Cierra Chenier is a writer, historian, and storyteller born and raised in New Orleans. Her love for her city and its people was formalized in 2017 when she created NOIR ‘N NOLA, a digital platform “preserving the history, culture, and soul of Black New Orleans.” Cierra’s historical writing of Black New Orleans has expanded to platforms like Scalawag Magazine and ESSENCE Magazine–with her most recently writing the cover story for ESSENCE’s 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina May/June 2025 issue. Her preservation work includes authoring two Louisiana State Historical Markers for the history of Dorothy Mae Taylor and Claiborne Avenue. Through her writing, storytelling, and narrations, Cierra continues to connect New Orleans’ past to its present and future with topics of freedom, enslavement, resistance, displacement, environmental injustice, and preservation.
