Date of Submission

Spring 2018

Academic Programs and Concentrations

Anthropology

Project Advisor 1

Laura Kunreuther

Abstract/Artist's Statement

As an interdisciplinary senior project, this anthropology and film thesis investigates the social- cultural impact of community reformation post-disaster and the role of Musicians’ Village, a neighborhood formed after the storm, in post-Katrina New Orleans. I believe that the story of New Orleans cannot be told without the traditional Black cultural preservers at the center of its narrative, therefore I examine how the formation of Musicians’ Village in post-Katrina New Orleans contributes to our understanding of the post-disaster recovery of New Orleans and the role of its cultural preservation. To do proper research about Musicians’ Village, I found it both necessary and important to acknowledge the conventions of race, gentrification, tourism, and the social-historical issues of New Orleans as it contributes to our understanding of the intersection between the post-disaster recovery of New Orleans and the role of its cultural practices. As James Baldwin states in “Many Thousands Gone”, “It is only in his music, which Americans areable to admire because a protective sentimentality limits their understanding of it, that the Negro in America has been able to tell his story” (Baldwin 1984, 24). I have explored the role that Black musicians play in shaping the cultural story of New Orleans and how that culture is able to be preserved although there has been a recent influx of gentrification.

Open Access Agreement

Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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