Country Roads Magazine "Deep South Design Issue" August 2022

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Contents

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Events

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VO LU M E 3 9 // I SS U E 8

Features

ADD TO YOUR AUGUST “TO DO” LIST Get out the white linen and red dresses for art openings, fundraisers, and late summer festivals galore.

REFLECTIONS The roadside scavenger in me is strong.

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by James Fox-Smith

NEWS & NOTEWORTHIES

A home tour of Macon Fry’s repurposed redoubt on the New Orleans levee

James Fox-Smith

Associate Publisher

Ashley Fox-Smith

by Mary Ann Sternberg

A NEW FACE FOR BURDEN A new portal into the natural wonders of Burden Museum and Gardens, designed by Eskew Dumez Ripple

by Caroline Alberstadt

Managing Editor

Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

Arts & Entertainment Editor

Alexandra Kennon

Creative Director

THE PONTCHARTRAIN LIGHTHOUSES Guiding the way to and from New Orleans, for centuries

by Kristy Christiansen

Kourtney Zimmerman

Contributors:

Caroline Alberstadt, Kristy Christiansen, Paul Christiansen, Mackenzie Treadwell Ernst, Ashley Hinson, Brei Olivier, Mary Ann Sternberg, Poet Wolfe

Cover Artist

On the Cover

Mary Craven

Advertising

DEEP SOUTH DESIGN

SALES@COUNTRYROADSMAG.COM

Cover image by Mary Craven

Inside Palmyre Billeaud’s parlor, Acadiana socialites of the early twentieth century luxuriated within the carefully-curated enclave of globally-inspired Southern hospitality—sipping the finest of wines and liqueurs.

This distinguished space has been reincarnated by Palmyre’s own great granddaughter in the form of Lafayette’s newest cocktail lounge, named for the fabled lady herself. Drawing from Palmyre’s affinity for French décor and indulgent aesthetics, the lounge’s acclaimed interior designer Lindsay Rhodes created a transportive world within a world, an intimate environment of bold patterns and exotic fabrics—all threaded together by Palmyre’s signature Louisiana geniality.

Against this example of design curated with history, culture, and experience at the forefront stand other values at the heart of Louisiana built environments: adaptability, innovation, sustainability. In our 2022 Deep South Design Issue, we explore extreme examples of how thoughtful design—in reclaimed batture “camps” and in state-of-the-art welcome centers alike—function as vessels from which we might better experience our unique part of the world.

Cuisine

44

PALMYRE Open-armed opulence in Lafayette’s River Ranch

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by Ashley Hinson

TEA AT THE COTTAGE Loretta Foreman’s tea room returns to Central

Culture

50

ÉCOLE POINTEAU-CHIEN Introducing Louisiana’s first Indigenous French Immersion School

Escapes

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by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

by Poet Wolfe

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Publisher

HOME SWEET BATTURE

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MINDEN’S RENOVATION RENAISSANCE Touring three of the evolving city’s newest projects

by Mackenzie Treadwell Ernst

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PERSPECTIVES Virginia Hanusik

by Lauren Heffker

Sales Team

Heather Gammill & Heather Gibbons

Custom Content Coordinator

Lauren Heffker

Advertising Coordinator

Jennifer Raney

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.

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Reflections FROM THE PUBLISHER

O

ne recent evening, while driving home I passed on the roadside what appeared to be a perfectly-good wingback chair. Handsome, sturdy-looking, and upholstered in dark blue fabric, this regal seating amenity was standing under a shade tree beside a lightly-trafficked rural road, looking as if it were just waiting for someone to show up with a side table and standard lamp, then sit down to watch the world go by. It hadn’t been there when I’d left home that morning, so since it was only a couple of miles from our house, I did what any self-respecting roadside scavenger would do: rushed home and traded vehicles for something large enough to put it in. I knew there wasn’t much time. Even on a road as sparsely traveled as this one, it wouldn’t be long before another driver with the scavenger gene happened by. As I gunned the car back to our house, then jumped into the farm truck that we keep for occasions such as this, I considered what I might do with my newfound throne. Adding such grand seating to my barn-cum-workshop was an appealing notion. Or perhaps this was the universe’s way of tell-

ing me to add furniture upholstery to my long list of hobbies, since the chance that something nasty had befallen the chair’s existing fabric seemed a likely explanation for it being on the side of the road in the first place. As I rounded the corner, my heart leapt when I saw that the chair was still there. But no sooner had I set about furtively heaving the thing into the back of my truck then came the sound of another vehicle coming down on the road. It pulled to a stop beside me, and the driver’s window rolled down to reveal an attractive lady who, through batted eyelids, said “Oh, I was just coming back for that bee-OOTiful chair … but it looks like you’ve beaten me to it!” What, I ask, was a gentleman supposed to do? Smiling through gritted teeth I waved away her protestations as I lifted the damn chair into the back of her SUV, wondering for the umpteenth time why I don’t drive a pickup truck on a daily basis.

Yes, the roadside scavenger in me is strong. But I come by it honestly.

When I was a kid my dad would offload all kinds of unwanted belongings by simply putting them by the road in front of the house with a “Free to Good Home” sign leaning against them, then sit back to see how long it would take before someone stopped to pick them up. During my adolescence, bicycles

and baby beds, skis, a trampoline, a picnic table, a windsurfer, a dog kennel, a wardrobe, and various other once-cherished-but-since-outgrown belongings left our household in this fashion. We lived on a busy road, with a grassy street verge out front (this is called a “nature strip” in Australia) which made a useful staging ground for things you wanted to get rid of. Dad’s freecycling never rose to the organizational level of a yard sale. Rather, whenever he tired of stepping over or around some item of furniture or recreational equipment that had been relegated to the garage, he would just drag it out to the nature strip, lean the “Free-to-Good-Home” sign up against it, and see how long it would take to disappear. Usually the disappearing happened overnight—under cover of darkness—which suggests that

I’m not the only one who feels a little bit furtive about making off with stuff from the side of highways. The next morning dad would emerge, survey the empty nature strip, then go back inside to read his newspaper with considerable satisfaction.

No money ever changed hands during these exchanges so I suppose my dad was an exponent of freecycling— the practice of giving stuff away for free rather than sending it to the landfill.

What a decent and satisfying practice freecycling is. Who amongst us doesn’t suffer from the condition of being surrounded by stuff too hard to sell but too good to throw away? Online, there are loads of freecycling groups that exist to align supply and demand between their members. Or failing that, one can simply put that bike or wingback chair out by the curb with a “free to good home” sign, and just see how long it takes to take flight. You’ll be lightening your existential load, keeping stuff out of the landfill, and affording someone the special pleasure of getting something for free (combined with the mildly illicit thrill of making off with it from the roadside). Everybody wins. You can’t ask for better than that.

—James Fox-Smith, publisher james@countryroadsmag.com

Save the Date!

Open House November 12th franu.edu/experience

Take a look at our program by scanning the QR code with your phone!

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For further details, contact our program director Dr. Ann-Marie Blanchard: ann-marie.blanchard@franu.edu

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Noteworthy

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

CURIOSITIES

LO O K C LO S E R

W

What’s New at NUNU

some production work on a laser cutter,” explained NUNU’s Interim Director Peg Ramier of a few possible uses for the A MAKER’S SPACE, FEATURING A 3D PRINTER AND LASER CUTTER, space. “I got a really good idea ROUNDS OUT THE ARNAUDVILLE ARTS & CULTURE COLLECTIVE. last night: I’m gonna make little Cajun houses! Yeah, so I’m ext one point, the former Sin- bring in some of this technology that gleton Hardware and lumber they hopefully can learn to use for their cited about the laser cutter, now that I’ve store on the outskirts of rural future jobs, or hobbies, or whatever,” said got my idea in mind.”

The goal is that artists working in a vahArnaudville slung some of Gloria Van Arsdale, the jewelry maker the most basic tools and supplies imag- who donated the 3D printer and laser riety of mediums, as well as those interinable: lumber, hammers, nails. But since cutter to NUNU. “And that’s basically ested in exploring new crafting hobbies, will have access to relatively cutting-edge 2011, NUNU Arts and Culture Collec- what the Makers’ Space is [for]: to bring (i.e., expensive) technology that othertive has occupied the old building, foster- the community together.” wise would be unavailable in a small, ing an enclave of artistic expression, exThe historic building NUNU resides rural town like Arnaudville. Other anticploration, and collaboration in Acadiana. in is outfitted with seventeen-foot ceil- ipated additions to the Makers’ Space are Now, the nonprofit is elevating its offer- ings, which provided ample space for the a photography studio, as well as a place ings with its new Makers’ Space—featur- recent addition of a mezzanine in July. for the production of encaustic artwork ing high-tech equipment that includes a “And so the anticipation is that we’ll use (which utilizes beeswax as a medium).

3D printer and laser cutter. the mezzanine as a Makers’ Space, so “And we’re really really, really thank“We are trying to create a Makers’ there’ll be space up there for artists to do ful to Gloria, that [she] wants to help us Space that will bring people together and their painting, for people who want to do grow because there’s a lot going on here,”

A

The Cottage on Tchoupitoulas

said Ramier, referring to projects already ongoing at NUNU, which include initiatives like an artisan market, music venues, and the Five Mile Café, which sources all its produce from within five miles.

“The laser cutter is going to be a really exciting part of it.”

Van Arsdale, who makes her company’s jewelry using a laser cutter, emphasized the community benefits access to the equipment will provide. “I think [the Makers’ Space] will give the community the ability to know a little more about NUNU and create, which is I think the reason why NUNU exists: to bring together artists and creators,” she said. “I think that will help people as they move forward in their jobs, to be able to know that they can use laser cutters, 3D printers. Just introducing new technologies and making them available as a new part of the artistic community and the community in general.” h nunuaccollective.homesteadcloud.com —Alexandra Kennon

Photo by Charles E. Leche, courtesy of the Preservation Resource Center.

RICHARD CAMPANELLA UNVEILS THE HISTORY OF ONE OF NEW ORLEANS’ MOST FASCINATING PROPERTIES

I

n Richard Campanella’s latest book, the geographer and historian poses one of New Orleans’ oldest homes has a witness—albeit a silent one— standing stolidly in Uptown for centuries, as history unfurls around it. Campanella, in his signature way of historical storytelling, acts as the voice of the cottage on Tchoupitoulas—recalling, in marvelous detail illuminated by comprehensive and well-delivered research, the dramas that have unfolded in this bend in the Mississippi River.

The Cottage on Tchoupitoulas: A Historical Geography of Uptown New Orleans starts with Pierre Le Moyne, sieur d’Iberville’s very first glimpse of the lower Mississippi River Valley—described in his journals, from the visual perspective atop a “nut tree” as : “nothing other than canes and bushes,” the land becoming “inundated to a depth of four feet during high water”.

By choosing this moment as a starting place, Campanella alerts the reader that this will not simply be a story of a place and what happened there. Iberville’s im8

pression of the land that would become the Crescent City immediately establishes the signature tensions that define this region: water and the wild, colonialism and power, a river and its people.

With “our site,” as Campanella refers to the property on which the cottage sits, as our grounding place—he tells the story of New Orleans, starting with its initial ownership by the city’s very founder, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. Upon “our site” Louisiana history parades: when the Spanish gained control over the region, here is where meetings were held to stage the 1768 coup to oust the Spanish governor. When the rebellion ultimately failed, and the owner was banished to prison in Cuba—the people he enslaved on “our site” became some of the first to take advantage of the new Spanish policy that allowed for purchasing one’s own freedom.

This site is also where, during the height of its own plantation era, sugar was first granulated in Louisiana. Campanella dedicates ample space to this period in time in which the property was

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owned by Jean Étienne de Boré, not only to emphasize the significance of this development for Louisiana agriculture, but to meditate on its implications for the thousands and thousands of enslaved individuals whose forced labor would fuel that industry. “The misery of the many brought great wealth to the few,” he writes. Besides underlining de Boré’s magnificently influential role in Louisiana agriculture and politics (he became New Orleans’ first mayor), Campanella spends just as much, if not more, time sharing as much as we can know about the hundred-or-so enslaved people who worked on his plantation—while also acknowledging the limitations of the source material, written from the enslaver’s per-

spective, from which that information comes. It is also during this era that the original foundation for the cottage on Tchoupitoulas was built.

The evolutions of “our site” in its post-plantation era reflect a changing New Orleans, one of increasing urbanization and transportation technologies. It saw the effects of “subdivision fever” and the benefits of the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad (now, the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line). Under the ownership of Polycarp Fortier in the mid-nineteenth century, the property facilitated the manufacturing of ten thousand bricks a day, many of which Campanella points out likely still remain in walls and chimneys around the country. During the Civ-

il War, federal troops took possession of the property, bringing an end to one hundred and forty years of slavery there.

“Our site’s” history as a place of healing begins in 1883, when Fortier’s wife Celestine, sold it to the government to be transformed into a Marine hospital.

When the Children’s Hospital opened upriver in 1955, the cottage remained—

veterans healing on one side of her, children on the other. When Nixon administration budget cuts closed all Public Health Service hospitals in 1981, the Marine Hospital’s closing ceremonies featured the Olympia Brass Band, performing a symbolic jazz funeral.

After a few years serving as the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital, the cam-

pus was eventually abandoned after damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Campanella’s book, published by the Preservation Resource Center, comes in the wake of the 2014 purchase of the property by Children’s Hospital New Orleans and a long process of strategic planning with preservation in mind.

The restoration of the cottage, which

Mapping Modern Architecture

has stood there through it all, was completed in 2020 and will be used as a place “of respite for patients and their families,” according to the Preservation Resource Center. Now, Campanella concludes, “it will not be so silent, but rather filled with life and hope.”

Find The Cottage on Tchoupitoulas at prcno.org.

—Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

SEVENTEEN OF THE WIENER BROTHERS’ MOST ICONIC BUILDINGS ARE FEATURED IN A NEW INTERACTIVE DRIVING TOUR OF SHREVEPORT

“M

y father once told me,” recalls William “Bill” Wiener, Jr. in the documentary Unexpected Modernism: The Wiener Brothers Story, “that if he could design a house where you could drive your car into the kitchen, it would be perfect.”

The film, created in 2020 by Rational Middle Media and director Gregory Kallenberg, tells the remarkable story of Bill’s father and uncle, William and Samuel Wiener—two Shreveport architects of the twentieth century, whose shared body of work represents one of the densest collections of modern architecture on the globe. Though every major project the Wiener brothers pursued is documented in archives—some in the most prestigious architectural publications in the world—many of the buildings them-

selves still grace the Shreveport cityscape.

On May 19, 2022, Rational Middle Media—with support from the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism’s Office of Cultural Development’s Division of Historic Preservation and the National Park Service, US Department of the Interior—unveiled The Wiener Architecture Interactive Map as a companion to the documentary.

Serving simultaneously as an educational archive and a driving tour/pilgrimage guidebook, the website unexpectedmodernism.com (where you can also view the film) highlights seventeen of the Wiener Brothers’ most historically-significant structures, all of which are still standing. Each entry includes detailed histories and descriptions, and many of them feature original blueprints and design sketches—documents consid-

ered artifacts of American architectural history.

The map guides visitors through the evolution and range of the Wiener Brothers’ work, starting with their earliest projects in the youthful city of Shreveport, such as Feibleman’s Department Store (1923) and Kings Highway Christian Church (1925)—examples of the classical Beaux Arts and Romanesque architectural styles the brothers learned in school. In residential projects such as the Ed Wile House (1933) and the John Preston House (1935), viewers can study the brothers’ earliest ventures into European modernism, the initial products of their Grand Tour of Europe in the 1930s, which began their foray into approaching architecture as a functional and social art. And then there are their magnum opuses: Shreveport’s schools, the Pine Park Subdivision, and the brothers’ own

mansions on Longleaf Lane—works of art and innovation that were revolutionary for their time and continue to inspire architecture today.

In the Unexpected Modernism film, Karen Kingsley, Ph.D and Professor Emerita of Architectural History at Tulane University summed up the significance of the Wiener Brothers’ work in North Louisiana: “Shreveport is a surprising place to find such a group of interesting buildings and so many modern buildings. It gives us another vision of the South, and it is because these two architects made it their home, and they had a vision—not just about architecture, but about ways of life.” unexpectedmodernism.com —Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

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Events

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Celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of French Canadian immigrants to Acadiana along with the Feast of the Assumption with the annual Eucharistic procession by boat along Bayou Teche, honoring the region's distinct Catholic Acadian heritage. See listing on page 26. Photo courtesy of Father Michael Champagne.

UNTIL AUG

14th

FASHION EXHIBITIONS COURTING STYLE: WOMEN'S TENNIS FASHION Port Allen, Louisiana

The West Baton Rouge Museum is currently housing one of Serena Williams' outfits—see it and more in the museum's exhibition Courting Style: Women's Tennis Fashion. Drawn from the collections at the Museum of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, this exhibition features outfits worn by iconic women tennis players across the sport's history, including Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Billie Jean King, Tracy Austin, Evonne Fay Gollagong Cawley, Maria Sharapova, and the Williams sisters. westbatonrougemuseum.org. k

UNTIL

AUG 14th

THEATRE SEE HOW THEY RUN Mandeville, Louisiana

30 by Ninety Theatre presents the London

hit, See How They Run. An adult British farce, this story is set in the living room of the vicarage of a small English village just a few years after World War II, and features a slate of hilarious characters including a cockney maid, an old maid who gets drunk for the first time in her life, and four men dressed as clergy trying to determine which amongst them is actually an escaped prisoner. Oh, and a sedate Bishop. Friday and Saturday performances at 8 pm; Sunday performances at 2:30 pm. $19; $17 for seniors and military; $14 for children thirteen and older; $11 for children twelve and younger. 30byninety.com. k

UNTIL

AUG 14th

THEATRE CHOOSE YOUR OWN OZ Covington, Louisiana

We all know about how Dorothy spends her time in Oz, but how would you do things differently? Now is your chance to find out, when Playmakers Theater of Covington presents Choose Your Own Oz—an exciting, choose-your-own-adventure version of the

L. Frank Baum classic. Performances are 7 pm on Saturdays, 2 pm on Sundays. $20, $15 for children under twelve at bontempstix.com. k

UNTIL

AUG 20th

PRINTMAKING EXHIBITS TWENTY YEARS OF MARAIS PRESS Lafayette, Louisiana

At the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Professor and artist Brian Kelly has led the Marais Press in the Department of the Visual Arts since 1999. This special retrospective exhibition features the creative output of visiting artists' printmaking collaborations within the press and honors the creative community it represents. hilliardmuseum.org. k

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21st

LOCAL HISTORY FROM SUGAR TO RUM Port Allen, Louisiana

Sugar has been a primary crop in // A U G 2 2

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Events

UNTIL AUG

SOCIAL JUSTICE EXHIBITS POVERTY ON TRIAL

Beginning August 1

st

Louisiana for centuries, and now the West Baton Rouge Museum is partnering with Three Roll Estate to take a closer look at the process of distilling it into rum. The exhibition will walk through the entire process, including the history of growing and processing sugar on Alma Plantation, where Three Roll Estate is based today. wbrmuseum.org. k

UNTIL

AUG 25th

MASK EXHIBITIONS DISGUISES Hammond, Louisiana

The Southeastern Contemporary Gallery presents Disguises, an exhibit by artists Orly Anan, Basqo Bim, Phlegm, and Ryn Wilson that uses garment design, masking, and makeup to create new worlds and stories. The work created by Anan and Wilson portrays the intertwining of mysticism and reality. southeastern.edu. k

UNTIL

AUG 28th

ART EXHIBITIONS A BIRD IN HAND Arnaudville, Louisiana

Mixed-media artist Janelle Hebert

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31st

Lafayette, Louisiana

honed her skills for decades as an artist in Jackson Square. Following Katrina she and her husband returned to her native St. Martinville, and after discovering NUNU Arts and Culture Collective, the pair promptly relocated to Arnaudville. In her new exhibit there, A Bird in Hand, Hebert combines paper, clay, paint, and textiles to create unique bird sculptures and mobiles. nunuaccollective. homesteadcloud.com.

Through her multimedia art form, Revina Amos presents the true story of a homeless, mentally ill man who was falsely convicted of manslaughter in Calcasieu Parish. Hoping her work will inspire artists of other media—especially theater—Amos aims to raise awareness of the mental health challenges within our criminal justice system. All proceeds from the exhibition will go towards the wrongly-convicted man's legal defense. On display at Cité des Arts gallery. citedesarts.org. k

Read about NUNU's new mezzanine Makers' Space in Alexandra Kennon's story on page 8. k

UNTIL SEP

UNTIL

AUG 30

th

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITS TIMOTHY DUFFY: NEW EXHIBITION New Orleans, Louisiana

Photographer and Founder/President of the Music Maker Relief Foundation Tim Duffy has a new exhibition of twelve of his pigment prints— originally tintype photographs—up at A Gallery For Fine Photography. agallery.com. k

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17th

ART EXHIBITIONS THIS SAME DUSTY ROAD Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Artist Letitia Huckaby explores the legacy of her family and their matriarchs through her exhibition This Same Dusty Road at the Capitol Park Museum. The exhibit features heirloom fabrics, traditional handquilting techniques, and photography—all of which are inspired by her memories of visiting family north of Baton Rouge.

Huckaby's work establishes how artistic perceptions regarding history and culture can illustrate the world in new ways. louisianastatemuseum.org. k

UNTIL

SEP 17th

ART EXHIBITIONS AND NOW FOR SOMETHING NEW, VOL. 4 New Orleans, Louisiana

Just in time for the annual White Linen Night on August 6, LeMieux brings back its juried exhibition And Now for Something New. This year's jurors are Ric Kasini Kadour and Sarah Griffin Thibodeaux, and the show will feature twenty-three artists from North America, working in a diverse slate of media and subject matter. The jury-winning artist will be announced at White Linen Night and will receive a show at LeMieux Galleries in the future. lemieuxgalleries.com. k

UNTIL

SEP 24th

ART EXHIBITIONS ART GUILD OF LOUISIANA WORKSHOP SHOW Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Art Guild of Louisiana is hosting an exhibition of members' works at the Art Guild of Louisiana's Studio in Cedarcrest Park. Most of the works on display have been created during the Guild's various workshops and classes. A “People’s Choice “ ribbon will be awarded at a reception August 5 from 2 pm–4 pm. artguildlouisiana.org. k

UNTIL SEP

25th

ART EXHIBITIONS SOLOS 2022 New Orleans, Louisiana

A new exhibition celebrating women in American Abstract Art, Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American Abstract Artists, 1936–Present, is on display at the LSU Museum of Art at the Shaw Center after a delayed opening due to water damage. Artwork "Red Yellow Polaroid" by Katinka Mann, courtesy of the LSU Museum of Art.

UNTIL SEP

25th

ART EXHIBITIONS REMEMBER EARTH?

the already imbalanced world come in the form of lasers, sound, video, poetry, paint, collage, found materials, living plants,

New Orleans, Louisiana

fibers, and dance. Some of the works

For the Contemporary Arts Center's

express hope. Some don't. The exhibition

ninth annual Gulf South Open Call

poses the challenges from a cultural

As summer comes to a close, the Contemporary Arts Center is highlighting the work of its 2022 artists in residence, a.r. havel and Britt Ransom. In OH HOLY FILTH, a.r. havel collaborates with artistic director Xiamara Chupaflor and makeup artist/stylist/director Koko Barrios to explore sexuality and what we deem sacred by establishing sex and erotic workers as the starting place of spirituality. Combining set design, photography, collage, and spiritual practice to create a documented living tableaux and altar—the artists playfully integrate votive spirituality and the taboo to usher in a message of liberation. In Untitled, Britt Ransom uses sculpture as a means to meditate on the possibility of a future in which nature exists only as a relic—exploring what such an experience might look like using 3D replications of pieces of New Orleans' eight-hundred-yearold McDonogh Oak tree. cacno.org. k

UNTIL SEP

30th

exhibition, artists face the reality of

perspective: how do we change the way

climate change head on. In works by

that we live now to ensure our long-term

fifty-four artists living in the Gulf

survival? An opening celebration will take

MUSIC EDUCATION BLUES CAMP II

South—a region at the frontline of the

place on White Linen Night August 6,

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

climate crisis—first person responses to

from 6:30 pm–10 pm. cacno.org. k

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 blues camp in five hourand-a-half-long sessions each Friday. Each session will be split into half an hour on blues instrumentation and structure, half an hour on history and syntax, and half an hour on entertainment business applications. The only component of blues music they won't provide is a personal tragedy like breaking your heart. All ages are invited to participate, and participants are not required to attend all 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 band members and other special guests ranging from entertainment industry executives to public relations professionals. The sessions will also be streamed via Facebook Live.

2 pm–3:30 pm each Friday. To register, visit henryslisteningroom.com or call (225) 802-9681. k

UNTIL OCT

23rd

ART EXHIBITIONS BLURRING BOUNDARIES: THE WOMEN OF AMERICAN ABSTRACT ARTISTS Baton Rouge, Louisiana

This exhibition's planned opening on July 14 was temporarily postponed due to an emergency water incident, but is now open for all to enjoy. At the LSU Museum

Stafford Tile and Stone sells and designs with artisanal handmade tiles and natural stones. Our exclusive relationships with craftsmen enable us to bring a variety of unique products to the Gulf South region.

Our team is excited to help you create your one of a kind design.

// A U G 2 2

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Events

Beginning August 1st of Art in the Shaw Center, Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American Abstract Artists, 1936–Present, examines how the hierarchy of distilled form, immaculate line, and pure color came close to being the mantra of modern art— particularly that of American Abstract Artists (AAA). From the outset—due as much to their divergent status as abstract artists as to their gender—women of American Abstract Artists were already working on the periphery of the art world.

In contrast to the other artist collectives of the period, where equal footing for women was unusual, AAA provided a place of refuge for female artists. Through fifty-four works, Blurring Boundaries explores the artists’ astounding range of styles, including their individual approaches to the guiding principles of abstraction: color, space, light, material, and process. Included are works by historic members Perle Fine, Esphyr Slobodkina, Irene Rice Pereira, Alice Trumbull Mason, and Gertrude Greene, as well as current members such as Ce Roser, Irene Rousseau, Judith Murray, Alice Adams, Merrill Wagner, Katinka Mann,

and Susan Bonfils (of Baton Rouge). A gallery talk with Bonfils will be held at 2 pm on August 7. Free. lsumoa.org. k

UNTIL NOV

17

ART EXHIBITIONS THE PROMISE OF THE RAINBOW NEVER CAME Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Artist Katrina Andry's new exhibition at the Capitol Park Museum features large-scale color reduction prints and a location-specific mixed media installation.

The exhibit addresses the story of the Africans thrown overboard during the Middle Passage, while also indicating the unfulfilled promise of the rainbow as Black Americans continue to endure violence today. louisianastatemuseum.org. k

UNTIL JAN

8th

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITS PICTURE MAN: PORTRAITS BY POLO SILK New Orleans, Louisiana

Against a centuries-long standard defining portraiture as something

Generations of care

We’re here for you and your family through the stages of life, with the strength of the cross, the protection of the shield. The Right Card. The Right Care.

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bound by tradition, photographer Polo Silk's body of work poses accessibility, character, and immediacy as standout qualities in a portrait. Using instant-photo technology and stepping out of the studio and into the streets of New Orleans, Silk carved a niche for himself that redefined a genre into something more reflective of real people in a real place—even before the portrait's transformation into the selfie with the rise of social media. Over thirty five of Silk's most iconic images spanning twenty years, from 1987–2007—along with two airbrushed backdrops he used in his portraits, created by artist Otis Spears—will be displayed in the New Orleans Museum of Art's exhibition. noma.org. k

UNTIL APR

1st

ART EXHIBITIONS LITTLE THINGS: DRAWINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS Lafayette, Louisiana

Fred Packard is much more than just a well-respected artist. Packard established the Department of Visual Arts' photography concentration at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Now, the artist is onto something new with Little Things: Drawings and Photographs, in which Packard explores his intellectual pursuits and personal life experiences

through various media. The exhibit is on display at University of Louisiana's Hilliard Art Museum in Lafayette. $7.50 for adults, $6 for senior citizens, $4.50 for students ages five-seventeen, and free for children under five. hilliardmuseum.org. k

ONGOING

LIVE MUSIC TIPITINA'S CONCERT SCHEDULE New Orleans, Louisiana

The famous Tchoupitoulas venue continues bringing a wide variety of New Orleans' favorite musical acts to Professor Longhair's legendary stage. Here's what's happening: August 3: American Aquarium + H.C. McEntire. 8 pm.

August 5: Free Friday: Tribal Gold + The New Orleans Johnnys. 9 pm.

August 6: An evening with Iko Allstars.

9 pm.

August 12: Free Friday: Steve Kelly with guests + Daria & The Hip Drops. 9 pm.

August 13: Gimme Gimme Disco. 9 pm.

August 19: Free Friday: Billy Iuso + Sam Price & The True Believers. 9 pm.

August 21: Fais do do with Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band. 5:15 pm.

August 26: Free Friday: New Orleans Nightcrawlers + Quarx. 9 pm. tipitinas.com. k

Adventure Awaits, Step Into Cajun Country, Don't Just Visit, Experience Allen Parish o n i s a C a t t a h s u Co Resort

l a r u t l u C ter Cen

d o o w r e h t Lea useum M

Convenience Store du Jour Trail

Myths & Legends Byway

Canoeing and Tubing on th e Ouiska Chitt o

No Man 's

Cycling

Land

For more information, contact Allen Parish Tourism Commission at www.allenparish.com or 888-639-4868 Like us on // A U G 2 2

15

Events

Beginning August 1st - August 3rd UNTIL

AUG 2023

SCULPTURE EXHIBITIONS ANGELA GREGORY: DOYENNE OF LOUISIANA SCULPTURE. Port Allen, Louisiana

Angela Gregory, known as the "doyenne of Louisiana sculpture," became nationally and internationally recognized in the twentieth century in a field predominantly dominated by men. The West Baton Rouge Museum is presenting the complex legacy of her life and artwork in a new gallery display running through August 2023, which will include pieces amassed by the museum over the course of decades alongside fifteen of Gregory's sculptures that were recently donated by her estate. westbatonrougemuseum.org. k

On Saturday, the Baton Rouge Irish Club will host a Wee Irish Film Day, featuring a selection of shorts ranging from drama to comedy to animation, presented in two blocks (2 pm and 7 pm) with an intermission offering food and Irish music. There's a break on Sunday (it's a Catholic country, after all). And then on Monday, Emerald Isle movie buffs will settle in at Phil Brady's for a free screening of The Commitments, pints and $1 burgers in hand. 6 pm. batonrougeirishfilmfestival.com. k

AUG

1st

GOOD EATS RED BEANS ‘N’ RICE COOK-OFF Covington, Louisiana

AUG 1st

SILVER SCREEN BATON ROUGE IRISH FILM FESTIVAL Baton Rouge, Louisiana

May the road rise to meet you en route to Phil Brady's, where the annual Irish Film Festival makes Celts of us all— returning after a two-year hiatus at that!

If you’re from Louisiana, you know that red beans and rice is a Monday tradition. United Way will be celebrating this tradition for a good cause at their annual all-you-caneat Red Beans ‘N’ Rice Cook-Off in the Northshore's Greater Covington Center. Proceeds will support suicide prevention, mental health services,

and other programs offered by United Way in St. Tammany Parish. 11 am–2 pm. $75 entry for a four-person cooking team; $10 for general admission. unitedwaysela.org/redbeans or Sonja Newman at 985-778-0815. k

AUG

1

st

- AUG

29

th

JAM SESSIONS CITÉ DES ARTS MONDAY BLUEGRASS JAM Lafayette, Louisiana

Know a little bluegrass? Or a lot of bluegrass? Meet other players and dabblers alike at Cité des Arts' weekly Bluegrass Jam, held every Monday evening. All ages and experience levels welcome. 6:30 pm–10 pm. Free. citedesarts.org. k

AUG

1st

- AUG

30th

CREATIVE OUTLETS ABSTRACT ARTISTS POP-IN PROGRAM Baton Rouge, Louisiana

In conjunction with the LSU Museum of Art's exhibition Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American Abstract Artists, 1936–Present (see page 13), Baton Rouge's River Center library branch has launched a program in which patrons can come in and explore the world of abstract artwork using Makerspace

materials and equipment, as well as assistance from staff if necessary. Open during regular hours. Free. For details, contact rebmakerspace@ebrpl.com. k

AUG 1st - AUG 31st

GOOD EATS COOLINARY NEW ORLEANS New Orleans, Louisiana

Throughout the blistering month of August, numerous restaurants around New Orleans will once again offer hot menu deals for cheap in connection with the city's annual COOLinary New Orleans dining event.

Many of the gustatory-minded city's finest dining establishments will participate by offering specially-curated prix-fixe menus at thrifty prices. Enjoy two-course lunches for $25 or less, and three-course dinners and brunches for $45 or less. neworleans.com/coolinary. k

AUG

1st - SEPT 15th

GOOD EATS TAMMANY TASTE OF SUMMER Covington, Louisiana

Get a taste of the Northshore with the annual Tammany Taste of Summer.

Through August and September, St. Tammany Parish is putting its best plates forward to welcome you for a summer getaway (or stay-cation) with restaurant deals, farmers’ market fun, and scrumptious

Delightful discoveries at every bend!

D ’s

Food Soul

Cafe

LEARN MORE AT VISITIBERVILLE.COM 16

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North Iberville Driving Tour

#SmallestChurchInTheWorld

in sharing your life's story through the written word at the Saint-Luc French Immersion School. 9:30 am–11:30 am.

Free. (337) 298-7998. k

AUG 2nd - AUG 23rd

GREEN THUMBS "GARDENING FOR HUMMINGBIRDS" WORKSHOP Livingston, Louisiana

A long-running retrospective exhibition of Louisiana sculptor Angela Gregory's complex life and work titled Angela Gregory: Doyenne of Louisiana Sculpture is currently on display at the West Baton Rouge Museum until August, 2023. Image courtesy of Tulane University New Orleans Special Collections, used with permission of the Estate of Angela Gregory. See listing on page 16.

special events. Enjoy two, three, or fourcourse meals for as little as fifteen dollars at some of the Northshore's most respected dining establishments, including Palmettos on the Bayou (Slidell), The English Tea Room & Eatery (Covington), Tchefuncte’s Restaurant (Madisonville), Avila Grill (Mandeville), Big Mama’s Country Kitchen (Slidell), Gallagher’s Grill, and Gallagher’s on Front Street (both in Covington), among others. Attractions and tours are featured this year, too. The area

is chock-full of local bed and breakfasts and hotels that offer an extra dose of local charm as well as a good night's sleep. tammanytaste.com. k

Although hummingbird feeders provide a great source of nectar, this is only the first step towards building a garden full of nature's flying gems. Every Tuesday in August at Livingston Parish libraries, Jane Patterson, President and Education coordinator for the Baton Rouge Chapter of Audubon Society, will teach a workshop on how to identify and grow plants that provide nectar and shelter for hummingbirds. 5:30 pm August 2 at the Watson Branch; 6 pm August 9 at the Denham Springs-Walker Branch, August 16 at the Main Branch, and August 23 at the Albany-Springfield Branch. mylpl.info. k

weaves anthropomorphic imagery with the traditions of various Creole cultures, including Senegalese, Malian, Native American, Catholic, Black, Americana, and Nihon Manga. Speaking to the Louisiana Creole's particular diversity of cultural tradition, Senegal blends reference and ancestry, exploration and emission. On display at the Hilliard Art Museum. hilliardmuseum.org. k

AUG 3rd

PERSONAL ANCESTRY GENEAOLOGY GATHERING AT SAINT-LUC'S Arnaudville, Louisiana

Take advantage of Saint-Luc Immersion School's collection of oral histories, family records, and cultural artifacts to learn more about your ancestry. On the first Wednesday of the month, burgeoning genealogists convene at Saint-Luc's to share their passion and dive into the archives. 9:30 am–11:30 am. Free.

(337) 298-7998. k

AUG 3rd - AUG 22nd

AUG 2

AUG 2

BOOK TALKS AUTHOR TALK SERIES AT THE EBR PARISH LIBRARIES

Arnaudville, Louisiana

CULTURE EXHIBITIONS WHEN MONSTERS TREMBLE Lafayette, Louisiana

Online

From the starting point of modernist abstraction, artist Stephon Senegal

The East Baton Rouge Parish Library has launched a new virtual "Author Talk"

nd

LOCAL HISTORY HISTOIRES ET MÉMOIRES On the first Tuesday of the month, join fellow Acadiennes and Acadians

nd

- DEC 10

th

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Events

paintings representing eleven states to be on final exhibit at the Louisiana State Archives Gallery. artguildlouisiana.org. k

Beginning August 3rd - August 4th series, which connects best-selling authors with their readers through interactive, live online Q&A sessions. This month featured authors are Dr. Marcia Chatelain, author of the Pulitzer prizewinning book about the history of fast food restaurants in Black communities Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America (August 3 at 1 pm); Liz Moore, who wrote the international bestselling thriller Long Bright River (August 9 at 8 pm); and Michele Harper, New York Times bestselling author of the memoir The Beauty in Breaking (August 22 at 8 pm). Register at libraryc.org/ebrpl. k

AUG 3rd - AUG 31st ART EXHIBITIONS CLOUDBURST Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Media artist and Baton Rouge native Matt Kenyon's work has been exhibited around the world, including in New York City's Museum of Modern Art. His art concentrates on worldwide issues such as global corporate operations, mass media, and climate change, while incorporating metaphorical elements

like employed robotics, living organisms, and custom software. Now, Kenyon is coming back home to present his largest solo exhibition, Cloudburst, at the Baton Rouge Gallery. The exhibit will feature around a dozen significant works, such as a piece inspired by the 2016 flooding in Baton Rouge. batonrougegallery.org. k

AUG 3rd - AUG 31st

ART EXHIBITIONS DENHAM SPRINGS FINE ART ASSOCIATION SHOWCASE Denham Springs, Louisiana

The Arts Council of Livingston Parish will host artwork from members of the Denham Springs Fine Art Association.

Free. artslivingston.org. k

AUG 3rd - SEP 29th ART EXHIBITIONS RIVER ROAD SHOW Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The River Road Show, sponsored by the Art Guild of Louisiana, is a national juried exhibition entering its fifty-second year. This year's juror, nationally acclaimed artist Frank Eber, has selected sixty-nine

AUG

4th

LOCAL AGRICULTURE AGRONOMIC CROPS SCHOOL Alexandria, Louisiana

The LSU AgCenter Dean Lee Research and Extension Center returns for its second annual Agronomic Crops School, held at the Louisiana State Evacuation Shelter in Alexandria. Speakers from across the industry will present on topics such as salvaging herbicide treatments in cotton, the effects of nodulation on soybean fertility, disease management, and more. Participants can also explore the research and extension center's nearby fields, and can enjoy a sponsored meal. 4 pm–7 pm. Free. agcenter.lsu.edu. k

AUG

4th

BURLESQUE BRITNEY SPEARS-INSPIRED BURLESQUE BRUNCH New Orleans, Louisiana

The Commons Club Britney Brunch returns for one day only, bringing burlesque sensation Trixie Minx and her crew together for their signature Britney Spears-inspired burlesque brunch. From bottles of bubbly to drag queens, it will be a lively time,

Summer in Livingston Parish

Camp, boat & swim in the beautiful outdoors or shop & explore at Bass Pro, Juban Shopping Center & the Denham Springs Antique Village!

KOA Kampground 7628 Vincent Road, Denham Springs, LA 1-800-562-5673 Tickfaw River Village Campground 29388 Old Hwy 22 Springfield LA, 70462 985-974-0844 Lakeside RV Park 28370 Frost Road, Livingston, LA 225-686-7676 Lagniappe RV Campground 30141 La 22 Springfield LA, 70462 225-414-0584 Tickfaw State Park 27225 Patterson Road, Springfield, LA 1-888-981-2020

www.livingstontourism.com visitlivingstonparish 18

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

featuring a two-course prix fixe menu.

Britney Spears-inspired costumes and outfits encouraged. Shows at 10:30 am and 1 pm. $35. virginhotels.com. k

AUG

4th - AUG 18th

ART ET FRANCAIS LE PINCEAU FRANCAIS Arnaudville, Louisiana

Paint with a twist if you must, or elevate your boozy painting experience to the next level. In Arnaudville, local artist Cynthia Alleman will offer special stepby-step painting classes throughout the month of August, with an extra dose of French vocabulary lessons while you're at it. First word to remember: "Pinceau," or "paintbrush". Tickets include painting supplies, brushes, aprons, and easels.

Students are invited to bring beverages (of all sorts) and snacks of their choice.

No previous art or French experience is necessary. 6 pm–8 pm on August 4 and 18; 9 am–11 am August 17. $40.

(337) 298-4484. k

AUG 4th - AUG 19th LIVE MUSIC HENRY TURNER JR.'S LISTENING ROOM Baton Rouge, Louisiana

It's always a fun night at Henry Turner Jr.'s Listening Room—Baton Rouge's

AUG 4th - SEP 1st

CREATIVE CLASSES IMPROVISATION 101 AT EYE WANDER Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Professional director, teacher, and funny lady Paige Gagliano is leading an improvisation class for all levels at Eye Wander. The course is not only useful for actors, but for business professionals who want to improve their ability in sales, leadership, and public speaking. Ages sixteen and up. Classes every Thursday from 6 pm–8 pm. $200 for the month. eyewanderphoto.com. k

AUG 4th - SEP 10th

ART EXHIBITIONS ASSOCIATED WOMEN IN THE ARTS ART SHOW AND SALE: REFLECTIONS Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Arts District of New Orleans' Warehouse District comes alive August 6 for White Linen Night, with multiple coordinated gallery openings plus food and drink vendors along Julia Street and beyond. See listing on page 22.

premier spot for introducing new and original musical talent. Fridays bring performances by Henry Turner Jr. & Flavor, and the Listening Room AllStars, who may include Kelton ‘Nspire Harper, Larry LZ Dillon, comedian

Eddie Cool, and more. Friday nights welcome special guests, along with an all-you-can-eat community fish fry.

Saturdays go acoustic, bringing in special guests from across the country and soul food. Here are some acts to

look forward to this month: August 4: Mark Winters August 12: Bryan Bielanski August 19: June Star 8 pm. $10. henryslisteningroom.com. k

See the Associated Women in the Arts' annual summer member show Reflections at Elizabethan Gallery this month.

The organization, founded in 1980, is made up of Southern Louisiana women artists, who work together to create opportunities to celebrate women's art in the region. An opening reception with refreshments will take place on August 4 from 5 pm–7 pm. associatedwomeninthearts.com. k

Whether you are 8 or 80, we focus on your health.

Staying healthy should be a top priority for all families, and Dr. North-Scott helps her families stay focused. From preventative care and screenings to immunizations and well checks, she ensures patients get the care and support they need.

She treats a wide range of illnesses from the common cold, COVID, and flus to sore throats, ear infections, and stomach aches. She also helps patients with chronic illnesses and diseases such as migraines, diabetes, high blood pressure, anemia and more.

To schedule an appointment, please call 225-654-3607.

Trained in osteopathic manipulation therapy, Dr. North-Scott offers alternatives to many kinds of traditional care.

Dr. North-Scott welcomes new patients.

“I love helping every member of a family.

Their health means everything to me.”

2335 Church Street, Zachary, LA • LaneRMC.org // A U G 2 2

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Events

Beginning August 5th - August 6th AUG 5th - AUG 6th THEATRE WAITING FOR GODOT Ponchatoula, Louisiana

The Act One Players present Samuel Beckett's beloved and absurd tragicomedy Waiting for Godot. Will Godot ever arrive?

Does Vladimir and Estragon's anxious awaiting of him symbolize something greater? Determine for yourself from the audience at Swamplight Theatre. 7 pm– 9 pm. $15 at bontempstix.com. k

AUG 5th - AUG 21st THEATRE SUMMER AND SMOKE New Orleans, Louisiana

At the Marigny Opera House, Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans presents Summer and Smoke, the Mississippi love story of Alma Winemiller and John Buchanan Jr.—a drama that poses hedonism against modesty, passion against restraint, and then turns in on itself. 7:30 pm. $32; $45 for premium reserved seating; $20 for viewers younger than twenty-one. twtheatrenola.com. k

AUG 5th - AUG 26th

ART EXHIBITIONS HAMMOND ART GUILD OPEN JUDGED EXHIBITION Hammond, Louisiana

This annual exhibition at the Hammond Regional Arts Council continues the Hammond Art Guild's tradition of providing the Northshore with a display of art by some of the best creatives in the area. Pieces range from paintings, drawings, sculpture, jewelry, and more, with many available for purchase. An opening reception will be held August 5 from 5 pm–8 pm, during which guests will have the opportunity to vote on the People's Choice Award and participate in an art raffle for a chance to win artist-donated works. hammondarts.org. k

AUG

5

th

- AUG

27

th

CONCERTS LIVE MUSIC AT ROCK 'N' BOWL LAFAYETTE Lafayette, Louisiana

It's always a lucky strike kind of night at Rock 'n' Bowl Lafayette. Find the upcoming schedule of performances, here:

August 4: Layne Allen. 7:30 pm.

August 5: Dustin Sonnier & The Wanted.

9 pm.

August 6: Nik-L Beer Band. 9 pm.

August 11: Medicine. 7:30 pm.

August 12: Side Show. 9 pm.

August 13: Chris Breaux & Six String Rodeo. 9 pm.

August 14: Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys. 5 pm.

August 18: Wave Runner. 7:30 pm.

August 19: Eagles vs. Fleetwood Mac Tribute. 9 pm.

August 20: The Rouge Krewe. 9 pm. rocknbowl.com/lafayette. k

AUG

5th - AUG 27th

CONCERTS LIVE MUSIC AT RED STICK SOCIAL

August 29: Laidback Brunch with Grant Hudson.12 pm. redsticksocial.com. k

AUG

CIRCUSES HOUSE OF FAE Baton Rouge, Louisiana

A story of magic and mysticism, and the battle between the darkness and the light, gets retold via the acrobatic theater of The Acadian Circus this month at the Manship. Through aerial arts and other circus acts, the performers will introduce the audience to the peaceful land of the fae—and how the kingdom fights back against dark magic. 2 pm and 7 pm. $30. manshiptheatre.org. k

AUG

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Red Stick Social keeps the live music coming in Mid-City's historic Electric Depot. Here is the lineup: August 25: Blues Night with The Bo Burkes Band. 7 pm.

August 26: Ryan Harris, Denton Hatcher & The Swamp Flowers (with Rachel Hunter opening). 8 pm.

August 27: Hotel Burgundy and Zita. 8:30 pm.

August 28: The Louisiana Yard Dogs. 8 pm.

6th

6th

CREATIVE CLASSES BUTTON JELLYFISH WORKSHOP Denham Springs, Louisiana

Send the kids out to make art for the walls and flex their creativity. Cherie DucoteBreaux is teaching a workshop on button art at the Arts Council of Livingston Parish this summer, and aspiring artists will learn to make (bet you won't guess): an octopus.

All supplies included. Course designed for students ages eight and older. 11 am– 1 pm. $15. artslivingston.org. k

EAT. DANCE. Louisiana’s oldest chartered harvest festival is back this Labor Day Weekend featuring great food, live music, traditional events, and children’s activities for a FREE, five-day extravaganza.

Do not miss this event on the Cajun Coast!

Get info and make reservations now.

LOUISIANA

ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES FOR ADULTS

50 AND ABOVE

Members can join courses in Baton Rouge, St. Francisville, and Slidell Contact OLLI at LSU at (225) 578-2500 or via email at olli@outreach.lsu.edu

20

Repeat!

SEPT. 1-5 2022

SHRIMP & PETROLEUM F E S T I VA L

( 8 0 0 ) 2 5 6 - 2 9 3 1 | C a j u n C o a s t . c o m /S & P | # c a j u n c o a s t

Join today at online.lsu.edu/olli

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

MORGAN CITY • BERWICK • PATTERSON

DISCOVER A WILD TIME IN JEFFERSON PARISH!

Savor the last days of Summer, spending time with the kids in Jefferson Parish! From gator and bird sightings along the tranquil bayous in Lafitte to fishing, crabbing and digging your toes in the white sands of Grand Isle, your wild adventure awaits!

COMMITTED TO YOUR HEALTH & SAFETY V I S I TJ E F F E R S O N PA R I S H . C O M /C O U N T RY R O A D S 5 0 4 . 7 3 1 . 7 0 8 3 | 1 . 8 7 7. 5 7 2 . 74 74

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Events

Beginning August 6 AUG

th

6th

ART & COMMUNITY NEIGHBORHOOD ARTS PROJECT AT SUMMER OF HOPE Denham Springs, Louisiana

The LSU Mueseum of Art's Neighborhood Arts Project is joining forces with MayorPresident Sharon Weston Broome's Summer of Hope initiative for art-making activities and community conversations at Memorial Stadium. 4:30 pm–7:30 pm. Free. lsumoa.com. k

AUG

6th

ART MARKETS COVINGTON ART MARKET: ART UNDER THE OAKS Covington, Louisiana

St. Tammany Art Association, in partnership with the City of Covington, presents a juried market of visual arts and crafts held ten times per year on the first Saturday of the month. The event features a variety of work from local and regional artists, including jewelry, photography, paintings, woodworking, fiber art and more. The market is hosted on Lee Lane in Downtown Covington. 11 am–3 pm. sttammanyartassociation.org/artmarket. k

AUG

6th

ARTFUL OUTINGS WHITE LINEN NIGHT New Orleans, Louisiana

The New Orleans Arts District brings back its popular White Linen Night, transforming Julia Street's 300–600 blocks into one massive art party with live music, cuisine and cocktails, and exhibition openings throughout the Warehouse Arts District. Admission to the block party and art openings, held from 6 pm–9 pm, is free and cocktails and cuisine will be available for sale along Julia Street with foodand-beverage tickets. Deck yourself out in your cleanest, chicest (or comfiest, let's be real) whites—and maybe put a tide pen in your purse. Find the full roster of participating galleries at artsdistrictneworleans.com. k

AUG 6th

NERD OUT MID CITY MICRO CON Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Celebrate the brilliance of imagination and diversity with the Main Library's fifth annual Mid-City Micro

Con. Enter into fantastical worlds, interact with comic book characters, creators, and fellow fans. Special panel discussions will touch on world building, online content creation, diversity, body image, and comics in Louisiana. All culminating— naturally—in a cosplay competition for teens and adults. 11 am–5 pm Saturday; 2 pm–7 pm Sunday. Free. For a full schedule of events, visit the Mid City Micro Con InfoGuide at ebrpl.com/mcmc. k

AUG

6th

- AUG

7th

FESTIVALS SATCHMO SUMMERFEST New Orleans, Louisiana

Despite his evergreen fame, Satchmo Summerfest is one of the only festivals in the world dedicated to honoring Louis Armstrong, the legendary baritone and trumpeter from New Orleans. The New Orleans Jazz Museum will honor the iconic musician over two days with two music stages, cuisine from area restaurants, and an indoor lecture series poised to educate guests on Armstrong’s history and enduring impact on Louisiana and beyond. $7 if pre-registered, $10 at the door, children under twelve free. satchmosummerfest.org. k

AUG 6th - AUG 30th ART EXHIBITIONS ARIODANTE GALLERY AUGUST EXHIBITION New Orleans, Louisiana

New works are on display this month at Ariodante Art Gallery on Julia Street in New Orleans. Works include artwork and crafts by Gary Shiro and jewelry by Lisa Normand, along with the work of Sergio Alvarez in the Lagniappe Area and featured artist Cheri Ben Iesau. An opening reception will be held on White Linen Night August 6 from 5 pm–8 pm. ariodantegallery.com. k

AUG 6th - AUG 31st

ART EXHIBITIONS BETWEEN THE WATERS AT GALLERY 600 JULIA New Orleans, Louisiana

During the month of August, stop by Gallery 600 Julia to view Will Smith, Jr.'s photorealistic landscapes—impressive depictions of the undulations and swampy wild between the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers. Smith works to document the region as it appears, as well as to raise awareness of its fragility. The exhibition opens in conjunction with White Linen Night on August 6, with an opening reception from 6 pm–9 pm. Free. gallery600julia.com. k

Artistry of Light By Mary T. Wiley

Taking Beauty to Security Lighting 225-955-7584 • artistryoflight.com • MARY T. WILEY 22

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AUG 6th - SEP 15th ART EXHIBITIONS INTERCEDENT New Orleans, Louisiana

In Intercedent, his second solo exhibition with Callan Contemporary, Andrew Wapinski advances his ongoing inquiry into the dynamic between natural and man-made processes. With a unique complement of materials—pigmented ice, sumi ink, gesso, and anthracite coal—he creates visually and conceptually complex paintings on linen-mounted panels. The coal, which he uses as a drawing tool, comes from his hometown, St. Clair, Pennsylvania, where he grew up watching the landscape constantly transform as a result of underground and surface mining. He became aware of the dramatic ways we use technology to intercede in geological time and processes, displacing tons of earth and rock to serve human needs. Wapinski’s artwork is a metaphor for this phenomenon. callancontemporary.com. k

AUG 6th - SEP 17th

ART EXHIBITIONS OUTER CIRCLES' ROOM Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The New Orleans-based photographer collective Outer Circle is hosting a photography exhibition at Yes We

The Ogden Museum of Southern Art once again presents its juried state-wide competition Louisiana Contemporary, juried this year by Valerie Cassel Oliver, curator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Artwork by Laura Welter from this year's exhibition, courtesy of the Ogden Museum. See listing on page 24.

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Events

Beginning August 6th - August 13th Cannibal titled Room. The exhibition includes work by photographers Chris Rhone, Andy Pham, Dillon Roberts, Mica Herrin, Jason Kerzinski, and George Jr. yeswecannibal.org. k

CALENDAR OF EVENTS AUGUST 2022 Fifth Ward Farmers Market Fifth Ward Community Center August 6, 2022 @7:00am Fifth Ward Community Center Dining with Diabetes Ed Series Avoyelles Ag Center-Mansura August 10, 17, 24, & 31 318.964.2249 To the Moon and Back Father/Daughter Dance Haas Auditorium in Bunkie August 13, 2022 (6:00pm – 8:00pm) 318.729.3802 Avoyelles Rotary Golf Tournament Tamahka Trails Course September 9, 2022 @ 11:00am 318.229.2121 St. Martin of Tours Church Fair Belledeau, LA September 10-11, 2022 318.308.5136 St. Peters/St. Michael Church Fair Bordelonville, LA September 16-18, 2022 318.359.9121

AUG 6th - JAN 8th

ART EXHIBITIONS LOUISIANA CONTEMPORARY New Orleans, Louisiana

The Ogden Museum of Southern Art will once again produce its statewide, juried exhibition Louisiana Contemporary, curated this year by guest juror Valerie Cassel Oliver, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The comprehensive exhibit features works by living Louisiana artists in a showcase of contemporary art practices in the region. ogdenmuseum.org. k

AUG 6th - FEB 26th

ART EXHIBITIONS LEAVING APPALACHIA: THE ART OF GREGORY SAUNDERS New Orleans, Louisiana

The Ogden Museum of Southern Art will feature the works of Pensacola artist Gregory B. Saunders, a contemporary realist master working in the medium of powdered graphite. His fascination with this particular art form began the day after his graduation from Morehead State University, when he was sharpening his pencil and the graphite dust spilled over. Using a process he's developed over several years, he works the substance in ways ranging from drawing to sanding, to trapping between layers of acrylic spray as a means of adding value. In addition to his two-dimensional works, he frequently incorporates graphite portraiture into found object sculptural installations. The exhibition, titled Leaving Appalachia: The Art of Gregory B. Saunders, will be the first major survey of Saunders' work, capturing his explorations of landscapes, the human body, and his own identity. “These works are more than just marks on paper,” Saunders said. "This is my life laid bare.” ogdenmusuem.org. k

AUG 7th - AUG 11th

8592 Hwy 1, Mansura, LA 800.833.4195 travelavoyelles.com 24

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SILVER SCREEN FILMS AT THE MANSHIP THEATRE Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Leave the X-Men to the megaplex. Each month, the Manship Theatre offers a slate of films, from modern classics to engaging new documentaries and locally-produced

stories. Here's what's in store this month: August 7: Five Summer Stories (1972): Greg MacGillivray and Jim Freeman celebrate a decade of celluloid with five stories centered on surf culture. 2 pm. $9.50.

August 11: Fire of Love (2022): A documentary telling the tragic story of volcano scientists and lovers Katia and Maurice Krafft, who died in a volcanic explosion in 1991. 7:30 pm. $9.50. manshiptheatre.org. k

AUG 11th - AUG 15th FESTIVALS NEW ORLEANS SALSA BACHATA FESTIVAL New Orleans, Louisiana

The ballrooms at the New Orleans Marriott will thrum with action over several days as dancers compete in categories of Latin-Salsa, Bachata, Kizomba, Zouk, Urban Fusion, Heels, and Ballroom dance.

Over 30,000 square feet of ballroom space has been set aside for dance workshops, socials, and performances, and participants can take advantage of eighty-five hours of diverse and immersive dance workshops taught by top instructors, plus nightly performances by local, national, and international dance artists. Participants will enjoy themed nightly dance socials (lasting until 4 am) as well as dance performance challenges and rooftop parties. Oh, and there's the silent headphone Bourbon Street Flash Mob Takeover. nolasalsabachatafest.com. k

AUG 11th - AUG 30th FUN & GAMES BINGO FOR BOOKS Livingston, Louisiana

Spend a fun evening out at the library, and try your luck at winning a book or two (actually, everyone will win a book or two by the end—so your odds are pretty solid).

Refreshments will be served. 5:30 pm at the Albany-Springfield Branch on August 11, Main Branch on August 18, South Branch on August 30. Free. mylpl.info. k

AUG 12th

FILM & COMEDY SPOOF NIGHT! WITH BEETLEJUICE Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Join Baton Rouge's The Family Dinner Comedy Troupe for an interactive movie experience, poking fun at the battle between the Maitlands and the Deetzes and the bio-exorcist Beetlejuice. Enjoy live commentary, skits, interactive games

for laughs, and perhaps a drink or two.

Rated R-ish; guests under sixteen require an accompanying parent or guardian.

7:30 pm. $12. manshiptheatre.org. k

AUG 12th - AUG 14th

CREATIVE CLASSES FRANK EBER WATERCOLOR WORKSHOP Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Join California watercolorist Frank Eber, who will serve as this year's juror and judge for the Arts Guild of Louisiana's fifty-second River Road Show (see page 18). Eber will present a special three-day course on how to create watercolor landscapes using reference photos and drawing in group exercises.

Participants will be responsible for bringing certain supplies, listed on the Art Guild website. 9 am–4 pm each day at the Studio in the Park. $450. artguildlouisiana.org. k

AUG

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FESTIVALS HEXFEST

- AUG

14

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New Orleans, Louisiana

At the Bourbon Orleans Hotel convenes a community of New Orleans' witches, rootworkers, Voudou priests, and other magical folk from around the world. For this special "Weekend of Witchery" presented

by Brian Cain, Christian Day, and the Witches of New Orleans—forces align for a

study and celebration of the city's mysticism.

The conference opens with a Riverboat Ritual and dinner held on an authentic steamboat on the Mississippi River, followed by two full days of workshops, drumming, and ritual. Between workshops and presentations, attendees can shop ritual tools, signed books, jewelry, and spellcrafts. $150 for day passes; $350 for full weekend. hexfest.com. k

AUG

12th - SEP 30th

ART EXHIBITIONS AT BOSSIER ARTS COUNCIL Bossier City, Louisiana

Moments in Time: Photography by Bob Horne is a retrospective of the works by the retired teacher and self-taught photographer, curated by the love of his life, Judy Horne. Leah Welch's watercolor, oil, and photographic works will also be on display in an exhibition titled The Artwork of Leah Welch. An opening reception for both shows will be held from 6 pm– 8pm. bossierarts.org. k

AUG 13th

LIVE MUSIC FATHER JOHN MISTY CONCERT New Orleans, Louisiana

The Orpheum Theatre will host indie musician Father John Misty on his North American tour to promote his latest

FOR SALE Historic Cedar Grove Plantation

album Chloë and the Next 20th Century.

The opening act will be his Sub Pop label mate, English singer, model, and actress Suki Waterhouse. 8 pm. Tickets start at $39.99. ticketmaster.com. k

AUG 13th

PERFORMANCE SAFE SPACE Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Phoenix 1 and the Royal Hearts Foundation are presenting the drama Safe Space at the Manship Theatre. Directed

by Nia Benn, the three-person play explores the silent struggle of each man as they search for a safe space to express their truth. The story captures the importance of men's mental health in a thoughtprovoking performance. 6 pm. $30–$45. manshiptheatre.org. k

AUG

13th

LOCAL HISTORY BAND OF BROTHERS SYMPOSIUM New Orleans, Louisiana

The US Freedom Pavilion at the Boeing Center will be the site for a daylong symposium exploring the twentieth anniversary of the Band of Brothers miniseries. The Symposium will bring members from the cast and crew together on stage to share their collective experiences,

and provide behind-the-scenes commentary.

Family members of Easy Company veterans will also participate to share the lasting legacies of their loved ones. The symposium will also be livestreamed and available for audiences to watch virtually. 8:30 am–5:15 pm. Free. bandofbrotherssymposium. k

AUG

13th

FUN RUNS RED DRESS RUN New Orleans, Louisiana

Scarlet-garbed runners flex their inner vamps in this year's Red Dress Run. Sponsored by the Hash House Harriers, a self-proclaimed "drinking club with a running problem," the event offers not just a chance to imbibe in scarlet finery and unlimited beer, but to also support a good cause, with proceeds supporting more than one hundred local charities. Hashers are offered special redthemed running events like the Red Lingerie Run on Friday night and the Hangover Run on Sunday. This year's run begins at the corner of N. Peters and Marigny Streets at 9 am. $65. nolareddress.com to register. k

AUG

13th

CONCERTS THE CHEE-WEEZ Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Chee-Weez started in a garage

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AUG 13th - SEP 18th

Beginning August 13 - August 18 th

right outside of New Orleans. Now, the band is bringing their multi-genre style to Baton Rouge's L'Auberge Casino & Hotel. Recognized for combining the music styles of artists like Bon Jovi, Neil Diamond, and Metallica— The Chee-Weez bring a unique, unforgettable rock experience to the stage. 9 pm. $10. Must be twenty-one or older. lbatonrouge.com. k

AUG

13th

ARTFUL OUTINGS WHITE LINEN & LAGNIAPPE Slidell, Louisiana

Get ready to style your best all-white outfit at Olde Town Slidell's fourth annual White Linen & Lagniappe. The night will be full of family-friendly entertainment including live music, after-hours shopping, and art by local artists—and will feature signature White Linen Night cocktails and hot food for everyone to enjoy. The entertainment doesn't stop there: bring your ice box pies for the competition of the summer. 6 pm–9 pm. Free. louisiananorthshore.com. k

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GREEN THUMBS GARDEN DISCOVERIES: HOW TO TURN A PLANT INTO MEDICINE Baton Rouge, Louisiana

People have been using plants as medicine for centuries and centuries, yet today most people associate holistic medicinal practices as something opposed to modern medicine. Dr. Elizabeth Floyd, an Associate Professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center and CoDirector of the Botanical and Dietary Supplement Research Center, will lead a presentation at the Main Library at Goodwood describing the ways modern medicinal research utilizes the properties of Louisiana plants to treat illness. For example, did you know that one of the most widely-prescribed drugs in the world treating Type 2 Diabetes comes from the French Lilac? The presentation is part of the Baton Rouge Botanic Garden Foundation's Garden Discoveries series, and is free to attend.

10 am. ebrpl.com. k

ART EXHIBITIONS PINK, PAINTED, PRAYER!: EXPRESSIONS OF ART, FAITH, AND JOY Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Mid-City Artisans is presenting artist Joi Whiley's exhibit Pink, Painted, Prayer!: Expressions of Art, Faith, and Joy. The exhibit celebrates women and explores the power of faith during unprecedented times like the pandemic.

The opening reception, held from 3 pm–6 pm on August 13, will honor inspirational women and feature an Art Talk with Whiley as she shares how God impacts her artistry. mid-cityartisans.com. k

AUG

14

th

LOCAL CULTURE ACADIAN CULTURE DAY Lafayette, Louisiana

Over 250 years of rich cultural heritage will be celebrated in Vermilionville during its Acadian Culture Day. The day will focus on family folklore and activities including live music, art, cooking, accordion construction and repair, spinning and weaving, wood carving, and more demonstrations.

Free. 10 am–5 pm at 300 Fisher Road. vermilionville.org. k

AUG 14th

JAM SESSIONS OLD TIME MUSIC OPEN JAM Port Allen, Louisiana

On the second Sunday of each month, musicians of all varieties and abilities are invited to the West Baton Rouge Museum for an Open Jam. Bring your guitars, basses, fiddles, dulcimers, and even your triangles to the museum's Brick Gallery to play songs in genres like folk, Cajun, country, gospel, and bluegrass. Free. 3 pm–5 pm. westbatonrougemuseum.com. k

AUG

15th

LOCAL HISTORY NATIONAL DAY OF THE ACADIANS Saint Martinville, Louisiana

The National Day of the Acadians will be celebrated at the Acadian Memorial Museum, honoring the anniversary of the arrival of the early French refugees who carved out a unique lifestyle for themselves in the South Louisiana soil. Free. 10 am– 6 pm. acadianmemorial.org. k

AUG 15th

LOCAL CULTURE FÊTE DIEU DU TECHE Leonville, Louisiana

On August 15, Catholics worldwide

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AUG 17th- AUG 21st

FESTIVALS DELCAMBRE SHRIMP FESTIVAL Delcambre, Louisiana

The small town of Delcambre, Louisiana revels in the bounty of local shrimp with this annual festival that features carnival rides, a firemen water fight, daily fais-do-dos, and of course an excess of local seafood prepared in a variety of ways at the Shrimp Festival Grounds August 17–21. Photo by Elle Hughes.

celebrate the Feast of the Assumption.

In Acadiana, though, the date is also celebrated as the anniversary of the arrival of the French Canadian immigrants who brought this faith to Louisiana after years of great trials and suffering.

In celebration, the annual Eucharistic procession will take place along Bayou Teche in the forty-one mile stretch from Leonville to St. Martinville— honoring the region's distinct Acadian

Catholic heritage. Holy Mass beings at 8 am at St. Leo's in Leonville, with the Boat Procession departing at 9:30 am.

Stops will be made along the bayou in Arnaudville, Cecilia, Breaux Bridge, and Parks, landing at the Evangeline Oak in St. Martinville that evening. 126 Church Road in Leonville, outside of Opelousas.

For more information, call 337-394-6550 or contact fetedieuduteche@gmail.com. fetedieuduteche.org. k

For anyone who has ever pulled to the side of a two-lane road somewhere in South Louisiana, lured to a little shack (or truck bed) by a hand-painted sign reading "fresh shrimp," this one's for you.

This Wednesday through Sunday festival offers carnival rides, a firemen water fight, and fais-do-dos every day. Plus live music from local legends the likes of Wayne Toups & Zydecajun, The Cast, Jamie Bergeron & the Kickin' Cajuns, Jaryd Lane, and more. Hungry revelers will also be able to enjoy their shrimp in every conceivable iteration. All held at the Shrimp Festival Grounds, 409 East Main Street. $10 gate fee on Friday and Saturday; Free Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday. shrimpfestival.net. k

AUG 18th

LIVE MUSIC BEAUSOLEIL AVEC MICHAEL DOUCET FAREWELL CONCERT Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Manship Theatre will host Cajun powerhouse sextet Beausoleil with Michael Doucet in a farewell concert guaranteed to get anyone dancing. The group's singular sound is an amalgam

of New Orleans jazz, blues rock, folk, swamp pop, Zydeco, country, and bluegrass, and is responsible for bringing the Cajun French tradition into the modern world. 7:30 pm. $40–$50. manshiptheatre.com. k

AUG 18th

NUPTUALS THE WEDDING COLLECTIVE AT LE PAVILLON New Orleans, Louisiana

La Pavillon Hotel will be the appropriately lavish setting for The Wedding Collective, bringing together wedding professionals from throughout the area. Seek inspiration, find your perfect gown, sample cakes and catering options, and talk with wedding pros who can make your event perfect, then enjoy craft cocktails and dance to live music.

5:30–8 pm. $20 at eventbrite.com. k

AUG 18th

CONCERTS DEON COLE AT L'AUBERGE Baton Rouge, Louisiana

From his known roles in ABC's black-ish and Freeform's grown-ish to his appraised Netflix stand-up comedy specials, there's a good chance you've seen Deon Cole on television. This summer, you can see the comedian, writer, and actor live at Baton

,

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Events

Beginning August 18th - August 21st Rouge's L’Auberge Casino & Hotel for one night only. 8 pm. Tickets start at $30. Must be twenty-one or older. lbatonrouge.com. k

AUG 18th

CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS LSU MUSEUM OF ART ANNUAL MEETING, RECEPTION, AND GALLERY TALKS Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The LSU Museum of Art will host its annual meeting plus a gallery reception for the exhibition Blurring Boundaries.

The reception will include gallery talks with LSU Museum of Art Curatorial Fellow Clarke Brown and Executive Director Daniel Stetson. 5 pm–8 pm.

Free. lsumoa.org. k

AUG 18th - AUG 21st

MUSICALS LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS Natchez, Mississippi

Meek flower shop assistant Seymour pines for co-worker Audrey in Natchez Little Theatre's production of the horror rock musical comedy. During a total eclipse,

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Seymour discovers Audrey II (whom he names for his cute coworker); the unusual plant feeds only on human flesh and blood. The growing plant attracts a great deal of business for the previously struggling store. After Seymour feeds Audrey's boyfriend, Orin, to Audrey II after Orin's accidental death, he must come up with more bodies for the increasingly bloodthirsty plant. Add three sassy loudmouth street kids and the owner of Skid Row's worst florist.

Thursday–Saturday at 7:30 pm; Sunday at 2 pm. $20. natchezlittletheatre.com. k

AUG 18 - AUG 21 th

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MUSICALS THE WIZARD OF OZ Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

This summer, Theatre Baton Rouge's Young Actors Program is bringing the yellow brick road to the stage with their production of The Wizard of Oz. Get ready to watch Dorothy as she travels to Oz and finds her way back to Kansas, with the help of friends she meets along the way. 7:30 pm–9:30 pm. $35; $25 for children seventeen and younger and

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Yes We Cannibal in Baton Rouge is welcoming the collaborative artist team known as Generic Art Solutions, made up of Tony Campbell and Matt Vis, with their striking performance Back in Black—which involves two welded-together motorcycles performing a burnout. Image courtesy of Yes We Cannibal.

for students with a valid student ID. theatrebr.org . k

AUG 19th - SEP 10th

ART EXHIBITIONS GENERIC ART SOLUTIONS' BACK IN BLACK Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge's anti-profit artist collective Yes We Cannibal is hosting an exhibition by the collaborative team Generic Art

Solutions, made up of artists Tony Campbell and Matt Vis, titled Back in Black. The performance of Back in Black promises to be exhilarating, featuring two motorcycles welded together at the head performing a burnout. The pair first conceived of the project while living in New York, and have continued to practice the concept and expound upon it over the past two decades in New Orleans. The exhibition celebrates

the pair's collaboration, which involves visual art that is rooted in performance. yeswecannibal.org. k

AUG

20th

KID STUFF LEMONPALOOZA Slidell, Louisiana

Looking to put your lemonade-making skills to the test? Slidell's Green Oaks Apothecary is celebrating National Lemonade Day with their children's lemonade contest, Lemonpalooza.

Kids thirteen years old and under can participate, with a chance of winning cash prizes. 10 am–noon. Free. For details, email Green Oaks Apothecary at greenoaksapothecary@yahoo.com. k

AUG

20th

KID STUFF BE LIKE IGGY PECK, ARCHITECT Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Dutchtown Library opens its doors to the 3D worlds of our children's imagination with their new Iggy Peckinspired construction program, which allows kids ages six to eight to explore the realm of architecture design and robot programming. 10 am. Free. myapl.org. k

AUG

20th

KNOWING NATURE BIRDING AT BURDEN Baton Rouge, Louisiana

It's no secret that Louisiana is aflocked with an enormous variety of birds. At LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens at Burden alone, over 320 species have been recorded—from the meager mockingbird to the wondrous woodpecker. Through its new program, Burden is inviting the bird-experts and bird-curious alike to participate in three-hour guided bird walks. This month's excursion will be guided by Luke Laborde. 7 am–9 am. $10. Participants are encouraged to bring binoculars, a cell phone, birding apps and/or Field Guides, sunscreen, insect repellant, appropriate outdoor footwear, weather-appropriate clothing, and water. lsuagcenter.com. k

AUG

20th

CONCERTS RENDEZVOUS ON 2ND Eunice, Louisiana

Enjoy the open air in downtown Eunice for this new free concert series, inspired by the currently-on-hold Rendezvous des Cajuns concerts at the Liberty Theatre.

Hosted by the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve every third Saturday of the month on the corner of 2nd and Walnut Streets. Free. nps.gov. k

AUG

20th

ARTFUL OUTINGS ARTIST RECEPTION AT BIENVENUE MON AMI Amite, Louisiana

Spend an evening at Amite’s Bienvenue Mon Ami Bed and Breakfast and Art Gallery celebrating a new exhibition featuring four Louisiana artists.

Guests will get a close up look at Rachel Rodriguez's vibrant murals and Louisiana-centric artworks, Michelle Davenport's playful portraits, Andrea Hano's abstract paintings, and Theresa Beauboeuf's diverse body of mixedmedia works. Michael Niedenfuer will be onsite performing live music, and guests can also enjoy appetizers and beverages made by Bienvenue Mon Ami's awardwinning Chef Laura, Bennett Premier Catering, and Crescent City Bar. 6 pm–9 pm. Free. monamibnb.com. k

AUG

20th

CONCERTS GRAND COUNTRY JUNCTION Livingston, Louisiana

Livingston's most happenin' live music event, "Your Hometown Branson Show" is back in action. Every third Saturday, come out to Suma Crossing Theatre in downtown Livingston for the hottest local country music acts. 7 pm. Tickets sold at the door; $15 for adults, $10 for kids; free for children younger than three years old. grandcountryjunction.com. k

AUG

20th

- AUG

21st

HOME IMPROVEMENT ST. TAMMANY HOME AND REMODELING SHOW Mandeville, Louisiana

The Northshore's only home and garden show, The St. Tammany Home and Remodeling Show, is coming to the Castine Center in Mandeville this weekend. Teaming up with Certified Louisiana Food Fest, the show will showcase the best products and services for everything in your home, from kitchens, bathrooms, remodeling, siding, and more. Plus, every participant at the show has the chance to win exciting door prizes like spa days, restaurant certificates, and more. 10 am–5 pm both days. $6; free for children twelve and younger. jaaspro.com. k

AUG 21st

JAM SESSIONS CAJUN MUSIC JAM Port Allen, Louisiana

In the West Baton Rouge Museum's Brick Gallery, area musicians and music-lovers alike are invited to gather each month for a Cajun French Music Jam, sponsored // A U G 2 2

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8 am–3 pm on Sunday. Thursday and Sunday are free; $10 admission Friday and Saturday. duckfestival.org. k

Beginning August 21st - August 28th by the Baton Rouge CFMA Chapter. A different musical artist will lead the jam each month. So get out your instrument, or your dancing shoes, and join in. 3 pm–5 pm.

Free. westbatonrougemuseum.com. k

AUG

21st

CONCERTS THE LISTENING ROOM CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES Lafayette, Louisiana

In a new collaboration launching this fall, the Acadiana Center for the Arts and the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra present The Listening Room Chamber Music Series—offering experiences of high quality symphonic music in intimate settings. For these concerts, the ACA's Devin Moncus Theater is converted into a parlor environment, setting the stage (literally) for exciting performances of classic musical works performed by traveling ensembles and musicians from around the world.

This Sunday, the series will launch with a performance by members of the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, joined by world-renowned piano virtuoso Giancarlo Luisi, who will present an

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homage to the nineteenth century European salons through the works of Frédéric Chopin and Franz Schubert.

3 pm. Ticket information at acadianasymphony.org. k

AUG

25th

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28th

FESTIVALS GUEYDAN DUCK FESTIVAL Gueydan, Louisiana

Before Jean Pierre Gueydan founded the town named after himself, he lived in Abbeville, which was thirty miles west of a hunter's paradise that Gueydan visited often. What else could a dyed-in-the-wool hunter do but found a town for himself bang in the middle of all that bounty? That fair-feathered reputation follows the town of Gueydan into the present day and is celebrated at the town's annual Duck Festival.

All the usual small-town festival fare is available, along with duck-and goosecalling competitions, cook-offs, skeet shooting competitions, dog trials, pageantry, rides and games, duck decoy carving, and other activities. 6 pm–11 pm on Thursday, 6 pm–midnight on Friday, 10 am–1 am on Saturday, and

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AUG

26th

LOCAL HISTORY LUNCHTIME LECTURE : "WHO IS INDIGENOUS?" Port Allen, Louisiana

The West Baton Rouge Museum invites all to attend a fascinating presentation

by E. Barrett Ristroph and Rachael Billiot-Bruleigh—who will discuss their 2022 publication Who is Indigenous: Perspectives on Identity, Disposition, and Transition. Exploring the concept of indigenuity from academic, legal, and personal standpoints—the book includes compelling accounts and perspectives from communities in Russia, Alaska, and Louisiana.

Ristroph, editor, and BilliotBruleigh, contributor, will present a discussion, reading, Q&A, and book signing at the museum. Noon. Free. westbatonrougemuseum.org. k

AUG

26th

GOOD EATS FÊTE ROUGE FOOD AND WINE FÊTE Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Baton Rouge Epicurean Society

(BRES) is gathering together the capital city's culinary creatives to host the annual celebration of food and wine that is Fête Rouge. Forks and palates at the ready—there's lots of eating and toasting to be done. This year L'Auberge Casino & Hotel plays host to the Food & Wine Fête. Local chefs prepare dishes for the chance at winning the gold medal in the Fête Rouge Chefs Competition, and somebody has to eat all those delicacies. Live entertainment, and more than two hundred wines available for tasting round out this event. 7 pm. $95. bresbr.org. k

AUG

26th

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27th

KNOWING NATURE LOUISIANA BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION CONVENTION Alexandria, Louisiana

Things will be abuzz in Alexandria this weekend, when thousands of honeybee fanatics will swarm over the Holiday Inn Downtown for the sixtieth annual Louisiana Beekeepers Association Convention. Expect expert guest speakers, vendors peddling the latest in beekeeping technology, and a black jar honey contest—for which beekeepers can bring their liquid gold and put it up against other producers around the region. 8 am–4 pm each day, with a special banquet held on Friday night

at 6:30 pm, featuring a live auction benefitting honey bee education. $25. labeekeepers.org. k

AUG

26th

- AUG

THEATRE STUDENT BODY

28th

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge's newest theatre company, the 225 Theatre Collective, present's Frank Winters' powerful play Student Body at The LSU Studio Theatre.

Student Body addresses the issue of sexual assault on college campuses, and the difficult and complex questions that come along with it. Friday and Saturday shows are at 7:30 pm, Sunday matinée at 1:30 pm. Tickets are $18, $12 for students at 225theatrecollective.com. k

AUG

26th

- AUG

28th

FESTIVALS LOUISIANA SOUL FOOD FALL FEST Shreveport, Louisiana

over thirty brands. Every participant at the show has a chance to win door prizes including spa days, restaurant certificates and much more—and one lucky winner will leave with a $500 grocery gift card. 10 am–5 pm. $8; children younger than twelve are free; spend $25 on groceries at any Langenstein's location between August 4–August 28 and receive two free tickets. jaaspro.com. k

AUG

28th

GOOD SPORTS NEW ORLEANS CITY TOUR New Orleans, Louisiana

The New Orleans City Tour returns at the Lakewood Golf Club. The competition will be fierce, and putters can select from either best ball or scramble formats to suit all ability levels with no handicaps used. Come with a team (four to six players), with a partner, or as a free agent to be grouped with other players. Free. nextgengolf.org/new-orleans. k

Empire Queenz presents Shreveport's second annual Louisiana Soul food Fall Fest, a three-day festival celebrating diversity, music, and culinary arts.

The weekend will be full of family fun including Southern cuisine, a judged soul food competitions, live music, dance groups, vendors, and more.

Noon–7 pm. $10 for general admission. louisianasoulfoodfallfestival.com. k

AUG

27th

BENEFIT CONCERTS A GATHERING OF MUSIC BENEFIT Bossier City, Louisiana

Support the good causes of the Deaf Action Center and Parish Paws Animal Rescue at the Bossier Arts Council with A Gathering of Music Benefit, which will feature a performance by Ian Quiet and an open jam with Ron Hardy & The Circle of Life Drum Gathering.

4 pm–6 pm. Free, with donation suggested. eventbrite.com. k

AUG

27th

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HOME IMPROVEMENT FALL PONTCHARTRAIN HOME SHOW & LOUISIANA FOOD FEST Kenner, Louisiana

The Fall Pontchartrain Home Show—Louisiana’s largest and longest running home show—returns. This year’s event will feature exhibitors boasting the latest trends in kitchens, remodeling, f looring, outdoor living, and so much more. While you're there, don't miss the Langenstein's Food Fest, where there will be free samples, tastings, coupons, and recipes from

To peruse our entire calendar of events, including those that wouldn't fit in print, point your phone camera here.

Book a Private Party at Night & have a Band play!

Meet me at the Mag! Closed Mondays 5689

3-V Tourist Courts •1940’s Motor Hotel • Reservations: 225-721-7003 // A U G 2 2

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V I S I T S T. F R A N C I S V I L L St. Francisville Fall Festivals

ON THE ROSTER: CELEBRATING THE FELICIANAS’ HORTICULTURAL HERITAGE, WATCHING THE WILDEST SHOW IN THE SOUTH, AND A GRASSROOTS GATHERING FOR FOLK ART AND SONG. Vibes in the Ville | Monthly

Angola Prison Rodeo | Throughout October

Downtown St. Francisville’s ongoing outdoor concert series, Vibes in the Ville, keeps the good vibes flowing this fall with live music returning to Parker Park on the fourth Thursday of each month. Starting at 5:30 pm, you’ll find groovy tunes, local food and drink vendors, a kids’ area, and even occasional art pop-ups. This year’s lineup is as follows:

Every Sunday in October, the traffic backs up for miles through West Feliciana as thousands line up for “The Wildest Show in the South.” The annual Angola Rodeo offers a slate of events that includes bull riding, bareback riding, a wild horse race, barrel racing, bull-dogging, wild cow milking (really), convict poker, rodeo clowns; and the final event of the day: the Guts and Glory Challenge, in which a poker chip is affixed to the forehead of the meanest, toughest Brahma bull available. The object for contestants is to get close enough to the bull to snatch the chip (and escape in one piece). The rodeo’s highly anticipated arts and crafts show, which features hundreds of items handmade by Louisiana State Penitentiary inmates, is almost as popular. Entry is $20 per person, and proceeds fund faith-based initiatives at the prison.

September 22 - Blu Rouge October 27 - Chris Leblanc November 17 - Dave Sellers & Back Road Band Southern Garden Symposium | October 14–15

Presenting renowned gardening experts and a wide array of panels, few gardening programs combine nationally-recognized speakers amid stately historic settings in quite the way that the Southern Garden Symposium has managed to do for more than thirty years now. At plantation estates throughout the parish, nineteenthcentury landowners devoted huge portions of their newly acquired wealth to imposing order upon the wilderness and cultivated lush landscapes of ethereal and enduring beauty. At the opening of this annual symposium, prominent presenters and everyday gardening enthusiasts will descend upon St. Francisville to explore the unique horticultural heritage of the Felicianas through workshops and lectures, interspersed with social events that celebrate classic Southern hospitality at its best. Floral design, vegetable growing, and the changing nature of gardening are just a few of the topics on the docket.

Yellow Leaf Arts Festival | October 29—30 Authentic, inimitable, and running on a full tank of small-town charm for nearly twenty years now, the Yellow Leaf Arts Festival is slated to return to downtown St. Francisville this fall with a full roster of talented juried artists and live music acts. Presented by the West Feliciana-founded nonprofit Arts for All, the Yellow Leaf has become a favorite with artists, craftspeople, musicians, and collectors—many of whom have been involved every year since the festival’s inception. Upwards of fifty vendors set up shop at Parker Park to show and sell myriad handmade wares ranging from painting and pottery to jewelry and textile art. This year’s featured artist is Austin-based visual painter and songwriter Lee Barber. It all amounts to a heady blend of live music and local creative connection beneath the live oaks in the heart of St. Francisville. stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

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Features

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A

HOUSE

B U I LT O N

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B U I LT O N

THE

RIVER

LAKE, TO BRIGHTEN

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A WELCOME

THE WAY HOME

CENTER

B U I LT F O R

DEEP SOUTH DESIGN A GARDEN

Home Sweet Batture

REPURPOSED TREASURES STYLE A LEVEE-DWELLER’S HAND-CRAFTED HOMESTEAD Story by Mary Ann Sternberg • Photos by Brei Olivier

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New Orleans—is a hidden landscape, a neighborhood between the inside of the levee and wherever the water happens to be. Forget riverside low and highrise buildings; these structures (called camps, though ten of the twelve are primary dwellings) sit atop piers or pilings, offering a rare unimpeded, eye-level panorama of the ever-changing river.

A native Virginian whose New Orleans careers included school teacher and culture writer, Fry is one of these “batture dwellers”—a term historically applied to the people who have lived in this 140-year-old community on the banks of the Mississippi (“River Rats” was the pejorative name.). The settlements began in shantyboats, but camps were first identified as early as 1895, according to a local newspaper article headlined “Shantytown by the Riverside.” Fry’s lifestyle

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acon Fry’s view from his front deck is frequently of gargantuan freighters hlooming in the middle of the Mississippi River, sending wake crashing into his front yard like surf. The blare of a towboat’s horn sings in the wind and powerboats push past in slow motion with block-long barge cargoes. Eagles soar, a beaver swims past, and sunsets are framed by the inky geometry of the distant Huey P. Long Bridge.

For thirty-six years, Fry has resided on one of the twelve lots grandfathered in at the Southport Colony located on the river’s Carrollton Bend, and the local road, used exclusively by bicyclists and colony residents, is the levee top. The colony— which exists on the Mississippi River batture in Jefferson, right on the Orleans line near the end of Oak Street in uptown

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carries on the colorful tradition of the batture dwellers, a history filled with memorable characters, Louisiana politics, and river lore—all of which he weaves into his 2021 memoir, They Called Us River Rats. For it, he interviewed neighbors who’d been on the batture for years before he arrived, burrowed in archives, and amassed a trove of tales about the people, the place, and how he fit right in. It’s the kind of book he likes to read: “at the intersection of people and place” and took him almost twenty years to complete.

In the October 24, 1937 edition of the Sunday Item Tribune, a visitor to the area observed that “A man can build himself a home for nothing more than the cost of a few nails … if he has a skiff and patience … there’s a little settlement of such homes, built mostly from lumber sal-

vaged from the river…” Today, because of the tenets of river control, only the twelve dwellings at Southport remain from the hundreds previously situated along the New Orleans banks. No longer beyond the reach of government and utility companies and mere yards to nearby shops and restaurants on the landside of the levee, the community nevertheless retains a kind of frontier existence.

Fry has lived in three different Southport camps. The first: a rental called The Shack, which he serendipitously found after living landside for two years. It boasted no electricity or glassed windows. Later, he bought Shoe’s Camp (his now-longtime home) for seven thousand dollars. He remembers that river water sometimes squirted through the flooring. When he decided to jack up the structure and repair the problem, keeping Shoe’s very rustic aesthetic, the house fell off the jack; so, he temporarily moved into the abandoned structure next door while completing a rebuild he hadn’t anticipated.

Some of the pilings currently under Fry’s home were found on his section of the batture, having washed down from destroyed piers at 9 Mile Point; others were collected from a telephone company “boneyard”; they raise the height of his camp to a couple of feet below the crown of the levee. When the river is low, his batture is open and dry enough to plant a garden, graze his goats, pick wild blackberries. In high water, the Mississippi rages and sprawls toward the levee, occasionally surrounding the house and decks with swirling muddy water. His connection to the levee top is a boardwalk of planks recycled from Shoe’s original structure, complete with a handrail of sturdy ship’s rope that washed up onto his batture.

“I love to repurpose free materials,” Fry admitted with obvious delight. This, combined with a boyhood love of the Rappahannock River in Virginia, is part of what pulled him toward the Mississippi, where he could create a lifestyle perfectly suited to this place.

The walkway from the levee also accommodates two sheds—one for his goats and another for his refrigerator, washer, dryer, tools, and paints. The appliances are outside because Fry doesn’t like humming or whirring noises in his space. That also means no air conditioning, but he swears “there’s always a cooling breeze from the river” coming through open doors and windows. He

heats against winter’s chill with a woodburning stove, fed with the almost unlimited supply of driftwood collected on the batture.

The exterior walls of Fry’s camp are barn-red vinyl siding, which hides a previous façade of dark green gravel aggregate roofing, secured with vertically spaced batten board strips. (“That’s the decorative term for tarpaper,” Fry grins.) A pitched metal roof protects his residence from the weather, most of the time.

Inside, his living area exudes a certain simple charm—almost rustic chic, perhaps influenced by an innate aesthetic of his double ancestry of FirstFamilies-of-Virginia. He has an excellent eye, but knows the forefathers might be shocked by his consistent good luck finding architectural furnishings through dumpster diving and curb shopping.

“When I began jacking up my camp,” Fry remembered, “I knew I’d need lumber, doors, windows, etc. So I started accumulating from the river and from trash.” He rescued many of the camp’s doors, windows, and frames from houses being bulldozed near the New Orleans airport and learned how to refinish them. Discarded bleachers from a high school stadium have been restored as his flooring and look almost as vintage and mellow as the wide plank floors of a nineteenth century plantation house.

Fry’s floor plan is (unwittingly) fashionable: a great room consisting of open kitchen and dining, living, and study areas, plus two individual bedrooms and a bathroom. The master bedroom offers a spectacular view of the river, and he’s building a platform from salvaged wood for the futon in the second bedroom, to assure guests access to a good river view as well. The renovated room is nearly completed after Hurricane Ida felled a tree on top of it a year ago.

His galley kitchen, just to the right of the leveeside entrance, features an early 1950s Chambers gas stove. It’s a handsome appliance, fueled by propane, that looks like a white enamel modern sculpture, decorated with shiny, stainless steel handles and boasting a stone-lined oven and gas

burners, able to heat, grill, and griddle.

The kitchen countertops are stone-colored poured concrete, waxed but not polyurethaned. “I like things to look like what they are.” The kitchen cabinets have beadboard doors and bargeboard shelves, compliments of the NCIS film crew that used his house as a set; otherwise, his storage is on open shelving and his cooking pots and pans hang from a wrought iron rack. A vintage Formica dining table has a retro design of scalloped grey and yellow, a thrift shop find many years ago. “I love to entertain,” Fry said.

The living area is banked by windows (salvaged, of course) overlooking the river and is furnished with a comfortable upholstered couch and chairs, as well as hardwood pieces that include a rustic bench the film crews left him, and a found sideboard. Rattan matting covers the great room ceiling, giving a textured finish, and a natural wood ladder rises to a loft Fry uses for

storage, or the occasional overnight stay.

The surfaces and window sills in the living area are exhibit spaces for Fry’s many decorative collections: among them—a box of antique clay pipe shards; artful shapes of driftwood; a metal object that resembles an ancient Celtic cross but is probably a rusted bedspring; an antique bird trap for catching painted buntings. A rustic board above the door to the front deck is inscribed “In Remembrance of Me,” a Fry find from a nearby ditch after Katrina. Just beside it, posed in a large wicker basket, is a collection of driftwood that has washed up on the batture; he found the pieces too attractive to cut up and arranged them to look like a contemporary sculpture.

In his study area, books line the shelves in a handsome pine bookcase Fry rescued from construction debris at the old Allen Elementary School; his desktop is constructed from cypress planks he found on the side of a road. An old pine cabinet, painted white, was pulled from a dumpster; it had obviously been a corner piece because it was missing one end, but boasted original brass pulls and hinges. He stripped it to its natural finish and handcrafted molding to complete its symmetry, transforming it into another storage piece.

The beadboard ceiling, beams, and rafters over the study area were all recycled from Shoe’s original camp.

On the front deck are a collection of 1950s metal gliders and chairs Fry found in a dumpster on Oak Street. They’re rusty but comfortable, for hours of river watching or keeping the host company when he grills on the outdoor barbecue pits. “The gliders need work,” Fry acknowledged, but that requires a dry place to properly remove the rust. For now,

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they work just fine.

“When I built this house,” Fry said thoughtfully, “I never expected to be here this long … political, environmental issues … something would disturb living here.” The next hurricane, an extreme flood. But “I’m emotionally vested, more than invested …” he said. ”I stay here because it’s a place of freedom … represented by open horizons, by sunrises and

sunsets, by being on the edge of a very wild place, and living within my modest means.” And he stays because of the pull of the river—a place of movement, of chance, of life. A place still full of surprises.

There is a new threat that Fry observes: gentrification, which he fears will change the character of the place, making it less affordable, self sufficient,

and appreciative of the foraging aesthetic.

“Maybe the best thing that could happen for the batture lifestyle would be a great flood, an event that would render the batture less attractive to the martinis-at-sunset crowd!” he said, ironically.

For now, though, Macon Fry continues to be a proud River Rat, living life in the true batture tradition. h

Find Frys’s book They Called Us River Rats, at upress.state.ms.us.

The Rustic Empire Bedroom Furniture Collection

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Renderings courtesy of Eskew Dumez Ripple and the LSU AgCenter.

U R BAN OASE S

A New Welcome for Burden

INSPIRED BY THE SOUTHERN ARCHITECTURAL TRADITION, THE MASTER PLAN FOR THE BURDEN CENTER’S NEW WELCOME CENTER IS A WORK OF SUSTAINABILITY AND INNOVATION

By Caroline Alberstadt

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sk some of the citizens of Baton Rouge about the Burden Museum and Gardens, and the response might be “that place with some gardens and little cabins?”. The picturesque locale, right at the hcenter of the city’s busiest corridor, is the focus of the latest efforts by the Burden Foundation Board of Directors and the LSU AgCenter, who hope to not only correct this limited perception, but also to go a step further, improving the visibility of the complex and expanding its usefulness to the social and cultural fabric of the city.

A new welcome center, designed by award-winning New Orleans-based architects Eskew Dumez Ripple (EDR) in collaboration with renowned local landscape architects, Carbo Landscape Architecture, invites the public to take another look.

Nodding to yesterday, looking out towards tomorrow

You’d be forgiven for missing the center’s entrance as you zoom off I-10 down Essen Lane, driving right past the 440-acre site located in the heart of the city.

Once rural farmland, the acreage was donated by the Burden Family to LSU over fifty years ago to create a garden oasis aimed at highlighting the best practices of good stewardship over the rich natural environment of our state. The current Burden Museum and Gardens site is the realization of the vision of Steele Burden, one of the original benefactors, featuring formal gardens at Windrush, the LSU Rural Life Museum, numerous agrarian buildings relocated to the site from historical properties around the region, an interactive learning and exhibit space, and the beautiful Orangerie, the last-built project of revered architect A. Hays Town.

Looking to the future—Suzanne Turner Associates and Carbo Landscape Architects’ master plan, finalized in December 2021, proposes a road map for the complex’s next chapter, starting with the welcome center.

Reviewing the proposed renderings, at first glance, the expansive box form with

inverted gable roof grabs your attention, providing stark contrast to the greenspace beyond. There’s a familiarity to the forms and shapes ; you feel you’ve seen it before, but not exactly in the same way. The building is “identifiable as a prominent structure, but it still feels like it’s part of the landscape,” remarked Zach Broussard, senior project landscape architect with Carbo Landscape Architecture. In their innovative design, EDR architects took great care to craft a style complementary to other historic buildings on the site, while sending the signal that this one is decidedly different. The design team has incorporated details and cues from the vernacular buildings located on the property, such as the enslaved person’s quarters, dogtrot cottages, and the complex of green-houses—without reverting entirely to the more traditional design seen so often in the architectural vocabulary of the region. As Mark Hash, the senior project architect with EDR explained: “The design of the building is meant to be a simple expression of the current day and not to replicate the past.”

Drawing from a rich tradition of architecture in the lower coastal South, EDR incorporated elements into their design that brought sustainability and functionality to the forefront, including deep overhangs, breezeways, and courtyards for solar shading and cooling. These practical design devices reduce solar heat gain and promote cross circulation to reduce energy consumption. While functional in protecting against the intense heat and frequent stormy weather, they are also useful in providing sheltered outdoor spaces for communal gatherings, a testament to South Louisiana’s vibrant, social culture. The shed roof of the interior courtyard drains water for irrigation, which then moves it through a “runnel” to the main entry and out to the bioswale, minimizing the impact of storm water on local infrastructure. “The overall concept of the building and its response to the landscape illustrates how to coexist with water, not fight against it,” said Broussard. // A U G 2 2

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A Threshold to the Front Door of Baton Rouge

At the heart of the project is a deference to the landscape, where the building punctuates but the plantings dominate. It acts as a lens to more clearly see the surrounding flora and fauna of our beloved state, so unique in its swamps and bogs, windswept prairies, and towering forests of pine and hardwood. Formal gardens feature prominently, a nod to our Southern heritage of parterres and garden rooms. The building itself is meant to be experienced from within, ensconced inside the cozy courtyard at its center. Programmatically, it is a cluster of small “pavilions,” united under a central protective roof structure, which recalls the arrangement of rural farmstead outbuildings with its use of simple metal panels and rough-cut wood planks.

Openings in the exterior envelope create picturesque vistas on all four sides, forming welcome portals from which to embark on one’s exploration of the property.

Richmond Savoy, Assistant Director of LSU AgCenter Facilities, summarized the landscape design as conveying “what is being done in response to the land, the impact of climate change, the impact of water … it’s a bioclimatic approach.

The building’s design is responsive to the climate … not just brutally imposed on the landscape, but a part of the landscape. There is dialogue between the building and the land, which is key.”

“THE BUILDING’S DESIGN IS RESPONSIVE TO THE CLIMATE …

NOT JUST BRUTALLY IMPOSED ON THE LANDSCAPE, BUT A PART OF THE LANDSCAPE. THERE IS DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE BUILDING AND THE LAND.” —RICHMOND SAVOY, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF LSU AGCENTER FACILITIES

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A Hidden Jewel No More

The Burden Welcome Center is only the beginning, the gateway project to the rest of the master plan’s ambitious initiatives.

For now, fundraising continues to prepare for the day when the first shovel can go into the ground. The estimated project cost is around $6.5 million, with construction projected to be complete within twelve to fourteen months after it begins.

A key part of the master plan includes improving the access and visibility of the Burden Center by a total rework of the entrance off Essen Lane. A hidden jewel no more, the complex and its gardens will be much harder to miss, and one step closer to establishing itself as a new public living space and oasis, where Baton Rougeans and visitors might gather at the heart of the Capital City. h

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T O W E R S O N T H E WAT E R

Enlightened, Lakeside

THE HISTORIES OF THE LIGHTHOUSES ON LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN Story by Kristy Christiansen • Photos by Paul Christiansen

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n the early 1800s, Lake Pontchartrain was a bustle of maritime traffic carrying goods and passengers to canals leading into the heart of New Orleans and to resort towns on the Northshore. Three historic lighthouses—New Canal, Milneburg, and Tchefuncte hRiver—guided ships safely across the Lake and still stand today as a testament to Lake Pontchartain’s heyday of commerce and travel.

New Canal Lighthouse

Once used to guide sailors across Lake Pontchartrain to the entrance of the former New Basin Canal, the current New Canal Lighthouse, built in 2013, is the fourth version to grace these shores.

The story of lighting the Canal begins in the 1700s, when the French Creoles were using Bayou St. John to sail from Lake Pontchartrain into downtown New Orleans.

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Americans from other colonies began pouring into the area, wanting their own route to the city.

“The French Creoles managed Bayou St. John and charged the Americans more,” said Kate Tannian, Museum Visitor Services Manager at the New Canal Lighthouse.

“They also played tricks on them. Ships would get pulled down the canal by horses.

They would let the Americans in at the end of the day and then send all their workers home.”

To address the problem, the New Orleans Canal and Banking Company hired Irish and German immigrants to dig the New Basin Canal between 1832 and 1838. The first lighthouse—an octagonal, cypress tower with a fixed light on top—went up at the mouth of the canal in 1839. Built on pilings in Lake Pontchartrain, the structure was short-lived.

“They basically built a thin, tall tower on top of a sponge, and over time, it sunk and fell,” explained Tannian.

In 1855, a second, square lighthouse with a wider footprint and iron pilings was constructed. The one-story building worked well until 1880 when the Southern Yacht Club built a two-story building next door and blocked out part of the guiding light.

The second lighthouse was sold at auction in 1890 and taken away, making way for a new two-story, wedding-cake-style structure. All three of these versions of the lighthouse originally stood offshore, until the city drained the marsh and created the Lakefront Park in the 1930s.

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The New Canal Lighthouse is notable for its large number of female light keepers, possibly the most of any in the nation. One late nineteenth, early twentieth century keeper, Margaret Norvell, saw a Navy plane crash in the lake and saved the pilot’s life by rowing out to rescue him. On another occasion, she saw a pleasure cruise catch fire and rallied local fishermen to help save the more than two hundred passengers.

In the 1940s and ‘50s, the New Basin Canal was filled in, and the Coast Guard took over the lighthouse between the early 1960s and 2001. The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF), now known as the Pontchartrain Conservancy, had plans to lease the lighthouse when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Although damaged, the lighthouse still stood until a November winter storm dropped the steel cupola and shattered it.

In 2007, LPBF took the lighthouse apart piece by piece and put it in storage, embarking on a multi-year effort to raise money to rebuild it in 2013. “We used fifty percent of the original materials. We’re lucky we had the blueprints, so we built it almost exactly how it was before, but we raised it nineteen feet and moved the bell tower,” said Tannian.

Today, the Pontchartrain Conservancy runs an education center out of the lighthouse, including a geological history of Southeast Louisiana, the ecology of Lake Pontchartrain, and a history of the lighthouse. scienceforourcoast.org.

Milneburg Lighthouse

“Milneburg was an example of the saying, ‘If they build it, they will come,’” said Tannian, referring to the lakeside resort town built in the early 1830s by Scottish-born Alexander Milne. To escape the oppressive summer heat, New Orleans residents could ride the steam train, called the “Smoky Mary” from the French Quarter to Milneburg, a twenty minute journey, and stay at the resort or board a steamer at Port Pontchartrain headed for the Northshore.

The

The New Canal Lighthouse

To help guide sailors, the railroad company built the predecessor to the Milneburg Lighthouse—two poles supporting a square lantern fifty feet in the air. In 1837, Congress allocated funds for a twenty-eight-foot-tall, octagonal wooden lighthouse four miles east of New Canal Lighthouse. Unlike the New Canal Lighthouse’s fixed light, Milneburg’s featured a flashing light made from ten lamps and fourteen-inch reflectors attached to a revolving chandelier.

In a 2019 history of Milneburg written for The Advocate, Richard Campanella, Tulane School of Architecture geographer, compared the Milneburg Lighthouse to the iconic Biloxi Lighthouse as “the icon of this coastal hamlet.”

Following a similar fate as the original New Canal Lighthouse, the Milneburg Lighthouse quickly disintegrated. In 1855, pilings were driven into Lake Pontchartrain two-thousand feet from shore and a concrete platform was built with a brick tower and a fifth-order Fresnel lens on top.

In 1869, a hurricane destroyed the lighthouse keeper’s kitchen, cistern, and plank walk from the keeper’s house to the railroad. Although the keeper’s home withstood the storm, it was precariously balanced atop now rotten pilings. The home was replaced in 1871, along with the kitchen, cistern, and plank walk.

The lighthouse received additional brickwork in 1880 to support a new lantern room. The addition raised the tower seven feet and created a flared appearance at the top.

A 1915 hurricane flooded the village of Milneburg and washed away many of the camps built there. Although the community was rebuilt and remained popular until the 1930s, much of the area was then destroyed when the Levee Board built a seawall and began creating man-made land within it. The Milneburg Lighthouse, which was discontinued in 1929, survived the transition but shifted from offshore to onshore without moving an inch from its original location.

In 1939, the area transformed again into the Pontchartrain Beach, which operated as an amusement park until 1983, during which time the lighthouse was utilized as office space. Today, the Milneburg Lighthouse still stands sentry over Lake Pontchartrain from its prominent location in the University of New Orleans’ Research and Technology Park.

Like the New Canal Lighthouse, the Milneburg Lighthouse boasted three women lighthouse keepers, including Norvell, who served at Milneburg from 1896 to 1924 before transferring to the New Canal Lighthouse. During her tenure at Milneburg, she braved two hurricanes and sheltered more than two hundred survivors after a 1903 storm. She often hosted the Sisters of Charity, the poor, and the blind, and the Milneburg Lighthouse design later became the inspiration for the Lighthouse for the Blind building on Camp Street in downtown New Orleans. In 2013, the Coast Guard named a Cutter after Norvell.

The Milneburg Lighthouse

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Elizabethan Gallery More Than Just A Frame Shop

ONE DAY FRAMING AVAILABLE

Join us for our annual Associated Women in the Arts Show “Reflections” Show hangs until Saturday, Open House September 10th.

Thursday, August 4th, 5-8 pm Refreshments Provided, Free and Open to the Public.

Tranquility, oil

by Shirley Young

Nevada, acrylic & palette knife

by LaFon Johnson

680 Jefferson Highway, Baton Rouge, LA 70806 225-924-6437

Tchefuncte River Lighthouse

From Port Pontchartrain in Milneburg, wealthy New Orleans residents often boarded the steam ferry headed for the charming Northshore town of Madisonville on the banks of the Tchefuncte River. In 1837, ten Argand lamps with a parabolic reflector were placed within a thirty-six-foot-tall brick tower at the mouth of the Tchefuncte to guide ships to Madisonville.

The first keeper of the lighthouse, Benjamin Thurston, lived onsite with his pet alligators. In 1854, a 212-foot breakwater was built for protection, and in 1857, the lighthouse was upgraded with a fifth-order Fresnel lens.

The lighthouse sustained extensive damage during the Civil War, and in 1867, workers constructed a new tower ten feet higher on the original foundation. For the top, the tower was adorned with the lantern room from Mississippi’s destroyed Cat Island Lighthouse. Next door stood the keeper’s home and a bell tower.

Hurricanes and storms, typical of the Gulf Coast, further damaged the breakwater in 1874 and 1879, and swept away the kitchen, woodshed, and outhouses in 1888.

Resiliency is key to living in south Louisiana, and thus everything was rebuilt stronger and better able to sustain such devastation.

Keepers at the new lighthouse experienced further hurricanes and witnessed changes over time, such as the installation of a telephone in 1927 and the arrival of electricity in 1935. The last keeper left in 1939, and the light became fully automated in 1952.

The lighthouse still functions today with a solar-powered light flashing every nine seconds to mark the way. In 1999, the town of Madisonville took over ownership of the lighthouse and entered into an agreement with the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum, which now acts as a steward of the site. Together, the two entities began a campaign to restore it, and by 2008, had completed restoring the exterior masonry and the interior spiral staircase.

“At one time, the intent was to build an area around the lighthouse that people could visit,” said Jim MacPherson, Executive Director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum. Struggling with funding and permitting issues, the project was put on hold until 2019, when St. Tammany Parish earmarked $1.6 million in Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA) funding for the project.

“We’ve been working with the Army Corps and the State Historic Preservation Office to push this through in conjunction with the Parish,” explained MacPherson.

“We want to add sheet piling around the southeast, south, and southwest part of the lighthouse and also a dock or pier … At that point, we’ll look at refurbishing to get people to go out there [for tours offered through the museum].” MacPherson is hopeful work can be underway by mid-2023.

Meanwhile, the keeper’s dwelling was sold in 1955 and moved into town, occupied through the years by a doctor, a boat yard office, and a camp. In 2004, it was donated to the town and moved to the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum. Along with the dwelling, the museum features artist Nelson Plaisance’s dioramas of Gulf Coast lighthouses, including the three beacons of the Pontchartrain. h lpbmm.org.

The Tchefuncte Lighthouse

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the

Spanish S uth The New Orleans Antiques Forum 2022

August 4–7, 2022 • The Historic New Orleans Collection

Presented by The Historic New Orleans Collection, this program includes three days with decorative arts enthusiasts and experts, an optional excursion to Bellingrath Gardens and Home, and social outings in the French Quarter. The 2022 forum will explore the Spanish colonial period with sessions on architecture, silver, ceramics, portraiture, and more.

Register today! www.hnoc.org/antiques (504) 598-7146

This event is presented with support from the following sponsors.

Arbor House Arnaud’s Restaurant Hederman Brothers History Antiques & Interiors Hotel Monteleone

Keil’s Antiques Krista J. Dumas LaFleur & Laborde, LLC Moss Antiques Royal Antiques

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LAFAYETTE’S MOST FASHIONABLE

Cuisine N E W H O T S P O T // 4 8 T E A

TIME

SIMPLER TIMES

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B E AUT Y & G R ACE

Palmyre, a Parisian-Inspired Paradise INSPIRED BY ONE OF LAFAYETTE’S MOST ICONIC EARLY-TWENTIETH CENTURY SOCIALITES, RIVER RANCH’S NEW COCKTAIL LOUNGE DRIPS WITH OPEN-ARMED OPULENCE

By Ashley Hinson

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f River Ranch is the cultural seat of style in Southside Lafayette, then its newest cocktail lounge, Palmyre, is the curated crown jewel. Nestled among Acadiana’s most high-end shops and a chic community of townhomes, Palmyre seamlessly layers sophisticated playfulness with traditional, old-money Southern hospitality.

Stepping into Palmyre on a warm, rain-misted evening is like stepping out of time. This evocation, like every detail inside the parlor-esque lounge, is intentional.

Palmyre is named for a real Southern lady: local legend Palmyre Billeaud. She earned her socialite status—and then some. Billeaud was the wife of the President and General Manager of the Billeaud Sugar Factory, Martial Billeaud, a mother to many, and a friend to all. The family left an indelible mark on Acadiana, farming sugar until federal subsidies ended in 1974, then shifting into the commercial real estate market, becoming Billeaud Companies. The family sugar mill is still in Broussard to this day, as is Martial Billeaud Elementary School.

The socialite arrived on the scene with all glamor and no pretense. Colleen Ottinger would know. Palmyre Billeaud was her great-great-grandmother.

“She was the epitome of Southern upbringing,” said Ottinger, who owns Palmyre, as well as the Verot School Road eatery Mercy Kitchen, with her husband Stuart. “She was liked by all walks of people. She was like a modern-day Jane Scott Hodgins.” In 1915, Billeaud died unexpectedly at the age of forty-eight due to “acute indigestion that left her in a weakened condition and unable to throw off the insidious ravages of a chronic ailment,” according to her obituary. She left behind five children, and over 1,200 people attended her funeral “many being unable to get in the church, which was packed to the doors despite the great heat.” Today, many of Lafayette’s Billeaud and Beaullieu families can trace their ancestry back to her. “She was really loved,” said Ottinger.

As a beauty of exalted rank from one of Acadiana’s preeminent families, Billeaud and her brood made excellent taste a family trait. Between conquering the sugar market and taking trips abroad, they collected items that, over a century later, visitors to the Palmyre lounge can admire—from gorgeously-etched glassware to a taxidermied cheetah, forever posed on the Photos by Mary Craven Photography, courtesy of Palmyre.

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prowl. Their portraits, in original frames, hang alongside the fireplace, taking in the revelry.

“Palmyre [was] a local socialite, and I wanted the interiors to feel as if you were in her home,” Ottinger said. “Some of her descendants are still here living in town. I wanted it to feel as if she was serving you.”

To execute this vision, Ottinger sought out the expertise of coveted Nashville interior designer Lindsay Rhodes, whose list of notable clients reads like a Grammys invite list, featuring country-disco darling Kacey Musgraves and Lady A’s Charles Kelley, to name a few.

“Lindsay would never in a million years do a commercial project, but she’s my best friend,” Ottinger said. The two met in Nashville in 2006 and instantly connected over a shared appreciation for elevated aesthetics and aligned life paths.

“We were both engaged at the same time,” Rhodes recalled. “We had all these things in common, and we would start a little Saturday shopping tradition. Every season, we would buy the same matching shoes. It was our little tradition. We ended up having our first children one week apart.

The same month the boys were born, she moved to Lafayette. We just got to be good friends.”

Rhodes said working with creative minds like the Ottingers’ informs her design process. “[Colleen] would have an idea, and it would inspire me to have ten more,” she said. “We would be texting “AS A BEAUTY OF EXALTED RANK FROM at midnight, like, ‘Let’s do ONE OF ACADIANA’S PREEMINENT this.’ She was great about FAMILIES, BILLEAUD AND HER BROOD having a good direction and MADE EXCELLENT TASTE A FAMILY good descriptions, and I just get her. She would send me TRAIT. BETWEEN CONQUERING THE a random picture of a womSUGAR MARKET AND TAKING TRIPS an, and I’m like, ‘I got it. I ABROAD, THEY COLLECTED ITEMS get the feeling.’ Colleen has a larger-than-life personality, THAT, OVER A CENTURY LATER, so you can go big with that.”

VISITORS TO THE PALMYRE LOUNGE Palmyre’s interiors introCAN ADMIRE—FROM GORGEOUSLYduce to Lafayette a trend ETCHED GLASSWARE TO A TAXIDERMIED observed lately in larger cities’ tastemaking circles: lush, CHEETAH, FOREVER POSED ON THE exuberant excess. The clinPROWL. THEIR PORTRAITS, IN ORIGINAL ically all-white-everything, FRAMES, HANG ALONGSIDE THE Edison-bulb industrial era is coming to a close. Within FIREPLACE, TAKING IN THE REVELRY.” the lounge, the eye bounces from the layers of paper-thin European wallpaper, to the plush velvet seating dripping in tassels, to the way light plays with shadow beneath an assemblage of modern And, yes. The wallpaper in the bathrooms is and antique lighting. When brought together, the Gucci. elements of Palmyre are a masterclass in Southern “Everybody has been doing everything white. This maximalism. was the opposite,” Ottinger said. “We weren’t setting

up to be anybody but ourselves, and it just created this whole vibe.”

The setup evokes that of a fabulous house party. Hostesses greet and seat you, just like Palmyre would. Instantly you are struck by the environment’s textured buzziness—an exciting brand of refinement. You might settle into a corner with a friend, marveling at the mixed-media quality of the patterns at play while sipping from a delicately-etched vintage cocktail glass. Or take a seat at the massive marbled bartop, which extends to almost

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the entire length of the building, to watch the cocktail artisans in action.

Or perhaps you open yourself to the room, perching (or peacocking) at one of the lounge-esque conversation areas, featuring European couches and chairs luxuriously decked out in the most flamboyant of patterns, all circled around gleaming art pieces of coffee tables beneath custom-made chandeliers that bear the same pattern as the wallpaper.

“We have this mixture of antiques and mid-century pieces,” said Rhodes.

“It’s just a bar that feels like you’re at [Palymyre’s] home and having a happy hour cocktail. It’s very collected, very French-inspired, but then always going back to Palmyre. She is someone who appreciates history but is pushing the envelope and on the forefront of setting new trends as well. It’s that nice blend of paying homage but also having the modern woman in mind, always embracing the newness as well.”

Upstairs, like a secret, is the whimsical indoor champagne garden. A dream within a dream, its AstroTurf floors, brass fixtures, and Murano glass butterflies are perfect for the private parties for which it holds space. One particularly famous Nashville-based actress has approached Palmyre to recreate the experience via franchising—

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something Ottinger said is impossible.

“It’s the real stuff,” Ottinger said, emphasizing the one-of-a-kind nature of the space’s very-intentional pieces and overall experience. “I don’t know if I knew it was going to come together.

You’re coming in and the furnishings are as beautiful and unique as a personal home.”

Touching on Lafayette’s particu-

lar connection to and affinity for its unique French heritage, Ottinger said that she hoped Palmyre’s Parisian influence would offer a more chic interpretation of that. “These Cajuns, sometimes, we want to feel a little glammed up,” she said. “We leave to go to Antoine’s and Galatoire’s to have this experience. That’s what Palmyre offers.”

When asked if it was hard for her to share her family’s treasured objects with the public, Ottinger shook her head. “Not at all,” she said. “I wanted to do something different, special and

E U R O P E A N R E S TA U R A N T

elevated because I feel like our community has such nice people, some of the best people who are rich in culture. Every now and then, we want to have a nice martini and be treated to beautiful interiors.”

At Palmyre, Lafayette is being treated to a kaleidoscope of style with sparkling, delicate, and intricate pieces of its past. Welcome home. Have a seat.

She’s been waiting for you. h

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PINKIES UP

Tea Time Returns to Central

LORETTA FOREMAN’S COTTAGE CAFÉ AND TEA ROOM TRANSPORTS GUESTS TO A SIMPLER, QUIETER TIME Story and photo by Poet Wolfe

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n a Wednesday afternoon at The Cottage Café and Tea Room in Central, Louisiana, daylight glimmers through the walls of windows, which frame a tranquil view of the three-acre backyard, lined with crepe myrtle and oak trees. Colorful hats hang in rows on the exposed white brick, paying respect to classic afternoon tea fashion. As though from another era, groups of women exchange laughter while sipping from delicate china cups.

In the children’s tea room nearby, pinned-up butterflies and paintings of trees adorn the sage-colored walls.

Shelves are lined with antique tea cups and plates, begging admiration. In the corner is a box, from which children can choose a hat before sitting at one of the 48

tables and engaging in a tea party of their own.

The cottage isn’t just a place to catch up with friends or entertain children, though. In the entrance room, calm orchestra music quietly fills the space, so visitors can focus while reading or studying. Guests can watch as, from a distance, cars pass on Joor Road—emphasizing the degree of separation between the cottage and the daily commotion of life.

Once customers have finished their cup of tea and their visit is coming to a close, it isn’t rare that some of them might approach owner Loretta Foreman and her granddaughter, Sarah Ulmer, to reminisce about the ventures of Foreman’s past lives.

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Foreman’s legacy as a business-owner in Central began in 1984. She had moved away from her hometown in Montgomery, New York to marry her husband, and was in search of ways to make South Louisiana feel more like home. On Sullivan Road, she opened The Country Emporium, an antique and gift store, where vendors could rent space and sell their products, like candles, cookies, and soap. As the business grew, she thought of ways to incorporate her experiences in Montgomery into her business, to bring something to Central that the town had never seen before: a tea room.

“My grandmother has fond memories of drinking tea as a little girl with her grandparents,” Ulmer said of Foreman.

“That’s where she got the idea.”

After over a decade of running The Country Emporium, Foreman had to sell her property when the city of Central decided to construct a highway in the area. After five years of renovating its new home, she re-opened the store in 2005 at the Cottage’s current Joor Road location, before retiring seven years later.

“People were very, very sad when I retired,” Foreman reflected. “They need a place to get away from all the stress and anxiety and all the things you have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. It’s important to give yourself a little personal time with a friend or even by yourself.”

Shortly after her eightieth birthday, Foreman felt a calling to open yet another business. Earlier this year, she and

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Ulmer worked together to open The Cottage Cafe and Tea Room in the former Country Emporium location, once again providing guests “a peaceful, quiet place,” said Foreman.

At the Cottage Café, teas include elderberry, apricot, blueberry green, peach, and vanilla—with Earl Grey crème tea as the most popular selection, along with the green bean sandwich, which shines among other sandwich options like cucumber, tuna, and ham. Their quiches are a best-seller as well, with spinach and artichoke, or bacon and cheese, as fillings. Strawberry shortcake, cream puffs, and almond cookies are just a few of their rotating array of desserts.

Providing a serene environment and delicious treats to the Central community isn’t where the Cottage Café’s offerings end. Using her professional experience in psychology, Foreman also leads a mentoring program, which supports teenage girls who struggle with interpersonal communication by teaching them

social skills within a comfortable environment. Part of the program includes a job cooking and cleaning at the café.

Foreman and Ulmer envision hosting special events and programming at the café in the future, all while maintaining its signature halcyon atmosphere.

“We want to keep it a peaceful place,” Ulmer said. “We don’t want to be crazy busy so that it overwhelms us and other people. We want it to stay a serene environment for people to come and have a nice, relaxing time.” h

On August 13 at 10 am, The Cottage Café and Tea Room is hosting a hat-making workshop with local company Chapeau. Guests will have the opportunity to make their own hat or fascinator and wear it while having tea.

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Culture

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HISTORY OF LANGAUGE

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École Pointe au Chien

THE COUNTRY'S FIRST INDIGENOUS FRENCH IMMERSION SCHOOL REPRESENTS A VICTORY FOR LOUISIANA TRIBES AFTER A LONG HISTORY OF CULTURAL ERASURE

By Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

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n April 2021, the children and parents of Pointe-au-Chien, Louisiana gathered before the chain link fences of their elementary school, holding handwritten signs entreating: “Sauve cette École.” Save our school.

The bayou community’s battle against the Terrebonne Parish School Board’s efforts to close Pointeaux-Chênes Elementary School represents the latest chapter in Louisiana Indigenous tribes’ centu-

ries-long struggle for cultural recognition and access to education.

But in this battle, finally, there was a victory. Due to the tribe’s relentless efforts and the swift mobilization of partner agencies, researchers and scholars, and state officials—next August, not only will there once again be an elementary school in Pointe-au-Chien, but the school will open as the country’s first-ever Indigenous French Immersion school.

According to Will McGrew, CEO and founder of the Louisiana Francophone media platform Télé-Louisiane, the establishment of the new school—which was signed into law by Governor John Bel Edwards on June 24, 2022—“represents the largest single investment by the State of Louisiana in its unique language and heritage since its admission to the Union.”

On June 24, 2022, Governor John Bel Edwards, pictured in the middle, signed into law the creation of the École Pointe-au-Chien, the state's first ever Indigenous French Immersion School. Pictured with him are future students, members of the Pointe au Chien Executive Council, and other stakeholders. Also pictured from left to right: Christine Verdin (PACIT Tribal Council), Will McGrew (CEO, Télé-Louisiane), Donald Dardar (Second Chairman, PACIT), Michelle Matherne (Secretary, PACIT), Chuckie Verdin (First Chairman, PACIT), State Senator “Big Mike” Fesi, Patty Ferguson-Bohnee (PACIT Lawyer), and State Represetnative and Speaker Pro Tempore Tanner Magee. The children are students of the future École Pointe-au-Chien. Photo courtesy of Will McGrew.

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One more generation It’s been just under fifty years since Louisiana lawmakers removed the state’s constitutional ban of the French language within its public schools. The 1974 Constitution of Louisiana states: “The right of the people to preserve, foster, and promote their respective historic linguistic and cultural origins is recognized.”

Of course, by then, it was too late. Countless of the previous generation of Louisianans had been beaten in the schoolyards for speaking their parents’ and grandparents’ language, assigned to write hundreds of lines of “I will not speak French.” Their children, attending school in the ‘70s, spoke the “American” language.

They spoke English.

But within the largely Indigenous population of the Pointe-au-Chien village—living on the precipice of the Gulf—the language has endured just a little longer than in its neighboring Cajun and Creole communities. It’s survived another generation inside of people’s homes.

Many Pointe-au-Chien children of the twen-

History of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe ty-first century still hear French spoken in their community.

This is largely because the Pointe-au-Chien Indians, along with the other native populations of Terrebonne Parish, were excluded from the public school system until the 1960s—when Louisiana finally started to enforce racial integration in its schools.

“The fact that they were excluded from the school system for longer actually preserved the French a little bit longer, like maybe a generation or so—like thirty years beyond the Cajuns and Creoles,” said McGrew.

The reality that the tribe has been better able to protect its heritage as a result of being barred from public education—an act of discrimination that resulted in significant economic disadvantages and barriers to progress within the community—is of a victorious sort of irony.

Their exclusion, after all, was justified by Terrebonne Parish leaders as an attempt to erase that very same cultural identity.

Named for the fragile place it occupies along the Terrebonne Basin, the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe’s origins can be traced back to the mass displacement of Indigenous peoples caused by the 1830 Indian Removal Act. Biloxi, Acolapissa, and Attakapas Indians convalesced in this ancestral home of the Chitimacha where, within the fold of their shared native cultures, the Pointeau-Chien emerged as an identity all their own—preserving many of their ancestors’ traditions as they made a life on the edge of the world. French, the universal trade vernacular in the region at the time—co-opted from the French colonizers—gradually replaced their individual tribal languages.

The tribe’s centuries-long status as a union of diverse ancient tribes and its lack of “sufficient” primary information about its origins have posed barriers to its official acknowledgment as a Native American tribe by the federal government. The state of Louisiana only granted official acknowledgment to the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe as recently as 2004, in a state resolution that promised “to support their tribal aspirations, to preserve their cultural heritage and improve their economic condition, and to assist them in the achievement of their just rights.”

Among these rights, according to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples passed in 2007, is “access, when possible, to an education in their own culture and provided in their own language.”

“HAVING THE SCHOOL THERE AND HAVING OTHER PEOPLE In recent years, lack of federal acknowledgment has prevented the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe from receiving assistance from WHO ARE GOING THROUGH THE SAMETHING IS HELPFUL FOR THE STUDENTS FOR THEIR SUPPORT SYSTEM, BUT ALSO the U.S. Government in the wake of environmental threats like hurricanes, land loss, and crises like the 2010 BP Oil Spill. Most HELPS THEM TO CONTINUE THE IMPORTANT CULTURES AND recently, this included the devastating impact of Hurricane Ida TRADITIONS OF THEIR FAMILIES AND THE TRIBES THAT ARE IN in 2021—from which the community is still recovering an entire THE AREA.” —PATTY FERGUSON-BOHNEE year later.

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But in the early days of public education in Louisiana, lack of acknowledgment on a local level set the stage for a century of racial discrimination and lack of educational opportunities.

Not officially considered “Indian” by the government or by the local community—who considered them simply “non-white”—the Indigenous communities of Terrebonne Parish were not designated their own schools within the public school system and were barred from attending the Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary school in their own community. As a result, most Indigenous children went without an elementary or high school education until the 1960s, when Louisiana integration laws began to take effect.

“And then, when people started going to school, they prevented them from speaking French,” said Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, a member of the tribe and a law professor at Arizona State University (ASU), where she is the director of the ASU Indian Legal Clinic. Like the Cajuns and Creoles of the region, she said, “they were prohibited and punished from speaking French.”

Today, though members of the tribe speak French at a significantly higher rate than in other communities, Americanization still looms. The children of Pointe-auChien still have French- fluent grandparents. But, as is the nature of assimilation, the language diminishes with each generation. Christine Verdin—a member of the Pointe au Chien Tribal Council who served as a master teacher at Pointe-aux-Chenes Elementary and Montegut Elementary until her recent retirement—spoke French as her first language and continues to speak it exclusively among her siblings; but her children, who are in their twenties and thirties today, do not speak it fluently. “We have at least one generation ... like my kids, unfortunately, I did not teach them French, which I thoroughly regret.”

Like in most other Louisiana communities in the

twenty-first century, the French language is definitely threatened, said Ferguson-Bohnee. “You do hear it in the home more often than most other [places] ... but there’s nothing to support maintaining that.”

Closing Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary

In 2021, the Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary School served about one hundred students, seventy percent of them being of the Pointe-au-Chien tribe or the nearby Isle de St. Jean tribe, and the other thirty percent being of Cajun heritage. “It was the highest percentage of Native Americans at any school in the state,” said Ferguson-Bohnee.

“I was always proud of that school,” said Louisiana State Representative and Speaker Pro Tempore Tanner Magee. “It was a National Blue Ribbon Award-winning school, B-rated. For such a small community, such an economically-disadvantaged community—predominately based off of shrimpers and commercial fishermen— to have such a good school was always really great.”

Through collaborations with school administration and tribal leaders, the school had developed curricula that incorporated the students’ Indigenous traditions and heritage. Within the educational setting, they were exposed to tribal gatherings, basket weaving and wood carving workshops, and presentations by tribal members.

“I think having this school within the community is helpful to these kids who are going through very unfortunate environmental changes, which impact their dayto-day lives,” said Ferguson-Bohnee. “Having the school there and having other people who are going through the same thing is helpful for the students for their support system, but also helps them to continue the important cultures and traditions of their families and the tribes that are in the area.”

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In March 2021, when the school board announced the proposed closure of the school for the 2021-2022 school year without any prior notice to parents or teachers, the community wasted no time in mobilizing. By the time the official vote was to take place at a school board meeting on April 13, a protest had been organized, an op-ed was signed by thirty-two academics from around the nation, and the Louisiana House of Representatives passed a unanimous resolution urging the school board to vote against the closure, threatening to consider withholding COVID relief funds if they moved forward.

In the petition, published in The Daily Comet newspaper in Thibodeaux and read before the board at the April meeting, the writers urged the school board: “Do not repeat a notoriously unjust history.”

Despite such fearsome opposition, the board voted 6-3 to close the Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary School, citing dwindling enrollment as the primary reason behind the closure. This claim was proven to be unfounded; Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary enrolled forty-three fewer students than the neighboring majority-white Montegut Elementary, which had faced the same degree of enrollment drop following the region’s struggles after the COVID-19 pandemic and recent hurricanes.

“Closing a school is like a death spiral,” said Ferguson-Bohnee. “It impacts the stability of the community.

Social institutions are important for civic participation and engagement, and that helps community cohesion.

And if you remove that community cohesion, you destabilize a focal point in the community.”

Magee echoed Ferguson-Bohnee’s concerns, describing the loss of the elementary school as a death knell to a community already facing significant challenges. “To me, that was like the straw that was going to break this community’s back. Then, once it’s gone, it’s gone, forever. You can’t ever really replace it.”

Something New

After participating in initial advocacy efforts to save the Pointe-aux-Chênes Eelementary Sschool and using Télé-Louisiane’s platform to amplify the story, McGrew—whose background is in economics and policy—assisted tribal members in challenging the school’s closure in the courts. In June 2021, twelve parents of Pointe-au-Chênes Elementary students, all members of the tribe, filed a federal lawsuit against the Terrebonne Parish School Board, its president Gregory Harding, and its superintendent Phillip Martin alleging discrimination on grounds of race, language, and national origin.

The lawsuit was strategic, explained McGrew. “It was the right thing to do, but also kind of created a lever to attract media attention to the story.” Currently, both parties are in the process of settling.

The suit also accused the school board of failing to adhere to the requirements of Louisiana’s 2013 Immersion School Choice Act, which provides that “a local public school board, if requested in writing signed by the parent or legal guardian of at least twenty-five students enrolled in kindergarten who reside within the jurisdictional boundaries of the school district, shall establish a foreign language immersion program for such students.”

Prior to the school’s closure in 2021, Pointe-auxChênes parents petitioned twice, in 2018 and 2020, for an immersion program to be offered in Terrebonne Parish. “Not having a French immersion program in coastal Louisiana, coastal Acadiana, to me, was just completely hard to understand,” said Magee, reflecting on the area’s vibrant, living Francophone heritage, as well as the educational and economic benefits such a school would offer the parish.

Verdin has long been part of the effort to open an immersion program in Terrebonne, hoping to grant area children the advantages of being bilingual, as well as to reconnect the new generations to the old. “If we teach

our kids French now, and their grandparents speak French, then that generation that missed it—they might be more prone to learn French, too, as their kids bring it home,” she said.

Both times organizers submitted petitions, though, they received no response from the parish school board.

“We’d submit ... and the parish would not contact parents,” said Ferguson-Bohnee of petitioning for an immersion school. “There should be a trigger, where they’re contacting parents and moving forward, because then once you turn [the petition] in, the responsibility is on the parish. They did not do that.”

“So we knew then,” said Verdin. “That made a statement that [the Terrebonne School Board Superintendent Phillip Martin] was not interested in us having a French Immersion school in his district.”

Following the official decision to close Pointe-auxChênes Elementary in 2021, community members and regional partners started to consider new solutions. “We started thinking about, ‘How do we bring a school back to our area?’” With the support of the state legislature— which allocated $1 million of state funding towards their efforts—they started working on a charter school application, with the intention of it being the parish’s first French immersion school.

“And throughout this process, we’re meeting with many stakeholders, especially stakeholders in the French-speaking community, the Francophone community—because we want to create a culturally reflective school of the people from that area, to instill pride the young people, but also to maintain this for future generations,” said Ferguson-Bohnee. “So, we’ve met with many people, even Indigenous Francophone Canadians, CODOFIL, people from the Louisiana Department of Education, our partners at TéléLouisiane, and the French Consul General. We’ve been having weekly meetings ... just strategy and things like that.”

In April 2022, the Terrebonne Parish School board denied the community’s charter school application, but another avenue of action was already underway. At the start of the 2022 regular legislative session, Magee introduced House Bill 261, which would establish the pre-K–4th French immersion school as a special public school that would operate under its own independent governing board, operating similarly to other Louisiana special schools such as the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) and the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts. Per the bill, the board would include three members of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe, one member of the Isle de Jean Charles Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians of Louisiana, one member appointed by the governor, one member appointed by CODOFIL, one member appointed by the French Consul General in Louisiana, one member appointed by the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, one member appointed by the Bayou Lafourche Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha Confederation of Muskogees, one member appointed by the United Houma Nation, the state superintendent of education (or a designee), a member of the Louisiana Senate, and a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. The bill, which also allocated $3 million for the school through the state budget, was unanimously approved by the Louisiana House of Representatives, then also by the State Senate on May 31.

On June 24, Governor John Bel Edwards traveled to the village of Pointe-au-Chien to sign the bill into law onsite. According to Verdin, he is the first Louisiana governor to ever visit the village. The occasion was held in the tribal building and marked by the sounds of traditional drumming performed by tribal members. “I’m most excited because it does help preserve the language, the culture, the heritage, the traditions, and it is

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about resiliency,” he said at the ceremony. “This is about surviving and holding on to what’s most important to you all.”

There is still work to be done; as the settlement from the tribe’s lawsuit with the school board come to a close, an agreement is being reached that will allow the new school to occupy the old Pointe-aux-Chênes campus, which has been unoccupied since its closure in June 2021 and faced significant damage during Hurricane Ida. As of press time, McGrew said that the settlement "has been agreed to in principle to allow the new school to use the property. The remaining steps are simply procedural."

The school will open in Pointe-au-Chien in August 2023—offering full French immersion to pre-kindergarteners, kindergarteners, and first graders and hybrid immersion for the school’s first classes of second through fourth graders, shifting to complete immersion in all grades as students advance. The school will also prioritize curating an educational experience reflective of its students’ heritage, integrating the history and traditions of the local Indigenous and Cajun communities into its curriculum.

“It’s really exciting,” said Ferguson-Bohnee. “It shows that this culture and lifeways are valued, especially because of this long history of discrimination, especially for the native children, which was designed to suppress the speaking of the language and the actual tribal identity. So now we can have something that’s more culturally responsive, that’s affirming the backgrounds of the students, considering their cultures, and being reflective of the community.”

McGrew, who will serve as the vice president of the non-profit organization established to support the school, described the opening of the school as a “historic moment and a historic opportunity”—an example of a truly resilient community refusing to be silenced in the battle to protect their distinct and important heritage. He said that the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe’s success can also serve as a model for other communities in Louisiana as the door continues to close on opportunities to bring the Francophone culture of Louisiana into the next generation. “I think there’s no reason why this shouldn’t exist in at least every parish, but also at least every community where there are people who want it, [and] especially those who still speak French in a very real way...we’re going to reap the benefits multifold because not only do we keep our small communities alive, we keep our language alive, and we give people reasons to stay, and to invest in, our small towns and Louisiana in general.”

What's In a Name : Pointe-au-Chien vs. Pointe-aux-Chênes For the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe, the way cultural identity is entangled in language is particularly fraught, and the French dialect they speak carries with it a history of colonialist erasure of its own. But today, particularly in the context of the cultural victory that is this new school, the tribe has wholly reclaimed the language as their own—their ancient words and traditions wrapped tightly within their unique place in the Francophone world Though the tribe and their village on the Terrebonne Basin have been known by the name Pointe-au-Chien for at least a century—an ongoing linguistic debate between the natives and white settlers of the area is centered around whether the bayou for which they are named was originally called “chien,” which translates to dog, or “chênes,” which translates to oaks—and which is a mispronunciation of the other.

But the tribe retains firmly that the name of their ancestral home, and of their tribe, is Pointe-au-Chien. “Every document we’ve found on our ancestors, it is ‘chien’,” said Verdin.

In December 1986, an AP report sent out to Louisiana newspapers documents the height of the debate with the headline “This Town No Longer ‘Going to the Dogs,’” announcing that, following the approval of a 1978 resolution requesting the town’s name officially be changed from “Pointe-au-Chien” to “Pointe-aux-Chênes,” the road signs were finally changed by the Department of Highways. The name of the community’s elementary school followed suit.

So, when tribal leaders went to name the new school, the first Indigenous French Immersion school in the country, they added the “ i,” removed the extra “e”. The name of this school, they said, would be École Pointe-auChien. h

Learn more about the Pointe-au-Chien tribe at pactribe.com, and keep up with Télé-louisiane's coverage of the state's linguistic and cultural landscape at telelouisiane.com.

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Escapes

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EXPLORING

AN

INFLUX OF RESTORATION

PROJECTS

IN

MINDEN

N E W & I M P R OV E D

W

R E S T O R AT I O N T O U R

A Renovation Renaissance

FROM HISTORICAL PRESERVATION PROJECTS TO REVAMPING UNDERUTILIZED PUBLIC SPACES, MINDEN’S BEING MADE ANEW

Story and photos by Mackenzie Treadwell Ernst

A

s many times as I have driven along the I-20 corridor, I’ve rarely allowed myself to take in all there is to love about Northeast Louisiana. Recently, as I drove into Minden, I couldn’t help but smile at a place that feels frozen in time in all the best ways. Small businesses, cobblestone walkways, and an impeccable variety of architecture begged to be explored and appreciated. Fortunately, I had the privilege to not only visit Minden in passing, but to talk with a few people who embody an adoration for the place they call home through their restoration efforts and passions.

Huffman Manor

From the moment you walk through the doors of Huffman Manor, your senses in their entirety are welcomed and at ease—soft, jazzy music entices you from the back door into the ambient main foyer, where I was greeted by the owners, Jim and Kimberly Huffman.

The Huffmans found each of their callings, and each other, through the hospitality industry. With a combined experience of almost seventy years, the Huffmans have been able to make their way across America, learning from various hotel conversions, renovations, and alterations—and ultimately cultivating a cutting-edge vision for their personal endeavors. Now, settled in the heart of Minden’s Historic District, they are sure that they “have found a place to call home”.

Beginning with their first bed and breakfast, Huffman House, in 2015 this couple’s long-term dream of fostering boutique accommodations in Minden continues to evolve with their latest endeavor down the street: Huffman Manor. Originally built by the Rathbun family in 1910, this decadent estate shines anew under the Huffmans’ touch—which includes just over seven weeks of restorations. They were putting the finishing touches on each room when I arrived.

The Huffmans wanted to fully understand the memories that their new estate held, so they reached out directly to the former owners, eventually mak56

As Jim and Kimberly Huffman began renovating the iconic 1910 manor in downtown Minden, they approached the process with historic preservation in mind—hoping to retain the spirit of the home through details like original wallpaper, light fixtures, and more.

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ing a connection with Charles Rathbun. Rathbun not only highlighted the unique aspects of the manor, like the handcrafted banisters on the stairs and imported South African wood throughout the home, but he regaled them with stories about the love and laughter that had filled the home for a century. This extra step allowed Jim and Kimberly to intentionally approach their restoration with the home’s history in mind.

The original cream and floral blush and burgundy accented wallpaper dances across the walls throughout the home, and while it comes with some imperfections, the Huffmans couldn’t bear to let such an antique and one-of-a-kind detail go to waste. They also proudly utilized the original light fixtures and sconces, as well as original stained glass windows—which came in colors I’d rarely seen in antique homes: deep purples, lime green, and soft pinks filtering light in nearly every room of the house.

The dining room alone is a testament to both the Manor’s past and the Huffmans’ goals to curate community: darkwood antique tables and chairs, each set with its own unique adornments in cherry, creams, and forest greens, are arranged closely together and surrounded by history with photographs of the Rahbun family, delicate china sets on display, and a coffee urn Jim found in the attic that has been buffed to perfection.

Inspired by their own craving to feel

a part of a community when traveling, the Huffmans dressed their grand front porch with several seating options, including a more modern cushioned and wood outdoor couch set that offers the perfect view of the lush front yard and flowered medians—prompting a friendly smile and wave from the sidewalk passersby and allowing you to feel like a local yourself.

Despite its enduring beauty, the manor still required some real elbow grease to rebuild walls and repaint several areas of the home. The kitchen’s walls, set above the original beige and merlot patterned tile flooring, are painted nearly the exact original shade of sweet periwinkle, a swatch of which was discovered in a top far cabinet in the kitchen.

As for their long-term plans, the couple hopes to reimagine what used to be a gentlemen’s library, which includes a balcony, in need of restoration, that overlooks the backyard. They also plan to renovate their carriage house in the fall of next year.

Wandering the Manor, visitors should be on the lookout for special details, tiny discoveries like the sunflower detailing on the door knobs and the rare arched transom, spider-web-esque window pane that decorates the front door.

To learn more and book your stay, visit huffmanmanorinn.com, and don’t forget to ask Jim what it means to stomp the gizzard!

As the Webster Parish Convention and Visitors Commission’s latest undertaking, the historic neighborhood of Miller Quarters, which has faced neglect over the last several decades, is being reimagined as a community gathering space—and was recently featured on HGTV’s series Home Town Kickstart. // A U G 2 2

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Miller Quarters

By the time this story reaches newsstands, many will have already seen the incredible transformation that underwent the area now known as Miller Quarters when it was featured on the May 29 airing of HGTV’s Home Town Kickstart. I caught up with Serena Gray, Executive Director of the Webster Parish Convention and Visitors Commission, who helped me understand the mindful journey of bringing life back into this historical part of Minden.

This eleven-acre green space was originally owned by the Miller/Inabnet family, who recognized a need during the housing decline in the 1950s, primarily for the town’s underserved African American population. In response, the patriarch of the family, Joe Miller built sixty affordable homes in the area that gave way to a thriving, close-knit neighborhood. When approached by Gray and her creative team, the children who grew up in Miller Quarters, now in their fifties and sixties, fondly recounted the pick-up football games and Sun-

day potlucks. “People felt like they had a chance at life because they lived here,” said Gray. Unfortunately, as time passed and families moved on, the neighborhood was slowly abandoned, and was, until recently, an underutilized area in Minden.

In re-imagining the property as a community gathering place, Gray and her team wanted to ensure that the name itself would honor those who had previously lived there, and former residents unanimously agreed that keeping the name Miller Quarters would best encapsulate the spirit of the camaraderie fostered in the neighborhood. Keeping that in mind, as visitors walk through the stainless steel entryway arch, they’ll immediately notice a circle of wooden swings surrounding a fire pit, as well as numerous picnic tables all shaded by the enchanting pine and oak trees that still remain. The team has made efforts to keep as many of these trees as possible, while also implementing public restrooms, walking paths, dog parks, and

“I WANT TO SEE OUR COMMUNITY PROSPER. IF I CAN DO ONE PROJECT AT A TIME TO GET OUR TOWN SOME ATTENTION, I’LL DO IT,” —SARA MCDANIEL

other features to create a green, family gathering space near the heart of their town.

While only two to three acres have been cleared for Phase One of this build, Gray and her team are working closely with the Tourism Board of Directors to implement the long-term goals, keeping their local festivals and vendors in mind. Eventually, they hope to add another electric pole as well as running water to allow food trucks access and ease when catering events in Minden. One of the original homes still resides on the property, and Gray hopes to turn it into a memorial space where others can learn the history and importance of this area. If you meander towards the edge of what’s currently built out, you’ll find wooden benches already waiting on the other side of the hill. The team’s goal is to eventually build a platform stage for future live music events in the community.

As a “mainstreet town,” most of Minden’s public events are currently featured on Main Street. A good problem to have, but some of their events—including their annual Grillin’ on Main, local concerts, and food truck festivals—have outgrown the strip, and need space to expand. “There are a lot of people who love this town, [who] want to see events stay here, and want to see something like this added to our downtown,” said Gray.

Spanish Villas

I rounded out my exploration of Minden with Sara McDaniel of the Simply Southern Cottage blog who has a particularly big heart for the restoration and redevelopment efforts in Minden. A Webster Parish native, McDaniel finds that her love for Minden only deepens with each project she gets to assist or work on, and actively works towards getting Minden and Webster Parish on people’s maps.

McDaniel and her neighbor, Rachel Miller, not only played an integral role in Minden’s winning of a spot on Home Town Kickstart, but also ushered the initial spark for creating Minden’s gorgeous downtown murals last year.

With a wealth of knowledge from her own home renovations, a huge social media presence, and various real estate investments, McDaniel is now busy at work on her newest project: a set of 1931 Spanish Villas, featuring original stucco and Spanish architecture, a rare gem in rural Louisiana, which she plans to turn into the area’s premier short-term rentals.

Because of the scale of the project— which required repairing decades-worth of damage from weather, foliage, and time—earlier this year McDaniel was approached by Cottages & Bungalows Magazine and American Farmhouse Style Magazine to be their 2022 Project House. With their support, these villas, which were covered not only in green-

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ery but also lead paint and asbestos, will soon be given a second life.

As we walked through the first building, which McDaniel hoped would be completed shortly after my visit, she pointed out the beautifully-rounded archways and original fireplaces that she is working to preserve. Because of the damage, some of the original tiling and walls surrounding the bathtubs had to be completely ripped out, but McDaniel is preserving as much of it as she can, and utilizing what she must remove in other parts of the home.

McDaniel is also partnering with brands such as Laura Ashley which will offer wallpaper, bedding, and decor specially curated for each unit. Her goal is to have each interior showcase a different aesthetic; one unit might be decked out in mid-century modern furniture, the next might incorporate elements of the American West, allowing visitors to pick the exact “vibe” they are looking for.

I got the chance to see just how far the project has come as we walked through building two, which had not yet started its interior renovation. Many of the spaces were caved in, weeds sprouted in the corners, and general dilapidation disguised the building’s original beauty.

Here, McDaniel shared a bit about her passion for abandoned places and for her town. “I want to see our community prosper. If I can do one project at a

One of the most exciting projects currently taking place in Minden right now is Sara McDaniel’s renovation of an abandoned 1930s Spanish-style Villa— which she is transforming into chic, short-term rentals with the support of Cottages & Bungalows Magazine and American Farmhouse Style Magazine.

Photos courtesy of Sara McDaniel.

time to get our town some attention, I’ll do it,” she said. “We want others to raise up alongside us [in these efforts], and do their own projects—we want people to pick up that torch.”

There’s something to be said about a place that can look into itself, iden-

tify its own intrinsic value, and know that there’s work that needs to be done.

Work that cannot be done without the foundations, memories, and experiences already set forth, but that looks to the future with hope, endurance, and tenacity. Minden is experiencing such a re-

naissance, a renewal—and it’s certainly worth a closer look. h

Learn more about all that Minden has to offer at visitwebster.net.

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P E R S P E C T I V E S : I M A G E S O F O U R S TAT E

Virginia Hanusik

ON CHANGING THE VISUAL NARRATIVE OF CLIMATE CHANGE, ADVOCACY FOR HER ADOPTED HOME STATE, AND THE ROLE OF HUMAN ENGINEERING IN ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE TODAY

By Lauren Heffker

Left: Kenner, 2020. Right: Venice, 2021. Photos by Virginia Hanusik.

“C

limate change is the defining issue of our times,” New Orleans-based photographer Virginia Hanusik told me matter-of-factly. “It is projected that by 2100, most of South Louisiana will be underwater,” referring to the alarming findings of a 2009 study by LSU scientists Mike Blum and Harry Roberts. It’s a message those of us who live here have heard before. Despite the warnings, by birth or by circumstance, we remain.

Within her work documenting Louisiana’s coast and the people who have called it home for generations, Hanusik carves out a space for this particular sort of dissonance—the undeniable grandeur of a place, superimposed over its inevitable ephemerality.

Hanusik describes the scope of her work as interstecing landscape, culture, and the built environment. Under her direct, reverent gaze, everyday scenes of life on the coast take on a quiet, poignant beauty. Whether it be a fog-shrouded Fort Proctor against the St. Bernard sunrise, the Old River Control Structure in Concordia Parish, or a lone boat anchored amid a placid Lake Pontchartrain, Hanusik’s subject matter is gently evocative of the mystic splendor associated with the Mississippi River—which in one image, from her vantage point at the Port Eads Lighthouse in Plaquemines Parish, spills out into the Gulf as receding marshland yields to pulsing tides.

As a visual artist and researcher, Hanusik employs a more surreal, fine art style in her photography, which imbues her images with subtlety and sensitivity as she works to understand the nuanced relationship between the environment and its people through projects such as A Receding Coast: The Architecture and Infrastructure of South Louisiana. Embedded within Hanusik’s projects is a visual contrast; a softness and radical empathy that blunts the coexisting razor-sharp reality of rising seas and a warming world. “Aesthetically, I'm interested in being able to kind of capture that special light and color that exists here and evoke this sense of wonder that I don't know gets captured as much as it should,” she said.

Hanusik’s vibrant architectural portraits show ma-

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nipulated agricultural landscapes, from communities of homes built upon stilts in Grand Isle, Venice, and Isle de Jean Charles to a New Orleans batture settlement nestled between the river and the city’s levee system (read more about the Southport Colony on page 34). Hanusik seeks to depict the broader narrative of climate change through a localized perspective, capturing a specific moment in time as the environment around us rapidly changes. Unlike the majority of disaster imagery in the media—which tends to be tinged with spectacle, depicting aerial images of raging wildfires, the melting Arctic, or in Louisiana’s case, destruction wrought by hurricanes, flooding, and rapid land loss—Hanusik’s oeuvre is a balm that acknowledges both the value of this place and its inevitable future. “These scenes have been synonymous with the climate crisis,” Hanusik said. “But the reality is that every community is currently living with the impacts of climate change at this very moment.”

Over the past eight years, Hanusik has trekked to farflung rural and coastal communities across South Louisiana with her camera in tow, and the resulting visual dispatches render the landscape’s fragile natural beauty in such an authentic, knowing way that it comes as a genuine surprise to learn that Hanusik isn’t originally from here. A native of upstate New York, Hanusik grew up in the Hudson River Valley—the birthplace of American landscape painting—surrounded by picturesque landscapes, rolling hills, and fall foliage. After graduating from Bard College, she made the cross-country move to New Orleans in 2014 to work in coastal reclamation and water management for a non-profit that supports entrepreneurial approaches to social issues.

The reason why it’s so important to pay attention to Louisiana right now, Hanusik argued, is because what is happening here—coastal retreat, climate migration, rising sea levels—will affect everyone eventually. We just happen to be experiencing these issues at a rapid rate due to the unique geography and economy of South Louisiana.

This landscape is both a result of the Mississippi River’s shifting course over the centuries, she said, as well as

a feat of human engineering. As a 2020-2021 photography fellow with Exhibit Columbus, Hanusik explored the history of flooding and politics of disasters within the Lower Mississippi River watershed over the past century. The series—which interrogates architectural adaptation and how the built environment symbolizes what we value—provides vital historical and cultural context into how we got here, incorporating archival images, maps, and interviews with residents alongside Hanusik’s contemporary photographs. In the wake of natural disasters like the 1927 Mississippi River flood and Hurricane Katrina, she questions why certain communities suffer in the face of predictable environmental catastrophes, and how those communities are portrayed in mainstream media. “Although the region is intricately connected by a shared resource, there is a division between who has benefitted and who has been harmed by over a century of human engineering to manipulate the river’s water flow,” Hanusik writes in the artist’s statement for her most recent project, On the Origins of High Water. “Floods can no longer be considered a natural occurrence—they are often the result of policies that protect certain communities over others. Infrastructure is not neutral; it is a physical marker of tension that results in both loss and gain.”

Building a better future is possible and within reach, Hanusik argued, but it has to be done with the people of the communities who have been impacted. She continued this work in 2022 as a Rising: Climate in Crisis Resident at Tulane University’s A Studio in the Woods, where she worked on The Place We Keep, a forthcoming series exploring the inequality of disaster relief and preservation in five communities along the Gulf Coast experiencing the impacts of climate change; the collection features a compilation of photographs, oral histories, and public programming on the perpetuation of environmental injustice in the region.

“There is a conflict that’s almost tangible when you analyze the landscape here,” Hanusik said. “As someone who makes art about climate change, I’ve noticed that people tend to think the two categories are, ‘We are doomed’ or ‘We have hope,’ but the truth is you can mourn the loss of a place and fight for its future at the same time.” h

Virginia Hanusik is an artist whose work has been exhibited internationally, featured in The New Yorker, National Geographic, British Journal of Photography, Domus, Places Journal, The Atlantic, MAS Context, and The Oxford American among others, and supported by the Pulitzer Center, Graham Foundation, Landmark Columbus Foundation, and Mellon Foundation.

She is on the board of directors for The Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans, where she is currently organizing a panel for fall 2022 in relation to the body of work created during her residency at A Studio in the Woods. See more of her work at virginiahanusik.com.

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