Parade Line-Up Instructions
Here’s the link to parade line-up instructions. Foot soldiers report at 4:45. Everybody else must be there by 5:30 at the latest, or earlier if you need more time to prepare the particular gloriousness you are in charge of. Be in your place ready to shine by 6.
Remember, YOU are a performer, part of our Army of Artists creating a spectacle to make Twelfth Night magical and inspiring. Don’t hide your costume with bags or coats. Once the parade starts, put your phone away and put on your smile for other people’s cameras!
– Captain Amanda, aka St. Michael
A Letter from Our Founder, Amy Kirk Duvoisin
Sixteen Candles: A reflection of love and light as we celebrate our Sixteenth Anniversary
It is our sweet sixteenth year indeed. We have come a long way from our first rain-drenched small renegade parade full of glittering angels (yes, our band of angels that inaugural year bought their different color angel outfits at Party City and tossed glitter the color of their costumes) and theater performers, French Quarter enthusiasts, French teachers, students, and artists, to an organized, gorgeously choreographed moving storyline of Jeanne d’Arc’s life—that still contains all of the above, but 16x more! (And in much nicer costumes).
To convey the extraordinary nature of our parade is impossible, but if you are seeing this note, you know we are unlike any other parade in this town of countless parades. Each of you make this possible with your own creativity, your own personal relationship to Joan of Arc, your own personal love for the city of New Orleans and our shared French heritage.
Joan unites us all. It’s just our luck that she was (presumably) born on Twelfth Night, January 6. This wondrous synchronicity was surely a sign and laid the groundwork for the many other synchronicities that occur year-round, thanks to Joan.
Our “army of artists” brings beauty at a time of year when darkness is beginning to turn to light. It’s a magical way to begin the New Year together and to envision creative resolutions for making the world just a bit more lovely and loving.
As we celebrate our 16th year, we look back on just some of the synchronicities that propelled us forward.
But before we dive into some history, let us acknowledge the extraordinary present moment: Our first official visiting Orléans Jeanne d’Arc, Clairvie, is sixteen years old and her birthday is January 16…Coincidence? We think not!
Here are just a few of the memorable moments where we felt almost divine intervention, when our krewe’s dreams, actions, or connections incredibly intersected with other events, organizations, and moments:
In 2010, first Maid of Honor, Blair Davis, led hundreds of Saints fans in a Who Dat second line throughout the French Market in honor of the Saints going to the Superbowl that year. She carried black and gold pompoms while clad in her Joan armor. The ebullient march began and ended at the golden Joanie on the pony statue with a brass band playing When the Saints Go Marching In. It was a quintessential New Orleans moment, and represented so well what became the year that everyone felt like we they could finally breathe a little and celebrate finally, almost five years after Katrina. This is the year that Founder Amy hung the Saints jersey on the Joanie statue, symbolizing a lifting of the “Siege of Katrina” (thanks to Drew Brees, Steven Gleason, and dem!) The image can still be found on notecards and in books and other memorabilia that represent a certain time and place in our bittersweet collective memories.
In 2012, we coordinated and hosted a special exhibit of photographer Alex Labry’s portraits of Joan of Arc statues, in honor of Joan of Arc’s 600th birthday. Alex had reached out to the Consul General of France in Louisiana after hitting roadblocks with local art galleries. The Consul’s cultural attaché sent him to founder Amy who connected Alex with our new friends at St. Louis Cathedral, and through Stephen Swain, the assistant to the late Monsignor Kern, an exhibit was arranged at Ursuline Convent. Alex is a native New Orleanian who divides his time between Austin and his French Quarter apartment, but the parade was new to him. He and his wife Suzanne are now one of our most enthusiastic members, and Alex continues to gift us with images of Joan for gifts on special occasions.
In 2013, we welcomed our first Queen Yolande of Aragon, Betsie Gambel, who connected us with the Historic New Orleans Collection and the Steamboat Natchez, both friends and clients of hers. We held our banquet on the docked Natchez that year, and for several years following, utilized the Natchez landing as our gathering point on parade night. Thanks to HNOC’s then director Priscilla Lawrence, we began having royalty toasts from the balcony of their Williams Research Center. It was Priscilla’s idea to do this, and she gave the very first toast, and had it translated into French by a visiting French scholar in residence. The following year, she engaged the Consulate General of France to do the honors with her, and the rest is history.
In 2018, the same year that Founder Amy officially transferred the captain role to Amanda and Antoinette, and the same year as New Orleans Tricentennial, the official twinning of Orléans, France, and New Orleans, Louisiana, occurred. City officials from both “new” and “old” Orléans signed the agreement in New Orleans on January 6 in honor of our Joan of Arc connections, and we had the honor of welcoming representatives including the Mayor from the City of Orléans and his staff, to join us for our parade. As they were taking photos and greeting everyone at the lineup, so obviously delighted in the informal fanfare that is so unlike their May 8 Jeanne d’Arc parade, founder Amy suggested (via our krewe translator Joseph Dunn) that they walk in the front of the parade. Never has a happier diplomat been witnessed in our city. Mayor Olivier Carré sang along to “When the Saints Go Marching In”, at one point exclaiming, “This is America!” with unbounded joi de vivre. A month after he returned to Orléans, he extended an invitation to our krewe to join him in their May 8, 2018, parade in Orléans. Those of us who could make the rather last-minute arrangements did so, including our then Maid of Honor, Martha Pinney, and the A-Team, among others. We were gifted an engraved sword from their Jeanne d’Arc Association to Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc that is now used in our “little sister” parade as the official sword our Joan of Arc carries after the sword blessing.
2018 was significant in three meaningful ways: It marked 10 years since the founding of the krewe, it was New Orleans’ 300th anniversary year, and it became the sister cities’ twinning year. This was the year Antoinette and Amanda stepped into their roles as Captains, and Amy stepped back to serve as Muse, Keeper of the Sword, and President of the Joan of Arc Project. This timing was meant to be, as together we could take the momentum that began with these monumental milestones of 2018 and push them forward in various directions: Amanda and Antoinette with greatly improving the flow and artistry of all things parade related; and Amy by focusing outside of the parade on partnerships, be they on Julia Street in New Orleans or on Rue Jeanne d’Arc in Orléans.
In 2020, we launched the Joan of Art contest in partnership with Ariodante Arts and Crafts Gallery. Though conceived and announced before the pandemic as part of a yearlong celebration in honor of the 100 years of Joan’s canonization of 1920, we ended up extending the deadline to July 2020 because of the shutdown. Many artists expressed gratitude for having a project during that terrible time of unknowns. Our contest timeline has remained the same ever since: We announce shortly after the parade, and the deadline is near or on the date of Charles VII’s coronation date of July 17. The annual September contest and art show has become an integral part of our schedule, bringing fresh local art into our parade (literally–as artwork for throws, medallions and more), as well as recruiting new artists for our army of artists. Not only are we making new friends, but we have a few artists join the parade each year as individuals, and they are bringing their artistry to the parade with their costumes, props, and throws.
And now it is 2023, and we are welcoming our first official Jeanne d’Arc from Orléans, thanks to a new partnership with Rotary Club New Orleans. This partnership came about organically, as so many things do with our parade. Rotary member Gayle Dellinger was taking classes in Spring 2022 at Alliance Francaise of New Orleans, (one of our longtime partners), before departing for Orléans to meet with Orléans Rotary Club and experience her first Fetes des Jeanne d’Arc. When an AFNO staff member overheard her travel plans, he suggested she connect with founder Amy. They had coffee at Gayle’s home a week before she left for Orléans, and discovered yet again the unmistakable sign of synchronicity that follows Joan of Arc through space and time. Amy had always dreamed of a stronger connection to the “big sister” Jeanne d’Arc Parade, and Gayle was seeking to partner and create a sister relationship with the sister city Rotary Club. Voila!
We are overwhelmed with honor and joy to welcome Clairvie and her entourage as our guests of honor. We are truly synchronized with our sister city in our Sweet Sixteen year, as just one of many continued connections, and we could not be more grateful and awestruck at the ways that #JoanProvides. We have no doubt that everything has led us to this moment, and we were born for this!
Although only some of the countless, continual intersections and “perfect timings” are listed above, they serve to illustrate how we got to where we are now: by listening to our collective Voices and trusting them and one another.
Here’s to our next 16 years, and to building an even stronger army of artists, with your assistance. As noted last night at the banquet, we are asking all krewe members and volunteers to take the number 16 seriously: Look at your 2024 calendar and determine when and how you can offer up 16 hours to us. Many of you give us much more than this, and many of you dedicate at least 16 hours to your costumes, throws and props. We are asking for this extremely modest and reasonable number of 16 hours for your time at one of our throw workshops, prop workshops, socials, or other meetings and gatherings. If we all give this number of hours, the results will be noticeable, and we will be on our way to our 20th anniversary (2028) with less heavy loads for our unbelievably overworked, generous, insanely creative, immeasurably generous co-captains Amanda and Antoinette. Give them your biggest MERCI BEAUCOUP tonight before, during, and after the parade…and throughout the year, by showing up and giving of your time. It’s the best 16th anniversary gift ever!
Love, Founder Amy January 6, 2024