TikTok Star Scarlett Savannah @scarlettsavannahlong Waxes Poetic About Storyville

TikTok Star Scarlett Savannah @scarlettsavannahlong Waxes Poetic About Storyville and its residents as she explores the New Orleans Storyville Museum. Watch her captivating video and read the description of her reaction and interpretation of the museum and its representation of Storyville women and their lifestyles.

December 9, 2024

@scarlettsavannahlong

Please excuse me while I wax poetic about the experience of the residents of Storyville. It really made an impact on me. Great museum 5/5 ⭐️

@nolastoryville #nola #storyville #neworleans #thebigeasy #travel #tips #museum #museumtok #recommendations #recs

FOLLOW SCARLETT SAVANNAH

As written and narrated by Scarlett Savannah:

Scarlett Savannah

"Let me take you into the Storyville Museum, a place that reveals the oddities and hidden tales of a past too often overlooked. This place doesn't just tell the history of a notorious district. It tells of the women who fought here for their survival against every odds stacked against them. Storyville, New Orleans' own legalized red light district, operated from 1897 to 1917, and it was sold as a kind of moral compromise with hopes to reduce crime, but it only underscored the inequities and paradoxes of its day further.

Despite the enormous challenges they faced, these women found ways to resist oppression daily, shaping their own lives and cultivating communities rooted in resilience and mutual support.

Now, about the Blue Book. The neighborhood directory of madams and freelancers was the Blue Book. Think of it as a menu listing the women's appearance and their specialties, all listed alongside advertisements from major brands you know today. (I only wish they sold copies of this in the gift shop.)

This book could truly be a tool of elusive empowerment where women are concerned, a way to market themselves in a world that was already commodifying them. Some bought out whole pages to advertise. Women have always thought to define ourselves, especially when the world tries to do it for us.

And now on to the everyday relics of the museum.

From the stained glass perfume bottles to the well-worn shoes, these weren't just objects of beauty. They were tools and glamor magic, in my opinion. Painting and printing on dignity and individualism in a society that refused them both. Surviving this kind of work required quick wit, dangerous birth control methods, and SDI prevention attempts like laudanum douches and Gentian Violet show how they managed risk in a world that offered no safety net.

Window boxes outside of cribs and brothels were known to grow pennyroyal and other useful botanical tools. Their oppressors labeled them "lewd and abandoned" women, but that label erases their brilliance. These women were innovators, finding ways to protect themselves and build lives amid the chaos of a system that was designed to exploit them. Storyville was a playground for men from a diversity of backgrounds, a world of whiskey soaked bars tinkling with the sound of slot machine coins and the flappity flap of card games.

It was a place where the lines were blurred and a brief escape from life as it was could be reached. But behind the allure and the indulgence, the women were the heart of this world. They were the only ones who made the games worth playing and the drinks worth pouring. While men reveled in fleeting pleasures, the women of Storyville fought to carve out moments of power in a world that saw them only as objects.

It was a place of contradictions where pleasure and survival had to collide and coexist for them. This is where their strength was both exploited and unacknowledged.

Okay, now you've got to see what is no doubt my favorite exhibit. This is the photography of E.J. Bellocq, shot between 1911 and 1913. These portraits show us a rare and vulnerable peek into the lives of Storyville's residents.

These photographs, rediscovered decades later, capture their humanity in a way written history fails to. The women, and bellicose images exude strength, complexity, and agency. They are not just his subjects, but their own storytellers. And I find these images to speak volumes. In fact, they moved me downright to tears. The existence of these portraits push back against the erasure and dehumanization that so often accompanies the narratives of women like these in places like this.

The legacy of Storyville, once a vibrant and complex part of New Orleans, is a story marked by erasure and neglect. After its closure in 1917, the district faded into obscurity, overtaken by economic decline and gentrification. As for the women of Storyville, whose resilience and survival defied systems of control, the closure wasn't just an end, but a devastating upheaval.

Women of color, in particular, faced compounded struggles left with even fewer opportunities for survival in a society already steeped in racial injustice. The museum serves as a somber reminder of how history has consistently marginalized and erased these communities. Yet their stories endure, bearing witness to their strength and defiance, while challenging us to confront the systems that failed them and continue to fail so many today.

I thought the curators of this museum did a good job honoring the women whose stories have been erased or dismissed for far too long. They're recognizing the ways in which women continue to fight for their autonomy, their safety, and their place in this world. Walking through these exhibits should remind us that the fight for equality is ongoing. It's a call to look at how far we've come and how far we still must go.

And most of all, it's a reminder that women, no matter the circumstance, have always found a way to rise, to survive and to thrive."

Bravo, Scarlett Savannah! We thank you for your insight and appreciation of what the museum is trying to portray in the strength and legacy of these Storyville women.