NOLA's Rich History
Title
NOLA's Rich History
Format
Video
Subject
This is Cierra Chenier's story of New Orleans history and culture; New Orlean's native and daughter of the city.
Description
Noir Nola, Cierra Chenier tells the history of the oldest black neighborhood in New Orleans: The Treme
Creator
Nigell Moses
Source
My Nola My Story via Youtube
Publisher
Mass Communications department at Xavier University of Louisiana.
Date
December 10, 2019
Contributor
Cierra Chenier
Rights
My Nola My Story
Relation
My Nola, My Story 2019 Exhibit
Language
English
Type
Adobe Premiere, video
Identifier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMC-9UT0krE
Coverage
A Digital Humanities project by Xavier University of Louisiana's Mass Communication department students, led by Dr. Shearon Roberts.
Original Format
Transcription
Intro: Shake It Fo Ya Hood by Ricky B
Cierra Introduction (Opening): My name is Cierra Chenier and I'm the owner of Noir Nola, which is a brand that is highlighting the history, politics, lagniappe, and soul of black New Orleans and through this platform, um, I combine historical accuracy with cultural relevancy.
I use this to tell black New Orleans stories through black New Orleans and using this as a way to control our own narratives and create something that is to and for us.
Interview: Treme was actually, the land was actually a plantation, which was named after Claude Treme. Who conveniently acquired this plantation from a former enslaved women that he married. The enslaved woman, whose name was Julie Monroe, acquired this plantation, and when they got married, he obviously had access to it as well.
And conveniently for him he named it after himself. Subdivided the property and you had Treme Plantation, and through that land, although it was named after a slave owner and a plantation owner; it truly was the black people that lived there that cemented into history the Treme what it is and what is was.
New Orleans was very unique in the sense that free people of color owned property here, and Treme had a very high population of free people of color. Who were entrepreneurs, they owned property in the Treme right outside of the French Quarters which was just unheard of.
You had people like Tommy Lafon, who was a philanthropist and who … came up on some money, a whole lot of money and gave it all to black children and built schools across the city and donated to places like Sisters of the Holy Family and St. Mary’s Academy and Dillard University and really prioritized education and well being of black New Orleans children.
Even in the Treme you have St. Augustine Church, the oldest black catholic church in the nation and its just things like that , that … the Treme is really one area in New Orleans where, it truly is black excellence. And then whether you talking about years later with, you know, you have Dooky Chase and how important Ms. Chase was to the Civil Rights movement.
If you want to talk about under the bridge and how Claiborne Avenue was a black owned business district um with the Circle Food Store at the corner and even that being a black owned grocery store, which provided with everything from a dentist, a chiropractor. You get your school uniforms upstairs, you cash your check, you get your groceries. It was truly what a self sufficient black community looked like.
Outside footage (background noise): So Claiborne Avenue what we know as under the bridge was a home to many things at one point in the 1950s to 1960s. You had large beautiful oak trees going all the way down. As you can see that are still painted on these columns and the area was basically like a park, a meeting area where people in the neighborhood would come sit under the shade, children would play.
And more famously, would have the black Mardi Gras traditions, where the indians, the Mardi Gras Indians would stop under the bridge and celebrate those traditions that we actually still do today.
Closing: The Treme really is like the jewel of New Orleans and it was truly a place where and still is where a lot of our traditions were able to thrive.
Outro: Shake It Fo Ya Hood by Ricky B
Cierra Introduction (Opening): My name is Cierra Chenier and I'm the owner of Noir Nola, which is a brand that is highlighting the history, politics, lagniappe, and soul of black New Orleans and through this platform, um, I combine historical accuracy with cultural relevancy.
I use this to tell black New Orleans stories through black New Orleans and using this as a way to control our own narratives and create something that is to and for us.
Interview: Treme was actually, the land was actually a plantation, which was named after Claude Treme. Who conveniently acquired this plantation from a former enslaved women that he married. The enslaved woman, whose name was Julie Monroe, acquired this plantation, and when they got married, he obviously had access to it as well.
And conveniently for him he named it after himself. Subdivided the property and you had Treme Plantation, and through that land, although it was named after a slave owner and a plantation owner; it truly was the black people that lived there that cemented into history the Treme what it is and what is was.
New Orleans was very unique in the sense that free people of color owned property here, and Treme had a very high population of free people of color. Who were entrepreneurs, they owned property in the Treme right outside of the French Quarters which was just unheard of.
You had people like Tommy Lafon, who was a philanthropist and who … came up on some money, a whole lot of money and gave it all to black children and built schools across the city and donated to places like Sisters of the Holy Family and St. Mary’s Academy and Dillard University and really prioritized education and well being of black New Orleans children.
Even in the Treme you have St. Augustine Church, the oldest black catholic church in the nation and its just things like that , that … the Treme is really one area in New Orleans where, it truly is black excellence. And then whether you talking about years later with, you know, you have Dooky Chase and how important Ms. Chase was to the Civil Rights movement.
If you want to talk about under the bridge and how Claiborne Avenue was a black owned business district um with the Circle Food Store at the corner and even that being a black owned grocery store, which provided with everything from a dentist, a chiropractor. You get your school uniforms upstairs, you cash your check, you get your groceries. It was truly what a self sufficient black community looked like.
Outside footage (background noise): So Claiborne Avenue what we know as under the bridge was a home to many things at one point in the 1950s to 1960s. You had large beautiful oak trees going all the way down. As you can see that are still painted on these columns and the area was basically like a park, a meeting area where people in the neighborhood would come sit under the shade, children would play.
And more famously, would have the black Mardi Gras traditions, where the indians, the Mardi Gras Indians would stop under the bridge and celebrate those traditions that we actually still do today.
Closing: The Treme really is like the jewel of New Orleans and it was truly a place where and still is where a lot of our traditions were able to thrive.
Outro: Shake It Fo Ya Hood by Ricky B
Duration
4 minutes and 8 seconds
Compression
Adobe Premiere
Producer
Nigell Moses
Director
Dr. Shearon Roberts
Files
