GRANDSTAND EXHIBITS

The Backstreet Cultural Museum –
A Powerhouse of Knowledge

Director Sylvester Francis, a.k.a. Hawk Mini Camera, shares his life's work, The Backstreet Cultural Museum, with the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The exhibit includes famous Jazz Funeral photography and memorabilia, second-line mementos, and recorded film footage of New Orleans' funerals and second-lines.

The Folk Art of Ashton Ramsey

Featured in the Grandstand will be an exhibition of wearable art by New Orleans artist and local historian Ashton Ramsey. Fashioning his pieces from common, everyday materials such as newspaper clippings and men's clothing, Ramsey's wearable art pieces are historical recordings of the culture of New Orleans. This exhibit presents five suits, ranging from the somber Haiti suit to his Fine Art of the World suit debuted for Mardi Gras 2012. Also on display are a few dozen examples of his collages.

50 Years of Preservation Hall

Take a glimpse into the history and evolution of Preservation Hall, and of the bands that have performed in the Hall and on tour since its inception in 1961. The exhibit features rare photographs, artifacts, music and video from the Hall's archives, as they continue to celebrate 50 years of preserving, cultivating, and perpetuating Traditional New Orleans Jazz. The exhibit coincides with the more expansive "Preservation Hall at 50" exhibit currently on display at the Old U.S. Mint. Preservation Hall was founded in 1961 by newlyweds Allan and Sandra Jaffe, it has been the ongoing mission of Preservation Hall to nurture and promote traditional New Orleans Jazz as a relevant and vital indigenous American musical format. Boasting contemporaries and band-mates of such early jazz pioneers as Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and Bunk Johnson, early incarnations of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band made familiar names of living legends like brothers Willie and Percy Humphrey, husband and wife Billie and De De Pierce, famed pianist Sweet Emma Barrett, and legendary clarinet virtuoso George Lewis. Since 1963, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band has been traveling the globe, bringing the joy of traditional New Orleans Jazz to music fans around the world. Whether performing at prestigious centers like Symphony Hall in Boston, contemporary music festivals like Austin City Limits, or private engagements for Presidents and Kings, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans never fails to bring their audiences dancing into the aisles.

Faces of Tremé
Photographs by Keith Calhoun
and Chandra McCormick

Tremé is the fountainhead from which the distinctive culture of New Orleans flows. It is sacred ground, where the drumbeat of African rituals and rhythms in Congo Square laid down the sound track for the most Africanized city in America. The sons and daughters of Africa mastered the building, culinary, and performing arts to create works of beauty amidst the oppression of the largest slave market in America. In Tremé, they created a unique architectural landscape, distinctive religious and funeral traditions, and "the music," America's only original art form, jazz! At the same time, nostalgia for its sacred places haunt those who carry on Tremé's cultural traditions, along routes where neighborhood clubs (Caldonia, Ruth's Cozy Corner), dance halls (Economy Hall, San Jacinto Hall) and mighty oaks along Claiborne Avenue have vanished.

For the past 30 years Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick have documented the soul of Tremé, its people, its culture and its heritage. Their powerful photographs pierce the social and cultural fabric of the black mystique, visually articulating what used to be a racial and ethnic enclave intimidating to outsiders, but home to generations of long-time economically marginalized residents who nurture a distinctive local culture that has changed the world forever.
Faces of Tremé is curated by Dr. Deborah Willis and presented by the New Orleans African American Museum.

World Heritage Sites by UNESCO-Mexico

This exhibit, featured in honor of the 150th anniversary of Cinco de Mayo, is brought to us by the office of the Consulado de Mexico in New Orleans. World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, is a photographic exhibit of the Mexican cities designated as World Heritage Sites by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
World Heritage Sites are recognized as the most significant cultural and natural heritage areas of the world. These unique and diverse areas are identified as irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration with outstanding value to all humanity.
This exhibit takes us inside cities such as Puebla, Zacatecas, Oaxaca, and Campeche, as we celebrate the culture of Mexico on this commemorative year.