Regis’s discussion of the second
line parades in New Orleans touches on some of the methods and intents
particular to performance art as we have studied in class, and how it has redefined
the traditional perception of art. An important aspect is the inability to
become a passive viewer – either you join in, wherein you experience the
blurred “line” between audience and performer, or, because of the massive crowd
surrounding the club and band, you won’t be able to truly witness the parade at
all from a distance, which Regis contrasts with parades of a white European
tradition (i.e., Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s Day). (755)
Through “memory tactics,” the second
line parade redefines the way in which lives are memorialized. Regis contrasts
the staid monuments memorializing wealthy capitalists against what Pierre Nora
calls lieux de mémoires, “spaces
actively transformed by popular action into places of memory that concretize
popular historical consciousness. … Seemingly temporary, or fleeting, the
memorials of second liners endure in the collective memory of participants.”
(762-3)
This
kind of active transformation and the reliance on memory have made the second
line parades susceptible to constant evolution. Regis acknowledges this in the
funeral for D-Boy, highlighting the way the younger generation paid their
respects in a “manner [that] challenged the formality and pious respectability
of the older generation, which had been dominating the wake thus far.” (760)
Another important aspect of the
parades to Regis is their modes of defiance against the normalized hegemonic
culture. While participating, the author noticed the marchers “improvise on
standard lyrics” and teenagers hit street signs as “musical appropriations of
space,” physically and symbolically claiming the streets. (757)
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