This year’s conference theme, “Antiracism, Colorism, and Creole Identity,” proved particularly timely for 2020. After a tumultuous summer of national protests and social unrest following the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery – all unarmed black people – and also the political rancor leading up to the presidential election, as well as a worldwide coronavirus pandemic, the goal of the conference was to explore how the social, cultural, and political past exerts its influence on the national racial, political, and health issues of today.

By focusing on antiracism, colorism, and Creole identity for the purpose of exploring the societal status, political struggles, and broad-ranging achievements of our ancestors of color in the history of Louisiana, and bringing that knowledge to the greater community, LA Creole continues to fulfill its mission to advance family research, provide education, and celebrate Creole culture. By publicly recognizing the contributions made to society by Louisiana’s Creoles of Color throughout their history, including through periods of slavery, Reconstruction, and the 150-year ongoing striving for

equal rights, a connection can be made not only to our local community’s current social and political climate, but also to the ongoing struggles for all people of color in 2020, and the national response to those struggles.

This edition of LA Creole’s conference program book is commemorative – for the first time, it is being produced and distributed after the conference has taken place. Due to COVID-19, the 2020 conference was presented online in a lively, though briefer than usual program. Rather than a day- or days-long event, the annual conference took the form of a virtual 90-minute online panel presentation held on October 24, 2020. (The accompanying members meeting, which preceded the conference program as usual, was held online on October 23.) Given the briefer program schedule, a book summarizing, rather than previewing the conference, seemed more appropriate this year. This book is a different kind of conference keepsake — one that highlights some memorable moments from this year’s online presentation, and one that we hope will spark continued education and discussion about topics vital to our societal wellbeing.

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SPEAKERS: 

John Q. Adams, Ph.D. Retired educator

Dr. John Q. Adams is a professor emeritus from Western Illinois University, where he taught for over 25 years in educational and interdisciplinary studies. His interest and experience in educational reform has impacted hundreds of schools across the Midwest region. He has conducted research for a variety of state and community institutions. Dr. Adams currently provides input for Nickelodeon in the area of cultural appropriateness for programs as well as character development. He has received numerous recognitions, including the Distinguished Alumni Award from Grand Valley State University and the University of Illinois College of Education. He was also the National Association of Multicultural Educators G. Pritchard Smith Multicultural Educator of the Year in 2009.

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Bliss Broyard Author, essayist, social justice activist

Bliss Broyard is the author of One Drop: My Father’s Hidden Life - A Story of Race and Secrets. The book recounts how her father, the New York Times literary critic Anatole Broyard, who was born a Creole of color passed for white. Bliss found out at the age of 24 shortly before he died. One Drop recounts how Bliss traveled to New Orleans to meet the family that she never knew and to learn the history that had been kept secret from her. In the process, she examines the history of free people of color and the binary racial categories of black and white. Bliss’s writing has appeared in many publications, including New York Magazine, NewYorker.com, Time, The Guardian, Elle, and O. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and her two children. She has worked in school integration activism.

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Bailey Duhe Cultural anthropologist, teacher

Bailey Duhe is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her subject is cultural anthropology. Ms. Duhe’s dissertation is based on ethnographic research with New Orleans Creoles of color. Her research looks at questions of racial fluidity, generational trauma, critical mixed race studies, American blackness, and varieties of American blackness. The goal of her research is to produce scholarship that challenges understandings of race and interrogates the many ways that we are taught “how to” race, as if race is actually an action. Ms. Duhe is on track to finish her Ph.D. in May, 2021. She is actively seeking employment with organizations that are committed to social justice, advocacy, and education.

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Dr. Wendy Gaudin Educator, essayist

Wendy Gaudin is an essayist, a bead worker, a poet, and a historian. She is the proud descendant of Louisiana Creoles who migrated to California. Her training as a historian took place at California State University, the Louisiana State University and New York University, where she earned her doctorate in history. Her dissertation research includes oral histories of Creoles in New Orleans, Pointe a la Hache, Lafayette, Grand Coteau and Los Angeles. Her non-fiction writing delves into the themes of race and belonging, skin color and ancestry, colonialism and family narratives, migration, sexuality, oral history, hybridity, and Louisiana. Her publications have appeared in The Indiana Review, The North American Review, Puerto Del Sol, The Rappahannock Review, New Orleans Review and About Place Journal. Recently she was awarded a writer’s residency at A Studio in the Woods where she will continue writing her original manuscript on the history of Creole Louisiana for LSU press. She lives in New Orleans and teaches at Xavier University of Louisiana.