The Backstreet Cultural Museum and Voodoo Queen Kalindah Leveaux will present the Backstreet Cultural Museum’s 24^th Annual All Saints’ Day Commemoration on Wednesday, November 1, 2023. The event will begin at noon at The Tomb of the Unknown Slave at St. Augustine Catholic Church, 1210 Governor Nicholls St., with a traditional visit to the burial sites of loved ones. Libations, songs and prayers for ancestors known and unknown will be shared at this historical site.

This event will be followed by a second line from St. Augustine Catholic Church to the Backstreet Cultural Museum at 1531 St. Phillip Street where there will be a free, outdoor event from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. honoring culture bearers and loved ones who have passed on. The remembrance will include prayers, libations, cleansing, a candlelight altar and music. Members of the Black Indian nation, baby dolls, social aid and pleasure club members, musicians, mystics and all culture bearers are invited to come out and participate. Food and drinks will be provided.

Organizers are encouraging participants to wear the T-shirts of loved ones in memory of that person. The event starts promptly at noon and will be followed by speakers and performers from 1 p.m.-4 p.m..

The Backstreet Cultural Museum celebrated its grand opening on November 1, 1999—All Saints Day—with a mock jazz funeral.  The procession included a brass band, horse-drawn carriage, and grand marshals, which moved through the streets of the Faubourg Tremé. The parade has since become a museum tradition, held each year on All Saints Day in honor of a beloved member of the community who has passed on. This year is in honor of the late great Sylvester “HAWK” Francis who founded the museum. The Backstreet Cultural Museum is committed to raising awareness of the New Orleans’ jazz funeral tradition.