Enjoy music, food, stories on Creole Day Free admission part of cultural salute at Vermilionville

Herman Fuselier | The Daily Advertiser

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In Lafayette, you can sip on a Ragin’ Cajun TNT daquiri and listen to Cajun music while driving past the Cajun Heartland State Fair at the Cajundome on Cajundome Boulevard. The region has done a remarkable job of promoting its Acadian heritage.

But local culture has also been heavily influenced by Creole, African, Native American, Italian, Irish, German, Spanish and other ethnicities. Vermilionville, Lafayette’s folklife park since 1990, works to recognize those contributions with exhibits and events throughout the years.

On June 10, Vermilionville recognizes a legacy with 300 years of music, food, language, art and other contributions with Creole Culture Day.

“This day is when we focus on one of the many cultures that contributed to this great shared gumbo of culture that we have here in Lafayette,” said Brady McKellar, director of museum operations at Vermilionville. “Creole and the African-American experience really contributed, both in terms of food, music and other traditions we have here.

“So this is one of those days where it just gives us a chance to share with our guests and our visitors and with our community, all of those contributions.”

Live zydeco and blues music, cooking demonstrations, storytelling, sharing circles, children’s games, arts and crafts and more are part of Creole Culture Day, set for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 10. Admission is free.

Highlights include Alex “PoeticSoul” Johnson with a spoken-word presentation, Bryant Benoit art, voter registration and discussions on the McComb-Veazey Creole Heritage area, the Whitney Plantation Museum, African-American inventions, genealogy discussions and more. Darryl Hambrick, an actor with the River Road African American Museum in Donaldsonville, will portray Pierre Landry, the first black mayor in the United States, in a historic meet and greet.

At 11:45 a.m., Gloria Linton will receive the annual Richard J. Catalon Heritage Award. Linton has been instrumental in preservation efforts with C.R.E.O.L.E. Inc. and the Holy Rosary Institute Alumni and Friends Association. The association has worked to restore and preserve an African-American school that dates back to 1913.

Previous Catalon Awards winners include musicians Goldman Thibodeaux and Geno Delafose, former state legislator Donald Cravins Sr., educators Hebert Wiltz and Deborah Clifton and radio hosts John Broussard and Melvin Caesar.

Creole Culture Day schedule

June 10, Vermilionville

10:30 a.m. - Boat tour

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. - Crawfish and tasso pasta cooking demonstration

11 a.m. – 3 p.m. - Kids' crafts and canoeing

11:30 a.m. - Richard J. Catalon video, boat tour

11:45 a.m. – 12 p.m. - Richard J. Catalon Award ceremony

12 -2:30 p.m. - Curley Taylor and Zydeco Trouble

1 - 2:30 p.m. - Cooking demonstration

1 - 4 p.m. - Open Creole Jam at the Forge

1:30 p.m. – Boat tour

2:30 p.m. - The Bringing Amede Home Project: Dedication of Vermilionville’s new lemon tree by Darrell Bourque and Patricia Cravins; Boat tour

3 - 4 p.m. - Cooking demonstration

3 - 5 p.m. - Sharing circle (Chapel)

3 - 5 p.m. - Lil' Buck Sinegal and His Blues Band

3:30 p.m. - Boat tour

Information: vermilionville.org