The Mayor of Mardi Gras

<p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>New Orleans Mardi Gras parades date back to 1857. Many people attend Mardi Gras. Fewer people participate as members of a krewe and still fewer work year-round as artists and float builders. My cousin McKinley Mackie J. Cantrell III was one of the artists and builders who worked full-time to bring Mardi Gras to life. A third-generation float builder Mackie's grandfather began building floats during the Great Depression. By the mid-70s Big Mac Cantrell had his own company called McKinley J. Cantrell and Son and was captain of his own parade the Krewe of Mardi Gras. Cantrell Floats lives on today but Mackie died suddenly two days after Christmas in 2021. He was forty-seven. He was more of a brother to me a mentor who took me on to work with him for an entire year of Carnival preparation in 2011-12. This book is a telling of all my great memories of Mackie. It is a rare glimpse into New Orleans life from an artist's perspective. As Mackie would say It's a true story stab-ah.</span></p>