Like a shapeshifter, ever-changing her imagined character and physical appearance, the spirit of Marie Laveau refuses to fade away. In New Orleans’s famously eerie St. Louis Cemetery #1, you may recognize a past that you have made for yourself.
In the eerie St. Louis Cemetery #1 in New Orleans, one particular mausoleum wears its sterile image uneasily. Now hidden beneath a thick coat of plaster are hundreds of X’s marking secret prayers for love, death, and revenge — fervent supplications to Marie Laveau, a free woman of color widely recognized as New Orleans’s Voodoo Queen. Who was this extraordinary woman who still attracts such veneration? What powers did she possess in her lifetime and what powers does she still possess today?
Dig Deeper
- St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 and related sites
- Episode transcript
- Painting of Marie Laveau
- A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau (Amazon affiliate link)
Music and FX Credits
- Swamp, by LilyMarie, Licensed under a Creative Commons Sampling Plus license. https://freesound.org/people/LilyMarie/sounds/108241/
- Frater Perdurabo – Crowleymas Soundscape by Calling Sister Midnight (c) copyright 2010 Licensed under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Sampling Plus license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/romancito/28754, Ft: Bidone, pitx, queeniemusic, debbizo
- Part 1 walk through French Quarter, by _HAP_, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license. https://freesound.org/people/_HAP_/sounds/401166/
- Soli Rhythm, panta_rei, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license. https://freesound.org/people/panta_rei/sounds/116654/
- Voodoo Ceremony: Beginning, 2014, Port au Prince, Haiti, recorded by Caroline Berliner and Félix Blume, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/sounds/395899/
- Two horse drawn carriages, by dobroide, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. https://freesound.org/people/dobroide/sounds/330674/
- Live performance of Desiade Nyo Toronto African Drumming and Dancing Group, FutuReale Interviews, by Omar, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuACwDPdRPE
- Oklahoma summernight wildlife, by eric5335, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. https://freesound.org/people/eric5335/sounds/55349/
- Person going under water, by johonbravo, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license. https://freesound.org/people/johonbravo/sounds/398344/
- African drumming at night, by hutsvoid, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. https://freesound.org/people/hutsvoid/sounds/202419/
- Dog howl, by CGEffex, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license. https://freesound.org/people/CGEffex/sounds/158975/
- Running gravel or dry leaves loop, by bevangoldswain, Licensed under a Creative Commons Sampling Plus license. https://freesound.org/people/bevangoldswain/sounds/54778/
- Dog Bark, by Juan Merie Venter, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. https://freesound.org/people/Juan_Merie_Venter/sounds/327666/
- iCanStudioLive, DRUM & African Rhythm, Part 1 | Mokhtar Samba, Man of rhythm 2016 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGgFNM2h1ac
- Horror ghost and whoosh, by klankbeeld, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license. https://freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/169357/
- ZULU Pleasure Aid & Social Club Second Line New Orleans 2014, In honor of Louis Lemuel Rainey Jr.,Saturday, November 29, 2014, St. James Methodist Church of Louisiana, New Orleans LA., recorded by L.Patrick Gray, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A33YR_8eZto