2026 Lafcadio Hearn Festival in New Orleans
At this point dozens of scholars have weighed in across every media platform known to man: multiple books have been written, magazine articles across every continent on earth have been penned; podcasts on every forum from castbox to gPodder have been recorded, and now the City of New Orleans will host Louisiana’s first Lafcadio Hearn Festival.
It’s about damn time.
The man who wrote the world’s first Creole cookbook: La Cuisine Creole: A Collection of Culinary Recipes from Leading Chefs and Noted Creole Housewives, Who Have Made New Orleans Famous for Its Cuisine [1885] is now being feted properly in the only US city that has the bonafides to host such an event.
Born in Greece, raised in Ireland, Hearn barely earned enough money for soup bones as a dirt-broke reporter in Cincinnati before taking it on the lam to New Orleans in 1877 to escape prosecution for marrying a Black woman (Mattie Foley). Back then that could get you put in prison or depending on what state you called home, possibly lynched. Lafcadio fell madly in love with our languages, hoodoo traditions, and the cheap, delicious food of New Orleans’ working-class Creole population.
A nickel went a long way back then.
Hearn eventually moved to Japan, changed his name to Koizumi Yakumo, and became legendary for writing definitive English anthologies of Japanese ghost stories— never mentioning he penned the definitive tome on Creole cuisine before leaving his beloved New Orleans.
Let’s gather together this weekend and celebrate the life of this profoundly interesting man.
New Orleans Jazz Museum – 400 Esplanade Ave, New Orleans, LA 70116
Saturday, June 20th from 10:30 AM to 5:15 PM
Schedule: