“It's better to be two hours early than two minutes late to a second line,” was one of Sylvester Francis' oft-repeated jewels of wisdom he offered to visitors from New Orleans and around the word during tours of the Backstreet Cultural Museum that he founded in 1999. Those who ignored his sage advice, which came from a lifetime of deep involvement in this city's Black street cultures—social aid and pleasure clubs, Mardi Gras Indians and jazz funerals—might very ...