This writer isn't "Creole." She isn't "native." She is a believer. She believes that some of our best histories are oral. Stories passed down from loved one to loved one. She believes that, much like great recipes, stories get better the longer they're left to simmer.
Great stories are also fragile. Easy lost, burned, drowned, or forgotten. Too often they go unpublished. Undocumented stories are at the highest risk of being forgotten.
Printed stories at the highest risk of being mistold.
The stories in our history books, papers, and books too often share someone else's truth. Edited. An amalgamation of facts, rumors, politics.
Creole Living was born from the realization that the neighborhoods like The Marigny, Bywater, Treme, St Roch, Lower 9, and their neighbors lack a scribe. Their stories remain oral. While that's beautiful, it means they remain fragile. Reduced to a rif on a track, a wail of a horn, or a visit over drinks. Or worse, they're rolled into someone else's history.
Creole Living was created to record and share the undistilled truths of what it's like to live in and enjoy the neighborhoods downriver from Canal Street. A window comprised of stories young and old - and from the young and old - to why we choose to call these soggy banks, "home."
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