Thank you so much for enlisting in Joan’s Army of Artists!

YOU have already signed up. Mark your calendar for your choice of costume pick-up dates: 

• Wednesday Dec. 18, 4-7 p.m. (storage unit, 3900 Tchoupitoulas, unit 2)
• Thursday Dec. 19, 4-7 p.m. (storage unit, 3900 Tchoupitoulas, unit 2)
• Saturday Dec. 28, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (storage unit, 3900 Tchoupitoulas, unit 2)
• Sunday Dec. 29, 3-5 p.m. (storage unit, 3900 Tchoupitoulas, unit 2)
• Monday January 1, 11-3 (St. Andrew’s Church).

Call Antoinette 504-717-1451 if you need her to open the storage complex gate for you. Our unit is right near the entrance.

Take a look at our foot soldier costume guide to see what kind of costume you might be assigned and what you’ll need to wear with it. As a foot soldier, you are welcome to purchase tickets to the banquet and/or second line brunch, and to purchase anything from the “Keepsakes and Merch” category in our krewe store, including our 2025 keepsake pack with one of each throw (foot soldiers may not purchase from the “throws” category). Check the costume pick-up dates, workshop dates and social event dates anytime on our website calendar. The links in this newsletter bypass the password, but in case you need it, you can find all this info in the Members Only section of the site, password:  Joan1412  (case-sensitive) .

Recruit a friend!

We still need more volunteers!  Recruit a friend to volunteer with you. When they sign up here, the last question will invite them to say where they’d like to be placed or who they’d like to be with. Have your friend list your name and we will make every effort to assign you close together.

NEW ROUTE AND LATER START TIME FOR 2025!

Here are the details on our revised route! (still about 1.5 miles in the French Quarter, with stops at the statue, Cathedral, Historic New Orleans Collection balcony toasts, and Oscar Dunn Park (the sidewalk amphitheater by the Cafe Du Monde). The parade will start at 8 p.m., with foot soldiers reporting for duty at 5:45 p.m. 

Last year’s foot soldier, this year’s Maid of Honor “Joan”: Life Sacco!

Find out more about Life and the other members of our court!

Life Sacco was a jester foot soldier in our 2024 parade, with mother Maude Varela and friend Thomas Rees-Lemoine.

Coming Up….

• Saturday, Dec. 14 and Sunday Dec. 15, Props Workshops: 1-5 p.m. at 7330 Sycamore
• Tuesday, Dec. 17 Throws Workshop and Tea light kit pick-up: 7:30 p.m. at 7330 Sycamore
• Wednesday Dec. 18 & Thursday Dec. 19th: 10-5 p.m. Costume sewing workshops at 7330 Sycamore
• Wednesday Dec. 18 & Thursday Dec. 19th: 4-7 p.m. Foot Soldier costume pick-ups at the krewe storage unit 3900 Tchoupitoulas
• Details below and full calendar of events on our website

Props Workshops Dec. 14 and 15th, 1-5 p.m.

Channel your creative self, or your problem-solving self, or your engineer self and help build, revise and/or repair props. We have several props projects planned for this year: raising the statue canopy, spiffing up and developing a few new banners, adding haunches to St. Margaret’s dragon Adversaire, and, our biggest project, constructing a new lighted “Blessing Joan” puppet to end the parade. We always have jobs for all skill levels and people willing to learn! This workshop takes place at the krewe “den,” the home of Captain Amanda (and her two cats), 7330 Sycamore St., map).

Sewing Workshops Dec. 18 and 19th, 10-5 p.m.

Captain Amanda needs help with costumes for the Voices battalion, our new performance group St. Michael’s Angel Army Choir, and also the new Blessing Joan puppet. There’ll be hand sewing and machine sewing. All skill levels welcome. You can help even if you don’t sew because there’s always non-sewing steps of pinning, cutting, measuring and ironing. If you do sew, you might consider bringing your sewing machine.

Tealight kit pick-up Tuesday Dec. 17th 7:30-9 p.m.

Together we wrap 2,500 led tea light candles in a translucent paper sleeve. While we make many of those tea lights at the New Year’s Work Party January 1st at St. Andrew’s, it helps a LOT if people do some ahead of time to give us a head start. Stop by and pick up a kit of tea lights to take home and (in true medieval style) make all your visiting family work as serfs over the holiday to get a hundred or so tea lights done. It’s an easy craft involving nothing more than a little tape! Bring your completed tea lights back to us at 11 a.m. January 1 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (1031 Carrollton, side entrance on Zimple).

Full member included throws

Reminder to full members — individual full members (not companions) are entitled to a set of prayer cards, matches and tea lights, plus a keepsake few doubloons and pack of one each playing card. Pick up these throws from the New Year’s Work Party at St. Andrew’s, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Wednesday January 1, 1031 Carrollton (side entrance on Zimple). If you cannot pick up your throws on that date, please arrange for a friend to pick yours up for you. As a last resort, email to request that yours be set aside for you specially, and make arrangements to pick them up.  Throw kits still NOT picked up by 3 p.m. on Wednesday January 1 will be given away to others. If you’d like to score some extra throws, stick around the January 1 workshop until 3, when remaining throw packages will be distributed. 

Mark your calendar: 

Be sure to save the date for these special events:

• Wednesday January 1: New Year’s Work Party
• Saturday January 4: Medieval Banquet (tickets)
• Sunday January 5: Mass, Second-Line and Brunch (tickets)