An online encyclopedia focused on Louisiana is calling for articles for submission. KnowLA will be a Louisiana version of Wikipedia, emphasizing history, culture and community. “We’re not as loosely constructed as Wikipedia,” says editor Cathy Corder. That means the general public won’t be able to go in and add information to entries, an action that both makes Wikipedia rich with esoteric knowledge and bedevils its editors, who are constantly having to delete all sorts of false tidbits.
The launch of KnowLA is slated for 2010, but Corder says this is just the beginning of a 10-year project. Initially, the encyclopedia will cover art, architecture, folk life, history and music with links to audio, video and digitized documents. The project is under the auspices of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Corder is looking for experts to write about a plethora of Louisiana culture. For more information check out the writer’s guidelines, email her, or call (504) 620-2637.
Current call for submission of articles includes:
ART
African American art in La.
Native American art
Public art
Louisiana women artists
Architectural Art (murals, friezes, etc.)
Decorative Arts
Printmaking (engraving)
Sculpture
Statues/Memorials
Natchitoches Art Colony
Images of Louisiana in Art
Bultman, Fritz
Dureau, George
**HISTORY — OVERVIEW ENTRIES
Bourbon Louisiana, 1877-1924
Late 20th-century Louisiana, 1960-1999
MEDIUM TO LONG ENTRIES
**Battle of New Orleans
Neutral Strip
Sharecropping/Peonage
Anti-Secessionism/Unionism in La.
Louisiana Women in the Civil War and Reconstruction
Women in antebellum Louisiana
“Head and Master” Law
Marital/Divorce Law
“Right to Work” Laws
Vietnam War in La.
Louisiana and World War I
Prohibition/Temperance
Compromise of 1877
Anti-Longism
Louisiana Lottery
Industrialization
Legalized Gambling
Organized Labor
Native Americans in 20th- and 21st- century La.
NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES
Atakapa Tribe
Cherokee Tribe
Chickasaw Tribe
Tensas Tribe
Tunica Tribe
LITERATURE
Literature by Creoles
Creoles in Literature
“Local Color” Fiction
Children’s literature (in La.)
Louisiana Poet Laureates
Cookbooks (in La.)
Drama (in Louisiana)
Nature Writing (in La.)
Poetry (in Louisiana)
Slave narratives (in La.)
Images of La. in literature
Brooks, Cleanth
Grau, Shirley Ann
Poydras, Julian
Rice, Anne
Scott, Evelyn
MUSIC
Cajun Dancing
Native American musical traditions
Buckwheat Zydeco
Chavis, Boozoo
Dural, Stanley and Buckwheat Zydeco
Guy, George “Buddy”
Henry, Clarence “Frogman”
Johnson, Bunk
Marsalis Family
Toussaint, Allen