The Baby Dolls: Preserving the Culture

The HNOC presents a screening and subsequent discussion of The Baby Dolls: Preserving Culture in New Orleans at 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 25, at The Historic New Orleans Collection (533 Royal Street).

Produced by Dr. Kim Vaz-Deville and Vashni Balleste and directed by Dr. Tia Smith, in collaboration with the Xavier University Department of Mass Communication, comes the documentary, “The Baby Dolls: Preserving Culture in New Orleans.”

Meet Dr. Kim Vaz-Deville, a Professor of Education and the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Xavier University New Orleans, whose study, “The Baby Dolls: Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition” (Louisiana State University Press, 2013), has sparked a renewed interest in Baby Doll Carnival tradition. The book was the 2016 selection of the Young Leadership Council of New Orleans’ One Book One New Orleans.

You can also hear testimonies of Baby Dolls who are still keeping the empowering, beautiful tradition alive in the city.