Creole: The History and Legacy of Louisiana's Free People of Color

by Sybil Kein (Editor)

Overview

Who are the Creoles? The answer is not clear-cut. Of European, African, or Caribbean mixed descent, they are a people of color and Francophone dialect native to south Louisiana; and though their history dates from the late 1600s, they have been sorely neglected in the literature. Creole is a project that both defines and celebrates this ethnic identity. In fifteen essays, writers intimately involved with their subject explore the vibrant yet understudied culture of the Creole people across time—their language, literature, religion, art, food, music, folklore, professions, customs, and social barriers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807126011
Publisher:	Louisiana State University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Sybil Kein is a Creole scholar, writer, and singer. She has published five poetry collections and several albums of Creole music, and her recorded poetry is housed in the National Archives. She is a distinguished professor of English emerita of the University of Michigan.

Editorial Reviews

Conservative or liberal, black, white, or griffe, all Louisianians should find this book a fascinating read—an insight into the complicated political and social battles that shaped our state’s history and still affect our society today.

New Orleans Magazine

Multicultural before there was a name, racially constructed before there was a theory, international before there was a discourse, Louisiana’s Creoles have much to teach us about the specific history and production of a remarkable people as well as about the larger, overarching, fluid, and complicated issues of culture, nation, and race. This extraordinary interdisciplinary collection, wide-ranging yet judiciously focused, is a powerful and necessary addition to twenty-first century studies of race and culture.

Thadious M. Davis

Creole provides an invaluable history of Louisiana's Creole people, examining the ethnic roots of the Creoles and their mixed descent, analyzing their history and contributions, and helping define their ethnic heritage. From the use of Creole in language and literature to popular individuals of color, this provides a fine coverage.