Creativity and Resistance
The role that second lines play in shaping the social landscape has been particularly relevant through the post-Katrina reconstruction process. Second lines have helped pull together social communities that were dispersed by Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent inadequacy of aid.
And yet, second lines have been the subject of complaints by members of gentrifyign communities. Futhermore, in January 2006, the NOPD raised parade permit fees from $1,600 to $4,000 without a public hearing, making it substantially more difficult for social clubs to continue funding parades.
However, a partnership formed between social clubs sued the city for the arbitrary raise in permit fees. The city reduced the parade permit fees demonstrating the effectiveness of second lines as potential starting points for the collective mobilization of subversive strategies.
Some of the very strategies employed to generate profits and maintain hopelessness also create the potential for contestation and alternative ways of thinking. Liminality also exists as something that cultivates a sense of creativity and possibility. This can ultimately facilitate the mobilization of resistance to structural inequalities.
In New Orleans, certain African American communities express creativity and resistance through second lines.
Second lines are parades organized and funded by social clubs, which originated as 19th century mutual aid societies. They are believed to be a tradition originating in 18th century freedom dances performed by slaves on the fringe of society in an area known as Congo Square. Second lines are ultimately practices that originated among marginalized communities occupying liminal space.
Second lines produce a liminal space in which everyday social structures are upturned. The liminal period of a parade begins when members dance out of a door into the street. After the parade has begun, the distinction between audience and performer fades. Both participate in music, dancing, revelry, and a shared sense of communitas.
“...[second lines] hold enormous potential for the development of collective mobilization and struggle” (462).
- George Lipsitz (2006)
