Louisiana Vacation and Travel Ideas for Literary Tours
Arna Bontemps African American Museum
1327 Third Street
Alexandria, LA 71301
Website: http://www.arnabontempsmuseum.com
Email: - none listed
Phone: (318) 473-4692
Arna Wendell Bontemps (1902 ?¢?? 1973) was an African American poet and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance. He began writing while a student at Pacific Union College and was the author of many children's books. His critically-acclaimed Story of the Negro (1948), received the Jane Addams Book Award and was also a Newbery Honor Book.
He was born in this house in Alexandria, Louisiana, and lived here until he was three years old. The house has been restored and is now the Bontemps African America Museum & Cultural Arts Center. On display is an array of African American memorabilia, pamphlets, books, and artifacts. The museum hosts several events throughout the year.
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Kate Chopin House & Bayou Folk Museum
243 State Route 495
Cloutierville, LA 71416
Website: http://www.caneriverheritage.org/main_file.php/chopin.php/
The unconventional novelist Kate Chopin (1850 ?¢?? 1904) lived in this house from 1879 until 1884. Her husband, Oscar, died in 1882, leaving her to raise their six children and also run the family?¢??s general store. Chopin, who was fiercely independent, smoked, and reportedly affected ?¢??Yankee?¢?? customs, was viewed as an unpopular outsider in Cloutierville.
Chopin?¢??s literary career began in 1889, with a series of short stories for children and adults, and culminated with the publication of two novels, At Fault in 1890 and The Awakening in 1899. Her work was considered scandalous in her own time, but today she is regarded as one of the most important writers of the 19th century, and an important voice for women of her period.
The home is furnished with period pieces. The first floor of the building houses the Bayou Folk Museum, which displays memorabilia of the lives of former Cloutierville residents.
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