Watch the full video on WWLTV: https://www.wwltv.com/video/entertainment/television/programs/great-day-louisiana/a-focus-on-freedom-at-the-cailloux-center/289-5b89b65c-b698-40a4-ab24-5c11a8d00b6e

Published by Performing City Resilience

A New Orleans immigration court is set to increase the number of hearings judges oversee each day dramatically. This is due to the Trump administration’s push to accelerate deportation decisions.

Bobbi Jeanne Misick has been covering this for Verite News. She joins us for more on the so-called “mega” hearings.

The André Cailloux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice, located on historic Bayou Road in New Orleans, is gearing up for some exciting summer projects. Named for Civil War hero and freedom fighter André Cailloux, the center serves as a multidisciplinary arts and cultural hub dedicated to promoting justice, community engagement and economic opportunities for Black artists and cultural organizations.

The André Cailloux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice, located on historic Bayou Road in New Orleans, is gearing up for some exciting summer projects. Named for Civil War hero and freedom fighter André Cailloux, the center serves as a multidisciplinary arts and cultural hub dedicated to promoting justice, community engagement and economic opportunities for Black artists and cultural organizations.

Watch the full episode HERE

At the André Cailloux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice, we believe it all starts with the power of a tale. We believe in the power of story. So in that spirit, let me tell you the story of today, and the story of this Freedom Summer 2026.

A note before the story. Today we will toll the church bell at 2541 Bayou Road twice. At 10:50 AM and again at 3:50 PM. Three tolls each time, one for each of the long months his body lay on that field unclaimed, unhonored, unburied. May. June. July. The bell also cues the start of our AR theatrical tour, We've Got a Story to Tell. The morning tour opens at 11:00 AM, the afternoon tour at 4:00 PM. Forty-five minutes. Each one closes with a champagne toast in honor of Captain André Cailloux, Felice Coulon Cailloux, and the men of the 1st and 3rd Louisiana Native Guards. You are invited. Join us for one. Join us for both.

Andre Cailloux isn’t the most recognized name in New Orleans history, despite his remarkable life. Born into slavery in Plaquemines Parish in 1825, Cailloux was later freed and became a community leader in New Orleans and led a bilingual Union regiment of former enslaved people and free people of color. After his death, news of the massive observation of his funeral was covered in the New York Times, New York Herald and Harper’s Weekly.

Black women in Chicago direct, devise, produce, and lead at extraordinary levels. And the ecosystem doesn't match it. Directors without health insurance. Leaders building institutions with no safety net underneath them. Brilliance that the city celebrates and then fails to sustain. On Record puts that gap on the table. These leaders have shaped Chicago theatre across generations and institutions. Together they hold founding vision, ensemble practice, institutional transformation, and artistic risk as lived experience. We are asking them to speak plainly about what it actually takes to build legacy inside a city and an industry that was not designed to hold what they are building. We are examining the real architecture: what sustains the work, what threatens it, and what comes next.