fall out laughing. I was like, ‘I knew you was going to say that.’ But that [NO AUDIO] going to [INAUDIBLE] me one of these days. Because somebody [INAUDIBLE] tough. I’m going to be the [NO AUDIO] duchess or somebody.” “I don’t know if other people feel how I feel.” “You talk about the patience of Job.” “But it means something more personal and more — I don’t know, probably emotional, too. When it’s your people running up to you out of nowhere, people you don’t even know. Especially children. Like, ‘Oh, can I see that umbrella?’ Yeah, you can see. ‘I can hold it?’ Want to take a picture? ‘Yeah, let’s take it.’ The voice change. Let’s take pictures. And here comes the whole family.” “You’re like a diva in your community.” “The reason I mask and continue to mask is because — I don’t know if you guys feel it — it is an emotion. It’s a spirit that takes over you. Those drums. Just to see the pageantry and all of these people. It warms my heart for little girls to come up to me and want to take pictures with me. Especially, I hate to say it, especially the little dark-skinned girls. Mama, her skin like my skin. You have to have self-love. And we ain’t pretty just because we are dark. Just say you’re pretty. I mask because it gives me energy. It gives me life.” “You can’t stop spirit. Spirit doesn’t have a name, and neither does feeling. What is real is. You see, voodoo has a lot to do with spirituality and New Orleans. There’s a lot to do with the second line and the first line. Because the second line originated from the funerals. You need that music to bring you out the house, to bring you to the church. Because when you listen to the music and allow it to possess your soul, you allow your ancestors to be a part of you. New Orleans is a city that — they believe in sending you home when you pass away. They don’t just have some funeral. They send you home. Paying your respects, that’s how you give your offering to the [EXPLETIVE] city. I only put on my baby doll costume when I feel moved by spirit. I’m proclaiming my womanhood.” “I want my baby dolls to always be fearless in every way. Meaning you’re not afraid to get dressed and go out there and show your [EXPLETIVE]. But at the same time you’re not afraid to stand up for yourself. You’re not afraid to speak up for yourself. You’re not afraid to do whatever it takes to get your respect.” “How are you going to embrace being a baby doll and what it takes to be a baby doll if you ain’t even embraced your womanhood yet?” “The baby dolls were actually whores when they first came out. And they used to dress up. And the white men loved them so much. When they first came out, the white men used to pin money on them. They’d walk up the street full of money. They’d dress like baby dolls to upstage them white whores down there in the quarters, Decatur. Heads up, they were the ladies.” “They were maybe women of the night, or they were some women that did some questionable things. Or just in the culture that we are, some men say they think that the woman’s body is for them. So that was their way of protecting themselves.” “The art of baby doll is that it’s not one singular story, right? Story [INAUDIBLE] is one characterization of the development of the baby doll.” “We’re every other woman. We just open in that area. The fact that you know that I dance, you’re going to belittle my character. That doesn’t define me. Up here, I can talk you into circles. But I’m already stamped. But you denied me at first. Such a misfit, you know? I love a misfit. But that’s how the society look at us. I can’t really identify with it. So I’m going to just own it. Look, this character and that character are not the same person. How could you be?” “Once you put on these outfits, you’re a different person. Whereas if, when you’re being a baby doll, you are able to let your hair down. So I’m more childish, then I’ll be more toyish or more sexy.” “You can’t stop spirit. Spirit doesn’t have a name, and neither does feeling. What is real is.” “There are some things that men can do that we can’t do. And there are some things that we can do that they can’t do, either. Because in Haiti, Voodoo is ruled by men. But in New Orleans, it’s ruled by women. Welcome to our world.“ “You can’t never go outside of your purpose or outside of yourself. Because I did go through a period of trying to fit into this cookie cutter thing. And that’s why I was like, ‘It’s not about other people but yourself.’” “You ain’t me, and I ain’t you.” “Watch yourself, and everything else going to come to you.” “All I can tell you, pay attention to yourself. Pay attention to yourself when your moods change. Pay attention to why they change, or did anybody contribute to that?” “You can’t water yourself down.” “You ain’t me, and I ain’t you.“ “And that’s how it is.” “Whatever in your mind and your heart you feel, that’s what you do.” “You got to sit us in a bottle and point us to the sky. You got to be all you going to be. And guess what, [INAUDIBLE] other [NO AUDIO] that’s going to be firecrackers with you.” “Everybody going to see it. You know what I’m saying? And on Mardi Gras day, that’s your stage. That’s your debut. That is your day.” “That’s it. Right there. Because when you come out on Mardi Gras day, you’re about to come out, you’re about the top dog. You’re about to put your foot on that ground and shake it. You know what I’m saying? That [EXPLETIVE] is important to me. Put on that masquerade and put on that costume, and you transform into something that is liberating, that is free, that counters what people’s expectations are of you.” “All for the love of the beauty and the culture and hitting them streets on Mardi Gras morning.” “That [EXPLETIVE] is important to me.” “For that moment, for that day, for just the little time that I can walk ready with my umbrella, nothing else matters.” “That’s your stage. That’s your debut. That is your day.” “That’s it. Right there.” “It’s an emotion. It’s a spirit that takes over you.” “All for my people to see me looking fire.” “Once you put on these outfits, you’re a different person.” “That means something to your people. When I say ‘your people,’ I mean the people that look like me, that’s coming out to see me.” “We are the birth of Mardi Gras, the birth of Carnival.” “They represent St. Anne for the Catholics and then Oshun, the goddess of love, for the Africans.” “To see the money I spent, to see the work I put in.” “We have to go out and behave a particular way to feel or to be accepted. You know, I’ve seen that happen to my grandmother, to my mother, to my auntie. And I never really understood exactly who they really were, because they were so protective of their real identities for fear of some type of chastisement by someone from the outside. I just feel free. You know? And all of those other identities, I just shake off. In the moment, I’m me.” “You can’t stop spirit. Spirit doesn’t have a name, and neither does feeling. What is real is.”
