The Second Line...

Last Sunday I had the privilege of participating in a traditional New Orleans “Second Line Parade.” The term “second line” originated with jazz funerals during which people walk through the streets playing music. Naturally drawn to the music, a second line of people would begin following the funeral parade, taking advantage of the opportunity to socialize, sing, dance, and enjoy the music.
This second line parade on Sunday was part of an effort to revitalize the community of Broadmoore and therefore lacked the typical funeral. We arrived at the parade expecting a half hour of music in the sun and a hundred people. Soon thereafter we were proved sorely mistaken as hundreds of people came dancing around the corner.
The event was organized by a social society known as the “Uptown Swingers” who could be spotted wearing bubblegum pink suits with matching pink fedora hats and Italian shoes. The photo at right is from a different society but featuring a similar color.

In essence, non-funeral Second Line parades are roving dance parties which make 15 minute stops at various local “watering holes” so that the sponsoring social club dancers can imbibe. All along the parade route, the cadre of vendors hock beer and other co’ drinks. Even the escorting mounted police were kind enough to ignore the countless “open containers” being enjoyed by the dancing masses.

It was truly a remarkable example of authentic community which often comes from beloved traditions. People in surrounding houses sat on their stoops and watched or joined in the parade. The elderly, families with tiny children, and people in wheelchairs joined in the dancing in the streets. The entire time, the parade danced its way through superficially destroyed neighborhoods as if to suggest that community is thicker than water.