About

Cultural Crossroads, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the cultural and artistic expressions of people of African descent and to exposing those incredible connections to the Black Diasporic World.

board of Advisors

Board of Directors

Joyce Marie Jackson, Ph.D.

Founder & President

Dr. Joyce Marie Jackson is a professor in the Dept. of Geography & Anthropology and former Director of African & African American Studies at Louisianan State University.  She earned her Ph.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington, in folklore and ethnomusicology and her Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees were in vocal performance from Louisiana State University. Currently, she is serving as Director of the Academic Program Abroad to Haiti. Her key research interests center on African and African Diaspora performance-centered studies, sacred and secular rituals, cultural and community sustainability and women’s agency. Her ethnographic research sites include New Orleans, LA, Dakar, Sénégal, Port-au-Spain, Trinidad and Jacmel, Haiti. Dr. Jackson has authored, Life in the Village: A Cultural Memory of the Fazendeville Community and many scholarly articles and book chapters. She is a National Endowment for the Arts and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow and was awarded a Brigh Mohan Distinguished Professorship for Social Justice. Recently, Dr. Jackson completed a documentary film titled, Easter Rock, which was selected and featured in the spring of 2016 at the Ethnografilm Festival in Paris, France. She has curated many exhibitions, including the notable New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians: Exploring a Community Tradition from an Insider’s View for the Smithsonian Institution. This exhibition focused on J. Nash Porter’s documentary photography and Jackson’s ethnographic research.

Eloise E. Johnson, Ph.D.

vice president

Dr. Eloise E. Johnson holds a BA degree in Fine Arts from Southern University in Baton Rouge, a MA degree in Art History from Louisiana State University and a Ph.D from Florida State University in African American Art, Art Theory and Contemporary Art.  Dr. Johnson served as a professor of art history and architectural history and curator of the Southern University Museum of Art in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  She served as an adjunct professor in the Museum Studies Program at Southern University in New Orleans (SUNO).  She is author of the book Rediscovering the Harlem Renaissance: The Politics of Exclusion, originally published by Garland Publishing Company, 1997.  The book is now being published by Routledge Press and remains in publication.  An article entitled “Out of the Ashes: Identity and Marginality in the work of Beauford Delaney” was published by Source Magazine of New York in 2005.  Dr. Johnson has curated numerous exhibitions including a traveling show Southern Journeys and has been a guest writer for the Stella Jones Gallery in New Orleans for twenty years.  She has also served as moderator for the gallery’s series “Conversation with the Artist” that was held bi-monthly.  This series of conversations are archived in the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University.  She has presented many lectures and papers and served as a panelist and consultant of African American Art and Architecture.  She is currently retired and spends and inordinate amount of time and money on her two grandchildren: Jackson and Eden.

Lawrence Square

treasurer

More to Come.