Traveling through New Orleans
Harmony in the Lafitte
As the sun rises, we navigate the streets of Treme unknowingly toward The Lafitte Greenway in New Orleans. This 12-foot asphalt path for cyclists and pedestrians is lined by luscious greens and street pole lights and extends 2.6 miles from the tip of Mid-City through the parish of Treme to the tip of the French Quarter, offering pedestrians, bikers, and those in between a green corridor connecting neighborhoods from Louis Armstrong Park to City Park. This avenue of natural beauty showcases native plant species, bountiful trees while combining with public spaces, such as a children's playground, basketball courts, football fields, an outdoor fitness pavilion, and park benches all overlooking the Crescent City. Local artists' murals stretch across buildings, bridges, and barricades. A colorful mural featuring a black boy and a white boy playing trumpets together reads "Harmony in the Lafitte - 1941, 2005, 2016". Treme is known as the oldest African American city in the United States, and thrives today with undercurrent themes of racial harmony, equality, liberation, and cannabis concoctions.
Louis Armstrong Park
Walking along the greenway brings a most serene adventure. Time stops and floats around us like birds flying higher and higher into the autumn afternoon. Children swing carefree on the playground swings. Groups of kids school each other on the courts. Wanderers wave at us from tents as we pass under the jazz mural covered highway. Walking miles across the city, we eventually find our way to Louis Armstrong Park, one of the Crescent City's main tourist attractions, but nevertheless, one to surrender to. Instantly, we were drawn in through the tall white gates to see a Reggae festival setup unfolding. With a simple wristband, one could explore the park vendors, live music, BBQ stands, full bar, and of course, edible treats. We peruse past the afternoon's promises and venture into the park's monuments, each one more magnificent than the last. The bridges, fountains, trees and streams make the park more natural than originally meets the eye. We admire a rainbow reflecting off of one of the fountains, and hold hands as we embark across the bridges and streams, leading to the statue of the king, Louis Armstrong just outside of the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts.
Congo Square
Our final homage transpires in Congo Square, where the Houmas Indians once celebrated on this sacred ground, and later in the 1740's to early 1800s, enslaved African vendors gathered to barter and trade, play their instruments, and sing and dance on Sunday afternoons. These Congo dances, among other dance performances, spawned the formation of Mardi Gras traditions, the Second Line, and eventually the jazz and rhythm and blues that New Orleans is known for today.
Traversing Treme
Taking a scenic route through the streets of Treme, we meander past neighborhoods toward the St. Augustine Church, which is closed for public entry. Across the street awaits Backstreet Cultural Museum, a glorious collection of vintage Mardi Gras Indian suits, jazz funeral memorabilia, second-line mementos, and a photograph exhibit dedicated to the great influencers of these cultural traditions.
An African American woman welcomes us with a stock spiel about the museum displays as a few other locals hustle around the museum fixing broken light fixtures in between catching college football plays of the day on an 80's television set. This sharp contrast of the present-day worries only temporarily takes me out of the magnanimity of the moment. This special, seemingly secret gateway to Treme offers a glimpse into the local appreciation for those who led before us into today. The Mardi Gras wardrobe glows, adorned in elaborate headpieces composed of colorful beads and feathers, situated chronologically around the room by year of the Mardi Gras celebrations, dating as far back as the 1970s. Small shrines dedicated to those now passed sit shrouded with offerings of empty alcohol bottles and other paraphernalia. We are in awe at the art that covered the walls, the decades of cultural traditions that pervade the present. One could only imagine this life of celebration that took root in Treme and the feelings of fond memories that are still very much alive for those bore witness.
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