♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -You know how it start from a seed, and it be a beautiful masterpiece?

♪♪ Like a rose from the concrete.

♪♪ -Sunshine is powerful, huh?

♪♪ -You can't stop spirit.

Spirit doesn't have a name, and neither does feeling.

What is real, is.

♪♪ You can't stop spirit.

Spirit doesn't have a name, and neither does feeling.

What is real, is.

♪♪ You can't stop spirit.

Spirit doesn't have a name, and neither does feeling.

What is real, is.

[ Women chanting indistinctly ] Welcome to New Orleans.

You can't stop spirit.

[ Echoing ] Spirit doesn't have a name.

-Oh, baby, what they don't say.

♪♪ -My name is Cinnamon Black.

I'm a Treme Million Dollar Baby Dolls.

I'm also 2nd Queen with FiYiYi.

They call me Voodoo Baby Doll Queen because I am a voodoo priest here.

I'd like to welcome you to our city.

♪♪ In the city of New Orleans, we practice two things.

We practice Carnival and we practice Mardi Gras.

There's spirituality and there's also sensuality, and there's excitement here.

So the two of them come together, because Carnival starts out early in the morning.

It's practiced in several places in the world.

The bones and skeletons are what comes out first.

They represent Papa Legba, the first spirit that is called.

So they come out 4:00 in the morning to Congo Square and they drum and they drink.

They have this large, big bone with dripping blood.

And they have these large signs that say, "No to drugs, listen to your parents, don't join a gang, or truly I will be back to get you."

♪♪ The second part of that is the Baby Dolls.

We come out right after the bones and skeletons, not at the same time.

We are the birth of Mardi Gras, the birth of Carnival.

We dress as babies.

We dress with satin dresses and bloomers.

We carry parasols and a pacifier, and probably a bottle with some vodka in it.

[ Chuckles ] But it represents Oshun, the goddess of love.

♪♪ -I love mirrors.

Know how to manipulate mirrors.

I just love my mirrors, girl.

They safe.

You know, I was the first Doll to put mirrors on the umbrella.

But every umbrella I make for Mardi Gras, I always put a story with it.

I have a story to tell with it, and I do that on purpose because I'm a Queen Doll.

♪♪ Once I step out, yes, I am a queen on Mardi Gras day and on every day when I put this dress on.

Even when I don't have the dress on.

-[ Laughs ] -I had a head full of glitter, and it's just leaving when it wants to leave.

-Ain't nothing wrong with beautiful sisters.

That's a queen right here.

-He just wanted to take care of everything and wanted me to be this queenpin housewife, and I'm like, no.

Like, I'm used to getting it on my own, so when I left him, that was my breakthrough.

♪♪ -I said, "Shannon, are you gonna make me a queen?"

And look what she said.

"I'm the only queen."

All I could do was just fall out laughing.

I was like, "Bitch, I knew you was gonna say that."

But that bitch gonna crown me one of these days.

'Cause somebody crowned -- somebody crowned her.

I'm gonna be the... duchess or somebody.

I don't know if other people feel how I feel.

♪♪ Talk about the patience of Job.

But it means something more personal and more, I don't know, probably emotional, too, when it's your people running up to you out of nowhere, people you don't even know, especially children, like, "Oh, can I see that umbrella?"

You're like, "Yeah, you can see it."

"I can hold it?"

"Wanna take a picture?"

"Yeah, let's take a --" voice change.

"Let's take pictures," and here come the whole family.

-You're like a diva in your community.

♪♪ The reason I mask and continue to mask is because, I don't know if you guys feel it -- it is an emotion, it's a spirit that takes over you, those drums, just to see the pageantry and, like, all of these people.

♪♪ It warmed my heart for little girls to come up to me and wanna take pictures with me, especially -- I hate to say it, especially a little dark-skinned girl.

"Mama, her skin like my skin."

You have to have self-love, and we ain't pretty just because we are dark.

Just say you pretty.

♪♪ I mask because it gives me energy, it gives me life.

-You can't stop spirit.

Spirit doesn't have a name, and neither does feeling.

[ Echoing ] What is real, is.

You see, voodoo has a lot to do with spirituality in New Orleans, has a lot to do with the second line and the first line, because, you know, the second line originated from the funerals.

You need that music to bring you out the house, to bring you to the church, because when you're listening to the music and allow it to possess your soul, you allow your ancestors to be a part of you.

♪♪ -New Orleans is a city that's -- they believe in sending you home when you pass away.

They don't just, you know, have some...funeral.

They send you home.

Paying your respect, that's how you give your offering to the...city.

♪♪ -I only put on my Baby Doll costume when I feel moved by spirit.

I'm proclaiming my womanhood.

-I want my Baby Dolls to always be fearless in every way, meaning you're not afraid to get dressed, and go out there and show your...

But at the same time, you're not afraid to stand up for yourself.

You're not afraid to speak up for yourself.

You're not afraid to do whatever it takes to get your respect.

♪♪ -How you gonna embrace being a Baby Doll and what it takes to be a Baby Doll if you ain't even embraced your womanhood yet?

-The Baby Dolls were actually whores when they first came up, and they used to dress up, and the white men loved them so much during -- when they first came out, the white men used to pin money on 'em.

They'd walk up the street full of money.

They dressed like baby dolls to upstage them white whores down there in the Quarters, Decatur.

Heads up, they were the latest.

-They were maybe women of the night, or they were some women that did some questionable things.

Or just in a culture that we are, some men say they think that the woman's body is for them.

So that was their way of protecting themselves.

-The origin of Baby Doll is that it's not one singular story, right?

Stories build just one characterization of the development of the Baby Dolls.

-We're every other woman.

We just open in that area.

The fact that you know that I dance, you're going to belittle my character.

♪♪ That doesn't define me.

♪♪ Up here, I can talk you into circles.

But I'm already standing.

But you denied me at first.

Such a misfit, you know?

I love a misfit.

But that's how, you know, this society look at us.

I can't really identify with it, so I'm gonna disown it.

This character and that character are not the same person.

How could you be?

-Once you put on these outfits, you're a different person, whereas if when you're being a Baby Doll, you're able to let your hair down.

So I'll be more childish, then I'll be more tartish or more sexy.

♪♪ -You can't stop spirit.

Spirit doesn't have a name, and neither does feeling.

[ Echoing ] What is real, is.

There are some things that men can do that we can't do.

And there's some things that we can do that they can't do, either.

Because in Haiti, voodoo is ruled by men, but in New Orleans, it's ruled by women.

Welcome to our world.

-You gotta go through what it takes to get past whatever it is that's keeping... on your mind.

You know, like, with a relationship.

I used to say, "This is the worst relationship I ever had in my life.

I think it kind of still is, but I don't know."

I had to pray this boy off me.

And I said, "Pray him off of me."

Like, I was praying with tears, and everything like, "God, please..." The first thing you got to do is get tired of a... My mama said, "I don't care how many times you go back, there will be the time when you gonna be like... '...all that and...him,'" or whoever, or whatever your situation is.

...them.

And, see, it's one thing to hear yourself say that and you sound good and it's a good joke and you're laughing.

It's another thing to, "I don't give a...what it sound like.

I know what it feel like.

I mean that."

-You can't never go outside of your purpose or outside of yourself.

'Cause I did go through a period of trying to, you know, be fit into this cookie-cutter thing.

And that's why I was like, it's not about other people.

...with yourself.

♪♪ Yay, me!

And I ain't you.

...with yourself, and everything else going to come to you.

♪♪ -All I can tell ya, pay attention to yourself.

Pay attention to yourself when your moods change.

Pay attention to why they change.

Did anybody contribute to that?

♪♪ -You can't water yourself down.

-You ain't me and I ain't you.

-And that's how it is.

♪♪ -Whatever in your mind and your heart you feel, that's what you do.

You gotta sit us in the bottom and point us to the sky.

-You gotta be all you gonna be, and guess what?

You want other... that's going to be firecrackers with you.

-Everybody gonna see it.

You know what I'm saying?

It's just like, on Mardi Gras day, that's your stage.

That's your debut, that is your day.

-That's it, right there.

-'Cause when you come out on Mardi Gras day, you about to come out.

You about the top dog.

You about to put your foot on that ground and shake it.

You know what I'm saying?

That...is important to me.

-Put on that masquerade, you can put on that costume, and you transform into something that is liberating, that is free, that counters what people's expectations are of you.

-All for the love of the beauty and the culture and hitting them streets on Mardi Gras morning.

That...is important to me.

-For that moment, for that day, for just the little time that I could, you know, walk ready with my umbrella, nothing else matters.

-That's your stage, that's your debut, that is your day.

-That's it, right there.

-We are the birth of Mardi Gras, the birth of Carnival.

-They represent Saint Anne for the Catholics, and then Oshun, the goddess of love for the Africans.

They had to go out and behave a particular way to feel -- or to be accepted.

You know, I've seen that happen to my grandmother, to my mother, to my auntie.

And I never really understood exactly who they really were, because they were so protective of their real identities for fear of some type of chastisement by someone from the outside.

-But you gotta give that respect.

This city is the city that care forgot, so you got to give it some love.

-You can't stop spirit.

Spirit doesn't have a name, and neither does feeling.

[ Echoing ] What is real, is.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -We grew up on this basketball court right here.

This is BK.

This is BK.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Dabka's like drawing art with your feet, where if you really go deep into it, you'll experience a lot more than just regular foot moves.

-♪ What's the soul of the 47?

♪ Hmm, what's the soul of the 47?

♪ ♪ Hmm, what's that soul in the 47?

♪ ♪ Sham put the soul in the 47 ♪ ♪ Hmm, no agent, no guarantee ♪ ♪ Ahh, no landlord on your back, now ♪ ♪ No country, no form ♪ ♪ Back to the peasants to the fellahin born, yuh ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Palestine is home.

♪♪ -Palestine is the place that my parents came from, the place that my grandparents came from.

It really represents who I am.

-Something that's warm, filled with love, filled with hope, too.

♪♪ Doing dabka is, like, the closest thing I get to being back home in Palestine.

♪♪ -When I'm in Bay Ridge, I feel closer to who I am.

I'm not gonna say closer to home, but closer to my culture, to my people.

My name is Amer Abdelrasoul.

I am the leader of the Freedom Dabka Group based out of New York City.

[ Conversations in Arabic ] It started with six of us.

Now we are about 18 members.

♪♪ We've been doing so many weddings, festivals, stuff like that.

♪♪ [ Whirring ] [ Tapping ] The first time I did dabka, maybe I was 10, 11.

I did it in Palestine in my village.

I remember, like, the older guys, they wanted to be organized.

They never liked kids joining the dabka, so they'd always kick them out.

Like, "Little kids, get out."

I was always fascinated in it, so I'd always try, like, getting myself in between somebody just so I could learn.

-FDG's like one big family.

All three of us are like the youngest siblings.

We're forced to do the work.

-Yeah, we gotta do the rookie stuff.

Yeah, my mom, yeah.

Of course, she misses home, you know?

We got our family over there, you know?

That's where she grew up for like, half of her life.

Even though I didn't grow up there, she wants to make sure that, you know, I know where I came from, I'm happy with where I came from, you know, I'm proud to be Palestinian.

-Free, free Palestine!

-Free, free Palestine!

-Free, free Palestine!

-Free, free Palestine!

-Free, free Palestine!

-Free, free Palestine!

-Free, free Palestine!

-Free, free Palestine!

-Free, free Palestine!

-Free, free Palestine!

-Free, free Palestine!

♪♪ -We hit.

-Shuffle.

Double down.

-Couple hundred.

-For me, dabka's a way to express my culture and where I came from, because when I was younger, you know, I always had, like, trouble expressing where I came from.

-Freedom Dabka Group is actually a group that changed my life.

It's where I learned about my culture and how to really treat people and how to show respect and how to earn respect.

♪♪ -I'm just doing my part in the city to represent the Palestinian culture.

♪♪ -We have to have that connection where we all understand each other.

When that's established, we get closer to each other and we feel like, "Yes, we did it, and we did it through teamwork."

♪♪ [ Child cries ] [ Conversations in Arabic ] -Pass me the bread.

Thank you.

-What do you mean, bro?

You know how much people I see and I talk to... -No, you have good immune system.

-The Freedom Dabka Group, actually, it originated from the time that they went back.

1995?

-2005.

-Okay.

2005.

They went back.

The whole family went back there.

They spent seven years.

-Six years.

-Uh, well...my memory is getting bad, I guess.

-Back home.

-When they went back home, you know, that was the main -- one of the reasons that they went back home, to learn the culture.

And they formed this group.

[ Speaking Arabic ] They're doing excellent.

-I am happy because they are keeping the Palestinian heritage, but still our culture alive.

-Yeah.

-And no matter how Americanized you are, you still belong to your home, which is Palestine.

That's all I care about.

We are -- We are -- like, you know, we have different situation as Palestinians, you know?

So we cannot forget where we come from, you know?

-They're watching my other stuff, our content on YouTube, on our Instagram, and especially the younger people on TikTok.

And that's how people call me like, "Hey, could you teach my son dabka, teach my daughter dabka?"

-A lot.

They even tell me, the woman, when they see me in weddings.

-"We wanna learn.

We wanna teach."

They want to learn.

And that's something good 'cause the kids that grow up -- and that's something that they can always -- That's a form of identity for them that they're -- they have the Palestinian culture in them.

-Bye!

-[ Speaking Arabic ] -[ Singing in Arabic ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ All cheering ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -[ Speaking Arabic ] The way the tent was set up, and the way the music -- And that's how they do it back home.

It definitely felt like we were in Palestine, especially when they brought out the kunafah and the whole barber, when he came in.

That's all stuff they do in Palestine.

♪♪ ♪♪ -[ Singing in Arabic ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Palestinian culture's always gonna live, no matter what happens.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -[ Singing in Arabic ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪