Eric Seiferth is a curator and historian at the Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC). We sat down with Eric and our special guest host, Scott Tilton, to talk about HNOC’s two powerful new exhibitions: Making It Home, which tells the story of New Orleans’ Vietnamese community starting in 1975, and The Trail They Blazed, a deep dive into the local civil rights movement from the 1950s through the 1970s. Eric shares how both exhibitions were created with extensive community collaboration, oral histories, and a focus on honoring the voices of those who lived these stories.

We explore why sharing these recent histories is so important for understanding New Orleans today and how these exhibits aim to inspire civic engagement, especially among young people. Eric also gives us insight into HNOC’s mission to make local history accessible to everyone, their free museum spaces in the French Quarter, and the unique ways they connect past and present to tell a richer story of our city.

Mission Bayou is presented by Comfy Stone, a New Orleans-based video production agency that helps organizations amplify their impact through mission-driven storytelling. From fundraising videos and social media content to full-scale podcast production, Comfy Stone makes it easy for organizations to share their stories in a way that resonates.

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