Join the 300 Angels of NOLA Campaign :: Wear Your Wings on May 7th for Our Tricentennial!

Angels are so common that they are on the verge of being annoying … when you Google them, you may as well be Googling kittens or rainbows … they are that prevalent, over-used, and ripe with over-sentimentality.

But.

They are still the most striking and universal symbol for just about anything we don’t have ample words for: Hope, Love, Eternity … The Past. The Future.

So when someone asks me: Why Angels for New Orleans’ birthday?

My response is this:

Angels are not political. Angels are beyond history. Angels are Everything. Angels are Everywhere.

We are all part angel.

I’m not sentimental and naive enough to assume putting people in wings for an hour or a day is going stop hurricanes or increase our national ranking in literacy, or turn the city from the Big Easy into the Big Kindness. Probably 300 people in wings won’t lower our crime rate…immediately. But won’t it be nice that on a Monday in May after our last big festival of the season has closed, and on the day that a new Mayor is elected, and on the day marked as the official birthday of our city, that we show in this sweet and small and simple way that we are full of love and hope and eternity?

2018 is the Tricentennial Year

The Tricentennial is a big deal and we all know it … but how are you interacting with this huge notion of our 300 year old birthday? People are just beginning to notice that 2018 is the Tricentennial Year and to attend events or post articles they read, and every organization in town cleverly notes the Tricentennial theme in some way. There have been some wonderful events and even some significant events, but few if any of my close friends attended them or mentioned them—because they didn’t know about them, or they were at 10 a.m. on a weekday or 6 p.m. on a weekday and impossible to attend due to work or kiddo pickup.

But whether you are a newcomer or a native, I’m sure you have pride in being in a city that is 300 years old—and particularly in a city that we weren’t sure would make it past her 287th birthday.

The Tricentennial can’t help but be aligned with Katrina because—We’re Still Here, Baby.

The Angels are here to stay.

I hope you will be inspired to participate as an angel to honor the immortality of our city and the ability of its citizens to find hope and love everywhere. I hope that if you are not the kind who wants to don wings or a halo to work, that you will wave to an angel that you pass on the way to work May 7th on Canal Street or Poydras or St. Charles or Elysian Fields, Esplanade or Camp Street, or that you are lucky enough to see an angel at the grocery store or at a restaurant…

I hope that this group of 300 Angels of Unity will continue to celebrate NOLA long beyond this birthday.

I truly hope it does bring more kindness and connection to us all as we look towards the next 300 years.

I hope that there doesn’t need to be a group that I organize and encourage—that angels will just arrive in groups at events where angels are needed or when we need a reminder…

May this be just the beginning.

Photo Credit :: Kim Welsh

Want to be an Angel?

  1. Register for free at Evenbrite HERE
  2. Email Amy Kirk Duvoisin, Angel Project Coordinator, at 300angelsnola {at} gmail {dot} com about your location (optional—if you are home or work don’t want to mention where you are, that’s cool too—just plan to post photos of yourself that day!) And yes: ANYWHERE in the Greater NOLA area is fine!!
  3. Commit to posting and sharing and encouraging your entire school, organization, restaurant, office, daycare, yoga group, book club, or neighborhood to participate!!!
  4. Take as little or as much time as you want on the wings: Wings at dollar stores or the equivalent are fine. White gowns with gossamer are fine. Pink wings with glitter is fine. Be you.
  5. This is meant to be an all-inclusive acknowledgement and celebration of our complicated 300 year history … a hope for our future … a recognition of our past … an honoring of our present.

This is your place. Put on your wings and stand your ground. Stand with your family and show us who you are and why we all matter! That kindness matters. That we are, each of us, part of this celebration! Happy 300 New Orleans!! May you continue to inspire us to costume with our hopes and dreams on our sleeves, and join together to honor you and each other.

Follow The 300 Angels of NOLA Campaign on Facebook HERE!

About Amy Kirk Duvoisin

Photo Credit :: Time Worn Tales

Amy Kirk Duvoisin moved to New Orleans in 2004. She is the founder and captain of the Joan of Arc Parade and is Education Director at Louisiana Children’s Museum, which also has some cool family programming for the Tricentennial! She is married to a patient guy who puts up with her projects and crazy ideas. They have a hilarious daughter named Abigail and an adorable, annoying pooch named Sparkle.

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