Coming up

• March 22 7 p.m. Zoom Book Club author talk
• March 25 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Fête Française: Volunteers needed
• March 28 6:30 p.m. Krewe Social and parade recap @ Melba’s
• April 1 1:30-3:30 p.m. Throws Planning Meeting and Workshop

Zoom Author Talk Wednesday March 22

Language of Fire author Stephanie Hemphill will join our Zoom book club discussion at 7 p.m. March 22. Tune in via Zoom (link, meeting ID: 864 8909 8838, passcode: 226557). Pick up your copy at Garden District Book Shop or Frenchmen Art and Books. Yes, it’s ok to tune in even if you haven’t read the book yet!

Fête Française – Volunteers Needed March 25

French immersion school Ecole Bilingue will hold its annual street festival fundraiser with French food and music from Saturday March 25, 11-5 p.m. Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc usually has an information table here along with other French organizations, and it’s a good networking and recruiting opportunity for us. We need a few people to volunteer to work our booth for an hour or two in costume and help children color cardboard swords. Email to volunteer. The festival occupies the block near the school (821 General Pershing St., map)

Krewe Viewing Party Tuesday March 28

Bask in the glory of our 2023 “roll” as we view photos and videos from our 2023 parade on the big screen and discuss plans for next year!  This is a great chance to bring friends who are considering joining, and you can renew your own membership on site as well. We’ll gather at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday March 28 at Melba’s Po’Boys (1525 Elysian Fields, map)

Throws Planning Workshop Saturday April 1

Calling our crafters! Bring your ideas. We’ll discuss throws fundraising and sales from 2022-2023, then plan our signature krewe throws for 2023-2024. We’ll wrap up the meeting by 2:30 and jump in with some actual crafting.  You’re welcome, but absolutely not required, to bring a snack to share.  If you have ideas for throws that could be produced by krewe members for sale as official signature throws, we’d love to hear them!  Bring your samples, sketches, prototypes, and/or supplies price research to share too.

Coming up

• March 11 9 a.m. In-person Book Club @ L’Union Française
• March 11 10 a.m. L’Union Social: coffee, croissants and Cajun music
• March 22 7 p.m. Zoom Book Club author talk
• March 25 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Fête Française: Volunteers needed
• March 28 6:30 p.m. Krewe Social and parade recap @ Melba’s
• April 1 1:30-3:30 p.m. Throws Planning Meeting and Workshop

In-Person Book Club This Saturday at L’Union Française

Join us in person at 9 a.m. this Saturday March 11 to discuss the book Language of Fire (note time and location change!). We moved the book club to L’Union Française (4522 Prytania, map) so we can stick around to enjoy coffee, croissants and French Cajun music with L’Union as they celebrate sponsoring a film for the French Film Festival. From Amazon’s synopsis of Language of Fire: “This extraordinary verse novel from award-winning author Stephanie Hemphill dares to imagine how an ordinary girl became a great leader.”  You can pick up the book at Garden District Book Shop.

Zoom Author Talk Wednesday March 22

Language of Fire author Stephanie Hemphill will join our Zoom book club discussion at 7 p.m. March 22. Tune in via Zoom (link, meeting ID: 864 8909 8838, passcode: 226557) 

New Orleans French Film Festival March 9-13

The festival showcases excellence in contemporary and classic francophone cinema, including 13 feature films from 8 countries. Films show at Prytania Theatre, both their Uptown and Canal Place locations, with select films also available for virtual screenings. Find out more!

Fête Française – Volunteers Needed March 25

French immersion school Ecole Bilingue will hold its annual street festival fundraiser with French food and music from Saturday March 25, 11-5 p.m. Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc usually has an information table here along with other French organizations, and it’s a good networking and recruiting opportunity for us. We need a few people to volunteer to work our booth for an hour or two in costume and help children color cardboard swords. Email to volunteer. The festival occupies the block near the school (821 General Pershing St., map)

Krewe Viewing Party Tuesday March 28

Bask in the glory of our 2023 “roll” as we view photos and videos from our 2023 parade on the big screen and discuss plans for next year!  This is a great chance to bring friends who are considering joining, and you can renew your own membership on site as well. We’ll gather at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday March 28 at Melba’s Po’Boys (1525 Elysian Fields, map)

Throws Planning Workshop Saturday April 1

Calling our crafters! Bring your ideas. We’ll discuss throws fundraising and sales from 2022-2023, then plan our signature krewe throws for 2023-2024. We’ll wrap up the meeting by 2:30 and jump in with some actual crafting.  You’re welcome, but absolutely not required, to bring a snack to share.  If you have ideas for throws that could be produced by krewe members for sale as official signature throws, we’d love to hear them!  Bring your samples, sketches, prototypes, and/or supplies price research to share too.

Photo by Kim Welsh. Check out more fabulous photos of foot soldiers (maybe even YOU!), videos and press coverage here.

Thank you, foot soldiers, for your valuable volunteer service for our 2023 parade. We couldn’t do it without you! As a thank-you we’re offering foot soldiers a special discount if you want to upgrade to full membership so you can financially support our year-round activities, hand out throws and choose your own costume for 2024. The discount expires after Mardi Gras 2023!  To join as a full member, fill out the application here, then on the payment page, add your membership to your shopping cart, then enter FOOTSOLDIER in the coupon code box when you check out.

Your discount is $25 off, a 20% discount. After Mardi Gras, you’ll still have access through the website menus to our regular membership prices, which increase on Joan’s Feast Day May 30 and All Saints Day Nov. 1. 

If you prefer to remain as a free foot soldier, that’s cool. We still need you and love you, and you can still come to any of our events.  You can also re-enlist as a foot soldier here.

Fantastic weather, fantastic crowds, and mostly only the right kind of excitement — what a great “roll” for 2023!  Thank you for all your creativity, your attention to detail, and your enthusiastic, energetic performances. Thank you to all those who headed off problems before we noticed, from the foot soldiers warning of potholes to the people armed with safety pins, duct tape and zip ties.

View our glowing press coverage here and see videos of our parade in action here. Our volunteer photographers Kim Welsh and Gary H. Jones have posted more than 600 pictures of our parade, mass, second line and banquet from 2023 on our Shutterfly share site.  The Shutterfly site includes many photos of individuals (maybe even YOU!) High-res versions of the drone photos that have been circulating on social media are there too (thank you, Marco Rasi!).  Be sure to open the several different “albums” to see all this year’s photos. The password for the Shutterfly share site is Joan1412. You don’t need to be a member of Shutterfly or our share site to view photos, but if you create a free Shutterfly account you’ll also be able to save photos to your own account and from there order prints (including one-hour from Walgreens and CVS), make photo books, etc.  We’d love to see your photos too!  Request to become a site member if you’d like to use Shutterfly’s upload tool, or just email us if you just want to share a few good shots.

Drone photo of the 2023 Joan of Arc parade by Marco Rasi

Photo by Gary J. Jones

Photos are already uploaded from our volunteer photographer Gary H. Jones, including some terrific shots of individual participants, maybe even YOU.  You can view, download and order prints of the photos on our free Shutterfly share site, password:   Joan1412  .  You do NOT need to create a Shutterfly account to view the photos unless you want to place an order.  We’d love to have your photos of any of our events including our upcoming parade, and Shutterfly has a pretty easy upload system for large batches of files, so just email us if you’d like to create a free Shutterfly account and become a “member” of our share site so you’ll be able to upload.

Meet the 2015 French “Jeanne d’Arc” tomorrow at Columns!

Greetings fellow Krewe members. 
 
We are pleased to share that we will be hosting a special visitor, Ines Canut, who played the role of Jeanne d’Arc in Orleans, France, in 2015. Ines will be here for only a short visit, arriving on January 4th, attending the Krewe Pre-Party on January 5th, and participating in the parade on January 6th. 
 
After arriving in New Orleans the morning of Wednesday, January 4th, we thought it would be nice to take her to the beautiful Columns Hotel on Saint Charles Ave. for an opportunity to say “bonjour” to people in the krewe. Coffee and light snacks are available at the Columns espresso bar (menu). 
 
Please feel free to come by the Columns (3811 St Charles) between noon and 1:00 on 1/4/23 to help us welcome her to the city and the Krewe. 
 
Questions or comments? Contact Gretchen Zalkind 504-439-4530 or Joan Fox 504 427-2877

Sunday, January 1st: Mass, Second Line and Brunch

Only one ticket left for the brunch, but all are welcome to join us for the mass and second line!

• 9 a.m. Mass at Saint Louis Cathedral (map)
• 10 a.m. Second Line with the Soul Heirs Brass Band (4 blocks from Cathedral to Joan statue)
• 10:30 a.m. (ish) Brunch at Market Cafe at the foot of the Joan statue once the second line arrives (buy a ticket)
• Dress: Second line spirit, Krewe colors blue and gold, krewe gear. Mass-appropriate!  Medieval inspiration is always welcome but most adults do not costume for this.

9 a.m. Mass 

• The Krewe will have reserved seats toward the front. When you arrive, hang out at the back of the church near the entrance doors and wait with the Krewe.  Look for the group dressed in our krewe colors, blue and gold. Let the usher know you’re with us.
• The Krewe will process up to our reserved seats when the usher cues us.
• Please represent the Krewe well by arriving on time and looking appropriate.
• Immediately after the mass ends, the ushers will cue us to process out behind the priest (Father Phillip Landry), and on the Cathedral steps he will briefly bless the handmade wooden swords our young Maid of Honor will hand out in the parade.
  • This means you need to anticipate the worship endpoint and gather your purse and jacket in advance for a smooth exit. Plus you’d hate to be too slow to catch the blessing.

10 a.m. Second Line with the Soul Heirs Brass Band 

After mass, the Soul Heirs Band will lead us in a jam and second line 4 blocks from the Cathedral to the Joan of Arc statue. 

10:30 a.m. Buffet Brunch at Market Cafe (if you bought tickets)

Pick up membership-included (free) throws at the Work Party Monday!
Full members are entitled to one package of battery tea light candles, a pack of 25 prayer cards, a box of 50 Flaming Heretic matches to give away on the parade route, and, for your own mementos, a pack of 5 of this year’s doubloons and one of each of this year’s playing cards. Full members share this package with any companion or child members under their membership (companions and kids do not get their own throws package).

Drop in the work party at St. Andrew’s any time between 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to pick up your package. (1031 S. Carrollton, side entrance on Zimple, map)

At 3:30 p.m. we will give away any throws bags not picked up!  

• If you CANNOT pick up your throws on Monday, you can have a friend pick up your throws for you (easiest for us) or, if you want us to make a special effort to set aside your throws for you, you MUST reserve your throws in advance by email or text.
• Hang around the work party after 3:30 p.m. if you are hoping to score some extra throws.

Tea Light Serfs — remember to deliver your finished tea lights at 11 a.m.

First, a huge grateful thank-you to all the people who helped assemble tea light candles over the holiday. Just reminding you that we need you to deliver your finished tea lights right at the start of our work party at 11 a.m. Monday January 2 at St. Andrew’s (1031 S. Carrollton, side entrance on Zimple, map).  We’ll need to add the matches and other goodies to your tea light bags, and people will be eager to pick up their finished packages, so we’ll need them right at the start.

Everyone needs a parade wristband

The wristband is how our security will know who is legitimately in our parade, so we need every single man, woman and child, every performer and musician to have one. This involves confirming you are on the list as parade eligible.  Avoid bottlenecks at the parade line-up check-in desk by picking up in advance. 

3 Ways to get your wristbands

• At the January 2nd Work Party 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. at St. Andrew’s (1031 S. Carrollton, side entrance on Zimple, map)
• At the January 5th pre-parade dinner party check-in table 
• At the January 6th parade line-up check-in desk before 5:30 p.m. (300 N. Front St., map)

YES, you can a friend or family pick up yours for you, but do coordinate those plans because we will mark off each person as picked up, so the same name will not be able to pick one up later.

GROUP LEADERS should pick up for the whole group.

Dragon workshop Thursday, Dec. 29

Calling our prop artists to the home of Captain Amanda from 2-8 p.m. this Thursday Dec. 29 (7330 Sycamore St., map). Jobs for any skill level (including zero skills!). Our goal is to finish our dragon Adversaire at this workshop — we’ll be hand sewing to attach his skin and creating his legs.

Props and Banners Workshops Parade Week

The Army of Artists at work! We’ll be making some new banners, spot cleaning and ironing existing banners,  replacing batteries and repairing props, and whatever needs to be done to get our props ready for parade day. All these workshops are at 7330 Sycamore St., map, the home of Captain Amanda. Jobs for any skill level (including zero skills!). If you sew, you might want to bring a sewing machine for working on the new banners.

• Sunday, January 1, 3-6 p.m.
• Tuesday, January 3, 2-5 p.m.
• Wednesday, January 4, 5:30-8:30 p.m.

Work Party January 2 at St. Andrew’s 

Most members have a reason to at least stop by this workshop, which makes it a bustling party. Full members will be picking up throws, foot soldiers will be picking up costumes, and everyone will be working on making our signature tea light throws. 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. in the Parish Hall of Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church at the corner of Carrollton and Zimple (1031 S. Carrollton, map). Enter from the side door on Zimple. Show off your own projects or bring a snack or wine to share if you like.  Potluck snacks, delicious holiday leftovers welcome. Dress: casual.

Throws pick-up and in-person sale

Order throws now for pick-up at the January 2 workshop!  We’ll also have throws and keepsakes for sale in person January 2. Many throws have already sold out, so don’t wait too long to order yours!