![afrodiaspores:
“Voodoo queen Lala and her husband Louie in New Orleans Louisiana in the 1930s,” photographer and exact date unknown
Al Rose, in Storyville, writes that “an association of [the red light district] Storyville madams, which met regularly, agreed to refuse to use the services of Lala and other [Voodoo] practitioners on each other.” The favorite queen of the madams was Eulalie Echo. They were always requesting her services for cures and hexes. Her real name was Laura Hunter, and she raised Jelly Roll Morton. She was his godmother…
In the late 1970s Irma Thomas, the New Orleans singer, would record a tune called “Princess Lala”—based on Lala, a famous Voodoo queen in the New Orleans of the 1930s and 1940s—with by all accounts a fairly accurate Voodoo practice described in the lyric.
Robert Tallant wrote in 1946,
If there is a living successor to [Marie Laveau’s] Voodoo throne it is probably Lala…“I’ve had plenty trouble,” Lala admitted. “I been pulled in lots of times, but they can’t do me nothin’. One time I told a judge to give me his ring and I’d make it walk. When he seen his ring walkin’ away he said, ‘You is sure a smart woman.’ Then he let me go. You see, I been studyin’ all my life…”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwz8lgVbbx1qjeot1o1_500.jpg)
I will listen to these “OMG must protect white characters from being played by brown people” riffs when I can get a Luke Cage movie. Or Black Panther complete with Wakanda. Or a period piece about the Harlem Renaissance that doesn’t focus on white people. The Policy Kings. Black Wall Street. Chinatown with actual Chinese people. Anything about Sikhs in America. Vaqueros. Or anything starring people of color interacting with their own communities as they exist instead of a collection of stereotypes that erase humanity. Can I get the history that isn’t traumatic on my screen? How about magic that isn’t done in service of white people? Can we be our own heroes without white people flipping their shit?
This is why karnythia is one of my favorite people in the worlds. All of them. See you as Wiscon, bb?
Yep, we will be there Friday.
Sweet. I will get in sometime Friday. my first panel isn’t till like 9pm? It’s the My Little Pony panel about how Bronies are why we can’t have nice things.
My first panel isn’t until Sunday. I suspect that will change though. And we’re having a Steampunk Speakeasy Sunday night!
That sounds crazy and cool. Do you need to be in costume to attend?
Nope. You do need to have ID if we don’t know you because we’re serving booze.
