This time of year, there’s really only one place you’ll find Big Chief Joseph “Monk” Boudreaux: in his New Orleans house sewing beadwork with needle and thread as he puts together the elaborate outfits worn by the city’s famed Mardi Gras Indians.
Almost every year since he was a child, Boudreaux has stepped out on the morning of Fat Tuesday in a new suit, created by his own hand, accompanied by other members of his “tribe” and singing the distinctive music he has helped share with the world.
“I can’t stop. I can’t. Because I was told as a kid … ‘You keep the tradition going because if you let it go, it’s going to be gone forever,’” Boudreaux said, sitting in his New Orleans home. “And I’ve got to make sure my son and my grandkids, that they take that torch and carry it on.”
At 80 years old, Boudreaux is head of a Mardi Gras Indians group called the Golden Eagles, known both as a leading elder of the tradition and for a musical career that has spanned decades and taken him far from his hometown. This year finds Boudreaux preparing for both the first Fat Tuesday celebration in two years after the pandemic canceled last year’s festivities, and for an April trip to the Grammys, where he is nominated for his first Grammy.
