LSU Health New Orleans Supports Musicians and Artists
April 06, 2022
Meet LSU Healthcare Network patient Cherice Harrison-Nelson.
Cherice Harrison-Nelson is Queen of the Guardians of the Flame Maroon Society in New Orleans, a breast cancer survivor, and longtime patient of the New Orleans Musiciansā Clinic, allied with LSU Health New Orleans.
ā LSU
Baton RougeāCherice Harrison-Nelson is a Mardi Gras Indian Queen. She is the third generation, among five in her family, to carry on the Black New Orleans tradition of āmasking Indian.ā Itās a celebration of freedom and of telling your own story that involves many, many months of sewing intricate, narrative beadwork into powerfully colorful suits, usually revealed for the first time on Mardi Gras Day. The tradition is often described as an homage to the Native Americans who sheltered enslaved people of African descent in Louisianaās early days.
Harrison-Nelson, however, doesnāt describe what she does as āmasking.ā Instead, as Queen of the Guardians of the Flame Maroon Society, she reveals herself through her art. This includes her own personal history of surviving breast cancer, sewn into her dress and proudly displayed on her body. As a patient of the New Orleans Musiciansā Clinic, which has connected uninsured and under-insured Louisiana performing artists with LSU healthcare services and more since 1998, Harrison-Nelson has also become a conduit to care for others in her community.
āWeāve become, what they call, a āpoint of distribution,āā said Harrison-Nelson, who lives and works in the New Orleans Musiciansā Village, surrounded by other culture bearers. ā[After Hurricane Katrina], the clinic gave us a stack of cards to give out to people, like a coupon, so they could get an appointment and wouldnāt have a copay. It gave people a little safety. More recently, people have been coming to us for tests, and the clinic gave us several boxes.ā
āLSU is the only healthcare system in the nation allied with a clinic that specifically serves musicians and artists.ā
LSU is the only healthcare system in the nation allied with a clinic that specifically serves musicians and artists. On the day the New Orleans Musiciansā Clinic first opened its doors in 1998, Mardi Gras Indians performed outside, and one of them had to be brought into the clinic to be treated for asthma, which Harrison-Nelson suffers from as well.
āThe clinic has helped our community in so many ways,ā Harrison-Nelson said. āIāve had chemo, radiation, and surgery, and so far, so good. I can get my meds, therapy. Do you remember the Schwegmannās grocery store? You could get everything you need in one stop. The clinic is like healthcare Schwegmannās.ā
Every detail Harrison-Nelson adds to her beadwork represents some aspect of personal and cultural survival. Her father, Big Chief Donald Harrison, Sr., always encouraged her to take her art beyond the āsimply pretty.ā
āHe said, you have to get to the higher levels of learning and understandingāanalysis and synthesis,ā Harrison-Nelson said. āYou have to express yourself on your own terms and honor who you are.ā
She pointed to a photo of her father that hangs on the wall of her studio. He died at age 65, a few months after the New Orleans Musiciansā Clinic opened. In the photo, he wears a massive, white Mardi Gras Indian suit with an enormous, feathered headpiece.
āYou canāt see me, but Iām in that photo,ā Harrison-Nelson said. āIām standing on a chair behind him, holding his crown up.ā
āIāve been lucky, and some of us are not as lucky,ā she continued. āThe clinic is committed to protecting not just people, but cultures, and African American cultures. They donāt provide just medical care, but look after your overall quality of life. And as a breast cancer survivor, Iām alive. Iām alive! I tell myself that every day.ā
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for Disease Control and Prevention.
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This news story was featured in LSUās free research publication, Working for Louisiana, where you can learn more about how work on every LSU campus impacts residents and industry in the state and beyond.