The impression most New Orleanians have of Central City is that of a war zone inhabited by degenerates looking to prey upon innocent victims and each other. I-Witness Central City is a storymapping project that aids residents in reclaiming their history and their neighborhood through personal stories accessible online and via a cell-phone walking tour.

I-Witness Central City grew out of an earlier oral history program known as the I-10 Witness Project (www.i10witness.org). I-10 Witness emerged immediately following Hurricane Katrina as a means of giving those affected the opportunity to record their experiences and give their perspectives a place in the larger conversation about what happened here and how to move forward.

The stories that make up I-Witness Central City are organized not by topic but rather by location. There are two ways for listeners to access these stories. They can find them via video markers on a Google map or they can walk around Central City and look for our signs indicating that a story happened where they’re standing. A person can call up the number and hear the storyteller’s own voice setting the scene.

Some of the stories we’ve collected happened recently; some happened long ago. Kids growing up in Central City today might never know about the jazz funeral that the Free Southern Theatre held for itself in 1980 or who painted the murals of civil rights workers under the overpass. Others might hear a more personal tale of a resident finding love for the first time or a child confronting the neighborhood bully. Our project helps the neighborhood learn about itself and offers outsiders a whole new way of perceiving this much-maligned area of New Orleans.