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The Historic New Orleans Collection
Congo Square Music and Culture Experience

Congo Square Music and Culture Experience

A drummer performs in HNOC’s Brulatour Courtyard.

Created in partnership with Cultural Curriculum, experience the origins of New Orleans’s unique musical traditions.

Duration: 3.5 hours
Capacity: 100 guests
Location: HNOC Williams Research Center, Louis Armstrong Park

This is the ultimate experience for music lovers! It starts with a 30-minute, music-themed “Treasures from the Vault” show-and-tell of artifacts at the Williams Research Center. Afterward the group will travel to Congo Square, located inside Louis Armstrong Park*, where guests will learn New Orleans music history through live demonstrations from West African–style drummers, professional vocalists and storytellers, premier jazz musicians, and Mardi Gras Indians.

*Groups must provide their own transportation to Armstrong Park. Walking guides can be provided for an additional fee.

Magazine illustration from 1886 depicting enslaved people dancing, drumming, and singing in Congo Square.

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