CABILDO

LIVING HISTORY ON JACKSON SQUARE

The Cabildo is a low cost, totally wheelchair-accessible place to spend an hour out of the broiling New Orleans sun.

From the Louisiana State Museum website:

“Located next to St. Louis Cathedral and facing Jackson Square, the Cabildo was built under Spanish rule in 1795-1799 and named after the municipal governing body that was located there.”

“Before the transfer of the building to the state museum in 1908, the Cabildo served as a city hall, a courthouse and a prison. The building was designed by Gilberto Guillemard, who also designed St. Louis Cathedral and the Presbytere but the third story mansard roof with cupola was not added until 1847, replacing the original flat Spanish roof and balustrade. On the second floor is the Sala Capitular, or "Meeting Room", in which much of the official business of the building took place.”

“In 1803, the Cabildo was the site of the Louisiana Purchase transfer, the event that acquired the Louisiana Territory for the United States, doubling its land-area. The Cabildo served as New Orleans City Hall until 1853 when it became the headquarters of the Louisiana State Supreme Court and saw the landmark Slaughterhouse and Plessy vs. Ferguson decisions.”

“When the Marquis de Lafayette visited the Crescent City in 1825, the city allowed him the use of the Sala Capitular as his residence. In the 1870's, the building came under gunfire on three separate occasions, all the product of Reconstruction era politics and racial tension. “

“The building was transferred over to the Louisiana State Museum in 1908 and has served to educate the public about Louisiana history since. Unfortunately, in 1988 the Cabildo was severely damaged by fire. Over the next five years, the landmark was authentically restored using 600-year-old French timber framing technology. It reopened to the public in 1994 with a comprehensive exhibit focusing on Louisiana's early history.”

The Cabildo is located along Jackson Square, adjacent to St. Louis Cathedral at 701 Chartres St.

Admission $6  Phone 504 568 6968  

Tuesday - Sunday 10:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Closed Monday and state holidays.

http://www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-museum/museum-sites/the-cabildo

LIVING WITH HURRICANES: KATRINA AND BEYOND -4

A POIGNANT EXHIBIT AT THE PRESBYTERE ON JACKSON SQUARE IN NEW ORLEANS

Katrina and Beyond is largely uncensored.

Its visitors experience death, destruction, total loss.

One man’s daily diary, written on what’s left of his home,  drops the F-bomb and other uncomely words.

Thank goodness the exhibit didn’t censor his raw emotions.

Let’s be honest, 10 year old kids hear the most vulgar of words on the school playground.

So certainly, their eyes and ears can take some unsavory words in the context of hurricane survivors who do not know where their loved ones, pets and cherished belongings are.

Denial is a terrible roadblock to true physical, mental and spiritual healing.

Katrina and Beyond does not deny any of the unimaginable waves of suffering that its victims and survivors endured.

With all its vivid imagery, unvarnished truths and xxx, Katrina and beyond is one of the most triumphant museum displays created.

It is powerful  and, ultimately, transcendent.

http://www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-museum/exhibits/living-with-hurricanes-katrina-and-beyond/index

 

LIVING WITH HURRICANES: KATRINA AND BEYOND -3

A POIGNANT EXHIBIT AT THE PRESBYTERE ON JACKSON SQUARE IN NEW ORLEANS

The exhibit is raw, emotional, ugly, beautiful.

It is almost impossible to look at some of the displays and not be reduced to tears.

There are stories on unimaginable suffering.

There are times when one thinks if they were placed in the aftermath of Katrina, unreached for 7 days and counting, would one pray for the roar of helicopter blades and boat engines – or would one pray for going to sleep one time and escaping the misery in the quietude of death?

Throughout the displays, the visitor has to remind himself that Katrina took place in the 2ast century.

With the loss of safe water, food, communications, hospitals, first responders, all basic needs – the aftermath looks like it took place a century ago.

It is almost impossible to conceive that 21^st century America was so slow to help the people of New Orleans.

The sluggishness of supplies, manpower, communication lines was so woeful that you’d think the rest of the nation surely was at war and unable to rush help to historic New Orleans.

Looking at the multimedia displays, you feel the pain, the anguish, the feeling of abandonment.

TOMORROW -- PART3

Hours: The Presbytere is open Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Closed Mondays and major holidays.

LIVING WITH HURRICANES: KATRINA AND BEYOND -2

A POIGNANT EXHIBIT AT THE PRESBYTERE ON JACKSON SQUARE IN NEW ORLEANS

Hurricane was as politically polarizing as it was humanly devastating.

There will always be lingering, haunting questions:

·         Why was government so ill prepared?

·         Why did government fail to respond quickly?

·         Were lives lost because of divides between haves/have nots, black/white?

·         How corruption was the rebuilding process?

·         Why did decades of people in power ignoring long-needed levy upgrades?

·         Was New Orleans left to drown and suffer because it’s a place so different from the rest of America?

·         Was the TV show Treme uplifting, or some kind of cheap voyeurism benefiting from 6 o’clock news images of so many African American neighborhoods reduced to foundations and rubble?

With so many open wounds, no matter how an exhibit on Katrina is presented, someone is going to say it pulled too many punches, or was biased against some group, etc.

In spite of all those challenges, Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond, is a triumph.

TOMORROW -- PART 3


Admissions: Adults, $6; seniors and active military, $5; children 12 years old and younger, free