Bring Back Congo Square... Give it to the World

“In New Orleans, African drums met European horns

and America’s music was born.”

                                                                                    Ron Cuccia

Congo Square belongs to the people of New Orleans. Congo Square belongs to the people of the world. It is the place where the music, the rhythms, the dances of Africa came into the New World and, intermingled with the sounds of Europe, created the unique musical energy that went out from New Orleans to the world. New Orleans is at the root of roots music everywhere. Musicians and artists from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia/New Zealand, and South America have been inspired by the spirit of New Orleans. And Congo Square sits neglected, behind an ugly fence, next to an abandoned and decaying auditorium, mostly silent, cut off from the community that gave it life and offering nothing to the world that was inspired by what began there.

It is time to bring back Congo Square as a place of art and music, for the neighborhood where it sits, for New Orleans, and for the world. As a living place of music, dance, and the arts, sitting next to a renovated cultural center at what was Municipal Auditorium, next door to the Jazz National Historical Park, Congo Square is a place that would be magnetic to the world. Bring back Congo Square and dedicate it to celebrating and displaying the creative energy of Africa intermingled with the other cultures of the world—the mix that created gospel music, the blues, rhythm and blues, zydeco, funk, jazz and the great music of Latin America and the Caribbean, inspired great dance traditions, and was the foundation of the modernist movement in European art. We cannot let that great fountain of creative energy sit drained and empty. It is time to bring back Congo Square, and give it to the world.

1. Reopen Armstrong Park

2. Bring back Congo Square

3. Fix the Municipal Auditorium and preserve an auditorium function in it

4. Program these assets to promote our local culture and provide economic development benefits to the neighborhood and cultural community.

Join us for a community meeting next thursday, April 7th from 6-9 at Charbonnet Funeral Home at 1615 Saint Philip, at the corner of Claiborne Avenue.