ACC October 2026 Newsletter | From the desk of Lauren Turner Hines, Founding Envisionist | Executive Lead
Closing our Freedom Summer, and what we are carrying into the fall
Justin William Davis as Captain André Cailloux in We've Got a Story to Tell. The AR tour is back on Bayou Road through December 5. Tap the photo for tickets.
Hi First name / Friend,
The calendar says fall. New Orleans has not fully agreed yet, and I am taking that as permission to sit with summer one more time before we let it go.
We named this season Freedom Summer. I want to walk back through it with you, because by the end of it, the name described exactly where we were standing.
Where Freedom Summer began
We opened on May 27, one hundred sixty-three years to the day since Captain André Cailloux led his company into fire at Port Hudson. His body stayed on that field more than forty days because the Confederacy refused to release it. We tolled our bell for him that day and walked people through the ground he came from.
On Juneteenth we marked the day the collective had time to know. Emancipation was declared in January of 1863, and the news did not reach Galveston until June of 1865. Freedom left in the state's hands arrives late. So we waited for each other, and then we celebrated together. We fed each other. We let the children run.
On July 29 we marked one hundred sixty-three years since this city buried him. Thousands of Black New Orleanians filled these streets for that funeral procession. Free people and newly free people, benevolent societies, church folk, soldiers, women in mourning dress walking behind a coffin in the middle of a war. New Orleans stopped for André Cailloux, and the people who claimed him were the people he had already been showing up for, on Bayou Road, in the pews, in the benevolent societies, and in the shops.
That night we tolled the bell again and ran a special 6:00 PM tour. Then we gave him the repast he never had. The Cailloux Community Repast filled our parking lot with a shared meal from the ACC's preferred partner food vendors, a DJ, and the whole community at the table together. We introduced the Black-led performing arts organizations who now call the André Cailloux Center home for their work, and with Devin DeWulf of the Krewe of Red Beans, we announced our partnership for November 14.
That is the lesson I carried out of July. It's who knows you.
August, and the island
Black August, a month our elders shaped for study, discipline, and remembrance. It was also rest. Our building rested through its conservation month, and our people rested with it.
In the middle of the month I went to Martha's Vineyard. Dr. Christal Jackson invited me to Mosaic on the Vineyard, a convening of national foundation funders. I was there for work, and the island did some work on me too.
Martha's Vineyard holds a long history as a free space for Black people. In Oak Bluffs, Black families found beaches, inns, and porches open to them when so much of this country was closed. Shearer Cottage, the island's first Black-owned inn, opened its doors in 1912. In the 1960s, the Overton House in Oak Bluffs became known as the Summer White House of the Civil Rights Movement, a place where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to rest, and Malcolm X is remembered among its guests too.
What struck me is that their rest happened in community. They came to be at ease with one another, and that ease is what let them prepare, plan, and keep doing the work they were doing. Summer after summer, they returned to that state of being with each other. I saw it at the Inkwell with the Polar Bears. In the mid-1940s, Myrtle O'Brien, a Black innkeeper in Oak Bluffs, began walking her guests into the sea each morning, and that practice became a tradition carried for generations: a gathering of joy, fellowship, and belonging on a beach Black families have long claimed as their own. Some practices are meant to be lived rather than described, so I will leave the rest to the water.
Beyond the beauty and the fun of the island in August, and setting aside so many of the class dynamics I observed, what I kept coming back to was how free and relaxed Black folks were there. How free and relaxed the Black children were. I came home believing we need to experience that together, as often as we possibly can, and that making room for it is essential. In so many ways, it is the work.
So I am making a commitment. I am going to connect with people person to person, first and foremost, as perhaps the only thing truly required of me. I trust that everything else, the partnerships, the collaborations, the funding, the support, comes into play once there is trust and relationship built to hold it.
If this summer taught me anything, it is that relationship is king. July 29 said it first, and the island said it again.
Martha's Vineyard Polar Bears 2026
Art has always been how we organize
Something else happened this summer that I am still sitting with. The ACC held its first-ever artistic planning meeting, where we sat down together and began mapping a brand-new season for 2027. That sentence is worth reading twice. We are planning a full season, years out, in a building we intend to hold.
We closed that meeting with a film screening about the Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing, and we opened the doors to our community partners, our neighbors, and our friends. What became clear in that room is that art has always been a tool for organizing for justice's sake. There is a long lineage of practitioners who have worked exactly this way, and we are standing inside it here at the ACC.
The sweetest part was watching our ancestors, Black women writers, come together on that screen, build a sisterhood, and hold one another up. None of this gets built alone. That night was a taste of what is coming. As we keep building our Cinema Noir series, there will be more screenings open to you at the ACC.
Pin It On André
All August we asked you to Pin It On André for his 201st birthday, in the New Orleans tradition of pinning money on folks for their birthday: a gift pinned to his name, or a fact you went looking for yourself.
Félicie's story started us off. Félicie Coulon was born enslaved, and she got free because her mother paid her purchase price. A Black woman gathered money and bought her own child's freedom. That is Black philanthropy, and it is as old as we are. You stepped into that practice with us, and we are grateful for every pin.
And the biggest pin we could give him? It landed right on August 25, his birthday. That is all I can say for now. More about that is coming very soon.
Keep your eyes on this space
We have a major announcement on the way, a development that reaches past the Center to the whole state of Louisiana, and maybe the nation. Keep reading these newsletters. The celebration begins November 14.
What Freedom Summer taught us
Courage costs, and it is still worth the price. Freedom left in the state's hands arrives late, so we keep it in our own and we celebrate when all of us have the news. Being known by your people is the only currency that holds. Rest belongs to the work when you intend to last, and it belongs in community. We need each other to do any of it.
Join us on November 14 for Reckoning and Remembrance
A huge celebration: a free public procession and second line produced in partnership with the Krewe of Red Beans. We gather at 10:00 AM at Beanlandia on Royal Street and proceed down Bayou Road to the Center in the way of Captain Cailloux's funeral, this time with celebration in our step. More to come, and we will keep you posted.
I heard Rashad speak about this work on the Vineyard in August. Visibility and a seat at the table can feel like change. His book is about the power to change the rules, and how to build it.
Watching: TCB: The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing
Louis Massiah and Monica Henriquez built this documentary as a series of lessons on cultural organizing, drawn from Bambara's life and told by the people who knew her, including Toni Morrison, Nikky Finney, and Haile Gerima. We screened it live at the ACC this summer. It is not streaming widely yet, so join the film's mailing list at tcbdoc.com to catch the next screening.
Listening to: AJ Haynes and Seratones
AJ is the voice at the center of the soul power band Seratones, a Black and Filipina artist from the South whose music moves through soul, rock and roll, gospel, and folk, and whose work holds art as collective community care. Come hear her this Sunday at Balik Bayou at the Center.
Happening at the Center
We've Got a Story to Tell
Tonight, Friday, October 2, at 6:00 PM. Then Fridays, October 9, 16, and 23, at 6:00 PM; Saturday, October 24, at 4:00 PM; Saturday, November 14, at 3:30 PM for Captain André Cailloux Day; Friday, November 20, at 6:00 PM; Saturday, November 21, at 4:00 PM; and closing weekend, Friday, December 4, at 6:00 PM and Saturday, December 5, at 4:00 PM. Meet our new acting company, and our new Captain André Caillouxs. Dominique McClellan originated the role for the tour, and now we are welcoming more acclaimed New Orleans actors into it, including Zeb Hollins III and Justin Williams Davis. Each one brings something special and their own to Captain Cailloux. Catch every one of them.
The Lament: Sunday Only
Due to inclement weather tomorrow, and to keep everyone safe, Saturday's showing of Folk Riot's The Lament is canceled. We invite you to join us on Sunday, October 4, at 7:00 PM instead. Presented in partnership with the ACC. Tickets are $30.
Balik Bayou
Sunday, October 4, 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. The Philippine American Women's Association of Louisiana and Bayou Barkada celebrate Filipino American History Month at the Center.
Reckoning and Remembrance
Saturday, November 14, at 10:00 AM. Sign up to join us at caillouxprocession.com.
The Place to Gather
We welcomed the St. Augustine High School Class of 1976 back to the Center for their class reunion, our third year hosting them, and we are proud to be members of the 7th Ward, home of the Purple Knights. Let this be your reminder that the ACC is the place to gather. If you are planning a community gathering or special event, inquire about the André Cailloux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice on Historic Bayou Road at our gathering inquiry form.
Take ROOT at the ACC
CHOIR is our cohort of Black-led performing arts and arts education companies in residence at the Center. Members share space, resources, and a stage on Bayou Road while they build their seasons. Our inaugural 2025 cohort included AfriMODIS, Artisans Alliance, the African Drumming and Storytelling Collective, and Acting with Rodney. If your company is ready to take root at the ACC, complete the interest form at the CHOIR interest form and Shaddai will follow up with you.
Congratulations, Neighbors
Our friends at The Black School open the doors of The Black Schoolhouse, their brand new building at 1660 N. Roman Street, on Saturday, October 10. Joseph Cuillier and Shani Peters have built a permanent home for Black creative education in the 7th Ward, a few blocks from our own front door, and we could not be prouder to call them neighbors. Go celebrate with them. Details at theblack.school.
Pin something on André, even now. Get your tour ticket. Walk with us on November 14. Drink water. Call somebody you love.
Toni Cade Bambara signed her letters to her sister writers with two words. I will borrow them here.
Black Blessings,
Lauren Turner Hines
Founding Envisionist | Executive Lead
Dominique McClellan as Captain André Cailloux. Dominique originated the role for the tour and set the standard every Cailloux after him carries. Tap the photo for tickets.
Zeb Hollins III as Captain André Cailloux. Zeb joins the company this fall and brings his own voice to the Captain. Tap the photo for tickets.
St. Aug High School Class of 1976 Class Reunion. The Purple Knights of 1976 gathered at the ACC for the third year in a row, 7th Ward neighbors coming home to Bayou Road. Tap the photo to plan your own gathering at the Center.
Congratulations to our 7th Ward neighbors at The Black School. The Black Schoolhouse opens Saturday, October 10 at 1660 N. Roman Street. Tap the flyer for details.
