Walking the Tremé: A Self-guided Audio Tour of New Orleans

Experience the true soul of New Orleans by visiting this historical faubourg

• Congo Square
• New Orleans African American Museum
• Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts
• Backstreet Cultural Museum
• Saint Augustine Catholic Church New Orleans

Two hundred years before the HBO television series made Tremé an emblem of the cultural richness of New Orleans, the residents of the faubourg Tremé drummed, danced, and second lined their way into history. The oldest African American neighborhood in the United States as well as the birthplace of jazz, Tremé boasts a history of civil rights activism and jazz rhythms that still inspires. 

Explore the Tremé at your own pace with this highly acclaimed self guided audio tour of New Orleans. From Congo Square to Brass Band Heaven and the Tomb of the Unknown Slave, the Faubourg Tremé will get under your skin. The tour is ready whenever you feel like “Walking the Tremé.” With your smart phone's GPS and the VoiceMap mobile app, the audio plays automatically at exactly the right time and place. If you prefer, you can download the tour and use it offline as well.If you've got an hour or so and want to explore a neighborhood like no other, then this is the tour for you!  

The tour takes you on a historic walk through one of New Orleans most culturally significant neighborhoods. You’ll begin your tour in front of Rampart Street’s Armstrong Park. You’ll stand under the 100-year old oak trees in Congo Square where French and Spanish slave codes allowed slaves to meet on Sunday afternoons to socialize, do business, and dance the African-inspired calinda. Amid the lush grounds of the park, you’ll discover jazz greats like Louis Armstrong, Buddy Bolden and Mahalia Jackson immortalized in bronze. Beyond the park gates, you’ll enter the Tremé, one of the hippest and most musically rich neighborhoods in all of New Orleans. You’ll walk past homes of several living jazz legends as well as artists, Mardi Gras Indians and civil rights activists. The tour ends in a solemn spot that reflects the complex history of this smoking hot Tremé neighborhood. Giant chains and medieval-looking shackles mark the Tomb of the Unknown Slave, honoring the memory of all whose fates tied them to the ignominious American slave trade.

Start the tour in the app, put your phone in your pocket, and let your guide direct you. The total walking distance is approximately 2 miles and takes about an hour including more than a  few tempting photo opportunities. But, you can pause the tour at anytime! Most people opt to linger a bit in Armstrong Park or to stop for a snack at the hip and always humming Tremé Coffee House before strolling the Brass Band Heaven beneath the historically significant elevated expressway.

A video trailer for the walk, featuring some of the sights you'll see as well as the snappy perennial jazz favorite “Li’l Liza Jane” sung by Anaïs St. John, one of New Orleans best Creole jazz vocalist, can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/TremeVideoTrailerNOLA .

Key landmarks include: 
 • Armstrong Park 
 • Congo Square 
 • Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts 
 • Tuba Fats Square 
 • Backstreet Cultural Museum 
 • Tremé’s Art Alley Under the Bridge 
 • St. Augustine Church 
 • Tomb of the Unknown Slave 

The exact route can be seen upon downloading the tour or can be viewed at http://bit.ly/AudioTourTremeNOLA.

<div>Not wheelchair accessible, Wheelchair accessible, preferably with someone escorting on foot.</div>