The Historic New Orleans Collection will join the City of New Orleans 2018 Commission’s Cultural and Historical Committee to present “Making New Orleans Home: A Tricentennial Symposium,” Thursday, March 8, through Sunday, March 11, 2018. The symposium is the capstone of the committee, which is chaired by author and former Associate Vice President for External Affairs at Xavier University Sybil Haydel Morial and THNOC Executive Director Priscilla Lawrence.

Featuring lectures and cultural programming throughout the city, the four-day event will explore the 300-year history of how New Orleans came to be inhabited by diverse, vibrant people and how, in turn, the concept of home has been central to the life and culture of the city.

Comprising individual lectures and panel discussions, the symposium will be held at locations throughout the city, including Tulane University, the Hotel Monteleone, Xavier University, and the University of New Orleans. Additional evening events will take place at The Historic New Orleans Collection and the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old US Mint.

Schedule

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Tulane University, McAlister Auditorium, McAlister Drive and Freret Street

6:30 p.m. Welcome address

Michael Fitts , president, Tulane University Symposium address



Priscilla Lawrence and Sybil Haydel Morial, co-chairs, Cultural and Historical Committee,

City of New Orleans Tricentennial Introduction



Emily Clark, chair, Symposium Program Committee, and Clement Chambers Benenson Professor in American Colonial History, Tulane University Keynote address

Cokie Roberts, NPR and ABC News political commentator

Friday, March 9, 2018

Conference sessions: Monteleone Hotel, Queen Anne Ballroom, 214 Royal Street

Block party: 500 block of Royal Street

8:45–9 a.m.

Introductory remarks

Priscilla Lawrence and Sybil Haydel Morial 9–9:40 a.m.

Balbancha: How American Indians Kept New Orleans in their Homeland

Daniel H. Usner, Holland N. McTyeire Professor of History, Vanderbilt University 9:40–10 a.m. Break 10–10:45 a.m. Revisiting the Devil’s Empire: French Colonial New Orleans

Shannon Lee Dawdy, professor of anthropology, University of Chicago Traces of Endangered Pasts: New Orleans Archaeology at the Tricentennial

D. Ryan Gray, Richard Wallin Boebel Endowed Professor in Anthropology, University of New Orleans 10:45–11 a.m. Break 11–11:40 a.m.

Self Expression and Enslaved People

Sophie White, associate professor of American studies, University of Notre Dame 11:40 a.m.–1:15 p.m. Lunch (on your own) 1:15–1:30 p.m.

Afternoon welcome

Daniel Hammer, deputy director, The Historic New Orleans Collection 1:30–2:10 p.m. Making New Orleans Home at the Table

Jessica Harris, culinary historian and professor, Queens College, CUNY (retired) 2:10–2:30 p.m. Break 2:30–3:15 p.m.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A Shared History

David Fleming, director, National Museums Liverpool (UK) 3:15–3:30 p.m. Break 3:30–4:15 p.m. New Orleans and the Slave Trade

Walter Johnson, Winthrop Professor of History, professor of African and African American studies, and director of the Charles Warren Center, Harvard University

interviewed by Lawrence N. Powell, professor emeritus of history, Tulane University 5–7:30 p.m.

Block party, 500 block of Royal Street

Featuring performances by Leroy Jones' Original Hurricane Brass Band and the Dukes of Dixieland



Refreshments will be available for purchase. Viewing of New Orleans, the Founding Era, an exhibition at The Historic New Orleans Collection

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Conference sessions: Xavier University, McCaffrey Ballroom, University Center (3rd floor), 1 Drexel Drive

Evening program: New Orleans Jazz Museum, 400 Esplanade Avenue

Food and drinks available for purchase at both venues.

8:45–9 a.m. Welcoming remarks

C. Reynold Verret, president, Xavier University 9–9:45 a.m. Featured address

The Great Migration

Isabel Wilkerson, author, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

9:45–10:15 a.m. Break 10:15–11 a.m. Panel discussion: Religion Voodoo and the Racial Politics of Identity in New Orleans

Kodi Roberts , assistant professor of history, Louisiana State Univeristy

The Politics of Prayer: Free Women of Color and the Pursuit of Freedom in Antebellum Louisiana

Noël Voltz , assistant professor of history, University of Utah

From Code Noir to Respectability: Jews and Judaism in New Orleans

Hasia Diner, Paul and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History and professor of Hebrew, New York University 11–11:45 a.m. Panel discussion: "Creating Home: 300 Years of Builders and Architects in New Orleans" Ann M. Masson , architectural historian, Tulane School of Architecture

Tara Dudley , lecturer, School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin

Jonn Ethan Hankins, executive director, New Orleans Master Crafts Guild 11:45–2 p.m. Lunch (on your own)

Book signing with Isabel Wilkerson 2–2:40 p.m. New Orleans in the American Revolution

Kathleen Duval, Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Professor of History, University of North Carolina 2:40–3 p.m. Break 3–3:45 p.m. Panel discussion: Haiti and New Orleans Exiles from Saint-Dominque: Caribbeanizing New Orleans

Nathalie Dessens , professor of American history, Université Toulouse

The Refugee Predicament: From Saint-Domingue to Cuba to New Orleans, 1803–1809

Rebecca J. Scott, Charles Gibson Distinguished University Professor of History, professor of law, University of Michigan 3:45–4 p.m. Break 4–4:45 p.m. Panel discussion: New Orleans Music: Past, Present, and Future Home Is Where the Heart Is

Bruce Boyd Raeburn , head of special collections and director emeritus, Hogan Jazz Archive, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University

Building and Rebuilding the “Land of Dreams” with Music

Nick Spitzer , producer, American Routes, and professor of anthropology, Tulane University

The New Orleans Second Line Tradition: Musical and Cultural Implications

Dr. Michael White, Keller Endowed Chair in the Humanities, Xavier University 4:45 p.m. Invitation to evening event

Greg Lambousy, director, New Orleans Jazz Museum 6:30–10 p.m. Minting NOLA Music at the Jazz Museum

Sunday, March 11, 2018

University of New Orleans, Senator Ted Hickey Ballroom and Gallery Lounge, University Center, 2000 Lakeshore Drive. Parking will be complimentary in all university parking lots, including the University Center lot. Food and drinks available for purchase.