The House of Dance & Feathers:
A Museum by Ronald W. Lewis
Text by Rachel Breunlin and

 

Written by

Rachel Breunlin

Ronald W. Lewis

 

Paperback, 8.5"x10.5", 212 pages

ISBN: 0-9706190-7-3
ISBN 13: 978-0-9706190-7-5

 

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In a backyard on Tupelo Street, in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Ronald W. Lewis has assembled a museum to the various worlds he inhabits. Built in 2003, and rebuilt after Katrina, the House of Dance & Feathers represents many New Orleans societies: Mardi Gras Indians, Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, Bone Gangs, and Parade Krewes.
More than just a catalogue of the artifacts in the museum, this book is a map of these worlds as experienced by Ronald W. Lewis. Through stories and conversation, we come to know the wide network of people who create and nurture performance traditions in the city.
The House of Dance & Feathers is a unique space, showcasing communities who come together to sew and sing, to vaunt and dance, and to reconstruct the city.
Like the cultures represented, the museum mixes the the magical and the mundane, and makes explicit the connections between New Orleans, the African diaspora, Native America, and our shared future.

 

Read the review from the Times Picayune

Read about the museum.