April 2018

people who make this organization what it is. We feel these two initiatives can bring new life to LA Creole. You will hear about these initiatives at our next general meeting and you can plan accordingly with the save the dates and announcements that you will find in this newsletter. ….. So just as I found joy planting daffodils with my grandchildren this Easter Sunday with the hopes that the new bulbs will find nourishment and flourish in a new plot of land, I give thanks to those individuals who have planted seeds that will keep LA Creole full of life in the years to come.

Celebrations and events continue in the City of New Orleans, in celebration of our 300th year. LCRA is pleased to announce significant event of their own in concert with the Tricentennial.

www.lacreole.org

A Message from our President

Tricentennial Moments

The 527 Marker Project Grand Celebration"Ralliez-Vous! A Tribute to the Tribune & L'Union: The First Black Newspapers in New Orleans!" will be held Saturday, June 16, 2018. The event will include a Forum at the Historic New Orleans Collection Williams Research Center, with an unveiling of the marker on the original Tribune building immediately following. This event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Elizabeth Rhodes

The 527 Historical Marker Project Patron GalaLA Creole is hosting a "Tribute Reception and Patron Party" at Le Musee de f.p.c. June 16, 2018, in support of the Louisiana Creole Research Association's Development Fund. More information on the Patron Party and the times of all events will be forthcoming.

As we celebrate this Easter season, I am reminded that Spring brings new life – to daffodils and dandelions, to baby chicks and little lambs, and to ideas and organizations, to love and eternal goodness. Spring has brought new life to LA Creole. I have spent two weekends since this new season began with two sets of incredible volunteers of our organization, one group who is working tirelessly to put on an event that will raise money for this organization. The other group retreated to organize workflow and computer technology issues so that we can be more responsive to our constituents - you - the

Publisher’s Corner

A broad overview of the tremendous achievement of Louisiana writers in the Creole tradition

•Louisiana Creole Literature is a broad-ranging critical reading of belles lettres--in both French and English--connected to and generally produced by the distinctive Louisiana Creole peoples, chiefly in the southeastern part of the state. The book covers primarily the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the flourishing period during which the term Creole had broad and contested cultural reference in Louisiana.

The study consists in part of literary history and biography. When available and appropriate, each discussion--arranged chronologically--provides pertinent personal information on authors, as well as publishing facts. Readers will find also summaries and evaluation of key texts, some virtually unknown, others of difficult access. Brosman illuminates the biographies and works of Kate Chopin, Lafcadio Hearn, George Washington Cable, Grace King, and Adolphe Duhart, among others. In addition, she challenges views that appear to be skewed regarding canon formation. The book places emphasis on poetry and fiction, reaching from early nineteenth-century writing through the twentieth century to selected works by poets still writing in the early twenty-first century. A few plays are treated also, especially by Victor Séjour. Louisiana Creole Literature examines at length the writings of important Francophone figures, and certain Anglophone novelists likewise receive extended treatment. Since much of nineteenth-century Louisiana literature was transnational, the book considers Creole-based works which appeared in Paris as well as those published locally.

Catharine Savage Brosman, Houston, Texas, is professor emerita of French at Tulane University. She is the author of numerous books of French literary history and criticism, two volumes of nonfiction prose, and nine collections of poetry.

Catharine Savage Brosman

Louisiana Creole Literature - A Historical Study

If you have a literary work to recommend or submit please contact admin@lacreole.org.

Catharine Savage Brosman

Member SpotlightChantell M. Nabonne

Chantell Nabonne is a native New Orleanian who joined LA Creole in 2009.She attended McMain Secondary High School and Loyola University, graduating in the year 2000 with a degree in Elementary Education. Chantell taught for 15 years in Louisiana public schools in both Orleans and Lafayette parishes. Her experience includes teaching grades first, second, and third, co-teaching as a Pre-Kindergarten educator, and also in leading various (summer) camp groups in Visual Arts and Drama.

She recently returned back to her beloved city of New Orleans after living and working in Lafayette, LA since 2005. She joined the staff of the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) in 2015 as a “gallery learning specialist,” working in the realm of museum education and arts-integration within area schools. Chantell leads and manages the Mini Masters program, at the museum, aimed at educating and exposing preschool-aged children to arts-integrated instruction and museum culture. She develops and designs lesson plans, activities, and teaching resources for arts-integrated education connected to works of art in the museum’s collection and assists the Curator of Education and other departments with museum events and programs.

As an active member of LA Creole, Chantell has attended all annual conferences and various special events, inclusive of serving on the 2015 conference planning committee, and has participated and assisted with dramatic and oral history presentations in past years. In 2015, she helped organize and arrange for LA Creole’s involvement in NOMA’s first ever “Genealogy Night” during an exhibition featuring the works of notable Louisiana artists. Currently, she helps to maintain and manage the social media content for LA Creole on both Facebook and the organization’s website.

Chantell is generous with her participation in civic, professional and charitable organizations and has received significant honors and recognition including 3 Teacher of the Year awards. She continues to strive to improve the cultural opportunities for students and to promote arts education.

In her free time, Chantell enjoys genealogy, listening (& dancing) to music, and attending festivals and events that embrace the many cultures of our unique world.

Educator, Gallery Learning Specialist & Volunteer

Corner…feature by Curtis M. Graves

Tucker, GA I have always had an intense interest in history. I had the good fortune of being raised in the house with both my maternal grand parents. The family stories came every day and at all times of the day. Our family had dinner together each night, so a child sitting at the dining room table picked up more history then he knew he was taking in. In addition to that, I can not remember a Sunday that we did not have guest. Some cousin of my grand parents or a family friend would drop by for dinner.

This was the Haydel, Honore side of the family. My grand father Elphege (Bull) Haydel (1879-1959) was born in Wallace, Louisiana on his mother and father’s plantation. It become the Haydel Brothers’ Plantation in the late 1800’s. He and his brothers owned the plantation until the depression in the mid-1920’s. My mother and her three brothers were all born on this plantation. Elphege and his wife Josephine Honore Haydel (1881-1972) lived in the big house and his brothers and their families had homes in the backyard. So my mother was raised with nearly all of her Haydel first cousins. Because they went to the same one room school and played in the same yard, they were almost raised as if they were brothers and sisters.

The family folklore was that the Victor Haydel (1835?-1924) was the son of a slave girl named Anna who was thought to be of American Indian and African ancestry and Antoine Haydel (1805-1859). Antoine, was the brother of Azelie Haydel (1790-1860) and Marcellin Haydel who owned and ran what is now the Whitney Plantation. Antoine was hired as an overseer (slave driver) on his sister’s plantation. The Heidel family (now spelled Haydel) had emigrated from Germany in the later part of the 1600’s. Many of them settled on the west bank of the Mississippi River in an area they called the German Coast.

My DNA testing proves that I don’t have any American Indian ancestry. It is all European and African. Anna did not look completely African. She had a reddish completion, and hair that was not real African. So the family concluded that she must be mixed with Indian. That was not so. She was bought at auction from the slave market in New Orleans by Marcellin and given to his wife as a gift. They did not have any children and she really wanted a little girl. It is thought that Anna’s mother died somewhere in the passage. We think that she was about four or five years old when she was bought away from her two brothers who were sold to another plantation.

Anna was raised in the big house on the Whitney Plantation. The house still stands and is open to the public. Again, the family folklore passed down the fact that Victor married Marie Celeste Becnel (1833-1885). It was thought that she was born on the Evergreen Plantation just next door from the Whitney. Again, we believed that her slave mother was unknown and her father was the master of the Evergreen, Flanestan Becnel. Flanestan’s mother was a Haydel and he was second cousin to Antoine Victor’s father.

Thanks to the good research of Dr. Ibrahima Seck who has done much of the research for the Whitney Plantation and published a book called Bouki Fait Bombo, we now know that Celeste was not born on the Evergreen. She was one of seven children who's mother was Francoise, a slavewoman from the Whitney and Flanestan Becnel.

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Cornerlagniappe

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He had a wife and five children just next door. So it turns out that Francoise and Flanestan, his slave mistress, must have had somewhat of stable relationship. She had seven children with him and they all carried his name. It also must have been something that Marcellin and Azelei, masters of the Whitney, must have condoned.

We think that when Victor was in his late teenage years, a marriage was arranged between he and Celeste, his third cousin through the white side of the family. She lived in the slave quarters behind the Whitney big house where he was raised. However, the records show that the two were really not married until 1865. We think that at that time slave marriages were not recorded. They had ten children together. Four of the children were born before 1865 and the rest were born free. My grandfather Elphege was their last child. Poppa, as I called my grandfather, did not talk much about his mother because she died when he was about six years old. However the stories about his father came down like rain.

Again, through the excellent research of Dr. Ibrahima Seck, we have found that after Azilie’s death in 1861, Celeste was bought by her white half brother Aime Leo Becnel. He moved her to his plantation a little down river of the Evergreen. He freed her in that same year. Victor must have moved to join her at some time because in the 1870 census, the two of them were listed as house servants in Leo’s household. This could have been after emancipation when Victor was free to move.

Now, lets get to the remarkable part of the story that changes the Haydel family history. In 1881, working as household servants, Victor and Celeste had saved the grand sum of $700 to pay half of the $1,400 to buy their own plantation. It was the south end of Leo’s plantation. The other $700 was paid to Leo in three installments. So Celeste, a free person of color, and her husband Victor, recently emancipated by the 13th amendment to the Constitution, were land owners about 1882.It turns out that the parcel of land that they bought was a little strange. It was 183 feet wide facing the Mississippi on the river road and 4 miles deep. After the death of Celeste, Victor sold his part of the land to six of his sons. According to my mother and her brothers, the six sons had some 1500 acres of land under cultivation growing rice until the mid 1920’s. The plantation was known as the Haydel Brothers Plantation. The plantation was so prosperous that Elphege was the first plantation owner to buy an automobile on the river road.

Sometimes the oral history of a family needs to be backed up by historical records. Most of this new information was written in French. It was found in the archives of St. John The Baptist Parish. If it were not for a French speaker doing the research, we would not have this new information. This Louisiana Creole family that gave us a mayor, several other elected officials, doctors lawyers, professors, teachers, builders, business people, and so many others who today have tentacles in nearly every state and several foreign countries. Emancipated by white relatives, plantation owners before the 1890, owning all kinds of businesses by the 1940’s, the Haydel family left a mark. I think this is an indelible mark contributing to the rich history of the Creole Louisiana culture.

Saturday, June 16, 2018

The event will include a Forum at the Historic New Orleans Collection Williams Research Center

410 Chartres Streetwith an unveiling of the marker on the original Tribune building

immediately following.This event is free and open to the public.

"Ralliez-Vous! A Tribute to the Tribune & L'Union: The First Black Newspapers in New Orleans!"

Watch for more details to follow in your email, on our website and on our Facebook page.

Coffee & Cousins Hammond

The New Orleans Tricentennial was the theme for this Coffee & Cousins. While New Orleans music played in the background Madeline Gex passed out a “New Orleans Remember When…set of questions she created for everyone to test their memory or knowledge of the City and its culture – people, places and things.

In the two hours spent at Annette’s Country Cooking, everyone introduced themselves. Pat Schexnayder told of LA Creole’s origin and activities. Madeline led the stroll down memory lane and all enjoyed their country meal.

Annette, Sarah and Ashley were more than hospitable as they ushered us into their country home-style restaurant. Everybody had a positive reaction to our gathering.

“I enjoyed talking and meeting people of similar backgrounds, meeting and talking with new folks. I found it very interesting”, expressed Bruno Antoine, a new member of LA Creole.

“I enjoyed it immensely, and liked the camaraderie of the folks there”, said Aldon Lanoix, whose family has joined LA Creole.

Rhea Revere Diaz, who plans to join the organization, said “It was very informative, I enjoyed the people I was with, and I really liked the ‘Remember When’.”

Everyone left well sated – with a delicious from Annette’s, renewed knowledge of New Orleans, and a greater appreciation of LA Creole.

Thank you to LA Creole member, Madeline Aubert Gex, for chairing this event.

Saturday, March 24, 2018By Madeline Aubert Gex

Hammond

Madeline Gex and Annette Jackson

Louisiana Creole Research Association (LA Creole)

The 527 Marker Project Grand Celebration

$1,050

Marker placement and symposium to commemorate the

founding of the nation's oldest black-owned newspaper,

the New Orleans Tribune, and the South's first black

newspaper, L'Union.

The projects were evaluated for scholarship, public outreach, and their relevance to

the themes and content in New Orleans & The World: 1718-2018 Tricentennial

Anthology, a landmark publication recently produced by LEH, that illuminates the

role of the city in major events in U.S. and world history, the economic innovations

and cultural expressions birthed in the city that impacted people around the globe,

and the succeeding waves of new populations who redefined the city's shape and

society. The publication is the product of a partnership between the LEH, the New

Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau (NOCVB) and the New Orleans Tourism

Marketing Corporation (NOTMC). Visit leh.org/tricentennial to learn more.

LEH Announces Awards for Keep It 300! Grants

LEH's Keep It 300! grant opportunity provides support to public

programs that celebrate New Orleans' Tricentennial in 2018. The

grants are made possible by Union Pacific Railroad. LEH is proud to announce the following recipient:

More about The 527 Marker Project

Watch for more details to follow in your email, on our website and on our Facebook page.

LA Creole Board MeetingApril 11, 2018

Xavier UniversityLibrary Resource Center

Room 4005:00 pm

Coffee & CousinsWatch you email for

details of the next event.

LA Creole BoardStrategic Planning Retreat

June 2018Location TBD

5:00 pm

LA CreoleGeneral Membership

MeetingApril 21, 2018

Xavier UniversityLibrary Room 400F1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Keep up with LA Creole information and events of interest on our website and our social media postings.

www.lacreole.org

Do you have some family

research or discoveries to share?

Articles Wanted

Contact Ingrid Stanley

to discuss your ideas

at email :

LA Creole is seeking

2018 Journalcontent.

Articles, poems, photos, literary works.

It’s easy to contribute and our

members are eager to read your

submission.

admin@lacreole.org

Ardoin and renowned Cajun fiddler Dennis McGee often paired up to

entertain during the 1930s.

Legend has it that Ardoin was beaten by white men and left for dead

along a road after he borrowed the handkerchief of a white woman to

wipe away sweat from his face during a performance.

Ardion, mentally incapacitated after the attack, was sent to the Central

Louisiana Hospital in Pineville where he later died. He died at age 44 at

the psychiatric hospital in 1942 and was buried in an unmarked grave.

Creole singer Amede Ardoin gets a statue in Opelousas

Creoles in the news!

By Robert Rhoden

rrhoden@nola.com,

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

Influential creole singer and accordionist Amede

Ardoin, whose music provided roots for modern

Cajun and Zydeco music, was honored with a

steel statue on Sunday (March 11) at the St.

Landry Parish Visitors Center in Opelousas, the

Opelousas Daily World reported.

Hundreds paid tribute to Ardoin, who was from

the Eunice/Basile area, at a ceremony that

featured tributes in French and English and, of

course, music.

The event was part of the ongoing Bringing

Amede Home project, saluting Ardoin's musical

legacy and funding scholarships for young

Louisiana musical artists who plan to study

Louisiana zydeco and French music, the report

said.

The symbolism, in the form of Whiting’s life-size, forged steel statue has Ardoin standing on an accordion, an outstretched hand holding a lemon, all atop a pedestal. And like Ardoin’s music and influence, the tribute to the musician continues long after the initial ceremony.

We are researchers at Tulane and Virginia Tech doing research on language, life, & traditions in New Orleans. We are currently collecting interviews/oral histories from lifelong locals of varying backgrounds. We do audiorecorded interviews, asking about your life and experiences as a New Orleanian. We hope to get your unique perspective on growing up in the city, and living here now. We are happy to come to your home to record your interview, or we have a space where we can host you as well. Typically interviews last 1-2 hours, but we are happy to listen as long as you want to talk!

If you would be open to completing an interview, please e-mail Katie Carmichael at katcarm@vt.edu or call 703-350-7904, to be considered for an interview. We are happy to answer any questions you may have. We very much look forward to hearing from you!

2018 DuesGo to our website www.lacreole.org

or mail your payment to LA Creoleat Xavier University of Louisiana

P.O. Box Library1 Drexel Drive

New Orleans, LA 70125

The retreat is tentatively set for June 2018 and Member Paula Woods Adams has agreed to serve as the lead on this.

She and her committee may be surveying the members as one of the strategic planning activities.

So readers should look for emails from Paula and her committee.

Strategic Planning Retreat

Thank you to members who have already renewed.

Don’t miss out on e-blasts and Monthly Newsletters as well as upcoming member events.

Previously posted but still relevant

On February 1, 2018, the West Baton Rouge Museum opened a new exhibition Creoles du Mondewhich explores the Creole world and culture from Africa and Europe to the Americas. Creoles du Monde celebrates the vibrant culture of Creole people through the eyes of the historians, collectors, artists, and photographers who have captured a rich history in textiles, rare paintings and photographs. This exhibit, which includes works from the collections of Jeremy Simien, Derrick Beard, Ulrick Jean-Pierre, Jeremiah Ariaz and Mary Gehman, will run through May 5th.

Creoles du Monde – Now through May 5th, 2018

Creoles without Borders: Uncovering New, Hidden Narratives with Archival Research, Genealogical Evidence, and Living CommunitiesThe Louisiana Historical Association will hold its 60th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, April 12-15 at the Hampton Inn and Suites Conference Center located at 1201 Convention Center Blvd., New Orleans, La.

The paradigms that have characterized New Orleans research are being reconfigured today through the use of new methods that connect the Creole past with the present, leading to fresh perspectives and the discovery of hidden narratives.Contemporary researchers are telling stories beyond race and color by the use of private collections, archival materials viewed in new ways, through genealogical proof, and living research communities. With racial segregation eliminated as the theoretical underpinning of scholarship, the result is an international and multiethnic approach to Creole New Orleans leading researchers to uncover stories of interconnected communities and families.

The Creoles without Borders panels includes:Fatima Shaik, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication and Media Culture at Saint Peter’s University, will discuss the integration of America’s darker brothers into the 19th century community of the Société d’Economie et d’Assistance Mutuelle. Ronal Dorris, Ph.D., Xavier University, Professor of English, African American and Diasporic Studies and author of will give the history of an early 18th century Louisiana town, a family purchased at auction, and his journey of research through genealogy.Elizabeth M. Rhodes, Ed.D., retired, Assistant Professor, Xavier University of Louisiana, will describe the sustenance of legacies from the French and Spanish colonial periods of Louisiana through living and learning communities, focusing on the evolution of the LA Creole Research Association.

Team Directory ContributorsBoard Chair - PresidentElizabeth Moore Rhodes

Director – Vice President (Facebook)Chantell Nabonne

Director - SecretaryArmand Devezin

Financial OfficerJennifer Ellsworth

DirectorEva Simien Baham

DirectorConstance E. Blair

DirectorCurtis Graves

DirectorMark Roudene´

Membership Chair (acting)Jennifer Ellsworth

JournalIngrid Stanley

CommunicationsHelen Marie

Conference Co-ChairsJennifer QuezerguePat Schexnayder

HospitalityMadeleine Aubert Gex

Your LA Creole Team works consistently to keep the Organization running and relevant to our Mission and our Member’s interests. Please get involved, your contributions are needed and valued, we’d like to see you on our lists!

Louisiana Creole Research Association (LA Creole) advances family research, provides education and celebrates Creole culture.

You may contact our Team and Contributors at admin@lacreole.org, we would love to hear your feedback

Newsletter Editor In ChiefElizabeth Moore Rhodes

FacebookChantell Nabonne

Meeting Minutes & AgendasArmand Devezin

New Member RegistrationsJennifer Ellsworth

Newsletter CoordinatorConstance E. Blair

Newsletter Article ContributorCurtis Graves

527 Marker ProjectMark Roudene´

Newsletter Article ContributorIngrid R. Stanley

Webmaster & Database CoordinatorHelen Marie

Coffee & Cousins II & IIIMadeleine Aubert Gex

Coffee & Cousins NYSophia Little

Website CoordinatorKatherine Bennett

Strategic Planning CommitteePaula Woods Adams

PhotographyCedric Ellsworth