The Impact
The Neighborhood
Tremé– the oldest black neighborhood in the US, has a rich history of activism, labor, commerce, culture, music, education, and more. A place of deep family ties and organic culture, The Tremé provided the first independent opportunities for enslaved Africans and free people of color to grow and build together. It has been home to some of the world’s most revered musicians and artists and continues to be an inspiration for community activism and neighborhood resilience.
This project will project the history and significance of the neighborhood and create opportunities for the lifelong residents of the area to share their stories and benefit from their contributions to maintaining this place. The project will be designed with policies and programs in mind to ensure the long-term protection of this historic neighborhood from further destruction and build back a liberated black cultural space.
The Policy
For the greater part of the last century, the Tremé neighborhood was subject to the political whims of those in power. Harmful policies over many decades have continued to alter the landscape of the community. From the original plan for the municipal Auditorium in the ’20s to the highway cutting through the neighborhood in the ’60s to the spread of short-term rentals devouring housing over the last decade to the current attempt to place City Hall in the Park today, neighborhood residents have continued to fight for justice through it all. No matter the transgression, residents will not “bow down.” This project will set a precedent for a politically liberated black space. The policies and procedures set forth during this process will propose the future we want to see for our people and our neighborhood.
Community Engagement Process
The Save Our Soul Coalition has dedicated time and energy to a robust community led process that helped shape the vision of this project. Starting in January 2021, the coalition began to meet with people all across the city to identify both the reasons not to place a city building in the park but to invest in the cultural economy of this community. From marches to design charettes and community meetings SOS has invested considerable time and energy to meet the administrations challenge. Ultimately this community has been arguing for this type of investment since the Claiborne Avenue Design Team released their report in 1974 and we intend to continue bringing the peoples voice into the design and development of all significant invest moving forward.