Cherice Harrison-Nelson on her Mardi Gras Indian Suits and Family Traditions

In her article “Assemblage and Inheritance,” Kristina Kay Robinson discusses Queen Cherice Harrison-Nelson’s group of Mardi Gras Indians, the Guardians of the Flame, a “contemporary maroon society” based in New Orleans. Harrison-Nelson designs and constructs her own narrative Mardi Gras suits, and is the third of five generations in her family to participate in the local masking tradition. Below, Harrison-Nelson talks in detail about some of her more meaningful desi