Biography
Freddi Williams Evans, author and independent scholar, is internationally recognized for her scholarship on Congo Square. Her book Congo Square: African Roots in New Orleans received the 2012 Louisiana Humanities Book of the Year Award and is published in French. Her research and advocacy influenced the New Orleans City Council ordinance that changed the name of the location from Beauregard Square, named after Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard in 1893, to Congo Square in 2011. She is also the author of Come Sunday, A Young Reader’s History of Congo Square. Evans co-chaired the New Orleans Committee to Erect Historic Markers on the Slave Trade to Louisiana, helped to erect the UNESCO Site of Memory Middle Passage Marker, and served on the New Orleans Legacy Project Committee.
Research
Project director Freddi Evans will interview fifteen international cultural bearers and scholars to investigate and document 1) the gathering places for enslaved Africans during the 18th and 19th centuries that were similar to New Orleans’ Congo Square, 2) parallel cultural practices that existed at those locations, and 3) the identified ethnic origins of the gatherers. Targeted countries include Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, U.S. Virgin Island, St. Martin, Martinique and Brazil.
All interviews will be available on the Congo Square Connection website and YouTube channel, which serve to advance the study of Congo Square at all educational levels; promote the work of cultural bearers and scholars; encourage cross-cultural, interdisciplinary and international collaborations; and support programs that promote Congo Square and related activities.
