The Neighborhood Story Project
Founded in 2004, New Orleans
Based in New Orleans
venue
Ogden Museum of Southern Art
925 Camp Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Monday–Sunday, 10 AM–5 PM
neighborhood
Downtown/Central Business District (CBD)
ABout the exhibition
In this space, you will meet a group of contemporary women healers who Spirit selected to share their journeys from or to New Orleans. We invite you to spend time with their songs, stories, scriptures, and meditations.
–Nana Sula Spirit
Nana Sula Spirit (Nana Okomfo Kokwe Ama Tawiah) is the founding priestess of the Temple of Light-Ilé de Coin-Coin in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Named after her maternal ancestor, Marie Thérèse Coin-Coin, who lived in the Cane River area of Louisiana in the mid-1700s, her shrine is dedicated to the elevation of all souls.
As a young woman growing up in New Jersey, Nana Sula was introduced to the Yoruba traditions. In early 1992, she began her studies at the Ga-Ewe Shrine of Impohema in Accra, Ghana. After moving to New Orleans, she continued to travel to Ghana and, in 2007, she received the crown of Mami Wata, the mother of all waters. Temple of Light is a continuation of this work, connecting people to the Divine Mother energy as well as to their own ancestors.
In 2018, Nana Sula collaborated with The Neighborhood Story Project to create a series of sacred talks with healers whose work is in alignment with the mission of the Temple of Light. We invite you to spend time here, and to leave your own petitions and offerings at our collective altar.
Listen to the women behind the project
Listen to Luisah Teish read her poem “Hoodoo Mama,” from her book, Jambalaya: The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals.
Listen to Luisah Teish tell a story about visiting Oshun’s River in Nigeria.
Listen to Barbara Trevigne talk about her research on Marie Laveau.
Listen to Nana Sula Spirit’s songs in honor of Mami Wata.
Listen to the songs Nana Anoa sings to Yemaya when she goes to the water.
Listen to the songs Nana Anoa sings to Yemaya when she goes to the water.
Listen to Baderinwa read the Psalm 23 and 91.
About the artist
Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes and Rachel Breunlin with Janet Sula Evans, Marie Carmel Loiseau, Nana Anoa Nantambu, Baderinwa Rolland, Luisah Teish, Barbara Trevigne, and Dolores Watson
Since their founding in 2004 The Neighborhood Story Project has used the art of collaborative ethnography to create a vast collection of community-based stories in south Louisiana and beyond. The organization, in partnership with the University of New Orleans, creates portraits of the region by working with their collaborators to move the contours, planes, and angles of a place out onto a cultural canvas. They layer creative nonfiction and in-depth interviews, artifacts, folk and fine art, photographs, and music, among other materials, to craft an immersive space for learning and examination. For many years, The Neighborhood Story Project has turned their books into exhibitions and programs where their audiences are not only observers, but participants, who are able to connect with the lives and narratives presented, and can come away with a sense of how life histories are seated in wider social and cultural contexts. The Neighborhood Story Project often revives and preserves histories which may have been overlooked by mainstream media, and of places that are otherwise at risk of disappearing. Their ethnographies form the basis for art, publications, and performances, creating a new historical record of a place.