NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The bitingly satirical shoe box parade ’tit Rex (pronounced T-Rex) that takes place Feb. 3, is 10 years old. In keeping with its smallness, the ’tit Rex leadership has conceived what it believes to be the shortest theme in Carnival history … the letter “X.”
Founder Jeremy Yuslum, who has lived in new Orleans since he was a mere baby, said that when the idea first crossed his mind, he “never, never,” imagined the mini parade would persist for a decade.
“I wasn’t thinking that far ahead,” he said.
Nobody was. It was just months after Hurricane Katrina. Yuslum had evacuated to Philadelphia, but he was back in town for the 2006 Mardi Gras season. Like everyone else, he was contemplating the future of the badly damaged city.
“Hummers and SUVs were all the rage at the time,” Yuslum recalled. The big movie of the moment was “King Kong.” There was a societal sense that “more is better.”
But Yuslum saw things differently.
As he and friends walked away from the juggernaut Bacchus parade in 2006, Yuslum spitballed the idea of a decidedly downsized style of Carnival procession. If we were to establish a new Mardi Gras parade, he said, “instead of going big … maybe we should go micro.”
Thus, the concept of ’tit Rex was hatched — though it took three years for the Lilliputian parade to hit the street.
Yuslum couldn’t make much progress until he moved back to New Orleans in 2008, then the tiny wheels began rolling. As plans took form, Yuslum’s Jesuit high school buddy Todd Schrenk came up with the title ’tit Rex, an abbreviation of the Cajun-French word petit and an allusion to the mighty Cretaceous-era carnivore, as well as to the King of Carnival.
The krewe experimented with using radio-controlled toy cars as float tractors. The experiment failed. ’Tit Rex floats would be pulled along like toy poodles by tuxedo-wearing krewe members.
The krewe members were key, Yuslum said. He may have had the first glimmer of an idea, but the parade was certainly an artistic group effort. Photographer Jonathan Traviesa, one of the original krewe members, staged a “historic” photo of the signing of the mini krewe’s constitution.
During Carnival 2009 the precious little procession clattered through the streets of the Bywater for the first time, ending at an art gallery, where the floats went on display like small sculptures. Like the Joan of Arc parade, Chewbacchus, the Red Beans Parade, and Krewedelusion, ’tit Rex was an intimate, individualistic do-it-yourself collaboration that helped bring the focus of parading out of the trees on St. Charles Avenue and down to neighborhood street level.
The toy-like parade may have remained an obscure artistic novelty, but in 2011 a public awareness miracle took place when New Orleans’ most revered krewe, Rex (established in 1872), threatened to sue poor ’tit Rex for infringing on their trade name. To many onlookers, it all seemed absurd. Rex was simply the Latin word for king, wasn’t it? Could it be owned?
In the end, the members of ’tit Rex bowed to Rex, changing their name slightly (they adopted and upside-down “e’’). But by then, the public had come to adore the David parade that had defied (if not defeated) the great Goliath.
Hail ’tit Rex!
If you go …
’Tit Rex may be small, but makes up for it in cutting political snark. The 35-float parade lines up on the St. Roch Avenue neutral ground, behind the St. Roch Market, well before the starting time. That’s the preferred spot to peruse the detailed miniature floats close up.
At 5 p.m. on Feb. 3, the parade rolls on St. Roch Avenue.
It turns left onto St. Claude Avenue.
Then right onto Music Street.
Right on Franklin Avenue.
Right on Royal Street.
Right on Mandeville.
Left on Burgundy.
Right on Marigny Street.
Ends on St. Claude Avenue.
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Information from: The Times-Picayune, http://www.nola.com
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