The months of July and August are known to be hot and slow for tourism. However, for the Black Heritage & Jazz Tour of New Orleans, this has become the busiest months of the year. This year, they set an all-time record with family reunions.
Family reunion on Bayou Road in New Orleans
New Orleans, LA — Mikhala Iversen, an entrepreneur and jazz singer with a real passion for the history of New Orleans, is the founder of All Bout Dat Tours, which offers daily Black history tours that honor the truth about the city’s past and ancestors – merged with jazz singing!
She refers to herself as an “Afropean” – a person of African-American and European parentage. Mikhala was born and raised in Copenhagen, Denmark, growing up in a Jazz House, where her family home was full of now past legends of Jazz. Her uncles and aunties were jazz giants such as Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Clark Terry, Ernie Wilkins, black stars (star singers?) like Josephine Baker, Eartha Kitt, Mattie Peters and Dame Etta Cameron were part of everyday life in Copenhagen.
“Our home was always full of stories, music, ancient tales of pain and joy of the black experience in America. My mother, Rosita Thomas, has her family roots in Arkansas she was a fine jazz-singer with a special talent for soul food,” she says. “My father, Henrik W. Iversen, is the former head of DR TV Entertainment & Drama, and currently Chair of the Ben Webster Foundation, a Jazz Radio host and lecturer in jazz.”
As a licensed tour guide, storyteller and jazz vocalist, Mikhala has meshed her life from two worlds. Her knowledge of medieval Europe alongside in-depth studies of the history of Louisiana provide the foundation for her non-sugar coated white washed narratives.
“I unapologetically share with tourists the heritage and history of my people’s atrocities, struggles and fantastic beauty. And though the stories of our ancestors’ enslavement in this country are hard to hear, the truth of ‘how we have overcome’ is in my DNA, literally,” she says.
All Bout Dat Tours is registered with the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau (New Orleans & Company), New Orleans Multicultural Tourism Network, and the Black Chambers of Commerce.
For more details and/or to book your next tour, call (504) 457-9439 or visit www.allboutdat.com
Follow on social media:
Facebook – www.facebook.com/AllBoutDatToursLLC/
Instagram – @Allboutdattours
PRESS CONTACT:
Mikhala Iversen
allboutdattours@gmail.com
504-457-9439