I Witness Central City

As New Orleanians well know, every street corner, front porch, abandoned warehouse or crowded restaurant in this city houses a gamut of stories. These stories make up New Orleans’ cultural identity just as much as our music, our architecture, and our gumbo, but often these tales exist only within the people who’ve lived them. I-Witness Central City is a Story Mapping project that seeks to open up these living and breathing personal histories to a wider audience via live performance, digital story maps, and a new cell phone walking tour.

Kids growing up in Central City today might never know about the jazz funeral that the Free Southern Theatre held for itself in 1980 or who painted the murals of civil rights workers under the I-10 overpass. We believe that every story contains a vital thread of our collective memory, and that through sharing these narratives we come to better understand our communities and ourselves.