Opelousas, LA

April 27, 2022
Population: 15,558

We headed to Opelousas, the heart of Creole country with a population that is 77% Black. I had my first experience of chicory coffee, then we wandered around the small city. After a couple hours of searching for people to play for, and a deja-vu episode of me sitting exasperated in the van in the middle of a desolate park, Daniel found a promising organization on Google Maps. The Refinery Mission was a faith-based homeless shelter for men transitioning out of jails, prisons, rehab centers, streets, and hospitals. I walked in to the office and asked about playing for the men. The excited director decided I should play for their dinner time, and even asked if he could come see the piano packed up in the van, which he was delighted about! 

Since there were still a couple hours until dinner, he immediately called his good friend Loren down the street. Loren directs an educational non-profit for kids, called Hope for Opelousas, and we all decided I should go play for their after school program. It was satisfying to feel like we figured out the clues to unlock one door into a network of communities, and now we were being invited further in.

Hope for Opelousas is a faith-based after school program meeting the kids where they are and providing support, guidance, and education for them to reach their full potential. In an area where 40% live below the poverty line, and in a state where literacy and high school graduation rates are low, this could mean walking students down the graduation aisle or picking them up from the police station. 

The kids were PUMPED to play the piano - they were banging away for almost an hour. Then we gathered everyone and I played for them. 

Back at the homeless shelter, I felt a tiny bit intimidated (I was the only woman in the building, and I hadn’t played for a group of formerly incarcerated folks before), but these men were so kind and happy to have me. They asked for requests (Moonlight Sonata!) and played and sang themselves. They were the most curious bunch I’d met yet - asking where I’m from, what I’m doing, and mostly importantly *why* I’m doing what I do. I appreciated that after all the apathy I‘ve encountered on this tour.

About incarceration in Louisiana: 

Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the WORLD with 1,094 incarcerated per 100,000 people. Black people are overrepresented in prisons and jails. Louisiana has extremely harsh sentences - 3 drug convictions can put one away for life. 

What’s the deal? Louisiana has a system where local sheriffs get PAID by the state per day per prisoner. It’s profitable to invest in running a local prison, and of course the more prisoners they can stuff in there, the more profit. Especially in rural areas, the local economy depends on this system that robs people of their lives…again, often Black lives. Of course, this is in a state whose economy was built on slave labor on plantations. This is America.