This year’s King and Queen Zulu have been dear friends since they first met in the 7th grade at Francis W. Gregory Junior High School.
“And we won’t say how many years that is,” joked Queen Zulu, Donna Marie Glapion.
For Glapion and King Zulu, Adonis Expose’, the friendship continued as they both entered McDonogh 35 and then college at ULL. But neither ever dreamed they’d be riding at the front of a parade on Fat Tuesday as Zulu royalty.
“It’s just overwhelming. I didn’t imagine that one day I would be sitting here as King Zulu 2017,” said Expose’. He has memories of watching the Zulu parade since childhood, but the dream of becoming King was up until now just that – a dream.
“As a kid my mom and dad would wake me up and say, ‘Come on we’re going to the Zulu parade,’ at 5 or 6 in the morning. I was just so excited as a kid seeing the Zulu parade then. I never thought I would be here today.”
He selected his longtime friend as his queen. Her family has been involved in leadership roles in the city for many years. Her mother is former Orleans Parish School Board President and YWCA leader Gail Glapion. Expose’, who has been a member of Zulu for 14 years, said there was never any doubt he would choose his friend to be his queen.
“We always had this joke where if she would make me mad, I’d say ‘You’re in the top three but I may not select you,’” he laughed. “But she’s been behind me from day one, helping out with our events and there was no other choice I could have made.”
In addition to being former classmates and friends, the two are also business partners, with a company called Funkshuns, LLC, which is an event consulting firm.
Expose’ is a native of New Orleans, the youngest son of the late Mrs. Marion Brown Expose’ and the late Frank L. Expose’. He is a proud product of New Orleans Public Schools. He attended Valena C. Jones Elementary, Francis W. Gregory Junior High and was a 1986 graduate of McDonogh 35 Senior High College Preparatory School where he participated in the school choir and many other clubs and organizations. He was voted “Most Popular” by his graduating classmates. One of those was Donna Glapion.
Like Glapion, he graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now ULL). Among his many extracurricular activities, he was involved in student government and waged a successful campaign to be elected the first African-American student to hold the position of treasurer to ULL’s Student Government Association.
After two years of working in local broadcasting, Expose’ decided to continue his post graduate studies at Southern University Agricultural and Mechanical College. In 1995, he earned a Master of Public Administration degree.
He began his professional career at the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) where he served as a strategic planning analyst. He was later promoted to the Director of Communications for the agency which he was responsible for disseminating information to the public especially during Hurricane Katrina where he was responsible was getting all information out to public housing residents throughout the country in efforts to bring them back home to New Orleans.
After leaving HANO, Expose worked in the private sector as consultant. He is currently employed by the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) in the Office of Procurement and Contracts.
Expose’ has been a member of the Zulu organization since 2002 and has actively participated on every level in various leadership capacities. In 2008, he represented the Zulu organization as “Mayor of Zululand.” He has also had the honor of serving as an officer of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, Inc. as the parliamentarian for six years, and is currently the chairman of Zulu’s annual Christmas party.
He ran for Zulu king and was elected over the Memorial Day weekend 2016. His election was particularly since his mother would pass away a few months later. “Every event we had she was always there. The last thing we did was the picnic and she was there and she passed away in October so I was so happy that she was here to see me elected as King Zulu.”
Expose’s community involvement includes serving the boards of Young Audiences, Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeast Louisiana and Heart N Hands, Inc. He has been a member of the Pines Village Neighborhood Association, Mayor’s Office Task Force Committee for Blighted Housing and an alumnus of the Committee for a Better New Orleans Metropolitan Area Committee. His community work with young people includes being a role model with Forever Our Children, Inc. and the Young Leadership Council. He is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Phi Iota Iota Chapter, where he has served as the Editor of the Oracle and Activities Chairman. His chapter voted him Omega Man of the Year. He is a member of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, as is Glapion.
Queen Zulu 2017, Donna Marie Glapion, is a native of New Orleans. She is the daughter of former school board leader Gail Moore Glapion and the late John M. Glapion. A graduate of New Orleans Public Schools and ULL, like her king, in 1989, Glapion became an administrative assistant in the office of the late Dorothy Mae Taylor, City Councilwoman at-large on the New Orleans City Council.
Following five years in the public sector and world of politics, Glapion entered the private sector, as the Operations Manager in the Corporate Real Estate/Facilities Management Department for Whitney National Bank. In 2001, she joined a research team at Tulane University School of Medicine, as the Section Administrator of the Hematology/Oncology Department.
In 2009, Glapion was employed by the James Singleton Charter School as Operations Manager. Through her leadership and using grant funding, academic scholarships were awarded to deserving students, and band instruments and uniforms were purchased for local middle schools. Currently, Glapion serves as the Operations Manager at William J. Fischer Elementary School.
For many years Glapion has worked with Zulu’s Toys for Tots campaign. Most recently, she said one of the highlights of her creative career was the experience of serving as co-modiste, assisting in the presentation of the Zulu maids from 2012 to 2014.
Over the past year, as King and Queen Zulu, Expose’ and Glapion have visited more than two dozen schools, stressing the value of education and hard work. The message of this year’s Zulu parade is also meant to inspire and speak about an important issue facing New Orleans: “Stop the violence.”
“If the students see positive role models, that helps. So that’s one reason we go to schools and spread a positive message to try to encourage them and turn them away from violence too,” Expose’ said.
