Name: Learning Lunch: Mobile's Mardi Gras Balls Through the Years feat. Steve Joynt + The Excelsior Band
Start: 2026-02-11T12:00:00-06:00
End: 2026-02-11T13:00:00-06:00
Location: 111 S Royal St, Mobile, AL, United States, Alabama 36602

Learning Lunch: Mobile's Mardi Gras Balls Through the Years feat. Steve Joynt + The Excelsior Band

The History Museum of Mobile’s upcoming Learning Lunch Program is on Wednesday, February 11th at 12 PM and will feature Steve Joynt, former professional journalist, and founder of Mobile Mask, as well as a performance by the legendary Excelsion Band. The title of his presentation is Mobile's Mardi Gras Balls Through the Years.
Steve Joynt was a professional journalist for 40 years. He got his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and his master’s in journalism from Columbia University in New York City. He worked for 15 years as a reporter for the Birmingham Post-Herald, then spent 11 years with the Press Register in Mobile as an assistant city editor. Steve left the Register in late 2011 to start the Mobile Mask website and magazine. The first magazine was published for Mardi Gras 2013. He has since sold Mobile Mask to Lagniappe, and this year’s issue of the magazine – the 14th – is the first issue under their ownership. Steve has won an Arty and seven Nappies, including the 2025 Nappie for Quintessential Mobilian. He has had three Mardi Gras-related historic markers placed in the city, including the one on Royal Street, just outside this building. This is his 13th annual Mardi Gras Learning Lunch.
The Excelsior Band is an African American brass marching band that has embodied the culture of the city of Mobile and its beloved Mardi Gras celebration for many generations. It was originally organized as a firehouse band by John A. Pope in 1883. Today, it is a ten-piece marching brass band that consists of three trumpets, three saxophones, one trombone, a tuba, a bass drum and a snare drum. The band plays many genres of music with emphasis on Dixieland and conventional jazz and is well known for performing in and leading Mardi Gras parades.
The History Museum of Mobile invites the public to attend the free Learning Lunch lecture series. Guests are encouraged to bring their lunch and enjoy a presentation on an historical or cultural topic. For more information on Learning Lunch, contact Brantley James, Curator of Education, at 251-301-0270 or [email protected].