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Benjamin Morris

Benjamin Morris’s work has appeared in Dark Mountain, Horizon Review, and on BBC Radio. He recently wrote about Mario Tama’s photography for The Rumpus. You can find Morris, who lives in New Orleans, on the side of the parade route. The purple beads are his favorite.
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    Benjamin Morris

    With Words and With Pretty: Super Sunday 2011

    With the exception of sporadic documentaries, books and a small but dedicated scholarly following, Mardi Gras Indians have remained comparatively unknown to much of the world outside New Orleans.

  • Benjamin Morris

    Throw Me Something, Mister: Mardi Gras Dispatch #6

    The final dispatch from Benjamin Morris, who covered New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011 for The Rumpus: The problem of Mardi Gras—of the day itself, Fat Tuesday—is that you only have one body. Consider the map of the day. Uptown, you…

  • Benjamin Morris

    Throw Me Something, Mister: Mardi Gras Dispatch #5

    Recurring dispatches from Benjamin Morris covering New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011: Some nights only begin once you get hit in the face. I never saw it coming, though I’m not sure the rider in Bacchus could say the same. The…

  • Benjamin Morris

    Throw Me Something, Mister: Mardi Gras Dispatch #4

    Recurring dispatches from Benjamin Morris covering New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011: If there’s one lesson we know well here in New Orleans, it’s that none of us are immune to the elements. It’s only a matter of time before a…

  • Benjamin Morris

    Throw Me Something, Mister: Mardi Gras Dispatch #3

    Recurring dispatches from Benjamin Morris covering New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011: “I thought I’d be happy with just one!” Kellie says, her slender frame weighed down under two full pounds of beads. Around her neck they gleam in a perfect…

  • Benjamin Morris

    Throw Me Something, Mister: Mardi Gras Dispatch #2

    Recurring dispatches from Benjamin Morris covering New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011: “Y’all ready?” I ask the cops, clustered near the corner of Napoleon and St Charles. “Been ready,” one shoots right back at me. “Just ready to get it done.”…

  • Benjamin Morris

    Throw Me Something, Mister:
    Mardi Gras Dispatch #1

    Recurring dispatches from Benjamin Morris covering New Orleans Mardi Gras, 2011: This is how it begins: with a lot of standing around. Some of us are drunk. Some of us are getting there, some of us are dead sober, but…

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    Benjamin Morris

    GENERATION GAP #7: Mario Tama’s New Orleans

    Now that It is over—now that the circus has come and gone, its glaring lights, its grips and its roadies; now that the visiting dignitaries have made their dignified departures and the newspapers have returned to publishing news