A still from the film, "Ancestral Artistry," courtesy of the Louisiana Architecture Foundation
Master Plasterer Jeff M. Porée, Sr. walking in front of ceiling medallions that he and his team have crafted.
“As long as there are architectural treasures, there’s going to be a need for people who have the specific knowledge on how to work on those,” says John E. Hankins, a historian and co-founder of the New Orleans Master Crafts Guild around the mid-point of the film, Ancestral Artistry: The Influence of Africans & Creoles of Color on Louisiana Architecture.
The treasures—the magnificent buildings, facades, ironworks, and graves that scaffold the character and history of New Orleans and Louisiana at large—serve as a bridge between the past and the present; evidence of concerns, lifestyles, and, perhaps more than anything else, craftsmanship, of yesteryear. These visuals also represent a vocation for those in the present, who are called to ensure a future in which those stories endure.
Photo courtesy of the Louisiana Architecture Foundation
The Sociéte des Arts et Métiers tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 2, which the film "Ancestral Artistry" documents a restoration of.
But Ancestral Artistry is less about the structures themselves—visible and well-documented as they are—than about the people who built them. Premiered in September 2024, the one-hour documentary created by the Louisiana Architecture Foundation organizes its story around the Craftsmen’s Tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 2, a tomb with twenty vaults containing the remains of some of the Antebellum Period’s greatest master craftsmen. Largely free people of color who couldn’t afford a family tomb, these artisans came together to be buried beneath the mantle of their trade, in tombs they funded and built together—which, in their beauty and stature, rival even the most fabulous individual family tombs.
Using their artisanship, which in many cases has been passed down through multiple generations of Black New Orleans families, these modern-day masters honor their predecessors, and the long line of Louisiana craftsmanship that is their legacy.
In between segments on the history of West Africans’ arrival in the New World as enslaved laborers, the controversial and complex cultural identity of “Creole,” the Black Code, and more, the viewer returns to this gravesite as it undergoes an intricate restoration. The project was overseen by three of the city’s most esteemed master craftsmen today: the late brick mason Theodore “Teddy” Pierre, fabricator and blacksmith Darryl A. Reeves, and plasterer Jeff M. Porée. Using their artisanship, which in many cases has been passed down through multiple generations of Black New Orleans families, these modern-day masters honor their predecessors, and the long line of Louisiana craftsmanship that is their legacy.
This legacy, remarkably under-recognized in contemporary studies of Louisiana history, is the overarching story told in Ancestral Artistry, which connects Pierre, Reeves, and Porée back to the largely unnamed enslaved Africans who literally built much of the infrastructure of French, then Spanish, then American Louisiana. Arriving in the new world with their own knowledge and skillsets, these individuals were often then trained by French craftsmen and builders to construct the new colonies.
Photo courtesy of the Louisiana Architecture Foundation
Master Blacksmith Darryl Reeves
In the eighteenth century, Louisiana’s Black Codes included provisions that allowed enslaved people to “earn” their freedom, either by way of their enslaver or by purchasing it with their own money. This resulted in a growing class of free people of color, made up largely of individuals who practiced a trade or craft that allowed them to earn money. These trades were then passed down through families, defining their place in the community for generations.
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The film dives deep into these histories, celebrating artisans like Solomon Williams, an enslaved metalworker at Oakland Plantation in the Cane River Creole National Historical Park, and Allison “Tootie” Montana—whose famed attention to detail as an ironworker translated directly into his remarkable Mardi Gras Indian suits.
Photo courtesy of the Louisiana Architecture Foundation.
Master mason, the late Teddy Pierre, at work
In the end, the question resounds: will these traditions survive into the future? People like Hankins are working to ensure they do through the NOLA Master Crafts Guild, a nonprofit that subsidizes the training of new apprentices under masters like Pierre, Reeves, and Porée, who are eager to pass on their craft to a new generation.
“All of the craftsmen, we are the maintenance men of history,” said Porée. “Hopefully we’ve got some things that will live on forever.”
Ancestral Artistry: The Influence of Africans & Creoles of Color on Louisiana Architecture was made possible by the financial support of AIA Louisiana, the Louisiana State Office of Cultural Development Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, and a host of statewide public and private donors. You can view the film at upcoming screenings this fall in New Orleans, Monroe, Shreveport, and Alexandria; or rent it to screen for your business or organization. Details at louisianaarchitecture.org.
There will be an outdoor screening of Ancestral Artistry at the Pitot House in New Orleans on the evening of Tuesday, September 30. Bring blankets and lawn chairs. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with artisans featured in the film.
