• Pageants, Po' Boys, and Pork on a Stick: Documenting the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival

    Author(s):
    Emily Roehl, Jeannette Vaught (see profile)
    Date:
    2018
    Group(s):
    Animal Studies, History, Science Studies and the History of Science
    Subject(s):
    Animals--Study and teaching, Food, Food--Study and teaching, Louisiana
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    festivals, oil, shrimp, Animal studies, Food studies, Gender
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6VP2J
    Abstract:
    This photoessay documents the 82nd Annual Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival, which took place in Morgan City, Louisiana over Labor Day weekend in 2018. It contains photographs of the festival, including images of pageant queens, food vendors, and the Blessing of the Fleet. The essay documents the authors’ experience of the festival, and chronicles its long history from its origins as a shrimping industry labor festival to its current status as a major component of the statewide Louisiana harvest festival and pageant circuit. Oral histories and interviews with shrimpers, oil boat owners, festival employees, and pageant queens are featured. The article considers the dominance of the Gulf oil industry and its impact on other Gulf industries, the impact that the decline of shrimping in St. Mary Parish has had on Vietnamese shrimping communities, the gendered and classed performances of the festival’s pageant, and the historic divisions along race and class lines in coastal Louisiana that the festival both reveals and helps to heal. The article includes an analysis of the connections between food and oil, and how the food for sale at the festival challenged embedded stereotypes of southern and Louisianan cuisine.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1353/scu.2018.0004
    Publisher:
    Johns Hopkins University Press
    Pub. Date:
    2018-4-8
    Journal:
    Southern Cultures
    Volume:
    24
    Issue:
    1
    Page Range:
    46 - 67
    ISSN:
    1534-1488
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    5 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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