New African Orleans: A Musical Film Night

Name: New African Orleans: A Musical Film Night
Released: 2026-04-02
Duration: 2 h 15 min

Short Films by the Neighborhood Story Project Join the Neighborhood Story Project for a series of short films co-created with musicians and social and pleasure clubs in New Orleans. Each film was conceptualized and edited with the musicians to share historical and contemporary stories from their musical communities. • Guiding Star: The Spiritual Church in New Orleans with Herlin Riley and Joe Lastie • Rest in Peace All Ye Who Have Labored with the Young Men Olympia, Jr. Benevolent Association • The Glass House Revisited with with original members of the Dirty Dozen and Rebirth Brass Bands and The Big Nine, Dumaine Gang, Footwerk Family, Keep ‘N It Real, Money Wasters, Nine Times, Ole and Nu Style Fellas, Prince of Wales, Sudan, Undefeated Divas, Gents, & Kids, Versatile Ladies of Style, and the Young Men Olympia, Jr. • From the the Heart: Inside Da Lab with Sudan Social and Pleasure Club We will visit the homes of spiritual churches of the early 20th century, Lafaytte No. 2 Cemetery where the Young Men Olympia, Jr. Benevolent Association has maintained its society tombs for more than a 120 years, the Glass House where brass band music in Central City was revolutionized in the 1970s, and the streets of Treme during Sudan's annual second line parade. Soundtracks for all the films were recorded live in concert with the support of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, "An Open Curriculum on New Orleans." Special thanks to the Historic New Orleans Collection for use of their archives. TUKKI: From the Roots to the Bayou TUKKI, which means journey in Wolof, follows Senegalese composer Alune Wade as he records his album New African Orleans, in Dakar, Saint-Louis, Lagos, and New Orleans. Along the way, he retraces the routes of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and interviews musicians, scholars, and cultural practitioners who have dedicated their crafts and research to Black Atlantic histories and cultures. The film was co-produced by a collaborative ethnography organization, the Neighborhood Story Project. Together, we worked closely with community-based organizations—social and pleasure clubs, Black carnival organizations, a museum dedicated to the history of slavery, a Mami Wata shrine—to build bridges between our communities on both sides of the water. Inspired by the stories of Pan-Africanism in Senegal and Black carnival traditions honoring African ancestry in New Orleans, the end of the film follows Victor Harris, the Big Chief of the Spirit of Fi Yi Yi and the Mandingo Warriors, as he travels to Africa for the first time to participate in a parade we organized in the Dakar Plateau. As Victor says, “It was a connection that’s always been part of my entire life. Being here, I’m not going to say is a dream come true, it was something that had to happen to me. Coming to this land...my life is fulfilled.”PT2H15M2026-04-02New African Orleans: A Musical Film Night"New African Orleans: A Musical Film Night"

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