NOPL: Jambalaya Program Records, 1975-1980.

New Orleans Public Library
City Archives

New Orleans Public Library
Jambalaya Program Records, 1975-1980

Historical Background

In 1976 the New Orleans Public Library received a $330,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to conduct a series of lectures, discussions, exhibits, and other activities examining the culture and history of New Orleans. The original grant proposal was written in consultation with an Advisory Committee which served the Library for five years. The program was named Jambalaya and from 1977 through 1980 it presented 194 events featuring 284 speakers, panelists, and performers within a framework of twenty-seven individual series.

Participants and/or correspondents included Tennessee Williams, Stephen Ambrose, Walker Percy, Paul Prudhomme, Ellis Marsalis, Dutch Morial, Charles Neville, Clarence John Laughlin, Joan Martin, Jonathan Williams, Lillian Hellman, Cleanth Brooks, Enrique Alferez, John William Corrington, John Duffy, Peter Feibleman, James K. Glassman, Shirley Ann Grau, Sheldon Hackney, Peter Kalisher, Moon Landrieu, Charles Moore, Victor Schiro, and Leonard Slatkin.

Topics explored in the Jambalaya series included the New Orleans Mardi Gras; urban setting; economy; literary scene; film-making; radio and television; music; children's books; politics; the melting pot; New Deal art; journalism; the Mississippi River; cuisine; environment; medicine; education; and future. Some programs focused on related topics as they pertained to South Louisiana outside of the Crescent City.

Scope Note

The City Archives houses the correspondence, minutes, financial records, sound recordings, posters, and other records of the Library's National Endowment for the Humanities-funded continuing education program. (Link HERE to jump to the inventory of these records.) The records document the planning, organization, and production of the individual elements of the program. Sound recordings were made of most of the events and the original reel-to-reel tapes were duplicated on cassettes for research use. (Link HERE to jump to the inventory of the sound recordings.) Also included are correspondence and minutes of Jambalaya Advisory Committee meetings; program files (including program proposals, reading lists, etc.); publicity files (including videotaped public service announcements); contracts with participants; a copy of the original proposal to NEH; and program registration records.

RESTRICTIONS: Correspondence, program files, and other textual materials available to registered researchers by appointment.

Inventory

Box 1

Jambalaya Advisory Committee
Correspondence
Minutes of meetings

Jambalaya Program Files
Index
Behind the Mask of Mardi Gras -- April-May, 1977
New Orleans: Buildings, Streets, People -- September-December, 1977
Economy of New Orleans -- September-December, 1977
Writers Forum -- October, 1977-January, 1978
New Orleans in Film -- November-December, 1977
Two Creative Women: An Orlan History Film -- March, 1978
Radio and Television in the Crescent City -- March-April, 1978
New Orleans: City of Music -- March-May, 1978
Three Evenings with Clarence Laughlin -- May, 1978
Crescent City Children's Books -- June-July, 1978
New Orleans Politics: Past, Present, and Future -- September-November, 1978
New Orleans People: The Surprise of the Melting Pot -- September-December, 1978
New Orleans Art: The New Deal Era -- November-December, 1978
A Bitter Glory -- January, 1979
A Bitter Glory (script)
New Orleans Journalism: Past, Present and Future -- March-April, 1979
Ole Man River: The City's Lifeline -- March-April, 1979
Red Beans to Remoulade: New Orleans Cuisine -- March-May, 1979
Weather and Wetlands: The New Orleans Environment -- April-May, 1979
Epidemics, Politics and Voodoo: The History of Medicine in Louisiana -- September-October, 1979
Treme to Thibodeaux: Urban and Rural Architecture -- September-November, 1979
Growing Up in New Orleans -- October-December, 1979
Living in the Big Easy: The Character of New Orleans -- November-December, 1979
Moonlight and Malaise: Literary New Orleans -- March-April, 1980
Played by Ear: Traditional Music in New Orleans -- March-April, 1980
Public, Private and Parochial: New Orleans Education -- April-May, 1980
If These Walls Could Talk: Tours of Notable Buildings -- May, 1980
Joan Martin: Historian and Black Indian Queen -- October, 1980
Louisiana Folk and Naive Arts -- October, 1980
Identity and Change: The Peoples of Southern Louisiana -- October-November, 1980
New Orleans: The Future -- October-December, 1980
Two Evenings with Jonathan Williams -- December, 1980
Program Proposals