The Backstreet Cultural Museum has found a new home on the grounds of the New Orleans African American Museum in the Treme neighborhood. After Hurricane Ida wrought extensive damage upon the museum’s longtime location in the former Blandin Funeral Home, executive director Dominique Dilling-Francis was forced to find temporary storage to safeguard the extensive collection of artifacts that tell the story of Black traditions in New Orleans, including Mardi Gras Indian suits, Baby Doll outfits, second line attire from social aid and pleasure clubs, photographs and related ephemera.

The Backstreet Cultural Museum has signed a one-year lease for a small, blue house at 1114 North Villere Street while it continues to search for a larger, permanent location.

Dilling-Francis was especially eager to procure a location so that the Backstreet Cultural Museum could host Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras celebrations as it has traditionally done since the museum was founded in 1999 by her father, Sylvester Francis, who died on September 1, 2020. Because the new location remains a work in progress, it’s not certain the facility will be open for Fat Tuesday. If not, the festivities, replete with a deejay, tents, food and drink vendors and port-o-lets, will take place in the garden of the African American Museum at 1417-1418 Gov. Nicholls St.

Big Chief Victor Harris, the Spirit of Fi Yi Yi, and the Mandingo Warriors will come out of the Backstreet’s new locale and be joined by Dilling-Francis’s three-year-old daughter, Lil Queen Ador. The celebrations continue from 10 am to 6 pm on March 1, Mardi Gras Day.

The Backstreet Cultural Museum will also host its annual Lundi Gras celebration from noon until 5 p.m. on February 28. As has been the tradition, the Krewe of Red Beans, led by the mighty Treme Brass Band, will make a stop at the new location sometime between 4 and 4:30 p.m. The krewe has been very supportive of the museum, especially following Hurricane Ida when a large branch fell and destroyed the back of the rented building at 1116 Henriette DeLille St. that forced the move.

The Backstreet Cultural Museum is accepting donations as it works toward securing a permanent location. For more information, visit here.