House of Dance & Feathers - Museum in New Orleans - 1317 Tupelo St, USA

I highly, highly recommend visiting House of Dance & Feathers. I called Miss Minnie the night before and we set a time for my arrival. Once there, she walked me through all of the wonderful items in the museum and put them all in multiple different contexts- family, community, local history, world history and Katrina. It was amazing! I had a ton of questions which Miss Minnie thoughtfully answered and even added on to. I purchased the book that her husband, Mr. Ronald Lewis, compiled with Rachel Breunlin of the Neighborhood Story Project. I'm so honored to have had this experience.

It is a little difficult to write this review and only give two stars. If I was writing solely based on the service that Mr. Lewis is performing for the culture of the city, and the place that he holds in its esteem, I would give 5 stars. However, I have to write this review based on our experience as tourists who frequently visit New Orleans and who are very interested in its history and culture. Of course, this is not a typical museum, but is in Mr. Lewis's home that he graciously opens up to guests for just an optional donation. Overall though, we found our experience to be pretty disappointing. We were expecting to see a lot of artifacts, but also to be regaled with stories of personal experiences and history. Maybe we where just there on a bad day, but we were offered limited information, and exceptionally brief answers to questions. It is a very difficult museum to navigate without guidance, and we where left to just kind of stare at many artifacts that we did not know or understand the significance of. We left the museum with more questions than new information. A quick note about the Museum's location. It is easy enough to get a cab there from other parts of the city, but very very difficult to get a cab back. There is a bus that runs down St. Claude Ave, but I'm not sure about how frequently it runs. You can actually walk back to the Bywater by crossing the St. Claude Ave bridge on foot. It looks like pedestrians are not allowed, but if you follow the street to the right parallel to where the bridge begins there will eventually be a set of steps up to a pedestrian walkway. We felt perfectly safe walking during the day, but there is not really much around so it can at times be a little uncomfortable. Overall, although we are glad to have met Mr. Lewis and to have seen the museum, I can't say that we would go back or necessarily recommend this museum for most people visiting New Orleans.

This is a MUST SEE when you come to NOLA! He's 1 of the Ninth wards' Katrina survivors & spoke up for the area's residents when people were ignoring them. Call before you go as the museum is in a small building behind his home. If you're coming for the Essence festival or a HBCU bowl game please support 1 of our own by stopping by. He gave me a Big 9 S & P club coconut!

Ms. Minnie is great! The place is still open, and you just have to call her cell to let her know when you want to see the place. The website and social medias are out-of-date so just call the number to see if she'll be available for you to visit. We just dropped by and she was home and showed us through the museum. It's very informative about the history of Second Line and the personal histories of the Lower Ninth Ward. Ms Minnie is also very welcoming and warm.

Had a great experience at this little gem of a museum. It was not easy to sort out whether the museum would be open so for anyone struggling, the disconnected number on many websites belonged to Mr. Ronald Lewis, who not only collected materials, photographs, and paper records from decades of second line culture in the lower ninth and beyond, but actually evacuated those items during Katrina and brought them back to literally rebuild the museum. Sadly, he passed away in 2020, and for that reason, the museum was closed for a time, but it was recently renovated and reopened in December 2022. The number listed here has been updated and belongs to his wife, Ms. Minnie, who gave us an intimate tour of the museum. She asked that, if it was possible to get word out, to request that people call her to arrange a visit. As for the museum itself, it is a very unique collection and space, obviously not a big, typical museum. There are many intricate pieces of Mardis Gras Indian suits, newspaper clippings, customized printed roll sheets from a time before facebook pages and group texts, photographs, instruments, and other curious objects. The museum is free, but it deserves a donation, and you can also purchase a copy of the House of Dance and Feathers book by Rachel Breunlin and Ronald Lewis, which is beautiful and full of more information. Very glad I went.

Unfortunately, Mr. Ronald Lewis passed away, so the museum seems to be closed. Rest in power to a great man

In spite that building is under reconstruction, the wonderful Mr.Minni gave us phantastic insights into the world of mardi gras Indian culture. Unforgettable ! and we recommend that place with greatest respect for all the people who live in this culture. Henry Walinda and 5 German friends.

Wonderful hidden history of the Mardi Gra indians