From the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation:  This year’s Winnie Byrd Preservationist Extraordinaire Award recognizes Mayor Travis Whitfield of Keachi, LA.

Mayor Travis Whitfield had dedicated his life to historic preservation while serving as Mayor of the Town of Keachi and on the board of the Keachi Heritage Foundation for many years.  He is a native of Linden, Texas where he started drawing from nature and later attended the University of Houston and later as an Artist in Residence in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

He settled in Keachi in 1977 where he established his studio and began chronicling the lives of older African American residents through his photography and audio-visual storytelling.  His most recent exhibit, “Further on Down the Road,” features a life-size shotgun house and most recently exhibited at the Five Points Museum of Contemporary Art in Victoria, Texas.

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