“Yardi Gras” may be coming to a block near you
/437 Quincy Street NW is bringing Mardi Gras to DC
by Cassandra Hetherington
Girl Scout’s honor, Mardi Gras is a family and community event.
Yes there is drinking, drugs and nudity, but that mostly occurs downtown New Orleans. Mardi Gras is truly about music, art, zaniness, and dancing with total strangers in the middle of the street. Imagine if for one month out of the year, people here were kind to each other. And I mean that sincerely. Republicans, Democrats, capitalists, socialists, Cowboy fans and anyone else… nearly all of them jamming out to the same mind-blowing high school marching bands, smiling at each other, laughing at the zany outfits… can you imagine such an experience?
It has happened for hundreds of years in New Orleans and in most Catholic countries worldwide — except this year. Stupid pandemic.
It doesn’t matter that I have lived in DC for 21 years or that I have DC Statehood signs in my yard; I miss New Orleans desperately and look forward to flying there for Carnival Season more than anything. My husband rides in the Krewe of Tucks, famous for throwing toilet plungers, toilet paper, and really anything related to toilets. I had hoped that New Orleans would be able to host Carnival this year, but of course, that was wishful thinking.
Thousands of people are also heartbroken to be missing the greatest party on earth this year. One New Orleans local conceived of the Krewe of House Floats (KoHF) …aka “Yardi Gras.” The idea is to bring the Mardi Gras spirit to a resident’s own home, while also paying out-of-work artists, who normally prepare floats, to instead transform the house. On Fat Tuesday in New Orleans, people will walk and drive around the city to see these houses, and while it won’t be the same as “normal Mardi Gras,” it will be special.
Bringing Yardi Gras to DC
Over 1,200 expats have pledged to decorate their abode with a simple wreath, lights or more elaborate decorations. DC boasts eight houses on the official KoHF map, and there are more just over the Maryland and Virginia borders. I confess our house is on the map, but it’s low-key. Petworth resident and New Orleanian native Olga Francois, on the other hand, has created an entire magical block right here in our city.
Orlando Miles-Francois, Denise Miles-Francois, and Olga Francois in front of their decorated home.
Walk, bike, drive, skip or crawl over to the 400 block of Quincy Street NW this weekend. For it is there that Olga and her neighbors have fabulously decorated a total of seven attached row houses. Olga sketched the original design, found Virginia artist Rodrigo Pradel on Craigslist, and hired him to bring her sketches to life.
Olga’s original sketch for decorating the block for Mardi Gras
She even drove to Baltimore to pick up a very large bag of beads from another New Orleans expat she had only met on social media. Fortunately this block of Quincy Street NW is a tight-knit block. Convincing everyone else to either help decorate or allow decorations to be put on their house was the easiest part of Olga’s last three weeks. One neighbor was actually out of town during the final push and came home to find a giant feather and flower on their railing.
Olga’s wife Denise Miles-Francois said, “Yeah she’s crazy and she wants to go big. I was thinking a few beads.”
It took a dozen people to paint, glue, cut and affix the decorations to roofs, fences and houses, including the children, affectionately called the “Penguin Chickies” by the adults. Olga and Denise’s 11-year old daughter Orlando thinks “It looks cool!” and I consider this a fact.
Kathleen, a six-year resident on the block, has a decorated house that is the first “float” in the parade. Kathleen said she is “so thankful for [Olga’s] creativity and to be a part of her spirit.”
I was shocked to learn that the larger-than-life waterproof flowers were made out of posterboard, but nonplussed that the blinking French Quarter sign came from inside Olga’s house. It felt exciting to be standing on that block despite the damp cold weather.
While floats, marching bands, flambeaux carriers and walking Krewes won’t parade any streets this year, the spirit of New Orleans lives on. Knowing that thousands of people around the world have decked out their houses in purple, green and gold on scales small and large is heartwarming now more than ever. It reinforces that these components of community, family, whimsy and art are the true soul of Mardi Gras. This is what has kept it alive and exciting since Bienville brought Mardi Gras to New Orleans in the early 1700s.
As Olga’s neighbor Kathleen told me, “This has lifted people’s spirits.” Laissez les bons temps rouler.
Mardi Gras Day (Fat Tuesday) is February 16, 2021.
Check out www.kreweofhousefloats.org (which includes the map for DC, VA and MD) for more info.
