Since the 1970s, when neoliberal policies and changing consumer patterns began remaking cities, scholars have conducted research about gentrification. In New Orleans, these studies have helped explain the demographic and economic shifts in some neighborhoods. However, there has been limited focus on the built environment aspects of gentrification in New Orleans, specifically the interpretation of the external aesthetic shifts in streetscapes as part of the gentrification process. This thesis examines the relationship between these aesthetics, primarily graffiti and street art, and the gentrification process, as perceived by various stakeholders in two New Orleans neighborhoods: St. Roch and Bywater. Using empirical, qualitative evidence, this thesis argues that graffiti and street art signify a culture and aestheticization of gentrification. Research methods for this thesis include participant observation, semi-structured interviews and discourse analysis. Keywords: Gentrification, New Orleans, Bywater, St. Roch, graffiti, street art, neighborhood change, blight, disinvestment, revitalization, creative class, neoliberalism, race, authenticity

The Arts Council of New Orleans is the official arts agency of New Orleans, located at 935 Gravier Street. The organization supports and develops the arts community through many different programming initiatives, including administering grants, managing a monthly Arts Market, and providing business training to artists. In this internship report, I discuss my role within the organization during my internship, which began in January 2013 and lasted through June 2013. I then analyze my observations of the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and provide recommendations for improving the Arts Council’s operations based on best practices and expert literature in the field of nonprofit management. The Arts Council hired a new CEO in May of 2013, after a seven-year period of operating under interim management. With a permanent leader now in place, the organization is in a position to apply my recommendations so it can grow into a stronger arts agency, and better serve the New Orleans community.

This work is a study of a community of Croatian immigrants to Southeast Louisiana in the twentieth century. Drawn from a multidisciplinary approach that included spatial analysis of settlement patterns, quantitative analysis of seafood industry data, the records of voluntary associations, and guided by the oral histories of men and women of Croatia who immigrated to Louisiana, this work reveals a community that has managed to maintain close ties despite its distribution both in urban New Orleans and rural coastal Louisiana through links created by and supportive of the state’s seafood and restaurant industries. The study points out how the custom of returning to Croatia for marriage and the retention of property in Croatia helped the group maintain links with its national and cultural origins in ways not always seen with other ethnic groups in America, pointing out the range of the immigrant experience in the United States.

Where and how to house the urban poor remains a controversial issue. Public housing residents are particularly vulnerable. Issues of race, class and gender intersect in their lives. Public-private partnerships in urban redevelopment projects and a focus on issues that arise from concentrated poverty gave rise to HOPE VI policy aimed at deconcentrating poverty via public housing demolition and redevelopment. In New Orleans, the effects of Hurricane Katrina further complicate this contested process. The purpose of this case study is to understand how residents experienced and framed the process of displacement brought on by disaster and the redevelopment of the Magnolia projects, comparing those who returned to the revitalized project to those who did not. The data I collected are 4 semi-structured interviews and one focus group with residents, 56 newspaper articles, and 60 photos. Doing so uncovered nuanced resident narratives often left out of public housing redevelopment decisions.

This work is a collection of poems revolving around black or African-American identity and the intersection of feminist consciousness with racial struggle. An examination of the unknown or forgotten black woman runs through this work as well as connection to a mother figure. The poems also reflect the influence of place, particularly New Orleans, its history, its culture, and its present evolution post-Hurricane Katrina. The collection's preface includes development of a unique poetics that considers identity theories and models of the subject in light of poetic voice. The poems use caesura heavily, rhyme, and sonic echo. Poets who have influenced the author include Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Ai, and Lucille Clifton.

In this bachelor project, Leon Falk has examined the interplay and collective improvisation in New Orleans jazz and related genres - in particular the interplay among the wind instrumentalists in New Orleans jazz and brass bands. The main goal has been to develop as a trombone player and ensemble musician.This reflective thesis includes a description of the process of the project and the exam concert, a historical reflection about the New Orleans jazz and brass band tradition and an analysis of 9 interviews with contemporary musicians playing traditional jazz: Jens "Jesse" Lindgren, Björn Ingelstam, Ulf Johansson Werre, Joakim Falk, Claes Ringqvist, Klas Lindqvist, Hans Ingelstam, Niklas Carlsson and Örjan Kjellin. The thesis ends with a conclusive reflection about the project as a whole and Leon Falk's own play style in ensemble with other wind instruments. / <p><strong>Repertoar examenskonsert: </strong>St James Infirmiry (trad), Room Rent Blues (Irving Newton), At the Georgia Camp Meeting (Kerry Mills), Should I Reveal (Nacio H Brown / Arthur Freed), Savoy Blues (Edward Kid Ory), While We Danced At the Mardi Gras (Alfred M Opler / John H Mercer), Cash is King (Leon Falk), Girl Of My Dreams (Sunny Clapp).<strong>Musiker examenskonert: </strong>Leon Falk (trombon/sång), Adam Falk (klarinett/tenorsaxofon), Erik Tengholm (trumpet/kornett), Jocke Falk (trumpet/kornett), Uno Dvärby (kontrabas/banjo), Sara Karkkonen (piano), Jonathan Leidecker (trummor).</p>

This is research on the New Orleans Brass Band tradition. How popular music has influenced the bands repertoire and the style of music has been transferred to other areas of the country resulting in the formation of hybrid bands. Madison, Wisconsin is an area with two popular brass bands that began by studying the New Orleans brass bands' culture and music. Those bands are Mama Digdown's Brass Band and Youngblood Brass Band. Mama Digdown's is a brass band that performs original music in the traditional styles and forms of New Orleans brass band. Youngblood Brass Band started because Mama Digdown's inspired them and began playing shows with Digdown's and eventually broke away to form their own band. They wanted to push the limits of the New Orleans brass band instrumentation by incorporating hip-hop, rap, jazz, 1980's pop music, rock, and heavy metal that is rolled up into an intense brass sound.

Since 2014, Airbnb has been the poster-child for an impassioned debate over how to best regulate short-term home rentals (STR’s) in New Orleans, Louisiana. As critical perspectives toward on-demand economic practice become increasingly common, it is important to understand how the impacts of STR platforms like Airbnb extend beyond the realm of what is traditionally conceptualized as the economic (i.e., pressure on housing markets). In this thesis, I explore the ways in which Airbnb recalibrates the spatial and temporal rhythms of everyday neighborhood life for people external to the formal trappings of an STR contract. Drawing in particular on theories of authenticity and feminist political economy, I argue that locals’ emotional labor of “playing host” is necessarily enrolled into the creation of value for Airbnb, and is essential to the reproduction of the platform’s business model and marketing rhetoric.

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This research concerns the history of how the stories—narratives—which people tell about the Port of New Orleans and its related freight transportation have impacted Port-related traffic congestion on the last mile. “Last mile” refers to the last segment of a freight journey. In the context of the Port, it is the distance between the Tchoupitoulas Street exit ramp on US 90 and the entrance/exit of the Clarence Henry Truckway. The Clarence Henry Truckway is a 3.5-mile one way in/one way out dedicated truck route behind the floodwall of the Port on Tchoupitoulas street. Its access is threatened by proposed tourism-related developments. Chapter one is an overview congestion at the Port and developments which will impact access. It gives the context of freight and logistics, economic development, congestion, and the environment. It then turns to an overview of the Port’s history and importance. Chapter two reviews urban studies and anthropology literature relative to freight. Chapter three discusses the primarily archival methodology. Chapter four discusses narrative in nine freight options: the Riverfront Expressway, freight on Decatur Street, Louisiana Avenue and other uptown arterials, extending Leake Avenue behind Audubon Park, a ship lock and channel connecting the Mississippi River with the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), the MRGO itself, replacing the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal (IHNC or “Industrial canal”) lock, New Orleans Public Belt Railroad (NOPB) cars parked along Leake Avenue; and the Port’s proposed shipping container terminal at the Sinclair tract in Meraux, St. Bernard parish. Chapter five discusses the history of the Port freight narrative from organized Port dockworker labor. Chapter six covers the rise of the tourism/convention narrative. Chapter seven is about gentrification and the Port. Chapters eight and nine are a concluding discussion with policy recommendations. This research argues that community narratives are primary in the facilitation of freight transportation infrastructure, rather than economic concerns about its benefit to the Port. The histories of these narratives show that the social and political capital of the potentially affected residents was more powerful than the economic development and job creation narratives of the business community and the Port.