00:00I am Gwendolyn Victoria Rainey and I am the founder of the Mystic Crew of Femme
00:10Fatale and I'm going to tell my story of how the Mystic Crew of Femme Fatale was
00:16started. I would liken it to say that I was a girl that had a dream that grew
00:21towards to a woman that had a vision.
00:42Mardi Gras was for the elitist hierarchy. It was for white businessmen, bankers and
00:50lawyers. They formed Rex, Momus, Comus, and Proteus. But it was only for the elitist.
01:01Uptown. Blue Bloods. You could not belong to any of the traditional white
01:08organizations.
01:15Zulu Associated Pleasure Club is the organization established by black men
01:20that I believe they started, I know, a hundred plus years ago.
01:26My father, the late George V. Rainey, he was King Zulu in 2019,
01:30was very, very instrumental in the Zulu Club. He was a member for 57 years and so we
01:38owned a small business in New Orleans, Rainey's Restaurant and Catering, and a lot of
01:42things took place in Rainey's. And so when I would go to visit my father, in particular
01:50at the Mardi Gras season, they were having meetings discussing what was going to happen
01:57for parade day or for their annual ball that they have. And so I was always inside of it.
02:05I knew a lot of the members. They knew me. And so I began to see what was going on and what all that
02:14it took for Mardi Gras season or for their parade day. It was Mardi Gras 2012 at the Zulu Ball. And I
02:24was just like looking around because a lot of times I'm observant. I'm observe the room,
02:29what's going on, what's not in the room most importantly sometimes. And I said, why don't we
02:38have a black woman's Mardi Gras organization? And somebody said, my friend Camille Whitworth,
02:47she said, let's do it. Do it.
02:49And after the Mardi Gras season was over, I had a conversation with my father. I said,
02:56Daddy, you know what? I got this vision to do this women's organization. I said, because
03:04there is no space in this city for us to call our own. He said, I think it's wonderful. He had to
03:13believe that I had been around him all my life, working with Zulu, that I could pull this
03:19thing off. And so I began to step out in this and talk about it and ask some women to be a part of
03:27it. And that's how we lifted it off the ground. The Mystic Crew of Femme Fatale, it was established
03:36in 2013. We're the first black female Mardi Gras crew. We have other crews, we have women of color
03:43and other crews, but this is the one. This is the missing piece. The first step was gathering women
03:53to see who would be committed to this endeavor, because it is a lot of work. We had a meeting at
04:00Panache. David Belfield came, former president David Belfield came in 1924. His mother, Mrs. Eunice
04:08Belfield was a seamstress for a blue blood Mardi Gras organization, and she sold the costumes for the
04:17crew of Proteus for 57 years. He knew a lot of history of what was going on with the white organizations
04:27versus what was going on in our community. He told us the work, he gave us the roadmap,
04:35and he came in the door with a set of generic bylaws. And I shared it with the women and I said,
04:43what about this name? It's the Mystic Crew of Femme Fatale. She's mysterious. She's Lorraine.
04:53She's what you want her to be. And that worked. It worked for us. So the logo for the Mystic Crew of Femme Fatale
05:03is a compact because every woman has a compact in her purse and it calls for your inner and your outer beauty.
05:13So New Orleans has a number of permits that is limited at this point. There are no more,
05:22I should say, in terms of getting to parade on the street. My friend, who's now the mayor of New Orleans,
05:31Latoya Cantrell, was a city council member at the time. And I had a meeting with her. And I said,
05:41this is my vision. We do not have it in New Orleans. It is a place of women of color.
05:47It is time for our little girls to see themselves. And we're the missing piece in this rich culture
05:55that we have in New Orleans and Mardi Gras. And we don't have black women that can call a place of
06:00their own. And she said, you know what? We're going to make this happen. We're going to make this happen.
06:08I got the phone call probably like September, October of 2014 that I've got to parade in 2015.
06:20And Mardi Gras is February 2015.
06:24Oh my God, how am I going to do this? How am I going to get six months? How am I going to get this done?
06:39And the next day I got up and I called my father. I said, Daddy, I got about six months. Put this parade on the street.
06:48He said, you got everything you need. So I make some calls to the heavy hitters in the city of New Orleans for Mardi Gras.
06:58Yet this time it is Barry Kern. It is Dan Kellish. It is Ed Nunez, the founder of Indemium.
07:08And they were very, very supportive of us coming forward. Very supportive. And Barry was like,
07:17you know, I got it. I got you. We're going to make this happen. And it happened.
07:29I was under so much pressure. Here I am. Got to make sure the logistics are great for this parade.
07:36I'm also reigning as the first Femme Fatale Queen, La Grande Femme 2015.
07:43And I do the Queen 2015 because I want to set an example to other women that are coming behind me
07:56that want to be the Queen. When I got to Gallia Hall, my father was there to toast me.
08:01And I remember my father in the toast saying, you've done well by the Rainy family.
08:09And God's going to bless you. I remember that so clearly.
08:13And the other piece to that is, is that I was a black queen rolling down St. Charles Avenue
08:21where the Blue Bloods had no place, no mindsets for women of color. And it was phenomenal.
08:32It just, it felt like my mother, all my ancestors were just there smiling. We're so proud of you.
08:42We're so proud of you.
08:50After that first parade, we begin to grow. People begin to see it.
08:55Women begin to say, yes, I want to be a part of that.
08:58I think my legacy should be not only Femme Fatale, but also helping women, helping women get to the next level.
09:21Because as black women in particular, in so many ways, we still have so many ceilings to break through.
09:29I'd like my legacy to be that that's what Gwen Rainey is about. Empowering women.
09:35You can do it. You can get on to the next level and help somebody along the way.
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