Treme Oral History Project collection

Collection

Identifier: 494

Staff Only

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 non-professional point of view. Topics touched on in the interviews include jazz funerals, second lines, the Mardi Gras Indian tradition, gentrification, nightlife, churches, street vendors and business owners, clubs and benevolent associations, and the boundaries of the neighborhood.

Principal interviewers were Cheryl Q.W. Cramer and Clarence Jones, Jr. Interviewees include: Louis Charbonnet III, Leah Chase, Ronald Chisom, Jim Hayes, Collins Lewis, Lavinia Warren Lewis Hickman, Emile J. LaBranche, Jr., Austin Leslie, and Norman Smith.