Congo Square
Congo Square was hot on Sunday afternoons in early New Orleans.
Up until the Civil War, it was the only place in the southern United States where,
once a week, African-Americans could meet in public,
play ancestral drums, dance, and sing.
Before Lollapalooza & Bonnaroo, before Woodstock & Monterey,
there was a lot of noise in that park just outside the city walls,
with voices & rhythms from Africa, the Caribbean & the U.S. all trying to make sense together.
For those who had the good fortune to see it,
it was unlike anything they’d ever seen or heard before . . .
. . . and it changed everything.
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