If you had 24 hours to explore New Orleans with Kofi Siriboe, you wouldn’t just be sightseeing—you’d be experiencing a love letter, not only to the city but to the possibilities that arise when a Black artist finds space to simply be.
In his recent Essence interview titled “A New Found Home,” Siriboe doesn’t offer a generic guide to the Big Easy. Instead, he takes us through a deeply personal journey—a memory map of the places that shaped his 20s and, more importantly, his artistic soul. From the oak-lined tranquility of Audubon Park to the nostalgic stop at Loews Hotel on Poydras, where he first landed in the city, each destination reflects a story not just of arrival but of rooting.
What’s most striking about Siriboe’s story isn’t that he fell in love with New Orleans. That part almost feels inevitable. It’s that he chose to stay, to invest, to build. In a city where culture is not just consumed but lived, he found something that many Black creatives seek but rarely find in such abundance: a place where Blackness and artistry are not only affirmed, but expected.
Enter TOLA—The Other LA. What began as a seed of an idea three or four years ago has grown into a full-fledged artist residency in the Marigny/Bywater area. For Siriboe, a Los Angeles native, this new “LA” stands for more than just Louisiana. It’s a mirror to his first home, but also a correction: where L.A. often makes Black culture palatable through a commercial lens, TOLA insists on organic, communal, messy creation. The wine-stained stairs and scuffed-up walls aren’t flaws—they’re signs of life.
And in that, TOLA isn’t just a building; it’s a philosophy.
Siriboe speaks of the space as a canvas. White walls, modular design, openness to interpretation—TOLA is intentionally unfinished. It asks each artist who walks through its doors to complete the thought, to inscribe themselves into its evolving legacy. He’s not just curating art here; he’s curating memory, presence, and process.
What’s even more profound is that Siriboe has done this without waiting for institutional backing. Up to now, he’s funded TOLA entirely with his acting earnings—from Queen Sugar to Harlem, and yes, even Girls Trip. This is what self-determined cultural infrastructure looks like. And it raises the bar for what it means to “give back”—not just to a city, but to a creative lineage.
And yet, Siriboe’s connection to New Orleans is not romanticized. He acknowledges the city’s “dark history,” having spent years filming on former plantations. But rather than be repelled by that weight, he’s drawn to the information, the spirit work, embedded in that soil. New Orleans is a place where pain and celebration live side by side. Siriboe sees that duality clearly—and chooses to participate in both.
He may not have acquired a taste for the region’s gumbo or jambalaya, but he has found comfort in Bennachin, the African restaurant that connects him to his Ghanaian roots through the flavors of Cameroon and Gambia. Again, it’s about intentional connection. Not just what’s around, but what resonates.
Siriboe is multidisciplinary by nature—actor, photographer, musician, writer—and it’s clear that TOLA is as much a response to his own need for fluid expression as it is a gift to others. When he says, “I do everything—that’s the problem,” it doesn’t read as complaint. It reads as conviction. TOLA, then, is not just a place to work—it’s a place where the fullness of Black creative identity is not fragmented, but honored.
In a world where Black artists are often forced to contort themselves to fit pre-existing molds, TOLA is a refusal. It’s Siriboe saying: Here, you don’t have to shrink. Expand.
That, perhaps, is the most radical part of “A New Found Home.” It’s not just about a man falling in love with a city. It’s about building something permanent in a world that often makes Black genius feel disposable. It’s about transforming admiration into infrastructure. And most of all, it’s about reminding us that home isn’t always where you started—it’s where you decide to build.
New Orleans gave Kofi Siriboe the rhythm, the roots, and the language. With TOLA, he’s giving something back: a living archive, a place of becoming, a new Southern sanctuary for artists who, like him, need a space to simply create and be.
And that? That’s legacy work.
Click here to read full interview.
TEAM
Talent: @kofisiriboe
Photographer: @by.iaca
Stylist: @jasonrembert
Groomer: @coricoston
Barber: @professionalcutz
Tailor: @costumer.shirlee
Production: @themorrisongroup
Special Thanks: @thebarnettneworleans
ESSENCE, VP, Content: @itsnandibby
ESSENCE, Visual Director: @_mq______
ESSENCE, Art Director: @so.lit
English