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New Populations Project
Open Doors Mentoring Project
New Populations Research
The New Populations Project is an initiative of the Louisiana Division of the Arts Folklife Program to reach out to our state's immigrant and refugee communities. The goal is to address an underserved sector within the cultural economy and provide an opportunity to engage these communities in the identification and documentation of their traditional culture and art forms.
Louisiana is home to significant numbers of people from Vietnam, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, India, China, Taiwan, Palestine, and the Middle East, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Korea, El Salvador, Japan, Columbia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Laos, and Thailand. In addition, there are trans-national cultural groups, such as the Garifuna and Mayans here. Because this is an ambitious project, our priority will be to focus on the larger, more concentrated communities with long-term residence in Louisiana rather than university students or those that have most recently arrived. Some cultural groups have come to Louisiana in successive waves - some up to seven generations - replenishing ties to the home country. This project focuses on the most recent arrivals that include foreign-born members.
This project asks communities and individuals how they maintain their home culture here in Louisiana. We ask: Do you make crafts, music, or foods that are traditional in your culture? Do you celebrate holidays that are important to your culture? Do you work at traditional occupations?
Our strategy in the first phase of this project was to reach out to these communities by documenting their traditions. Generally, documentation focused on folk traditions rather than classical or popular art forms, although we recognize that some classical or popular art forms take on new meanings in a diaspora setting. For more information about folklife, see Key Folklife Definitions. Fieldworkers documented community traditions, art forms, and events and then provided essays and photographs that are listed below. Fieldworkers also helped us identify the following in these communities and submitted a field report on their findings:
Folk Tradition-bearers - people who are maintaining traditions that have been in their community or family for many years, such as music, crafts, sacred traditions, occupational traditions, foodways, celebrations, or holidays.
Professional Artists - such as dancers, musicians, actors, creative writers, designers, painters, craftspeople, and filmmakers.
Organizations - groups that may want to apply for a grant to support arts activities or other cultural endeavors.
Community spokespeople - people who might like to participate in the statewide arts network or receive information about resources and opportunities.
Artifacts - items or displays that could be featured in a temporary museum exhibit in the future. The item might be loaned or recreated, such as an altar, handmade crafts.
To receive a copy of field reports, contact Maida Owens, mowens@crt.state.la.us or 225/342-8178.
Open Doors Mentoring Program
We are now in the second phase of the project which is called the Open Doors Mentoring Program. We piloted the project with three organizations that received training in producing arts projects and grantwriting. For a report on the pilot year, see
The Open Doors Mentoring Program--A Pilot
Six organizations were accepted in the second round of the Open Doors Mentoring Program. They will receive a grant of $3000 and participate in four mentoring workshops along with the Community Development Coordinators in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and New Orleans and Louisiana Division of the Arts staff.
Akashleena Literary Cultural Organization, Prairieville (Bengali)
Baton Rouge Bengali Association
Baton Rouge Chinese Culture Club
Indian Arts Circle of New Orleans
Vietnamese American Youth of Louisiana, New Orleans
Wat Thammarattanaram, Broussard (Laotian)
New Populations Research
The following communities and traditions were documented in the first phase of the New Populations project.
For a brief overview, see the New Populations Art Forms and Traditions powerpoint.
New Populations Research
Projects that have a field report available upon request are marked with an *.
Chinese
* Balance of Grace and Strength: Chinese Folk Dancing in South Louisiana - Guiyuan Wang
Luck, Peace, and Prosperity: Celebrating Chinese New Year in Shreveport - Sheila Richmond
* Moon Cakes, Knotting, and Feng Shui: A Peek of Chinese Culture in Baton Rouge, Louisiana - Jun Zou
Cubans
* Music and Dance in South Louisiana's Cuban Community - Tomás Montoya González with T. Ariana Hall
* Carnival, Feast Days, and House Parties: Cuban Celebrations in Louisiana after 1960 - Tomás Montoya González with T. Ariana Hall
Filipinos
* Mabuhay Pilipino!: Filipino Culture and Dance in Southeast Louisiana - Laura Westbrook
Garifuna
* From Punta to Chumba: Garifuna Music and Dance in New Orleans - Amy Serrano
Germans
* Getting to Gemütlichkeit: German History and Culture in Southeast Louisiana - Laura Westbrook
Guatemalans
"Looks Very Simple, But Takes a Lot of Time": Diana Gay's GuaTamales - Guatemalan Tamales - Mandy McClain with Susan Roach
* Musicians in the Guatemalan Community of New Orleans - Devon Robbie
Hispanics
The Hispanic Population of Rural Central Louisiana and Their Traditions - William Manger
Hondurans
* Honduran Identity Within South Louisiana Culture - Denese Neu
Indians
A Sampling of Indian Arts and Traditions in Louisiana
* Satyanarayana Puja: A Hindu Prayer Service in South Louisiana - Daria Woodside
* Dancing in the Light: The Nine-Day Festival of Navaratri in South Louisiana - Daria Woodside
* Indian Classical Music in South Louisiana - Andrew McLean
Rangoli - An Indian Custom of Welcome - Laura Westbrook
Japanese
Japanese Culture and Dance in Southeast Louisiana - Laura Westbrook
Laotians
* Songkran: Laotian New Year in South Louisiana - Hardy Jones, Jr.
A Sampling of Laotian Arts and Traditions in Louisiana
Latinos
Sabor Latino: Central American Folk Traditions in New Orleans - Shana Walton
* "My Way To Show Baton Rouge I'm Here": Latino Music and Dance in Baton Rouge - Dominic Bordelon
The Difference Between a House and a Home: Latino Experiences in Baton Rouge - Dominic Bordelon
Mexicans
The Mexican Community of Forest Hill, Louisiana - William Manger
Ritual Traditions of Maria Lopez: From Mexico to Louisiana - Susan Roach
Making Piñatas: Celebration Mexican-Style in North Louisiana - Barbara Chumley and Susan Roach
Middle Eastern Muslims
* Places Called Home: Folk Traditions among Muslim Immigrants in Baton Rouge, Louisiana - Jocelyn Donlon
* Domestic Customs Among Muslims Women in the Greater New Orleans Area - Denese Neu
Nicaraguans
* The Story of La Purisima and La Griteria: A Unique Nicaraguan Sacred Tradition Adapted to Louisiana - Denese Neu
Thai
Thai Customs of Loy Krathong: Festival of the Floating Lotus - Laura Westbrook
Vietnamese
* Offerings to Kings and Buddha: Vietnamese Ritual Activities at Chua Bo De: The Vietnamese Buddhist Community in New Orleans Area - Allison Truitt
* Preserving Vietnamese Culture and Language in Southern Louisiana: Altars as Symbols of Identity - Emma Tomingas-Hatch
* Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, in the New Orleans Vietnamese Community - Kathleen Carlin and Cam-Thanh Tran
Vietnamese Lion / Dragon Dance: Excerpts from a Conversation between Laura Westbrook and Johnny Huynh
Research in Progress:
Immigrant Groups in the Greater Shreveport Area - Laura Marcus Green
Other Articles on Louisiana's New Populations:
These articles were written through initatives other than the New Populations Project. For an overview of all of Louisiana's traditional cultures see Louisiana's Traditional Cultures: An Overview.
For a complete list of web articles, see Louisiana's Living Traditions - Articles and Essays.
Croatians in Southeastern Louisiana: Overview
The Difference Between a House and a Home: Latino Experiences in Baton Rouge - Dominic Bordelon
Gefilte Fish in the Land of the Kingfish: Jewish Life in Louisiana
Jewish Folklore in Northeastern Louisiana
…A Hurricane is Nothing… - Kathleen Carlin
Hungarian Folklife in the Florida Parishes of Louisiana
The Invisible Population: Mexicans and Central Americans in Northern and Central Louisiana
Vietnamese Folklife in New Orleans
Ritual Spaces in Traditional Louisiana Communities: Italian, Nicaraguan, and Vietnamese Altars
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