The Japan Society of New Orleans and the New Orleans Jazz Museum will present the first annual Lafcadio Fest, a daylong festival honoring the life and legacy of author Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904). The festival will be held at the New Orleans Jazz Museum from 10:30am– 4:30pm on Saturday, June 20.
Born on the Greek island of Lefkada, Hearn led a cosmopolitan life that ranged across a number of continents, languages, and cultures. Most well-known in New Orleans for his recording of local folklore and his curation of one of the earliest Creole cookbooks, La Cuisine Creole (1885), he is well-remembered around the world in the places that he explored and wrote about with curiosity and affection.
Hearn’s lifelong wanderings took him from his native Greece to Ireland, France, the United States, Martinique, and finally to Japan, where he initially settled and taught in the town of Matsue, now New Orleans’s sister-city. Through it all, his writing retained its focus on the strange, the unusual, the ghostly, and the exotic.
Lafcadio Hearn
The festival will include an international panel of scholars offering insights on Hearn’s writings about New Orleans, the Caribbean, and Japan; a keynote from Hearn biographer Steve Kemme, author of The Outsider: The Life and Work of Lafcadio Hearn, The Man Who Introduced Voodoo, Creole Cooking, and Japanese Ghosts to the World; and talks by the Mardi Gras Krewe of Lafcadio founder John Kelly and designer Caroline Thomas, who crafted the Lafcadio-themed floats for the 2024 Krewe of Rex parade.
Plus, community members’ reflections on the ongoing connections between New Orleans and Matsue; food by Greta’s Sushi (a pop-up that blends Japanese sushi traditions with Louisiana seafood); virtual visits from Mayor Akihito Uesada of Matsue and Hearn’s great-grandson Bon Koizumi; sake toasts for Hearn’s upcoming 176th birthday; and musical surprises to come! Entry to the event is free and open to the public.
For more information and schedule updates, visit the JSNO website (www.japansocietyofneworleans.org/Lafcadio-Fest) and our Facebook event page (https://www.facebook.com/events/2388455514989408).
