Le Kèr Créole: Runaway Slaves, Music, and Memory in Louisiana

[Waiting on closing date] The Louisiana State Museum, in partnership with Neighborhood Story Project and L’Union Creole, unveils Le Kèr Creole (The Creole Heart): Runaway Slaves, Music, and Memory in Louisiana, a new exhibition that explores the legacy of the Louisiana Creole language through the historical memory of Juan San Malo, the leader of a runaway slave community in the 1780s, and contemporary Creole music.

Le Kèr Creole features photography by Bruce Sunpie Barnes; lithophanes and paintings by Francis X. Pavy; archival images, maps, and artifacts from the Louisiana State Museum; an interactive altar featuring wood carvings by Charles Gillam; and Creole music written and arranged by Bruce Sunpie Barnes and Leroy Etienne. Curated by Rachel Breunlin, Bruce Sunpie Barnes, and Francis X. Pavy, the multimedia exhibition is based on the book and CD Le Kér Creole: Creole Compositions and Stories from Louisiana, a collaborative musical ethnography produced by the Neighborhood Story Project, L’Union Creole, and the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park and published by the University of New Orleans Press. Research support was provided by the University of New Orleans.

The exhibition opens with a free reception, with live Creole music, on October 11, 5:30 pm–7:30 pm, in the Arsenal at the Cabildo. louisianastatemuseum.org/cabildo.