An exploration of band music on the Virgin Islands at the time of their purchase by the United States, focusing on the band led by Alton Augustus Adams. This juvenile band was inducted into the navy creating a remarkable and exceptional African American unit of Navy musicians at the time that segregationist policy in the U.S. military prevented blacks from being musicians. This paper focuses on the impact of the band's work as a cultural bridge between the white naval administration and the largely black populace of the islands up through the ensemble's 1924 tour of the U.S. mainland. Black Music Research Journal Vol. 18, No. 1/2 (Spring/Fall 1998), pp. 21-65.

This project is a video installation that includes filming the worship services of three small African American churches that exist within an area of rapid gentrification. Perhaps because of their tiny congregations, or racial makeup, these particular little churches seem hidden by a cloak of invisibility. INDEX WORDS: neighborhood, black, African American, church, Hosea Williams Boulevard, gentrification, preacher, community, religion, storytelling, video

How do we do justice to the centuries of history that have unfolded on these 350 square miles of land surrounding the Mississippi River? What is the relationship between this diverse history, its reflection in our city's officially named spaces and places, and the values we strive to enact as a community? This report, prepared with the input of more than forty of the city's leading scholars and writers, themselves drawing on more than a century of the most cutting-edge historical and cultural interpretation, offers no definitive answers to these questions. We have been guided throughout though by the conviction that asking these questions, developing a collaborative process, telling the multitudinous stories contained in this report, and reconsecrating some of the spaces in this city is an imperative as New Orleans enters its fourth century of existence as a city. The collective 111 suggestions for renaming streets and parks below makes no claim toward being a definitive history of the city. For every musical innovator like Jelly Roll Morton, Mahalia Jackson, or Mac Rebennack included there is a Bunk Johnson, Emma Jackson, Ernie K-Doe and countless others who have been left out. The four individuals included who fled the men who owned them as slaves near present-day Lakeview are but four of the thousands in this city's history whose collective individual actions over centuries forced a reluctant nation to finally begin to live up to its highest ideals. The rolls of the First Louisiana Native Guard of the U.S. Army who defended the city from a treasonous insurrection and the members of the Metropolitan Police who held off an attempted coup in 1874 are filled with men whose lives are as heroic and poetic as those of Andre Cailloux, James Ingraham, and Rodolphe Desdunes. We are blessed to live in a place where our neighbors include countless unassuming heroes like Julia Aaron, whose willingness to put her body on the line brought the promise of freedom that much closer to reality; or Sherwood Gagliano, who sounded an early alarm on the greatest existential threat this city has ever faced. In recommending each name for each street, place, or park we have followed several key themes; offering a coherent reordering of spatial naming in keeping with the patterns currently in place, while allowing for the exploration of individual narratives which expand upon the range of historical figures recognized and honored for their roles in shaping our city. The four streets in present day Lakeview named for leaders of the 1861-1865 treason against the United States were all dedicated as part of an explicit attempt to rewrite this history of treason and defy the 14 th and 15 th Amendments to the US Constitution via segregation and disenfranchisement. In their place we have offered three alternative sets of names, each set thematically linked: one set of military leaders that helped put down that treason and via their very presence as officers transformed the meaning of the war; one set of slaves who attempted to self-emancipate and had a connection to present-day Lakeview; and one set of musicians.

Of the many brass bands that have existed in the USA over the last 200 years very few have documented records covering their history. This directory is an attempt to bring together information about such bands and make it available to all. It is an expanded extraction from my earlier "Brass Bands of the World". Over 8,700 bands are recorded here, with some 560 additional cross references for alternative or previous names. This is, however, but an unknown, and probably small, proportion of the cornet/town bands that flourished in the USA, particularly in the 19th century. I am sure there are many more still to be unearthed, hiding in newspaper reports or contemporary photographs and documents in museums, archives, the hands of private collectors and the attics of individuals. My own research on a broad scale encompasses US brass bands from the 1840's to the 1920's. A more detailed investigation is ongoing, but has only reached 1872 so far - and I intend to issue an update when I have proceeded further into the late 1800's!