New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, established in 1994, preserves and shares “the cultural history of the people and places that helped to shape the development and progression of Jazz in New Orleans.” It is a Park that both interprets place-based history and also celebrates and participates in a living arts scene in its city. The Park Rangers at New Orleans Jazz are working musicians with performing careers in the city beyond their work at and through the Park.

In September 2022, Land Trust Alliance Rally: The National Land Conservation Conference was held in person for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The conference is the most important in Bold Bison’s annual calendar, and we were excited to participate in person and see our friends and colleagues, many of whom we knew only through Zoom at that point. Sean and I had never been to New Orleans, so I suggested that he come along, which he was excited to do. It turned out that our friend Mayilu had been planning a trip to New Orleans with some girlfriends for the weekend before Rally, but her friends had had to cancel. So we decided to go early. Friends Nick, Josh, and Laura decided to tag along too.

Here is how the itinerary worked out. The six of us flew to New Orleans on Friday, September 9, 2022. We explored the city through Sunday evening, September 11, when Mayilu and Laura flew home. Josh and Nick departed Monday morning, September 12. Sean and I relaxed in the Crescent City on Monday, and then on Tuesday, September 13, we checked out two National Park units: New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park and Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. On Wednesday, September 14, Sean departed and Patrick flew down for Rally. Then the conference lasted through Saturday, September 17. On Sunday, September 18, Patrick and I filmed interviews and footage for a client video before departing New Orleans.

The others took an earlier, Spirit flight on Friday, September 9 [2022]. Sean and I flew down a little later on American. It was rainy when we arrived and took a lift from Louis Armstrong International Airport to our hotel, the Kimpton Hotel Fontenot in the Warehouse District just outside the French Quarter. Between this preamble and then all of Rally, I’d be in New Orleans for ten days. I needed a touch of space and quiet, so I wasn’t necessarily keen to stay in the Quarter, nor did I want to stay at the Marriott, where Rally would be. The others were staying in the Quarter at three different hotels.

After Sean and I dropped our things, we headed into the Quarter to meet up with the others at Hermes Bar for a little food. I left Sean there and headed back to the hotel for a late afternoon Zoom call with a client. After that, I’d be free to enjoy the weekend.

The others wandered around as the rain let up, making our group’s first (of many) stop at Good Friends Bar. Then they came by our hotel to pick me up, in time for the complimentary wine happy hour in the lobby.

That evening we wandered around the French Quarter after having dinner at Mr. Ed’s Oyster Bar and Fish House, where I had the first of many helpings of red beans and rice.

Back at Good Friends, they introduced me to Liam, the bartender, whom they’d vigorously befriended earlier in the afternoon.

Hijinks ensued. But we all eventually made it back safe to our respective hotels.

Next morning, Saturday, September 10 [2022], we were moving pretty slowly. I went down to the cafe in our hotel for multiple rounds of coffee, which became a daily tradition during the trip.

After we all met up for breakfast at Backatown Coffee Parlor, we walked over to Basin Street Station in time for our 12 noon cemetery tour.

Our tour of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 was fascinating.

The most arresting tomb was that of Marie Laveau, “Voodoo Queen of New Orleans,” in no small part because of the continued interactions with it in the form of X’s scratched into its plaster surface by those hoping to have their wishes granted.

After our tour, we headed over to Willie Mae’s for lunch. When our server asked where we were from, she then said, “Of course you’re from Chicago! We get folks here from Chicago everyday.”

Mayilu and Laura’s driver back to the Quarter used the expression, “Oh, Murder She Wrote!” But the course of their conversation turned harrowing as she described searching for survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

We spent the rest of Saturday relaxing by the pool in Mayilu’s hotel, then exploring the Quarter and the music venues on Frenchmen St. We went to Good Friends multiple times to see Liam, we checked out a band at Blue Nile, Nick offered his number to a waiter at Zhang Bistro who turned out to be straight (or maybe that was just his excuse?), we visited an art market and a witchcraft shop, and we encountered a racist gay at Corner Pocket.

The highlight was Santos Bar, a chill, divey music venue on Decatur St. Of course Sean had to get a t-shirt.

Later at Good Friends, we got into a conversation about the challenges New Orleans faces from climate change. Like you do. Basically the question was, “How fucked is New Orleans really?” It’s really, really fucked.

Next morning, Sunday, September 11 [2022], started with a very touristy, but tasty, gathering at Cafe Du Monde for beignets and coffee.

Then we wandered around the French Quarter, checked out Crescent City Books, got drinks at Justine and Backspace, got po’ boys at Acme.

Of course we ended up back at Good Friends, where we had to say goodbye to Laura and Mayilu, who headed off to catch their flight home.

Liam the bartender recommended we check out The Country Club in the Bywater neighborhood, a queer-friendly restaurant in an old mansion, with a poolside bar. He would be going later on.

We decided to go, and we were glad we did. It was a very relaxing way to close out the weekend with the guys.

Starting the next morning, Monday, September 12, Sean and I were on our own in New Orleans for a couple days. We spent that first day exploring a bit beyond the French Quarter.

Sean’s and my explorations were centered around food, books, and National Parks. Sean had a plan for our dining experiences, since our palates were broader than some of the friends who’d been with us over the weekend. For lunch, we took a Lyft to Heard Dat Kitchen for grits and crayfish. As he was dropping us off, our Lyft driver, who’d picked us up at our hotel, turned to us and asked, “How did you find out about Heard Dat? Because this is the Hood. Tourists don’t usually come here.” Sean replied that he had done a lot of research. Our driver replied, “Well you must have done good research because this is the real deal.”

It most certainly was the real deal. Our lunch, which we gobbled up on a picnic table out front, was fantastic.

After lunch, we strolled around Louis Armstrong Park, just outside the French Quarter.

The park encompasses Congo Square, the cultural significance of which really can’t be overstated.

From the mid-1700s until well into the 1800s, the city’s enslaved Africans kept their culture alive by gathering in Congo Square to dance and sing. Under the colonial Code Noire, Sunday was a “free day” for slaves. The tradition began in an informal Sunday marketplace on the northern (lakeside) boundary of the city. By the late 1700s hundreds of [enslaved people] converged there on Sundays to buy and sell, and to dance.

The gathering broke into clusters of dancers who often moved in circular patterns rooted in African ring dances. Musicians struck drums, gourds, and tambourines; blew on “quillpipes,” a kind of panpipe; and played stringed instruments. Moving in a circle around them were the exotically clad and ornamented dancers. They chanted, clapped, patted, and sang as they danced the bamboula, the calinda, and the djouba, with single dancers and couples taking turns within the circle.

By the 1830s fewer participants had memories of African traditions, and the young were creating their own dances, incorporating West Indian rhythms and American reels and jigs. The Americans, never comfortable with the gatherings, increasingly restricted them, and by the start of the Civil War Congo Square was quiet.

– National Park Service

Offerings of coins, flowers, and stones are placed at the feet of the sculpture honoring the enslaved people who made music in Congo Square.

After Congo Square, we wandered back into the Quarter, eventually ending up at Faulkner House Books, in the writer’s former home. I’m not a particularly big fan of Faulkner, so I didn’t really care all that much about the house, but the bookstore was incredible. It was small, but beautifully curated. The recommended items on prominent display were things that Sean and I would have chosen to display from our own library—from Rebecca Solnit to Lynd Ward. Reacting to our many comments of surprise and delight at what we were finding, the bookseller declared that we were her favorite customers of the day.

On the way back to our hotel, we checked out the Marriott, which towers above Canal Street. Sean was curious where my conference would be, but we were glad we weren’t staying there.

That evening, we had an early dinner at Justine before relaxing in our hotel room. Sean happened to turn on the Emmy Awards just in time to hear Sheryl Lee Ralph’s moving acceptance speech. And also Jean Smart’s. Hooray for Designing Women alumni!

Next morning, Tuesday, September 13 [2022], Sean and I were ready to explore some National Park units.

I had to take a quick Zoom meeting that morning, and then we hurried off to the Visitor Center on Decatur St., which served both Jean Lafitte and New Orleans Jazz, and also the French Quarter generally.

We wanted to see the 10am Ranger Talk with Ranger Hunter Miles Davis. Here is a little more about him:

Ranger Hunter’s talk that morning was first rate. Using an array of instruments, including traditional goatskin drums, he discussed—and demonstrated—percussion in Congo Square, how it grew from African and Caribbean styles, and how musically it was akin to communication. The beats of one drummer would be repeated by others in a complex call-and-response. Using gumbo as a metaphor, he moved on to to a drum kit, demonstrating rhythms and percussive evolutions in traditional New Orleans jazz.

After the talk, we hung out in the Visitor Center and planned out the rest of our day. To check off Jean Lafitte, it made sense to go out to Barataria Preserve, which would involve taking Lyfts. We also now wanted to go to the afternoon concert of the Arrowhead Jazz Band, the National Park Service’s band, which Ranger Hunter played in. The concert was at 2pm, and it would last about an hour. So that gave us time to go out to Barataria Preserve for a couple hours afterward. Perfect! I prebooked a Lyft for 6pm to get us back to New Orleans from the preserve.

It was about twenty minutes after eleven. So we decided to use the Park’s Jazz walking tour app to check out a few sites in the French Quarter.

One of the stops was Preservation Hall. Next time we return to New Orleans, it would be cool to see a concert here.

My parents used to visit New Orleans with their close friends, my Aunt Meryl and Uncle Gordy, and they’d stay at the Audubon Cottages. So Sean and I sent them a photo of us in front of the cottages.

As we walked around, I also shot a little b-roll for Bold Bison’s video project for River Network. More on that later.

Eventually New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park will have its primary Visitor Center space in Louis Armstrong Park. It was at Jean Lafitte’s when we were there because they were mid-move. We were slightly confused when we encountered the Park’s previous Visitor Center location.

We stopped for lunch and had a whole little New Orleans sampler: gumbo, jambalaya, étouffée, and red beans and rice.

Then around twenty minutes until two, we arrived at the New Orleans Jazz Museum for the concert.

The museum was in the former mint, and the ground floor had an exhibition of artifacts from that era of the building’s history.

The concert was in the warm and intimate performance space on the museum’s third floor. The quintet gathered that afternoon was led by Ranger Jade Perdue on vocals. She was joined by Shea Pierre on piano, Max Moran on upright bass, Steve Lands on trumpet, and Ranger Hunter Miles Davis on drums. Both Park Rangers wore their unifroms.

On some level, the concert was the most spectacular Ranger Talk ever, with Ranger Jade offering insights on the history of jazz in between numbers. Because it was Hispanic Heritage Month, they focused on the influence of Latin and Hispanic influences on jazz in New Orleans. Ranger Jade interpreted what we were experiencing with commentary between songs, but she also literally interpreted the songs with her rich vocals.

The concert streamed on the Park’s Facebook page, and you can watch the whole performance here.

And here is a bit more about Ranger Jade:

After the show, it was time to grab a Lyft to the bayou for an entirely different New Orleans experience.