Tekrema Center for Art and Culture
“The artistic image is not intended to represent the thing itself, but, rather, the reality of the force the thing contains.”
― James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name
Tekrema Center for Art and Culture is a cultural arts organization located in New Orleans, Louisiana in the area geographically described and affectionately known as “The Lower 9th Ward”. The mission of Tekrema Center for Culture and Art is the maintenance, development and perseverance of African and African Diaspora art and culture.
The principal activities of Tekrema Center are the creation, acquisition, preservation, and research of arts; the advancement of knowledge through arts education, training and research in the arts; and the dissemination of these resources through presentations, exhibitions, publications, and public lectures. Tekrema Center is an artist driven organization, where professional artists are integral in programming and service to the community.
Tekrema provides ongoing classes in the arts to adults and children for little or no costs. Tekrema is the only organization in the Lower 9th Ward that offers regularly scheduled artistic performances, which are of exemplary caliber at costs that are accessible to the community, and more importantly provides art, cultural activities and resources in a geographical environment where little or no other artistic activities are available because it is still vastly destroyed and rebuilding, now 11 years post Hurricane Katrina. Tekrema’s dedication and service represents ownership and connectivity to the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood.
As an arts organization, one of Tekrema’s objectives is improving the “Livability” of its community. Thus, Tekrema’s civic responsibility is to inspire, call to action, and provide a solace for our emotional underpinnings, mental consciousnesses, and physical environments. In turn, Tekrema’s work hopes to give some level of appreciation and understanding to emotional, moral and spiritual meanings within African and African Diaspora culture.
Tekrema continues to create, serve and inspire all it serves. Tekrema is determined to educate and inspire our youth, provide career opportunities to dedicated artists, and serve a community in the presentation of our cultural ideas.Tekrema’s work a story of art, dance, music, tradition, and emotional and artistic survival.
For more information on Tekrema Center, please visit our website at https://tekremacenter.com/ or follow us on FB, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. Tekrema’s summer schedule and upcoming activities are listed on these sites. Tekrema’s email address is TekremaCenter@gmail.com.
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Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Informative article, just what I was looking for.