User:Zospence3/Calliope Street

Calliope Street is a street in New Orleans, that runs along the Pontchartrain Expressway. It eventually merges into Earhart Blvd and branches off into Gert Town, which is a neighborhood in the Mid-City District of New Orleans. Calliope Street was initially named Duplantier Street after the French military officer. It was also home to the B.W Housing projects which had a large impact on the community at that time. It is currently named after the greek muse Calliope, which has an intricate pronunciation.

Geography
Calliope Street a long street that stretches across the a great length of the Pontchartrain Expressway. It can be seen a a bypass that runs under the interstate. Calliope Street merges into Earhart Boulevard near Central City New Orleans. Further north on Earhart Blvd, Calliope St branches off of Earhart into a more residential area that becomes the back end of Xavier University of Louisiana. Calliope Street also branches off of Washington Avenue into a more industrial area between South Telemachus St and S Genois St. Most of Calliope is considered tertiary road, it expands into residential road near South Norman C Francis Parkway, and Glenneyre street.

Major Intersections
Calliope Street is perpendicular to a large variety of streets in the Lower Garden District and Central City New Orleans, including :


 * Magazine Street
 * Annunciation Street
 * Tchopitolous Street
 * St. Peters Street
 * Conventional Center Boulevard
 * Camp Street
 * Constance Street
 * Gaiennie Street
 * Margaret Street
 * St. Charles Avenue
 * Barron Street
 * Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard
 * South Rampart Street
 * Simon Bolivar Avenue

Street History
Calliope Street was initially named after Armand Duplantier, a French officer critical to the exploration and claiming of New Orleans territory. Armand Duplantier was born in France, and became a plantation owner in the early city of Baton Rouge. After leaving his home country Duplantier came to Louisiana and became an assistant military officer for Marquis De Lafeyette. Lafayette was a French military officer granted a large amount of land in Louisiana as a reward for his service in the Revolutionary War. After delegating Duplantier with the responsibility of acquiring the streets, one was eventually named after him, being what is now known as Calliope street. Duplantier was known not only for his leadership in the Revolutionary War, but also for founding the Baton Rouge College for local children in 1822.

Calliope Public Housing Projects
Calliope street was home to the Calliope and Magnolia (a.k.a B.W. Cooper) public housing projects circa in the late 1930's to early 1940's. The B.W. Cooper projects, are located primarily around Earhart Blvd, spanning from Pontchartrain Expressway, to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. It runs for about 10 blocks along Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Although the Calliope projects started out with good intentions, they, were quickly known as one of the most dangerous and violent places in the New Orleans area. The B.W Cooper housing projects began as an intermediate step for locals; an affordable housing system for citizens trying to make ends meet while working towards buying a house. The deterioration of the housing projects began in the 1980's, when competing gangs and cliques began to sell cocaine and various drugs in the B.W. housing projects, leading to an incredible upscale in the amount of violence and brutality in the community.

Influence
Numerous musicians are seen to have been raised in the Calliope and Magnolia housing projects. Including famous musician and producer in influential to AFO Records, Harold Battiste. Other musicians such as rapper and executive producer, Bryan Williams, who goes by "Birdman" and Ryan Williams, who goes by "Slim".

Pronunciation and Meaning
Calliope Street is pronounced /cal-EE-ope/. It is not to be confused with the well known musical instrument, which stresses the enunciation of the "eye" instead of "ee". The name Calliope(Kalliope) stems from the two terms: "kallo" translating to beauty, and "ops" translating to voice in Greek terms. Therefore, the name Calliope directly means one having a beautiful voice.

Greek Background
Calliope is the Greek muse known for influencing poetry. Known for her eloquence, Calliope was the well known goddess of epic poetry and gracefulness. She was born as a goddess in Mount Olympus in Greece and born with musical talents. People would often call on her to sing songs of grace and perfect harmony as it was so pleasing to hear. Calliope's eloquent choice of words conveyed language that was seen as a treasured gift. The meaning behind the name Calliope is fitting of her character seeing that she was exceedingly gifted in song and music. She is often seen depicted with the musical instrument called a lyre, which was a clear representation of her musical gifts. Calliope's status of being the chief, most superior muse to the other 8 muses of Greek history is seen through her tendency of performing for royal, honored people of society.

Modern Time
Calliope Street functions as a frontage road that runs underneath the expressway. It is a street that is connected to other various streets that are known for attractions and have many buildings. It is not a street that contains many buildings or attractions as the streets it branches off into do.