Experiencing Treme

Today I joined the group that went on the walking tour of the Treme Community. To begin our tour we met at Louis Armstrong in Congo Square. We learned that the African and the Indigenous people were allowed to gather at Congo Square to barter and trade the different things that the produced. Not only were they allowed to barter, but that is where they were allowed to celebrate and dance all of their native dances. Just standing in that scared spaces I could feel the spirits of the people who had danced there long ago. Meeting on that scared good and hearing the story of why that place is scared set the tone for the rest of the tour.

After Congo Square we walked down N Rampart St. which was once a wooden fence that divided the indigenous people and the slaves from “Civilization”. Our first stop on the tour was Hula Mae’s Laundromat and Café which use to be J & M Music Shop where many Jazz and Blues greats went to record their music.

Next we proceeded to the African American Museum of Art, Culture, and History. The building that houses the museum use to be a “Big House” where wealthy Europeans housed their concubines and their children. Behind the “Big House” the slave quarters still stand. At this time inside of the museum there is a Charles Hooper exhibit. In each of the rooms inside of the museum you can find beautiful paintings depicting the struggles and the emotions of the people of New Orleans dating back as far as the early 1980’s done by local artist Charles Hooper.

After we visited the African American Museum of Art, Culture, and History we walked down to St. Augustine Catholic Church. St Augustine is the only Catholic Church of its kind. St Augustine was the only church in the South where Whites, Free Blacks, Slaves, and Indigenous all worshipped together. During the 1800’s members of the Parrish had what was known as the war of the pews. Members of the Parrish were required to buy pews as a part of membership, and the white members and the free black members were at a war to purchase the most pews. In the end the free blacks purchased the most pews and this is what allowed the slaves and the indigenous people to have a place to worship. St. Augustine was the official place that first allowed integration way before slavery was abolished.

The last stop on our tour was the Back Street Museum. The Back Street Museum is a museum dedicated to the Mardi Gras Indians, and a culture known to New Orleans as Second Line. When Slaves escaped in New Orleans they ran to the reservation of the Mardi Gras Indians. In the museum you can find pictures of the Indians as well as costumes and head dresses that are still used in parades and dances today. The other half of the museum is dedicated to Second Line. Second Line is the name given to what was once known as benefit clubs. During and after slavery blacks didn’t have life insurance, so when someone passed away there was no money to bury them. To help with this black people in the community joined clubs and paid dues so that when someone passed away they were able to be buried. This also gave birth to what is known as jazz funerals. People in New Orleans don’t like to say birth and death they say sunrise and sunset. And on a persons sunrise the clubs they celebrate they do not mourn. They have a huge parade to commemorate the person’s home going.

I enjoyed the walking tour of Treme. New Orleans is a city full of culture, and Treme is a community full of its own culture. It’s is known to locals as the birth place of blues and jazz. Just walking around you can still feel all of the love and joy and soul that the area was built upon. It was an absolutely a beautiful experience.

-Laurita Abner, 23.