During our stay I wanted to go by the 9th Ward District to see if there were any changes since the last time we had gone. That was in 2007 over nine years ago. The landscape has improved but there are homes that never got rebuilt and 9 years of foliage growth has taken over the lot.

I originally planned on taking a photos of the abandoned homes but the GPS coordinates took us to the “Living Museum” a home that was converted to a museum with the support of the local community leaders and the city of New Orleans. 

The home was a typical “shotgun” style house layout so it worked out being to display and educate the public. While going through the photos and captions I ran across Ted Ellis. He’s an original resident of the 9th Ward that left to pursue a career as an artist. At the time of our visit he was working on one of the five large collage pieces that will be used for a “traveling” gallery as well as being displayed outside of the museum.

This was one of those chance acquaintances that turned out to be a learning opportunity and a better understanding of the 9th Ward and the folks that lived there in the past and present. I’ve always said the “creatives” of this world are the ones with a vision for change and to help make a better way of life for those around them. They give so much of their time and energy to pass down their heritage and culture to the younger folks. Creatives also have a very important attribute and that’s their natural skill set to take action and make visions a reality. I give a lot of props to these folks.