Backstreet Cultural Museum and Mardi Gras Indian Hall

Why is it significant?

Arrive outside the Backstreet Cultural Museum at 1531 Saint Philip Street, the foremost community institution dedicated to documenting, preserving, and celebrating the unique African American street culture of New Orleans.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Arrive outside the Backstreet Cultural Museum at 1531 Saint Philip Street, the foremost community institution dedicated to documenting, preserving, and celebrating the unique African American street culture of New Orleans. Founded in 1999 by lifelong Tremé resident, photographer, and culture bearer Sylvester Francis, this beloved grassroots museum originated from Francis' personal passion for filming jazz funerals, second line parades, and Mardi Gras Indian masking traditions.

Look at the vibrant signage and murals: housed in a historic building that once served as the Blandin Funeral Home, the museum preserves the living folk traditions of Black New Orleans that mainstream municipal museums historically ignored.

Inside the museum galleries rests the world's most comprehensive collection of authentic Mardi Gras Indian suits. Every year, Black masking Indians spend hundreds of hours hand-sewing tens of thousands of glass seed beads, sequins, rhinestones, and dyed ostrich plumes into dazzling wearable sculptural works of art that weigh up to one hundred pounds. These suits honor the historic alliance between enslaved African runaways and Native American tribes who sheltered them in the Louisiana swamps. The museum also preserves extensive archives, ceremonial regalia, and artifacts of Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, the Northside Skull and Bone Gangs who mask at dawn on Mardi Gras morning, and Baby Dolls who parade in satin dresses and bonnets. Sylvester Francis spent decades behind his video camera documenting hundreds of neighborhood jazz funerals, ensuring that the legacy of Tremé cultural titans would never be forgotten. On Mardi Gras Day and Super Sunday, the street outside transforms into an epicenter of polyrhythmic tambourine chanting and vibrant second lining.

Viewing the jaw-dropping intricacy of the hand-beaded Indian aprons and towering feather crowns, you appreciate the immense spiritual devotion of New Orleans street artisans. The Backstreet Cultural Museum guards the sacred flame of Tremé heritage.

Walk north along Governor Nicholls Street toward Villa Meilleur and the African American Museum.