Boathouse on stilts in a calm lake with a shoreline community across the water and leafless trees under a blue sky

Where the Bayou Still Speaks – Arnaudville, Louisiana: A Small Town with a Creole Heart

Deep in the heart of Acadiana, where two bayous meet and nearly four in ten people still speak French at home, the small Louisiana town of Arnaudville carries a cultural memory that much of the modern world has forgotten how to hold. For International Kreol Magazine, this is not simply a Louisiana story. It is part of a wider Creole world, where language, ancestry, migration and survival continue to shape identity across generations and continents. This is a story about a place that has never stopped listening to its ancestors.
Live band performing on an outdoor festival stage with musicians and a large banner reading 'Festival International de Louisiane' in Lafayette, LA.

Forty Years of Fête – How Festival International de Louisiane Turned a Louisiana Street Into a Meeting Place for the World

There are festivals that fill a calendar, and there are festivals that fill a city. Festival International de Louisiane belongs to the second kind. For five days every April, Downtown Lafayette stops behaving like a Louisiana town of modest size and starts behaving like a crossroads of the world, with a Malian guitar line drifting past a crawfish stand and a Belgian stilt walker weaving through a crowd that speaks a dozen languages before lunch. This year the festival turned forty, and Kreol Magazine travelled to Acadiana to see what four decades of that idea looks like in practice. What we found was not simply a music festival with good food attached. We found a working demonstration of something this magazine has spent its life arguing for, that Creole culture, Cajun culture, and the wider Francophone world are not separate rooms to be visited one at a time, but a single table everyone is welcome to sit at together. A festival with no ticket booth and no closed doors, built entirely on the belief that joy shared is joy multiplied. What follows is our account of those five days on Jefferson Street. The music that carried across continents in a single afternoon. The food that turned a city block into a communal table. The strangers who, by the second evening, were no longer strangers at all. And the quiet, considerable achievement of a small Louisiana city that has spent forty years proving the world is always better when it shows up together.
Two men in suits sit on a stage with microphones, one resting a hand on the other's shoulder during a musical event.

A Launch,a Celebration, and a Morning Filled with Kreol Spirit – Kreol Magazine Launch of Issue 43

At 10:00 a.m. on 25 April, First Horizon Bank opened its doors to a morning filled with warmth, music, conversation, and celebration as International Kreol Magazine launched Issue 43 ahead of Festival International. What began as a magazine launch quickly became something much larger: a joyful gathering of community, culture, memory, and pride. At the centre of the celebration was Jerry Prejean, whose life story and portrait on the front cover gave Issue 43 its powerful emotional heart. Guests arrived not only to honour Jerry, but to celebrate the stories, people, and traditions that continue to shape Louisiana’s Creole and cultural identity. With opening words from Georgina Dhillon, Editor and Publisher of International Kreol Magazine, followed by a live discussion with Jerry Prejean, music entertainment, and brunch, the morning unfolded with laughter, reflection, and genuine connection. Copies of Issue 43 moved from table to table, sparking conversations and memories as guests turned the pages. This was more than the launch of a magazine. It was a reminder that every community has stories worth preserving, and every issue of Kreol Magazine helps keep those stories alive.
Lanmizik

Konversasyon ek Lanmizik – When Creole Meets the Beat

Across Creole communities, music has always been more than entertainment. It is memory, resistance, celebration, and language in motion. From Louisiana to the Indian Ocean, Creole survives most powerfully when it is sung, drummed, and danced. This article explores how music became the safest and strongest home for Creole languages worldwide.
Old Medicine

Old Medicine: Manglier Tea

"Old medicine” is what Rebecca Henry calls the herbal and folk traditions that people used for relief when medicines weren’t readily available.
Lafayette, LA

Kreol Magazine Celebrates Issues 36 & 37 in Lafayette, LA

On August 29th, 2024, Kreol Magazine continued celebrating Issues 36 and 37 with a special gathering in Lafayette, Louisiana. The event brought together local contributors and honourees featured in both issues, offering a warm and intimate moment to honour their stories and impact.
Olympic

Olympic Spirit Ignites at Bel Ombre Primary School

To mark World Olympic Day, celebrated annually on June 23, Bel Ombre Primary School held a series of sports and educational activities. The aim was to motivate students to adopt a more active and healthy lifestyle while embracing the ideals of the Olympic movement. These activities ranged from shuttle relay, road race, egg and spoon race, javelin throw, bird’s nest, and rope skipping. Additionally, educational sessions like quizzes and debates further underscored the values of the Olympic ethos.
George Washington Carver

Meet George Washington Carver- The Peanut Man

A renowned African American scientist and inventor, George Washington Carver helped enhance agriculture in many different ways. Born a slave, George Washington Carver’s exact date of birth is still unknown. He...