Biography

Nikesha Elise Williams is a two-time Emmy award-winning producer, an award-winning author, and producer and host of the Black & Published podcast. Williams’ latest novel, Beyond Bourbon Street, was awarded Best Fiction by the Black Caucus of African-American Librarians in the 2021 Self-Published eBook Literary Awards and the 2020 Outstanding Book Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. A Chicago native, Williams is an Editor at Narrative Initiative and a columnist with JAX Today.
   

Schedule

10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
State Capitol, House Committee Room 1
Discussion
King Cake, Beads, and Mardi Gras Indians: Iconic Mardi Gras
with Matt Haines, Doug MacCash, and Nikesha Elise Williams

Noon to 12:45 p.m.
Cavalier House Bookselling Tent
Book Signing

Mardi Gras Indians

Mardi Gras Indians explores how sacred and secular expressions of Carnival throughout the African diaspora came together in a gumbo-sized melting pot to birth one of the most unique traditions celebrating African culture, Indigenous peoples, and Black Americans. Williams ties together the fragments of the ancient traditions with the expressed experiences of the contemporary. From the sangamentos of the Kongolese and the calumets of the various tribes of the lower Mississippi River valley to one-on-one interviews with today’s Black masking tribe members, this book highlights the spirit of resistance and rebellion upon which this culture was built.