Congo Square, New Orleans

This past weekend I made a trip to New Orleans for my work in peace and justice. One place that I have written about in my blog (http://drummingforpeace.blogspot.com/2009/02/african-drumming-in-early-colonial.html) and wanted to make sure I visited was Congo Square in Louis Armstrong Park.

Since hurricane Katrina the gates to the park have been locked except for special occasions. I was lucky to find the gates open in preparation for an event the next day. There is not much to see but a historical marker, trees, and bricked open space. But, the place is sacred ground for African Americans, as it was for Houma Indians who used the space for their annual corn harvest. By 1803 the space was used by enslaved Africans and free people of color to drum, dance, sing, and trade on Sunday afternoons, a day slaves had off from labor. By 1819 500-600 people gathered in Congo Square. Drumming, dancing, and other African traditions found a place to be expressed. This sacred space was, in some ways, the seed bed of mardi gras traditions, rhythm and blues, jazz, and the 2nd line (upbeat dixieland jazz played on return from the cemetery). It can only be ignorance of the historical and sacred significance of this place or pure greed that caused some city officials to once propose that Congo Square be turned into an amusement park!

*Wynton Marsalis, jazz trumpet player from New Orleans, wrote a tribute to New Orleans entitled Congo Square, in collaboration with the Lincoln Jazz orchestra and African master drummer Yacub Addy (http://www.amazon.com/Congo-Square-Wynton-Marsalis-Orchestra/dp/B0010S6EUG)and was performed in Congo Square April 23, 2006. I have seen this concert on PBS and highly recommend it.