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 The
Undefeated Divas
hold first Parade of
the Revived Katrina Season
Sunday, January 23,
2006 New
Orleans, LA ..... The
Undefeated Divas, " Ladies
of the Main line "
continued Sunday to bring the Main Line culture of New
Orleans, back from the brink of certain oblivion, after
Katrina left the city in all but the great city it had
targeted. Hurricane Katrina did everything in her power to be
sure that the Main Line season for 2005 - 2006 would not be on
the streets. What ever she bought, It wasn't enough!
The Divas parades are known
for the sights, sounds and costume switch ups, and which the
club did not disappoint their fans they hold spell bound
each season. The club had this parade on the books for the
season long before the hurricane hit. It was highly doubtful
that anything would hit the streets for months to come. Then,
the Sunday of January 16th, 2006 at 12 noon. the Clubs after
getting together, and organizing themselves, came together, in
an All Star Main Line that took the city by total surprise!
Thousands turned out, coming in from regional cities far
away, to welcome the return of a culture and past time
of the city.
The
club, "Undefeated Divas", is one of the 30
known clubs that are currently in transit back to the city of
New Orleans to hold down one of this city's most cherished
underground cultures. The Main Lines go back more than
175 years to the time of African rhythms that were held in Old
Congo Square which is now a part of Armstrong Park.
As Main Line Clubs, come
and go, the Divas are still at the forefront of the culture,
and leading it in it's new direction.
On last Sunday the 22nd,
2006, the Divas, held their latest parade, on the freshly rain
soaked street of Rampart, at Armstrong Park. Pulling up in two
black Limo's, the ladies took a little time to get together,
with a few friends, sponsors, and well wishers as they formed
the line with the Rebirth Brass band blowing in their support
for this event. The Divas to  this time because they wished to
thank their benefactors of, the Norman Dixon Sr. foundation,
Jazzfest, Popee, Byron and their other friends without whom
they would have had to take more time and resources to pull
off this processional.
Show time was 12 noon at
the park, with the new contingent of police in place, at
the newly designated strength of at least 20 officers. They
were deployed as follows, 4 on horseback, 6 on motorcycles,
and two in 5 cars. The procession covered two precincts with a
presence from both. The officers were well mannered, and
seemed at ease throughout the entire parade. This wasn't the
only change either. We'll get more into this in another
article.
The processional started
about 12:30 p.m. and headed west into the uptown or the sixth
ward of the city from Armstrong Park. The Undefeated Divas for
this foray consisted of 8 women and 2 young Divas in training.
Also along was three coordinators, a parade chairman, and a
hosts of others supporters as well. Starting out in black
pants, yellow Tees imprinted with the club's motto, black
walking shoes, the group proceeded down Rampart to Oretha
Castle Halley Blvd. 
Continuing down Halley
Blvd, the group with its entourage of approximately 62 admirers
made a right unto Felicity, continued down to a on S. Liberty
where they stopped at Dorothy's Place. The group after taking
a quick break, which consisted of juice, fruit and water,
moved on down to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, then on to Simon
Bolivar. Here at Josephine & Simon Bolivar the group
stopped in the house of one of their members fro a,
"Brief Stop", which in the culture has become code
for wardrobe change.
When the ladies emerged
approximately 40 mins later, they were adored in one of the
best fashion outfits, the Main Line culture had seen in the past year.
The wardrobe was a brilliant stroke of planning, making use of
the labeling material to impress the pattern into an item to
showcase on its own. The color scheme was dead on, with the
feather fans, skillfully applied as one more of the delicately
balanced palette, whose hues adorned the ladies.
Coordinated boots, hat,
and fans, with very subtle hues accenting the difference made
the outfits extremely attractive.  The
hats, and boots made of the same material is a very unique and
novel element, seldom seen in the main line clubs that have
paraded in the city thus far. None of the clubs have shown a
flair before now of knowledge to manipulate the very subtle
tones necessary, to cut outfits. Before, all colors the clubs
used were opposing hues to accent or sharp contrasting tones
to push accents on the viewer.
Finally, the route
was long and ambitious, and according to our counter was
approximately 4.8 miles. Some of the streets were a bit hard
to find but in the end, we were able to locate the route, once
we got pass the looping one way directions. All in all the
parade went well, the crowd was extremely well behaved as was
the police. It was a great day in the Main Line Culture and in
the return of the culture to the streets of New Orleans,
LA.
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