subj2. New Orleans Oral History Holdings

Scope and Contents The NOLA Hip Hop Archive was founded by Holly Hobbs, a Ph.D. candidate at Tulane University, in 2012. The goal of Hobbs’ project is to add to the growing body of documentation of hip hop and bounce oral histories in New Orleans, Louisiana, in order to highlight the music's role as an important community art form. With the assistance of videographer Dick Darby and production assistant Colin Meneghini, Hobbs conducted a series of videotaped interviews with hip hop and bounce artists and...

Content Description The Pontchartrain Park Pioneers Oral History Collection encompasses ten digital mp4 video interviews with original residents of the safe haven all-black suburb, Pontchartrain Park in New Orleans, formed during the era of Jim Crow and racial segregation. The second oldest black suburb, built between 1955 and 1961, Pontchartrain Park was envisioned and developed by and for middle and upper-class African Americans who were denied the opportunity of homeownership in historic and new suburban...

Scope and Contents This collection consists mostly of sound recordings of oral history interviews conducted by Kim Lacy Rogers with persons involved in the desegregation process in New Orleans. These include opponents and proponents of segregation. Notable interviewees include: Daniel Byrd, Albert Dent, Tom Dent, Lolis Elie, Oretha Castle Haley, Rosa Freeman Keller, Mayor Maurice "Moon" Landrieu, Rudy Lombard, Mayor Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial, John O'Neal, Revius Ortique, Jackson Ricau, Jerome Smith, and Betty...

Content Description The Saddest Days Oral History collection contains digital and analog recordings and transcriptions of 175 interviews conducted in the wake of Hurricane Katrina from September 2005 to July 2006. The vast majority of the interviews were conducted in seven southern states, which make up the area to which most of the displaced persons from the Gulf Coast region were evacuated. Overall, the interviews were conducted in approximately twenty different cities or towns. The target population for the...

Content Description The records of the St. Mark's Community Center Ethnic Heritage Project contains manuscripts, videocassettes, audiotapes, color photograph transparencies, and index cards. The project sought to "complete an oral history documentary of the black Creoles and non-Creoles of the Treme/7th Ward area of New Orleans." Those interviewed for the project were long-term residents of the area, and they discussed notable inhabitants and cultural traditions of the area. A related publication,...

Scope and Contents The Treme Oral History Project Collection consists of sound recordings of oral history interviews conducted by the Amistad Research Center from 1993 to 1994. It was funded by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. Its purpose was to document the musical heritage of the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans, a predominantly African American neighborhood since the early nineteenth century. Interviewees were residents of Treme who had experience the musical heritage of New Orleans from a...

Scope and Contents

The collection includes five audio reel sound recordings that contain subject matter about poverty in New Orleans, the reaction of United Clubs to the White Citizens' Councils, and the NAACP. Also present is an October 1961 letter from Burns as director of United Clubs to "officers and members" regarding the 1960 "blackout" of Mardi Gras and an upcoming voter registration drive.

Content Description The WGBH Radio New Orleans Jazz Modules collection includes a series of nine audio histories of New Orleans jazz musicians and jazz scholars, each under ten minutes in length. Topics and/or artists include: Ellis Marsalis on teaching jazz; Jason Berry on jazz funerals; Roger Lewis; Ed Blackwell; Danny Barker; Edward "Kidd" Jordan; Blue Lou Barker; and African retention in New Orleans culture. Accompanying the audiocassette is a memorandum with a brief description of the content of each audio...

Scope and Contents The Where They At project was begun in 2008 by photographer Aubrey Edwards and journalist Alison Fensterstock, with the assistance of a grant from the Greater New Orleans Foundation. It collected over 50 photographic portraits and audio interviews with New Orleans rappers, DJs, producers, photographers, label owners, promoters, record store personnel, journalists and other parties involved in the New Orleans hip-hop and bounce scene from the late 1980s through Hurricane Katrina, as well as...

Content Description This collection contains the raw footage and interviews for the documentary Yes Ma'am: Household Domestic Workers in New Orleans, which was directed and produced by Gary Goldman and was sponsored by the Amistad Research Center. The film provides an in-depth look at the profession of domestic service, race relations, injustice, and the importance of religion in the lives of domestic workers. The old order is contrasted with the new, in which the more militant...