Barrier Breaker: Carol Bebelle

Ashé is West African for “amen” or “so let it be done.”

It’s a fitting name for the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, the organization that turned a once-blighted neighborhood into a cultural tourism destination. Located in Central City, a low-income area in New Orleans, Ashé was the brainchild of HOPE member Carol Bebelle.

“New Orleans is famous for its African-influenced culture,” Bebelle says. “But everyone was making money off of the culture except the artists. There was a need for a cultural center where the black folks had the keys.”

Under Bebelle’s leadership as executive director, Ashé rented a building in the heart of Central City in 1998. More than just a physical space, Bebelle envisioned Ashé as the anchor for a cultural corridor that would promote commerce and foster a sense of community.

HOPE was a part of that vision from the beginning. The Central City Merchants and Business Association chose HOPE to conduct a feasibility study to assess the community’s potential for economic development. Realizing that potential was strong, HOPE wrote Ashé a bridge loan that kept the center running until its first substantial source of funding, a grant from the Ford Foundation, came in. Grants from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and others followed.

HOPE was also the first financial institution to establish a location in Central City.

Today, the Ashé Cultural Center is a hub for art exhibitions, cultural presentations, and community gatherings, and the corridor Ashé anchors is a lively swath of businesses, museums, and restaurants. Ashé purchased the space it once rented, ensuring it will continue to be a community anchor for years to come.

Ashé continues to partner with HOPE to plan for Central City’s future.

“As the property value goes up, we’re looking at financial products that will help local people purchase homes and open businesses here, so that Central City doesn’t become out of reach financially for the people and culture the neighborhood is built on,” says Bebelle, who retired as Ashé’s director in 2019. “We’re moving from place making to place keeping.” 

Yet another reason to say, “Ashé.”

“HOPE looked at this area and saw more than poverty and blight,” Bebelle says. “HOPE saw our potential.”