Mardi Gras Indians: A decade of storytelling

Ohio State Newark has connected and collaborated with the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans for more than a decade to create documentaries about the tradition. In 2014, Associate Dean Virginia Cope, PhD, traveled to New Orleans with a group of students for a service-learning project.

I was determined to find service that was meaningful for the students and grounded in the needs of community members. I wanted to avoid the types of short-term, one-time projects that make volunteers feel good but that do not adequately consider the needs and input of community partners.

 

Associate Dean Virginia Cope

She and the students did just that. The trip culminated in the production of Spirit Leads My Needle: The Big Chiefs of Carnival. Created under the guidance of Granville's Michael Yearling of Yearling Pictures, who served as director, and in consultation with the Mardi Gras Indian leaders, the 30-minute documentary tells the history of the Mardi Gras Indian tradition. Also known as Black masking Indians, the Mardi Gras Indians process through their neighborhoods each Mardi Gras, displaying elaborately designed costumes handsewn with beads and feathers. The film now airs annually on the PBS affiliate in New Orleans.

Following the success of the first film, Cope — along with Associate Professor of African American and African Studies Tiyi Morris, PhD, and a new group of students — went back to New Orleans in 2015, this time producing It’s Your Glory: The Big Queens of Carnival. It was the students’ idea to focus on the female leaders of the tradition, who are often overlooked. The documentary was nominated in the documentary-cultural category for an Emmy by the NATAS Suncoast division.

Cope and Morris returned to New Orleans in 2022 in collaboration with first-year students Shavonna Simpson, Abysinnia Taddege, Mariyah Thompson and Molly Rudduck to produce the third and final documentary, Masked for Battle: Mardi Gras Indian Culture Confronts COVID. This fall semester, the group traveled to Portland, Oregon, with Cherice Harrison-Nelson, Maroon Queen of the Guardians of the Flame Maroon Society, to present at the Engagement Scholarship Conference. This documentary was also nominated for a regional Emmy.

“I never anticipated attending conferences as an undergraduate student. It’s such a unique experience that I’m so grateful for.” 

 

Molly Rudduck, fourth-year psychology major at the Newark campus

Simpson, a fourth-year food and business management student, is similarly appreciative of her time working on the documentary. “I’ve loved every second of it,” she said.

Taddege, a fourth-year neuroscience major at the Columbus campus, said that the project has had a major impact on her “socially, culturally and personally.” What she assumed was “simply working on a documentary” has “fundamentally altered the way I perceive the world.” Taddege hopes to “leave a legacy of tolerance and openness to new opportunities, as well as an understanding of the Mardi Gras Indians’ culture and heritage and how the next generation can conserve and defend it.”

All three films were selected for the 2025 Pan African Film & Arts Festival held Feb. 4-17, 2025, in Culver City, California. Established in 1992 by Hollywood veterans Danny Glover (The Color Purple, Lethal Weapon), the late Ja’Net DuBois (“Good Times”) and Ayuko Babu, the Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that has remained dedicated to the promotion of Black stories and images through the exhibition of film, visual art and other creative expression.