NOAAM x KNMF
Honoring Memory. Building Legacy. Shaping the Future.
About the Partnership
The New Orleans African American Museum (NOAAM) and the Katrina National Memorial Foundation (KNMF) have joined forces to ensure the stories, archives, and lived experiences of Hurricane Katrina are preserved with dignity and interpreted with the depth they deserve.
Rooted in NOAAM’s 30-year mission of place-keeping and cultural preservation, this collaboration situates the KNMF collection within a broader institutional framework—one that protects Black historical memory, supports community scholarship, and expands public access to intergenerational knowledge.
This partnership is more than an exhibition—it is a strategic intervention to ensure the memory of one of New Orleans’ defining events is held collectively for generations.
Featured Project: The Katrina List – The Untold Story
As told by Omar Casimire
This exhibition highlights the decades-long work of historian Omar Casimire, founder of KNMF, who has documented the names and stories of over 10,000 individuals impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Through archival materials, historical records, and personal narratives, The Katrina List transforms data into testimony and memory into infrastructure.
At NOAAM, this work exists within a cultural ecosystem that connects past, present, and future, positioning the exhibition as both remembrance and part of a larger continuum of Black resilience, migration, creativity, and survival.
Contributors
Omar Casimire, Historian & KNMF Founder
Ivan Watkins, Researcher & Writer
NOAAM Curatorial and Archival Team
This project honors the voices of thousands—families, culture-bearers, and survivors—whose knowledge forms the backbone of the exhibition.
Black Museums Matter
Hurricane Katrina is not just an event; it is a lineage—a story of loss, displacement, migration, survival, and return. The KNMF collection documents that lineage with exceptional care. Housing it at NOAAM ensures the work is part of a larger institutional vision aligned with preserving Black intergenerational cultural wealth, particularly at a time when elders, archives, and knowledge are at risk.
This exhibition is an active structure: memory must be held, resourced, and stewarded.
Support This Work
NOAAM and KNMF invite partners, supporters, and community members to help sustain this vital cultural memory work. Your support helps to:
Preserve the KNMF archives
Expand public access and digitization
Build long-term archival infrastructure
Commission research, oral histories, and community programming