The new Corona Collection exhibit at the Louis Armstrong House Museum will make you smile.
The oral history exhibit brings Lucille and Louis Armstrong to life through the voices of neighbors who knew them personally, preserving their cherished memories, heartfelt stories and neighborhood histories.
While the great trumpeter and vocalist was known world-wide, he took great pride in his Queens neighborhood.
These oral histories offer an intimate, never-before- heard peak into the life Louis and Lucille lived in the neighborhood.
Chanranya Ramakrishnan is the Director of Community Engagement of the Louis Armstrong House Museum and the project director of the Corona Collection. Ramakrishnan conducted the interviews.
"Some of the stories kept me up all night, but I think the most impact they had on me is what it means to have a great mentor like Louis Armstrong in the neighborhood. There was Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and all these amazing people in the neighborhood and what it means for the kids growing up on the block to have access to these great people, but just knowing him as a mand and friend. That leading to building a community was a deep story that I took back with me."
Someone who has vivid and impactful memories of “Pops” is author and CUNY Professor James Blake. James was just 12-years old when he heard the sounds of Armstrong’s trumpet coming through the window of his home.
"I remember one day I came from a place called The Boulevard down to the house and I was really upset because something had happened. I went into my sister's room and I heard this music playing. I looked out the window and it was "Pops" playing his music. I don't know what he was playing. I don't know the tune. I just know the sound was so soothing. The stars were blinking and it seemed like the music and the stars integrated with one another. It was such a peaceful thing. I just thought that things can't be that bad."
Denise Pease, a disability advocate and government leader, says when she was a little girl, the Armstrongs made her feel special.
"What they gave to me was the sense of what I said 'endless possibilities."
Pease would go on to serve in prominent positions in both the Obama and Biden administrations, however she has always lived in Corona.
Regina Bain, the Executive Director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum, is extremely excited about the new oral history exhibit.
"These stories might have been lost if we didn't take the time to go find them, to collect them, to record them. That's what we do at the Louis Armstrong House Museum. We find. We collect. We record. We remember and we share that out."
The Museum will host a special community celebration on Saturday, October 4, honoring the contributors to The Corona Collection and the broader neighborhood. The event will feature special screenings of the oral histories, guided tours, food, music, and a chance for the invited guests to connect with the stories.
The exhibition will be open to the public through March 2026. You can get more information at louisarmstronghouse.org.
