Victor Harris The Spirit of Fi Yi Yi At a time of emotional crisis, the Spirit of Fi Yi Yi visited Victor Harris to lift his heart and offer him direction. After 18 years “running flag” with the Yellow Pocahontas Mardi Gras Indians, he sadly departed the gang led by the highly respected Chief Allison “Tootie” Montana. “Everything seemed hopeless to me – I had no tribe,” Harris remembers. “It was at night, I was all alone. I turned off every light in the house, the clock that was ticking, I stopped it. I made sure the TV and the refrigerator were unplugged because I didn't want to hear a humming sound. I just wanted to be alone with the spirit in the dark.” “I woke up that next morning and I felt very good and I just started stretching and flexing my arms and started to say 'Yi Yi.' Suddenly I stopped and then I said 'Fi Yi Yi' and the third time I screamed it 'Fi Yi Yi!' That was the first time the word was ever mentioned. That was my given spiritual cultural name and it represented Africa.” Though the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians are rightfully renowned for their artfully creative and magnificently adorned suits (outfits), there is a much deeper significance to what they do and represent. It's about the important essence of community and the thread that links them to not only Native Americans but to the African continent – their original ancestry. When Big Chief Victor Harris, the Spirit of Fi Yi Yi, stepped out on the streets in 1984 leading his gang the Mandingo Warriors for the first time, it marked a new era and a new look in the Black Indian Nation. Much in the African tradition, the Chief wore a full-face mask rather than a plumed or feathered “crown” (headdress) and used a stylistically African approach in designing the bead work. He's continued this artful conceptualization through the decades on suits of many colors. Big Chief Harris, who in 2015 celebrated 50 years of masking Indian, boasts both old school Indian ways and a forward-thinking attitude. He's very aware that the aim of his year-round labor of sewing a suit and his reason for taking to the streets on Carnival Day is to bring joy to friends, family and onlookers in the neighborhoods. “It's like being a medicine man. It heals the community.” Oh, yeah, he has some fun too. Harris approaches his role differently than any other Black Indian chiefs in the some 130-year history of the culture. A tall man with a impressive stature, the Chief looms large as he runs from curb to curb, forcefully hoopin' and a-hollerin' as the wide-eyed children along his route scramble in fright and delight. For that matter, many adults caught by the surprise of his mock fury, quickly step back to allow room for Fi Yi Yi. The Backstreet Cultural Museum, a little jewel in New Orleans's Tremé neighborhood that specializes in the traditions of the Mardi Gras Indians, social aid and pleasure club parades and jazz funerals, stands as the headquarters of Fi Yi Yi. Curated by Sylvester Francis, the museum – “A Powerhouse of Knowledge” – might be more accurately described as Chief Harris' second home. The relationship between these two longtime friends and cultural leaders is really like family. They share an understanding that what they do is all about the community, the people. In the mid-1960s, Harris became a member of the then newly-organized, youth-oriented Tambourine & Fan Social Aid and Pleasure Club. A multi-faceted organization, one of the group's first actions was marching to City Hall to demand that a park be established in or near the 7th Ward. The protest was successful and a small grassy patch just off of North Claiborne Avenue was set aside for sports and recreational activities. For five years, Harris coached a football team there and, importantly became close to another community activist, Collins Lewis, whom everyone simply called “Coach.” Decades later, Chief Harris would name him the Commissioner of the Chief's Sewing Table in the Spirit of Fi Yi Yi and the Mandingo Warriors. Coach primarily remained in a supportive role in the gang. He skillfully wielded a needle and thread to create beautiful beaded designs for the Chief's suits, played drums and sang with the tribe in the traditional call-and-response of the Black Indian chants. There is no mistaking the mighty Big Chief Victor Harris, the Spirit of Fi Yi Yi when he hits the streets leading the Mandingo Warriors. As tambourines ring and drums pound out rhythms that are both African and New Orleans in nature, the call is, “Who they talkin' about?” The response: “Fi Yi Yi!” Geraldine Wyckoff Sylvester Francis Sr. Cameraman and Visionary Founder of the Backstreet Cultural Museum Sylvester Francis Sr. founded the Backstreet Cultural Museum out of devotion and passion for his culture. A self-styled “Cameraman,” Francis is the visionary who developed the Backstreet Cultural Museum as an institution that protects New Orleans’ African American traditional art forms. The Backstreet Cultural Museum officially opened its doors in 1999. Its origins can be traced back nearly five decades to when Sylvester paraded with the Gentlemen of Leisure Social Aid & Pleasure Club. He bought a Super 8 mm camera and a still camera and began documenting Carnival celebrations, Second-Line Parades and Jazz Funerals throughout the city. The Backstreet Cultural Museum, located in Tremé, holds the world’s most comprehensive collection related to New Orleans’ African American community-based masking and processional traditions, including Mardi Gras Indians, Jazz Funerals, Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, Baby Dolls, and Skull and Bone Gangs. For Sylvester, the Museum is his way of commemorating his community and its ephemeral culture. Visit and support the Museum next time you are in the Tremé. www.backstreetmuseum.org