Carol Bebelle
Carol Bebelle (a.k.a. Akua Wambui) is a native New Orleanian and a proud product of the New Orleans Public School System. She received her undergraduate degree from Loyola University in sociology and her master's degree from Tulane University in education administration. She spent nearly 20 years in the public sector as an administrator and planner of education, social, and health programs.
In 1990, Bebelle embarked on a path of independence that started with establishing Master Plan Development Associates (MPDA), a private consulting firm that offered planning, development, and grant writing services to human service programs and initiatives. Her clients were nonprofit organizations in the areas of health, social, education, arts, cultural, and religious programs, and for entrepreneurs and artists. By 1995, Bebelle realized that the cultural and creative heartbeat of New Orleans was an un- and under-tapped resource on the landscape of community development. She realized that the power of culture and creativity combined could unleash progress, improvement, and economic inclusion for much of the under-represented members of the New Orleans community. Bebelle established a new vehicle for her work called Akua Productions. (Bebelle's African name, Akua Wambui, was given to her by friends and she uses it as her pen name.) Akua Productions became a small production company dedicated to the presentation, production, exhibiting, and publication of creative works by and about Africans throughout the diaspora.
Bebelle is a published poet whose work has appeared in several anthologies and journals. In, 1995, she published a volume of her work entitled In a Manner of Speaking. Her work appears in the anthology From a Bend in the River, edited by Kalamu Ya Salaam and in Sisters Together, edited by Nancy Manson and Debra Gould. She is project director for the touring art exhibit by Douglas Redd called Efforts of Grace and she shares with him the producer role for a multi-disciplinary performance art work called The Origin of Life On Earth/An African Creation Myth. She is author of several public domain plans, speeches, testimonies, and evaluation documents.
In 1998, Bebelle and Douglas Redd founded Ashe' Cultural Arts Center in Central City, New Orleans. Ashe', as it is familiarly known, is a pivotal force for the revitalization and transformation of Oretha Castle-Haley Boulevard, formerly known as Dryades Street, into an African and Caribbean cultural corridor. Bebelle and Redd have become active members of the Central City community and the organizations at work to develop that community and its vision. Their work has helped to create the Ties that Bind/Making Family New Orleans Style, a photo exhibit coordinated by Eric Waters. Ashe' has created a new festival for New Orleans, titled "Holiday on the Boulevard," which is celebrated in December each year and plays a pivotal role in the July Community Maafa Commemoration. Ashe', is a Yoruba word meaning "a divine force or the ability to make things happen, so let it be done" and describes the commitment that Bebelle and Redd have made to building bridges, accessing resources, and helping to make being an artist and a culture bearer a part of the creative industries in Louisiana. |
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