Freddi Williams Evans

author, scholar and arts education consultant

Freddi Williams Evans is an author, independent scholar and arts education consultant. She is internationally recognized for her scholarship on Congo Square, a world-renown landmark of African and African American culture in New Orleans. Her book, Congo Square: African Roots in New Orleans, the first comprehensive study of the location, received the 2012 Louisiana Humanities Book of the Year Award. Her research and advocacy influenced the New Orleans City Council ordinance, which changed the name Beauregard Square, named after Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard in 1893, to Congo Square in 2011.

With the French edition of her book, she made presentations in Paris in 2012 and Dakar and St. Louis, Senegal in 2014 sponsored by American embassies in both countries. Other international engagements include the 100 Years of Beat Festival, Haus de Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany (2018) and the Bordeaux Congo Square Festival in Bordeaux, France (2013).

Along with numerous essays, she has published award-winning books for children including: Come Sunday, A Young Reader’s History of Congo Square, Hush Harbor: Praying in Secret, The Battle of New Orleans: The Drummer’s Story, and A Bus of Our Own. 

As a community activist, she co-chaired the New Orleans Committee to Erect Historic Markers on the Slave Trade to Louisiana, helped to erect the UNESCO Site of Memory Middle Passage Marker, and currently serves on the New Orleans Legacy Project Committee. Working in arts education, she administered programs in the Jefferson Parish Public School System, the Contemporary Arts Center, and the Ashé Cultural Arts Center for over 30 years combined.

Among her honors, Freddi was named the Grand Griot of the 19th Annual Maafa Commemoration in New Orleans and a “Humanities Hero” by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Other recognitions include: the New Orleans Arts Council Community Arts Award, the Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame Award, The HistoryMakers, and the Julia Purnell Humanitarian Award (Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.®, South Central Region).  She is a native of Madison, Mississippi and holds degrees in music and psychology from Tougaloo College, Tougaloo MS and a graduate degree in creative arts therapy (music) from Hahnemann University, Philadelphia, PA.