SL16B~Water Under the Bridge - The Four Bridges Project [85]

Our current theme, "Women Speak", gives space for the feminine voices to be raised and counted.   

Leyah (Leah) Chase (née Lange)

                       January 6, 1923 – June 1, 2019

   Leah Chase and Dooky Chase's Restaurant was chosen for      this exhibit because much of the power of activism comes      from what happens under the surface and outside the view    of others. 

   Dooky Chase's Restaurant offered the upstairs room to          leaders of the Civil Rights Movement to facilitate meetings      for organizing and strategizing.

   Leah would serve up the gumbo while, downstairs she            made contributions to the community by sometimes                serving as a check cashing station for the black community    before there were black owned banks, and by curating the      Black community's art.  

   Dooky Chase's Restaurant became the first art gallery for        Black artists in New Orleans.

   Part of any cultural heritage experience includes the tastes      and smells that emanate from the kitchen. 

   The Civil Rights Movement happened in the corners of            people's houses or hidden away like in the upstairs room      of Dooky Chase's Restaurant. 

   Leah Chase embraced the kitchen as a metaphor for what      was cooking in the movement and lent her skills and    

   passion to feeding the movement through her magic in the    kitchen and through the passion that she felt in serving her    community. 

   The Four Bridges Project sometimes feels like that room        upstairs. 

   It's a place for people to come together to have difficult        conversations, strategize and organize around important        issues of our times.

   

   Thank you, Leah -- for everything.

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