ABSTRACT
Outside the musical sphere, the Greater New Orleans Regional Folklife Program is a nonprofit advisory service provided by the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the University of New Orleans’s College of Urban and Public Affairs. The Folklife Program documents local traditions and helps organizations develop projects that nurture and celebrate local creativity in ways that benefit traditional communities as well as the broader society. Working with grassroots organizations, it has facilitated partnerships between growers of ethnic ingredients and Islen˜o gumbo and caldo cooks, developed interpretive strategies for a neighborhood Mardi Gras Indian museum, presented gospel musicians through interviews and song at the Jazz and Heritage Festival, and brought together various artists (as in the ongoing Louisiana Quilt Documentation Project) to share their stories and techniques.
