The Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies, in collaboration with the Hall family, the River Road African American Museum and The Neighborhood Story Project, will host a community tribute and interactive altar in honor of historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall whose work has been an inspiration to generations of scholars, artists, musicians and activists.
The tribute takes place Sunday, Jan. 8 from 4-6 p.m. at the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies, located on the third floor of the Earl K. Long Library at the University of New Orleans. Refreshments will be served.
The author of Africans in Colonial Louisiana, Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas: Restoring the Links, and Haunted by Slavery, Hall's groundbreaking scholarship built bridges across the Atlantic, deepened cross-cultural understandings, and continually spoke out against racism and oppression of all kinds.
Hall died August 29, 2022 in Guanajuato, Mexico where she had relocated to be close to family. She was 93.
Hall’s son, Haywood Hall, thought that the Midlo Center would be an excellent location to host the main public tribute to his mother, as the center was endowed by Hall’s parents, Ethel and Herman L. Midlo, to promote the history and culture of New Orleans, with an emphasis on civil rights.
The event will celebrate Hall’s legacy as an ally of freedom seekers everywhere. Her friends and colleagues are encouraged to bring an offering to honor her life's work. Musicians Bruce Sunpie Barnes and Michael White will also perform tributes.
Historians Kathe Hambrick and Ina Fandrich, who are longtime friends of Hall, will join the authors of Le Kèr Creole: Creole Compositions and Stories from Louisiana, Barnes and Rachel Breunlin, in curating the altar. Hall’s research was an inspiration to Barnes and Breunlin in their work around the maroon communities developed by Juan San Malo and his companion, Cecilia, in the 1780s.
For more information, contact Molly Mitchell, director of the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at mnmitch@uno.edu.
