MURALS ON THE RIVER
Canal Street Ferry artwork honors the city’s mix of cultural contributions
BY ROBERT S. WOLF Contributing writer
The exterior of the Canal Street Ferry terminal building has five new colorful murals, painted by local artists, that pay homage to the Black and indigenous people who worked and lived along the Mississippi River and contributed to Louisiana culture.
Titled “River Rhythms: A Tribute to Louisiana’s Indigenous People,” each scene in the mural is painted by a different artist, and each portrays a different element of local culture, including runaway slaves, Mardi Gras Indians and Native American farmers.
The work is a collaboration between the Regional Transit Authority, which operates the ferry, and the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, which helped curate the story and coordinate the project with the artists, said RTA CEO Lona Edwards Hankins.
Hankins said that when the RTA completed the new ferry terminal two years ago, it intentionally left the wall blank to accommodate an art project, but money was tight until the Super Bowl came to town. RTA partnered with GNO Inc., in December, and $175,000 was allotted for the art project.
“We wanted to honor the people who built the city and worked along the river, we wanted to honor the commerce and exchanges that happen along the wharf, we wanted to honor the entertainment that grew from that culture,
A Rosie the Riveter Congressional Gold Medal Commemoration was held recently at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. During World War II, millions of American women joined the wartime effort by filling in defense industry jobs that had traditionally belonged to the men who left to fight in the war. The era was symbolized by the iconic pose of a woman flexing her arm.
As kitten season begins, here are some ways you can help
Warm weather is here, and it signals the start of a season most people don’t think about: kitten season.
For animal rescues, it’s the only season worse than hurricane season. It works the same each year: Spring arrives, stray cats begin to reproduce in large numbers and area shelters and rescues get overwhelmed with kittens. In fact, it’s common for dozens of cats to be surrendered to parish shelters every single day So what do you do if you find a lone kitten or a litter and the mother isn’t around? The answer: Leave them alone and monitor from a distance. A litter without a mom nearby doesn’t necessarily mean that she has abandoned her babies. More likely is that she’s out looking for food and will return. If a litter is sited in a safe location, it’s best to leave them alone and just keep an eye out to make sure the mom does return. An impulse reaction may be to “rescue” the kittens, but according to the national cat advocacy group, Alley Cat Allies, “Compassion is a good impulse, but our actions must always be guided by what is in a cat’s best interest. That means allowing kittens and moms who are already thriving outdoors to stay right where they are.”
Kittens can be neutered as early as age 2 months if they weight requirements.
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n Most female cats go into heat three times a year, beginning in March-April.
n She will keep repeating a heat cycle until
and we want to showcase just what the Mississippi means to New Orleans,” Hankins said “The Super Bowl came along and one of the things the NFL wanted to leave behind was art, so we took advantage of that initiative.
Working on a tight deadline
The project started on a tight timeline in December, and it had to be completed and on the wall in early February
Hankins credits the Ashé Cultural Arts Center and the five artists for pulling it all together in time for the big game The content and look of the mural were left up to the artists.
“I gave them the theme and let the artists decide how they wanted to tell the story and I think they captured that pretty well,” Hankins said.
Hankins said a dedication ceremony and celebration will take place in July, when the Essence Music Festival is in town.
The mural was not painted directly on the wall. Rather, artists painted on mural cloth in a warehouse in Chalmette and then the cloth was installed on the wall with adhesive material A team from Philadelphia that specializes in mural cloth installations handled the job.
Ayo Scott, one of the artists, said it was his first time painting on mural cloth, which he described as having the texture of a paper towel.
‘Creative and collaborative’
The best part of the entire project for Scott was working with the other artists.
“We plotted what the different scenes were going to look like on the wall, and the experience was both creative and collaborative,” said Scott, who painted an energetic depiction of women in flowing dresses dancing in a courtyard. “Everyone did their own work, but collectively it has a unified feel. I couldn’t ask for a more valuable learning experience.”
For artist Ojo Akinlana, who painted a scene of runaway slaves known as “maroons” making their way through knee-deep waters of Bayou Sauvage, the experience was his first mural and his first collaboration with his father, Marcus Akinlana, who is well-known for his murals celebrating multicultural themes with an emphasis on Creole life and culture in New Orleans
The scene has an interesting split at the water line; it shows two escaped slaves trudging through the swamp at night, and below the water line, catfish and turtles are swimming around their ankles.
Ojo Akinlana said the runaway slaves are modern-day heroes to him “They wanted freedom so badly they were willing to ven-
