Erica Fox

Maison Creole de Freetown, the African American History Museum that I manage, has been a labor of love for the last 14 years. We were looking for an opportunity to highlight cultural diversity here in Lafayette. It started as a cultural co-op, which was called “Attakapas Collective” to honor the indigenous people of this area. Originally, it was a small gift shop in the downtown area, but we quickly outgrew that space; we saw an opportunity to find another space where we could really grow and truly support not only the co-op shop, but the vision for the history museum as well.

In 2008, I saw a need for more diversity within our city. I had just recently moved back to Lafayette from Los Angeles. I was working for a multicultural center there and saw that Lafayette had so much to offer as far as culture and heritage, and I wanted to see a space that represented some of those beautiful spaces that I had seen in other cities.

The Heritage Museum is located in a nationally registered historic neighborhood called ‘Freetown.’ It is just next to the downtown area; it's a very vibrant space. Freetown is kind of where the creatives of our community live and work, and it has a lot of history that dates back to early Lafayette. The significance of Freetown is that it is the place where emancipated, enslaved, and free people of color originally occupied in early parts of Lafayette’s history. It was the backside of what was once the sugar cane plantation owned by our ninth governor, Governor Alexander Mouton. Freetown was a safe haven for many of the immigrants and under resourced community. They found a place of belonging and a very community-oriented space.

Our primary focus on our collection here is to tell the stories of underrepresented people in our community. We have archives that date back to the late 18th and 19th centuries that were actually dug up from the property, as well as historic places where we like to tell the stories of the people who occupied them. The primary focus of our collection is to give opportunities to artisans and creatives of our community. So much of our collection here is curated by the people within the city of Lafayette. We have maskers and Mardi Gras creatives that have beadwork on display. We’ve got Creole and Cajun music heritage showcased to highlight the linguistic significance of this area, as well as the musicians that have paved the way for many of our musicians in this community. We also have physical artifacts that were captured from the ground; it's like the land is wanting to tell a story too. So many things have happened on this property — there was a circus here, mayors have lived here, it was once a tourist home. So many lives have been lived in this house. Not only are the creatives and the artisans helping to tell the story, but the house itself is as well.

Our museum sits just across the street from the railroad. One interesting fact is that the circus used to come to town many years ago and would unload animals and performers, and they'd walk across the street onto our property to set up the circus. We have artifacts that we discovered during the archeological dig that showcases some of the items that were left behind; history is continuing on through those artifacts.

We offer guided tours and special programs for visitors; we walk all throughout the neighborhood. You start here at the museum, but you get to experience some of the other places such as: Martin's Hat Shop and a tourist home that was on the National Green Books Registry, as well as several other properties of significance. You get an overall tour of this neighborhood, which is also now extended into the African American trail.

The Attakapas Collective started as a small gift shop and incubator in the downtown Lafayette area. It was made of mostly black, indigenous, and persons-of-color artisans, looking for a brick-and-mortar space to showcase their work. However, what we quickly found out is that the enthusiasm for culture and to have those safe conversations around heritage created a space that we didn't know would have come about. Basically, people would come in and buy pieces of art, whether it be jewelry or quilts, and they would stay for a long time and want to talk about history and culture. That's when we realized that there was more to it than just the physical pieces that we were creating in the space.

My earliest memory of being an artist and musician started at two years old. People know me for singing, but my first love was dancing. I was a gymnast at a very early age at Gerami’s Dance Academy. I would perform on stage, and something about telling stories through dance quickly grew into singing and music. Secondly, my dad would take me to the record shop, House Rocker Records, back in the day. Every Tuesday we would get new records and play those. So, I think I was introduced very early on to storytelling, whether it be through music or dance.

My passion comes from loving to tell stories and performing. I was bitten with the bug early on as a dancer; and I've always gravitated to stories, whether learning about someone's journey or writing them in a song. I’m very passionate about this museum because it's just another extension of storytelling – being able to share other people's stories and lived experiences, as well as creating history in the making. 

I am inspired by everything. I love to be out in nature. I love talking to people; every connection, whether it be with nature or with people, is a story in the making. I just love connecting with people!

I love the reaction of, ‘I didn't know this place existed!’ We get that pretty often, and I would say it’s because we're tucked inside the neighborhood. However, that was very intentional; we wanted the community to feel like it had a place of belonging within the neighborhood. So, it's always interesting and fun when people discover us and discover another layer of Lafayette's history.

One project I would love to work on is developing a space for our art. We showcase many of the community artisans, but it's very segmented in this house. In turn, we have to be creative of how we present it. One thing that we are looking into is building another space that is more open, so that our artisans and our visual artists have an opportunity to showcase their work.

The main message I would love for the museum to convey to people is that it is a space for all of us to learn and to connect and to become closer as a culture. This space is an African American history museum, but it's American history, and it's all of our history. Most of the times when we showcase different exhibits, you'll find out that an African American person partnered with a Lebanese person. It was so many different peoples and cultures coming together, that created this place. We like to highlight some of those hidden stories that people may not know.

When I first started as a curator of this space, my goals were to try to learn the business aspect, because as a musician, you are an entrepreneur and you are a businessperson. Whereas this has a totally different structure that I kind of had to learn as I went along. The goals that I set for myself as a business owner and as an artist are to enjoy the process. I used to be very uptight because I was having to learn how to be a curator and an administrator of a space that has so much cultural weight. As we started to create some amazing exhibits and events here, I realized that it's really about having fun and enjoying the journey. So, now the goals that I make are that we just present incredible storytelling, and that we enjoy our experiences as we go along telling those stories.

My work has changed me personally, because I've learned that I could accomplish some things that I never imagined. For example, this museum was not on my ten-year plan. However, I saw a need and a gap that needed to be filled, so I stepped in; instead of pointing fingers or asking, ‘where is this?’ I decided to be the change that I wanted to see. This has changed me because now I see other people being inspired and motivated by that, and I want to help them also create their dreams. Just because you do not see it existing does not mean that it cannot be a reality. This has changed my focus and my vision. Now I see possibilities whereas before it could have been easy to just complain about something; but I decided to be part of the answer.

The work here at Maison Freetown is important because not only are we looking at the past and examining the history of the people that once lived here, but it’s also shaping our future. We're collecting stories; we've collected over 400 and archived them in the Library of Congress. We did this because we want this to be a place where people can go back and learn from and hopefully create their own history.My work has changed me personally, because I've learned that I could accomplish some things that I never imagined. For example, this museum was not on my ten-year plan. However, I saw a need and a gap that needed to be filled, so I stepped in; instead of pointing fingers or asking, ‘where is this?’ I decided to be the change that I wanted to see. This has changed me because now I see other people being inspired and motivated by that, and I want to help them also create their dreams. Just because you do not see it existing does not mean that it cannot be a reality. This has changed my focus and my vision. Now I see possibilities whereas before it could have been easy to just complain about something; but I decided to be part of the answer.

My name is Erica Fox. I am a storykeeper, a curator, and a musician.

One significant aspect of Freetown is that this was where the Mardi Gras black maskers would meet and congregate during Mardi Gras time. They would collect and come together at the corner of Gordon Street and then parade throughout the different neighborhoods. However, this is where the artisans really started the tradition of Mardi Gras masking in Lafayette; it began in Freetown.