MUSICAL HOME PLACES: Environmental Portraits by Bruce Sunpie Barnes
December 12, 2018 – January 15, 2019

Step into the neighborhoods around New Orleans where jazz has been nurtured for more than a hundred years.

Through a series of environmental portraits, Bruce Sunpie Barnes takes us on a tour of home places that have been important to the mentors and students involved in the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park’s Music for All Ages program. From churches to corner barrooms, funeral homes to public schools, musicians share the places that helped them create strong communities in music. Since Hurricane Katrina, many places have shut down due to displacement, rapidly changing population demographics, and the restructuring of New Orleans public schools. As a new generation of musicians comes of age, revisiting their significance can help us understand how the musical cultures in the city are connected to grassroots institutions.

Image: Oscar Washington, the leader of the New Wave Brass Band, in front of St. Anthony Divine Spiritual Temple where he grew up playing drums. Photograph by Bruce Sunpie Barnes.