.png)
More About
Diedra's Work
Diedra “Deepa Soul” Meredith is a New Orleans, born and raised multi-media activist, cultural architect, and award-winning recording artist whose life and work embody legacy, excellence, and purpose. Raised in the Fischer Housing Projects on the Westbank by a single mother determined to rewrite her family’s future, Diedra learned early that voice, when nurtured and honored, can transform communities.
She is the co-founder and owner of Sunstar Gate Productions, a senior partner at Fish Pot Studio and Soundstage, and the creator and director of the docuseries New Orleans Legacy Project, a cultural movement preserving and elevating untold Black narratives.
As the award-winning, three-time Top 5 Billboard recording artist Deepa Soul, she leads her 18-piece ensemble, The Love Soul Orchestra, and headlines Music of a Movement: A Symphonic Black Music Anthology (1950s–1970s), performed live with the Grammy Award–winning Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. The project will be released as both an album and documentary, marking a full-circle return home and a bold offering to lift her community to higher heights.
Diedra’s work affirms that Black History is not only remembered, it is lived, led, and elevated. No voice deserves to go unheard.
Protecting Our Stories. Preserving The Culture. Empowering Our Communities.
Sunstar Gate Productions and Fish Pot Studio create purposeful film, music, and live storytelling that preserves cultural truth, protects legacy, and expands opportunity for the communities we serve. Rooted in Louisiana, we transform art into impact — ensuring that marginalized voices are not extracted, but empowered, employed, and remembered. Led by senior partner Diedra “Deepa Soul” Meredith, our work is not simply production, it is cultural stewardship in motion.
We believe the most meaningful stories are built in collaboration with those who understand that media can uplift, heal, and create generational change. As our projects grow in scale and reach, we align with partners who share a commitment to ownership, equity, and legacy — leaders who see storytelling not just as entertainment, but as a force for transformation and lasting community investment.
New Orleans Legacy Project
Docuseries
WATCH ^ TRAILER
Projects Currently In Post Production
Oprah Winfrey's
Tribute Speech
WATCH ^ SPEECH
WATCH ^ TRAILER
Professor Longhair
Rugged & Funky
Music Of A Movement
(A Symphonic Black Music Anthology)
with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra
WATCH ^ PROMO
Our Signature Live Productions
10th Outmusic Awards
(LGBTQ+ Academy of Recording Arts)
The Biggest Night In LGBTQ+ Music & Culture
WATCH ^ TEASER
Annual Anniversary of School Desegregation
(Honoring The New Orleans Four)
WATCH ^ PROMO
Built for Impact. Ready for Scale.
With a lean team and unwavering, diverse industry professionals, Sunstar Gate Productions and Fish Pot Studio are on a mission to consistently deliver Goliath-level work, producing films, music, live experiences, and cultural programming that rival far larger operations in both scale and impact. While building ambitious productions, we are simultaneously raising awareness, shaping public conversation, and preserving the histories our communities cannot afford to lose. Every project serves a dual purpose: create exceptional art and create tangible change.
Our growing media coverage, interviews, and public recognition reflect not just what we make together, but what we move - culture, consciousness, and opportunity. We have proven what’s possible with faith, ingenuity, and grit.
Now, the moment calls for aligned partnership with visionary industry leaders prepared to help scale this work into lasting infrastructure and generational impact.
Restoring What History Forgot.
While developing The New Orleans Legacy Project (A Movement & A Film) docu-series, and completing the productions of Professor Longhair - Rugged & Funky, Sunstar Gate Productions and Fish Pot Studio took on a parallel mission: advocacy, in-kind-service, research, and correcting the historical record.
We have been working to restore the rightful recognition of The New Orleans Four in the city of New Orleans, in the State of Louisiana and across the nation, as well as supporting the family of the late great icon Professor Longhair to tell his story to finally bring some redemption to his family and his legacy.
TEP Center
Groundbreaking & Ribbon Cutting
Through the vision of civil rights pioneer Leona Tate, the leadership of City Councilwoman Cyndi Nguyen, and the advocacy of Diedra Meredith, the very school once desegregated by 3 members of The New Orleans Four has been reclaimed and renewed.
What began as a site of courage and struggle is now owned by the Leona Tate Foundation for Change, restored with purpose, and reopened as the Tate, Etienne & Prevost Interpretive Center — a living space for historical preservation, racial healing, and education.
Sunstar Gate Productions and Fish Pot Studio were honored to capture this moment as history came full circle, not just remembering the past, but building a future from it.
60th Anniversary of School Desegregation
Honoring The New Orleans Four
November 14, 2020
Their Names, Restored to History.
The New Orleans Four
Gail Etienne, Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, Ruby Bridges
Our commitment to truth and honorable storytelling became our first major impact milestone, opening the door to national media coverage, awards, and broader recognition of our work.
Led by Diedra, our team successfully partnered with the Executive Producers of Comcast NBCUniversal’s Voices of the Civil Rights Movement platform to update and expand its storytelling to accurately include The New Orleans Four. The resulting segments reached more than one million viewers, transforming overlooked history into modern-day record.
We worked to restore the rightful recognition of 3 members of The New Orleans Four - Gail Etienne, Leona Tate, and Tessie Prevost, whose courage helped desegregate New Orleans public schools on November 14, 1960, yet whose names were too often erased or overshadowed.
By elevating the courageous sacrifices of Gail Etienne, Leona Tate, and Tessie Prevost to their rightful place alongside Ruby Bridges, we helped correct decades of historical neglect and restore their names to the American Civil Rights narrative where they have always belonged. What had long been overlooked was finally brought into the light, allowing these trailblazers to reclaim their legacy not only in New Orleans, but on the national and global stage.
In partnership with Comcast NBCUniversal - Voices of the Civil Rights Movement platform, we produced dedicated segments honoring their contributions — segments that reached more than one million viewers, an unprecedented response on this platform that transformed remembrance into recognition and history into living record.
Click here to watch their segments:
https://voicesofthecivilrightsmovement.com
First National Television Network Interview
Following the successful partnership with the Executive Proeducers of Comcast NBCUniversal's - Voices of the Civil Rights Movement, Diedra worked closely with her colleagues to land Gail, Leona and Tessie's first nationla television network interview with national news correspondent and award winning journalist Rhema Ellis.
For the first time ever, the three civil rights pioneers Gail Etienne, Leona Tate and Tessie Prevost, who desegregated public schools on the same day as Ruby Bridges, finally shared their story on Sunday TODAY with Williw Geist.
CLICK HERE FOR THE DIRECT LINK:
First National Black History Month Feature
Sixty-two years after Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost first walked through the doors of McDonogh 19 Elementary School to desegregate public schools in the Deep South, they were finally featured, for the first time, with a Black History Month feature to tell their story to the nation.
Through the steadfast advocacy and tireless work of Diedra “Deepa Soul” Meredith, national media attention turned toward the very building where their courage changed history, now reclaimed, purchased, and restored by Leona Tate Foundation for Change and renamed the Tate, Etienne & Prevost Interpretive Center.
CBS News contributor Jamie Wax visited the site to spotlight their legacy, marking their first national Black History Month feature since November 14, 1960, the day they, alongside Ruby Bridges bravely desegregrated New Orleans public schools.
Thanks to the unwavering work and advocacy of Diedra "Deepa Soul" Meredith, what was once ignored, and nearly erased is now recognized across the country again, a triumphant reminder that truth, when protected and pursued, will always find its moment.
CLICK HERE FOR THE DIRECT LINK:
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/the-untold-story-of-the-new-orleans-four
