Gras-Roots

Baton Rouge's new parade draws out Mid City's finest

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Terri Singleton considers North Boulevard “Baton Rouge’s best kept secret.” Bridging downtown and Mid City, the road offers breezy conveyance compared to the glutted Government Street. Morning traffic flows, and there’s even an overpass to circumvent the train tracks. That bliss will end, she knows, with the “road diet,” the city construction project which is set to break ground in late January and will narrow Government Street over the course of the next year and a half. Motorist attention inevitably will divert to parallel streets like North and Florida; but Singleton can’t be too fussed about the loss of North’s relative anonymity ... because that’s the road she helped to choose for the inaugural Mid City Gras parade. 

Who among us hasn’t sacrificed for the sake of more Carnival? On the afternoon of Sunday, February 4, Baton Rouge’s newest parade will roll, strut, and march down the boulevard, from the 22nd Street intersection to Baton Rouge Community College (where an after-party will await). Landmarks along the way include Historic Sweet Olive Cemetery, Baton Rouge Magnet High School, and Baton Rouge General, and oak trees line large swathes of the route. (Thus inspired, Mid City Gras’ mascot, designed by local creative agency Red Six Media, is a squirrel at the wheel of a tractor. Some promotional posters ask, “Wanna get nuts?”) The parade route is a straight shot, with no meandering into the side streets of adjacent Ogden Park and Bernard Terrace or across Government Street to Capital Heights. Instead, those Mid City artists, musicians, and even your favorite regional culture magazine will be drawn from their homes and businesses to pound the pavement and lend credence to Mid City’s reputation as an enclave of easygoing eccentricity. It’s that neighborhood pride organizers are counting on to make the first year of Mid City Gras a success.

It’s that neighborhood pride organizers are counting on to make the first year of Mid City Gras a success.

It’s easy to envy the initiative, but Singleton admits that she and her fellow organizers (then just likeminded friends) spent years tossing around the parade as purely a neat idea. She credits board member Leanne Myers-Boone for ushering the group out of the sure-would-be-cool phase, with a gathering at Radio Bar just over a year ago. “Then we were official,” laughed Singleton.

10/31 Consortium is the leading model for what Mid City Gras wants to be “when we grow up,” said Singleton. Founded in summer 2010, the Baton Rouge non-profit throws most of its weight into Halloween hoopla (specifically, creating fun and safe trick-or-treating opportunities for kids all over the city); outside of October, 10/31 stages fundraisers like the Peanut Butter Cup Mini-Golf Tournament in March, the Black and Orange Bash in April, and Talk Like a Pirate Day in September. “Spanish Town does things throughout the year too, but they’ve been at it for a long time. For 10/31, it’s been a snowball effect,” said Singleton.

Mid City Gras has barreled forward too. Not six months after their Radio Bar meeting, the group attained non-profit status with the help of Baton Rouge attorney Barrington Neil. Now, said Singleton, they are accountable for more than just wandering through the neighborhood. The non-profit needed a mission beyond the small, albeit noble, effort of contributing another event to Baton Rouge’s admittedly light Carnival calendar. “We started thinking about who we wanted in our parade. We started thinking about the youth groups: Front Yard Bikes, Forward Arts, all the kids who don’t necessarily have funding to be in a parade,” said Singleton. “So we thought it’d be great if we could start a non-profit and maybe be able to fund the people we wanted to see, the projects we wanted to do, then we can go into the neighborhood and help the neighborhood groups.”

“So we thought it’d be great if we could start a non-profit and maybe be able to fund the people we wanted to see, the projects we wanted to do, then we can go into the neighborhood and help the neighborhood groups.”  

These charitable goals won’t be satisfied immediately, but Mid City Gras is thinking ahead. (With future parades in mind, they’ve also already secured the city’s permission for a longer route that will begin a few blocks back west on North Boulevard at 19th Street.) “We want to integrate ourselves into the Mid City community; the first step is having the parade,” said Singleton.

“When you start talking about philanthropy,” added Mid City Gras President Twanda Lewis, “you need to have money to take care of just the logistics of bringing people together to do volunteer work. You need funding. We’re still in our infancy, but we’ve got a group who’s very committed to Mid City.” 

More seasoned parade organizations like Spanish Town Mardi Gras, Krewe of Southdowns, and Krewe of Artemis told Mid City Gras of their own early years, with some parades debuting with just six or eight floats in procession. Singleton decided they’d be a success if they managed twelve. Happily, at least thirty groups are set to participate in the first Mid City Gras; among neighbors on foot, expect marching bands, dance groups, and golf carts and wagons fashioned into floats. Singleton is tickled for granddaughter Violette to roll along in a wagon. Lewis made sure her daughter Mimie would make the trip in from New Orleans. “She’s already taking time off work because she’s in the Krewe of Nyx,” said Lewis, “but I told her, ‘You’d better be there for your mom’s parade.’”

At least one facet of the Mid City Gras vision has remained small and casual. “For this first year, we really just want to get the people in the neighborhoods to come out,” said Singleton. “Let’s get together and do something goofy. Let’s do it in our part of town and make more Mardi Gras.” 

Mid City Gras will be held from1 pm–4 pm on February 4, along North Boulevard from 22nd Street to Baton Rouge Community College. Applications to walk in the parade will be accepted until Friday, January 26. midcitygras.org.