Monthly Archives: June 2015

The humidity peaks in the dark nightclub packed with hundreds of excited, drunk bodies, when New Orleans one-man-band Quintron turns the key on his “Drum Buddy”, lighting it up like a miniature aurora borealis. One of several esoteric instruments Quintron … Continue reading →

Missing the Austin ditch in which he’d slept most nights for the last two years, Mike Wille curled up on the front lawn of the large house his mother had just left him via her suicide note. Her death meant … Continue reading →

Beginning in February 1968, before “Negro History Week” eventually became Black History Month, the Dillard University group African Americans for Progress helmed the “Afro-American Arts Festival,” featuring various well-known and underground Black artists of all different mediums and genres. Some … Continue reading →

As of today, you can no longer legally smoke a cigarette inside a bar in the world’s drinking capital, New Orleans, Louisiana. Perhaps you gasped upon reaching the very end of that sentence. City after city have dealt Big Tobacco … Continue reading →

Many New Orleans locals don’t realize how great the freshwater fishing is in their very own City Park. Back in 1976, a 12-year-old caught a 52-pound buffalo fish – the largest fish ever caught in City Park lagoons. Just before … Continue reading →

 At the age of 18, musician Jamie Lynn Fontenot was overtaken by the desire to learn Cajun French. “My grandparents, Mary ‘Mimi’ Fontenot and John ‘Toe’ Fontenot, from Opelousas are great, really strong Cajun speakers,” says Fontenot from her home … Continue reading →

Click on the titles to read the entireties of the articles… Poet Bill Lavender and his Lavender Ink press: Maybe your poet friends haven’t told you yet, but April is National Poetry Month. The East Bank Regional Library in Metairie (4747 … Continue reading →

Sean Ardoin labels his band Zydekool “Alternative Creole” to head off anyone who might try to box up his music. “Whenever people encounter zydeco for the first time, that becomes their idea of what zydeco is,” Ardoin explains via phone … Continue reading →

Click the titles to read each story in its entirety… 1) Bacchanal: New Orleans’s music community, food community and its drinking community were all saddened to lose Bacchanal wine bar owner Chris Rudge on March 13 in his sleep of heart failure … Continue reading →

Click the titles to read the entire stories… Used Dogs Independent Animal Shelter: In the sweetly shaded back corner of a large backyard in Algiers, Kate lays her useless legs to one side. The look on her face – all bright … Continue reading →