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June 15, 2023 | From City of New Orleans
MAYOR CANTRELL TO TRAVEL TO LOS ANGELES TO PARTICIPATE IN “NEW ORLEANS CORRIDOR” NAMING CELEBRATION AND STREET FESTIVAL
NEW ORLEANS — Mayor LaToya Cantrell today will travel to Los Angeles to attend and participate in the “New Orleans Corridor” Naming Celebration and Street Festival taking place June 16-18, 2023, in partnership with the Los Angeles Jazz Festival Foundation and City of Los Angeles. This historic weekend will commemorate the deep cultural ties between the cities of Los Angeles and New Orleans and formally unveil a stretch of Jefferson Boulevard as the “New Orleans Corridor.”
“As a native of Los Angeles and now 30-year resident and Mayor of New Orleans, it brings me great joy and pride to join my Sister Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles in celebrating the renaming of a stretch of Jefferson Boulevard to ‘New Orleans Corridor,’ as well as join in the cultural precursor of the 2024 launch of the Los Angeles Jazz Festival,” said Mayor LaToya Cantrell. “The Second Great Migration that was born in the 1900s where millions of New Orleanians and other Southerners migrated westward has evolved overtime into a shared language and cultural connection felt in every corner of the globe, including Los Angeles. I appreciate and welcome this cultural exchange of music, art and ideas, while simultaneously sharing the richness and diversity of New Orleans. Like Los Angeles, the City of New Orleans is an extraordinary place and a city that has made a rich and unique contribution to American culture and history. It is my hope that this will be the start of a new tradition between our two cities and are looking forward to continuing to benefit each other through our cultural and tourism industries.”
The “New Orleans Corridor” celebration, during the Juneteenth holiday, will serve as a cultural precursor for the 2024 launch of the Los Angeles Jazz Festival. As the first-ever full-scale international jazz festival in the history of Los Angeles, this historic event is expected to bring 190,000 visitors from around the world to Los Angeles, providing a robust economic boost to local tourism in the City of Los Angeles.
Mayor Cantrell will be joined in Los Angeles by Director of the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Economy Lisa Alexis, who will participate in the Los Angeles Jazz Festival Foundation’s Cultural Tourism Roundtable on Friday, June 16, alongside Chief Tourism Officer for the City of Los Angeles Doane Liu at the new Headquarters of the Los Angeles Jazz Festival. This will be a unique opportunity to discuss ideas for expanding business development opportunities, as well as establish and strengthen business relationships with insights from two leaders in this emerging space. This will be moderated by Emmy-award-winning writer, journalist and TV/radio personality Dominique DiPrima. This collaborative discussion kickstarts the weekend’s festivities and will include input from Los Angeles-based business leaders ranging from the local restaurants, social/civic businesses, as well as potential representatives from hotels, airlines and the California Office of Tourism.
On Saturday, June 17, Mayor Cantrell will join Mayor Bass of Los Angeles, Former Mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown, U.S. Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager, U.S. Congressman Ted Lieu, California State Senator Steven Bradford and other dignitaries for a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially name the stretch of Jefferson Boulevard between Holy Name of Jesus Christ Catholic Church to Harold & Belle’s Creole Restaurant as “New Orleans Corridor.”
Later that evening on June 17, Mayor Cantrell will participate in a panel discussion titled, “New Orleans to Los Angeles: The Historical Migration,” alongside Mayor Bass, Los Angeles City Councilmember Heather Huitt, California State Senator Steve Bradford, Los Angeles Unified School Board Member George McKenna and Vice President of Global Government Affairs for Cruise Prashanthi Raman.
The uniquely American story of cultural migration originates in February of 1883 with the completion of Southern Pacific Railroad’s “Sunset Route,” which connected New Orleans directly to California. The innovative transit line, the second transcontinental connection between the Southeast and the Pacific, brought the forebearers of many of Los Angeles’ present-day black population with Creole influences through migration along this “Sunset Route,” which is now a railroad line operated by Amtrak.
Between 1940 and 1970, roughly five million Black Americans from the South migrated westward in a period known as the “Second Great Migration.” During this period, Louisiana was the second-largest source of Black migrants in Los Angeles, just behind Texas. Approximately 15,000 Creole people traded the Gulf Coast for the West Coast, settling in Los Angeles and creating the largest Creole community in the United States outside of Louisiana.
Mayor Cantrell will return to New Orleans on Sunday, June 18.
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