There are moments when history doesn’t announce itself loudly; it simply reveals how deeply things are already connected. When I first began working on a project to help preserve the former Holy Redeemer School, I was focused on one story: the legacy of Marie Couvent, a free woman of color whose 1837 bequest funded a Catholic school dedicated to educating poor Black children and orphans in 19th-century New Orleans.
What I didn’t know at the time was that my childhood friend, Kim Jones, had been quietly working on a book of her own, one that would eventually reveal just how intertwined our projects truly were.
Marie Couvent’s final act was radical. In a city structured to limit Black advancement, she used her estate to fund The Institute Catholique, also known as L'Institut Catholique des orphelins indigents (Catholic Institute for Indigent Orphans) and the Couvent School. When it opened in 1848, the school became an educational anchor for Afro-Creole youth, a place where literacy, philosophy, language, and intellectual rigor were nurtured within the free Black community.
That same intellectual ecosystem produced Les Cenelles, the first published anthology of African American poetry in the United States. Edited by Armand Lanusse, Les Cenelles brought together free men of color who were deeply influenced by classical French education, Romantic poetry, and the cultural life of New Orleans’ free Black population.
What’s often missed is this: Lanusse was the principal of the Couvent School. The school Marie Couvent made possible was not just a building; it was an incubator for Black intellectual and artistic life.
I learned about Kim’s book, Nouveaux Renaissance: Keeping Les Cenelles Alive, only after I shared my work around Holy Redeemer and the effort to preserve Couvent’s legacy and donated property. That’s when everything clicked. Her decades-long commitment to studying Les Cenelles and my work to protect the physical and historical footprint of Marie Couvent were not parallel paths - they were two extensions of the same legacy.
Both stories originate in the Faubourg Marigny, the same neighborhood where free people of color built institutions, families, and cultural movements despite enormous constraints. Both represent resistance:
- Marie Couvent’s bequest defied structural barriers to Black education.
- Les Cenelles asserted Black intellectual and artistic presence in a nation that rarely acknowledged it.
Even the complexities remain. Couvent’s history includes slaveholding, a reality that complicates modern interpretations, but does not erase the undeniable impact of her vision. Without her land and funding, the school would not have existed. Without the school, the cultural output nurtured within that space, including Les Cenelles, may never have emerged.
Nouveaux Renaissance is not simply a preservation of a 19th-century text. It is an act of continuity. It bridges physical space (the school), intellectual labor (the poets), and modern stewardship (education today). By making Les Cenelles accessible beyond academic circles, this book reintroduces voices that were always meant to be heard - voices shaped by a community that believed education, language, and art were tools of survival and self-definition.
Supporting this work feels personal because it is. It reflects the same commitment I bring to protecting historic Black institutions: we don’t just save buildings or books, we safeguard the ecosystems that produced them.
I didn’t set out expecting our work to intersect, but history has a way of revealing its patterns when we listen closely. Marie Couvent’s vision enabled a school. That school nurtured minds. Those minds produced Les Cenelles. And today, Nouveaux Renaissance ensures that legacy continues, not as a footnote, but as a living, breathing part of our cultural inheritance.
Kim’s book launch is set to be a meaningful celebration of culture and learning:
Virtual Unveiling: "Nouveaux Renaissance: Keeping Les Cenelles Alive"
Virtual Unveiling: January 17, 2026 - an event open to readers nationwide
Official Release: February 28, 2026
In-person Book Signing: March 1, 2026 at the Zachary Library in Louisiana - a special opportunity to meet the author and get a signed copy.
Kim Jones is an educator with more than 30 years of experience and the longest-serving principal of Louisiana Virtual Charter Academy Elementary School. She has spent over three decades researching and sharing this remarkable anthology. What started as a discovery during her college years grew into a lifelong commitment to bringing Les Cenelles to a broader audience.
Her book is a thoughtful preservation of the original poetry, enriched with historical context and educational resources that help modern readers connect with these voices in meaningful ways. Whether you’re a student, educator, historian, or lover of literature, Nouveaux Renaissance invites you to experience a pivotal piece of American and Louisiana literary heritage.
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