New Orleans is often referred to as the most French city in America. But the city’s magic, its international draw — its je ne sais quoi, if you will — goes deeper than just being French.
The Crescent City is French in a way no other city on earth is. Its food, its music, its traditions, even its trademark motto, “Laissez les bons temps rouler” — all recognized and celebrated throughout the world — can largely be credited to two unique cultures, Creole and Cajun.
A tourism-driven city, New Orleans has long capitalized on its heritage cultures, but this past December, a small space opened in the French Quarter with the goal of protecting, caring for and preserving them, and with them, the city’s unique identity.
Just off the corner of Chartres and Toulouse streets, the New Orleans Foundation for Francophone Cultures (Nous) has opened the first cultural center in New Orleans dedicated specifically to celebrating Cajun and Creole heritage cultures. Not just the newest member of the French Quarter Museum Association, Nous is home to only the third French bookstore in the nation, along with a publishing house, a record label that has already produced an album that was up for a GRAMMY, and an independent film studio whose short films have resulted in a trip to the Cannes Film Festival. Since Nous’ founding, it has racked up approximately $1.1 million in grants.
It’s an impressive list of accomplishments for a nonprofit that was founded just five years ago this spring by a young couple whose paths happened to cross halfway across the world.
Nous Foundation Executive Director and Co-Founder Scott Tilton is a native New Orleanian who can trace his father’s French Creole family history back for hundreds of years. Tilton’s great grandfather spoke French as his native language and passed it along to his great uncle, who then helped teach his father.
“I think it was a combination of things,” he said. “My family got a house in the French Quarter because our house flooded, and I think just being in proximity to the Quarter inspired him to practice a little bit more with me, and I started becoming more interested in the language.”
Around the same time, Tilton said he also met a woman who spoke Creole, so he started to learn that as well.
“I think it was a case of when you have nothing left to lose, it sort of changes your outlook on what you need to conserve,” he said. Speakers of Louisiana French, Creole and Indigenous languages have plummeted in the past 50 years, from over 1 million speakers in 1970 to about 150,000 today.
After completing his undergrad at University of Virginia, Tilton followed his French heritage to France to study political science at Sciences Po in Paris, where he lived from 2015 to 2021.
“It was so interesting to see how in France they really consider Louisiana to be part of the French-speaking world in a way that we don’t always acknowledge here anymore,” he said. “I just became very attuned to that.”
A Door Opens
While attending a conference by the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie — a global organization that promotes the French language and develops economic cooperation among its 90 member states and governments — Tilton questioned why a French state like Louisiana was not taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the Francophonie.
As fate would have it, he had just started dating a diplomat for the French Foreign Service named Rudy Bazenet. A native of France, Bazenet started his career working for the French Foreign Service with a posting in Los Angeles. He was then posted in Slovenia for two years before moving back to Paris to work for the Foreign Service there.
“He had a lot of insight into the world of diplomacy,” said Tilton. “So, working hand in hand, we started the two-year process of getting Louisiana into the Francophonie.”
The two started by making connections back in the states.
“We worked with the U.S. Senate, the governor of Louisiana, with CODOFIL Lafayette — we got this whole coalition together to get Louisiana the permission to join,” explained Tilton. “We then applied, and we were accepted.”
In 2018, Louisiana became the first U.S. state to join the Francophonie.
“It was a huge symbolic recognition and a new door opening for us as a culture,” said Tilton.
As a member, Louisiana was now eligible for grants to promote the French language, but for Tilton, the biggest benefit was the possible exposure for Louisiana on an international stage.
“The ability to go to these major conferences that [Francophonie] hosts, that’s big in terms of economic outreach and programs to support schools,” he said. “It really is a major forum, and I think that’s what a lot of countries use it for…I also think being a part of the Francophonie helped influence [French president Emmanuel] Macron’s recent trip to New Orleans.”
Louisiana’s membership in the Francophonie also played a part in New Orleans by designated a UNESCO Creative City of Music this past fall. It is one of only 10 U.S. cities with that recognition. Tilton and Bazenet helped with that application as well.
Big Dreams
Fresh off their big Francophonie win, the couple began to think even bigger.
“We wanted to do something for people in Louisiana and connect them to other French speakers and give them the capacity to build projects in French and Creole in Louisiana,” explained Bazenet, who had never been to Louisiana at that point but said he was drawn in by Tilton’s love for his hometown.
The idea for the Nous Foundation came to them while picnicking one evening by the River Seine.
“We have a lot of different cultural institutions in Paris which are not necessarily museums, but rather places where you have a bookstore, coffee shop, exhibitions, or a place where you can reflect on your specific culture or specific theme as well,” Bazenet explained. “We wanted to create something like that. The example we always use is the Finnish Institute for Finland in Paris. It was always packed in there because they had this beautiful coffee shop, they had this beautiful conference room, movie theater. They had a lot of cool events on design and culture.”
In February 2021, Tilton and Bazenet made the move to New Orleans. They formed a collaboration in 2022 with the BK House and Gardens — a museum focused on the past residents of the 1826 French Quarter home, which included some French Creoles of the pre-Civil War era.
“We had our offices in the back of the house, and we hosted some exhibitions for them,” said Tilton. “We had an exhibition on 300 years of history in French and Creole in Louisiana, and then the following year, in early 2024, we curated and presented a major exhibition called “Haiti, Louisiana, Tides of Freedom.” It was 120 artworks by contemporary artists from Louisiana and Haiti reimagining the heritage of the Haitian revolution here in Louisiana and how so many people emigrated from Haiti via Cuba to Louisiana. We ended up presenting it at the United Nations in New York City.”
A Perfect Fit
Tilton and Bazenet were creating successful exhibitions, but they had yet to hit the next stage in their development, securing their own space. That opportunity came with a call from The Historic New Orleans Collection in the fall of 2024.
HNOC President Daniel Hammer said he is excited about what Nous is doing and was was happy to welcome them as a tenant at HNOC’s property on Toulouse Street.
“We share a commitment to helping the French Quarter become more of a place of cultural engagement for both visitors and residents,” he said. “Since the 18th century, the French influence here has been constant.”
Hammer said the relationship has been symbiotic.
“We were able to offer them a rate that works for them as they grow, and they are providing French language lessons for our staff and the opportunity to collaborate programmatically,” he said. “For our annual history symposium this March, Nous was a collaborator, and they were able to secure an NEH grant for that project.”
“Nous actually secured two NEH grants totaling $75,000 relating to America 250 — this year’s 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. The HNOC collaboration Hammer referred to is a symposium with Walter Isaacson that was held March 20-21 at HNOC called ‘One Single Place.’
“’Becoming Louisiana’ is the role Louisiana played in shaping the early American republic,” explained Tilton. The exhibition will then open on April 8 at Nous, which will feature historic maps that have been deconstructed. It will run through August 20.
“Early maps were kinda all over the place, but by looking at what is present and what is absent in them you see Louisiana as a place starting to come into focus,” he said.
Following on its heels will be the second NEH-funded exhibition at Nous, “Vie, Liberte et la Recherche du Bonheur,” which translates to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” For this project, Nous pulled items from the Williams Research Center (part of HNOC), as well as the Library of Congress and archives in France.
“The focus is on how Louisiana received the news of the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence told through letters, pamphlets and newspaper articles,” said Tilton. “It also looks at the huge impact the French Revolution had in Louisiana. It essentially covers the time between the signing of the Declaration of Independence and Louisiana becoming a state — the underpinnings and ideas that shaped Louisiana.”
Branching Out
Having their own center and hosting exhibitions was always part of the plan, but Tilton and Bazenet have also taken on a few roles they didn’t originally plan on — film and music producers.
Over the past four years, Nous has produced six short films, all in Louisiana French and Creole. Its 2023 breakout documentary “Voices of Renewal” — told through five advocates of Louisiana Creole that share how the culture is in the midst of a renewal — was aired on PBS, French public television network TV5Monde and at multiple film festivals. Because of their work in French filmmaking, Tilton and Bazenet were invited to the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024 as part of a celebration of Louisiana filmmakers.
Having dipped their toes into filmmaking, the duo received an opportunity to jump into the music industry in February 2024 when the Library of Congress awarded Nous a $60,000 community development grant to document an aspect of culture in the community. They used it to record an album called “Musique” that was released in May 2025.
“French has been erased from a lot of aspects of everyday life, but in music, it hasn’t,” said Tilton. “Louisiana musicians are racking up Grammys every day and they’re doing it singing in French and Creole.”
Musique showcases the talents of six ensemble groups, a total of 28 artists, all singing in Louisiana French and Creole. It was preselected for a GRAMMY — in the top 20 for albums for consideration this year.
In March 2025, two of the artists on the album, Leyla McCalla and Lost Bayou Ramblers’ Louis Michot, performed a sold-out show at the Library of Congress, and two more — Sam Craft and Alexis Marceaux from the band Sweet Crude — were invited to perform this past September at the UN General Assembly.
The foundation also documented the making of the album — four days of recording at Esplanade Studios — in a 20-minute documentary film and created a book of interviews with the artists. The album, documentary and publication are all now a part of the Library of Congress’ permanent archives.
Breaking into the entertainment industry, Tilton said, has been another way that Nous can accomplish its mission.
“That $60,000 we got, almost all of it went to Louisiana artists, to a Louisiana studio,” he said. “All of this is about investing back in those who keep the culture alive. I think sometimes the downside of a tourism-based economy is that our culture is viewed as a commodity. And if you’re not investing in the language, and you’re not investing in the artist and the cultural keepers, then it goes away over time.”
Yet another way Nous is investing is through a program called Le Lab. Similar to cohorts held by area nonprofit incubators, Le Lab works with culture keepers who are creating businesses and nonprofits or one-off projects by helping them write grants and directly sponsoring their work.
Le Lab has worked with 12 groups in three annual cohorts. Last year, they helped the Baby Dolls — who also recorded on the Musique album — raise $125,000 in grants and sponsored members in learning or relearning Louisiana Creole.
A current Le Lab member, Melange Dance Company — a contemporary dance company formed in 2014 that performs works inspired by history — received aid in adapting one of their works, “Love Letter of World War II” to include letters they found from Cajun speakers. After Nous featured the show in one of its newsletters, the Library of Congress reached out and offered to pay Melange to bring the performance to them.
“We’re all so excited — it’s going to be a dream moment on September 10, at the Coolidge Auditorium in Washington, D.C.,” said founder Monica Ordonez. “We’re bringing 20 dancers and nine band members with full costuming — a big production. It will be our first time traveling as a company. Plus, it’s going to be recorded for the archives of the Library of Congress, and some of the letters in the show will be donated to the archives. If it weren’t for Nous, none of this would have happened.
Reading Into It
Visitors to Nous will likely meet Bazenet and Tilton, as they purposefully placed their workspace in the middle of the center. The rest of the team includes an artistic design fellow — currently in France on a Fulbright scholarship that the foundation helped her secure — a contract film director, and an 11-member board.
The space, they said, stays busy with school group visits, French-speaking tourists (many from Louisiana) and locals.
“A lot of locals come in because they’re curious. They want to know more about what we’re doing,” said Bazenet. “They want to see the bookstore. It’s been great seeing people walk into the space and get excited when we say, ‘Bonjour.’ We get a lot of ‘Oh, I didn’t think we could speak French anywhere in the city.’”
A big part of the draw of the new French cultural center has been its bookstore.
“We have all the kinds of books you would find an any bookstore in France,” said Tilton. “All the classics and history books. Our main idea was to showcase the creativity of different Francophone spaces, like Quebec, France, Switzerland, etc., so we have the catalogs for exhibitions that are currently on display in these places. We also have history books on Louisiana, Louisiana French literature and contemporary poetry, and we’re going to start ordering children’s books as well.
Bazenet said he is enjoying curating Nous’ more than 500 titles.
“The goal is to keep extending the collection,” he said. “When we opened, we had so many people come in and buy books that we had to add some more shelves right away. We’re going to add some more soon.”
Nous has also been authoring their own educational publications for area French schools. As most of the teachers at these schools tend to be from other countries, that means students are learning French, but not Louisiana French.
“Sometimes people pitch it as this sort of either/or thing: You either have intercultural French or Louisiana French, but that’s just not how language works,” said Tilton. “I think you can have a teacher who speaks Louisiana French teach one class, and the student’s ear will be trained to it.”
Nous has been providing schools with teaching manuals and programs to encourage more Louisiana French in the classroom.
“Long term, for the continuation of the language, that’s mission critical,” said Tilton, who added that things get a little trickier with Louisiana Creole because it has fewer than 10,000 speakers.
“It’s considered critically endangered by UNESCO, and there’s been no impulse at the state level to put Louisiana Creole in the classroom yet, but we’ve been working with other nonprofits to try to create resources that at least can give the idea that Louisiana Creole is out there, which is a baby step in the right direction.”
The Latest Big Win
In early March, Nous announced that it had received its largest grant award to date, $100,000 from the Mellon Foundation. The money will be used for a multi-year, community-driven initiative called “Archives Funèbres” (Funeral Archives) aimed at collecting, digitizing and preserving thousands of Louisiana funerary materials, second-line programs, obituaries and photographs.
The foundation will work with local families, funeral directors, genealogists and historians to create an archive that will live on Nous’ website to be accessible to anyone.
Fieldwork will be led by Dr. Kim Vaz-Deville, a renowned scholar of Black Carnival traditions in New Orleans, current Nous board member, and a past recipient of Nous’ Le Lab cultural accelerator program through her work with the Baby Dolls.
“Working with communities to preserve cultural records like these that would be otherwise inaccessible is a huge step forward for the visibility of Louisiana’s heritage cultures,” noted Tilton.
LA Fin Game
Among its big goals is changing how New Orleans is viewed on the world stage.
“Cities like Montreal have pulled off bilingualism and invested in the arts, and they are viewed as a global city,” said Tilton. “There’s no reason why New Orleans can’t achieve the same magnitude, because we already have a culture that is instantaneously recognizable, and a lot of the reasons why are because of the contributions of heritage cultures.”
Tilton said the goal is to create an organization that will live on, so that Louisiana’s unique culture doesn’t disappear.
“Usually when it comes to culture, especially when it comes to French in Louisiana, there’s a lack of funding that exists. So ultimately, we want to have an endowment so we can make sure that we’ll always have the capacity to support projects and to support artists, culture bearers, musicians and community leaders. We’ve laid some solid foundations — we’re starting to get the attention of national foundations. Now we need to build on this momentum.”
