Baton Rouge Traditions -- The Online Exhibit

This online version of the traveling exhibit explores the traditional arts and practices of communities in the greater Baton Rouge area. The traveling exhibit consists of four pull-up banners and a quilt on a frame. Below is an online version of the exhibit. The exhibit draws upon the online book, Baton Rouge Traditions.

For information about booking the exhibit, click here.

Baton Rouge Traditions

An important part of any community's sense of place, cultural traditions—while often rooted in history—tell who we are today. Traditions such as music and food strengthen a community's pride and sense of place and help connect diverse cultural groups. Baton Rouge has a wealth of traditions and traditional artists that make it the community it is today.

As a display of these traditions, The Giving Quilt, Wasted Women's Bee, and other quilting bees in the greater Baton Rouge area collaborated with participants from the public to create a commemorative quilt to reflect what Baton Rouge means to the community.

Baton Rouge Gives and Works

Most guilds have a multifunctional mission. They're about education, about fellowship, and about charity.

—Mary Woltman, quilter

Through fiber arts and community service projects, groups and individuals in Baton Rouge create traditional handmade items for others as a labor of love and an act of service. In the workplace, traditional craftsmanship and specialized occupational skills help local busineses serve a diverse clientele.

Comfort and Connection: Individual fiber artists and groups make and donate quilts, prayer shawls, and caps to at-need children, premature babies, cancer patients, and veterans.

Home bakers offer gifts to the community through St. Joseph altars. Animal rescue groups find "forever homes" for pets.

Traditional Occupations: Capital area business owners and staff emply specialized skills such as welding, auto airbrushing, cooking, baking, and sewing. Other provide repair services for musical instruments, shoes, furniture, road and reels, and jewelry.

Some shop owners specialize in hats and clothing, ethnic foods, boudin, and tea cakes.

Baton Rouge Makes and Plays

Anything you listen to today came from right down here in the South and we should honor that and want to cherish and carry it on.

—Kenny Neal, blues musician

Using past and present day work-methods, Baton Rouge craftsmen and women create unique items for utility and enhoyment and keep their traditions alive. Traditions are also strong where Baton Rougeans gather to celebrate, dance, play music and enjoy festivals.

Made by Hand: Locals draw upon their diverse heritages to create traditional crafts such as cowboy saddles and whips, leatherwork, Mardi Gras gowns and costumes quilts, cloth dolls, christening gowns, split oak baskets, wooden boats, and filé. Among other Baton Rouge area tradition bearers are horseshoers, fly tyers, chainsaw sculptors, barbeque pit fabricators, and painters.

Recreational Traditions: The Spanish Town Mardi Gras celebration has long been a tradition in the capital city area.

Chinese and Latino communities celebrate their diverse cultures with music and dance. Traditional blues music as well as Cajun fiddle, zydeco, country, and jazz contribute to the sounds of the Baton Rouge region. Tailgaters cook. And the folk art genre of sac-a-lait fishing is active with local anglers.

Baton Rouge Worships and Diversifies

We do it from the heart to edify God's holy name, . . . not for fashion or show.

—Joseph Anthony, Greater St. James Men Singers

Baton Rouge locals connect with their sacred and spiritual lives in ways they were born into or have adopted. Sacred music and ritual traditions in local churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples nourish the soul, open the mind, and heal the heart. Diverse immigrant communities maintain the language, craft, festival, and food traditions of their forebears.

Lifting the Spirit: Rituals and celebrations in churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples enrich the spiritual lives of the Baton Rouge community. Jewish and Christian song, sacred sounds from Greek Orthodox and Vietnamese Buddhist chants, Muslim recitation, Hindu festivals and puja prayer services, Vietnamese altar traditions and Pentecostal church women's hair traditions give praise.

Preserving Culture: Centuries-old traditions from Baton Rouge's immigrant communities are practiced today. The Chinese community maintains its traditions of paper folding, feng shui, festivals, and foodways. Muslim traditions include Bosnian pita bread making, henna, Palestinian cross stitch, and calligraphy. Others celebrate Latino traditions, the Vietnamese Moon Festival, and the African tradition of hair braiding.

Acknowledgements

This project was supported in part by a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency and with support from the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge and The Giving Quilt. Inc. Additional funding was from an Archie Green Fellowship from the Library of Congress to support occupational folklore research.

© 1999-2019

Louisiana Division of the Arts | Office of Cultural Development | Dept. of Culture, Recreation & Tourism

Louisiana Folklife Program, PO Box 44247, Baton Rouge, LA 70804, tel 225-342-8180

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