





A little peek into our social, administrative and fundraising activities.
Who's Dr. Ya Ya? The original Dr. Ya Ya was a voodoo root doctor in 19th century New Orleans, a successor to Marie Laveau and Doctor John. How'd a band from the Nutmeg State come to be named after him? Dr. Ya Ya's Louisiana specialty was a jimson weed elixir, not the fake nutmegs carved from wood and sold by Connecticut peddlers of old. One hundred & fifty years or so later, drummer Tom Smith got tired of missing Mardi Gras every year because of gigs in New England and asked friends to join together in a party band to celebrate Fat Tuesday. At their 1992 debut, this masked ensemble of popular Connecticut musicians had so much fun that they continued performing sporadically as Dr. Ya Ya's Dirty Rice Revue. The current Dr. Ya Ya's Gumbo Party grew from this mysterious krewe. What's a gumbo party? When a group of friends get together for a gumbo party, everyone brings a different ingredient to toss into the cooking pot.