Mardi Gras may have ended, but beads were still flying at the Penn Bookstore last night.
Penn English professor Roger Abrahams and University of New Orleans professor Nick Spitzer threw Mardi Gras beads to the crowd during an event in which they discussed Mardi Gras in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
They pair are among the authors of a new book, Blues for New Orleans: Mardi Gras and America's Creole Soul. It focuses primarily on the history and culture of Mardi Gras.
Spitzer, who had just flown in from New Orleans, said that this year, Mardi Gras embodied the true spirit of the carnival.
The holiday, which falls on the Tuesday before the beginning of Lent, occurred on Tuesday.
"The people really wanted [Mardi Gras] and needed it," Spitzer said. "The city needed the music, the dancing, the food, the religious aspect and the competitions between neighborhoods."
However, he added that there was also a somber and political element to the carnival that was not present in previous years.
For example, political leaders such as President Bush and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin were parodied in this year's parade, Spitzer said.
The political response to Hurricane Katrina was what prompted the pair, along with Yale professors John Szwed and Robert Thompson, to write their book.
Abrahams called the Hurricane Katrina response "a personal insult."
"The federal and military response was late. The levees failed," he said. "How do we take care of a great cultural city?"
The authors said that their work primarily examines the phenomena of Mardi Gras and the Carnival Season in the context of the area's ethnic communities.
"What the book really gets at is that Carnival really expresses the many nuances and issues in the social order that creates it," Spitzer said, adding that the celebration is a collaboration of groups and doesn't wholly reflect any one.
But although New Orleans and its celebrations are at the heart of the book, similar events in other communities throughout the Caribbean and Louisiana are also discussed, Abrahams said.
"Every festival emerged from a small community, and the community reached it's apex with this festival," he said.
While few students attended the event, several community members and music afficionados were present.
"I was glad to get the views on the politics and the scoop on this year's Mardi Gras," said Saul Broudy, a folk and country musician.
