Once more with revelry, for wisdom knows when to dance.
LIMITED-EDITION MOBILE AREA MARDI GRAS POSTER ART
Lunch + Learn: Art as Cultural Preservation + Storytelling
Join us for a special Once More, with Revelry Lunch + Learn, an engaging midday conversation exploring how art preserves culture and tells the stories behind Mobile’s Mardi Gras traditions. Led by artist ShaMyra Sylvester, this experience offers a deeper look into the exhibition, the history that inspired it, and the communities whose legacy continues to shape Carnival today.
The Story Behind the Collection
Once More with Revelry reflects the tradition and celebration of Mardi Gras as an inheritance, where culture and joy become memory, and design becomes storytelling. Learn more about the inspiration behind the collection and the ideas that shaped it.
Celebrate the color, rhythm, and culture of Mardi Gras through a collector’s poster series that honors both tradition and creativity. The Once More, with Revelry 2026 Collection is a thoughtfully curated body of work, with each poster designed as part of a larger narrative. Produced in limited quantities, individually numbered, and printed on archival paper, these works are created to be lived with, displayed, collected, and passed down.
OMWR 2026 COLLECTION
Royal Sovereign pays homage to the Colored Carnival Association, founded in 1938 by a collective of Black professionals in Mobile, Alabama during the Jim Crow era. Created to ensure Black participation, leadership, and visibility within Mobile’s Mardi Gras traditions, the organization provided structure and dignity at a time when white-only societies dominated the celebration. It would later become the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association, leaving an enduring imprint on Alabama’s Carnival history and establishing a legacy of Black Kings and Queens in the birthplace of American Mardi Gras.
At the center stands a masked Black man in full royal regalia, representing the founders of the organization, the first official King Alex Herman, and, more broadly, all men born of Mobile. The figure embodies inherited dignity, resilience, and sovereignty. Born royal, majesty in motion.
Artist: ShaMyra Sylvester
Medium: Inkjet on Fine Art Paper
Year: 2026
Size: 18 × 24
Mother of Mystics honors Mobile, Alabama, the birthplace of American Mardi Gras, where the first mystic societies and organized parades emerged in 1703. At the center stands a Black woman adorned in vintage headdress and ceremonial regalia, positioned as both guardian and origin.
She is not a singular figure but a collective one, representing creation, inheritance, and continuity. Just as women give birth, Mobile gave rise to a tradition that would shape celebration, culture, and ritual across the nation. In this way, every woman from Mobile is reflected in her. She is history embodied, lineage made visible, and a reminder that what was born here still lives through us.
Artist: ShaMyra Sylvester
Medium: Inkjet on Fine Art Paper
Year: 2026
Size: 18 × 24
A Time Was Had captures the fleeting magic of the Mardi Gras ball, the kind of night that lives on in memory long after the music fades. Dressed to impress and moving in rhythm, figures gather in celebration, embodying joy, elegance, and collective release. This piece reflects the beauty of tradition and the intimacy of shared experience, where laughter is effortless, love is abundant, and the spirit of the season is felt in every step on the dance floor. It is a tribute to indulgence, togetherness, and the moments that remind us to celebrate life fully, because once the night has passed, all that remains is the memory that a time, indeed, was had.
Artist: ShaMyra Sylvester
Medium: Inkjet on Fine Art Paper
Year: 2026
Size: 11 × 17
Legacy in Motion honors the full lineage of brass bands that have shaped Mardi Gras in Mobile—from the earliest ensembles that laid the foundation to the newest groups carrying the sound forward. For more than a century, brass bands have provided the heartbeat of Mardi Gras, animating parades, second lines, and community gatherings with rhythm, movement, and collective joy. This piece captures the energy of horns in motion, the lift of trumpets cutting through the air, and the unseen threads connecting generations of musicians across time. It is a tribute to tradition, evolution, and the enduring power of music to move bodies, hold memory, and keep culture alive.
Artist: ShaMyra Sylvester
Medium:Inkjet on Fine Art Paper
Year: 2026
Size: 18 × 24
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