HNOC to Host Two New Orleans Film Festival Screenings

Monday, October 27, 12 p.m.
Williams Research Center, Boyd Cruise Room
410 Chartres Street
Free and open to the public

Produced by the Louisiana Architecture Foundation (LAF), Ancestral Artistry: The Influence of Africans & Creoles of Color on Louisiana Architecture traces 300 years of building traditions—including masonry, ironwork, and plastering—brought by enslaved Africans to French colonial Louisiana. Passed down through generations, these trades empowered Louisiana’s Creoles of Color, offering wealth and social mobility in a time of widespread racial inequality. The film connects the past to the present through master craftsmen Jeff M. Porée, Sr., Darryl A. Reeves, and the late Theodore “Teddy” Pierre, Jr., all of whom work to preserve these traditions and mentor the next generation. 

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Monday, October 27, 2 p.m.
Williams Research Center, Boyd Cruise Room
410 Chartres Street
Free and open to the public

Barès and Dédé were Creoles of Color—Dédé a free man, Barès born into enslavement. Both wrote and performed operas and concert pieces popular with black and white audiences, challenging the notion that classical music has been an exclusively white domain. Yet, since their lifetime, their compositions have not been performed, and some have never been presented to the public. New Orleans musicians are now resurrecting their works. Ensemble OperaCréole with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra are now staging Dédé’s long lost opera, and pianist Oscar Rossignoli is presenting a concert of Barès’ dances. E & B documents the path to these premieres as a springboard into a search for the composers’ extraordinary lives and Creole culture.

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