This isn’t your average craft night — it’s a living, breathing piece of New Orleans history. On November 18 from 5-8 pm, Austin clothing store Blackfeather Vintage Works will host a beading and cultural workshop led by Big Chief Shaka Zulu, a leader of a Black Masking group whose Carnival suits are fine art.
Chief Shaka Zulu is an artist from the legendary Golden Feather Hunters, plus a National Endowment for the Arts Folk Heritage Fellow, a master suit maker, and a cultural historian dedicated to preserving one of America’s most profound living traditions: the Indigenous Masking Societies of New Orleans.
The Indigenous Masking tradition, sometimes referred to as “Mardi Gras Indian” culture, was born when African Americans were excluded from European Mardi Gras parades in the 1800s. Some Africans who had escaped slavery were taken in by Indigenous tribes, eventually resulting in mixed heritages. Being excluded from mainstream Carnival forced them to create their own celebration, rooted in African and Indigenous heritage in different parts of town…