Treme4Treme

Location: New Orleans, LA

Website: www.treme4treme.org

Character of Place as Social Capital in the Revitalization of the Iberville Housing Project and the Surrounding Tremé/Lafitte Neighborhood in New Orleans began to circulate, residents of the neighborhood who are active in civic life began responding positively to it.

Many found it to be an accurate picture of the community, and some found it highly congruent with their own ongoing work and with what they themselves have previously affirmed about the place. The report was described as having “rediscovered” things the community has previously and repeatedly discovered about itself.

+ -A group, Treme4Treme, representing several area non-profits, residents, business, and community leaders with a long history of working in social services, community and economic development, and culture in the Tremé neighborhood came together to design the future and developed a strategic plan for how to create that future.

Tremé for Tremé reached out widely within the community to develop a broadly based vision and process.

What was developed is fundamentally different from providing input into a planning process, or providing community engagement. Tremé for Tremé stepped forward to take the primary role in creating their own future.

The first words of the Choice Neighborhood Initiative application for New Orleans were that “Nearly six years ago, when the city had been inundated with flood waters, some national leaders pronounced that New Orleans was dead and suggested not to rebuild.

This once great city refused to accept that pronouncement…” It is widely recognized that it was the deep resilience of New Orleans, rising from the love of its people for the place and its culture, that produced a bottom-up process of renewal.

Tremé for Tremé and the residents of this neighborhood is ready to take its place and accept its responsibility in continuing that renewal.

Most important, the people and institutions of this neighborhood have taken responsibility for planning their own future, and creating that future. Rather than merely providing input concerning their needs and desires, or stepping forward to play a role in initiatives designed by others. Tremé for Tremé is prepared to play a primary role and ask for partnerships to complement its efforts.

The goal is to create a state that we call resilient autonomy, in which a community is self-directed and capable of constantly renewing itself in a healthy, sustainable way.

We believe the path to resilient autonomy is through neighborhood-led, asset-based and place-based community and economic development.

Backstreet Cultural Museum

Location: New Orleans, LA

Website: www.backstreetmuseum.org

The Museum’s mission is to present and preserve the unique cultural traditions of New Orleans’ African American society, including Mardi Gras Indians, Jazz funerals, and Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs.

Through its programs and exhibitions of artifacts, memorabilia, photos, and videos, the Museum endeavors to protect these treasures of the community.

The Backstreet Cultural Museum is the only museum dedicated to these rich folk-life and musical traditions. The Museum’s goal is to promote a deeper and more widespread understanding of the New Orleans African-American heritage through exhibits and presentations of the art and music surrounding the celebration of these traditions.

The Museum serves as a repository for the cultural traditions of New Orleans’ urban society. The Museum contains exhibits, artifacts, memorabilia, films and videos depicting Mardi Gras Indians, Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, and Traditional Jazz Funerals.

These three elements represent cultural institutions born from the spirit of the community in an effort to define and express itself. These unique aspects of the African American heritage in New Orleans are guarded by those who still practice these traditions.

The Museum is housed in a creole cottage in the heart of a New Orleans neighborhood known as the “Treme”. The Museum and the Treme are cemented in history by a cultural legacy. The Backstreet Cultural Museum is perfectly at home in its surroundings and serves as a focal point of the Treme and the cultural community it represents. The Treme, located directly adjacent to the French Quarter, has been and continues to be a vibrant enclave of musicians and artists in New Orleans.