Bayou Culture Collaborative to Host Culture and Climate Conversations

The Bayou Culture Collaborative will host Culture and Climate Conversations, a series of community discussions intended to raise awareness about the cultural impact of the state’s environmental changes. At six events across south Louisiana, community members will explore how climate shifts and rapid land loss are affecting arts, heritage, and traditions.

Culture and Climate Conversations offers local artists an important platform to present their crafts, rituals, traditional practices, and other local knowledge now at risk. “As our land is changing,” said by Jonathan Foret, one of the founding members of the BCC, “we need to be intentional about preserving our culture.” This is one of many BCC projects intended to create networks of concerned Louisianians to develop action steps for endangered communities and traditions. The public is invited to participate in the BCC. For more information, see the Louisiana Folklore Society’s website.

Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public. Culture and Climate Conversations is funded through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the Louisiana Folklore Society. For more information, contact Teresa Parker at tcparker@tulane.edu.

Schedule of Events:


Healing Landscapes, Preserving Communities

Monday, September 18th, 3 p.m.

Georges Auditorium at Dillard University

2601 Gentilly Blvd, New Orleans

Panelists: Pamela Arnette Broom, Urban Agriculturalist, Project Manager, 7th Ward Revitalization Project; Diane Honoré, Creole Healer, Black Masking Big Queen of the Yellow Pocahontas, Historical Interpreter

Moderator: Mona Lisa Saloy, Dillard University Professor of English and former Louisiana Poet Laureate


Stories of Cameron Parish

Tuesday, October 10th, 3 p.m.

Calcasieu Parish Library, Central Branch-DeBakey Community Room

301 W. Claude St, Lake Charles  

Tradition bearers: Second-generation Cameron resident Judge H. Ward Fontenot; Creole, LA native and longtime Lake Charles community leader Dinah B. Landry

Moderator: Keagan LeJeune, Folklorist/Writer, Department of English and Foreign Languages, McNeese State University


Rougarou Fest Narrative Stage

Saturday, October 21st, 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Sunday, October 22nd, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Rougarou Fest

86 Valhi Blvd, Houma

Tradition Bearers: The Narrative Stage will feature several tradition bearers discussing and demonstrating basket weaving, creating moss dolls, preserving the Cajun healing tradition of traiteurs, uses of Louisiana medicinal plants, preserving the Louisiana French language, and sustainability in Louisiana’s fishing industry.

Moderator: Lanor Curole, Tribal Administrator, United Houma Nation


The Sportsman’s Paradise in a Changing Environment

Thursday, November 16th, 6 p.m.

Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Roy House, 1204 Johnston St, Lafayette

Tradition bearers: Dale Bordelon, Rapides Parish duck-call maker and conservationist;

Keith Dupuy, Denham Springs cypress pirogue restorer and antique boat expert

Moderator: Jacob Gautreaux, Adjunct Instructor of History, ULL


United Houma Nation Tribal Celebration (open to tribal members only)

Saturday, December 2nd, Time TBA

Bayou Black Recreation Center

3688 Southdown Mandalay Rd, Houma  

Tradition Bearers: Grayhawk Perkins, Native American storyteller, stomp dancer, & oral historian; Raymond Clark, UHN palmetto ­hut builder, stickball expert, drummer & singer

Moderator: Lanor Curole, UHN Tribal Administrator


Landmarks & Land Loss in Terrebonne Parish

Sunday, April 14, 2024, 2:00 pm

Chauvin Sculpture Garden Picnic and Blessing of the Fleet Celebration

 5337 Bayouside Dr, Chauvin

Tradition bearers: Cecil Lapeyrouse, 3rd-generation Cocodrie grocer and Cajun-French storyteller; Deborah Cunningham, Chauvin native and multi-generational shrimping family descendant

Moderator: Dr. Gary LaFleur, Jr., Professor of Biological Sciences, Nicholls State University


About the Bayou Culture Collaborative

A collective of more than 800 people and organizations, the Bayou Culture Collaborative (BCC) is organized through the Louisiana Folklore Society to accelerate environmental adaptation through culture and the arts. The BCC recognizes that culture is a powerful catalyst for action and that ecological disruptions threaten community ties to the land and resources that sustain cultural heritage and lifeways. The BCC is funded by Louisiana Division of the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, and Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program. To learn more about the BCC visit https://www.louisianafolklore.org/. Information about the Louisiana Folklore Society may be found at louisianafolklore.org.

Melissa Martin speaks at the next Bayou Culture Gathering Friday, April 26, 2024

The Bayou Culture Collaborative offers a way to connect anyone interested in the intersection of traditional culture, the arts, and science in the face of Louisiana’s land loss and the impact of migrations upon our culture in the coming years and those seeking strategies to help ensure Louisiana’s cultural traditions are passed onto future generations.

The next Bayou Culture Collaborative is Friday, April 26 on Zoom at noon. The April Gathering will feature Melissa M. Martin, chef and owner of Mosquito Supper Club in New Orleans, LA who will talk about how her work celebrates the bounty of fishermen and farmers that define bayou cuisine. Her talk is: Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes from a Disappearing Bayou.

To register: click here. When you register, you will receive a registration notice and future reminders of the meeting date and time.

Sign up to receive announcements.

Sign-on to the BCC Position Statement

We invite you or your organization to sign-on to the position statement either as an individual or as an organization. This position aligns with LA SAFE‘s strategy 5 and NOAA’s Theory of Change: Causal Pathways 1, 2, 3, and 4 cited below.

The Bayou Culture Collaborative Position Statement is a starting point and living tool. It is not a comprehensive policy vision, nor does it promote specific adaptation or management strategies. We nonetheless believe in the urgent need to explore the issues, consider the options, and ultimately make recommendations to state and local leadership that center the people and cultures of Louisiana. We also acknowledge the tremendous challenges of finding balance, common ground, and synergy in this endeavor. 

Individuals may include their affiliation for descriptive purposes and not imply that the organization has officially signed-on in support.

Organizations must authorize signing-on. See more about the Bayou Culture Collaborative and the position statement here.

Join the Bayou Culture Working Groups

The Bayou Culture Collaborative has several working or networking groups identifying what is needed to include the human dimension and culture in Louisiana’s plans to address our statewide environmental changes. We are working towards recommending policy changes to state agencies and providing networking opportunities.

The groups set their own schedule and meet via zoom. Some are meeting every two to three weeks. Everyone is welcome to participate. See below for information about the working groups, how to join, and links to their jamboards and notes, and upcoming meetings. See a summary of all working groups efforts here.

If you would like to join a working group, click the link to get email announcements about that group’s meetings. For other questions or more information, contact bayouculturecollaborative@gmail.com

The initiative is supported by funding from the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Culture and Coastal Planning. From a broad perspective and in a wide range of contexts, this working group is developing recommendations to include culture in coastal planning in addition to formulating metrics that might be developed to facilitate incorporating cultural concerns into coastal restoration modeling. This working group also explores the connections between ecology and culture and the importance of connections to the land, especially in the face of land loss and other negative environmental impacts. Issues include the importance of sense of place, the links between local ecosystems and culture, the history of local connections to the land as well as changes in these connections and the projected cultural impacts of continued land loss. This group merged with the Ecology and Culture Working Group. The convener is Amy Lesen.

This group meets every other Monday at 2 pm. To join, go to Culture and Coastal Planning Working Group. See their jamboard and notes. See Ecology and Culture’s jamboard.

Artists and Tradition Bearers. This working group seeks to support writers, craftspeople, and visual and performing artists who are affected by the environmental changes around them. We also welcome any who are interested in creating or who have already created work that responds to these changes in some way, such as to express how it feels to experience environmental disruption or to educate others as to what’s happening. We provide a forum to exchange ideas and share each other’s work, and there is also potential for organizing participatory events with current or former coastal residents. This networking group merged with the Coastal Culture Writers Working Group and includes all who write about or in the Louisiana coast.

This group meets on third Wednesdays at 7 pm. Lauren Hémard and Mark DeWitt are co-conveners. Join this group by contacting the conveners at bccartistgroup@gmail.com. See their notes.

French Language Preservation. This working group is examining ways to support the preservation of the French language in Louisiana (and the heritage associated with it), particularly as this can be accomplished through the introduction of French language curriculum into local schools.  The Languages of Louisiana working group merged with this group to also examine all languages including indigenous and other heritage languages. They explore Louisiana’s cultural heritage through the languages of its Indigenous and immigrant populations.

This group meets monthly on the second Tuesday at 2 pm. Join by contacting the convener Ivy Mathieu at frenchworkinggroupbcc@gmail.com. See their recommendations and their notes.

Preparing Receiving Communities. This working group is concerned with issues surrounding the current and future migration of people away from the coast. They are examining 1) the means in which the transition of coastal residents (and their culture) to other communities can be facilitated or encouraged, and 2) ways in which potential receiving communities can be prepared for these migrants.  Traci Birch and Haley Blakeman are co-conveners.

This group meets monthly on third Tuesday at 2 pm. Join the Preparing Receiving Communities Working Group. See their notes.

Protecting Collections. This working group provides a way for anyone concerned about the archival collections (including all universities, local and regional museums, libraries, oral history collections, cemetery, and church records) endangered by environmental changes to share concerns and learn about resources and strategies to address their needs. The convener is John “Pudd” Sharp.

This group meets monthly on third Thursdays at 2 pm. Join the Protecting Collections Working Group. See their notes.

Bayou Culture Collaborative

Link

The Bayou Culture Collaborative offers strategies to help ensure Louisiana’s cultural traditions are passed on to future generations.
The collaborative offers a way to connect anyone interested in the intersection of traditional culture, the arts, and science in the face of Louisiana’s land loss and the impact of migrations upon our culture in the coming years.
An initiative of the Louisiana Folklore Society (www.louisianafolklore.org), the Division of the Arts Louisiana Folklife Program (www.louisianafolklife.org), and the Louisiana Folklife Commission in collaboration with non-profit organizations and university groups, we produce workshops in addition to offering funds to organizations and individuals.
The Bayou Culture Collaborative is funded with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

Officers and Board

Officers & Board

President: Mona Lisa Saloy, Ph.D., Dillard University, Department of English (2014-2016)
Vice President: Jocelyn Donlon, Ph.D., Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts (2014-2016)
Secretary: Jennifer Ritter Guidry, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Center for Louisiana Studies (2015-2017)
Treasurer: John Sharp, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Center for Louisiana Studies (2015-2017)

Directors at Large

Frank de Caro: New Orleans (2013-2015)
Marcia Gaudet: University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Ernest Gaines Center (2013-2015)
Shelly Ingram: University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Department of English (2013-2015)
Solimar Otero: Louisiana State University, Department of English, Baton Rouge (2015-2017)
Shane Rasmussen: Northwestern State University of Louisiana, Louisiana Folklife Center (2015-2017)
Helen A. Regis: Louisiana State University, Department of Geography and Anthropology (2013-2015)
Susan Roach: Louisiana Tech University, Department of English (2015-2017)
Leslie Wade: Louisiana State University, Medieval & Renaissance (2015-2017)
Shana Walton: Nicholls State University, Department of English (2015-2017)

Miscellany Editor: Keagan Lejeune, McNeese State University, Department of English (2013-2018)

Resources for Climate Adaptation and Migration Workshops

Maida Owens presented the Climate Migration and Welcoming Newcomers workshop that explores the disruptions in our communities due to environmental changes and cultural strategies that communities can use to welcome newcomers and foster a sense of place for both long-term residents and newcomers.  

Part One introduced climate adaptation with a special focus on climate migration within the United States. This workshop challenges you to start thinking like a future ancestor and asks:  What will future generations wish we had done? It covered climate mitigation and adaptation, environmental economic and political changes predicted by 2030, migration and relocation issues including level of risk, economics, demographics and cultural issues.  This section on migration was recorded and is available on the LFS YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNLX4Rqm9fs 

The section on receiving communities explores cultural strategies to welcome newcomers using resources from immigration, arts, and folklore scholarship in addition to efforts by the Bayou Culture Collaborative (BCC) to bring culture into the community resilience conversation. This section, with an emphasis on the arts, was recorded as The Role of the Arts in Climate Adaptation and Migration

The Arts, Culture and Climate Migration Resource List  includes all resources used in these sessions.  

Maida Owens is a folklorist who has directed the Louisiana Division of the Arts Folklife Program since 1988. She is a founding member of the Bayou Culture Collaborative, an initiative of the Louisiana Folklore Society. Through monthly online gatherings and working groups, the BCC connects those interested in the intersection of traditional culture, the arts and science in the face of Louisiana’s land loss and environmental changes. Her focus is on the impact of migration upon our cultures in the face of coming disruption. 

Resources for the Bayou Culture Collaborative’s workshops are available here. 

Arts, Culture and Migration Resource List

Migration and Receiving Communities – A Plan to Plan Worksheet

An Introduction to Climate Migration and Welcoming Newcomers, American Folklore Society, November 2, 2023.

What State Arts Agencies can do to sustain culture with increasing migration

June 4 Proclaimed as Louisiana Folklife Day!

DARDENNE PROCLAIMS JUNE 4 AS LOUISIANA FOLKLIFE DAY

Lt Governor Jay Dardenne has proclaimed Wednesday, June 4 as Louisiana Folklife Day to recognize the importance of Louisiana’s living traditions. Louisiana is celebrated worldwide for its unique traditions as reflected in its food, music, dance, celebration and crafts.

“Every one and every group has folklife,” explained Teresa Parker Farris, chair of the Louisiana Folklife Commission. Learned informally over time, folklife exists within all of Louisiana’s ethnic, regional, occupational, and family groups.

The Louisiana Folklife program’s newly expanded website, Folklife in Louisiana, presents the state’s regional and ethnic folklife in virtual books, including the new Delta Pieces: Northeast Louisiana Folklife; virtual exhibitions, including A Better Life for All: Traditional Arts of Louisiana’s Immigrant Communities, and hundreds of research essays, photographs, video, and audio components. The related Louisiana Voices Educator’s Guide, draws upon this state folklife scholarship to provide rich teaching resources and methods for all educational levels on Louisiana folk arts and culture.

The Lt. Governor will read the proclamation in front of the Creole State Exhibit located in Ackal Hall of the State Capitol in Baton Rouge at 2 pm on June 4, 2014 with the Louisiana Folklife Commission in attendance. The exhibit features traditional crafts from throughout the state and was made possible by Lt Governor Jay Dardenne and the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.

Louisiana Folklife Day Proclamation

WHEREAS, Folklife includes living traditions learned informally over time within ethnic, regional, occupational, and family groups; and

WHEREAS, Folklife enriches education by recognizing and celebrating diversity, connecting the past to the present, transmitting cultural values, and fostering a sense of community and regional identity in the state; and

WHEREAS, Louisiana is celebrated worldwide for its unique food, music, dance, celebration and craft traditions influenced by state’s diverse ethnic group; and

WHEREAS, Folklife lies at the heart of Louisiana’s robust cultural heritage tourism, with cultural enterprises serving as a major employment engine for the state economy and contributing the regional growth; and

WHEREAS, The Louisiana Folklife program’s newly expanded website, Folklife in Louisiana, presents regional and ethnic folklife in virtual books, including Delta Pieces: Northeast Louisiana Folklife; virtual exhibitions, including A Better Life for All: Traditional Arts of Louisiana’s Immigrant Communities, and hundreds of research essays, photographs, video, and audio components; and

WHEREAS, The Louisiana Voices Educator’s Guide, provides rich teaching resources and methods for all educational levels; and

WHEREAS, The Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism and its Louisiana Folklife Program promote the state’s indigenous cultural traditions;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Jay Dardenne, Lt. Governor of the State of Louisiana, by the authority vested in me as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, do hereby proclaim June 4, 2014,

Louisiana Folklife Day
in the state of Louisiana.

Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana: The 1934 Lomax Recordings

Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana: The 1934 Lomax Recordings

Louisiana Folklore Society board of director Dr. Joshua Caffery, is headed to Washington, D.C., and the Library of Congress as the latest winner of the Alan Lomax Fellowship in Folklife Studies. Caffery will move to D.C. in September with his family for the one-year appointment where he will further his scholarship via the expansive 20th century musicological work of the father/son team of Alan and John Lomax, whose studies of American folk music comprise the largest-ever collected body of field recordings, including exhaustive studies of Louisiana’s indigenous music in the 1930s.?? Caffery holds a Ph.D. from UL Lafayette and is also an accomplished musician, having played in such notable groups as the Red Stick Ramblers and the Grammy-nominated Feufollet. He’s also, just in general, a stand-up guy and son of renowned photographer Debbie Fleming Caffery.?? “Alan Lomax believed that certain areas of the country had unique cultural resources that should be conserved for future generations,” explains Caffery in a press release touting the fellowship. “I plan to help continue that vision.” His soon-to-be-released book, Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana: The 1934 Lomax Recordings, is published by LSU Press. ??Adds Caffery: “For me, having the chance to study the recordings at the Library of Congress is like a Biblical scholar having access to the Dead Sea Scrolls.” To purchase, go to: http://www.amazon.com/Traditional-Music-Coastal-Louisiana-Recordings/dp/0807152013