Rehearing Reconstruction

January 24 @7pm
BK House, 1113 Chartres St

An evening of music and conversation exploring the legacies of Haitian music, language, and politics in New Orleans, including:

- Benjamin Barson, author of Brassroots Democracy: Maroon Ecologies and the Jazz Commons 
- Rachel Breunlin and Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, authors of Le Kèr Creole: Creole Compositions and Stories from Louisiana
- Leyla McCalla, musician bridging Louisiana Creole, Haitan Kreyol, and other Afro-diasporic musics

This event joins together two groundbreaking studies outlining the impact of Haitian culture and politics on the music of New Orleans in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Benjamin Barson’s new book Brassroots Democracy: Maroon Ecologies and the Jazz Commons connects the lives of Haitian-descended musicians to the fight for black liberation in Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction New Orleans. And in Le Kèr Creole: Creole Compositions and Stories from Louisiana, Bruce "Sunpie" Barnes and Rachel Breunlin undertake a musical ethnography based around original and traditional Creole songs that cross time and musical genres. Leyla McCalla will finish off the evening by reflecting on her creative bridging of Louisiana Creole, Haitan Kreyol, and other Afro-diasporic musics. For the first time, these projects are brought together to reimagine connections between the Haitian Revolution, Creole music and language, and the struggle for collective and individual freedoms.

Sponsored by Tulane University School of Liberal Arts, Newcomb Department of Music, Neighborhood Story Project, New Orleans Foundation for Francophone Cultures (Nous), Historic BK House & Gardens, and Twin Sisters Reunited.

Design by Katya Vaz. Photo of Leyla McCalla by Noé Cugny.