SE Professor launches website to preserve vibrancy of local culture

Photo: Paula Burch-Celentano.

By: Mary Cross.

Note: Vicki Mayer is a Taylor Center Social Entrepreneurship Professor. 

Whether filming the march of Mardi Gras Indians or recounting the history of Mimi’s in the Marigny, Tulane students have created articles, podcasts, photography, essays and videos covering every corner of New Orleans’ vibrant culture for the new website ViaNolaVie. Produced by a partnership between lifestyle magazine NolaVie and the university, the unique platform archives a variety of content provided by journalists, Tulane students and community partners. The website aims to record the city’s cultural heritage and make it accessible to the local community.

The new project emerged from a 2015 redesign of MediaNOLA, a site that Tulane professor of communication Vicki Mayer founded in 2009 to record cultural heritage.

“We at Tulane have been archiving students’ writing and research about New Orleans and the surrounding region for about 10 years,” said Mayer, cofounder of ViaNolaVie.

“NolaVie was looking to renovate their site, so we joined forces about 18 months ago and went through a community design process. We realized that we both had very similar aims — to uplift community voices,” she said.

Read the full article here, courtesy of NewWave.