New Orleans’s African American Musical Traditions: The Spirit and Soul of a City

Abstract

It has become fashionable to label August 2005’s devastating Hurricane Katrina as “the greatest natural disaster in American history,” when considering the combined loss of life, massive destruction, economic impact, and prolonged displacement of citizens. What is less often discussed is that from the perspective of New Orleans’s African American population, Katrina’s aftermath has potentially launched the greatest cultural disaster in this country’s history. The United States is a comparatively young nation that lacks the presence of many original vernacular traditions and the rich cultural history that can be found in Africa, Europe, and Asia. Despite this, the city of New Orleans embodies the variety, longevity, level of community involvement, and social relevance of its several one-hundred-plus-year-old African American folk traditions.