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In 2003 Baty Landis opened the Sound Café as a coffee shop and performance space for the creative arts magnet high school, NOCCA, a block away on Chartres Street.  But this historic two-story building with its window doors splayed open to Port and Chartres Streets, has turned out to play a more integrated role in the everyday life of New Orleans and the Marigny and Bywater neighborhoods.  After Katrina, the Sound Café was the second high ground coffee shop to re-open downtown and researchers, journalists, planners, politicians, and residents all flocked to the café for coffee, wireless internet, company, and information.  The Sound Cafe was the hub of a citywide movement to protest the rise in post-Katrina violent crime.  Baty Landis formed the non-profit “Silence is Violence” with her neighbors Ken Foster and Helen Gillet and friend Nakita Shavers after the murders of Hot 8 drummer Dinnerral Shavers and local artist and film maker Helen Hill. The Sound Café has always stayed true to its commitment to music and the arts in New Orleans, hosting live music performances, book and poetry readings, and panel discussions, among other events.  A series of free youth music clinics at the café sponsored by Silence is Violence is teaching young New Orleanians how to play music in the city’s brass band and jazz traditions. 

Nominated by Shelley Jackson, Sound Café Barista and Yoga Teacher

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Address: 2700 Chartres Street

Neighborhood: Marigny

Historic District: Faubourg Marigny (National and Local)

City Council District: A 

Status: One of the first cafes to re-open in New Orleans after Katrina.

Additional information – www.silenceisviolence.org.