NEW ORLEANS — An art installation created by a local organization and two New Orleans natives is on display in the Lower 9th Ward.
Artists of Public Memory's Memoirs of the Lower 9th Ward release coincided with Juneteenth, and that was purposeful because the artists wanted to convey the significance of what the neighborhood meant to Black people living there.
"We tried to cover and capture the soul and the spirit of the Lower 9th Ward," said photographer Keith Calhoun.
Calhoun created this with his partner, Chandra McCormick. They have been together for over 40 years, documenting every corner of the city, but no place means more to them than where they grew up in the Lower 9th Ward.
Calhoun said, seeing the hub of Black businesses, Black homeowners, and a strong community identity is what they want people to take away from what they call 'Memoirs of the Lower Ninth Ward'.
The duo has captured hundreds of pictures, including an iconic photo of a legendary musician, Fats Domino.
"To have Fats Domino sitting on this porch," Calhoun said as he pointed to the photograph. "You know he could’ve lived anywhere in the world, but he chose to live here in the lower ninth ward. That tells you what it was. The men and families that we grew up with, a lot of them, came from a time when Black people were still coming from the backcountry as sharecroppers in the back fields of Louisiana. The 9th Ward provided a new life for them."
McCormick explained the choice to make the art installation as a house to symbolize the historic height of black homeownership that was once present in the neighborhood.
"Those generational families that passed down homes to each other, we don’t really have. We don’t own the properties that we used to in this community," McCormick said.
Though things have changed, these pictures keep that memory and spirit of what once was alive—honoring where the neighborhood has been, where they are now, and the work that's left to be done.
Representatives from Prospect New Orleans and Artists of Public Memory initiative said this artwork was designed as a love letter to a neighborhood.
Tarah Douglas with Prospect said, "This home is really a home for the community for people to coexist together. This act is really a means of preserving the community."
"Just thinking about the Artist of Public Memory as adding to the sense of monument, of place and sights, it's important to understand that the 9th ward had a community and a history before Hurricane Katrina," said Denise Frazier with Prospect. "This art is a reminder of 40 years of community, of the importance of place and understanding that we are not our disaster."
McCormick and Calhoun said they hope people walk away with a real sense of what the ninth ward has to offer. From now until July 29th, Memoirs of the Lower 9th Ward will be available in the 5600 block of North Claiborne.
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