Country Roads October 2020 "Myths and Legends" Issue by Country Roads magazine

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Hear Tonjaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s story at BreastandGYNCancer.org

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Contents

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Features

Events

24 27 32

SPIRITED AWAY

Fall fun, from corn mazes to art crazes

6 8

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REFLECTIONS by James Fox-Smith

NEWS & NOTEWORTHIES

Publisher

TRUE VODOU Yeah, Voodoo dolls are not a thing. by Alexandra Kennon

James Fox-Smith

Associate Publisher

Ashley Fox-Smith

THE HOLIDAY LOUNGE Mamou’s most mysterious retro nightclub still has stories to tell. by Jordan LaHaye

Managing Editor

Jordan LaHaye

Arts & Entertainment Editor

Alexandra Kennon

ALL CARDS ON THE TABLE Tarot reader Celeste Mott uses empathy and intuition to interpret energy remotely. by Alexandra Kennon

On the Cover

Creative Director

Kourtney Zimmerman

Contributors:

Caleb Bostick, Ed Cullen, Daniel Dolgin, Viola Fontenot, Philip Gould, Ben Hillyer, Stacy Landers, Olivia Perillo, Akaska Rabut, David Simpson, Chris Turner-Neal, Leslie Westbrook

Cover Artist

Celeste Mott

THE TOWER CARD

Advertising

Photo by Celeste Mott

SALES@COUNTRYROADSMAG.COM

Celeste Mott has built a career reading tarot cards, and the classic RiderWaite deck of 1909 remains her favorite set. The Tower card of the Major Arcana, depicting a spire set ablaze by a bolt of lightning, is perhaps too apt for 2020. W.B. Yeats makes an appearance, as well—few realize the Irish poet’s penchant for the occult. This year’s “Myths and Legends” issue is full of such surprises. Read on for stories about an ex-vegetarian living at a hunting camp, a West African Prince enslaved in Natchez, and Edwin Edwards’ likeness living atop a rural Louisiana nightclub. Faith finds foundation in Louisiana’s murky waters, and High Vodou Priests are much more like the rest of us than you think. And Mott, an accomplished New Orleans tarot reader, has found a way to read your cards, even without your presence. Contradictions, mystery, history, and lore abound in the way that only thrives when one asks the right questions, and stops to listen for an infinity of answers.

Cuisine

GATHERIN’ GIRL Chef Victoria Loomis on ethical hunting and how to cook frog legs by Chris Turner-Neal

Culture

THE SLAVE CALLED PRINCE The living legacy of Prince Abd Al Rahman Ibrahima by Jordan LaHaye

OF MYTHS & LEGENDS Rougarous, loup-garous & sackabillies, too by Ed Cullen

SOMETHING ABOUT CHURCHPOINT Three Louisiana legends, all from the same small town.

by Viola Fontenot

LAND OF WATER, LAND OF FAITH Two cultural totems, intricately intertwined by Lauren Heffker

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Escapes

THE END OF THE LINE

Gibsland’s Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum presents an eclectic collection on the legendary couple’s demise. by Daniel Dolgin

PERSPECTIVES Pure and Applied

For Alexandria artist/designer Veretta Moller, applied art equals inspired spaces.

Sales Team

Heather Gammill & Heather Gibbons

Custom Content Coordinator

Lauren Heffker

Advertising Coordinator

Baylee Zeringue

President

Dorcas Woods Brown

Country Roads Magazine 758 Saint Charles Street Baton Rouge, LA 70802 Phone (225) 343-3714 Fax (815) 550-2272 EDITORIAL@COUNTRYROADSMAG.COM WWW.COUNTRYROADSMAG.COM

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Copyrighted. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without permission of the publisher. The opinions expressed in Country Roads magazine are those of the authors or columnists and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, nor do they constitute an endorsement of products or services herein. Country Roads magazine retains the right to refuse any advertisement. Country Roads cannot be responsible for delays in subscription deliveries due to U.S. Post Office handling of third-class mail.

Country Roads Supper Club returns with "Beyond the Boat" — a progressive seafood tasting tour and seated dinner designed to showcase the bounty of fresh Louisiana seafood, and the creativity and resilience of those who bring it to us. • 7 Acres of Socially Distanced Splendor Guests will explore Houmas House's exquisite 30,000-square-foot gardens, discovering Seafood Tasting Stations presented by celebrated Louisiana chefs • Seafood Supper on the Lawn Guests will be seated out-of-doors, at tables spread across Houmas House’s sweeping lawns, for a 3-Course Seafood Feast by Houmas House Executive Chef Jeremy Langlois • Raise a Glass (or Two) All courses paired with notable wines and creative cocktails provided by Constellation Brands • Join Us! For an unforgettable outdoor evening of fresh air, ﬁne food & wine, amid glorious gardens

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Reflections FROM THE PUBLISHER

ike lots of people, we have spent the last few months working, if not actually from home, then a lot closer to it than we used to. As St. Francisville residents (by zip code at least; more on that in a minute), this has definitely been a silver lining in our personal, coronavirus-shaped cloud. Having spent the best part of twenty years commuting two hours a day between our home northeast of St. Francisville, and Country Roads’ main office in Baton Rouge, the sudden, unexpected need to quit doing this is a perk. We haven’t been working from home, but rather from a tiny cabin in the 3V Tourist Court—a 1920s-era motor court that houses a combination of funky overnight accommodations, and casual office space for a motley collection of small businesses, behind St. Francisville’s Magnolia Café. Why, when the rest of Country Roads’ staff have proven perfectly capable of working from their houses, would Ashley and I still choose to get up and put on actual

clothes to drive to an office where we are the only occupants? Internet, of course. There are many nice things about living in a remote farmhouse twenty miles from anywhere, but reliable high-speed Internet isn’t one of them. So while the rest of white collar America has been hitching up its collective pajama bottoms and commuting no farther than the kitchen table, each morning Ashley and I still sit down in the one-room cabin (two desks, a tiny bathroom, and excellent Internet) otherwise known as Country Roads’ global pandemic headquarters. It might not be home, but situated in the middle of town right behind the Magnolia Café, it’s the next best thing. So last month, when the Mag finally reopened after six months of pandemic-triggered closure, no one was gladder than us. Much ink has been spilled on the subject of the Magnolia Café so I’ll resist the temptation to add much here. Suffice it to say that during the course of its near forty-year run the Mag has come to occupy a central place in

the collective social landscape of our town: variously its default lunch spot, weekend gathering place, celebration venue, and evening watering hole. You might say it’s been a kind of community living room—the sort of place where it’s OK for families to pull tables together and socialize on Friday nights while their little kids roam the restaurant in packs and take over the dancefloor. Once those little kids grew into teenagers the Mag served another vital role: giving many of them their first taste of “real” employment. Last month, when the Mag finally reopened after a half-year hiatus that left St. Francisville feeling a bit like a home without a living room, our fifteen-yearold son Charles landed a weekend job there as a food runner, becoming the

latest of those former little dancefloor kids to come full circle. After having been stuck at home and penniless with his parents for six months, it’s no exaggeration to say that he is thrilled. His parents, who cut their teeth in restaurant jobs and actually met while working at a dodgy Irish establishment named the Bad Ass Café half a lifetime ago—are thrilled, too. Not only that their kid is getting an introduction to the satisfactions and responsibilities of making his own money at an early age, but also because in doing so Charles gets to be a small cog in one of the vital engines of his community. Each day through the long, strange summer just gone, our little office cabin meant that Ashley and I had a bird’s eye view over the Mag’s eerily silent parking lot. Now that the parking lot is full again it’s clear that a vital element of community life went missing for awhile. And that, so often in life, we don’t realize what we’ve got until it’s gone. James Fox-Smith, publisher —james@countryroadsmag.com

The Garden VUES Explore the Gardens. Longue Vue Gardens has reopened to the public and is now offering a Garden Pass. This gardens-only membership is good for six months and admits up to six people to the gardens as often as you like for only $40. longuevue.com/join-support

Twilight at Longue Vue Enjoy the Longue Vue Gardens in the cooler hours of the evening, with music by local artists, every Wednesday. Twilight at Longue Vue is an opportunity for local musicians to perform in a safe, distanced setting for a live audience. Bring your own wine, snacks, and chairs or just your facial coverings and walking shoes, and enjoy the beauty and fresh air of Longue Vue. Visit longuevue.com for information and tickets. Book for Fall! Plan now for your corporate retreat, bridal shower, or garden-based celebration. Small groups only. longuevue.com/venues

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Noteworthy

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N E W S , T I M E LY F A C T S , A N D O T H E R

CURIOSITIES

LO O K C LO S E R

Elvis Has Left the Building

ALL Y’ALL HOSTS DISCOVER THE ICONIC PHRASE WAS FIRST UTTERED AT SHREVEPORT’S LOUISIANA HAYRIDE and tales about the Hayride as they remember them. Through these conversations, iconic moments in Shreveport’s country music history are illuminated: a highlight is the origin of the nowcliché phrase “Elvis has left the building.” Joey Kent, whose father David launched a second installment of the Hayride after the original ended in 1960, grew up backstage at both iterations of the show. Decades later, when Kent was cleaning out an office Fans scream, cry, and applaud Elvis Presley’s national debut at the Louisiana Hayride. Image used courtesy of LSUS at KWKH radio station in Northwest Louisiana Archives, Noel Memorial Library. Shreveport, an old reel-to-reel rolled out ovelist Walker Percy once radio show and later television program stated that two types that was broadcast from Shreveport from a space between a desk and the wall. of people come out of Municipal Auditorium between 1948 It turned out that particular recording Louisiana: preachers and 1960. The Hayride was Elvis was from October 16, 1954—the day and storytellers. “For God's sake, be a Presley’s first national broadcast, and Elvis Presley made his Louisiana Hayride storyteller,” Percy implored. “The world's helped kickstart the careers of other debut. Upon listening to the entire got too many preachers.” In the city country music greats including Hank recording, Kent made an unprecedented of Shreveport, which certainly has no Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, discovery: at the end of Presley’s set, in an attempt to control the rabid crowd shortage of preachers, Sara Hebert and and many others. of predominantly women, producer Chris Jay are some of the most avid and When Louisiana Public Broadcasting enthusiastic storytellers you will find. re-aired Ken Burns’ award-winning and announcer of the Hayride Horace Logan tells the audience, “Elvis has left The couple produces the live storytelling docuseries Country Music in August, the building.” The tape documented not event and podcast All Y’all, and recently they sought out a Shreveport-based only Presley’s first national broadcast, released a six-episode mini-series for the partner to collect and produce stories but the first-known iteration in history podcast chronicling the stories of the about the Hayride. Hebert and Jay’s of the now-iconic phrase being uttered. Louisiana Hayride in partnership with already-established storytelling podcast, “I mean, can you imagine? Music history Louisiana Public Broadcasting. All Y’all was a natural choice for a literally just fell out of the wall and “If you grow up around here it’s platform. landed on his foot,” Jay marveled. “It like they hand you a summary of the In a series of six episodes, All Y’all was a moment for me that I just looked at Hayride when you’re born,” laughed Jay, presents interviews with various sources Sara in the recording booth and my jaw who grew up in the Shreveport-Bossier knowledgable about the Hayride, from dropped.” region. For the rest of us further south Dr. Tracy Laird, who authored the book While the series tells the stories of the and beyond, the Hayride’s history is a Louisiana Hayride: Radio and Roots Music Hayride from a variety of perspectives, bit more nebulous. “Being from South along the Red River; to archivist Joey Hebert and Jay also do the important Louisiana and moving up here, I knew Kent; to local newspaper publisher “Big work of acknowledging the stories there was something about Elvis and Rob” Gentry; to country music superstar that were left out of the Hayride’s Shreveport, but I didn’t really know all Kix Brooks (of the “& Dunn” fame). legacy. Tying each episode’s unique the details,” Hebert explained. “But the Keeping in the storytelling tradition perspective on the Hayride together longer you live here, the more you realize of All Y’all, the Louisiana Hayride is original music by AJ Haynes of [the Hayride’s] sort of woven into the Stories series is not a scripted history Shreveport-based soul rock band the fabric of the history of the city.” lesson. More casual and intimate, the Seratones. Haynes’ theme for the series Somewhat akin to the Grand Ole interviews are presented as what they captures an air of retrospective regret Opry’s wilder younger cousin, the are: conversations, where subjects are that comes from acknowledging that Louisiana Hayride was a country music given an opportunity to share memories as seminal as the Hayride was for

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Louisiana music history, the voices of women it represented were minimal and trivialized, and voices of Shreveport’s African American community were neglected entirely during the Jim-Crow era broadcast. “What I’m riffin’ on is like, Slim Whitman and underdog kind of haunted, definitely minor,” Haynes says of her composition. “Like, it’s not happy-upbeat. It’s like, we’ve got spooky skeletons and repression in our blood.” In the episode interviewing Haynes, a Black female musician herself, she and Hebert discuss how at the time of the Hayride’s original broadcast, similarly revolutionary strides in jazz and Gospel music were being made by African American artists just down the street at the Calanthean Temple. While the Shreveport Municipal was welcoming the likes of Elvis Presley and Hank Williams, artists such as Jelly Roll Morton and Count Basie were playing for Black audiences mere blocks away. “But because of the landscape of race relations in the city, these two very vibrant, incredible music movements were separated,” Hebert lamented. “And it breaks my heart when I think about it: Wouldn’t it have been incredible for those musicians to interact with one another on stage?” In the series, Hebert and Jay do not seek merely to tell the history of the Hayride. Through their conversations, they more broadly explore its relevance to Shreveport’s music legacy—including what that means for the future. “I think that it’s important that we acknowledge that if the Hayride took place today in the year 2020, it would look extremely different than what it looked like in the fifties and sixties,” Hebert mused. “It would include lots of women and lots of people of color, and it would be maybe a little less about country music but more about interpreting the landscape of our area through music in a different way.” h —Alexandra Kennon

Find the All Y’all Louisiana Hayride Stories podcast series wherever you get your podcasts or at allyallblog.com.

Drunk History

COMMON NEW ORLEANS HISTORY MYTHS, DEBUNKED BY A DISILLUSIONED FORMER TOUR GUIDE

or nearly four years, I gave tours of several varieties in the French Quarter. Until midMarch, tourism was the major driving force of New Orleans’ economy— meaning I was far from the only tour guide making a living telling historic tales to guests from across the globe. One thing I learned is that if you stand on a French Quarter street corner long enough, you’ll hear quite a broad variety of “history,” ranging from accurate and respectful to downright dramatic fiction; almost all of it fairly entertaining. Here are some of the most common—and most absurd—New Orleans history myths that tour guides like myself report encountering—or repeating— commonly. “Contrary to popular belief, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop is not the oldest bar in the U.S.” —Frank Perez Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, while being impressively historic and serving

surprisingly good hurricanes for Bourbon Street, is not in fact the oldest bar in America. That distinction is claimed by White Horse Tavern in Newport, Rhode Island, which has operated as a tavern since the late 1600s. But do they serve a frozen beverage affectionately called “Purple Drank” by the locals that likely contains as much everclear as it does red and blue dyes number whatever, and claim to host a pirate ghost (or several)? Didn’t think so. “New Orleans homes used armoires instead of closets because closets were considered rooms and taxes were based on the number of rooms in the house.” —Mick Mcllwain Quite a few common New Orleans architectural features are chocked up to antiquated tax codes. It sounds logical, doesn’t it? That our deep South obsession with armoires comes from closets counting as rooms and therefore hiking up property taxes in the 1800s, or that shotgun houses are so narrow because frontage to the street was taken

into account. But according to Tulane University researcher and historian Richard Campanella, property taxes were calculated much like they are today: based on value, rather than extraneous details like whether or not a home had a closet. The fact is that in the 1700s and 1800s, long before “fast fashion” existed, most New Orleanians owned far less clothing than we do today, meaning that incorporating an entire room into a floorpan for it was unnecessary. Likewise, shotgun houses are narrow because the style is inexpensive to build and yields excellent airflow in hot climates (and, of course, there’s the necessary feature of being able to shoot a shotgun from the front door to the back without hitting walls; a timeless New Orleans pasttime.) “How about this one: New Orleans was founded in 1718. Bulbancha has been a place for thousands of years!” —Paul Doolans I’m embarrassed to say that this glaringly incorrect tidbit—that New Orleans was founded in 1718—is one

I often repeated myself as a tour guide. The fact is that long before LaSalle, or the brothers Iberville and Bienville, or any European colonists arrived near the Mississippi’s mouth, Bulbancha was a thriving area populated by peoples from the Choctaw, Ishak, Chitimacha, Natchez, and Tunica nations, among others. The French colony of Nouvelle Orleans was established just over three hundred years ago, but the crescent it sits on—and its life, its culture—existed for thousands of years prior. “That when Country Roads magazine was founded back in 1938, the ‘c’ in Saint Francisville was pronounced like the hard ‘c’ in ‘Cajun’ and ‘Creole’ and ‘Country.’” —Re Tree While Country Roads was founded fifty years after 1938, and as far as we know, St. Francisville’s pronunciation has remained the same since its founding in 1809, we certainly appreciate Re Tree’s imagination. And when it comes to myths and legends, isn’t that largely what it’s about? h —Alexandra Kennon

NOVEMBER 20TH - 22ND

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311 MILL ST., NEW ROADS, LA WWW.MARKETATTHEMILLNEWROADS.COM

ANTIQUES | ARTWORK CLOTHING | JEWELRY HANDMADE FURNITURE FOOD | GREENERY ARCHITECTURAL IECES // O C T 2 0

Sunday, November 15, 2020 at the Myrtles, St. Francisville, LA Celebrated Chefs • Creative Dishes Craft Cocktails • Fine Wines • Lawn Games

Presented with generous support from

Tickets on sale now at 10

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Events

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THIS

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READ SOMETHING REAL A still from BRBT’s virtual fall performance Midnight Magic, which includes the “Wilis Dance” from the ballet Giselle, in which the ghosts of young maidens who died of heartbreak haunt the highways and forests in the dark of night. See the listing on page 21.

OCT

3rd

CREATIVE CLASSES PLEIN AIR PAINTING WORKSHOP Ocean Springs, Mississippi

A day of plein air painting in downtown Ocean Springs is a wonderful way to embrace the spirit of Walter Anderson, express yourself artistically, and have a lovely landscape to show for it. Join Ocean Springs resident and full-time artist and instructor Jerrod Partridge for a day of discussion, demonstration, and of course plenty of painting. 8:30 am–5 pm. $150; $120 for museum members. walterandersonmuseum.org. k

UNTIL

OCT 4th

THEATRE AMERICAN SON Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Theatre Baton Rouge is slated to present the timely drama American Son by Christopher Demos-Brown. The play tells the story of an estranged bi-racial couple who are forced to confront their feelings on race and bias when their son is detained during a minor traffic stop, and their disparate life experiences

inform their assumptions about what happened to their son. Seating is limited to forty audience members per performance to allow for adequate distancing, so reserving tickets early is encouraged. Showtimes at 7:30 pm Thursday–Sunday, with a matinée performance at 2 pm on Sunday. $30.75; $25.75 for students.(225) 924-6496; theatrebr.org. k

UNTIL

OCT 11

LOUISIANA HISTORY CAJUN DOCUMENT: ACADIANA, 1973–74 NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA It doesn’t take long for Louisiana’s mystique to take hold. In 1973, two photographers stumbled into Acadiana on a road trip, captured a bit of it, and were then consumed by the need to return. In 1974, Douglas Baz and Charles Traub abandoned their jobs and returned for six months, driving back roads to the swamps, towns, plains, bayous, and trails of South Louisiana. Today, the results of that captivation—hundreds of photographs taken inside Acadian dance halls, stores, and homes, capturing the industries, festivities, and geography of the

PRINTED ON ACTUAL PAPER SINCE 1983

region—are finally compiled, fifty years later, in the project’s first comprehensive exhibition and book, on display at the Historic New Orleans Collection. hnoc.org. k

UNTIL

OCT 11th

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITS LAMENTATIONS New Orleans, Louisiana

Tina Freeman has spent the better part of a decade photographing the stark landscapes of two very different climates: the hot, sticky marshes and swamplands of Louisiana; and the frigid, icy glaciers of the Arctic. The juxtaposition weaves a story about climate change, ecology, and the inherent connectedness of the “Blue Marble” we call home. Lamentations is currently on display at NOMA. noma.org. k

UNTIL

OCT 14th

FUN FUNDRAISERS NOCHI VIRTUAL AUCTION Online

GET A PRINT SUBSCRIPTION AT

COUNTRYROADSMAG.COM

The New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute, the nonprofit that trains culinary // O C T 2 0

Events

Beginning October 1

students as well as future restaurant hospitality leaders in New Orleans, will host Cooking for a Cause: a virtual auction with the aim of providing once-in-a-lifetime experiences with celebrity chefs and more while supporting the nonprofit. Prizes that will be auctioned include private cooking classes with chefs such as Emeril Lagasse, Donald Link, and Nina Compton; a business coaching meeting with Danny Meyer & Team of Shake Shack; a tikiinspired mixology class, and much more. The fundraising event will culminate with a “Grand Finale” on October 14 in conjunction with Commander’s Palace’s incredibly popular wine and cheese Zoom classes. For information about items that will be auctioned and more: nochi.org/cfac. k

UNTIL

OCT 24th

MUSIC EDUCATION FREE VIRTUAL BLUES CAMP Online

Grab your harmonica or guitar and get ready to learn the Delta art of the blues. Henry Turner Jr.’s listening room is offering a free, online blues camp in hour and a half long sessions each Saturday afternoon for six weeks. Each session will

be divided into three segments: blues instrumentation and structure; history and syntax; and entertainment business applications. Original blues music not provided, but it’s been a long enough year that we trust there’s ample material available. All ages are invited to participate, and participants are not required to attend all six of the classes to tune in. The class will be lead by none other than Baton Rouge bluesman Henry Turner Jr. himself, along with Flavor bandmembers and other special guests ranging from entertainment industry executives to public relations professionals. There is no deadline for registration, but sign up weekly to receive the link to join. To register, visit henryslisteningroom.com or call (225) 802-9681. k

UNTIL

OCT 28th

LIVE MUSIC TWILIGHT AT LONGUE VUE GARDENS New Orleans, Louisiana

Longue Vue House and Gardens are always beautiful to behold, but a certain magic settles in during the cooler evening hours. Add in the gentle serenade of live

The New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute’s Virtual Fundraiser Auction includes once-in-alifetime celebrity chef experiences with the likes of Emeril Lagasse. Image courtesy of NOCHI.

HAINTS, HAUNTS & HALLOWEEN Sunday, October 25, 2020 3:00 pm until 6:00 pm *Event dates and times are subject to change due to COVID-19

LOCATED AT BURDEN MUSEUM AND GARDENS OPEN DAILY 8:00–5:00 I-10 AT ESSEN LANE, BATON ROUGE, LA FOR MORE INFO CALL (225) 765-2437 OR VISIT WWW.RURALLIFE.LSU.EDU 12

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music performances each Wednesday evening for their Twilight at Longue Vue series, and the result is truly spectacular. Bring your own wine, snacks, and lawn chairs; or just your face masks and comfortable shoes, and enjoy the serenity of music wafting on the evening breeze. Reservations are required for members as well as general admission; capacity is strictly limited and waitlists are available in the event of sell-outs. All tickets are nonrefundable; reservations can be rescheduled with a minimum 24-hour notice. $8; free for Garden Pass holders and annual members. 5–7 pm. longuevue.com. k

UNTIL

NOV 22nd

ART AND HISTORY A YARDMAN’S ART: THE INSPIRATION OF STEELE BURDEN Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Landscape artist and designer Steele Burden has left an indelible mark on Baton Rouge with his gardens; but his work with other mediums beyond landscaping such as painting, sculpture, and ceramics are still enhancing the aesthetic of some places as well—including LSU’s Rural Life Museum. His sculptures, paintings, and other artwork still grace the museum after fifty years, and to celebrate, the Rural Life Museum is hosting A Yardman’s Art: the Inspiration of Steele Burden, an exhibition highlighting his contributions. 8 am–5 pm with regular museum admission. lsu.edu/rurallife. k

UNTIL

NOV 22nd

FUN FUNDRAISERS WINE AND ROSES: A REMOTE RAFFLE AFFAIR Online

Like many events this year, the Friends of the LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens’ Annual Wine and Roses fundraiser is receiving a virtual makeover for 2020. Twenty delightfully-themed gift baskets will be up for auction online; each including two wine glasses, a special bottle of wine, a bouquet of roses and a variety of other themed items. Perfect for romancing that special someone, especially if that someone is yourself. Themes range from the Birding Basket, to the Louisiana Artists Basket, to the Picnic at Burden Basket, to the Wellness Basket—will one of them be yours? Keep an eye on lsuagcenter.com for more details and how to bid. k

UNTIL

JAN 24th

ART EXHIBITIONS MAKE AMERICA WHAT AMERICA MUST BECOME New Orleans, Louisiana

The Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans will once again re-open its doors and galleries to the public with landmark exhibition Make America What America

Must Become. The theme is inspired by a letter written by philosopher and commentator James Baldwin to his nephew on the hundred-year-anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation: “Great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become.” Artists were asked to consider and express the manifestation of power in America in our culture, politics, ecology, and economics. The unveiling of a new work by Brandan “BMike” Odums, which was commissioned by the CAC and ACLU of Louisiana, will accompany the exhibition. Audiences outside of the Warehouse District will be able to appreciate the exhibition virtually, along with online programming to better contextualize the works and allow viewers to connect with the artists. Those who view the exhibition in person should be aware the CAC will adhere to a limited capacity of fifteen visitors every hour and a half, and tickets are available as timed-ticketed reservations between the CAC’s hours of 11 am and 5 pm Wednesday through Monday. The CAC also requires all visitors and staff to wear masks and adhere to social distancing. cacno.org. k

UNTIL

JUN 30th

LOUISIANA HISTORY ACADIAN BROWN COTTON: THE FABRIC OF ACADIANA Lafayette, Louisiana

Coton jaune, or Acadian brown cotton, is one of the idiosyncratic regional heirlooms the Nova Scotian exiles inherited when they chose South Louisiana as their home. An important facet of the region’s agricultural, economic, and anthropological history, brown cotton’s relics are today being reconsidered as revered cultural totems, and in some cases works of art. A landmark exhibition synthesizing the crop’s influences from soil to craft to textiles, the Hilliard’s Acadian Brown Cotton: The Fabric of Acadiana is the most comprehensive project on the subject to date. Visitors will explore the genealogical value of passing craft from mother to daughter, they will learn about the process of weaving and the economic conditions of the region that spurred a revitalization of brown cotton weaving over the last century. Social documentary photographer Leah Greaff’s photographs offer a perspective on woven works in terms of artistic intention, symbolism, art as commodity, and distinctions between decorative and fine art. And finally, work by local weavers including Elaine Larcade Bourque, Austin Clark, Ben Koch, Lena Kolb, LaChaun Moore, and Francis Pavy will be displayed in an illustration of how craft traditions have // O C T 2 0

Events

Beginning October 1st - October 7th gained symbolic relevance in twentyfirst century.hilliardmuseum.org. k

OCT

1st

- OCT

ART EXHIBITIONS ANIMALS IN ART

24th

Denham Springs, Louisiana

October is National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, and for the occasion the Arts Council of Livingston Parish is celebrating the adorable loyalty of our furry companions through art. A percentage of any artwork sold from the exhibit will go to the Denham Springs Animal Shelter, but donations for the shelter are also welcome. The exhibition will be available to view virtually, as well as in person. Call (225) 664-1168 to make an appointment to view the exhibition, or view the virtual tour at artslivingston.org. k

OCT

2nd

- OCT

30th

MOVIE MAGIC DRIVE-IN DÉJÀ VU WITH JPAS Kenner, Louisiana

An old craze has received a new surge in popularity, and we don’t mind one bit: the drive-in movie is back in a big way in 2020, and Jefferson Performing Arts Society has embraced the nostalgic fun. Every Friday night in October, drive out to the Pontchartrain Center and enjoy a different cinema classic, each in some way related to JPAS’ forty-third production season. No concessions will be sold on site, but patrons are encouraged to bring their own snacks and beverages. $50 per vehicle. Movies begin at 8 pm; gates at 7 pm. jpas.org. Screenings are as follows: October 2: 42nd Street (1933) October 9: The 39 Steps (1935) October 16: Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) October 23: An American in Paris (1951) October 30: Ghostbusters (1984) k

OCT

2nd

- OCT

LOUISIANA HISTORY RURAL LIFE ALIVE!

30th

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

On Wednesdays and Fridays throughout October and November, visit the Rural Life Museum for a stroll through the past. Interactive artisans will be in action, demonstrating our Louisiana ancestors’ crafts of blacksmithing, candle making, hunting and trapping, tatting, rug making, corn shelling and grinding, and other lifeways. 10 am–2 pm. Regular admission applies. lsu.edu/rurallife. k 14

O C T 2 0 // C O U N T R Y R O A D S M A G . C O M

OCT

2nd - JAN 31st

ART EXHIBITIONS THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS New Orleans, Louisiana

Art at the edge of the Anthropocene—this is Dawn DeDeaux’s realm of work. In the first comprehensive museum exhibition of her art, called The Space Between Worlds at the New Orleans Museum of Art, her body of work—spanning video, performance, photography, and installation—wrestles between the worlds of the past and the future. Her art is both anticipatory and full of regret, dwelling on the coming consequences of climate change, population growth, and industrial development. In this exhibition, her fifty-year career is put on display through recreations of installations from the 1970s to present, bringing together works salvaged from DeDeaux’s art studio—which flooded during Hurricane Katrina—with pieces that will be reimagined for the present day. In restaging some of the artist’s most poignant projects, the exhibition aims to engage diverse local communities, and asks urgent questions of all of us. noma.org. k

OCT

3rd & OCT 4th

FALL FESTIVAL 25TH ANNUAL SUGARFEST Online

For its twenty-fifth annual celebration of all things sweet, the West Baton Rouge Museum is hosting two days of streamed interviews, performances, and demonstrations with Louisiana folk artists and musicians, recipes, and a vibrant exploration of Louisiana’s sugar industry from the comfort of home. While organizers regret being unable to celebrate in person this year, they point to the silver lining that is the rare opportunity to pause and archive the works of local folk artists carrying on the traditions of our sugarcane history, as well as the musicians who continue to play genres indigenous to Louisiana; hence this year’s theme “Preserving Sweet Memories.” A full schedule of events, including a virtual sweets recipe contest judged by celebrity Chef John Folse, will be announced in the coming weeks at westbatonrougemuseum.org. k

OCT

3rd

- OCT

ART EXHIBITIONS QUARTERCHROME

31st

New Orleans, Louisiana

Baton Rouge native and artist Carol Hallock is known for her “loose realism” oil paintings depicting the gorgeous landscapes of her homes in South Louisiana and Mississippi. A collection

of her paintings depicting New Orleans’ French Quarter will be on display this month at Gallery 600 Julia. Exhibition opens October 3, with a sociallydistanced artist reception from 4 pm–7 pm. gallery600julia.com. k

OCT

- OCT

FAMILY FUN LSU AGCENTER BOTANIC GARDENS CORN MAZE Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Don’t worry, parents: no actors dressed as Freddy Kruger lurk in the LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens Corn Maze, only fall fun for the whole family. This year’s theme is “Harvest Some Happiness,” so come do so not only with a corn maze but sunf lower fields, a pumpkin patch, zip lining, a hayride, satsuma picking, and so much more. The whole family will be amazed by this maize maze! Masks must be worn in the check-in and concessions lines and any area where social distancing is not possible, children under eight excluded. $10; $5 for Friends of the Garden family membership holders (who will also receive four free tickets to the maze); free for children younger than three. Tickets must be purchased in advance, as they will not be sold at the door to ensure social distancing. Every Saturday in October; 10 am– noon, 12:30 pm–2:30 pm, and 3 pm–5 pm. bontempstix.com. k

OCT

4th

- NOV

GOOD EATS MEN WHO COOK

8th

OCT

6th

honored at the festivities. 9:45 am–4 pm. Free. acadianmemorial.org. k

FALL FESTIVALS ACADIAN MEMORIAL HERITAGE FESTIVAL

OCT

Saint Martinville, Louisiana

Looking back on more than 250 years of history, this celebration of all things Acadian—or Cadien (Cajun)—centers in Evangeline Oak Park, where there’ll be jambalaya, gumbo, cracklin demonstrations, theatre, Cajun dance lessons and music, mask making, storytelling, Longfellow readings, kids’ activities, and more. A reenactment will take place commemorating the historic arrival of the deported Acadiens into Attakapas Territory, with members of the Benoit and Savoie families to be

- OCT

BIKE PARTY CYCLE ZYDECO

11st

City of Lafayette, Louisiana

This October, Louisiana’s Cajun & Creole cycling festival rolls through Cajun Country, letting riders experience the heart of Acadiana from the seat of their padded pants. During five days of cycling that cover almost two hundred miles, participants will follow a route that visits several cultural spots that prove the tag line “The Best Party on a Bicycle.” And there’ll be no need to

Enjoy an oasis in the heart of the city. Stroll through the beautiful gardens and walk the many trails of the LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens and Windrush Gardens. Step back in time to 19th century rural Louisiana at the open-air LSU Rural Life Museum.

Upcoming Events

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

You know what they say about Louisiana: it’s a state full of men who can cook like their mamas, and women who can drink like their daddies. Hope House is celebrating the former with their Men Who Cook event this fall. Local “celebrity cooks” who are leaders from throughout St. Tammany and Washington Parishes will join forces with favorite local restaurants to help Hope House in their mission of combating child sexual abuse on the Northshore. In the past the nonprofit has hosted a gala for the occasion, but in light of current precautions, this year over ten area restaurants will each host a “Hope House Week,” spotlighting a different restaurant and star cook pairing. When patrons dine in and donate on site during the designated week, they will unlock exclusive deals. Adding some friendly competition for a great cause, whichever team raises the most money wins! More about the teams and how to enjoy their food for the cause here: support.cachopehouse.org/mwc2020. k

7th

hold back from any of the fantastic food available since you’ll have more than enough opportunities to ride, or dance, the calories off again along the way. For those less keen on cycling, Dans la Rue (or dance in the street) With Cycle Zydeco, an outdoor music festival component on Thursday and Friday, will provide an excellent party on foot, too. Details, schedule information, and registration are at cyclezydeco.org. k

50th Anniversary Exhibition Series

A Yardman's Art: the Inspiration of Steele Burden September 18-November 20 . 8 a.m.-5 p.m. LSU Rural Life Museum

Rural Life Alive!

Living History and Artisan Demonstrations Wednesdays and Fridays . Oct. 7 – Nov. 20 . 10 a.m.-2 p.m. LSU Rural Life Museum Visit our website for a schedule of topics: lsu.edu/rurallife

Harvest Days

October 3 . 8 a.m.-5 p.m LSU Rural Life Museum

Corn Maze at Burden

October 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31 . 10 a.m.-5 p.m. LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens

Tickets available for two-hour scheduled experiences. Advanced tickets required. Available at BonTempsTix.com

Haints Haunts and Halloween October 25 . 3-6 p.m. LSU Rural Life Museum

Wine & Roses: A Remote Raffle Affair

An extraordinary online raffle of wine, roses, art and other unique items.

September 14-November 23 LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens

Learn more at LSUAgCenter.com/BotanicGardens

Due to Covid 19, events are subject to change.

For details about these and other events, visit our website. Admission may be charged for some events. Burden Museum & Gardens . 4560 Essen Lane . 225-763-3990 . DiscoverBurden.com . Baton Rouge . Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily // O C T 2 0

Events

Beginning October 8th - October 10th OCT

8th

- OCT

LIVE MUSIC THIS MONTH AT THE RED DRAGON

23rd

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

A little ol’ pandemic can’t seem to stop the music from flowing at Red Dragon Listening Room. Though their usual venue is temporarily out of commission due to COVID-19 guidelines, organizers have been finding creative ways to host outdoor and otherwise substantially-spaced concerts. October’s lineup is as follows: October 4: Keithstock, 2 pm–8 pm. October 8: Jason Ringenberg, 8 pm October 23: Chuck Cannon, 8 pm Unless otherwise specified, performances will take place on the back porch of the Red Dragon. Check out their event listings on Facebook for more information. k

OCT

LOUISIANA HISTORY HISTORIC SPANISH TOWN CIVIC ASSOCIATION OPEN HOUSE Baton Rouge, Louisiana

You might have appreciated Spanish Town’s charming architecture and partied at its

annual Mardi Gras parade, but what do you know about the neighborhood’s rich history? For those interested to learn, the Historic Spanish Town Civic Association and the Friends of the Capitol Park Museum invite all for an open house showcasing the exhibition Spanish Town Mardi Gras: 40 Years of Good Times and Bad Decisions as well as a talk from Spanish Town Historian and author of Capitol Park and Spanish Town, Matt Isch. Open House and cash bar from 5 pm–6 pm, talk at 6 pm. All attendees are welcome to stay and attend the Historic Spanish Town Civic Association’s Annual Meeting. louisianastatemuseum.org. k

OCT

9th - OCT 10th

ROLLING STOCK RENAISSANCE EURO FEST Ridgeland, Mississippi

Rolls-Royces, BMWs, and Ferraris— oh my! These are just a small taste of the countless pristinely restored and maintained European cars that will travel to Renaissance at Colony Park in Ridgeland for the twelfth annual Renaissance Euro Fest. Enjoy the fall breeze while strolling and taking in over one hundred and fifty cars and

MASK NOW so we can

Beili Lieu’s “After All/Mending the Sky”, on display beginning this month as part of the New Orleans Museum of Art’s first major exhibition since March, titled Mending the Sky. Image courtesy of NOMA.

motorcycles manufactured in Italy, Germany, Britain, or elsewhere in Europe. Entries into the festival must be built in or before 1995, exempting a selection of rare and limited production models that will be chosen at the discretion of the committee. On Friday there will be optional drives from Memphis and New Orleans to Ridgeland, if you want to be part of the coolest caravan ever, before they combine at the Hyatt Hotel at the Renaissance. Free. euro-fest.net/ridgeland. k

OCT

9th

- OCT

11th

ANTIQUING FALL ANTIQUE FAIR AND YARD SALE Washington, Louisiana

From rare books to antique furnishings to cast iron dutch ovens, treasures always abound at the Old Schoolhouse Antique Mall. A few times a year, however, during their Semi-Annual Antique Fair and Yard Sale, vendors and their goods will spill out into the school yard, offering vintage wonders, great

In Louisiana, we love our football games and tailgate parties. Let’s work together so we all can get back to enjoying the traditions that make us special. Wear a mask or face covering now to protect yourself, your neighbors and the way of life we love in Louisiana.

01MK7374 R08/20

Learn more about ways to protect yourself at bcbsla.com/covid19

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bargains, homemade treats, barbecue, and other surprises as far as the eye can see. oldschoolhouseantiquemall.com. k

OCT

9th

- OCT

11th

FALL FESTIVALS FESTIVALS ACADIENS ET CRÉOLES Online

Festivals Acadiens et Créoles has celebrated Louisiana’s deep and wide French cultural roots since 1974, and organizers weren’t about to put the Zydeco and beignets on hold for COVID. This year, the festival will be held entirely virtually, broadcast for the enjoyment of “tout les monde”. Music will stream live all weekend as well as be available on demand, featuring Acadiana favorites like Terry & the Zydeco Bad Boys, Corey Ledet, The Revelers, Wayne Toups & ZydeCajun, and many others. Cooking demonstrations, workshops, a virtual Tour de Atakapas, and festival eats at various local restaurants will naturally be part of the experience, too. The Official Live Stream Boudin Cutting to kick off the festival is at 6 pm on Friday, with music beginning right after and again at 4 pm on Saturday and at 3 pm on Sunday. festivalsacadiens.com. k

OCT

9th

- OCT

THEATRE BUYER & CELLAR

11th

Mercedes and Rolex raffle, silent auction, and limited edition Hollydays apparel. shophollydays.org. k

Online

For a struggling actor in Los Angeles, a Malibu basement is not exactly a dream job. Even if it is for Barbara Streisand. But you do what you gotta do, and Alex More awaits the day when he will be allowed to break out into the world of the upstairs, where the Lady Herself lives. A chronicle of the fictional exchanges between Streisand and More, this one-man comedy deals in the price of fame, the cost of things, and the oddest of odd jobs. Starring Brandon Guillory, Theatre Baton Rouge’s performance will stream live on Vimeo. $30.75. theatrebr.org. k

OCT

9th

- OCT

18th

SHOP ‘TIL YOU DROP VIRTUAL HOLLYDAYS MARKET Online

Support the Junior League of Baton Rouge’s outreach work and get some gift shopping checked off your list early— that’s the kind of holiday spirit we’re talking about. Rather than gathering in the River Center this year, Hollydays will still feature an extensive list of vendors and other fun entirely online. The virtual market will also include a

OCT

9th

- JAN

ART EXHIBITIONS MENDING THE SKY

31st

New Orleans, Louisiana

In the ancient Chinese fable of the goddess Nüwa, a great storm afflicts the world. And then, the sky cracks open. From the tear, waters flow and flow, flooding the world and all of the people in it. Seeing the inevitable fate of mankind before her, the goddess, called mother of the world, begins to mend the tear, using beautiful stones, reeds, and fire. Burnt and bedraggled, Nuwa returns to earth to begin a golden age, where all live in harmony and prosper. In the New Orleans Museum of Art’s first major exhibition since the city’s monthslong shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ten artists work from the premise of this story, inspired by the hope for rebuilding after calamity, and creating something better than we had before. Premiering new acquisitions from local and international artists, Mending the Sky addresses the complicated state of our world through themes of loss, uncertainty, recovery, healing, and hope through works across the fields of art, animation, and performance.noma.org. k

OCT

10th

SHOP ‘TIL YOU DROP CRAFTIN’ CAJUNS INDOOR CRAFT SHOW Houma, Louisiana

In the market for some handmade patio furniture? How about a wreath for your door? Some jewelry for the missus? All of that, and so much more, will be packed into the Houma-Terrebone Civic Center this month for the annual Craftin’ Cajuns Indoor Craft Show. Crafters, artisans, and vendors of all crafty varieties will have handmade products available for sale. Attendees will be required to pass a temperature screening and wear a face covering at all times while at the show. 9 am–5 pm. Free. houmaciviccenter.com. k

OCT

10th

COOKING CLASS VIRTUAL GUMBO EXPERIENCE Online

Consider this an intervention for anyone still making their gumbo with premade roux: New Orleans’ own “Wizard of Roux” Chef Amy Sins is coming to kitchens everywhere to impart her wisdom about how to make a perfect, delicious gumbo with a high-energy, fun virtual experience. If five friends enter your name when they register,

Cypr ess Table Sale 10% to 50% Off All IN S tock Tables.

s e e o u r w e b s i t e fo r w h a t ’ s i n s to ck. s ta t e w i d e d e l i v e ry ava i l a b l e .

Handcrafted cypress furniture // O C T 2 0

Events

Beginning October 10th - October 16th

you could even win the chance to cook as Sous Chef alongside Chef Amy. The 2020 Virtual Gumbo Experience also offers the Cooking with the Champions Masterclass, where past champions and special guests will show participants how to make three different kinds of gumbo, chargrilled oysters, pecan pie, and more. 2 pm; $35, which includes a limitededition roux spoon (while supplies last), an email with the full recipe, a miniature Tabasco pepper sauce, and more; Masterclass downloads available for $15. shop.iberiachamber.org. k

OCT

10th

- OCT

18th

FALL FESTIVITIES ST. LANDRY CEMETERY TOURS & HISTORICAL REENACTMENTS Opelousas, Louisiana

Watch the spirits of St. Landry come alive and tell their stories while learning history in a fun, spooktacular way. St. Landry Catholic Church Parish and Opelousas Little Theatre are joining forces to present reenactment cemetery tours, with the theme “Tricentennial Spirited Celebration”. Joining the “spirited” celebration will be a variety of historical characters relating to the area, including Jim Bowie, an Alamo figure; Madame Baldwin, a businesswoman of color; Reverend CB Anderson, first ordained Catholic priest from Opelousas; and Reverend Hyland, the first pastor of Holy Ghost Catholic Church. Several other spirits will also be brought to life for patrons to enjoy their legends. Saturday tours at 6 pm, 6:30 pm, 7 pm, 7:30 pm, and 8 pm; Sunday tours at 2 pm and 3 pm. This year, handicap accessible tours will be available on Sundays, October 11 and 18 at 3 pm. $10 per person; limited to groups of fifteen; not suitable for children younger than ten. st.landrycatholicchurch.com. (337) 942-6552 or (337) 308-3474. k

OCT

10th

& OCT

ART WALKS FRANK HAYDEN TOURS

24th

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

You’ve likely noticed and appreciated the striking metal sculptures throughout Downtown Baton Rouge. To learn more about sculptor Frank Hayden and how his Catholic faith and experience with the Civil Rights Movement impacts his artwork, join LASM Curator Lexi Adams for a walking tour of Downtown Baton Rouge on the subject, beginning with his exhibit at LASM then traveling to his public sculptures throughout the neighborhood. Masks are required and 18

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will be provided free-of-charge to those who arrive without them. Please note: a section of this tour is accessible via stairway only. 10:30 am–2 pm. $15; free for members. lasm.org. k

OCT

10th

- OCT

THEATRE ANNIE THE MUSICAL

25th

Mandeville, Louisiana

Join America’s most beloved little orphan girl and her pals in 1930s New York from the safely-distanced audience at 30 by Ninety Theatre this month. Annie ‘s book and score by Tony Award winners Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse, and Martin Charnin have stood the test of time, and include some of the greatest musical theatre hits in multiple generations. Bet your bottom dollar that it’s going to be a heartwarming, uplifting show. In addition to audience members being required to wear face coverings per state mandates, audiences will be seated at fifty percent capacity with sociallyspaced seating, temperature checks will be required upon entering, and concession purchases will be credit card only, among other precautions. After opening weekend performances will take place at 8 pm Friday through Sunday, with 2:30 pm matinees on Sundays, as well. 30byninety.com. k

OCT

11th

RAISE A GLASS SUPPER CLUB: BEYOND THE BOAT Darrow, Louisiana

Country Roads Supper Club returns with Beyond the Boat, a progressive seafood tasting and seated dinner showcasing the bounty of fresh Louisiana seafood and the creativity and resilience of those who bring it to us. Celebrated Louisiana chefs including John Reason, Amy Sins, Michael Brewer, and Nathan Richard will offer a variety of seafood tastings spread across the sprawling lawn and 30,000 square-foot gardens of Houmas House as guests sip and take in the beautiful grounds. The evening will then culminate in a three-course seafood feast presented by Executive Chef of Latil’s Landing Jeremy Langlois. A pairing of a craft wine or specialty cocktail by The Prisoner Wine Company and Constellation Brands will accompany each course, so don’t forget to raise a glass (or perhaps several). This Supper Club event is pesented in partnership with the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board and hosted by Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser.

While this thoroughly-spaced outdoor event should provide the perfect circumstances for safe enjoyment, should the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic make it impossible to ensure the safety of all attendees and participants as the date approaches, Country Roads will not hesitate to cancel or reschedule this event and provide refunds for every ticket purchased. 4 pm–8 pm. $150. bontempstix.com. k

OCT

12th

- OCT

FUN FUNDRAISERS O! WHAT A NIGHT!

18th

Online

The arty party of the year returns, this time in a socially-distanced style. The Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s annual O! What a Night! fundraiser invites all to take part from the glamorous ballroom of your living room. Whether the night be a small group gathering or an intimate evening for two, participants can support Ogden’s educational mission to share the art and culture of the American South. Supporters will receive special catering pricing from restaurant partners, celebratory gifts from the Ogden Museum store, timed tickets to the Museum for in-person auction item viewing, a link to the live auction event,

a Spotify playlist for your small group gathering, and recognition on all print and digital materials. Live and silent auctions are open to the public. Live auction will be held on LiveAuctioneers on October 17 from 8 pm–9 pm, hosted by Neal Auction Company, and the silent auction will be hosted on Givergy from October 12 at midnight to October 18 at 5 pm. Visit ogdenmuseum.org to sign up for email updates and to explore options of supporting. k

OCT

FALL FESTIVITIES BREC’S TRICK & TREAT: ART UNLEASHED REVAMPED Baton Rouge, Louisiana

What’s cuter than kids and dogs sporting tiny Halloween costumes? BREC has combined both with local art, family fun, and of course candy for a synthesis of their annual Trick or Treat and Art Unleashed Events this year. All the favorite elements of both events will be included: live music, live art, spooky arts and crafts, and costume contests for kids, adults, and dogs, too. The goal of Art Unleashed Revamped (besides reveling in the joys of art, dogs, and Halloween,) is to raise awareness and support for local animal shelters and encourage appreciation and patronage of local artists and BREC’s community parks.

5 pm–9 pm. Free. brec.org/artunleashed. k

OCT

16th

LIVE MUSIC SUNSET AT THE LANDING Covington, Louisiana

Who doesn’t like free, outdoor live music? We, and the folks on the Northshore certainly do, and they make it evident with their Sunset at the Landing concerts. Past acts have included The Groove Kings, The Magnolia Sisters, Sweet Olive, and many other esteemed local artists. It’s your last chance to catch one in 2020, as October is the final concert of the year. Always a lively crowd, and did we mention that it’s free? Just bring chairs and refreshments. Please remember to follow social distancing guidelines. Facemasks requested. 6 pm–9 pm. Find more information on Facebook. k

OCT

16th

LIVE MUSIC BRSO CHAMBER SERIES TWO: BACHTOBERFEST Baton Rouge, Louisiana and online

For an unusual 72nd season in a pandemic, BRSO has restructured concerts somewhat to ensure the safety of all patrons, musicians, and staff while still bringing the power of

classical symphonic music to the Baton Rouge community. In addition to being performed at the Main Branch Library on Goodwood, concerts can be streamed online, providing audiences with the option of listening in person or from home. 7:30 pm. Tickets at brso.org. k

OCT

16th - OCT 17th

GREEN THUMBS PLANTFEST! Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Each October, the annual green-thumbed crowd pleaser has been bringing people and plants together in the unique natural space that is Hilltop Arboretum. PlantFest! returns with another veritable botanical bonanza of trees, shrubs, perennials, vines, ferns, gingers, camellias, ornamental grasses, and more, running the gamut from native and traditional to eclectic and electric newcomers. Not sure where to start? Don’t worry, masked PlantFest! experts from landscape architects to Master Gardeners will help you pick the perfect plant. Plant display vignettes are set up to offer inspiration and help get gardeners growing. The Hilltop Gift Shop will be hosting specialty plant and craft vendors to meet the growing needs of gardeners, and shoppers can peruse the Vendor Village under the open-air pavilion, where vendors will be safely-spaced and masked. This year hours are extended, and the fest will be open from

What do we encourage you to consider when making your trees storm-ready? Soil Aeration so your tree’s roots can breathe, increasing its overall health. Seasonal fertilization so trees are better prepared for extreme weather. Skilled preventative pruning can greatly reduce the amount of damage during a storm. Pest and disease management by a pro will alert you of insects or fungal diseases you may not have seen otherwise. Untreated infections or infestations can decimate a tree. Cabling and bracing can be added to co-dominant tree trunks to strengthen them during heavy rain, ice and wind. Scheduling regular tree care will grow your trees to be stronger and healthier. They’ll be less susceptible to pests and diseases, nutrient deficiencies, branch drop and other dangerous elements that will reduce your tree’s structural integrity. Give Frank or one of our many other Certified Arborists a call this season. Isn’t the investment in your valuable and wonderful trees worth the peace of mind that comes with knowing that your family will be safer from the type of damage our Southeast Louisiana storms can cause.

SCOTT, LA • 888-620-TREE (8733) CHURCH POINT, LA • 337-684-5431 WWW.BOBSTREE.COM // O C T 2 0

Events

Beginning October 16th - October 17th 9 am-7 pm to allow for limiting capacity as necessary throughout the day. It is required that shoppers wear a face mask when in the check-out line or within six feet of others, and recommended that shoppers come equipped with their own wagon and helper, as shopping will be self-service and there will be no Hilltop wagons available this year. The plant list will be available beginning October 15 at lsu.edu/hilltop. There will also be a virtual teaser and special online pre-sale featuring Heidi Sheesley until Oct 9. k

OCT

- OCT

OPERA THE BARBER OF SEVILLE Online

The Barber of Seville traces the tale of a maiden forced into marriage, a handsome Count in disguise, and starcrossed lovers. Will everyone live happily ever after, or will the beautiful Rosina be forced to marry grumpy old Dr. Bartolo? Join Opera Louisiane for this Rossini classic, presented virtually and cast by popular vote through the first ever Fantasy Opera Draft, which was held in August. In addition to a world renowned cast of singers from across the country,

one lucky local makes his or her operatic debut. A link will be sent to ticketholders on Thursday, October 15 and will be active and available Friday, October 16 at 7:30 pm until Sunday, October 18 at 11:59 pm. $20. operalouisiane.com. k

OCT

16th

- OCT

18th

IMMERSIVE EXHIBITIONS MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL Natchez, Mississippi

Natchez’s Bluffs, a cool fall breeze, and rainbow balloons flying overhead at the Natchez Balloon Festival,

Enter the eternal worlds of good and evil with this immersive, multi-sensory exhibition by international artists at Conde Contemporary. Coronavirus mandates will be adhered to. Free. Friday 5 pm–10 pm, Saturday 12 pm–8 pm, Sunday 12 pm–6 pm. condecontemporary.com k

OCT

16th

- OCT

18th

FALL FESTIVALS NATCHEZ BALLOON FESTIVAL

October 16–October 18. Image courtesy of the Natchez Balloon Festival.

the live music and festival portion of the event will not take place this year, balloons will still f ly and glow for all to admire for the thirty-fifth consecutive year. No tickets required. natchezballoonfestival.com. k

OCT

16th

- OCT

ART EXHIBITIONS GIRLS NIGHT OUT

31st

Natchez, Mississippi

Hammond, Louisiana

Few sights are quite as breathtaking as colorful hot air balloons floating over the rolling hills and bluffs of Natchez. Though due to safety considerations

Metalsmith Becky Burt grew up in Hammond and spent twenty five years in the computer industry in Houston before realizing she craved a more

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creative environment. After taking classes in stained glass, clay, jewelry, and metal work, she has been a fulltime studio artist since returning to Hammond in 2007. Utilizing disparate objects in combination with more traditional metals, the detail of her pieces reveal the perils of our modern “break it and throw it away” society. Her work will be displayed in the Mezzanine Gallery of Hammond Regional Arts Center beginning October 16 with an opening reception from 4 pm–8 pm. hammondarts.org. k

OCT

16th

- OCT

ART EXHIBITIONS SAND RELIEFS & OTHER WORKS

31st

OCT

DIG DEEPER ARCHEOLOGY DAY Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Hammond, Louisiana

The Hammond Regional Arts Center is celebrating artist Barbara Tardo’s extensive contributions to Louisiana art with an exhibition and opening reception this month. Tardo, originally from New Orleans, was a fixture of Southeastern’s Department of Visual Arts from 1965 until her retirement in 2002. Her work reflects her preference for abstraction over realism, because “realism has a logical end, but abstraction gives you lots of room to play.” Opening reception from 4–8 pm, then on display thereafter at Hammond Regional Arts Center. hammondarts.org. k

OCT

17th

FALL FESTIVALS FOUR ELEMENTS CELEBRATION Natchez, Mississippi

The Four Elements Celebration incorporates and celebrates earth, wind, water, and fire as the elements pertain to some of the best aspects of Natchez, while complimenting Balloon Festival. Firefighters will “show & tell” fire trucks and talk about fire safety, hot air balloons from the Natchez Balloon

17th

This year, the paddle is the party for the Shake Your Trail Feather Paddle Parade on beautiful Bayou Teche on October 17. Image courtesy of the TECHE Project.

Festival will fly, a plein air painting of the Mississippi River contest as well as a Mississippi River photography competition will challenge artists, plus kite making and a farmers market. All activities will require participants to adhere to CDC Guidelines regarding COVID-19. 8 am–6 pm. (601) 8184862. k

OCT

17th

PADDLE PARTY SHAKE YOUR TRAIL FEATHER PADDLE PARADE Breaux Bridge, Louisiana

The TECHE Project is replacing its

full-blown annual Shake Your Trail Feather Festival with a “Paddle is the Party” boat parade this year. Band Amis du Teche will escort via barge as folks f loat for a two-hour paddle down beautiful Bayou Teche. When the parade ends in Breaux Bridge, there will be food, drinks, a Bird Mask Contest Contest, and a 1 pm raff le of a $200 gift certificate from Pack and Paddle. Parade starts at Poche’s Meat Market in Poche Bridge with check-in at 9:30 am; paddle to Breaux Bridge from 10 am–noon. Shuttle service available. Register at Eventbrite. techeproject.org. k

October is Archeology Month, and what better way to celebrate than by digging in the dirt for some artifacts and learning ancient artistry techniques? The Capitol Park Museum is partnering with the Louisiana Division of Archaeology for the event, where participants will learn how to make clay pots as it was done in ancient civilizations, weave mats using palm fronds, participate in a mock archeological dig, and even experience what ancient hunters did by trying an ancient spear-thrower, or atlatl. 10 am–2pm. Free. facebook.com/lastatemuseum. k

OCT

17th

- OCT

FALL FESTIVITIES BOO AT THE ZOO

25th

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

BREC’s Baton Rouge Zoo brings back Halloween family fun with the return of Boo at the Zoo. Creative costumes are encouraged as always, as well as protective face masks for guests— which have great costume potential. Implementing further COVID-19 safeguards, candy and treat bags for all children twelve and younger will be

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Events

Beginning October 18th - October 31st pre-packaged to collect upon completion of their zoo adventure. Spooky-fun Halloween and Fall themed photo backdrops will be displayed throughout the zoo, along with the usual festive seasonal enrichments to the zoo’s animal friends and guests. 9:30 am–4 pm; grounds close at 5 pm. Regular zoo admissions apply. brzoo.org. k

OCT

18th

FUN RUN FIFOLET 5K

- OCT

31st

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Hosted by the 10/31 Consortium, this 5K can be walked, ran, rollerbladed, or broomsticked anywhere at any time during the last two weeks of October. Only one catch: You’ve got to wear a costume. Imagine the surprise and serendipity you’ll bring your neighborhood or park, zooming through dressed as Superman or crawling as Fido or racing along as a dead bride. All participants will receive a t-shirt, finisher medal, and will be eligible for other awards. $31 for 5K; $25 for 1 Mile Fun Run. Rules and registration at 1031consortium.com/5k. k

OCT

21st - NOV 18th

STEPPIN’ OUT BRBT VIRTUAL FALL SHOW: MIDNIGHT MAGIC Online

Ever uttered “That gives me the willies!” while hearing a scary story or encountering a spider? The phrase just might have originated with the ballet Giselle, in which the ghosts of young maidens who died of heartbreak haunt the highways and forests in the dark of night. Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre’s virtual program this fall includes the hauntingly beautiful Wilis dance from Giselle, Midnight Fairies from Cinderella, and other brighter works to juxtapose the spookiness, as well. Dancers from BRBT’s Youth Ballet, whose summer tour of libraries and community centers was canceled, will be joining the company for the performances; along with three guest artists from the Sarasota Ballet whose season in Florida was canceled. The video link is available for $25. batonrougeballet.org. k

OCT

22nd

LOUISIANA HISTORY BURNY MYRICK: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER Port Allen, Louisiana

Join Southern Regional arts historian Claudia Kheel in a special “Lunchtime Lecture” presentation on Burny Myrick: A 22

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Historical Perspective of the Mississippi River. Hosted at the West Baton Rouge Museum in conjunction with the exhibit Burny Myrick: The Timeless River, the lecture will place the famed Louisiana artist in a historical context by reviewing his 19th century Louisiana paintings of the Mississippi River. Noon. Free. westbatonrougemuseum.org. k

OCT

22nd

- FEB

14th

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITS SOUTHBOUND: PHOTOGRAPHS OF AND ABOUT THE NEW SOUTH Baton Rouge, Louisiana and online

A photograph contains the power of alchemy: preserving a single moment in space and time. Fifty-six photographers turned their lenses to the people and landscapes of the modern American South, and the moments captured depict the region in all its complex, often-troubled beauty. Southerners have a strong sense of tradition and place even in the twenty-first century, which are captured in photographs in a multitude of ways that make up the exhibition, on display beginning this month at the LSU Museum of Art. Southbound was organized by the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston, and is made possible in part by a grant from the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge. LSU MOA Educator Grand Benoit will also be conducting live thirty-minute virtual tours of this exhibition, among others, which can be booked at bit.ly/lsumoavirtualtour. Groups and teachers can also request a specialized, interdisciplinary tour (four weeks in advance) tailored to a specific subject area, thematic unit, skill, or teacher preference. Please contact Grant Benoit for scheduling and rates, gbenoit1@lsu.edu. k

OCT

24th

FUN FUNDRAISER LOUISIANA SPORTING CLAYS CLASSIC New Orleans, Louisiana

Take aim, sports men and women of Louisiana: local nonprofit the Chartwell Center is hosting their eighteenth annual skeet shoot to benefit children and adults with autism. In addition to the friendly shooting competition scored by the Lewis Scoring System; enjoy food, drinks, a silent auction of local artwork, and plenty of other fun. All proceeds will support the Chartwell Center, whose

“Four on a Bike, Piety Street” by Kevin Kline, part of the LSU Museum of Art’s exhibition Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South. Image courtesy of LSU MoA.

mission is to empower children and adults with autism. This is a wellspaced, outdoor event that lends itself to social distancing, but organizers require attendees to wear masks as well. Register at thechartwellcenter.org. k

OCT

29th

- OCT

31st

THEATRE VINTAGE HITCHCOCK: A LIVE RADIO PLAY Online

Sit back and let the magic of audio artistry paint a mental picture with Theatre Baton Rouge’s first ever radio play, a triple feature of Alfred Hitchcock favorites including: The Lodger, Sabotage, and The 39 Steps. Complete with vintage commercials, a daring train chase, a serial killer’s ominous presence, and a devastating explosion, this compilation of spy, murder, and love stories celebrates a forgotten art and exciting mode of storytelling. $30.75; $25.27 for students. theatrebr.org. k

OCT

29th - OCT 31st

FALL FESTIVITIES FIFOLET CABARET Online

The wicked and wondrous of the 10/31consortium are brewing up some hauntingly awesome video content in lieu of their annual parade. Ticket holders will receive a link to view the show any time between October 29 at noon and October 31 at midnight. Tickets also get you a free dinner from a local restaurant, delivered right to your door. Details at 10/3consortium.com/cabaret. k

OCT

30th

LIVE MUSIC LIVE @ FIVE

Natchez, Mississippi

The hospitable folks of Natchez invite you to come out to the Bluff for an outdoor live concert with the picturesque backdrop of a Mississippi River sunset. Family-friendly, sociallydistant, and did we mention free? Live @ Five checks all the best boxes. 5 pm–7 pm. visitnatchez.org k

OCT

31st

FALL FESTIVITIES FIFOLET FLIP FLOP Baton Rouge, Louisiana

In celebration of ten years of the 10/31 Consortium, the organization is bringing you a mini reverse parade this Halloween. Get all dolled (or monster-ed) up, load up in the car, and make your way through the parking lot adjacent to Gerry Lane BuickGMC on Florida Boulevard, where a drive-thru assortment of Halloween decorations and costumed characters await. First five hundred children will receive a treat bag and complimentary face mask. 2 pm–4 pm. Free. 1031consortium.com. k

5713 Superior Drive, Suite B-1 Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70816

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O C TO B E R 2 0 2 0 24 MEET ROBI, A ME

HIGH PRIEST OF VODOU

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PARTY AT THE

M Y T H S & L E G E N DS

HOLIDAY ALL NIGHT LONG

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TEXT

MY FUTURE W

MYTHBUSTERS

The Truth About Vodou

DEMYSTIFYING ONE OF LOUISIANA’S MOST MYSTERIOUS AND MISUNDERSTOOD FAITHS Story and photos by Alexandra Kennon

y first job was a bit different than your average newspaper route or table-serving gig: I was a fifteen-year-old tour guide at my local haunted plantation home. Robi Gilmore, a friend I had met participating in community theatre, trained me for the job—in the history of the Myrtles Plantation, and the art of tour guiding. I could not have chosen a better mentor, considering Gilmore was a favorite guide of visitors to the Myrtles for years. Garden & Gun magazine even called him, “St. Francisville’s premier storyteller… a master at alternating between tragic tales and anecdotes that incite laughter, levity, and empathy.” While I experienced a fairly privileged and conventional upbringing in St. Francisville proper, Gilmore grew up on the outskirts of town, deep in the woods off of winding Sligo Road, off of Highway 66. He spent his childhood on the land that was once Hollywood Plantation, where his ancestors were once enslaved. For generations, his family— from his enslaved Louisiana ancestors back to those who lived in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (today Haiti) and before that in Africa—has practiced the ancient religion of Vodou (VOHdoo). I recently realized that despite working with Gilmore, making theatre with him, and considering him a dear friend, I knew relatively little about the religion he grew up practicing and is now a leader in. And though I went on to give tours in New Orleans as an adult—which often included stops at Marie Laveau’s tomb— what I did know about Vodou (or “Voodoo,” as it is usually misrepresented in the United States) had largely been based on misappropriation. Long-overdue, I decided to ask Gilmore some questions about his family’s religion, and his own journey navigating its diverse traditions from rural Louisiana, to New Orleans, to Haiti—where he is ordained as a High Priest of Vodou. A hyper-charismatic individual as tall and wiry as he is 24

friendly, Gilmore was kind enough to demystify an honorable, family-oriented religion practiced more commonly in Louisiana than most people realize. Anthropologists estimate that Vodou has existed in West Africa for six thousand years, and that more than sixty million people practice the religion worldwide today. Despite its history and prominence, it is often wrongly depicted in films, television, and beyond as a superstitious, evil-natured religion, with a heavy focus on “black magic”—images of zombies and sacrifices abound. “That’s what I’m fighting,” Gilmore stressed. “We don’t do ‘black magic’ in Vodou; that’s not a thing.” The misconceptions are so pervasive that right before our conversation, Gilmore received a call from a man asking for help “removing witchcraft”. Armed with years of experience correcting such misperceptions, Gilmore is not shy when it comes to defending his faith and culture: “I was like ‘Bruh, you realize that Vodou is just worshiping God and honoring the spirits in ceremony, right?’” Another major point of contention for Gilmore and other genuine Vodou practitioners is the concept of “Voodoo dolls”, which are commonly sold throughout the French Quarter and have made appearances in countless films, including Disney’s The Princess and the Frog. The malevolent trinkets originated as “poppets” in European witchcraft and actually have little to do with Vodou outside of popular media. “That’s the kind of thing that people need to know,” Gilmore emphasized. “We just want to worship God, honor the Spirit, and help the poor people … That’s all we wanna do in Vodou.” Dr. Grete Viddal, a scholar on Haitian as well as Cuban religion whose research brought her to New Orleans, where she recently served as a post-doctoral teaching fellow at Tulane, emphasizes the importance of separating the Vodou religion from racist stereotypes. “It’s a perfectly legitimate religion that has a supreme being and a pantheon and rituals and has much overlap with

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Catholicism.” The teachings of Vodou are complex and dynamic, varying from place to place and family to family as individuals moved or were sold, and there is no set dogma to which the religion adheres. Remove all of the misconceptions,

religions. A reductive description of Vodou beliefs is that there is one creator God, usually called Bondye from the French “Bon Dieu,” or “Good God”. Beneath Bondye are other spirits, known in Haitian tradition as the lwa and in West African tradition as orishas, who

Houngan Robi Gilmore holds a handmade paquet in Carmel and Sons Botanica in the Tremé, which is owned by his Godmother Mambo Marie.

superstitions, and other falsehoods that plague the faith largely due to racism and misrepresentation in pop culture (Wes Craven, we’re looking at you), and the beliefs are not all that different from those of most mainstream world

serve various purposes and have their own names and personalities. “And then in Louisiana, we just call them spirits, because of the heavy English influence,” Gilmore explained. “But you can say ésprit, which is Créole for spirit.”

A cornerstone of the Vodou religion is its emphasis on the intercession of one’s ancestors: the souls of family members who have passed away, who Vodouisants—or Vodou initiates— believe when given with the proper reverence and care will help guide and benefit them in life. “Vodou in all forms, all across the board—you cannot serve the lwa or orishas without going through your direct ancestors first,” Gilmore explained. “I have an altar to my deceased grandparents, and great grandparents, all the way to ancestors from the plantation.” Historically, enslaved individuals who practiced the African and AfricanCaribbean religions of their ancestors were forced to convert to Western forms of Christianity, typically Catholicism, by those who owned them. This created a culture of Vodou practitioners who used images of Catholic saints as a guise to avoid revealing the lwa, or spirits, to whom they were actually praying and

his Vodou faith and taken great strides to educate tourists about his beliefs as a tour guide in New Orleans, he still chooses to incorporate Catholic saint imagery into his worship of the lwa. “I do it the traditional way my grandmother taught me, and the way my ancestors did it,” Gilmore said of the practice. “Keep it alive.” Among the younger practitioners, however, many are choosing to use more direct imagery of the lwa, rather than the Western placeholders once necessitated by slavery. “A lot of my little cousins and the kids that I took care of while growing up and teaching them, they’re removing anything they can that’s Christian and, more specifically, not of color,” he told me. “So, they won’t use the saints to hide anything, they’ll just straight up paint a picture of the spirit, just flat out and blatant like, ‘I’m gonna make this altar. I’m not gonna use Saint Lazarus for the spirit Papa Legba, I’m just gonna paint Papa Legba Black with his two dogs.” Papa Legba, who received

Hand-beaded Haitian dwapos depicting the Lwa line the walls of Carmel and Sons Botanica, along with statues of Catholic Saints, votive candles, dried herbs, and spiritual goods for a variety of faiths.

making offerings. To this day, many in the Vodou faith still attend Christian church services on Sundays and incorporate Catholic imagery into their worship. While Gilmore has “come out” about

a particularly inaccurate and frightening characterization on the television show American Horror Story, is often associated with St. Lazarus or St. Peter, as he is thought to be the interme-diary gatekeeper between the world of humans

and the world of spirits. According to Dr. Yvonne Chireau, a professor and chair of religion at Swarthmore College and an authority on African-based religions in America, Catholic images and rituals are an integral aspect of Vodou practices in Haiti to this day. “As with all religions, different generations tend to put their spin on things, adapting orthodoxy to suit the particularities of culture,” she told me. She has observed a trend of younger generations incorporating more imagery specific to Vodou, however, in the form of representations of spirits and iconography that are Black and indigenous. “I would say that in the US, racial identity and black consciousness have given the religion new meanings,” Chireau said. “What I also see happening less is the removal of Christian images and icons, but rather the inclusion of the new, such as images of the spirits that reflect contemporary racial awareness and current styles.” Gilmore was born into a family that practices Vodou traditions, while also attending services every Sunday at Hollywood Baptist Church. Gilmore shared that among the many exclusively Christian Black families in Saint Francisville, there are also many who also privately practice Vodou in their homes. “There’s a reason for that—yeah, they’re quote-unquote ‘Baptist,’ you know, you go to the church daytime Sunday, and then you go home and serve the spirits. And that’s a common thing.” Vodou’s emphasis on ancestor worship has led to deeply internalized knowledge within Black families of their genealogies, despite the barriers of illiteracy and family separations imposed by American slavery. This has allowed many families who practice Vodou to trace their heritage back for many generations, often all the way to Africa. “We’re told our lineage when we’re kids,” Gilmore said. “That’s passed down through our parents, which is passed down to them through their parents and grandparents. Because this is a verbal tradition, it’s not a written religion, you know? And we also know what part of West Africa we come from, because it was passed down.” “Vodou is a sacred tradition that puts a lot of emphasis on families, ancestors and cultural genealogies,” Chireau explained. Not only is biological family pivotal to the religion, but spiritual family is of utmost importance, as well. “It is done through ritual practices and initiation, which is a kind of adoption into the spiritual family.” Gilmore’s own family originated in what is today Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and the Congo. At some point prior to the Haitian Revolution in 1791, his ancestors were sold to French colonists in the colony of St. Domingue (modern

Haiti), and eventually members of his biological as well as spiritual families settled in Petionville, a town in the hills east of Port-au-Prince; and Jacmel, a port town on Haiti’s south coast. “We know this just because it was passed down to us through the religion of Vodou. And if you step out of Louisiana, you’ll notice that a lot of African American people don’t know where their ancestors come from.” Gilmore was initiated as a Vodouasaint in Louisiana Vodou traditions outside of St. Francisville at the age of seven. At the age of eighteen, as part of his transition to adulthood, he became a High Priest of Louisiana Vodou. “My family was like ‘Oh yeah, he got the spirit on him, so we’re gonna do this thing.’” After Gilmore finished serving in the military and attended college at LSU, he moved to New Orleans, and soon thereafter his faith called him to his ancestral land of Haiti to be ordained as a Middle Priest, meaning he served as an assistant to the High Priest or Priestess. That same year, his Godmother Mambo Marie, who owns Carmel and Sons Botanica in the Tremé neighborhood, told him, “Hey, bébé, look. I think the spirit is calling you to be a High Priest.” The next year, the pair returned to Haiti, and he obtained his High Priesthood. High Priests (known as Houngans, while Priestesses are regarded as Mambos) are responsible for leading ceremonies and maintaining the relationship between the spirits and the community. According to Chireau, there has been a movement within the last century of Vodouisants traveling to Haiti or Africa for initiations and returning to form Vodou communities in America. “And so you see a kind of transnational movement between Haiti and its diaspora that has come to characterize those who are pursuing their faith.” Back in New Orleans, Gilmore was initially excited to connect with more people who shared his faith. He heard stories growing up and saw images on television of the large community of Vodouisants there, and he had looked forward to joining them. “And then it turns out, it’s a bunch of posers,” Gilmore said with evident disappointment. “It’s people who are not even initiated, haven’t taken one vow, opening up these shops, claiming to be priest and priestess, cannot speak a version of French or Créole, can’t tell you what the spirit is.” He became concerned that like so many Native American cultural practices, his religion would be whitewashed and misrepresented to the point of oblivion. “Hm, child, I went to one little quote-unquote ‘New Orleans Voodoo ceremony’ and I heard some off-the-wall Créole they was trying to sing in, and I’m sitting here like ‘What the hell is this?’ All these white people with sparklers // O C T 2 0

Vodou continued ...

“MY PEOPLE ARE JUST DANCING IN THE LIGHT OF GOD, AND FEEDING THE HOMELESS PEOPLE, AND HAVING A GOOD TIME.” —ROBI GILMORE from the fireworks place running around in a circle with shawls on, turnin’ around like Stevie Nicks,” Gilmore said with an exasperated sigh. “So that was one of the most hurtful and disappointing things I think I’ve ever witnessed and seen.” During a true traditional Vodou ceremony, Viddal explained, practitioners summon the spirits to grace them more immediately with their presence, as opposed to in Christianity where God is perceived as being elsewhere, like up in the sky. “In the African-inspired religions, you’re inviting the spirits to be with you then and there,” Viddal explained. “And you get them to come by singing to them, by having percussion and drumming, you invite them by dancing, and by laying a beautifully decorated table with all the things that spirit likes. If they like cakes, you have cakes; if they like mutton, you have mutton.” The food is cooked and served, and in Haiti is typically eaten by the congregation at the ceremony’s completion. In the U.S., where resources can be more plentiful, a separate meal is

often served to the congregation. Vodou ceremonies—which are only held a few times a year, contrary to the popular belief that they are a weekly occurrence—are also performed partially with the intent of feeding the poor. When Gilmore discovered some individuals in New Orleans were charging ceremony attendees, he was shocked. “You know, you feed the homeless and give them clothes during the ceremony, and you welcome them as an equal and say, ‘I don’t care what you’re going through, come serve the spirit with me. They’ve provided all this food, come eat, get your fill; come drink, be merry,’” Gilmore expressed. “That’s what true Vodou is all about.” And that—“true Vodou”—is what Gilmore is committed to teaching people about, if they are interested in learning. “The best way you can learn is to do what you’re doing now: find someone who you know is authentic and ask them questions, and see if they’re willing to talk about it.” As simple as that might sound,

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there remains a culture of secrecy in the Vodou community today where outsiders are concerned, and not without good reason. “The systemic racism and misappropriation continues to be an issue both within and outside of the religious communities,” said Chireau. “Discrimination against immigrants, against Black people, against people who are perceived as practicing non-Christian faiths, unfortunately, is something that continues.” As is the case with most religions, there are also elements of ritual that are revealed only to those initiated into the faith. “The culture of secrecy, however, does extend to the inner world of the religion, where there is a value placed on passing down of traditions for insiders only, so to speak,” Chireau said. “This is no different from what goes on within the Catholic priesthood or any tradition in which knowledge and study are vital to acquiring the faith. One doesn’t just walk in off the street to become a committed practitioner.” Gilmore believes this secrecy, where outsiders are concerned, has partially contributed to preventing misconceptions from being more widely dismantled. “I’m seeing that silence is not helping us,” Gilmore observed. For that reason, he has created a Youtube channel where he openly and casually discusses aspects of his faith. It’s also part of why he

gave tours at the Myrtles for so long, and why he has continued to give tours about his religion in New Orleans for the past five years. Through tour guiding, Gilmore has had the opportunity to meet other Vodou/Voodoo practitioners from throughout the South—one from rural Mississippi, another descended from the Gullah GeeChee people in South Carolina—and hopes more will continue to feel comfortable enough to “come out” more openly about their religion in the future. Until then, he will continue giving tours, making videos, and explaining to old friends that his religion has the same intent as others that are embraced worldwide: serve God, help others, and be happy. “So, I’m hoping that people understand. My people are just dancing in the light of God, and feeding the homeless people, and having a good time.” h

Gilmore gives tours in New Orleans independently, as well as with Free Tours By Foot, Bespoke Tours, and Jonathan Weiss Tours. Find his Youtube channel by searching “Robi Gilmore”. Carmel and Sons Botanica is at 1532 Dumaine St. in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans.

CR ANK THE J U KEBOX

The Holiday Lounge

ON THE MAMOU PRAIRIE, A PORTAL TO DAYS OF LOUISIANA POLITICS & PARTIES PAST Story by Jordan LaHaye • Photos by Olivia Perillo

he iconic haze of blinking lights—red, green, blue, yellow—burnt deeply into the memory in ethereal, symbolic contrast to the quiet, flat calm of the Cajun prairie at night. A neon lady, lounging in a martini glass, her heel kicking up and down, up and down, bubbles pop, pop, popping all around her. A spooky spot of bright effervescence in the middle of Evangeline Parish stillness. It’s wrong in all the right ways, the Holiday. Speaking about the Cajun band Charivari’s song “Le Holiday,” fiddler Mitch Reed described glimpsing the nightclub out the back window while driving on Highway 13. “It looked like a mothership had landed in the rice field, or a traveling carnival had settled there for the weekend. I remember really thinking it was a carnival and getting all excited, and asking my mom and dad, you know, if tomorrow we could go there and ride the Ferris wheel.” Roughly translated from French into English, Charivari’s song—the nominal track of their 2005 album “A Trip to the Holiday Lounge”—invites the masses to Mamou’s outskirts with the highpitched seduction of the Cajun fiddle: “Come and meet me, we’ll go to a place called the Holiday. The boss T-Ed is as mean as a mad dog. The place looks like a circus with all the neon lights. It’s only ten miles from Carriere’s Bar. You can drink a beer or have a whiskey. Or you can go in the back and see the pretty girls. It’s not a place to go if you are married.

The place that we call the Holiday.” A sort of landmark to the mythos of rural Acadiana nightlife, the Holiday Lounge has held its corner of the prairie for over sixty years now. Once open twenty-four hours a day seven days a week, a bright blot of Las Vegas in Mamou; the Lounge now only lights up for special occasions, once every few months. Hurricane Rita stole the martini lady, and after the iconic neon “Holiday” banner atop the roof got blown into the cow fields more than a few times, it found a new permanent (and more Instagrammable) home inside the bar. And then, the Edwin Edwards sign out front? “Bienvenue a Grand Mamou Governeur Edwards.” Well, it eventually started to make the roof leak, and had to come down too. And still, faded out and stripped down as it is, you can’t the miss the Holiday. Incongruous as ever, the mint-green club sits with its hand-painted seascape mural, sand and palm trees emblazoned on cinderblocks, drawing eyes and curiosity from every traveler coming down LA 13.

“It’s still here,” the stranger whispered, shaking his head, staring at the green-bikinied pinup girl on the wall. His eyes lowered to the pockmarked dance floor, then came back up across the yellowing green and foil wallpaper, all the way up to the ceiling where black-lighted stars approximated a much closer heaven. When his head tilted level again, he was staring right at the jukebox, which

had to be almost half a century old. “I can’t believe it’s still here.” From the bar, the owner Eugene Manuel asked him, “Can I help you sir?” The man looked up, “I can’t believe this place still exists.” Laughing, Manuel said, “Oh so, you been to the Holiday before? Well, how long’s it been?” “Ohhh man, probably about forty years,” the stranger said. “We were stationed at Fort Polk and used to come here all the time, stay up late late. I love this place. I met my wife here.” “Well, where you comin’ from now?” “Dwight, Kansas. My daughter’s getting married in Mississippi. But I just had to make the detour.” “Well, how on Earth you remembered the way here from Dwight, Kansas?” The stranger laughed. “Well, the old owner of this place, Mr. T-Ed—good, good man, he’d always make us eat something after we drank too much and remind us we had training in the morning. He gave me this matchbook all these years ago, and it had the address on it. I held onto that thing. Thought for sure this place would be a pile of rubble by now. You knew T-Ed?” “Oh yeah I knew him pretty good,” said Manuel, smiling. “That’s my daddy.”

Spend enough time in Mamou— especially on the lively, if tired, little strip of nightlife called 6th Street—and you’ll hear the name T-Ed (pronounced “Tee-Ed”) Manuel (1924-1992) thrown around a bit. In a town of farmers and oil field workers, T-Ed stood out partly because he wouldn’t be caught dead without a suit and tie on. “Looked like

he came straight outta Las Vegas,” said Daniel Baham, who, decades ago, worked as a technician at the Holiday. “I remember T-Ed used to walk with two pockets. He had his big bills on one side, little bills on the other. Little bills were twenties, tens, fives, and ones. Big bills were fifties and hundreds. He would walk, and this was the eighties. He’d have ten thousand dollars in his pockets. He could buy a car right then and there.” After serving in the merchant marines during World War II, T-Ed entered Evangeline Parish’s thriving nightlife industry with his brothers Austin and Ulyses, opening Manuel’s Bar on 6th in 1946. With Fort Polk just down the road in Vernon Parish, the “wet” towns of Mamou and Ville Platte were popular haunts for soldiers stationed in Louisiana throughout the mid-twentieth century. Manuel’s was especially popular for its private poker room and live entertainment, and became immortalized in Milton Molitor and Austin Pitre’s rendition of the “Manuel Bar Waltz,” (1957) the first ever 78 produced by Cajun music recording engineer Floyd Soileau (who recorded the likes of the Balfa Brothers, Nathan Abshire, Warren Storm, Rockin’ Sidney, Keith Frank, and more) for his debut label “Big Mamou.” “In a way, my dad was ahead of his time,” explained T-Ed’s son Eugene, who currently owns both Manuel’s and the Holiday Lounge. “He would listen and he’d learn and he’d watch. He realized the young people weren’t into the French music stuff. It was 1957, rock and roll was takin’ off.” T-Ed got his hands into the newfangled jukebox business and // O C T 2 0

Holiday continued ...

Eugene Manuel, the current proprieter of the Holiday Lounge, is also in many ways Mamou’s resident historian. His knack for storytelling and preservation are displayed brilliantly in the Holiday, which his father T-Ed (pictured in various photos in the bottom left photo) opened in 1957. Inside, one will find the bar’s original jukebox, various elements of historic décor its sported throughout the years—including its iconic pinup girls, historic leather booths, the “Holiday” sign that used to be out front, and so much more— and of course, the disco dancefloor.

was managing boxes in most of the area’s nightclubs, amassing a small fortune in coins. “With that, he invested in this place,” said Eugene of the Holiday. “My grandfather thought he was crazy. He said, ‘T-Ed, what’s wrong whichtu? You gonna go broke out there in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of a field. You think people’s gonna leave allll dat stuff goin’ on in town to come out ova here?’ But my daddy knew, he said ‘You give them something they want, they gonna come.’ And every night, from ten in the mornin’ till five the next mornin’, full.” Growing up just eight or so miles from the town of Mamou, I knew what the Holiday was way before I knew what it was. It held a firm spot in my internal geography alongside the rice dryer, the used car lot, the crawfish field—places I could picture perfectly but had never stepped inside. That is, until this past Lundi Gras, when I saw the Holiday— for the very first time—with all its lights aglow, reflecting on the flat surface of the crawfish fields surrounding it. Inside was a wonderland of mirrors, Christmas 28

lights, disco balls, and jukeboxes. The Daiquiri Queens sang in French in the corner atop the glowing multi-colored stage floor, and we joined couples young and old spinning around, and around, and around. At some point, not recognizing any of them as Evangeline Parish natives, I asked my dad, “Where did all of these people come from?” Visiting recently, on the Monday after Hurricane Laura hit, the first thing I notice are cots on the dance floor, which Eugene quickly explained: he, his mother, and his girlfriend had weathered the storm here. “I had to protect my place,” he said. “And it’s much sturdier than a lot of other buildings around here.” In the daylight, the Holiday reveals its age. Half of the floor is pockmarked cement—“That’s from a lot of dancin’, yeah”—the other half badly scratched and stained black and white tile. The wallpaper, an elegant design of gold foil and green mosaic, is wrinkled in some places, stained in others. Some of the mirrors lining the walls are cracked, and part of the bar is wrapped up in duct tape.

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This is the price, though, for preserving portals to the past, and then letting people inside to romp. “These are the original tables, here,” Eugene told me, made by an artisan in Mamou. The other tables, he pointed out, were purchased by T-Ed from the Orleans Hotel’s closing auction. “That was in 1957, and they were twenty years old then.” “See this bar? They don’t build these anymore,” he said. It’s movable: “I could pick this bar up and go put it outside.” And the formica countertop, of course, is original—“My daddy liked pink.” Behind the 1981 wallpaper lives brick walls painted in black light paint, with hand painted palm trees, fellows playing bongos. At another point, Eugene told me, the walls were draped in satin and featured a massive canvas painting depicting an Asian woman with a dragon. The “girls,” as Eugene calls the fifties-style pinup cutouts on the wall, were made by a man in Alexandria by the name of Bill Mirashe, who airbrushed them when airbrush art was just becoming popular. In between the girls are cutouts of pineapples—a nod to

T-Ed’s fondness for the tropical culture of Hawaii, where pineapples are a symbol of hospitality. Eugene pointed to bricks used on a section of the building’s exterior, and told me that they were once part of Mamou High School before it burnt down. T-Ed bought them from the rubble as a favor. The 1940s curved green leather booths lining the wall came from the old Archway Lounge in Opelousas, and the still fully functional electric disco dancefloor—installed by Baham— came from the Golden Spur. “Man, they love to play music on that,” said Eugene. The “LADIES” neon sign above the bathroom came from the Joy Theatre in Mamou, and the murals inside of it—mountainous Eden-like wilderness painted in airy brushstrokes of red, blue, and green upon yellow walls—were offered as a drink tab payment by a broke old Michigan man named Pops. “My daddy always had a soft heart when it came to old men who were divorced or widowed, lost their place to live. Guys who had a drinking problem.” Pieces of Acadiana, all of it, but arranged in such a way—inspired by the

trends of nightclubs in Vegas and on Bourbon Street—that they transport one far, far away from here. The lights, the flair, the evocations of the tropical, the rock and roll music pouring from the jukebox (which, yes, is still there)—it was all about escape, said Eugene. “Daddy wanted you to feel like you were somewhere else. Like you were out of town, away from 6th Street and Mamou and all that. Over here, you came and it was another world.” Growing up in the Holiday as he did—diapers changed on the bar, falling asleep on the pool table, talking French with the regulars—Eugene said he always paid most attention to the pretenders. “The people who wanted to be somebody else at the Holiday. People who had everything, and you’d never know it. People that didn’t have nothin’, but had one good suit. They’d come in here and act like they had everything.” Some patrons, of course, did have everything—at least for a little while. One of the most famous pieces of Holiday Lounge décor was positioned on the roof right over the front door, in between the neon “Holiday” sign and one depicting a stripper named Terry Belinda: the eight-foot tall poster of T-Ed’s good friend, Governor Edwin Edwards. “I guess it was around three o’ clock in the afternoon,” as Baham tells the story. “Flop-flop-flop-flop-flop. The back of T-Ed’s house. He had a little fence. He had a little barn. He had some donkeys and some geese and some chickens, some guineas, and some goats. Here comes the copter, a 412, the big bird they use to transport when coming off the oil platforms. A big bird. It comes sittin’ down, and the barnyard wakes up. First one, the donkey’s over the fence. Then the geese went over. Then the goats. Then the guineas and the chickens. Everything that was in the chicken yard is now in the front yard. Then, boom, it lands. “Now, T-Ed’s put the word out. The whole town’s there. Every dignitary you can think of, every poor coonass and drunk you can think of, was there. They put the thing down, and the entourage starts coming out. Some young men, body guards, come first. Then his pretty girls, his secretaries, coming out with their stiletto heels and tight skirts and all that. And everybody’s got a job to do.

And then there’s Governor Edwards, wearing a cowboy shirt, a bolo tie, blue jeans, pointed boots, and a rodeo buckle this big.” It wasn’t the only time Edwards visited Mamou, but it is the best remembered— an extravagant example of the “Cajun” governor’s cozy relationship with Mamou’s honky-tonk royalty. The two had met when Edwards was a councilman in Crowley, where T-Ed owned some jukeboxes. “There were some parties,” said Eugene. “They had mutual friends. Edwards was moving up, and he was popular. My dad was like, ‘Who’s this guy?’ and Edwards would look at my dad like, ‘Who’s this guy?’ He’d see my daddy with all these good lookin’ women all dressed up. They wanted to meet each other, and they hit it off right away because they both spoke French.” In his first run for governor, T-Ed had been more than happy to show his buddy some support, putting up signs at the lounge and spreading the word. The poster came about the second round, though. “We ended up putting some lights all around it, just like the rest of the lounge,” said Baham. “By the time it was over he had a big halo goin’ around him, neon on the inside. Edwards, he looked like a little angel up there on the roof.” For each of his remaining three terms, Edwards—in all his glory—was the esteemed welcoming committee of the Holiday. And on some occasions, he was inside too, shootin’ the shit with the Mamou crowd. And in all likelihood, playing the slots. “He used to come to our house, Carlos,” said Eugene of the infamous New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello. “One time my little brother made him a cup of coffee, and he gave him a twenty. My daddy said, ‘Nooononono. You give that back. You can’t do that; you don’t owe them people.’” To this day, people around Evangeline Parish refer to T-Ed in whispers as the “Cajun Godfather.” Everyone knew that in the 1940s through the ‘70s, anyone involved in anything coin-operated in Louisiana had to go through the mob. “You couldn’t buy jukeboxes in those days unless you were connected,” said Baham. “The whole business was controlled by the mafia. All they were gonna sell to was the people they were connected to. You had to have enough machines to make an operation.” According to Baham, at the height of it, T-Ed had jukeboxes set up in bars across Bunkie, Opelousas, Lawtell, Ville Platte, Oakdale, Oberlin, Kinder, Elton, Basile, and beyond. And while jukeboxes were his specialty, he also had some pinball and cigarette machines. My dad, who was a teenager in Mamou in the seventies, told me that he always pictured

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The Holiday has worn various different faces over the years, waxing and waning with the fads and the interests of its owner T-Ed, who was constantly inspired by the clubs he’ d visit on Bourbon Street. At one point boasting the silk-covered walls and exotic mural pictured on the right, The Holiday was always meant to be an escape. Photos courtesy of Eugene Manuel.

the Holiday as the kind of place Carlos Marcello’s men would visit, then load down their cars with coins. Marcello is best remembered in Louisiana for two things. The first is his distributing the New York mobster Frank Costello’s illegal coin-operated gambling machines across Louisiana (with, as the story goes, the help and support of Governor Huey P. Long). In the Holiday, one of the first things Eugene pointed out to me is the way the interior corners of the room were made with large indented sections, about the size of a refrigerator, pushed back from the rest of the wall. “One time, I asked my daddy why he did that. He told me, ‘Six hundred dollars more a month.’ The slot machines were right there, and with that indention, you could add one more on each end.” Marcello’s second great legacy comes in the form of widely-spread conspiracy theories dubbing him the mastermind of the November 22, 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Though the allegations were never proven, countless articles and books and investigations tie Marcello to the crime, including a tiny tome called A Rose by Many Other Names (2013), written by investigative journalist from the Eunice News Todd Elliott. The focus of Elliott’s book is Rose Cherami, a prostitute and drug runner with ties to both Marcello and Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassin Jack Ruby, who was found on the side of Highway 190 in Eunice on November 20, 1963. That night, at the Moosa Hospital, Cherami—bloodied and drug-addled— told anyone who would listen that the President of the United States was in grave, grave danger. In a 2017 interview with the Ville Platte Gazette, Elliott said, “The Holiday in Mamou was the first place that I stopped when I was doing my research.” After interviewing Eugene, his mother, and other recognizable characters of Mamou’s nightlife like Dr. Frank Savoy, Jr. and T’aunte Sue (whose son Jimmy married Marcello’s daughter), Elliott felt confident in the probabilities of mob presence in Mamou and in locations

all the way down the “Acadiana Trail” of Highway 190, which ran from New Orleans to Eunice before turning into Louisiana State Highway 13 leading to Mamou, passing right in front of the Holiday. The theories connecting Cherami to Marcello and Marcello to Kennedy and all of this to a larger, more complicated conspiracy run wild and worrisome. Most of it remains speculation, but intriguing and often founded enough to suggest a definite element of the underworld on the mid-to-latetwentieth century Cajun Prairie. And the Holiday—this brightly-lit haven of sin and rock ‘n roll in the middle of nowhere—well, it offers the perfect milieu for long-held secrets. “We’re gonna party at the Holiday all night long. We’re gonna party at the Holiday, get down to the bone. T-Ed is my best friend. We’re gonna party at the Holiday all night long. We’re gonna party at the Holiday, get down to the bone. Crank that jukebox, make it scream. We’re gonna party at the Holiday, blow some steam.” In the twenty-first century, the Holiday Lounge remains as a living, breathing relic of good times gone by. Under Eugene’s preser vationist wing, it lives on as a memory— more novelty than n au g ht y — s h a re d by a community of storytellers captivated by its strange spell. The old regulars are still around— the drunks and the gamblers and the lady-swindlers, the veterans and

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Residential LEDs the farmers and the offshore workers, the jokesters and fighters and Frenchspeaking old men and all the pretty ladies—and their memories have contributed to the living lore of a place existing outside of time, outside of convention. And this mythology, even today, continues to inspire the artists most tied to this peculiar Acadiana region. Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys wrote “Party at the Holiday, All Night Long” as the title track for their 2016 Christmas album. Charivari’s 2005 “A Trip to the Holiday Lounge,” including the song “Le Holiday,” featured album artwork of the band photographed at the lounge’s iconic neon entryway. Even up-and-coming Louisiana musician Renée Reed, twenty one, felt inspired enough by the Holiday’s haunting retro Cajun aura to stage the artwork for her upcoming debut album on its dancefloor, in the Archway booths, against the bathroom mural. And just before I visited Eugene there, on the Friday after Hurricane Laura hit, Cajun musician and producer Joel Savoy staged a Facebook Live fiddle performance with Cameron Fontenot on the unmistakable disco dance floor. “Joel kind of saved my place, in a way,” said Eugene. In the early 2000s, with

a trickle of the business it once had, the Holiday had become little more than a dusty home for, as Eugene put it, the “sad local drunks.” “Joel said, ‘I love this bar man, let’s do something else with it.’” Using his connections in the Louisiana music scene, Savoy invited bands from New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, and beyond. And with the bands—Kyle Huval and the Dixie Club Ramblers, The Lost Bayou Ramblers, Feufollet, and others—came their crowds. “I didn’t know most of the people in here,” said Eugene. Growing up a Eunice boy who spent a lot of time in Mamou, Savoy said that the Holiday always lived on in his mind as an example of “how wacky and funky everything else in Mamou was.” “I wanted to share this gem in the middle of rice fields on the edge of a teeny little Cajun town with my friends,” he said. And I get it. As a creative person also captivated by the dynamic culture of this prairie, I knew as soon as I walked through the door that Lundi Gras that I had to know more about this place, had to do more with it—this world within a world, this time outside of time, hiding so indiscreetly on the far side of Mamou. h

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W H AT D O Y O U S E E ?

E-Soteric Endeavors

TAROT READER CELESTE MOTT USES INTUITION TO INTERPRET ENERGY REMOTELY Story and photos by Alexandra Kennon

n late January, when people still gathered in bars and COVID-19 was no more than a distant news story from across the ocean, I hired Celeste Mott to do tarot readings for my best friend Paige’s bachelorette party. Just off of Bourbon Street, but seemingly a world away from the neon signs and promotors purveying “HUGE ASS BEERS,” my fellow bridal partiers and I sipped absinthe-based cocktails in Belle Époque, a newlyopened speakeasy tucked into the back of the Old Absinthe House, and awaited Mott’s arrival. One of the oldest bars on the famous—and infamous—stretch, the Old Absinthe House claims to have served the green, anise-flavored libation for longer continually than any other bar in the United States. Belle Époque, the recently-opened speakeasy component, offers a more upscale and refined experience than the front bar: vintage absinthe fountains, cocktail waiters, elegant small plates, and absinthe-infused drinks served in bubbling glassware that looks like it belongs more appropriately in a laboratory or head shop than in a bar. Even for a Saturday night on Bourbon Street, it was not overcrowded, but the savvy smattering of congregants present generated a low hum of conversation, harmonizing dreamily with the lounge music that played. We contributed, chatting excitedly, wondering what our cards would reveal upon Mott’s arrival. Upon her entrance, the reader introduced herself in a unique accent 32

built from being born in the United Kingdom, spending formative years in Australia, and finally making New Orleans home in 2012. With dark hair and clothing contrasting her fair skin, eccentric jewelry and cat eye spectacles perched on her slim nose, Mott carries herself with the air and wisdom of a woman who has lived many years beyond her actual thirty-four. Time being of the essence, she asked the bride

on her couch at that very moment. With each card, the accuracies became more eerily specific, down to personal circumstances we had discussed just that morning over brunch, long before joining Mott at the bar. Having grown up with a mother borderline obsessed with tarot, I have personally long harbored a great deal of skepticism toward the practice. That night in the French Quarter, though,

“THE CARDS CAN ILLUMINATE PATHS AND HURDLES AND OBSTACLES AND POTENTIAL, BUT NOTHING CAN REALLY TELL YOU WHAT IS ONE HUNDRED PERCENT GOING TO HAPPEN, BECAUSE YOU MAKE CHOICES, AND THAT’S WHAT DICTATES WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU.” —CELESTE MOTT to shuffle the tarot deck, and the readings began. With each reading across the absinthe fountain, we grew more in awe of Mott’s abilities. Her insight was tailored not only to the personality of the girl whose cards were being read, but to elements of our work and personal lives she could not possibly have been aware of. “You’re the type of person who wants to mother everyone, sometimes to your own detriment—you might even bring home strangers if they need a place to stay.” Surely enough, the bridesmaid addressed had someone down on their luck staying

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I observed that Mott’s power does not solely exist in her psychic abilities, but in her thorough understanding of psychology and philosophy. Her capacity for deep empathy translates to intuition. In those brief moments of connection with her, with the cards, it seemed she was able to truly see each of us—not just our persons; but our hopes, our fears, and in ways even the arc of our lives. This begs the question: is it possible to experience the kind of profound connection required to read tarot cards without physical presence? Without sharing space? As so many aspects of

our lives shift to virtual platforms, I was interested to learn that Mott has transitioned her tarot reading business to be entirely remote, and became curious to find out just how she is able to take a practice seemingly so dependent upon person-to-person connection, and still enlighten and empower clients from afar via Zoom video chat, audio, or even strictly text. The Monday after Hurricane Laura tore through Southwest Louisiana I gave her a call; she had spent the weekend conducting runs of relief supplies to evacuees staying in New Orleans, and doing one-card virtual readings in exchange for donations to those impacted by the storm. When she could not schedule any more readings, the donations continued to pour in, and in total she raised $2149 to purchase supplies for evacuees. It’s no surprise that someone possessing professional-grade empathy felt so compelled to help. It turns out that for Mott, whose career is largely reliant on being highly sensitive to energies and emotions, the transition to remote readings was much easier than I would have expected. “I’ll be honest with you,” Mott confided, “the bigger challenge for me has always been inperson.” She began her professional tarot practice fifteen years ago from Australia giving readings online via liveperson. com, which has since rebranded as kasamba.com and was one of the first major “psychic hotline” websites created to connect psychics with clients

Like her practice, Mott’s spirituality is somewhat eclectic. Here is a small shrine centered on a figurine of the ancient Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, thought to be the basis for the Greek mytholigical figure Persephone.

regardless of their position on the globe. Until around five years ago when Mott began regularly incorporating in-person readings into her schedule, the vast majority of her business was remote— long before COVID necessitated it. “So, it’s been a very easy transition for me to go back to long-distance,” Mott said. “I find I can get overloaded in person. The energy’s very intense, and very overwhelming. So sometimes having a little bit of physical space is helpful for me.” The reasons are not exclusively metaphysical: Mott is immunecompromised, so for the safety of herself and her clients, she is only conducting readings in-person on a very selective basis. Another factor contributing to Mott’s preference for remote readings is her age—despite her apparent wisdom, she qualifies as a Millennial. “I grew up on the Internet,” she said, “And so I’ve grown up communicating with people through text.” She’s also a writer, which of course helps when it comes to written communication, too. From the other side of the world, she’s long been drawn to New Orleans’ literature and music and moved to the Crescent City to obtain a Masters in Fine Art in Poetry from University of New Orleans. She released her chapbook Lucid: A Micro Memoir with Porkbelly Press earlier this year under the name Kia Alice Groom, and in it explores her extensive experience with lucid dreaming. “Dreamwork,” as she calls it, is another service she regularly

provides her clients remotely. “I’ve always been really fascinated by dreams. I dream very vividly every night and I always remember them,” Mott said. “And so, I love being able to do that for clients, because I find a lot of my clients have these very vivid, spiritually-impactful dreams and they want to know: ‘What does this mean, why is this happening?’” Mediumship, or the practice of mediating communication between the living and the spirits of the dead, and past-life work are also components of her practice. Since we’re discussing the contemporary role of tarot, it is also important to acknowledge its history. Tarot cards date back to the 1430s in Italy, and were created simply as playing cards. While many varieties existed, the standard modern deck is based on either the Venetian or Piedmontese tarot, which consists of seventy-eight cards divided into the major arcana and minor arcana. The minor arcana cards are divided into four suits, much like standard playing cards, but a bit different: typically wands, cups, swords, and pentacles. Each suit contains four court cards (king, queen, knight, and jack) as well as ten numbered cards— sound familiar? The illustrations on the major arcana cards depict various characters and forces, frequently based on characters from the Christian Bible. “The kind of Christianity that people were practicing in fifteenth century Italy––there was also a lot of mysticism

leave your Pack your bags. and baggage behind. Get away from the hustle, bustle and hassles, and find yourself in Natchez. Breakfast on the balcony. Sunset on the bluff. Dinner downtown. We’re keeping everything clean and wearing our masks. Relax and enjoy your moment. Get the latest safe travel information at VisitNatchez.org/Responsibly.

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E-Tarot continued ...

Mott conducts remote tarot readings, in addition to other spiritual services, from her local-art-laden home studio in Gentilly; combining centuries-old icons and practices with modern technology and style.

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involved in it. People at that time were fascinated by astrology, and they were fascinated by this more mystical version of Christianity,” Mott noted. “And I mean, Catholicism is actually pretty mystical when you get down to it.” One misconception of tarot, traced back to the beginning of the 1780s in France, is that the cards themselves have some inherent power or spirituality. “It’s just a deck of cards,” Mott emphasized, “And people use them differently depending on who is using them.” She also noted that neither the cards nor the reader have the ability to see the future, as many perceive is the case. “That’s not what we do really, this idea of telling the future, because free will is something that people have,” Mott explained wryly. “So, the cards can illuminate paths and hurdles and obstacles and potential, but nothing can really tell you what is one hundred percent going to happen, because you make choices, and that’s what dictates what’s going to happen to you.” Aware of my skepticism, Mott explained to me candidly that there are different types of readings that tarot readers and other professional psychics engage in: Cold reading, hot reading, and psychic reading. Cold reading is something we all do, regardless of our line of work. It includes picking up on

physical cues and body language— certain inferences can be made, for instance, if someone is wearing a wedding ring, or recently dyed their hair. “I would say most tarot readers, including myself, use a little bit of cold reading as well [as psychic reading],” Mott explained. “I don’t necessarily mean to, but yeah, I’m going to notice things…as opposed to when you’re reading for someone if you’re doing long distance, all you’re getting is intuition.” Next to the more innocent-natured cold reading is hot reading—more intentionally deceptive, hot reading entails doing research on a client ahead of time to make the reading seem more accurate. This could entail running a Google search, having a plant ask questions before the session, or plain, oldfashioned Facebook stalking. The third category is what Mott has built her career on: psychic reading. “Psychic reading is in a totally separate category,” she told me. “That’s when you’re not necessarily using cold reading techniques, you don’t know anything about the person, it is all coming through intuitively or through some kind of sixth sense or additional skill.” In an industry based on something so intangible, where fraudulent practices like hot reading are rampant, Mott’s countless client testimonials point to her talents

[

as a genuine psychic reader: “She is the most honest and accurate reading I have ever received,” one reviewer wrote on Facebook. “No gimmicks, no schemes, just a pure honest reading.” Many others echo the sentiment: “No gimmicks, Celeste is the real deal!” So, while the backdrop of a French Quarter speakeasy and the physical presence of a spectacled card reader set an excellent scene, it seems that is all extraneous. In the absence of physical cues, when conducting readings remotely via audio or even text, all that remains is intuition. “I think it makes it a more powerful energetic connection,” Mott said of the practice. “It’s kind of like if you have a disability where one of your senses is shut off: like if you’re a blind person, your sense of hearing becomes way more acute. If I can’t see you, and I can’t hear your voice, I can only read your energy.” And, when it comes to energy, Mott is a very avid reader. h

Set up a virtual reading, purchase a copy of Lucid: A Micro Memoir, or read more about the art of tarot and other mystical practices on Mott’s blog at celestemott.com. She is also on Instagram and YouTube as @celestemott and on Facebook at Tarot by Celeste.

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n 2010, Victoria Loomis was a recently-divorced newly-turned vegetarian just starting culinary school; in 2020, she spends at least two months out of the year at a hunting camp and has become an advocate for ethical meat consumption. The years in between have seen her in restaurant kitchens, hunting lodges, taking a year off professional cooking to paint, and now working with friends on a series of pop-up drive-in movie events, exploring the boundaries of hospitality in a changed world. Sit with her for an hour—over a meal she’s prepared, if you can swing it—and you’ll see how this transition, dramatic on the surface, fits into her story of pursuing creativity where it leads and developing and communicating reverence for the natural world. 36

I arrived at the hunting lodge where Loomis bases herself during hunting season, just past the edge of GPS coverage in rural Concordia Parish. She had called the previous day to ask what I wanted to eat; I’m bored to death of my own cooking and of my choices in takeout, so I begged her to choose, and I had worked up an appetite on the long but pretty drive from New Orleans. Bless her soul, she served frog legs and okra: two foods I adore but am too much of a coward to make. The frog legs were marinated in lemon juice and fresh thyme, and lightly dusted in flour before being sautéed in a cast iron skillet of ghee. They were the best I’d ever had—you’d give them to someone if you needed to explain why people eat frog legs—and the oven-roasted okra was perfectly balanced between light

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char and vegetal freshness. Loomis was the first chef I’ve ever interviewed who sat down and ate with me, making the experience a meal shared with a new friend—it made me dare to accept an offer of seconds. Loomis grew up in Concordia Parish, a long sliver of delta across the river from Natchez. To attend the Louisiana Culinary Institute, she and her two thensmall children moved to the Capitol City, commuting back towards home to work in tourism-centered Natchez on the weekends. Her work in area kitchens, punctuated with a short stint at a private hunting lodge, was a mixed experience. Like most people who cook well, from the Michelin-starred to the proud home baker, Loomis enjoys serving, understanding that “cooking” truly extends to placing the meal before

the eater. Even her skill and education, though, didn’t insulate her from sexism, the low pay many service jobs offer, and a certain kind of autopilot complacency some kitchens fall into. She described one head chef as telling her “exactly what to do so I wouldn’t have to work hard”— not the advice the young, creative cook was after. In a part of the country where many people enter the woods as soon as they can walk themselves to a deer blind, Loomis didn’t begin hunting until her mid-twenties. Her vegetarianism had been inspired largely by the ick-factor of modern industrial farming—“I still don’t eat chicken”—but reality intervened. Concordia Parish is, by the common definition, something of a food desert, with limited options for stores. In nature, though, it’s anything but,

with a climate urging plants to prosper and ample undeveloped space for wild animals to roam. So, to better feed her family, Loomis began to harvest what she saw around her. Over the course of our conversation, she used words like “harvest” and “take” when describing the food she hunts or forages, rather than the more aggressive “kill” or “bag”. The main sources of meat available in the area are frogs, ducks, fish, and deer—the frog legs I had so enjoyed had come from a neighbor’s crawfish pond that I had passed on my way in. Louisiana law limits frog collection to only two mating-critical months in the spring, and the ponds produce more “fruit” than the family and friends around Loomis’ table can put a real dent in. Deer, likewise, abound—though last season, Loomis only took two. She criticized showy hunters who are only in it to score big-antlered bucks, instead of culling older deer of both sexes to manage the population. And besides, “people don’t know how much meat is on a deer.” One of these, she took apart herself. “Processing plants get backed up, and some people only get out to hunt one weekend or two. I get it,” she explained, “but for me, I wanted to get the most meat and to be honest with the process.” It took her about three hours, resulting in a haul of venison, impressed peers, and

a deepened respect for the natural world that sustains us. I wanted to know about the meat. As with most mammals, the backstrap and the tenderloin are particularly good, and you can make “ham” from the haunches. I pressed—surely there was a secret delicious deer morsel? “Well,” she said. “… I cooked the heart in a red wine and peppercorn reduction. It was really good!” It refreshed me to hear Loomis talk about the purity of feeding herself and those she loved directly from the natural world, but I also knew I’d get hungry on the drive back and buy gas station candy. What should the rest of us do? How should we start paying more attention to what we eat and where it comes from? “Plant a seed,” she answered. “Does that sound too basic? Plant a seed, fish. Go somewhere where you don’t have control.” She talked about taking her dog “duck hunting” without firing a shot, instead observing her black lab, Elli, and seeing what she made of the surrounding nature. This is the strongest theme that emerged during my wide-ranging conversation with Loomis: accepting oneself as a part of nature, subject to its changes—even its threats—but also present to make use of its gifts. h

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Culture

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NATCHEZ’S PRINCE AMONG

42 SMALL TOWN

HEROES

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SLAVES

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LOUISIANA’S

MONSTERS

UNDER

SPIRITUAL WATERS

LEGEND & LEGACY FULL MOON

HISTORY

A Slave Called “Prince”

THE LEGACY OF PRINCE ABD AL RAHMAN IBRAHIMA LIVES ON IN NATCHEZ AND FAR, FAR BEYOND

By Jordan LaHaye

n a genealogical study conducted in 2007 by Natchez historian David Dreyer, he estimated that there must be hundreds, and likely thousands, of living individuals across the world whose veins flow with the blood of warriors and kings, as well as American slaves. This is because their ancestor, Prince Abd al Rahman Ibrahima, was all of these things. His descendants are rooted, with each their own histories, across the historic trail that his tragic life followed: from the kingdom of Futa Jalon (what is now Guinea) to the cotton fields of Natchez, Mississippi and across the American South, and then finally to Liberia, where his journey came to an end. The story of Natchez’s West African Prince has long been told as part of the city’s plentiful trove of fascinating histories, especially in recent years as the town has increasingly made more concentrated efforts to incorporate African American narratives into its renowned presentations of the American South. Terry Alford’s 1977 biography on Ibrahima, Prince Among Slaves: The True Story of an African Prince Sold into Slavery in the American South was the first to offer a comprehensive and contextual picture of the life of Natchez’s somewhat mythical Prince. The story has been revived in contemporary conversation in New York Times best-selling travel writer Richard Grant’s The Deepest South of All, released on September 1, which comes in the wake of a national civil rights movement calling for an honest reckoning with America’s past to more effectively address racial inequalities and injustices in the present. As Grant explores in his book, Natchez itself exists as a fascinating and convoluted microcosm—or as Grant puts it “a barrel-strength distillation”—of America’s grappling with its own history, how that history has been told, and why 38

it has been told this way. A city that has built its cultural identity around its claim to possessing the greatest concentration of antebellum homes in the South, Natchez’s long-held historical narrative has, for over a century, often strategically omitted the less elegant and pleasantseeming elements of its past, such as the

Natchez—which must necessarily begin with an acknowledgement of history as it was, rather than what white people would prefer for it to be––is predestined to be an arduous and complicated one. But as Grant posits in The Deepest South of All, the work has begun. Over the course of the last decade, intentional

Abduhl Rahhahman by H. Inman, engraved by T. Illman. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Illustration from The Colonizationist and Journal of Freedom, Boston: G.W. Light, 1834. Printed below portrait in Arabic: “Facsimile of the Moorish prince”

enslaved people who built those homes and the wealth they represent—both of which are still in large part held by the city’s white families. With such a deeply entrenched and widely dispersed version of history to deconstruct, the road to racial unity in

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efforts have been initiated by the city’s leaders to bring to light the role of slavery in Natchez history through tours, presentations, signage, and adjustments to existing programs to better incorporate African American history. “I think it is interesting,” said Grant in

a recent interview. “The nation is having all of these conversations right now, but Natchez has been having them far before all of this. People say that Natchez is stuck in the past, and in some ways it is. But they’ve been talking very seriously about African American history and how to incorporate slavery into the town’s narrative for ten to fifteen years. They were somewhat ahead of the game.” These efforts, though, have been met by challenges that include continued racial tensions, resistance from traditionalists, and a series of wellintentioned but poorly-considered clashes of efforts to simply insert the horrors of slavery into existing programs designed around the beauty and civility of what some still perceive as “the good old days” before the Civil War. Another challenge, of course, is the fact that history from the time period Natchez most often retells was written by white men; before the Civil War most Black people were prevented from becoming literate. Alongside the troves of archives documenting the lives of Natchez’s slaveholders, there is almost nothing on what life was like for the tens of thousands of men and women who were enslaved there. “Natchez, to me, seemed more haunted by slavery than anywhere else I had been in America,” said Grant. “I wanted to know what it was like to be enslaved there. I wanted to know that point of view, and I couldn’t really find it anywhere.” Ibrahima stands as the exception. “His reputation as a celebrity brought him to be interviewed at length by several different people,” said Grant. “And there are newspaper accounts, letters, all brought together thanks to Alford’s remarkable research.” His status as one of the only Natchez slaves whose life’s details are knowable is what ultimately brought Grant to place him at the forefront of his book.

A Prince Among Slaves

of Natchez newspaper editor Andrew Marschalk, who he impressed with his ability to read and write in Arabic, thus convincing him of his royalty, Ibrahima was able to attain the attention of two of the most powerful men in the world at the time: Secretary of State Henry Clay and President John Quincy Adams. At Marschalk’s urging, they agreed to purchase “Prince” from Foster and see him returned to his home country. On April 8, 1828, Ibrahima and his wife, an American-born slave called Isabella,

and Isabella’s two eldest sons, Simon and Levi (or Lee) were purchased from the Fosters and sent to Liberia, where they met their mother and lived out the rest of their lives in freedom.

When Abd al Rahman Ibrahima arrived in New Orleans in 1788— coming off of the slave ship Africa after a harrowing transatlantic voyage with 170 other men, women, and children—he, A Royal Legacy as Grant writes, was rather unimpressed One hundred and fifty years later, with America. The highly educated against the tumultuous background of warrior prince, then aged twenty-six, the Liberian Civil War, a thirteen-yearhad studied everything from astronomy old Liberian child listened to his greatto law in the great Islamic cities of Jenne great-grandmother tell the stories of his and Timbuktu. He was fluent in five ancestors, of the warrior prince sold into African languages, slavery in America, and could read and then returned. And “NATCHEZ, TO ME, SEEMED MORE HAUNTED write in Arabic. In how his son, Simon, BY SLAVERY THAN ANYWHERE ELSE I comparison to even also their ancestor, his own kingdom HAD BEEN IN AMERICA,” SAID GRANT. “I became a great of eight thousand in leader in the new WANTED TO KNOW WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO Futa Jallon, one of country of Liberia. BE ENSLAVED THERE. I WANTED TO KNOW the most prominent, As an adult, THAT POINT OF VIEW, AND I COULDN’T highly-developed Artemus Gaye kingdoms in REALLY FIND IT ANYWHERE.” immigrated to West Africa, the America, and —RICHARD GRANT outposts along the eventually began to Mississippi River seek out details of felt primitive. his family history. After being captured in battle, departed from Natchez for the last time. Searching for information about his marched one hundred miles, and sold to For the next year, traveling through ancestor Simon, he quickly learned a European slaver as cargo of the Africa, Northern cities, he gained notoriety the ugly nature of American slavery: as the heir to the Fulani throne arrived across the United States as the “Prince property, there would be no true record in the new world chained and hungry, of Timbuktu” and took advantage of the of the man beyond bills of sale and a list his entire identity effectively erased attention, hoping to raise enough money of passengers on a ship bound for Liberia and seemingly irretrievable. He was to purchase freedom for his thirteen in 1830. He did, though, eventually transported from the Windward Islands children before leaving for Africa. In the come across Alford’s book. “It was to New Orleans, and then finally to wake of the election of President Andrew incredible,” he said in a recent interview, Fort Panmure de Natchez, the Spanish Jackson, though, he was ultimately of discovering Ibrahima’s story. “It is the headquarters of the Natchez district, unsuccessful and departed for Africa history of our family and it is the history where he was purchased by a tobacco with Isabella aboard the Harriet on of our world.” From there, Gaye was on farmer named Thomas Foster, a man February 7, 1829. They arrived on the to Natchez. exactly his age and far less educated. Liberian coast thirty-seven days later, In a 2003 interview with Voice of Together with his former military but Ibrahima would never see Futa Jalon, America, Gaye said of the pilgrimage, commander Samba, who had been nor any of his children, again. Only four “God, it was like a sacred moment captured with him, Ibrahima’s price was months after their arrival, he died of in my life. As if I’d been longing, $930. illness in Monrovia. unconsciously, to come to that place. When he tried to explain to Foster Shortly after his death, with the funds I could almost feel the presence of my who he was, and that his father would he had raised before his departure, his ancestors and my grandmother with me. pay mightily for his return home, Foster hardly blinked. When he looked Beverly Adams is a direct descendant of both Thomas Foster and of Abd al Rahman Ibrahima.“Knowing that legacy at the man in front of him, gave me a sense of pride, but also gave me a sense of who I am as far as what my purpose in life is, what I am to do,” she all he could see was property. said. Here she is pictured in front of Thomas Foster’s grave. Photo by Ben Hillyer from Natchez the Magazine. After a failed attempt at escape, Ibrahima surrendered to his fate, drawing on his Islamic belief that this was all part of Allah’s will. For the next forty years, Ibrahima, who came to be known as “Prince,” became a valuable asset to Foster’s plantation, alongside a slave population that eventually numbered over one hundred other Africans. Perhaps even more remarkable than the story of how a West African prince became a slave in Natchez is how, despite all odds, he made it back to Africa. With the help

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A Slave Called “Prince” continued ... Left: From John Trumbull Papers at Yale University. In Arabic, then translated into English: “Abdul Rahman Son of Ibrahim—I born in the city Timbuctoo. I lived there till I was five years old. Moved to country Fouta-Jallo—I lived in the capital Timbo (Teembo). I lived there till I was twenty five years old—I [indecipherable] prisoner in the war. [Indecipherable] They took me to Dominique (W.J.) took me to New Orleans—took me to Natchez—I sold to Mr. Thomas Foster. I lived there forty year. I got liberated last March, 1828. October 10, 1828.” Right: Variation of the Fatihah presented as the Lord’s Prayer, December 1828, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia. Written in Arabic, with a note in English at the bottom, saying: “The foregoing copy of The Lord’s Prayer was written by Prince Abduhl Rahhahman in Arabic at my request and in my presence on this 29 day of December 1828 in Philadelphia, at which time and place he related to me in detail the circumstances of his abduction from his native country and his remaining for forty years in slavery near Natchez.”

And I tell you, my experience in Natchez brought a deep sense of connection to the history of Africa and the history of America.” In the spring of 2006, Gaye organized a “Freedom Festival” in Natchez, marking the 175th anniversary of Ibrahima and Isabella’s emancipation, and invited every known descendant of not only Ibrahima and Isabella but also the Fosters and anyone else involved in the story, including Beverly Adams. Adams said that her descendance from the Foster family had been long known, if slightly disdainful. But with the making of the 2007 documentary based on Alford’s book, which actively sought out the descendants of both the Fosters and Ibrahima, she learned that she was also a descendant of Ibrahima’s son,

named in reclamation of the title with which he was mocked as a slave, Prince. “It filled in some gaps,” she said. “Some of the things we eat, some of the things my mom heard as a child, would ring a bell. Like we had all heard of Timbuktu, but didn’t really know why or what it was. Knowing that legacy gave me a sense of pride, but also gave me a sense of who I am as far as what my purpose in life is, what I am to do.” Though she no longer lives in the area, for years Adams was deeply involved in the Natchez community, especially when it came to race relations. She’s taken part in reenactments, tours, and discussions on this part of Natchez history, and has a forthcoming children’s book on the subject, titled Chronicles of the Life of Prince Abdul-Rahman Ibrahima: A

Journey through Slavery, from Timbo to Natchez. “It started because I was doing the tours and wanted to hand out a brochure, but it ended up becoming this little book,” she said. “I want to be able to continue the work of telling this story.” As places like Natchez—places of stories—are challenged to critically re-examine their historical narratives, telling stories like Ibrahima’s, as rare as they are, is imperative. The prince’s life is not remarkable simply because he was a prince. His life is remarkable because he was a slave, and his story––unlike the stories of the hundreds of thousands of other enslaved peoples––survived despite it. It survived to be passed on for generations and to serve as a testament to the cruelty of American slavery, even to the mighty. Ibrahima is more than the novelty of Natchez’s West African Prince. He is an example of the lengths a man

of color, even one with education and power, had to go to convince anyone he and his children were worth something more than their capacity for labor. But Ibrahima’s story also survived for his ancestors, and for all the ancestors of the Africans who lost everything in the name of American slavery. It survives as a legacy of majesty, dignity, and perseverance in an archive of so many irretrievable legacies. “I want little Black children, and big ones and adults, to know that we weren’t just slaves,” said Adams of her book. “We weren’t always second-class citizens. We were kings and queens in another country, which we were taken from. And even though a terrible circumstance brought Ibrahima to be enslaved, he persevered and survived, and through it all maintained his honor. There’s pride for us in that.” h

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E S S AY

Of Myths & Legends ROUGAROUS, LOUP-GAROUS, AND SACKABILLIES TOO by Ed Cullen

efore we could anticipate cool October air and running through the night at Halloween, there was always, for Louisiana school children, the heat of September in new blue jeans and the hyperbole of classroom calendars and bulletin board art. We never tired of being tricked by calendar illustrations made in Maine. We took the illustrator’s word that somewhere it snowed enough at Christmas for large horses to pull car-size sleighs down snow-filled country lanes and over fields of oceanic whiteness. Fall in Louisiana comes just in the nick of time. Summers are long, hot, moist. The heat reduces the speed of children and dogs to a slow trot. A quickened pace is encouraged only by the threat of a thunderstorm or the promise of lunch. Thunderstorms are a welcomed event. The wind picks up as the temperature drops. In the days before air conditioning, attic fans pulled air into the house. With the first sounds of thunder, my French grandmother turned off the big fan mounted in the attic and began moving from room to room closing windows. She held the belief that lightning followed a draft. My grandmother grew up on a farm, educated in formal French and steeped in Cajun lore. My sister and I learned family myths in two languages, three if you make the distinction between so-called “book French” and colloquial Cajun. For my Cajun French grandfather’s people, a werewolf meant to keep children home at night was the rougarou. My grandmother’s refined French name for the creature was loup-garou, which made sense. Loup is wolf in French. By the time I could read, my grandmother had, from lack of use, lost the ability to read French and never learned to read English. Her smockpocket-size phone book held only

numbers, no names. Her sevens had bars through them, a holdover from her education at the hands of recent Europeans. Her myths were as homegrown as the okra in her gumbos. My sister and I didn’t believe we’d become insane if we slept in the light of a full moon, but my grandmother’s belief gave us pause. My bed was beside a window that filled with moonlight. Curtains billowed inward as the attic fan sucked moist night air. My moonlit bedroom with its waving curtains was spooky, but mornings I seemed as sane as the night before. My grandmother taught me to play poker and bourré by the light of holy candles during storms. Oh, the electricity hadn’t been knocked out. The candles offered protection against tree limbs crashing through the ceiling. I peeled playing cards from my fingertips in the still, damp air. I might have left the likes of the loup-garou in childhood had Betsy not become our nextdoor neighbor. Betsy’s childhood bug-a-boo was the Sackabilly, a creature her grandmother Mae said lurked in the Pensacola night. Mae was intentionally vague when it came to describing the Sackabilly. She liked misbehaving children to provide their own horrific details. Someone bad moving around in the night with a sack was a good start. The first time Betsy reported sounds in the night in her back yard or, possibly, between our houses, I assured her I’d check outside the next time my wife awoke me asking, “Did you hear that?” What do you think made the noise? I asked Betsy. “I don’t know,” she said. “I hope it wasn’t the Sackabilly.” Great. I added a goblin to my list of possibilities when things went bump in the night. h

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LOUISIANA LEGENDS

Something About Church Point

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS RURAL LOUISIANA TOWN THAT INSPIRES SUCH PROFOUND TALENT AND ACHIEVEMENT? By Viola Fontenot

efore the pandemic, lively conversations en Français were often heard among the locals and visitors of La Table Français at Dwyer’s Café in Lafayette. On one such morning, I—a frequent attendee—mentioned that Church Point, my hometown, was likewise the acclaimed Cajun musician Reggie Matte’s. Rippling comments ensued. “Church Point is also the hometown of former Louisiana Poet Laureate Darrell Bourque and Acadian historian Barry Ancelet,” another exclaimed. So, what is it about Church Point? I wondered— that these three icons of Cajun culture come from the same town. What is it about the Church Point region that keeps its people so passionately plugged into their French Louisiana culture? What are the fertile grounds that influenced these “doers and producers” of francophone scholars, renowned poets, Cajun musicians, and authors? Is it in the land, the grand boi, or the bayou water? Is it rooted in the mystic souls of the Cajuns and Créoles, with our strong family values and traditions, mixed with tenacity and stubborn endurance? During Lent you pray “The Way of the Cross,” recite a rosary, then have a Cajun jam of lost-love

drinking songs. You attend Mass on Sunday mornings; in the afternoon you dance to a “fais do-do.” As for myself, I know to my core that my identity as a writer was deeply shaped by my eighteen years spent living and working in rural Church Point as a cotton and sweet potato sharecropper’s daughter in the 1930s and ‘40s. We spoke only French, moved often, always to four-room cabins near a bayou and the big woods. No electricity, no running water. Our only transportation was a mule-driven wagon. My daddy was an accordion player, so Cajun music was always a part of my life. After high school graduation I got married, took a job as file clerk at a bank, and soon worked my way up to Assistant Vice President, a seventeen-year career. In retirement, I enrolled in the 2009-2010 University of Louisiana at Lafayette writing class for seniors, and sat down to tell my story, which culminated in A Cajun Girl’s Sharecropping Years (2018). But what about the others? Church Point has its share of well-known personalities, but I decided to talk to these three about the phenomenon that is our shared hometown.

Photo by Philip Gould.

Barry Jean Ancelet I started on Hwy 93 in Scott, making my way to the home of perhaps the most acclaimed authority on the Acadian culture of the twentieth century. Currently serving as Professor Emeritus of Francophone Studies and the Center for Louisiana Folklore Research Fellow at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Ancelet has published dozens of books and hundreds of articles and reports on folklore, music, and the preservation of this unique culture. What were some early life influences that helped you produce such successful scholarly achievements? “I was born in the old Church Point Sanitarium, which is where my mother’s physician was sending his expectant mothers at the time. My early schooling included French classes. My mother went to beauty school. After school, I hung around

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Dad’s barber shop where I listened to tall tales and jokes. When my father chose the music for the record player, it was always Iry Lejeune. My summers were spent at my father’s sister’s house where almost everyone’s first language was French, so I spoke it too. It was so easy to study French in college! I worked on the edge with improvised approaches trying to understand the oral French of Cajuns and Créoles. Very little of it could be found on library shelves as few persons had the opportunity to learn to read or write in French. Someone had to start writing in Louisiana French! So, I wrote the first book of its kind, Cajun and Creole Folktales (1994).” What words of encouragement can you offer Louisiana’s newer generations in terms of honoring and exploring their cultures? “This old warrior is still around writing books and telling stories; my last lecture has not yet been written. Never be afraid to reach out and be surprised!”

Photo by Akasha Rabut.

Darrell Bourque I met Bourque in Lafayette, where he currently serves as Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The former Poet Laureate of Louisiana (2007-2011), Bourque received Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Humanist of the Year award just last year. He’s published several books of poetry, and much of his work has been centered on Acadian and Créole themes. “What influences did life in Church Point have in shaping you to become an award-winning poet and teacher? “I think it starts with the land. I was born in Church Point and still live in the family home on a wooded remnant of the Bourques’ original three-hundredacre farm. My family spoke English and French. Family times centered around food, Sunday dinners, a boucherie, making ice cream with storytelling as the entertainment. I credit my French language in big part

Photo by David Simpson

to my great-grandmother whom I lived with during high school. She refused to speak English to me, but made herself understood. On the corner of the Bourque property was a dance club where I heard Cajun music and the early sounds of zydeco! Music tells its own poetic story!” What reflections can you share with the younger generation? “‘Poverty creates its own richness.’ After high school, I got a job delivering milk, then selling shoes. It was not a life I wanted, so I found a way to go to USL and studied English. I had no clue that writing and poetry would become a career.”

Reggie Matte Catching Matte before a gig with his band, the Jambalaya Cajun Band, at Randol’s Dancehall in Lafayette, we discussed his two long-standing careers: office clerk/salesman and as a multi-talented Cajun singer-song writer and musician. Matte plays the accordion, guitar, harmonica, and drums, and among his many awards, he has been named the French Music Association’s “Le Cadjin” for Song of the Year, Best Accordionist, and Album of the Year. What life experiences and influences helped you in your work? “I was born in the old Presbyterian hospital in Church Point and raised in the country. Following graduation from Church Point High, I attended a technical school in Arkansas. My first job was in the office at Church Point Wholesale, and then I Interestingly, Ancelet and Bourque come into the picture via the academic with multiple university degrees. In contrast, Matte’s pathway, like my own, was “Earn while you Learn.” Four dominant connections appear in these careers: French language, strong family life, storytelling, and Cajun music. Each of us attend and participate at Louisiana festivals such as Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, preside and tell stories at cultural events at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, play at Randol’s Dancehall and other national and international events, and speak Français at Dwyer’s Café. h

managed a Radio Shack for four years. I switched to salesman, first with NAPA Tools, then Istre Cajun Foods, and next Savoie’s Cajun Food Products. But I was eight years old when I received my first accordion as a Christmas present. I was influenced by my grandfather, Thomas Matte, who gave me accordion lessons at our family visits on Sunday. I played my first dance job when I was thirteen, and was with the Church Point Playboys for twenty years. I continue to play with Jambalaya Cajun Band, which I joined in 1987.” Any advice for our next generation? “Practice, practice. Work and learn.”

Viola Fontenot, who was born in rural Church Point, spoke only French until first grade. A retired assistant Vice President of a bank, she enrolled in a 2009 “Life Writing” class and wrote her stories. In 2018, Fontenot’s first book, A Cajun Girls Sharecropping Years, was published by University Press of Mississippi. It was awarded the 2019 Book of the Year by Louisiana Endowment for Humanities. “Never give up,” says Viola.

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C U LT U R A L E X P L O R AT I O N S

It’s in the Water

IN LOUISIANA, SPIRITUALITY REMAINS INTERTWINED IN OUR LANDSCAPE

by Lauren Heffker

n Delacroix, Louisiana, there’s a point at which you reach the “END OF THE WORLD,” as the cheerfully foreboding, if unclear, marina sign proclaims. There’s something to this matterof-fact moniker, located at the dead end of LA-300, where the furthest floating slivers of South Louisiana soil give way to the Gulf. It implies a dropping off, not just into the Gulf, but from the edge of what is fixed and known. It reads like a morbid 44

inside joke, the cynical self-awareness and good-natured humor of a place that has faced the “end times” time and time again. The phrase adds to the sense of otherworldliness with which we tend to view these outlying coastal communities; not just as static remnants of a way of life that’s all but disappeared in Louisiana, but as separate from the rest of the boot. As if the further below sea level the place, the more steeped it is in the past. Here, the supernatural manifests in

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the water itself. It is no coincidence that in Golden Meadow, Louisiana—the last Bayou Lafourche town within the state’s levee protection system— the Catholic church is named for Our Lady of Prompt Succor, the Marian title who Louisiana Catholics often pray to for protection from hurricanes. Growing up, I can remember reciting her prayer during hurricane season when we attended Mass at our Metairie church, the

congregation reading the final line in unison, “Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us.” As an adult, I’m admittedly a lapsed Catholic— like many in Louisiana—and yet, I am ever-drawn to the blurring of mysticism and religion that saturates our culture, the allure of this tension in the places where boundaries dissolve, and the myriad idiosyncratic ways our belief systems are tied to our very real, physical landscape. This connection looks different

Leslie Westbrook / The Acadiana Advocate

today, of course; it’s no longer as culturally comprehensive or present within our everyday lives. The waterways now function as a means for industry or recreation, not as the primary method of travel; over time, we’ve seen settlements established exclusively in proximity to the rivers and bayous begin to move inward, especially in the wake of historic disasters such as the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. As levees and floodwalls were constructed

to protect burgeoning urban areas—and as the state’s economy shifted from being primarily maritime and fishingbased into one driven by oil and gas—access to and firsthand knowledge of the waterways and coast declined, changing our relationship to the landscape as a result. “We live in a world of this incredible tapestry of waterways in Louisiana, most of which are out of sight, out of mind,” said Dr. Michael Pasquier, a professor of history and religious studies at LSU. “We as a society have done a really good job of making these waterways invisible to us. They don’t have an impact on us, until they do. And it’s these punctuation moments in people’s lives where we’re reminded of this water world in which we live.” As our perception of this water world has gradually diminished, so have our religious traditions and rituals. Today, public ceremonies such as the biannual Blessing of the Fleet, which is held in oncemajority fishing villages across the state, appear largely symbolic, valued more for its festivities than its benediction. In a 1991 article originally published in the Louisiana Folklore Miscellany journal, scholar Betsy Gordon observed how the aesthetics of boat decoration for the shrimp fleet blessing in Chauvin, Louisiana has overtaken its spiritual significance. She writes, “Although present-day participants still hold many of the religious beliefs of the originators, various changes have resulted in a parade of boats’ taking visual precedence over the blessing.” Outdoor baptisms— historically performed by AfricanAmerican Baptist communities in the Delta region—are uncommon in Louisiana today. French Louisiana

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It’s in the Water continued ... Father Michael Champagne leading the Eucharistic procession from Fete-Dieu du Vermilion in 2018. Leslie Westbrook / The Acadiana Advocate.

religious folk practices, such as the traiteur tradition or Vodou, are not nearly as pronounced as in previous generations; they’re either an exception to the rule, or they possess a mainstream, material quality that feels like a caricature of the real thing, leveraged for cultural tourism. This isn’t to imply that Louisiana is an individual actor, but rather part of a broader temporal shift in our society. In an increasingly secular modern world, efforts like the Fête Dieu du Teche become a highly visual way to preserve Louisiana’s faithinfused culture, what one Acadiana priest deems “the last stronghold of Catholic culture in the United States.” The Fête Dieu du Teche is a Eucharastic Procession by boat on the Bayou Teche, held annually on August 15 both to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption and to commemorate the anniversary of the arrival of the Acadians in 1765, who were persecuted by the British for their French heritage and Catholic faith. “We need this to revive culture. Faith is supposed to

permeate culture,” said Fr. Michael Champagne of the Community of Jesus Crucified in St. Martinville, who started the Fête in 2015. “It’s a way of life, it’s who we are. This manifests the divine within the public square.” The procession reenacts the journey of the first Acadian settlers who brought the Catholic faith to Louisiana, Champagne said, and brings the Blessed Sacrament— Christ himself—outside of the church to honor the grace in the physicality of the pilgrimage. The lengthy procession—which usually includes around fifty boats—stops at each Bayou Teche settlement along the thirty-eight-mile stretch from Leonville to St. Martinville. The daylong event is undoubtedly a mighty sight to behold: dozens of boats making their way down the bayou’s muddy brown waters, the lead vessel bearing a six-foot-tall specially-made monstrance beneath a protective canopy—“so people can see Christ from a distance,”— followed by a statue of the Virgin Mary in the next. Incense from

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IT’S AS IF THE FURTHER BELOW SEA LEVEL THE PLACE, THE MORE STEEPED IT IS IN THE PAST. HERE, THE SUPERNATURAL MANIFESTS IN THE WATER ITSELF.

the thurible suffuses the summer humidity, and the sounds of participants reciting the Rosary or singing old hymns can be heard drifting down the bayou. Each time the clergy members and altar servers disembark with the Blessed Sacrament onto land where followers on foot await them, flower girls in white mantilla veils scatter red, pink, and white rose petals in their path. Onlookers, many of whom have traveled from elsewhere to be present, fall to their knees in adoration. But to have a comprehensive understanding of how our culture functions in relation to the divine, we have to look a little deeper. Even as our faith traditions lose their cultural prominence in the

literal sense, in other ways Pasquier believes our spirituality has become more expansive. “It’s in the water, [Louisianans’] beliefs about something other than the human, but it isn’t a kind of persistent state,” he said. Think of disasters, the way religion resurfaces as a long dormant solace, even for those who don’t consciously exhibit our faith through daily prayer. Or say there’s a fisherman who keeps a palmetto leaf from Palm Sunday in his boat; it operates like a symbol, a sign of one’s faith, but it isn’t necessarily activated; they may not be consciously thinking about the role God is playing in their life as they interact with the water, but the placement itself matters because it’s there.

Understanding these subtleties means loosening our definition of devotion, viewing it through a more fluid lens, as opposed to a rigid doctrine or formal structure. This expanding is central to how Pasquier approaches studying coastal communities and the intimate ways they interact with the water and the “everydayness of religion” as he terms it, or the ordinary ways in which people who work or live on the coast allow for their religious beliefs and practices to filter into their daily lives. “There’s the obvious things that appear to us and there are the obvious actors whose job it is to be religious,” he said. “And then there are just people.” Part of Pasquier’s work in exploring these connections between people, land, and water involves searching for indicators of religious physical markers in a place, such as the Hurricane Katrina Memorial in Shell Beach on the bank of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, or The Lady of the Gulf Seamen’s Memorial, a sixteenfoot-tall statue of a mermaid in Port Fourchon to honor the lives lost at sea. He listens to the stories of the people who inhabit these places, and

encapsulates them in collaborative multimedia projects such as Water Like Stone, a documentary he coproduced with Louisiana filmmaker Zack Godshall, and the audio series Coastal Voices, a podcast that recollects the oral histories of coastal residents’ experience living in an endangered environment. Within the scope of his work, Pasquier isn’t seeking an answer so much as he’s attempting to interpret how these connections between faith and landscape are embedded within us, and what our landscape’s inevitable shifting means for us as a people. Like most things in Louisiana, spirituality is more nuanced, more subjective than what’s on the surface. We don’t have to think of faith or benediction as a concept in binary terms—to practice or not to practice; its influence can be subtle and varied, altars all around us. If God is in the festivals and the pomp and the circumstance, can’t he also be in the streams running behind our homes, in the Gulf and the stolid faith of those who have remained? h

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Escapes

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48 WHERE

BONNIE BOUGHT HER

LAST SANDWICH

AMBUSH

RIP

The End of the Line

GIBSLAND’S BONNIE AND CLYDE AMBUSH MUSEUM PRESENTS AN ECLECTIC COLLECTION ON THE LEGENDARY COUPLE’S DEMISE Story by Daniel Dolgin • Photos by Caleb Bostick

n her autobiographical poem Ma Canfield’s was reborn as the published posthumously in 1979, and called “The End of the Line,” official Bonnie and Clyde Ambush chronicles his experiences hunting Bonnie Carver offered no Museum. Boots, who was born down the iconic couple. In the book, illusions about her and Clyde in 1934, the same year of Bonnie Hinton describes the difficulty of Barrow’s dire situation after two years and Clyde’s demise, was the son of partaking in the ambush; he had of running from the law: once been acquainted with a young Bonnie Parker THEY DON’T THINK THEY’RE TOO “They don’t think they’re SMART OR DESPERATE. too smart or desperate. THEY KNOW THE LAW ALWAYS They know the law always WINS wins. THEY’VE BEEN SHOT AT BEFORE They’ve been shot at before. BUT THEY DO NOT IGNORE But they do not ignore. THAT DEATH IS THE WAGES OF SIN. That death is the wages of sin.Someday they’ ll go down together, and they’ ll bury them side by side. To a few it’ ll be grief— to the law a relief— But it’s death for Bonnie and Clyde.” On a desolate Louisiana back road in May of 1934, the deadly crime spree of the notorious couple ended in a blaze of gunfire. The infamous ambush scene was first graphically portrayed in the Warner Bros. landmark movie Bonnie and Clyde (1967) starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the outlaws. In March 2019, Netflix released The Highwaymen, starring Kevin Costner, Kathy Bates, and Woody Harrelson. Costner and Harrelson portray the Texas Rangers that tracked down Bonnie and Clyde, and the final scene was shot in the exact spot the ambush had actually occurred, on a stretch of Highway 154 in Bienville Parish. On that infamous day, when she was pulled from the car, Bonnie was still holding a half-eaten sandwich in her hand. She had purchased it just seven miles back, at a restaurant called Ma Canfield’s. In June 2009, under the curation of the late L.J. “Boots” Hinton, 48

Dallas deputy sheriff Ted Hinton, one of the members of the six-man

treat[ed] Bonnie with respect”. When “Boots” Hinton retired from curating and managing the museum in 2015 due to health issues, Perry Carver was the obvious man for the job. Hinton and Carver had known each other for over twenty years as close friends with a common passion for all things Bonnie and Clyde. “Boots was worried about what was going to happen to the museum,” recalled Carver. “I bought it basically to ensure the museum’s future and preserve the Bonnie and Clyde story. It was also an opportunity to share my knowledge and collected memorabilia with others.” Carver, from Norcross, Georgia, first saw the original Bonnie and Clyde “death car” when he was only eight years old when living in Atlanta. His parents knew the car’s owner, Ted Toddy. Perry described Mr. Toddy as a “showman” who recognized the financial opportunity of exhibiting the infamous car in a traveling circus. Patrons could sit in the car for one dollar. Toddy purchased the car for $14,500 and, after the popularity of the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, sold it for $175,000 in 1977. The car is now owned by and displayed at Whiskey Pete’s Casino in Primm, Nevada. “I recall seeing an embedded tooth and pieces of bone in the SOMEDAY THEY’LL GO DOWN TOGETHER. car,” Carver said AND THEY’LL BURY THEM SIDE BY SIDE. “I had no idea who TO A FEW IT’LL BE GRIEF, they were then. It TO THE LAW A RELIEF, was just a shot-up BUT IT’S DEATH FOR BONNIE AND CLYDE. car, but it really —BONNIE PARKER. intrigued me.” Only a few weeks

posse who staged the famous killing.

when she worked as a waitress at

later, Carver found a magazine in

Hinton’s

The

Marco’s Cafe in Dallas. He’d even

a corner pharmacy called Guns

Real Story of Bonnie and Clyde was

had a crush on her, saying he “always

and Gunfighters, telling the entire

memoir,

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Ambush:

The Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum is presided over by entusiast Perry Carver, whose years of research have given him a uniquely intricate knowledge of the legendary couple. The Museum, housed in what was once the restaurant where Bonnie bought her last sandwich, is just a few miles down the road from the spot where the couple was ambushed by Texas Rangers (pictured right).

story of Bonnie and Clyde. From that moment, he was hooked. “In my house in Atlanta, I had my own personal museum,” he said. “I brought all my stuff here to add to the museum displays.” Included among Carver’s memorabilia are many of Clyde Barrow’s guns and three of his saxophones. Even before becoming the owner and curator of the museum—a somewhat kitschy, eccentric shrine

to the mythical couple’s end— Carver had long been considered a historical authority on Bonnie and Clyde. Decades of research and discussions with authorities and family members of the couple have given him an intricate knowledge of the Depression Era that Bonnie and Clyde evolved from, the places they visited during their two-year crime spree, and the forces that brought about their demise on that sunny

May morning in 1934. Offering some little-known facts about the enigma of Bonnie in particular, Carver started with the irony that—despite her reputation— her friends and relatives consistently say that she hated guns. He also claims that at the time of the ambush, Bonnie was weak with gangrenous

infection to a wound in her leg, and already close to death. The injury had occurred a year before in North Texas, when Clyde had been driving so fast that he missed a detour sign warning of a bridge under construction. Their Ford V-8 smashed through a barricade,

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End of the Line continued ...

allegedly traveling seventy miles per hour, and flew through the air before landing in a dry riverbed. During the incident, acid poured

out of the damaged car battery and severely burned Bonnie’s right leg. In some places, the acid ate away her flesh right down to the bone. Bonnie

walked with a pronounced limp for the remainder of her life. At times she had so much difficulty walking that Clyde had to carry her.

“I RECALL SEEING AN EMBEDDED TOOTH AND PIECES OF BONE IN THE CAR. I HAD NO IDEA WHO THEY WERE THEN. IT WAS JUST A SHOT-UP CAR, BUT IT REALLY INTRIGUED ME.” —PERRY CARVER

Carver also pointed out that the most famous photograph of Bonnie Parker—an image of her holding a pistol, foot up on the bumper of their V-8, cigar in her mouth— is not a proper reflection of the complicated woman. The photo was part of a collection of comic photographs made for Bonnie and Clyde’s own amusement. They were

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found on undeveloped film that was abandoned at the gang’s Joplin, Missouri hideout when police raided the house. At the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum, the tour begins with a seventeen-minute newsreel film featuring footage taken immediately following the actual ambush. The story is then expounded through

the museum’s collection of rare photographs and artifacts seized from Bonnie and Clyde’s car in 1934, as well as from the rest of their lives. Also on exhibit are the guns used by the posse to end the lives of the criminal couple. In addition to Perry’s dedication to updating the museum exhibits— including the recent acquisition of a

4’10” mannequin that realistically resembles Bonnie with historical accuracy—Perry has also restored Ma Canfield’s to a full-service restaurant, located adjacent to the museum. From the museum, visitors can also embark on guided bus tours of the area. Beyond the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush museum, the tiny town of Gibsland also offers fantastic

opportunities for antique collectors, as well as photographers looking for unique shots (no pun intended). h

Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum, 2419 Main St, Gibsland, Louisiana 71028 318-843-1934

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