L. Kasimu Harris: Vanishing Black Bars & Lounges

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Courtesy of the Hilliard Art Museum

"Indian Practice at First and Last Stop Bar" by L. Kasimu Harris

The Black-owned bars and lounges along St. Bernard Avenue in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans were mainstays of the community for generations. They provided refuges and neighborhood meeting places during periods of Jim Crow laws and segregation, and fostered development of community and cultural expression. Few of those former lounges remain and many struggle to stay open today. In an attempt to immortalize these institutions and ask  “What happens to the culture when it is displaced?" photographer L. Kasimu Harris has documented them in images for an exhibition at The Hilliard Art Museum titled Vanishing Black Bars & Lounges. hilliardmuseum.org. 

A Spring Opening Celebration for all of the exhibits currently on display at The Hilliard will be held from 6 pm–8 pm on February 11.