Wynoka Boudreaux
Tape No. 4308
BOUDREAX: So we've been involved in Jazz Fest since we was, like, kids you know. Like . . . I'll say about six or seven. We went to Jazz Fest, and he used to set up long time ago out there. So they asked me . . . He was going to do something else, and they asked me did I want to do it and I was like, "Okay." I actually used to work the Grandstand, too. But the Folks Village . . . I think it was 2007 or eight that I started doing Folks Village. Yeah, I don't do the Grandstand no more, but Folks Village. My dad used to do it years before I did. So after him moving to somewhere else I was able to come in and keep the demonstration flow going with the second line culture.
Working with the kids, like, is a Thursday. The second week is when all the kids from schools come in. It's busy, and I love it because they're so interested in it, and it's not too much more. Like when we was going growing up in school, you know, we had . . . Well, we did my colors some pine cones with glitter, just something, you know. I don't think it's more of it, you know. And on Saturdays we used to go to the YMCA and do demonstrations of just coloring, whatever. But it was something interesting. And with the kids at Jazz Fest, once they get to my booth, it's kind of . . . The teachers be telling them, "Let's go!" and they just don't want to move, you know. [laughs] That Thursday at Jazz Fest is when all the kids come, and that is the interesting part that I love. If I could just go set up every Thursday I'll be alright.
It means a whole lot because here in New Orleans it's not much you can do. And single parents is the ones that's struggling with the kids. I don't look for excuses, you know, for kids. But it's not there, so if it's not there then you know they don't have it. So my son, he's seventeen now, but I try to keep him involved. I was a single mom raising him, you know. I kept him involved in a whole lot even though things I bought he would take it all loose. And I didn't understand why, but it was probably part of trying to be creative. But it means a whole lot. And to see them involved in it. I'd like to see much more of it.
