Gian Durand is the ALLA parade’s first black queen in its 93-year existence. The 45-year-old dedicated her achievements to the late Dorothy Mae Taylor, a Civil Rights leader and former New Orleans City Council member.
Taylor is most popular for her trailblazing and contentious 1992 city ordinance, which prohibited discrimination in Mardi Gras krewe parades and paved the way for a more inclusive Carnival.
Durand told NOLA, “If it wasn’t for her, I maybe wouldn’t even have the opportunity to reign.”
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Before her historic parade, she told WWNO, “I’m just excited to have the experience. But I’m also looking forward to seeing what happens next, right? Because after this, I hope that this will at least start the conversations and make some changes. Help people see the beauty of Mardi Gras as a whole and that’s what I’m looking forward to. After this parade, people will see what diversity and coming together looks like.”
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Certainly, she sees her tenure in ALLA as a necessary step on the lengthy journey to a completely integrated Carnival.
Durand recalls seeing Mardi Gras parades on Crowder Boulevard in New Orleans East, where she grew up.
According to her, her parents were living in poverty at first but rose to the top in the insurance and construction industries. They became one of the few Black families living in the luxurious Lake Forest Estates when they eventually relocated there.
Durand went to St. Mary’s Academy, a prominent Black Catholic institution. She later attended Xavier University and graduated with a political science degree. She then earned her law degree from Loyola.
She described her internship at Orleans Parish Juvenile Court as “a heartbreaking experience.” Based on her experience there, she founded a behavioral clinic for children in need of mental health treatment.
She is a mother of eleven-year-old twins, and her organization, Loving Hearts of Louisiana, currently has three regional offices: Slidell, New Orleans, and Lafayette. Her objective, she explained, is to provide in-home care.
Durand’s first taste of fame came in 2018 when she was granted a small role in Southern Charm New Orleans, a reality show that followed the lives of certain categories of African-American professionals in New Orleans on the now-defunct BRAVO network.
She quickly became a regular on the show, most notably for her heated argument with former WGNO star presenter Tamica Lee.
She said she later became “way too involved in Mardi Gras.”
She was one of the more than 3,000 members of the all-female Nyx krewe from 2016 to 2020, according to Durand, but she quit the group before a scandal that brought it to ruin.
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A fellow Nyx sister, as the members were called, recommended that Durand join ALLA because it seemed to have a more “relaxed” atmosphere. When Durand showed up, the krewe was mostly white, but it was already growing more diverse.
As Durand recalled, it was “the first time I really felt at home” at Carnival, and she felt accepted. She even rose to the rank of parade lieutenant and sponsored a float.
Krewe captain Adam Strickland said that from the start, “Gian has been a blessing and a joy to have in the Krewe.” Considering her devotion to the organization and her “effervescent and outgoing personality,” it was only a matter of time before she would have been anointed queen, he said.
According to Strickland, the people who were originally picked as ALLA’s 2025 royalty requested that their ride be postponed for personal reasons. Durand accepted the Krewe’s invitation to become queen, seeing it as a clear illustration of the “faith and destiny” that seem to drive her.
Durand, who had been tasked with picking her own king, approached former New Orleans City Council member James Carter, who quickly accepted. The two became the krewe’s first ever Black queen and king.
“I’m from New Orleans. So, to me, Mardi Gras should be as diverse as the city,” Durand told WWNO. “Our reign is really important because we wanted to show that, you know, diversity is something that we should strive for in every krewe. Diversity should be something that we have in everything we try to do in New Orleans. I really thought that would be a really good message for our reign.
