Press & Media

BBC | Mardi Gras: The Big Chief celebrating the stories of Africa

Demond Melancon is a sewer with extraordinary flair. Every year for Mardi Gras, he makes an elaborate feathered suit to compete with others in a centuries-old African-American tradition in New Orleans. And for the past few years, Demond has been telling the stories of Ethiopia through his designs. Image: Demond Melancon in his 2020 Mardi… 

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Demond Melancon: The bead master of New Orleans

This week’s In The Studio is presented by acclaimed actor and New Orleans resident Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Suits, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan). We join him as he meets Demond Melancon, a fine artist from New Orleans who is also the Big Chief of a Black Masking Indian tribe, the Young Seminole Hunters. The Black… 

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