2025 Rum Rendezvous
An exclusive tasting evening benefiting the Friends of the Cabildo. Held inside the acclaimed Dickie Brennan’s Palace Cafe – Wednesday, May 14, 2025 6-8 pm. Purchase your tickets now at $100 general admission, or $75 members and young adults (21-40) or calling (504) 523-3939 for sponsorship opportunities.
10 Louisiana Distillers, producers and Louisiana based Rum Brands will be featured. Food, oysters and libations will be flowing. Rum experts Wayne Curtis and Matt Pietrek (The Rum Wonk) will also be pouring and interacting with guests. An open bar will be available other drinks inlcuded.
Gold Sponsor: Bourgeois Bennett, LLC
Silver Sponsors: Villere & Co. | Dickie Brennan Restaurants | Terri Romano Marketing | Stirling Properties | Bourgeois Bennett, LLC | Sazerac Company
Louisiana Rum Producers, Blenders & Experts: Wildcat Brothers Distilling, Marsh House Rum, Myers’s Rum (Sazerac), Old Alker Distillery, Oxbow Rum Distillery, Atelier Vie Distillery, NOËL Family Distillery, New Orleans Distillery, Bayou Terrebonne Distillers, Jean Baptiste Spirits, Porchjam Distillery, Matt Pietrek (The Rum Wonk), Wayne Curtis (Garden & Gun Magazine).
Neighborhood & Cultural Tours
Black Pearl Tour
Friday | May 2 & 9 | 10am
Departure: Outside Tartine (7217 Perrier St.)
Lower Garden District Tour
Friday | May 16 | 10am
Departure: Muses Statue
Irish Channel Tour
Saturday | May 17 | 10am
Departure: Sophie Wright Park (1941 Magazine St.)
Neighborhoods of New Orleans Class
Tickets: Members $40 / $50 GA (All Classes Recording and Emailed the Next Day) | Lectures: May 19 (4pm), 20 (4pm), 21st (4pm & 6pm Classes), 27 (4pm)
Friends of the Cabildo and the Louisiana State Museum have joined its strong educational backgrounds to create the first Friends of the Cabildo Adult History Class beginning May 19th. Focused on the diverse and unique the five-part class will dissect the often debated and completely New Orleans distinct areas of the City. Beginning with the French Quarter and Faubourg St. Mary, each session will look at some of the different neighborhoods from the Garden District to Faubourg St. John to suburbanization of the 1950s.
May 19 (4pm) (Monday) – French Quarter & Faubourg St. Marie
May 20 (4pm) (Tuesday) – Downtown Neighborhoods (Treme, Marigny, Bywater, Lower 9th)
May 21 (4pm) (Wednesday) – Garden District, Uptown, Carrollton, (6pm) – MidCity, Broadmore, Gentilly
May 23 (4pm) (Friday) – The Suburbs of New Orleans
Previous History Classes Available To Purchase
Previously Recorded Classes that can be purchased for 6-month use (Educational Only)
- Researching Your New Orleans Property Seminar and History of New Orleans Architecture Lecture (3 Hour Class) ($25 Member – $35 GA)
- Founding of New Orleans Class (4 Classes, 8 Hours) ($30 Member – $40 GA)
- The Neighborhoods of New Orleans Class (5 Classes, 10 Hours ($40 Member – $50 GA)
- History of Carnival Class (4 Classes, 8 Hours): ($30 Member – $40 GA)
- History of Louisiana and New Orleans Music (3 Classes, 6 Hours): ($25 Member – $35 GA)
- History of Rum (3 Classes, 6 Hours): ($25 Member – $35 GA)
- Researching Your Cemetery Property (3 Classes, 5 Hours): ($25 Member – $35 GA)
- History of New Orleans Hip Hop (3 Classes, 6 Hours): ($25 Member – $35 GA)
We also have recorded all of our symposiums and over 75 lectures on Louisiana History and Culture!
Contact jason@friendsofthecabildo.org to purchase the recordings
Previous 2025 Spring Lectures:
March 11 – Slavery in the Suburbs: Slavery and Real Estate in the Faubourgs of New Orleans – Dr. Greg Beaman
March 18 – Rival Soundscapes of Civil War New Orleans – Dr. Greg Beaman
March 25 – Rival Soundscapes of Claiborne Avenue: Music & Movements of the 1960 – Dr. Greg Beaman
April 1 – Frenchie: The Story of the French-Speaking Cajuns of World War II – Dr. Jason Theriot
April 8 – Settling St. Malo: A History of Filipino Louisiana – Dr. Randy Gonzales
April 15 – George Valentine Dureau: Life & Art in New Orleans : Howard Smith
Spring Member Lecture Series
Free for Members w/Signup | GA $10/lecture or $25 for all Spring Lectures
Lectures at 6pm on Tuesdays (Recordings Free for Members/$10 GA Donation are Available After)
June 17 – An History of New Orleans Creole Culture – Dionne Butler
June 24 – The Lives of Free People of Color during the Antebellum Period – Harold Marchand
Fall 2025 Member Lecture Series
August 5 – The Native Acolapissa Indians of Mandeville of St. Tammany Parish – Jackson Cantrell
August 12 – Reimagining the Educated Citizen: Creole Pedagogies in the Transatlantic World, 1685-1896 – Dr. Petra Hendry
August 19 – Voices and Visions: Essays on New Orleans Literary History – Dr. Nancy Dixon & Dr. Leslie Petty
October 7 – The Devil’s Own Purgatory: The United States Mississippi River Squadron in the Civil War – Dr. Robert Gudmestad
October 14 – Descendants: The Divided Linage of a Louisiana Creole Family – John Durel
Home Research Seminar with Robert Cangelosi
Saturday, June 28rd | In Person (Jazz Museum), Live on Zoom and Recorded | 10am – 12:30pm
Tickets: $35, Members $25 (In person or zoom same price)
Friends of the Cabildo will host “Researching Your New Orleans Property” Seminar with Robert J. Cangelosi, Jr., an Adjunct Lecturer at the Tulane University School of Architecture, and he will present an in-depth program on historic home research.
If walls could talk, you would know everything you wanted to know about your property, like who previously owned it, those who slept in it, how old it is, and what secrets it holds. Cangelosi, president of Koch and Wilson Architects, will outline how to develop the history of your property, using primary sources rather than oral traditions and secondary sources, which often are incorrect. Preparation of a “chain of title,” the essential first step in developing a history, will be discussed. The chain document the ownership of a property, which in theory, can be taken back to the early 1700s, during the French Colonial period. The “chain of title” relates to the property, not the improvements, and rarely will the chain alone indicate when improvements were made. Like history detectives, determining when improvements were done involves research into various records, including census, tax, water, building permits, contracts, city directories, newspapers, and more. This program will explain how these records can be used and where to find them.
The architectural style of the improvements can also help date a property. A concise architectural history of New Orleans will be included to help identify the architectural style of your property.
Yoga at the Cabildo
Yoga at the Cabildo will begin classes again starting Saturday, June 17th at 8:30 a.m. at the Cabildo (701 Chartres Street) on beautiful Jackson Square.
Layla Ross will be giving classes every Saturday morning for Friends of the Cabildo Members, locals and tourists.
Member cost for the class is $10 and non-members its $20. If you have a mat please bring one if not we have some available for free.
Friends of the Cabildo Annual Meeting & Lafayette Exhibit Champagne Reception
Thursday | May 22nd | 6pm | Cabildo
All FOC Members are invited to the the Cabildo (701 Chartres Street) at 6:00 p.m. (Annual Meeting and Speaker 6:30 p.m.-7:15 p.m.) with Champagne offered offered before and after to see the newest Louisiana Museum State Exhibit on the Marquis de Lafayette’s multi-day visit to New Orleans in 1826. Along with the annual meeting business exhibit curator Randolph Delahanty will speak on the exhibit.
All Concerts at 7pm at the NO Jazz Museum 3rd Floor | 100 tickets/Show in the Atmos Digital Sound New Orleans Jazz Museum 3rd Floor Performance Space Venue
Individual Concert Ticket – $30 GA / $25 Members
The FOC Concert Series is supported by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation through the Community Sponsorship Grant Program. 100% of Grants Proceeds go to the musicians.
2025-2026 Fall and Spring Season to be Announced July 1st!
Second Thursday Lecture Series
Thursday, May 8th, 6pm | Sponsored by Friends of the Cabildo
Join us for a virtual evening with Dr. Jennifer Gross as she discusses her upcoming book Sisterhood of the Lost Cause: Confederate Widow in the New South. This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Cabildo as part of the Second Thursday Lecture Series. It is free and open to the public, but registration is required. The program will take place on Zoom. Please register here and a Zoom link will be emailed to you on the day of the lecture
Fall 2025 Tertulia Gatherings TBA
Come learn about Spanish Connections around a theme and hear local speakers and join the discussions as we host three (3) Tertulia this spring. Includes wine and stars at 2pm each Tertulias. Tickets are $20 for FOC/LMF Members and $30 GA. Guest speakers will come from local consulates, local universities and historians. Come join the fun and be part of the Tertulia
What is a Tertulia? A Tertulia is a social gathering with an artistic or literary focus, particularly in Spanish America or Iberia. It can also refer to an informal meeting where people discuss current events or the arts.
