![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/louisiana-weekly-logo-300x151.jpg\"){kind=logo}
\nTiana Hunt (NNPA\/DTU Journalism Fellow, The Louisiana Weekly)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
New Orleans, LA<\/strong> \u2013 As the Crescent City nears its 300-year anniversary in 2018, one arts institution is preparing to honor not just the city\u2019s past, but all the Africans who died during its early life.<\/p>\n Ash\u00e9 Cultural Arts Center, a nearly 20-year-old arts-based institution located in New Orleans\u2019 Central City area, is kicking off its celebration of the tricentennial with this year\u2019s Maafa commemoration, \u201cA Prelude to the Tri-centennial,\u201d at Congo Square in Armstrong Park on July 1.<\/p>\n Maafa, a Kiswahili word meaning \u201cgreat tragedy\u201d or \u201chorrific tragedy,\u201d and a reference to the Middle Passage or Transatlantic Slave Trade, will pay tribute to the scores of African captives who were enslaved and brought to the Americas to be used as a labor force. African slaves arrived in Americas in 1719.<\/p>\n \u201cThe local Maafa Commemoration offers an opportunity for the whole community to pause and reflect on this great transgression against humanity,\u201d said Carol Bebelle, co-founder of Ash\u00e9 Cultural Arts Center.<\/p>\n During the celebration, participants all garbed in white attire will honor their African ancestors who died during the Middle Passage. The ceremony will include \u201cmulti-denominational words of healing;\u201d the singing of ancestral songs; a tribute to the indigenous people of Louisiana; and the eventual releasing of doves.<\/p>\n \u201cIt allows us to personally, and as a community, agree to distance ourselves institutionally, in word and deed, from that transgression, its legacy and the evolved practice of racism in our civic, social, spiritual and personal lives,\u201d Bebelle said.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s Maafa will also honor New Orleans civil rights hero, Jerome Smith, an activist who is renowned for his role as a Freedom Rider during 1964\u2019s Freedom Summer.<\/p>\n The Maafa ceremony will start with libations to the ancestors, songs and dancing at Congo Square, where Africans would gather on Sunday mornings to drum, dance, worship their ancestors and to communicate with each other. Prayers from a diversity of faiths, including those of Christian, Muslim, Jewish, indigenous African religions and others, will be offered during the ceremony.<\/p>\n But the celebrating doesn\u2019t end there, says Luther Gray, coordinator of cultural and communication programming at Ash\u00e9.<\/p>\n \u201cAt 9 a.m., the Maafa will leave the Congo Square. We will walk through the French Quarters, passing up Saint Augustine church and the Tomb of the Unknown Slave. We will stop, briefly, to remember our ancestors. Lastly, we will go to the Mississippi River,\u201d Gray said.<\/p>\n After leaving Congo Square, the procession, led by drummers, musicians, Black Indians and African dancers, will march through Trem\u00e9, briefly stopping at St. Augustine Catholic Church at the site of the Tomb of the Unknown Slave. The procession will then continue on through the French Quarter, with stops at Caf\u00e9 Maspero, the Royal Orleans Hotel and the St. Louis Exchange Hotel where slave auctions were regularly held and slave masters transacted business. The procession will then continue to its final stop at the Mississippi River. While there, amid drumming, dancing, singing and praying, flowers will be released and \u201cancestors will be honored by name, including deceased family members, and individuals who were victims of acts of senseless violence.\u201d <\/p>\n Following the ceremony on the river, shuttles will be on site to transport participants back to Congo Square.<\/p>\n Now in its seventeenth year, Maafa festivities will coincide with the famed Essence Festival, which also takes place in New Orleans that weekend. Ash\u00e9 is inviting Essence Fest goers and other visitors from around the world to join in the ceremony.<\/p>\n Ash\u00e9 Cultural Arts Center was founded by Bebelle and Doug Redd in 1998. It was a response to African American artist and cultural barriers in New Orleans.<\/p>\n Ashe Cultural Arts Center focuses on the understanding of every central thing about the human existence, that is the fact that culture is the core element of everybody. 17 years ago some young people decided to come together and work with people in other port cities to start a remembrance ceremony for places that enslaved Africans that were brought to the United States of America that is how the MAAFA was started. The MAAFA is an opportunity for Black people to be thankful to our ancestors that lived through a hard time that is unimaginable and it gives the Blacks an opportunity to acknowledge the true wrong that was done. June 29 through July 1 Blacks all over the world will be celebrating MAAFA.<\/p>\n In addition to the July 1 ceremony, Ash\u00e9 has a full lineup of pre-Maafa events beginning with visits to the Whitney Plantation in Wallace, La. and the River Road African-American Museum in Donaldsonville, La. on June 27.<\/p>\n The Maafa will take place from June 29 to July 1. All the events are free and open to the public. For more information, call 504-569-9070 or visit www.ashecac.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n Related pre-Maafa activities are listed below:<\/strong><\/p>\n June 27 at 8 a.m. June 29, 6-9 p.m. June 30, 5-7 p.m. June 30, 7-9 p.m. PHOTO CAPTION: Ash\u00e9 co-founder Carol Bebelle and Luther Gray discuss the 17 annual Maafa with NNPA\/DTU Journalism Fellow Tiana Hunt. (Photo: Darrell Larome Williams, NNPA\/DTU Journalism Fellow)<\/em><\/p>\n Tiana Hunt<\/a> is a 2017 NNPA \u201cDiscover The Unexpected\u201d Journalism Fellow and a recent graduate of Clark Atlanta University. This summer, Tiana is writing for The Louisiana Weekly, a member newspaper of the NNPA. Follow Tiana on Twitter @TianaTaughtYa<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider show_divider=”off” disabled_on=”on|on|off” admin_label=”Divider” _builder_version=”3.2″ hide_on_mobile=”on”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_team_member name=”Tiana Hunt” position=”Fellow, The Louisiana Weekly” image_url=”https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Tiana-Hunt-e1497908339864.jpg” facebook_url=”https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tiana.hunt.393″ twitter_url=”https:\/\/twitter.com\/TianaTaughtYa” admin_label=”Person” _builder_version=”3.26.3″ header_text_color=”#393839″ body_text_color=”#393839″ position_text_color=”#393839″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Tiana Hunt is a senior at Clark-Atlanta University who hails from Houston, Texas. This dynamic young journalist has studied abroad in Beijing, has experience as a news anchor, reporter and producer at CAU\u2019s TV station and an on-air personality at the university\u2019s radio station. She is the first in her family to go to college and determined to make her mark in television and journalism. Ash\u00e9 Cultural Arts Center, a nearly 20-year-old arts-based institution located in New Orleans\u2019 Central City area, is kicking off its celebration of the tricentennial with this year\u2019s Maafa commemoration, \u201cA Prelude to the Tri-centennial,\u201d at Congo Square in Armstrong Park on July 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[134,130,136,135,129,137,133,131,59,132],"class_list":["post-3341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tiana-hunt","tag-a-prelude-to-the-tri-centennial","tag-ashe-cultural-arts-center","tag-carol-debelle","tag-congo-square-in-armstrong-park","tag-louisiana-weekly","tag-luther-gray","tag-maafa-commemoration","tag-new-orleans","tag-tiana-hunt","tag-tricentennial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3341"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7804,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341\/revisions\/7804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDay trip to Whitney Plantation in Wallace, LA and The River Road African-American Museum in Donaldsonville, LA.
\nDeparting from Ash\u00e9 Cultural Arts Center (1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.)<\/p>\n
\nCommunity Dance & Drum Workshop with Danys \u201cLaMora Perez Prades & Oyu Oro Experimental Dance Ensemble from Santiago de Cuba
\nFeaturing Bill Summers and Alexey Marti
\nLocation:<\/strong> Ash\u00e9 Cultural Arts Center (1724 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.)<\/p>\n
\nInaugural Maafa Side by Side Exhibition, curated by Gason Ayisyin
\nLocation:<\/strong> Ash\u00e9 Cultural Arts Center (1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.)<\/p>\n
\nMaafa Concert featuring Dee-1, Tonya Boyd-Cannon, LaMora, Oyu Oro, Bill Summers, Alexey Marti, and the Arrowhead Jazz Band
\nLocation:<\/strong> Ash\u00e9 Power House (1731 Baronne St.)<\/p>\n
\n[\/et_pb_team_member][et_pb_social_media_follow follow_button=”on” admin_label=”Social Media Follow” _builder_version=”3.26.3″ link_shape=”rounded_rectangle”][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”facebook” url=”https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tiana.hunt.393″ _builder_version=”3.0.74″ background_color=”#3b5998″ bg_color=”#3b5998″ link_shape=”rounded_rectangle” follow_button=”on” url_new_window=”on”]Facebook
\n[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”twitter” url=”https:\/\/twitter.com\/TianaTaughtYa” _builder_version=”3.0.74″ background_color=”#00aced” bg_color=”#00aced” link_shape=”rounded_rectangle” follow_button=”on” url_new_window=”on”]Twitter
\n[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”instagram” url=”https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/tianataughtya\/” _builder_version=”3.0.74″ background_color=”#517fa4″ bg_color=”#517fa4″ link_shape=”rounded_rectangle” follow_button=”on” url_new_window=”on”]Instagram
\n[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][\/et_pb_social_media_follow][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” admin_label=”Section” _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_fullwidth_post_slider posts_number=”21″ include_categories=”57″ more_text=”READ MORE” use_manual_excerpt=”off” show_meta=”off” bg_overlay_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.53)” use_text_overlay=”off” arrows_custom_color=”#ffffff” dot_nav_custom_color=”#ffffff” admin_label=”Fullwidth Post Slider” _builder_version=”3.26.3″ header_font=”louisglobal2-reg|||on|||||” header_text_align=”center” header_text_color=”#ffffff” body_font=”louisglobal2-reg||||||||” body_text_align=”center” body_text_color=”#ffffff” meta_text_color=”#ffffff” background_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.53)” parallax=”on” custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#ffffff” button_bg_color=”#b5862a” button_border_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0)” button_icon=”%%20%%” button_icon_color=”#ffffff” box_shadow_style=”preset6″ box_shadow_blur=”10px” box_shadow_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.1)” background_layout=”light” custom_padding=”||100px|” custom_padding_tablet=”|||” custom_padding_phone=”|||” auto=”on” auto_speed=”5000″ auto_ignore_hover=”on” bottom_padding=”100px” remove_inner_shadow=”off” hide_content_on_mobile=”off” hide_cta_on_mobile=”off” show_inner_shadow=”on” button_text_color_hover=”#e09900″ button_border_color_hover=”#e09900″ button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ button_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_text_color__hover_enabled=”on” button_text_color__hover=”#ffffff” button_one_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_color__hover_enabled=”on” button_border_color__hover=”rgba(0,0,0,0)” button_one_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”on” button_letter_spacing__hover=”0″ button_one_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off”][\/et_pb_fullwidth_post_slider][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"