Cassidy Park museums offering new programs
Published 8:52 am Friday, September 11, 2015
On Sunday, Sept. 13, at 2 p.m., the Museums of Cassidy Park will show a documentary film in the Native American Museum: “Native Waters — A Chitimacha Recollection.”
The Chitimacha tribe is one of the four federally recognized tribes of Louisiana. In this documentary viewers journey into sacred places of the Basin with author and keeper of his family’s oral tradition, Roger Stouff, a fisherman descended from “a long and distinguished lineage of fishermen within a nation of fishermen,” as he provides native stories, beliefs and perspectives about this important and often overlooked people.
On Sunday, Sept. 20, The Museums of Cassidy Park will host Will Branch, who recovers and sells antique building materials, at 2 p.m. He will be interviewed and then will take questions from those in attendance.
When he started salvaging antique building materials 40 years ago, Branch could not have known that some of the most popular television shows today would be about people doing the same thing. He was ahead of the curve in realizing the treasure of antique heart pine, cypress and other wood and historic building components in general.
He also took action to save the irreplaceable pieces of old houses and buildings that could not be restored, before they were lost to demolition. After decades on the job, he has reclamation projects and customers throughout the country.
He recovers, mills and sells what he saves, and his storerooms contain flooring, paneling, beams, molding, parts of old stairways, and furniture and window glass.
Branch’s talk will be intriguing. You can even bring a list of questions. The program will take place in the Pioneer Museum.