This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the New Orleans MAAFA Commemoration community remembrance event! As we commemorate this moment, we reckon with the horrors of the Transatlantic and Domestic Slave Trades and give ourselves a release from the chains of its legacy.

This year’s event presented by Ashé Cultural Arts Center is on Saturday, July 5 at 7:00am, beginning at Congo Square (701 N Rampart St.)

This year’s theme, Homecoming: La Porte du Retour (The Door of Return), invites us to reflect, rejoice, and reunite. Come dressed in all white as a symbol of purity, remembrance, and spiritual renewal.

MAAFA identifies historically-significant locations of New Orleans’ own history as a major slave market, such as Esplanade Avenue and The Tomb of the Unknown Slave in Tremé. In closing, we say the names of those enslaved and free, victims of tragic events, senseless violence, as well as all those who were, so that we might be.

All white attire is preferred. The local community and visitors are invited to attend this commemoration event of healing, testimony, and celebration of our ancestors, existence, and survival.