Krewe Du Kanaval will return for its fourth year, February 9-12, celebrating the cultural connection shared by New Orleans and Haiti. This year’s “bal” honors the Warrior Women of Ayiti and Nouvelle-Orléans and will feature Cimafunk & DJ Garo, RAM, 79rs Gang, DJ San Farafina and surprise guests on Friday, February 10 at 8 p.m. in the Civic Theatre.

Warrior women Adbaraya Toya, Anacaona and Marie Laveau will be the focus of this year’s festivities. Other tributes will include Ruby Bridges, Oretha Castle Haley, Mahalia Jackson, Baderwina, Leah Chase and Irma Thomas.

Photo courtesy of Krewe Du Kanaval.

According to Krewe’s website, Anacaona was “The indigenous Queen of the Tainos who heroically held the Spanish at bay longer than any other and kept her kingdom under rule of its people.” Adbaraya Toya, an elite African warrior of the Dahomey Kingdom, was captured and brought to Haiti as a slave but ended up raising the famous Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Lastly, New Orleans’ famed “vaudou queen” Marie Laveau will be celebrated for the “rare multiracial community” she built and sustained in New Orleans.

The event follows a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the last Kanaval featuring a sell-out show by Arcade Fire and Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

The Krewe has re-formed as a member-based independent nonprofit with a new board president Al Grandoit, a Haitian New Orleanian and Mardi Gras Indian.

To learn more about Krewe Du Kanaval’s return, festivities and the honored warrior women, visit their website. Tickets to the Bal can be purchased here.