MEDIA CONTACT: Amy Kirk Duvoisin, The Joan of Arc Project (504) 251-5046 stjoankrewe@yahoo.com. To stay in touch with us “like” JOAN OF ARC PROJECT on Facebook.


CELEBRATE JOAN OF ARC’S 599TH BIRTHDAY WITH US ON TWELFTH NIGHT!
Third annual joan of arc parade rolls Thursday January 6 at 6 p.m.
Starts at Bienville statue at conti and Decatur--Ends at joan of arc statue at st phillip and Decatur--Main procession down chartres, across Jackson square
Parade highlights include:
• 599 candles and matchbooks will be handed out to parade goers to join in the procession
• Handmade throws include: 16 decorated wooden swords given out by our Maid of Honor (student Joan of Arc Mallory Young, from St. Martin’s Episcopal School); surprises from saintsforsinners.com (makers of the gorgeous hand-decorated boxes containing handpainted Joan of Arc medallions given to 100 lucky folks last year); Saints magnets handmade by Sister Rita of The Poor Clare Monastery; handmade wooden crosses, locally designed prayer cards, and other unique limited handcrafted items.
• Special guests this year include: Councilmember Kristin Gisleson Palmer riding as “Joanie on the Pony” in a golden costume; the new director of Alliance Francaise New Orleans, Lilian Cadet, walking as our krewe King
• Wolgemut will lead the parade with pipes and drums playing their “medieval music for modern minds”.
• Our hotel sponsor The Bienville House is generously donating meeting space for our pre-and post-parade gatherings as well as champagne glasses with the krewe insignia (Joan’s coat of arms).
• Gambino’s Bakery has donated king cakes for us to share post-parade at the Joan of Arc statue, in honor of Joan’s success in ensuring the coronation of her King and in honor of Twelfth Night!
• Remember the Benedictine monks last year handing out holy water? They’re coming back…all the way from Madison, Wisconsin! They are part of Lake Edge United Church of Christ’s annual volunteer trip to New Orleans (a trip they’ve been making since Katrina) which now includes a group of 8-10 of them in the Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc.
• Fire artist Monica Ferroe performs before we roll!
• KIDsmART students will participate in the procession as stiltwalkers.
• Pierre Pichon & Gypsy Swing Trio will play for the krewe post-parade party at The Bienville House Hotel (krewe members only).
• Our original warrior Joan of Arc, Caye Mitchell, will once again be clad in armor and will be donating horses for the parade c/o her company “Equine by Design”
• Pegasus Carriage Company joins us for the first time.
• New! Decatur Street will be closed at St. Phillip at the parade’s end to allow for crowds to enjoy the post-parade party at the statue and the Market Café.
BYOKC (BRING YOUR OWN KING CAKE):
…As always the public is welcome and encouraged to bring gifts and treats to share at the statue, especially King cake! Remember it’s a birthday party for Joan—AND the beginning of Mardi Gras! We have twelve king cakes donated by Gambino’s but they’ll go fast once the King and Joan cut the cake. So in the spirit of our first year when it was come one, come all…bring stuff for everyone--and for Joan!

Yes Patti there is a Joan of Arc Parade!

"And I feel just like a misplaced Joan of Arc..."--from Smith's song KIMBERLY

Yes it's true. I personally invited Patti Smith to be in our parade and ride as Joan of Arc. I offered her a horse and armor...

She was in town in the spring to lecture on her photographs that she was donating to New Orleans Museum of Art. Thanks to my friend Grace, I was able to get a seat in the auditorium to hear her and not have to stand out in the lobby with so many other fans, waiting and hoping for the televisions to work (as satellites of her live lecture inside). Every time she put up a slide with a Joan of Arc photograph (there were several of the statue in Paris that ours in the Quarter is triplet to) someone would turn to look at me and grin, as if to say, "Heeyyyyyy!"

(It's no secret, the links between Patti and Joan...she's been called rock's Joan of Arc, and she references Joan in her KIMBERLY lyrics, among other books, poems, and interviews...just Google "Joan of Arc, Patti Smith" and you'll see Joan shows up constantly, most recently in her memoir JUST KIDS)...

After the lecture, I found Patti standing alone as a scarecrow in the gallery, as if everyone was afraid to talk with this goddess genius in her signature black. Her mangled mane made it nearly impossible to make eye contact and it was like there was an invisible force protecting her as she stood among her photo gifts to our city. I approached her, speaking as fast as I could to say "Joan of Arc" in my introductory sentence so she realized I had a specific purpose in chatting...She was calm, steady-eyed, gentle and gracious, looking down at my Joan of Arc Project "business card" with interest. She said she was heading down to the French Market the next day to photograph the statue and go to Cafe du Monde and said that she'd "give me a call". Naturally, I acted like it was the most normal thing in the world for Patti Smith to say she'd give me a call. "Great!! Sure! I'm in the office all day! Right by the statue!" I smiled idiotically and made my exit as her agent approached, eyeing me warily (No, sir! I'm here to talk business...about martyrdom and Mardi Gras with Ms. Smith! This is serious!). It didn't help matters that ten minutes later I was standing a few feet away from Michael Stipe as he admired some of Patti's photographs. Had I died and gone to My Favorite Rock Star heaven?

Maybe...because the next day I walked in the rain to buy Patti some white lilys, and delivered them to the Soniat House where she was staying (thank you Grace for telling me! although at the time I was like, why would I want to know THAT? what am i, some kind of freak??) with a note inviting her to ride in our 2011 parade. I promised her a costume and a horse and included photos from previous parades, press materials, one of our signature matchbooks, and a fleur de lis Mardi Gras necklace for some bling--which was kind of stupid since we don't give out plastic. But I know Patti has a fondness for cool kitch, so it seemed right as a nod to Mardi Gras overall. I left it all at the front desk, where a sweet but clueless clerk had to check the ledger for her name--making it clear that she had absolutely no idea who Patti Smith was. (No wonder so many famous visitors apparently stay at the Soniat House! You can stay there in peace...the worse that may happen is someone may drop off flowers for you and hope that they get to the right person!)

A week or so later, Susan Gisleson (our banner designer and first person I EVER had a conversation with about the Joan parade..she encouraged me to such a degree I consider her one of the parade Voices!!) told me that her friend had lunch w/ Patti and Patti asked her about our parade. Gulp! Patti Smith spoke the words JOAN OF ARC PARADE aloud in New Orleans???!!! That's something, isn't it?

I haven't heard from her of course...(did I really think she was just going to call me and we'd wander in the rain through the Quarter, talking about Joan of Arc, Robert Mapplethorpe, NYC in the seventies and Detroit in the nineties? Not at all, though I considered that maybe the rain cancelled her Cafe du Monde and photography outing...but really..would rain stop Patti Smith from anything?) but I have this fantasy that when we get to the statue this year after the parade, she'll be standing there in a black raincoat, aside from the crowd, with her camera, acting like she stumbled upon our spectacle.

I'll leave her alone..but sometime in the spring, I will mail her a letter asking her to be our Joan of Arc in 2012, for Joan's 600th birthday. "Dear Misplaced Joan of Arc: Find your place with us, the Krewe de Jeanne d'Arc!"

If the world is supposed to end in 2012, I'd gladly go up in flames with Patti Smith in New Orleans. Wouldn't you?

Owning the Fire

The only flames that flicker in our annual January 6th Joan of Arc parade are the processional candles we hand out to spectators with matchbooks for Joan's birthday (this year--599 numbered candles will be given out for spectators to light and walk with alongside the parade). This is our way of giving homage and celebrating her life, rather than emphasizing her death (as is more common with saints, who are celebrated on their feast days, i.e. their death days, NOT their birthdays!).

Yet it's impossible not to associate Joan with her burning at the stake--alas, it's the only thing most people know about her. That's why we are especially glad that her birthday falls on Twelfth Night, when we can acknowledge her achievement of the coronation of King Charles VII...by sharing king cake at the Joan of Arc statue we're recognizing what she was "born for", as she put it: to ensure that the Dauphin became King, as her Voices said he would--with her assistance.

But because Joan is so deeply and obviously associated with fire, we have representation of it at the beginning of our parade. Local fire artist Monica Ferroe (pictured here) will be at the Bienville statue before we roll, showing us the power of fire--and the power of a woman who wields it. In this way we are turning the tables on the fire that surrounded and extinguished Joan. While the religious Joan may find it perhaps not as reverent as our processional candles, I think Joan's soul would rejoice to know that the fire is not swallowing the girl--but instead, the other way around.

Joan is Everywhere

It seems not a week goes by that a Joan of Arc reference does not catch my ear or eye, or someone sends me an article or a photograph about something Joan-related...one week it was a friend visiting Ireland who snapped a photo of a Joan of Arc piece of stained glass in a church there..a few weeks later, another friend read an article in the New York Times about a piece of graffitti featuring Joan (above image, and full article at nytimes.com 10/27 issue)...last week someone sent me a photo of the golden Joan statue in the Place des Pyramides in Paris (the one ours in the Quarter replicates)...

And this week, I heard the lyrics to a song on the radio that I've heard before, but it struck me anew...the grouping of these three together--Cause she's so high, high above me, she's so lovely...She's so high, like Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, or Aphrodite ("She's So High" by Fastball) --because I had just read a review of a new book by Cleopatra, noting especially how she continues to be reinterpreted by everyone who writes about her, especially in terms of how threatening she was to men (with a focus more on her sexual prowess than her political abilities), how she "is" Elizabeth Taylor just as Joan "is" Ingrid Bergman to many...and how admiring contemporary males were of her, most notably Octavian, who was disappointed he could not capture her alive but was nonetheless impressed by his enemy's "lofty spirit". Sound familiar?

Thinking about Joan's relationship to other near-mythical female figures (and truly mythical, like Aphrodite) and her continuing relevance in pop culture is an ongoing fascination for me and it's why we had a Joan of Arc book club the first year and a full day conference about her (The Joan of Arts Fete) the second year. It's why as we approach 2012 and her 600th birthday we'll be planning more and other events about her (look for the Fete in May 2011 between her victory day of May 8 and her feast day of May 31). The possibilities for discussion and conversation and art-making surrounding Joan are inexhaustible...which is lucky for us in The Joan of Arc Project. Never a dull moment, and never a week without a connection made through Joan's legacy and light.

Joan: Calendar Girl!

We are honored, flattered and totally psyched! to have been selected as the January feature for the comprehensive and cool totally homegrown LOUISIANA FESTIVALS AND EVENTS CALENDAR published by Tatooed Lady Publishing of New Orleans.

Do you have YOUR copy yet? It's a great way to stay abreast of all parades, festivals, and events throughout the state: from our comrades the Phunny Phorty Phellows, who walk Uptown on Twelfth Night, to the Hot Air Balloon Championships in Baton Rouge in August...from the Alligator Festival in Luling in September to the Renaissance Fair in Hammond in November...etc!! It's no wonder my friend Rachel is trying to get the state coined "The Festival State".

Four photographs of the Joan of Arc Parade 2010 taken by Kim Welsh were selected by this year's editor Lydia Benson for the January 2011 page. Two of them feature Fred Klotz, aka "The Bastard of Orleans" who with his wife Caye Mitchell, our official and original Joan of Arc, leads our parade each year clad in armor--much of it hand-designed by him!

Our parade would not be what it is without the leadership of Caye and Fred. Thanks to you both for being our steadfast warriors!!

I'm so glad that the Bastard is pictured in this promotion for the krewe not only because he is AWESOME but because it shows that ah-hem! Dudes! We welcome you and encourage you to walk with us!

(I repeat: This is not, never has been, never will be a female only krewe!! Contrary to the assumption that it is so! Joan fought for, with, and among men! And, er, ah-hem! was put to death by them! So we gotta have men in our krewe to represent! Come as knights, monks, peasants, priests, Saints...there are many relevant medieval characters to choose from! Have I made it clear we want you, need you and love you boyz???)

Others pictured in this colorful January calendar spread include the ravishing Blair Davis, our first annual Maid of Honor ("student" Joan of Arc) selected for our 2010 parade. Next to her is her page, Ty, whom she selected to hand our her 16 hand-decorated wooden swords. In the lower right hand corner is parade founder (yours truly) Amy Kirk Duvoisin, sans the heretic hat!

Thanks to Lydia and the Tatooed Lady for giving us this extraordinary exposure and reminding people throughout the first month of the year that we are the first parade of the season!

Go out and get your copy at the 15 current retail locations in the NOLA area carrying them. For the listing of stores and more information visit www.louisiana-festivals.com.

DEADLINE FOR MEMBERSHIP and MAID OF HONOR CONTEST DECEMBER 1ST

We have received several emails the past two weeks from individuals asking if it's too late to join!

Absolument pas!!!

I neglected to post on the blog and website but had posted on Facebook and in a recent press release that the deadline for both the student MAID OF HONOR contest and the membership deadline have been extended from November 1st to December 1st.

I should have learned from last year...the same people so caught up in both the beginning of the school year AND Halloween are often interested in Joan of Arc so November 1st (All Saints Day--I just can't resist wanting to use that date for something!) has been too soon both years...from now on I'll surrender to a December 1st deadline!

Because we walk on Twelfth Night (January 6th), Joan's birthday AND the first day of the Mardi Gras season, getting people on board earlier than Christmas time is a challenge--especially considering the 2011 Mardi Gras is March 8th!

Thanks to everyone who has already sent in dues and to those asking to join!

For new members and student contestants, please email stjoankrewe@yahoo.com for an application. There is additional information about the Maid of Honor contest and member levels in this blog and on our website http://www.joanofarcparade.com/.

If you are returning from last year simply mail membership (review new levels) to our p.o. box.

JOAN OF ARC PROJECT

PO BOX 56815

NEW ORLEANS LA 70156

St. Joan Parade featured in LOUISIANA FOLKLORE MISCELLANY

The Louisiana Folklore Miscellany, the annual publication of the Louisiana Folklore Society, has published an article by Frank de Caro, with photographs by Rosan Jordan, including a full color back cover, on the 2010 St. Joan of Arc Parade and Project (as well as on the activities of another organization which began around the same time as the St. Joan Project, the Red Beans Social Aid and Pleasure Club).

The article is "Emerging New Orleans Mardi Gras Traditions: The St. Joan of Arc Parade and the Red Beans Krewe, 2010" and it appears in volume 20 (2010) of the Louisiana Folklore Miscellany and includes much background information as well as discussion of the parade.

The article will probably be available (without the photos) on-line within a year through the Web site of the Louisiana Folklife Program (www.louisianafolklife.org), and copies of the publication can be ordered ($15.00 by check or money order made out to Louisiana Folklore Society, shipping and handling included; a limited number are available) from Carolyn Ware, Louisiana Folklore Miscellany, Department of English, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803.