Country Roads Magazine "The Music Issue" February 2025
Work Home by James Fox-Smith
NEWS & NOTEWORTHIES
Lafayette’s Black History Trail launches, Wyatt Waters settles on Natchez & more.
CHICKEN CHASING Our annual parade planner, from country courirs to NOLA Carnival
Robin Barnes’s path to success was paved by talent, business prowess, and strategic pivots by Kirstie Myvett
MURDER ON THE BANDSTAND
In 1931 in Rayne’s “Promised Land,” jazz trumpeter Evan Thomas met an untimely end by Sam Irwin 35
“IT WAS THE HONESTY”
From the rural Louisiana gospel circuit to viral Internet stardom, Ocie and Wes Crowe are folk music’s newest luminaries by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot 30 THE SONGBIRD OF NEW ORLEANS
“FULL MOON AT THE BLUE MOON,”
“HOT ACCORDION PLAYER FROM LYDIA,” “FULL MOON WHIP CRACK,” “TRIPLEROW,” “COWBOY ZYDECO”
Artwork by Francis Pavy
The Lafayette artist Francis Pavy has always been a self-proclaimed “music freak.” In our interview for this month’s “Perspectives” column (page 62), he shared a seminal memory from when he was three or four years old at his aunt’s wedding in Vacherie, and a swamp pop band was playing. “I feel like music is something that . . . it’s so ingrained in our culture, and it’s very unique. Other places don’t have it, and they want it.”
When Pavy was just out of college, a failed music major who had switched to visual arts, he haunted the “cosmic Cajun” dancehall scene of the 1970s, finding subjects everywhere. “I discovered Clifton Chenier was cooler than Muddy Waters, because he was accessible here,” he said. To this day, the music here—the music of his home— remains a major inspiration for the artist. On our cover, “Full Moon at the Blue Moon,” represents a recent night of particular “synergy” at a Cajun jam in Lafayette, “like two people make ten, like an orchestra.”
WAVES A Q&A with Jeffrey Roedel on his new album by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot
A culinary connection with a backstory by Sophie Nau
CUISINE A look inside the John Folse Culinary Institute by Ava Borskey
Jacqueline DeRobertis-Braun
What your favorite throw says about you by Megan Broussard
An increase in markers for Black historical sites in Mississippi by William Browning
LEWIS A great who wasn’t sad enough for the blues by Andrew Comer
Over the course of forty years, Francis Pavy mediates a visual language for Acadiana by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot
Publisher James Fox-Smith Associate Publisher
Ashley Fox-Smith
Managing Editor
Jordan LaHaye Fontenot
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Jacqueline DeRobertis-Braun
Creative Director Kourtney Zimmerman
Contributors:
Ava Borskey, Megan Broussard, William Browning, Joey Cirilo, Jess Cole, Andrew Comer, Ashley Hinson, Sam Irwin, Nikki Krieg, Kirstie Myvett, Sophie Nau, Matthew Noel Cover Artist Francis Pavy Advertising
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.
Live Blues every night In clarksdale, ms Experience over a dozen festivals every year
UPCOMING EVENTS 2025
• 1/24-26 – Clarksdale Film & Music Festival
• 3/29 – Tater Superbad Blues Festival
• 4/10-13 – Juke Joint Festival & Related Events
• 4/13 – Cat Head Mini Blues Fest I
• 5/10 – Clarksdale Caravan Music Fest
• 5/23-24 – Ground Zero Blues Club Anniversary Weekend
• 5/24 – Deak’s Harmonica Block Party
• 5/25 – Bad Apple Blues Festival
• 5/29-31 – Son House Tribute Festival
• 6/12-15 – B.A.M. Fest (Birthplace of American Music)
• 8/8-10 – Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival
• 8/8-10 – Cat Head 23rd Anniversary Weekend
• 8/30 – Red’s Old-Timers Blues Fest
• 10/3-4 – Mighty Roots Music Festival
• 10/5 – Hopson Pumpkin Pickin’ Festival
• 10/8-11 – King Biscuit Blues Festival (Helena, Arkansas)
• 10/12 – Clarksdale Super Blues Sunday: Bluesberry October Fest, Cat Head Mini Blues Fest, Ground Zero, Pinetop Perkins Homecoming, Red’s, and more!
• 10/16-18 – Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival
• 10/17-18 – Special Blues Event TBA
• 10/23-26 – Hambone Festival
• 10/25 – Cruz’n The Crossroads Car & Truck Show
• 12/31 – Celebrate New Year’s at the Crossroads!
PHOTO BY RORY DOYLE
Reflections
FROM THE PUBLISHER
One Tuesday just before hChristmas, my wife and hI capitalized on having both college-aged kids home by meeting them at the Magnolia Café for lunch. It didn’t take much convincing. As anyone who’s set foot in St. Francisville knows, the Mag is an institution that’s built a durable place in the hearts (and dietary preferences) of generations of St. Francisvillians. Our kids, who literally got off the school bus out front of the restaurant, are no exception, and no visit home is complete without multiple Mag visits for French dip po-boys, nachos supreme, and other flavors from their childhoods. Meeting at the Mag is also convenient because Country Roads’ global headquarters now occupies a small cabin in the 3V Tourist Court, which shares the same parking lot as the Magnolia and Birdman Coffee. Each morning as we arrive for work, this campus, if you could call it that, buzzes with the activity of a busy restaurant prepping for the lunch rush. Trucks unload supplies. Cooks and
servers step out for a smoke. And cats scatter hither and yon.
As long as the Mag has been there, so have the cats. Attracted I suppose by the prospect of easy pickings and the kindness of strangers, the area around the Mag sustains one of the highest-density cat civilizations I’ve ever seen. They sun on porches, skulk through shadows, stalk unsuspecting sparrows, and reproduce energetically. Case in point: In late October we found ourselves following the progress of one queen with interest. After waddling about for a month or two looking increasingly pregnant, she suddenly disappeared for a week. Afterwards, there were kittens everywhere.
I do mean everywhere. Suddenly, on a nice day you couldn’t leave the door open without a kitten blundering in. They were under the floorboards, in the flowerbeds, skittering about as vehicles came and went, and evading capture in the coon traps the Mag staff set out to catch them for spaying. They were cute in a semi-feral kind of way, but since none of our family would hitherto have described themselves as “cat people,” at work we adopted a policy of benign coexistence—as if our office just happened to be situated on the grounds of an unofficial cat shelter. After lunch
at the Mag on the day in question, my wife and I went back to work for the afternoon while the kids took a car and headed home.
So, imagine our surprise a couple of hours later when our son, Charles, texted a photo of a tiny, crazed-looking kitten halfway up the wall of our carport, with the three dogs going berserk beneath it. An obvious offshoot of the Magnolia colony, this tenacious beast had somehow hitched a twenty-mile ride on, in, or possibly under, our car. By the time we got home, Charles, who is a softie at heart, had rescued this kitten from its perch, plied it with milk and dog food, and installed it under a blanket on the couch, where it was purring noisily and looking ominously comfortable.
A month later, both kids have gone back to college but the kitten looks like it’s here to stay. Firmly ensconced, it seems delighted dividing its time between the couch and the kitchen, where it gorges on bespoke cat food while our three “outside” dogs (and one elderly, sociopathic barn cat) seethe with contempt on the other side of the porch door. How ironic that my wife’s lifelong antipathy to inside pets finally falls victim to empty nest syndrome disguised as a ragamuffin, black and white kitten. I’ll admit it’s quite cute, but I’m still a dog person at heart. So, until the inside pets rule gives way completely, perhaps I’ll make a point by dressing our three dogs up and entering them into the Krewe de Canines Dog Parade and Costume Contest, happening February 22 at St. Francisville’s Parker Park to raise funds for the West Feliciana Animal Humane Society. God knows, five pets is our limit, so until there’s a home for every dog and cat born in a barn or a restaurant parking lot, we need our animal shelters. Please support yours, and Happy Mardi Gras.
New Orleans Opera Goes ‘Old West’ by Offering “The Elixir of Love”
By Christopher Tidmore
Aclassic opera reimagined in the Old West; A New Orleanian opera star of national acclaim returning home to shine as leading lady; a massive ‘Fais Do-Do’ following the opening night performance, with Stetson hats, entertainment, and a cookout overlooking Congo Square (which some consider the birthplace of both American music and barbecue); and an audience encouraged to attend the show in fringe, denim and cowboy boots. “People are starting to realize Louisiana had it’s own cowboy culture,” says New Orleans Opera’s General Director Lila Palmer, “This gives us a chance to celebrate that heritage, reinterpret a classic, and have a good time doing it!”
The New Orleans Opera’s April 4 & 6 staging director Ned Canty’s production of L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love) definitely won’t be your standard version of the comedy classic, it will be fun and approachable to the first-timer and veteran alike. Donizetti’s music will be performed on a western frontier set and will feature several of today’s most acclaimed operatic voices at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre at the edge of the historic French Quarter.
New Orleans is “America’s First City of Opera”, and as Palmer explains, “We remain not only the trendsetters in the world of opera, as we have been since 1796, but
this particular production is another step for the company in creating transporting extravaganzas for audiences. This version of The Elixir of Love , combined with CowboyCajun-themed hoedown straight afterward, merges the Old World with the Old West for an all-night entertainment experience in which our audience gets to participate, be part of the costume, be part of the dance. It’s like Yellowstone and Bridgerton and Calamity Jane had a comic opera baby.”
Leading this innovative American frontier production will be New Orleans’ own Lindsey Reynolds, returning home to play Adina after winning acclaim on stages from the Philadelphian Opera to the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In fact, the 26-year-old first played Adina at 19 at the renowned Chautauqua Institution in 2018, following her graduation from the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA), where she studied under another New Orleanian opera star, Phyllis Treigle.
The Elixir of Love is a comic opera centered on a comic love triangle, with Nemorino (star tenor Matthew Swensen), a poor young man in love with the wealthy and independent Adina, competing with Sargeant Belcore, (Grammy winner Jonathan McCullough). Hoping to win her heart, Nemorino buys and drinks
what he believes to be a love potion from a traveling salesman. When he unknowingly inherits a fortune, the town’s women flock to him, falsely convincing him of the potion’s power. In the end, Adina realizes her love for Nemorino, leading to a joyous conclusion. “What I love most about this opera is the way Donizetti portrays women,” Lindsey said. “Adina has so much agency, especially for the time the opera was composed. I love performing roles that highlight strong, multifaceted women.”
For tickets to the April 4 & 6 performances of The Elixir of Love , go to www.neworleansopera.org or call the box office at (504) 5293000.
Honoring Lafayette’s First Black Church
OMethodist Episcopal Church to unveil a marker recognizing the building’s significance as an African American landmark.
The plaque is part of the first phase of Lafayette’s African American Heritage Trail, a cultural trek through the city that highlights community destinations
Mouton Plantation—making it the oldest official African American church in Lafayette. Before the church was established, Black Protestants would worship in rented buildings or under tents. In 1954, a new, modern construction was built on an adjacent property.
On the marker, a description of the church’s history and prominence is written in both English and Kouri-Vini (Louisiana Creole). The sign also includes a QR code linking to a website that lists all the Heritage Trail locations across Lafayette, including written histories of the landmarks, as well as voiced recordings, in both languages.
Rev. Maggie C. Banks, the pastor of Trinity Christian Methodist Episcopal
Church, said the city and church have been in talks for two years to make this phase rollout a reality.
“It is significant so people will recognize the contributions that have been, in some cases, overlooked, of African Americans,” she said. “We are very pleased, and we are honored.”
Banks added that the trail’s importance is critical to show residents of Lafayette—or visitors to the region—how African Americans in the community have made vital contributions to the city over decades. On the third Sunday in February, during Black History Month, Trinity Christian Methodist Episcopal Church as a congregation will have a formal dedication of the marker.
Other landmarks on the heritage trail include Holy Family Catholic School, Holy Family Convent, Saint Paul the Apostle Catholic Church Parish, Saint Paul the Apostle Church Bell, Saint Paul the Apostle Parish Rectory, and Good Hope Chapel.
Learn more at the African American Heritage Trail Lafayette website.
—Jacqueline DeRobertis-Braun
Read Every Single Issue of Country Roads , Ever!
Thwo years ago, when I (Managing Editor Jordan LaHaye Fontenot), publisher James Fox-Smith, and former Arts & Entertainment Editor Alexandra Kennon set out to wade through forty years of our magazine’s print archives as part of an anniversary project—I found myself in a state of overwhelm and quiet panic.
Since Dorcas Brown, sitting in a deer stand drinking beer with a friend in 1983, decided to publish a periodical that celebrated the happenings in small town Louisiana, thousands of stories have emerged. Stories about beloved local institutions, family recipes turned small town classics, secret nature trails, hidden
history, and damn good times. Those stories are preserved in print, in piecemeal fashion, all across Louisiana in personal collections. But I couldn’t help but fear that so many of these editions, especially the early ones, were rare enough to be at risk of being lost forever. Since the early 2010s, Country Roads has been online as well as in print—so a web archive exists. But it is imperfect, and only represents around a third of the magazine’s long history.
So, it is to my preservation-oriented heart’s delight to share that as of a few weeks ago, thanks to the good folks at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, Country Roads magazine is now available in its entirety (from 1983–2020) as an online
archive with Newsbank.
(Since 2020, we’ve been publishing e-book versions of the magazine via Issuu, which can be accessed at issuu.com/ countryroadsmag).
Readers can now access every single edition of the magazine, e-book style and searchable by date, or even by keyword. This means that you can search for articles by Country Roads contributors past and present, or for that article you read years ago about your mom’s favorite restaurant. Find old editions of beloved old columns, like Leon Standifer and Ed O’Rourke’s “Lawnchair Gardeners” and Ruth Laney’s “Antiquarians”; all of Lucile Bayon Hume’s eccentric investigations on local critters (possums, stink
bugs, crows); and Alex Cook’s wanderings into Louisiana’s most exciting dancehalls. Plus, oh Lord, so much more.
Anyone with an East Baton Rouge Parish Library card can now access the Country Roads magazine Newsbank archive at ebrpl.co/countryroads. In addition, residents living in Ascension, Assumption, East Feliciana, Iberia, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Washington, West Baton Rouge, and West Feliciana parishes can access the archive using a reciprocal borrower card. Learn more at ebrpl.com/library-services/borrow/cards-borrowing. —Jordan LaHaye Fontenot
Left to right: Mathilda Martin, Linda Granger (chairperson / historian), Pastor Maggie C. Banks, Virginia Johnson. Photo courtesy of Pastor Banks.
A City’s Stories, Painted En Plein Air
MISSISSIPPI WATERCOLORIST WYATT WATERS SETS HIS SIGHTS ON SPRING IN SOUTHWEST MISSISSIPPI
On a chilly midwinter morning, the hMississippi watercolorist Wyatt Waters hand his wife and lifelong collaborator, Kristi, were in Natchez, scrutinizing the downtown space in which they will open a gallery this spring. Waters was also waiting for the air temperature to rise into the thirties, at which point he wouldn’t have to cut his watercolor paints with vodka to keep them from freezing.
The Clinton-based watercolorist, who has devoted his career to capturing the South’s shifting shades in expressive works that evoke masters like Sargent and Hopper, paints exclusively out of doors and on location. “Mostly what I like is the humanity that happens when you’re working outside, with people,” Waters explained. “Painting is often a solitary thing. You’re alone. But when you’re outside, life comes at you.” Waters finds that painting outside maximizes both input and creative inspiration. “Sometimes, it’s things you can’t anticipate, like a bird commenting on your painting, or when the light comes through a cloud and gives you a shaft of light,” he observed. Other times, a story related by a passer-by provides the special sauce. “A good story makes a good painting,” Waters said, “and Natchez is one of those places that has a great romantic attachment. You can’t shake a tree without a story falling out.” During an earlier visit, Waters was Under-the-Hill painting the historic buildings along Silver Street when a bystander pointed out that workers redoing the building he was painting had once found a dead body lodged
in its chimney. “They surmised that someone had been trying to rob the place and gotten stuck,” he recalled. “Once you come down and you get to know the people. You hear all these stories that don’t make the history books. And when you have a story like that, it draws you to the subject more.”
Waters is prolific. During a summer trip to France during 2024, he produced eighty-one paintings in fifty-three days. This spring in Natchez, the artist intends to do the same, building a body of work depicting the city’s iconic architecture, landscapes, and its relationship with the river. Kristi noted that besides providing stock for the new gallery space, the Natchez portfolio will also form the material for a book about the city, modeled after Waters’ successful work An Oxford Sketchbook, which was published twenty-five years ago and remains one of Square Books’ best-sellers to this day. When the Wyatt Waters Gallery opens, expect an extensive selection of original paintings, plus more work available as giclée prints. Waters will also lead artists’ workshops to share the en plein air love.
“The workshops started because I had many generous and good teachers,” he said. “So, it’s all about painting for me, and the good things that happen while you’re painting.”
Look for Wyatt Waters’ Gallery opening at the corner of Main and Commerce streets in downtown Natchez in early March. To learn more, sign up for workshops, and read more of the stories that emerge during Waters’ painting excursions en plein air, visit wyattwaters.com/blogs/news.
—James
Fox-Smith
“The Rain on Main Goes Mainly Down the Drain,” by Wyatt Waters.
You’re free to live your life out loud! Because you’ve got the compassion of the cross, the security of the shield, and the comfort of Blue behind you.
Events
NORTH LOUISIANA
February 8
Krewe de Riviere Mardi Gras Parade: Enjoy a traditional New Orleans feel with floats, walking groups, riding groups, and plenty of goodies. Parade starts at West Monroe High School at 5 pm. monroe-westmonroe.org.
February 15
Krewe of Janus Children's Parade: A cute parade with even cuter riders at Pecanland Mall's Center Court. 10 am. kreweofjanus.com.
Krewe of Paws Parade: Furry friends of all shapes and sizes will be in in West Monroe dressed in their Mardi Gras best, beginning on the 100 block of Commerce Street. 1 pm. kreweofjanus.com.
Krewe of Janus: Northeast Louisiana’s oldest parade represents the Twin Cities by parading through West Monroe and Monroe, mostly down Louisville Avenue. 6 pm. kreweofjanus.com.
February 22
Krewe of Centaur: Shreveport's “Fun Krewe” is known for its raucously centurion celebration of the regional gambling industry. 3:30 pm starting at the corner of Lake Street and Clyde Fant Parkway. kreweofcentaur.org.
February 23
Krewe of Barkus and Meoux : The crowd
Read on for the all the Carnival carousal and Mardi Gras merrymaking across the South leading up to Fat Tuesday. Find non-Mardi Gras events happening throughout February starting on page 24.
acts like animals for this Shreveport favorite. Starts at the Scottish Rite Temple at 11 am. barkusandmeoux.com.
March 1
Krewe of Gemini: Shreveport and Bossier City's first parading Krewe of modern times, this event is one of distinctly royal revelry. In downtown Shreveport at 3 pm. kreweofgemini.com.
March 2
Krewe of Highland: Lunch will be supplied at this eclectic Shreveport parade in the form of grilled hot dogs and packaged ramen noodles hurled off of floats. Rolls at 1 pm through the Highland neighborhood. kreweofhighland.org.
NEW ORLEANS
February 14
Krewe Bohème: Presided over by the intoxicating Green Absinthe Fairy, Bohème will march through the Marigny and French Quarter. 7 pm. kreweboheme.com.
February 15
Krewe du Vieux : This is New Orleans’s only Mardi Gras parade featuring traditional mule-drawn floats, each with its own satirical theme. 6:30 pm. kreweduvieux.org.
February 21
Krewe of Cork : New Orleans’s wine krewe will be sippin’ and steppin’ through the French Quarter. 3 pm. kreweofcork.com.
Krewe of Oshun: This krewe includes marching Baby Dolls, a band contest, peacocks, and the goddess of love—all making their way down St. Charles. 5:30 pm. mardigrasneworleans.com.
Krewe of Cleopatra : The first all-female organization on the Uptown route will roll again. 6 pm. kreweofcleopatra.org.
February 22
Krewe of Choctaw : Starting their more than eighty-year history on mail wagons as floats, this krewe will march down St. Charles. 10:30 am. kreweofchoctaw.com
Krewe of Pontchartrain: Famous for its history of celebrity Grand Marshals, this St. Charles Avenue parade is one of New Orleans’s longest-standing. 11:30 am. kofp.com.
Knights of Nemesis: The krewe of St. Bernard Parish will make its annual, unforgettable appearance coming down Judge Perez Drive. 1 pm. knightsofnemesis.org.
Krewe of Freret: This krewe has a focus of preserving New Orleans Mardi Gras tradition, and will march down St. Charles. 3:30 pm. kreweoffreret.org.
WINTER ART THAW
Open House and Reception
Thursday, February 20th
5 - 7 pm
Meet Our Artists
Free & Open to the Public Refreshments Served
at the Pond 16x20 Oil by Kathy Daigle
on the Bank 24x18 Oil by Katie McGarry
680 Jefferson Highway, BR, LA 70806 225-924-6437 Elizabethangallery.com
Eunice's Cajun Mardi Gras Festival gets underway as Russell “Potic” Rider, president of the Basile Mardi Gras Association, leads the costumed crowd at the end of their Mardi Gras song. February 18, 2023, the Saturday before Mardi Gras. Photo by David Simpson.
Hudson Oak 30x30 Oil by Dana Mosby
Evening
Shadows
CARNIVAL CALENDAR
Magical Krewe of Mad Hatters: This recently-founded Metairie krewe aimed at capturing the imagination brings Alice in Wonderland to life with colorful lights, costumes, and dance troops on Veteran’s Boulevard. 5 pm. madhattersparade.com.
Knights of Sparta : This all-male krewe has been around since the fifties. 5:30 pm. knightsofsparta.com.
Krewe of Pygmalion: This parade founded by Carnival veterans in 1999 rolls down the St. Charles route, floats only, at 6:15 pm. kreweofpygmalion.org.
February 23
The Mystic Krewe of Femme Fatale: The first krewe founded by African American women for African American women, their signature throw is a designer lady's compact, symbolizing constant inward and outward reflection. 11 am down St. Charles. mkfemmefatale.org.
Krewe of Carrollton: Carrollton is the fourth-oldest parading krewe of the New Orleans Carnival season. Watch out! They are known for throwing shrimp boots. Follows Femme Fatale at 12:30 pm down St. Charles. kreweofcarrollton.org.
Krewe of King Arthur and Merlin: One of the largest New Orleans krewes, Arthur and Merlin’s signature throw is the King Arthur Grail—hand-made goblets that are bestowed upon the most esteemed parade-goers. Follows Carrollton at 1 pm. kreweofkingarthur.com.
Mystic Krewe of Barkus: This one has gone to the dogs—see them all, including the four-legged royalty. In the French Quarter, starting at 2 pm. kreweofbarkus.org.
Krewe of Atlas: This Metairie Krewe was founded on the principle of equality for all. 4 pm down Veterans. kreweofatlas.org.
February 26
Krewe of Druids: This secret society is known for its wit and tendency to ruffle feathers. One year it featured a float saying: “Seriously...The Parade Behind us is not Worth the Wait.” 6:15 pm down St. Charles. kreweofthedruids.org.
Krewe of ALLA : ALLA has been marching in Uptown since the Great Depression. Step out to catch one of their signature genie lamp throws. 7 pm. kreweofalla.net.
February 27
Knights of Babylon: Traditional to the max, this Uptown krewe designs their floats exactly as they were drawn up over eighty years ago. The king’s identity is never revealed to the public. 5:30 pm. knightsofbabylon.org.
Knights of Chaos: Participating in the grand tradition of Carnival Satire, the Knights of Chaos light the night with flambeaux. Follows Babylon on the Uptown Route at 6 pm. mardigrasneworleans.com.
Krewe of Muses: Let's get some shoes— one of the most coveted throws of the season comes from this incredibly popular all-female parade. Follows Chaos Uptown around 6:30 pm. kreweofmuses.org.
February 28
Krewe of Bosom Buddies: This French Quarter walking parade celebrates women of all walks of life, and throws out handdecorated bras along the way. 11:30 am. bosombuddiesnola.org.
Krewe of Hermes: Every year, the Hermes captain leads the Uptown procession in full regalia on a white horse, followed by neon floats and 700 male riders. 5:30 pm. kreweofhermes.com.
Krewe d'Etat: Led by a dictator instead of a king, this secret society gets a kick out of throwing blinking skulls at its audience. Pick up a copy of the D'Etat
Gazette, a bulletin with pictures and descriptions of the floats. 6:30 pm down St. Charles. mardigrasneworleans.com.
Krewe of Morpheus: Looking through the chaos and tomfoolery for an "old school" parade down St. Charles? This one's for you. 7 pm. kreweofmorpheus.com.
March 1
Krewe of NOMTOC: The Krewe of New Orleans Most Talked of Club was founded in 1969 by the Jugs Social Club. The all Black krewe tosses out ceramic medallion beads, jug banks, and signature Jug Man dolls. Starts in the Westbank at 10:45 am. nomtoc.com.
Krewe of Iris: One of the oldest and largest female Carnival organizations for women, Iris continue to follow tradition with white gloves and masks. Its 3,600 members pass through the streets throwing decorated sunglasses and king cake babies, as well as a bunch of Iristhemed items. 11 am down St. Charles. kreweofiris.org.
Krewe of Tucks: This one got its start at a pub, and has developed a fond reputation for its potty humor, including toilet paper throws draping St. Charles's live oaks. Watch out for the King's throne (a giant toilet). Noon. kreweoftucks.com.
Krewe of Endymion: If you’re heading to watch this New Orleans “Super-Krewe,”
be sure to get out to your viewing spot on Canal early. The Krewe hosts Samedi Gras, a block party that draws 30,000+ people to kick off the parade. 4 pm. endymion.org.
Krewe of Isis: As Jefferson Parish’s largest all-female krewe, the Metairie Egyptianthemed parade features marching bands, dance teams, and spectacularly-attired maids. Starts at the Esplanade Mall at 6 pm. kreweofisis.org.
March 2
Krewe of Okeanos: Back in the '50s, Okeanos started as a small neighborhood parade, and evolved into the over 250-rider krewe it is today, traveling on the traditional Uptown/Downtown route. 11 am. kreweofokeanos.org.
Krewe of Mid-City : This one is famed for its foil-covered floats and childrenoriented themes. 11:45 am along the St. Charles Route. kreweofmid-city.com.
Krewe of Thoth: This parade's route is uniquely designed to reach extended healthcare facilities so that individuals unable to attend other parades can participate in the holiday as well. Noon on the Uptown route. thothkrewe.com.
Krewe of Bacchus: This parade is known for staging celebrities like Bob Hope, Dick Clark, Will Ferrell, and Drew Brees as its namesake, Bacchus. The parade ends inside the Convention Center for a black-
tie Rendezvous party of over 9,000 guests. 5:15 pm. kreweofbacchus.org.
Krewe of Athena : Jefferson Parish's newest all-female krewe, founded on Sisterhood, Service, Fellowship, and Fun, will be tossing out hand-decorated fedoras down Veteran's Memorial Boulevard. 5:30 pm. kreweofathena.org.
March 3
Krewe of Proteus: Founded in 1882, this St. Charles parade is the second-oldest krewe in Carnival history, and still uses the original chassis for their floats. Once known as the most miserly throw-ers, they now joust 60-inch red-and-white pearl bead necklaces, plastic tridents, and polystone medallions. 5:15 pm. kreweofproteus.com.
Krewe of Orpheus: This parade was established as a superkrewe immediately after its debut, which rolled out 700 riders. One of their most famous floats is the Dolly Trolley, the horse-drawn bus used in the opening of Hello, Dolly! with Barbara Streisand. Rolls on the Uptown Route at 6 pm. kreweoforpheus.com.
Krewe of Centurions: The familyfriendly Centurions parade is comprised of over 350 men, and rolls on the Metairie route. 6 pm. kreweofcenturions.com.
March 4
Krewe of Zulu: A parading krewe since 1909, Zulu was the first and for many
years the only krewe representing New Orleans’s Black community. Its costumes, float designs, and history distinguish it from other Mardi Gras parades. 8 am on St. Charles. kreweofzulu.com.
Krewe of Rex : Elaborately decorated, hand-painted floats, masked riders in historic costumes, and a rich and colorful history make Rex one of the cultural centerpieces of Mardi Gras. The identities of Rex’s king and queen remains secret until Lundi Gras. 10:30 am down St. Charles. rexorganization.com.
ELKS, Krewe of Orleanians: This truck parade features over fifty individually designed truck floats and comprises of over 4,500 riders. Follows Rex at 10:30 am. neworleans.com.
Krewe of Crescent City : Each truck in the Uptown Crescent City Truck Parade represents a different Carnival organization. This parade signals the official "beginning of the end" of Carnival. Follows ELKS Orleanians at 11 am. crescentcitytruckparade.com.
Krewe of Argus: One of Jefferson Parish’s largest and most family friendly parades, Argus draws over a million revelers to the Veterans Memorial Parade Route in Metairie. 11 am. kreweofargus.com.
ELKS, Krewe of Jeffersonians: Featuring more than ninety trucks and 4,000 riders, this krewe shares the
Elk mascot with its New Orleans sister krewe. 11 am on the Veterans Memorial Boulevard route. neworleans.com.
ACADIANA
February 7–8
La Rivière Mardi Gras: Hosted at the Riverview RV Resort in Krotz Springs, this two-day Mardi Gras festival begins on Friday evening at 6 pm with the children's wagon parade and chicken run, plus a jam session. Saturday brings the family-friendly adult parade, which launches from the resort at 9 am, heads along the Atchafalaya River, with chicken stops (men only) along the way until a boudin intermission at Nall Park, and ends with a bowl of gumbo and live music back at Riverview for the women's chicken run. $10 to watch, $20 to participate in the parade; $20 to participate in the chicken run, cash only. 9 am. (337) 351-4260.
February 8
Lebeau Mardi Gras Festival: This St. Landry celebration starts out with an old-school courir with all the trappings, including a greased pig chase and zydeco tunes. Then the Lebeau Mardi Gras Parade steps out on horseback, ATVs, automobiles, wagons, and traditional floats. Festivities start at 8 am, parade departs at 1 pm and it all ends at a music
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fest at the Immaculate Conception Church. cajuntravel.com.
February 15
Rayne Mardi Gras Parade & Gumbo Cook-Off : At 2 pm, the parade—with walkers, trailer-hitchers, drivers, and floaters—will roll from a starting point at American Legion Drive, ending at the Frog Festival Pavilion, where a full-on gumbo cook-off will be waiting. $5 for gumbo tasting. raynechamber.net.
Carencro Mardi Gras Parade: The Carencro Mardi Gras Association is run entirely by volunteers who love Mardi Gras, and it has been bringing this grand tableau to the backroads of Carencro for over forty years now. Family friendly fun with dance troupes and mega floats, starting at Carencro High School and ending at the Community Center. Rolls at 10 am. carencroparade.com.
February 16
Sunset Kids Wagon Parade & Family Fun Day : Put on by Sunset's "Krewe of the Hesperides," this kids parade begins and ends at the Sunset Community Center, featuring decorated wagons and children decked out for theme of "Over
the Rainbow" at 10 am. Live music and food behind the Community Center from 2 pm–4 pm. sunsetmardigras.com.
February 21
Krewe de Canailles: Celebrating inclusivity, creativity, and sustainability, this walking parade down Jefferson Street in Lafayette does allow for floats—if you drag them yourself. Tossing out eco-friendly throws and joining together groups of sub-krewes, these carnival crusaders have found a way to party their way to a better Lafayette. 7 pm. krewedecanailles.com.
February 21–22
Lakeview Park & Beach Children's Mardi Gras: Immerse your tots in the traditional Mardi Gras experience at Lakeview in Eunice, where chickens will be set loose for chasing, and live music will usher in a two step. lvpark.com.
February 22
Courir de Mardi Gras de L’anse: The men of Mermentau Cove are suiting up traditional courir-style and rambling around its backroads. Come for the run, stay for the fais-do-do and gumbo afterwards at a home on Lafosse Road,
which the public is invited to enjoy. Courir begins at 8 am, Fais Do Do at 4 pm. acadiatourism.org.
Krewe Des Chiens: The least we can do for our dogs is to parade them, in all their grandeur, through the streets of Lafayette. Noon on West Vemilion Street. krewedeschiens.org.
Lake Arthur Mardi Gras Run/Parade: Bringing the extravagance of New Orleans Carnival right up beside the old Acadiana traditions, Lake Arthur's celebration kicks off with a courir coming from Lake Arthur Park at 9 am, with several chicken run stops along the way. Back at Arthur Avenue, at 3 pm the parade—floats and all—will embark on its own journey. jeffdavis.org.
Krewe of Carnivale en Rio: Known for its vibrant floats, dazzling lights, and the jubilant accompaniment of maracas, the Parada—which honors Brazil’s first emperor Dom Pedro I and his granddaughter Dona Isabel—has become Lafayette’s premier Mardi Gras event. 6:30 pm down Johnston and Vermilion. riolafayette.com.
Scott Mardi Gras Parade: This small town parade is one of Acadiana’s largest, and a favorite for families. Floats and costumed riders will vie en fete for the title “Most Original Float.” Rolls at 11 am. scottsba.org/mardi-gras.
February 23
Courir de Mardi Gras at Vermilionville: Vermilionville and the Basile Mardi Gras Association are hosting a traditional country Cajun Mardi Gras run in the historic village. Kick off is at 10 am with a screening of Pat Mire's Dance for a Chicken, followed by a demonstration on the traditional "Chanson de Mardi Gras" by Kevin Rees. The Basile Association will lead the traditional run through the village, ending with a chicken chase for the children. Afterwards, enjoy lunch at the onsite restaurant, sample king cakes, and head to the dancehall for a fais do do. 10 am–4 pm. $10; $8 for seniors; $6 for students; and children younger than five are free. bayouvermiliondistrict.org.
Krewe of Ezana Jeanerette Mardi Gras Parade: This Jeanerette parade features marching bands, dance groups, Mardi Gras royalty, and lots of throws. Starts on Main St. at 1 pm and ends at 3 pm at the King Joseph Recreation Park Grounds. iberiatravel.com.
February 28
Krewe of Allons Kick-Off Parade: Getting things started for the slate of events that makes up the Greater Southwest Louisiana Mardi Gras Association's celebration of Mardi Gras in Lafayette, this parade travels from the corner of Simcoe, Surry, and Jefferson through the Downtown area over to
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Johnston, turning on to College to land at Cajun Field. 6:30 pm. gomardigras.com.
February 28–March 4
Le Festival de Mardi Gras à Lafayette: Head to Cajun Field in Lafayette for carnival rides, live music, and delicious food. Times vary. gomardigras.com.
Eunice Cajun Mardi Gras Festival: In the days leading up to Eunice's historic courir on Mardi Gras Day, the city convenes downtown for five days of fais do-doing. Some of the acts to look forward to include Wayne Toups, Cameron Fontenot & The Rhythm Aces, and others. Don't miss out on events like the accordion & fiddle contest, Cajun dance lessons, a children's courir, and a pet parade. Expect to watch the end of Eunice's courir come through town at 3 pm Tuesday afternoon, then dance until the day is done. eunicemardigras.com.
March 1
Cankton Courir de Mardi Gras: Join in on a chicken run, trail ride, gumbo cookoff, live music, and more at Landon Pitre Memorial Park. Live music from 2:30 pm–5:30 pm, with a live DJ starting at 9 am. Costumes encouraged. 7 am–6 pm.
$5 to enter; $60 per gumbo team; $20 to participate in the chicken run/trail ride. All proceeds benefit the Special Olympics of Louisiana. cajuntravel.com.
Church Point Children's Mardi Gras Run: A miniature version of one of Acadiana's most famous traditional Mardi Gras celebrations, open to children ages fourteen and younger. Begins at 10 am, and marches down Main Street at 1 pm. $10 to participate; no horses. saddletrampridersclub.org.
Youngsville Mardi Gras Parade: Youngsville’s favorite family-friendly Mardi Gras celebration returns, with its floats, marching groups, and tomfoolery. 11 am. Starts and ends at the Youngsville Sports Complex. youngsville.us.
Lafayette Children's Parade: The city's tiniest krewes will head down Johnston, in all their majesty, at 12:30 pm. gomardigras.com.
Lafayette's Krewe of Bonaparte: A hallmark of Lafayette Mardi Gras since 1972, this Krewe infuses excitement and youth into the city's annual traditions. See them roll down the Greater Southwest Louisiana Mardi Gras route, from
Jefferson to Johnston, to the CajunDome, starting at 6:30 pm. gomardigras.com.
March 2
Eunice Parade of Paws: Come see the pups parade through Downtown Eunice. 2 pm. eunicemardigras.com.
Courir de Mardi Gras Church Point: Once named “The Best Traditional Mardi Gras,” this run features costumed horseback riders, wagons, buggies, floats, and live music along with all your characteristic chicken chasing and greased pig capturing. 7 am–2 pm. $50 to participate, must be in costume. Main Street parade begins at 1 pm. churchpointmardigras.com.
Eunice Lil' Mardi Gras: Watch the lil costumed runners race after the courir's mascot—fueled by the promise of a chicken-shaped trophy. The day begins at 9 am with the traditional run at the Eunice Recreation Complex, followed by the official chicken chasing competition at 1:15 pm and the children's parade through downtown Eunice at 3 pm. Ages 1–14. $10 per child; $10 per vehicle to follow along the route. cajuntravel.com.
Grand Marais Mardi Gras Parade: Admire costumes from the artistic to the repulsive—all elaborate, plus floats and dance troops at this family-friendly Jeanerette parade, which begins at Grand Marais Park at 2 pm. iberiatravel.com.
March 3
Lundi Gras at Lakeview : Lakeview Park & Beach in Eunice knows how to throw a party, and their free Lundi Gras pig roast is no different. Get your fill, then stick around all day for live music then the traditional barn dance in the evening. 8 am–6 pm. lvpark.com.
Lafayette's Monday Night Parade: In Lafayette, Lundi Gras is for the queens— Evangeline LXXXII and LXXXIII will reign over the city's regal krewes, rolling down the Southwest Louisiana Mardi Gras route. 6 pm. gomardigras.com.
March 4
Courir de Mardi Gras de Grand Mamou: One of the most raucous and famous Cajun chicken runs on the prairies. Starts at 6:30 am, and travels throughout the country roads collecting goods for that end-of-the-day gumbo. Catch the parade at the end of the day in downtown Mamou around 3 pm (watch where you step, horses have been known to enter the bars). evangelineparishtourism.org.
Faquetaigue Courir de Mardi Gras: This courir celebrated annually on the outskirts of Eunice holds values of tradition, as well as inclusivity, at its heart. Designed to be appropriate for all ages, to be family friendly, and to emphasize culture—the run takes place
on horseback, on foot, and via trailer, journeying throughout the Faquetaigue community. Dancing, begging, and singing are aplenty, all leading up to a traditional gumbo and concert at the day's end. 8 am; full costumes with hats & masks required. $25. faquetaigue.com.
Le Vieux Mardi Gras de Cajuns de Eunice: Eunice’s Courir de Mardi Gras features riders on horseback in masks, conspiring in chicken-chasing, revelry, general silliness, and an effort to make a community-wide gumbo. Costumeclad trailers follow behind—and all join together in downtown Eunice for a final fais do do at 3 pm. The day starts at 8 am at the Northwest Community Center. eunicemardigras.com.
Tee Mamou-Iota Mardi Gras Folklife Festival : Featuring all your favorite clung-to traditions, the handmade costumes and masks, the masterfully medieval capuchins, and the unbridled chaos of it all—the Folklife Festival also celebrates with live music, folk crafts, and local food booths on the prairie. 9 am–4 pm. acadiatourism.org.
Carnival D’Acadie: Run into the heart of the Cajun Prairie to celebrate Fat Tuesday, Rice City Style. Crowley’s Fat Tuesday festival includes carnival rides, live music, and a grand parade at 2 pm. Music starts at 10 am. acadiatourism.org.
King Gabriel's Parade: Lafayette's grandest of parades, honoring the King of Carnival and the hundreds of volunteers who make the vibrant showcase down Johnston possible. Revelers will vie for beads, trinkets, and other memorabilia. Rolls at 10 am. gomardigras.com.
Opelousas Mardi Gras Parade: Floats, beads, and reigning royalty make up this Opelousas parade, which marches through downtown Opelousas starting at Le Vieux Village Heritage Park. Begins at 11 am. Get there early to see the Mystic Krewe of Fur Babies' pre-parade, and plan to stay for a performance by Keith Frank & the Zoileau Zydeco Band at Zyde Gras on the Square. cajuntravel.com.
Lafayette Mardi Gras Festival Parade: Emitting the spirit fueled by the carnival atmosphere at Cajun Field, this parade will run down Johnston at 1 pm. gomardigras.com.
Krewe Chic-a-la-Pie Parade: Even the name of the parade sounds fun; old fashioned and put on by passionate Mardi Gras apologists, this family-style parade ignites the seasonal spirit in downtown Kaplan. 2 pm. vermilion.org.
Independent Parade: Anyone can participate in this parade, which closes out Mardi Gras day in Lafayette. Take part, or enjoy the show of "independent" floats rolling down Johnston, starting at 2:30 pm. gomardigras.com.
Papa Red Dog Mardi Gras Parade: The Loreauville Legend Papa Red keeps tradition alive at this parade. Enjoy throws, live music, and more. 2 pm. (337) 967-4554.
CAPITAL REGION
January 25
Feliciana Family & Friends Parade: Come watch local and area bands, marching groups, and riders' clubs participate in this Feliciana favorite, themed this year "Mardi Gras in the Country"—viewable from the Clinton Courthouse Square. Noon. Details at the parade Facebook Page.
February 15
Krewe of Oshun Parade and Festival: Carnival games, eating contests, and other free family fun at BREC's Scotlandville Parkway Conservation Park for this festival and parade, which features bands, dance teams, schools, businesses, and nonprofits in addition to entertainers and krewe members’ floats. Noon. visitbatonrouge.com.
Krewe of Denham Springs: The Antique Village comes to life with people throwing trinkets at each other at noon from Denham Springs High School, and ends at Veteran’s Boulevard. 3 pm. Free. livingstontourism.com.
February 16
Mystic Krewe of Mutts: Bark your calendars for the CAAWs Mystic Krewe of Mutts parade, rolling in downtown Baton Rouge. This year's theme is "Game of Bones: House of the Waggin'." Bark in the Park events begin at 10 am, and the parade starts at 2 pm. caaws.org
February 21
Krewe of Artemis: The first all-female krewe in Baton Rouge begins and ends at the corner of St. Philip Street and Government Street. Revelers will be treated to themed throws, including the Krewe of Artemis signature High-Heeled Shoe. 7 pm. kreweofartemis.net.
February 22
Walker's Kroux of Barkus: Glitter up the dogs and head to Sidney Hutchinson Park for Walker's Kroux of Barkus, starting at 10 am. Find the event on Facebook for more information.
Krewe of Diversion: The annual Livingston boat parade benefiting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital floats starting at noon at Manny's. Free. For more information, call (225) 939-2135.
Addis Fireman's Mardi Gras Parade: In the little town of Addis, the Volunteer Fire Department will sponsor its familyfriendly line of celebration for all. 1 pm. Visit the Addis Fireman's Mardi Gras Parade for details.
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Krewe of Tickfaw River: Mardi Gras comes to the Tickfaw River, with boats decked out in ways unimaginable. 1 pm. livingstontourism.com.
Krewe de Canines Dog Parade and Costume Contest: Head to St. Francisville’s Parker Park for the inaugural parade to benefit the West Feliciana Animal Humane Society. This canine parade will be themed “Rolling on the River.” 2 pm. krewedecanines.com.
Krewe Mystique de la Capitale: The city’s oldest parading Mardi Gras krewe continues its mission to uphold Carnival season in the Capital City. Family oriented and fun for all ages, it starts at the River Center and winds around downtown. 2 pm. krewemystique.com.
Krewe of Ascension Mambo Parade: Prepare to be awed as the creative masterpieces that are Ascension Parish's Mardi Gras floats pass down Irma Boulevard to Burnside Avenue, with this year's theme "Parading Through the Decades." 2 pm. visitlasweetspot.com.
Krewe of Orion: A Carnival-themed tractor pull through downtown Baton Rouge, this year's parade begins and ends at the River Center, where the afterparty masquerade will be held. 6:30 pm. kreweoforion.com.
February 23
Mid City Gras: The one-afternoon revel goes down North Blvd., inviting locals to “get nuts” with the theme "Squirrels on Film," featuring Mid City artists, musicians, and more in a wildly unpretentious neighborhood strut. 1 pm. midcitygras.org.
February 28
Krewe of Southdowns: Catch this family-friendly flambeaux-inspired nighttime parade glittering and glaring along its usual route from Glasgow Middle School through the Southdowns neighborhood. This year's theme is "safari." 7 pm. southdowns.org.
March 1
Baton Rouge Mardi Gras Festival: An incredible line-up from Henry Turner Jr.'s Listening Room in North Boulevard Town Square is the highlight of this family-friendly Mardi Gras celebration. Festival favorites include John “The Boss Man” Hall, the Phoenix Rouge Belly Dance Troupe, and Big Queen Tonya Ball Sylvas. Packages that come with meal tickets range from $50–$100. The Festival is free to the public, and will be held from 10 am–7 pm. visitbatonrouge.com.
Spanish Town Parade: Spanish Town’s annual parade of miscreants rolls from
Spanish Town Road and Fifth Street, to Lafayette Street and Main. The krewes dole out dozens of infamously irreverent floats, with marching bands, dance troupes, and waves of pink throws. Come early. This year’s theme is "In Smiley Town Smiley Says...” Noon. mardigrasspanishtown.com.
Krewe of Chemin Neuf : This inaugural night parade, complete with lighted floats and local performances, will roll through New Roads with a family-friendly atmosphere. Gymnastics royalty "D-D" Breaux is the first grand marshal. 6 pm. kreweofcheminneuf.com.
March 2
Krewe of Good Friends of the Oaks Parade: Residents of the Port Allen community “The Oaks” established this krewe in 1985, and it has been rolling right along ever since. 1 pm. westbatonrouge.net.
Krewe of Comogo Night Parade: See Plaquemine like you never have before when Comogo rolls, sure to dazzle. 7 pm down Belleview Drive. kreweofcomogo.com.
Krewe of Livonia Parade: Catch a doubloon, kiss a queen, follow the marching bands for miles—this traditional parade is fun for all ages. Time TBA. livoniala.net.
March 3
Krewe of Shenandoah Parade: This second annual Baton Rouge parade rolls beginning at 6:30 pm near Woodlawn Middle School, with the golf-centric and Star Wars-adjacent theme "May the Course Be With You". kreweofshenandoah.com.
March 4
Community Center of Pointe Coupee Parade: The population of New Roads multiplies tenfold as parade-goers searching for a more laid-back time flock to the “Little Carnival Capital”. Rolls at 11 am through downtown New Roads. Visit the New Roads Mardi Gras Facebook page.
New Roads Lion Club Parade: This bead-heavy annual parade follows right behind the Community Center of Pointe Coupee Parade. 2 pm. Visit the New Roads Mardi Gras Facebook page.
THE NORTHSHORE
February 14
Mystic Krewe of Titans: For its fifteenth year, the Mystic Krewe of Titans will roll with an appropriately lovey-dovey theme, "Be My Valentine." Parade begins
at Spartan Drive and Highway 11 at 6:30 pm. visitthenorthshore.com.
Krewe of Poseidon: Themed “What a Wonderful World,” this year’s parade will feature around over 700 riders and twenty-five floats traveling down Pontchartrain Drive in Slidell. 6 pm. poseidonslidell.com.
February 16
Krewe of Antheia : Celebrating the goddess of flowers, swamps, bayous, and friendship, the allfemale Krewe of Antheia will roll through Slidell for a third year. 1 pm. louisiananorthshore.com.
February 21
Krewe of Omega : See the regal King Jeremy Robinson and Queen Keysha Robinson when they roll through the streets of downtown Hammond as monarchs of the Omega parade. 6:30 pm. kreweofomega.org.
Krewe of Eve: It began with six women, and now has close to five hundred members (who wear elaborately decorated sweatshirts). With beautifully decorated Blaine Kern floats, this parade begins at the intersection of Ashbury Drive and Highway 190 in Mandeville. 7 pm. kreweofeve.com.
February 22
Krewe de Paws of Olde Towne: Join the fun for a delightful dog-friendly parade through Olde Towne Slidell at 10 am. This lively parade (themed "BONE Voyage! Let's Go For a Ride!") not only celebrates furry friends but also raises awareness for pet rescue and adoption, with proceeds donated to local animal welfare organizations.
Krewe of Tchefuncte: Cruising down Madisonville's Tchefuncte River, this boat parade celebrates maritime life on the historic river. 1 pm. kreweoftchefuncte.org.
Krewe of Olympia : The oldest parade in St. Tammany, King Zeus’s identity is kept secret until the parade, which starts on Columbia Street. 6 pm. kreweofolympia.net.
Krewe of Mona Lisa and MoonPie Parade: Celebrate Slidell's original marching club as they shimmy and dance through Olde Towne Slidell. The parade invites everyone to join the festivities. With the route starting and ending at KY's in Olde Towne Slidell, this walking parade is for families, (and MoonPies). 7 pm. visitthenorthshore.com.
February 23
Krewe of Push Mow : A group of artists in Abita Springs decided it would be a hoot if they decorated lawn mowers for a parade (spoiler alert: it is). 2 pm starting at Abita Springs Recreation District 11. mardigrasneworleans.com.
Krewe of Dionysus: Named for the Greek god of wine and "inspired madness," Slidell's first all-male krewe will set out at 1 pm at the intersection of Spartan Drive and Highway 11. kreweofdionysus.com.
February 28
Krewe of Selene: Slidell's only allfemale krewe tosses out one-of-a-kind hand-decorated purses. Rolls at 6:30 pm starting at Spartan Drive and Highway 11. kreweofselene.net.
March 1
Krewe of Bush: The Northshore community of Bush hosts its own family-friendly parade featuring trucks, boats, horses, and more. 9 am. mardigrasneworleans.com.
March 3
CMST Kids Krewe Parade: Celebrate Carnival with the Children's Museum of St. Tammany Kids Krewe Parade on Lundi Gras. Secure your spot by registering your wagon and join the festive procession. 11 am. cmstkids.org.
March 4
Krewe of Kidz Wagon Parade : For its fourth year, more than 100 little walkers toting their wagons will roll through Old Towne at 10 am. The parade begins in the parking lot behind KY's Olde Towne Bicycle Shop Restaurant and ends at Brock Elementary. visitthenorthshore.com.
Covington Lions Club: Keep an eye out for The Ride of the Brotherhood on motorcycles, along with the Shriners in buggies and Saints Super Fans. The parade begins at North Jefferson Ave. and North Columbia St. at 10 am. visitthenorthshore.com.
Mystic Krewe of Covington: Founded in 1951, the Mystic Krewe of Covington will roll right after the Covington Lions Club parade. visitthenorthshore.com.
Krewe of Bogue Falaya Mardi Gras Parade: Celebrate on the Northshore with this vibrant parade rolling at 11 am, featuring 600+ members, eighteen traditional Mardi Gras floats, marching bands, walking groups, horses, costume contests with prizes, and family-friendly festivities. The theme is "Movies in Paradise." Afterward, the City of Covington hosts a lively party at the Covington Trailhead from 1 pm–4 pm. visitthenorthshore.com.
Krewe of Folsom: An eclectic parade invites all to join in on the fun with the citizens of Folsom. 2 pm. Begins at Railroad Avenue and ends at Highway 40. 2 pm. mardigrasneworleans.com.
March 9
Krewe of Mardi Paws: This dog parade in downtown Covington is a lot more
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bark than bite. This year's theme is "Game On." 2 pm. mardipaws.com.
March 15
Krewe du Pooch: Dogs for days out on the Mandeville Lakefront with the theme “Woofs of Art." Noon. krewedupooch.org.
DOWN THE BAYOU
February 15
Bayou King Cake Festival: This sugary Carnival celebration returns to Downtown Thibodaux, bringing together local bakeries to present a tasting tableaux of local king cakes— introduced by a children’s parade at 10 am. Enjoy live music and cast your vote for the best king cake. Funds benefit the Lafourche Education Foundation. $10. louisianakingcakefest.com
February 21
Krewe of Hercules Parade: A favorite along the traditional West Side Route in Houma, Hercules has been rolling for over forty years now. 6 pm. kreweofhercules.com.
February 22
Krewe of Versailles Parade: Lafourche Parish's first parade of the season rolls out of Larose. Noon. lacajunbayou.com.
Krewe of Aquarius Parade: This massive, all-women's Houma parade rolls from Southland mall and ends at Town Hall Shopping Center. 6 pm. explorehouma.com.
Krewe of Tee Caillou Parade: A favorite parade in the small town of Chauvin, where the throws are as good as the fishing. 11 am. explorehouma.com.
February 23
La Parade de L'enfent Children's Parade: Returning to the streets of Larose, this parade celebrates the future generation of Carnival Kings and Queens. 10 am. lacajunbayou.com.
Krewe of Shaka Parade: Noted for its remarkable contributions to the Thibodaux Community, this parade's King and Queen are annually presented with the Key to Thibodaux. Expect floats, local bands, and dance groups.12:30 pm in downtown Thibodaux. lacajunbayou. com.
Krewe of Hyacinthians Parade: The Ladies Carnival Club, Inc. is the largest carnival club in Terrebonne Parish. This year, the parade's theme is "Hyancinthians Goes to the Cinema." Signature throws are sunglasses and top hats. Kicking off at noon down Houma’s West Side Route. hyacinthians.org.
Krewe of Titans Parade: Following the Hyacinthians, the Titans will roll right through Houma. 1 pm. explorehouma.com.
Krewe des Couyons Parade: Celebrate the "Heroes of Mardi Gras" on the route of this parade in Golden Meadow. 1 pm. More details at the Krewe Des Couyons Mardi Gras Parade Facebook Group.
Krewe of Ambrosia Parade: A funky Thibodaux time, this parade has floated through town for forty years with themed floats shoveling out enviable beads. 2 pm. lacajunbayou.com.
February 26
Krewe of Bookworms Parade: Children in costumes will parade from the Warran J. Harrang Municipal Auditorium. 10 am. lafourche.org.
February 28
Krewe of Aphrodite Parade: Rolling from Southland mall, and landing at Town Hall Shopping Center, this Houma parade is a rousing way to spend an evening this Mardi Gras season. 6 pm. explorehouma.com.
Krewe of Adonis Parade: St. Mary Parish's first parade of the season is this historic night parade in downtown Morgan City, and has been drawing delight for almost forty-five years now. 7 pm. cajuncoast.com.
Krewe of Athena Parade: Golden Meadow ladies take the night again in this evening parade. 7 pm. lacajunbayou.com.
March 1
Krewe of Apollo Parade: Launching off of the streets of Lockport for almost sixty years, this men's and women's krewe is known for a raucous good time. Noon. lacajunbayou.com.
Baldwin Mardi Gras Parade: Baldwin's Main Street ignites the Saturday before Fat Tuesday, with floats and bead-tossers coloring the town, starting at the SagerBrown facility. 1 pm. cajuncoast.com.
Krewe of Dionysus Parade: Celebrating the communities of Berwick and Bayou Vista for almost forty years, this couples parade will take place on the Berwick route this year. 2 pm. cajuncoast.com.
Le Krewe du Bon Temps Parade: Larose's Krewe of Good Times brings plenty of them the weekend before the big day. 6:30 pm.
March 2
Krewe of Lul Parade : Rolling at noon, Luling's parade will begin on LA 52 at Angus Drive to LA 18 to Sugarhouse Road to Angus Drive. cajuncoast.com.
Krewe of Cleophas Parade: Thibodaux’s oldest parade will march again, featuring over fifty floats, bands, stilt walkers, dance teams, and more. 12:30 pm. lacajunbayou.com.
Krewe of Terreanians Parade: One of Houma's oldest parading carnival clubs, Terreanians rolls at 12:30 pm. explorehouma.com.
Krewe of Tradition Parade: This Houma walking krewe showcases local visual and performance artists, all in costume and tossing eco-friendly throws—including iconic hand-made pecan throws. 1 pm. kreweoftradition.org.
Krewe of Des Allemands Parade: Head to Des Allemands at 1 pm for bon temps, with local school bands, dance teams, fire trucks, boats, and creatively themed floats and royalty. cajuncoast.com.
Krewe of Chronos Parade: One of Thibodaux’s most celebrated parades of the season, Chronos believes in the slogan “Every Man a King,” and “Every Woman a Queen.” 2 pm. kreweofchronos.com.
Krewe of Galatea Parade: St. Mary Parish's first female Krewe has been rolling the streets of Morgan City since 1969. Begins on 2nd Street, through downtown, and lands at the Morgan City Auditorium. 2 pm. cajuncoast.com.
Krewe of Nike Parade: The children's Krewe of Nike will roll immediately after Galatea in Morgan City. 2:30 pm. cajuncoast.com.
Krewe of Hannibal Parade: Another reputable Morgan City Krewe to close out Friday's parades at 3 pm. cajuncoast.com.
Krewe of Nereids Parade: This Golden Meadow women's krewe is known for its fun themes, parade of floats, and throws. 6 pm. lacajunbayou.com.
March 3
Krewe of Amani Parade: Patterson's official Mardi Gras parade begins at Patterson High School, and lands at Place Norman Shopping Center. 2 pm. cajuncoast.com.
Krewe of Montegut Parade: This children's parade rolls at 2 pm in downtown Houma. explorehouma.com.
Krewe of Cleopatra Parade: The six hundred plus ladies of Cleopatra steal the night for the only Lundi Gras parade in Terrebonne Parish. 6 pm down Houma’s West Side Route. houmatravel.com.
Krewe of Hera Parade: This Morgan City procession is all excess and excitement. See them heading down Second Street at 7 pm. cajuncoast.com.
March 4
Krewe du Gheens Celebration and Parade: Kicking off the parade schedule on Mardi Gras day in Louisiana's Cajun
Bayou region, the Krewe of Gheens will roll at 11 am. lacajunbayou.com.
Krewe of Neptune Parade: As it's done since 2019, Neptune rolls in Golden Meadow on the big day. Noon. lacajunbayou.com.
Krewe of Ghana Parade: Fun floats and dancers will make their way through downtown Thibodaux on Mardi Gras Day. 1 pm. lacajunbayou.com.
Franklin Mardi Gras Parade: Bringing together all the krewes of the little Cajun town of Franklin, this Fat Tuesday parade can be traced back to 1934. It runs from Franklin Senior High School,
then turns back around onto Willow and Third. 1 pm. cajuncoast.com.
Siracusaville Parade: This small town parade lines up on Siracusa Road before ending at the Siracusaville Recreation Center. 1 pm. cajuncoast.com.
Krewe of Houmas Parade: This krewe was the first to ever parade down Houma’s West Side Route. On each float, family is honored with at least one father-son duo or pair of brothers. 1 pm. kreweofhoumas.wildapricot.org.
Krewe of Kajuns Parade: Parading behind the Krewe of Houmas, this canaille club is a must-see. 2 pm. explorehouma.com.
Krewe of Hephaestus Mardi Gras
Parade: The oldest krewe in St. Mary Parish dates back to 1914, rolling on Mardi Gras day from Sixth and Sycamore to the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium. 2 pm. cajuncoast.com.
NATCHEZ & VICKSBURG
February 23
Mardi Paws: For its third year, the Mardi Paws parade asks pet parents to "strut your stuff" with a costumed furry friend in tow, held on the Natchez Bluff. Treats, music, and prizes abound. 2 pm. Contact marie.hprescue@gmail.com.
CARNIVAL CALENDAR
February 28
Krewe of Phoenix : Natchez's Krewe of Phoenix goes pretty big. Lit-up floats, live bands, and more free fun will abound starting at 6:30 pm. kreweofphoenixnatchez.com.
March 1
Vicksburg Downtown Mardi Gras
Parade: Local churches, businesses, drill teams and more, strut through downtown Vicksburg during this community parade. 4 pm. vicksburgconventioncenter.com.
Carnaval de Mardi Gras Gumbo
Cook–Off : Spice up your Mardi Gras at the Southern Heritage Cultural Center Auditorium in Vicksburg from 5 pm–7 pm for tasty gumbo and live music. Admission is $10; $5 for kids, and includes a complimentary gumbo bowl. (601)-636-5010.
CENTRAL LOUISIANA
February 21
Pineville Light of Nights Parade: This parade shimmers through the streets of Pineville, beginning at the flagpole on the Riverfront and ending at the entrance to Louisiana College. 7 pm. pineville.net.
February 28
Classic Cars & College Cheerleaders
Parade: The name of this parade really says it all, and will cheer and roll through the streets of Downtown Alexandria. 4:30 pm. alexmardigras.net.
March 1
Children's Parade: Alexandria’s kiddo parade brings loads of festive cuteness to the streets of Downtown. 10 am. alexmardigras.net.
Alexandria Zoo Mardi Gras Party : Join the Alexandria Zoo's festivities in your best purple, green, and gold attire, indulge in king cake, and groove to the tunes of the LaCour Trio. 1 pm–4 pm. thealexandriazoo.com.
March 2
Krewes Parade: Alexandria’s Krewes Parade is one of CenLA’s biggest. Rolls at 2 pm from Texas Avenue to the Mall. alexmardigras.net.
SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA
February 28
Merchants Parade: Local business and civic leaders march the streets of downtown-midtown Lake Charles during this community-oriented parade. 7 pm. visitlakecharles.org.
March 1
Oberlin Children's Courir de Mardi Gras: Oberlin starts with their Children's
Courir at 8 am, with gumbo served at The Crawfish Shack and live music performances to follow beginning at noon. The Oberlin Mardi Gras Marches begin at 6:30 pm and 7:30 pm. allenparish.com.
Mystical Krewe of Barkus Parade: Furry and fabulous, costumed pets parade down Gill Street in Lake Charles for one of the most highly-attended parades of the season. 1 pm. visitlakecharles.org.
Krewe of Omega Parade: The only Southwest Louisiana Krewe to hold its own parade, Omega celebrates the African American community of the region. 2 pm. visitlakecharles.org.
DeRidder Parade: This first-annual parade departs from the corner of 1st Street and Hwy 171, and ends at Steamboat Bills. Rolls at 4 pm. louisianatravel.com.
March 2
Lake Charles Children's Parade: Fun on wheels for the little ones. 3:30 pm. visitlakecharles.org.
March 4
Oberlin Courir de Mardi Gras: Oberlin starts bright and early at 7 am, requiring traditional capuchin and courir costumes for their chicken run that stops for lunch at the Castor Creek Hunting Club before parading through Oberlin and ending with a community gumbo and live music at the Allen Parish Civic Center. allenparish.com.
Iowa Chicken Run: Even if you don't catch a chicken, you can have some gumbo after the chase. Parade departs from the Iowa Knights of Columbus Hall at 8 am. $15 for adults and $10 for kids 12 and under. visitlakecharles.org.
Second Line Stroll: Skipping the floats, area groups strut their Mardi Gras spirit down Ryan Street to the tunes of Mardi Gras music in this walking parade. 1 pm. visitlakecharles.org.
Jeeps on Parade: This Jeep-centric Lake Charles Mardi Gras Parade rolls down Ryan Street at 2 pm. visitlakecharles.org.
Motor Gras Parade: Right behind the Jeep-snobs, hot rods classics and motorcycles ride down Ryan. 3 pm. visitlakecharles.org.
Mardi Gras Southwest Krewe of Krewes Parade: The big one. Over a hundred floats from a variety of local krewes roll through downtown Lake Charles. 5 pm. visitlakecharles.org.
Other Events
Beginning February 1st - 13th
FEB 1st - FEB 26th
FAT TUESDAY
MARDI GRAS
THROWS: IT’S THE GETTIN’ NOT THE HAVIN’!
New Orleans, Louisiana
Learn about the storied history of Mardi Gras throws, from souvenir trinkets found on today's parade routes, to delectable treats handed out from ladies riding in carriages, from a Historic New Orleans Collection expert, who will also discuss the challenges the throws can pose for communities. Wednesdays and Saturdays from 12:30 pm–1 pm. Free. hnoc.org. 1
FEB 6th - FEB 7th
MUSICAL PERFORMANCES
SEAN GASKELL AT THE LIBRARY
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
For two days in February, Sean Gaskell will perform on the kora, a 21-stringed West African harp, while educating audiences with historical discussions about the instrument. The kora, traditionally an instrument played by oral historians known as griots, preserves through its songs hundreds of years of history dating back to the founding of the Mande Empire. Performance times are as follows:
• Thursday, February 6: Carver Branch Library at 10 am.
• Thursday, February 6: Main Library at Goodwood at 5 pm.
• Friday, February 7: Greenwell Springs Road Regional Branch Library at 9:30 am.
• Friday, February 7: Central Branch Library at 2 pm. ebrpl.org 1
FEB 8th
GOOD EATS
TASTE OF POINTE COUPEE
New Roads, Louisiana
Calling anyone who appreciates live music and good food to the Poydras Center for the second annual Taste of Pointe Coupee, a collaboration between Pointe Coupee’s Art Council and Historical Society. Don't miss this showcase of local chefs, who will sample their most delectable dishes. Performing will be Michael McDowell. Dinner at 5:30 pm; performance at 7 pm. Dinner tickets $60 and can be
secured at (225) 638-6575. Performance tickets may be purchased online at artscouncilpointecoupee.org. 1
FEB 8th
MUSIC
JOE HALL
MEMORIAL CONCERT &
CD RELEASE AT NUNU
Arnaudville, Louisiana
On November 21, 2024, Acadiana lost one of its greats—the legendary Creole and Zydeco accordionist and vocalist Joe Hall. Carrying forth the French Creole musical lineage that goes directly back to Bois Sec Ardoin and Nolton Simien, Hall and his band, the Cane Cutters, made vital contributions to the contemporary French music scene. In this special event at NUNU Arts & Culture Collective, Hall's memory will be celebrated with a film preview of Who's Playing in My Box, in which Hall was featured, as well as a live tribute concert and CD release of Pauvre 'Tit Johnny featuring songs by local musicians Cedric Watson, Paul Lavan, Mark Palms, and more. 6:30 pm. $10 includes a chicken dinner. nunuaccollective.homesteadcloud.com.1
FEB 8th
FANDOMS
MID CITY MICRO-CON
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Comic aficionados won't want to miss Mid City Micro-Con at the Main Library at Goodwood for a celebration of comics, creators, and their fans. The convention, which showcases regional creators, also features an Artist's Alley, Cosplay show and tell, and an author talk and book signing with Alex Jennings, creator of The Ballad of Perilous Graves, among other events. 10 am–4 pm. ebrpl.co/MCMC2025. 1
FEB 8th - MAY 10th
ENVIRONMENT
PRAIRIE STORIES: ART AND ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION ON LOUISIANA'S PRAIRIES
Lafayette, Louisiana
Prairie Stories: Art and Ecological Restoration on Louisiana's Prairies, on display in the Acadiana Center for the Arts Main Gallery, showcases restoration work striving to help Louisiana's coastal prairie. From Elemore Morgan Jr.’s landscape paintings, to collaborative installations like Rush Jagoe and Maaliyah Symoné’s exploration of
plants, the exhibition will explore the efforts of indigenous groups, artists, and scientists. Rewilding projects, such as by the Cajun Prairie Restoration Project, Atelier de la Nature, and the Acadiana Native Plant Project, will also be celebrated in the exhibition. acadianacenterforthearts.org. 1
At Louisiana Poet Laureate Alison Pelegrin's poetry workshop, writers will have the chance to respond to the same prompts she has used with incarcerated writers as part of her Lifelines Poetry Project. Head to the Main Library at Goodwood for the chance to jot down a few lines and share them with others, especially those impacted by the criminal justice system. 2:30 pm. To register, visit ebrpl.co/lifelines. 1
FEB 9th
BLOOMS
FOLSOM CAMELLIA FESTIVAL Folsom, Louisiana
Blooming for its fourth year, the Folsom Camellia Festival returns to Giddy Up Folsom, celebrating the delicate beauty of camellias with floral displays sure to wow. Explore the vendor market, listen to a featured speaker, or take a community garden tour. 10:30 am–2:30 pm. Free. gufolsommarket@gmail.com. 1
FEB 10th
CHITCHAT OLLI COFFEE WITH GENERAL RUSSEL HONORÉ Saint Francisville, Louisiana
Hosted by LSU OLLI in the Felicianas, this spring's coffee event at the First Baptist Church of St. Francisville will feature environmental champion General Russel Honoré. 10 am. Free. For ages 50 and older. ce.lsu.edu/olli. 1
FEB 11th
MUSIC
EAST MEETS WEST: MODERN CLASSICAL MUSIC FROM EUROPE & THE MIDDLE EAST
New Orleans, Louisiana
The Marigny Opera House presents Sam Shahin and Bill Daniel, who will perform a concert that transports the listening audience around the world. Shahin, a drummer/percussionist, and Daniel, a guitarist, explore sound
spanning heavy metal, classical, traditional folk, modern jazz, and more. Radio Bird String Quartet, pianist Oscar Rossignoli, and bassist Calvin MorinMartin will also perform arrangements of Beethoven, Fairuz, Shostakovich, and others. Performance at 7:30 pm. Suggested donation of $15–$20; $30 for VIP seats. marignyoperahouse.org. 1
FEB 12th - FEB 13th
WILTED ROSES
BAD ROMANCE: AN ANTIVALENTINE'S DAY CONCERT
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Nursing a broken heart, or just fed up in general with the fuss around the year's most romantic holiday? Head to the Irene W. Pennington Planetarium at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum for an anti-Valentine's Day concert, part of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra's new Concerts in the Cosmos series. With planetarium visuals and iconic breakup songs, as well as small bites and wine, attendees will find something new to celebrate this February. 7:30 pm both nights. $40–$60. brso.org. 1
FEB 13th
GREEN THUMBS
TIPS FOR GROWING TOMATOES AND OTHER SPRING VEGETABLES
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
That winter slumber is coming to an end—time to get into the garden. Join East Baton Rouge Master Gardeners for two presentations that will give you all the want-tos to get your spring veggie gardens started. The first presentation, by Master Gardener Tony Bourgeois, will focus on all things tomatoes: how many you should plant, which varieties are best. The second, by Master Gardener David Breaux, will help you make decisions on how to use the rest of your garden space. Which vegetables are best suited for our climate, for your soil? Both presentations will be held at the Central Library, starting at 5:30 pm. Free. ebrmg. wildapricot.org. 1
FEB 13th
CELEBRATIONS
HENRY TURNER JR.’S LISTENING ROOM
ANNIVERSARY
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Celebrate eleven years of Henry Turner Jr.’s Listening Room—so-called "the last blues live music juke joint" in the capital area—with performances by Henry Turner Jr. & the Listening Room AllStars and screenings of Music Dreams… An American Story. Audiences will also
Other Events
Beginning February 14th - 26th
catch the debut of a new film about the Room. 7 pm–midnight. $25 in advance, $30 at the door. (225) 802-9681. 1
FEB 14th
GAL PALS
MOVIES ON THE PLAZA: GALENTINE’S EDITION
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Forget Valentine's Day. This February 14 celebrate female friendships at the Main Library at Goodwood by watching '90s coming-of-age film Now and Then. Before the show, make friendship bracelets, get a manicure, or enjoy sweet snacks. Companion Animal Alliance will also be on site with cuddly pets looking for their forever homes. Activities kick off at 5 pm; movie starts at 7 pm. Free. ebrpl.com. 1
FEB 15th
HISTORY
ENSLAVED LIFE AT ROSEDOWN
Saint Francisville, Louisiana
In recognition of Black History Month, Rosedown Plantation Historic Site presents its annual Enslaved Life
program, featuring a guided tour of the plantation that focuses on the history of African enslavement in Louisiana and at Rosedown. Topics will include the plantation's layout—including its outbuildings, homesites, work areas, and fields. 11 am. lastateparks.com. 1
FEB 19th
FUNDRAISERS A NIGHT AT
THE
MUSEUM GALA
New Iberia, Louisiana
A Night at the Museum Gala, a fundraiser for Bayou Teche Museum, will whet the appetite of party-goers and history buffs alike. Guests will dine on local fare dished up by regional restaurants while live and silent auctions entice them to bid on unique items and experiences. The event will also feature an exhibition of George Rodrigue's "Hurricane Series" collection of artworks. Celebrating the museum's fifteenth anniversary, events will take place at the museum, in the Sliman Theater, and in the new multi-purpose Donald "Doc" Voorhies Wing." Proceeds help museum
Cook-Off for the Coast, held annually at Docville Farm, is hosted by Restore the Mississippi River Delta in partnership with Vanishing Paradise and the Meraux Foundation. The event benefits coastal restoration projects supported by local schools and organizations. Photo courtesy of Cook-Off for the Coast.
renovation and curation of exhibits. 6:30 pm. bayoutechemuseum.org. 1
FEB 19th FILM
HOW WE GOT OVER: RISING THROUGH PERSEVERANCE
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Dorothy Kendrick, senior producer at Louisiana Public Broadcasting (LPB), will discuss her documentary, How We Got Over, at the Main Library on
Goodwood. The film explores the history of African Americans in West Feliciana Parish. 6 pm. ebrpl.com. 1
FEB 20th
LECTURES
LOUISIANA’S DEADLIEST STORM: THE GREAT STORM OF 1893
New Iberia, Louisiana
Don't miss the second installment of the Shadows-on-the-Teche's Climate in Crisis
Lafayette Street in downtown Baton Rouge, with State Capitol in background, circa 1887. Andrew D. Lytle Collection, Special Collections, Hill Memorial Library, LSU.
series. In February, Dr. John P. Doucet will delve into the history of hurricanes and how they have shaped settlements across Louisiana. Head to Shadows-onthe-Teche to learn more about the 1893 hurricane at Chenière Caminada—the deadliest storm in Louisiana’s history. Reception at 5:30 pm, lecture at 6 pm. Free, but registration encouraged. shadowsontheteche.org. 1
FEB 21st
LIVE MUSIC
ALL THAT
Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
Let the good times roll at Bay St. Louis Little Theatre for a Mardi Gras music celebration by New Orleans brass band, ALL THAT, presented by Good Earth Records. 7 pm. $25 in advance, $30 at the door. bontempstix.com. 1
FEB 21st PERFORMANCES
ANNA MOSS WITH SPECIAL GUEST CALVIN ARSENIA
New Orleans, Louisiana
Head to the Marigny Opera House for a night with Anna Moss and her brand of soul inspired by Southern R&B, Americana, and porch jazz. She will be joined by Calvin Arsenia, a singer,
songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist known for his powerful lyrics. Doors open at 7 pm; performance at 7:30 pm. $30 suggested donation; $20 for seniors and students. marignyoperahouse.org. 1
FEB 21st
LIVE MUSIC
HISTORICAL HAPPY HOUR
FEATURING KASEY BALL
Port Allen, Louisiana
This Historical Happy Hour at the West Baton Rouge Museum features Kasey Ball, who will perform on saxophone, trumpet, and trombone, as well as sing Mardi Gras favorites. His acoustic trio backing band will join him. 6 pm–8 pm. Free. westbatonrougemuseum.org. 1
FEB 21st - FEB 22nd
FINE FEATHERED FRIENDS 20TH ANNUAL EAGLE EXPO
Morgan City, Louisiana
The Eagle Expo, hosted by Cajun Coast Tourism, is back for another year of gimlet-eyed education and observation, all set deep within the Atchafalaya Basin, which is home to the bald eagle and other rare species of flora and fauna. Those that wing it westward to the Morgan City area will have opportunities to join boat tours into surrounding waterways to view
eagles' nests, enjoy raptor demonstrations, and sit in on presentations by wildlife professionals on a wide variety of topics. cajuncoast.com. 1
FEB 22nd
GOOD EATS
CHEF JOHN FOLSE'S BOUCHERIE & BOURBON
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
The French word, “boucherie,” actually means butcher shop, but it is also the word for an incredible social event that in the past brought together communities, and today unites lovers of Cajun culture across the state and country. Join Chef John Folse for his annual Boucherie & Bourbon (formerly Fête des Bouchers), where he'll be joined by around 100 butchers and chefs from around the country to preserve this time-honored tradition. For Folse, the event is dedicated to keeping Cajun food heritage alive by focusing on the educational aspect of the boucherie and teaching others how to make delicacies such as hog’s head cheese, andouille, boudin, smoked sausage, cracklins, and other spoils of the event. This year, in celebration of Folse's Still'Water Bourbon and Still’Water Rum that are distilled on-site at White Oak, Jim Hunter will
present talks on the histories of the Whiskey Rebellion and Prohibition. 8 am–3 pm. $85; $15 for children younger than twelve at eventbrite.com. whiteoakestateandgardens.com. 1
FEB 26th
GOOD EATS
TASTER'S CHOICE
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Eat, dance to live music, eat, enjoy a beer from the cash bar, eat…In a part of the world that can't help but revel in its rich culinary heritage, come enjoy food prepared by nearly twenty-five amateur and professional chefs at this taste-budbusting event all to benefit the Eunice Community Health Center Clinic. In addition to great food, live music will be provided by Geno Delafose and French Rockin' Boogie. $40. 6 pm at the LSUE Mumphrey Center. cajuntravel.com. 1
For more events, visit countryroadsmag.com/ events-and-festivals.
VISIT ST. FRANCISVILLE
A Minute with the Mayor
On January 2, 2025, Andy D’Aquilla was sworn in as mayor of St. Francisville. Two weeks into the new year, we sat down with Mayor Andy to learn what he loves about the town where he was born and raised, and what he aims to accomplish during his four-year term.
CR: Why is public service important to you?
AD: My father [Billy D’Aquilla] served as mayor from 1984 until the end of 2020. Dad instilled in me and my siblings that giving back to the community is a responsibility and a must.
CR: What do you think St. Francisville has done right, that has made it a desirable place to live and visit?
AD: We haven’t grown too fast. We’ve taken our time accommodating growth in a sustainable way. Couple the parish’s good schools and great sports park, with a small-town atmosphere, minimal crime, and great residents who truly care for one another, and you have a community where visitors feel welcome, too. There’s a Norman Rockwell quality to life in St. Francisville, and that’s something we need to preserve.
CR: What are some upcoming projects you look forward to putting in place?
AD: We’re working on a Commerce Tourism District overlay with a goal to make the town center safer and more pedestrian-friendly. It’s a three-phase plan to restructure street parking and sidewalks, and to add more shade, to the area around Parker Park, the first part of Ferdinand, and in the other direction as far as the post office. We’ve got $3 million in state and federal funding for that project secured. In February we’ll be meeting to gather community input to make sure everyone’s on-board.
We’re also creating a nature trail and pedestrian walking path to connect the West Feliciana Hospital and Assisi Heights assisted living center, with the West Feliciana Library, Parker Park, and the St. Francisville Market grocery store. Parties collaborating on this include the hospital, Town of St. Francisville, St. Francisville Area Foundation, West Feliciana Parish, and several prominent local businesses.
CR: Former mayor Bobee Leake’s initiative to install and expand landscape beautification projects was well-received. Is that something you plan to continue?
AD: We do. I’ve met with the beautification committee. We plan to meet monthly and to keep the initiative going and growing.
CR: What is a truth that you want locals to understand about St. Francisville?
AD: That growth is inevitable, but that the goal during my administration is to keep that growth slow and controlled, and in keeping with preserving our small-town feel.
CR: How about visitors? What should they know?
AD: That once you cross over Thompson Creek and enter the parish, life slows down quite a bit. Of course we have famous historic sites and places to visit, shop, dine, and unwind. But there are also hidden secrets. I would point to outdoor activities, from hunting, to hiking and biking. Tunica Falls is a hidden gem for hikers. The Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge features great hiking trails, the largest bald cypress tree in the country, and permits deer, duck and small game hunting. Make sure to drive down to the Mississippi River and enjoy a magical sunset, too!
CR: If you had a magic wand you could wave to create something for the town, what would it be?
AD: Besides unlimited revenue, you mean?! I’d love to have a small performing arts theatre here, like Abbeville’s Abbey Players Theatre. And I wish we could develop the riverfront area. There’s so much potential down there.
www.stfrancsiville.net
St. Francisville Mayor Andy D’Aquilla
FEBRUARY 2025
SOUNDS OF LOUISIANA
30 MOVE YA BRASS WITH ROBIN BARNES // 32 YOU RASCAL, YOU // 35 FROM THE GOSPEL ROAD TO INDIE-FOLK STARDOM, MEET THE CROWES
ON THE JAZZ SCENE
The Songbird of New Orleans
ROBIN BARNES'S PATH TO SUCCESS WAS PAVED WITH TALENT, BUSINESS PROWESS, AND STRATEGIC PIVOTS
Story by Kirstie Myvett • Photo by Kayla Palmer
Rnized the true “magic of music”; she was six years old, performing her very first solo—a rendition of “Ave Maria.” The audience was moved to tears.
Today, Barnes, an internationally recognized singer and songwriter, performs contemporary jazz at venues across the city and acts as an ambassador of New Orleans, a local influencer, and founder of a free fitness movement, “Move Ya Brass.”
“I was very lucky to live in a city like New Orleans [where] someone saying that their dream is music is not that crazy,” she said. “I’m blessed to live in a place where that is embraced.”
au lait on a frigid day. You can’t listen to Robin Barnes and not tap your feet, clap your hands, shimmy your shoulders, and feel something deep in your core.
“I’m taking you on an experience,” she said. “I’m taking you out of whatever your troubles and worries are . . . music is a tool that helps people forget their worries . . . forget the right now, the tomorrow . . . it’s about the experience of celebrating life and being present right now.”
Music was a part of Barnes’s life from the very beginning. The baby of seven, she grew up in the 9th Ward and remembers walking down the block in her neighborhood, where every single
neighbor had their door open, listening to their favorite songs. “It was the most special time of my life,” she said. She got her start in music performing with her father, Robino Barnes, and brothers in their band, The Soul Heirs. They performed at festivals, jazz clubs, and weddings. “I learned what it was to become an entertainer at a very young age,” she said.
At nine years old, Barnes started training with violinist and opera coach Dr. Nelson Francis, who would remain her mentor until she was seventeen. “He believed in me and wanted to invest in me,” she said, attributing her voice’s remarkable range to his tutelage. When she’d completed high school, Barnes knew right off the bat she wanted to be a professional musician like her brothers—but her parents encouraged her to attend school for business instead. “They wanted one of us to make money,” she said. Barnes graduated from the University of New Orleans with honors in Marketing and Business Administration, then earned her Master’s, too. When her parents then suggested she go for her doctorate, “I told my mom and dad I was done,” she said. “It’s time for music.”
For the first six months, Barnes couldn’t find a gig. Part of the challenge was, with her newly acquired business acumen, she demanded a certain degree of professionalism most emerging musicians didn’t. “People were very intimidated that I asked for a contract,” she recalled. “They’d tell me, ‘A contract? Absolutely not, but we could do a handshake.’”
Despite the rejections, Barnes persisted. Whenever doors were shut in her face, she’d recall the people who believed in her from the beginning, people like her mom—“who are worth tenfold the people who have told me no,” she said. “My mother says my superpower is pivoting. ”
At one point, Barnes noticed the venue, the Twist Cocktail Bar—across the street from Lafayette Square—was empty during the same time that “Wednes-
day at the Square,” a local concert series, took place. When she approached the owners, they said they’d give her a chance if she could produce a consistent crowd.
The venue, however, didn’t know about Barnes’s marketing background, or that she has a ton of cousins. The first few weeks were packed with her family and friends. As part of Barnes’s strategy, each night when the “Wednesday at the Square” event ended across the street, the attendees would see the lively, packed venue and come to hear more music. By the time her family’s attendance started dwindling, the concert series-goers were filling the Twist. As her Wednesday night performance grew in popularity, so did her bargaining power, and her rates.
“I utilized the branding from that to get me more notice in the city and get people to ask, ‘who is this singer?’” she said. That successful run led Barnes to headline at two luxury New Orleans hotels, The Windsor Court and, three months later, at the grand re-opening of the Hotel Monteleone after its expansion. From there, she couldn’t be stopped.
Since then, Barnes and her Fiya Birds have become a staple at Jazz Fest and the French Quarter Festival. She’s brought her distinct sound—marked by high-powered, energetic performances— all over the world, and has performed at many of the world’s most acclaimed venues, including the Royal Opera house in London. “It was a huge opportunity, and I got to perform with Aloe Blacc. That was an amazing experience.” In 2018, she was even the featured artist for MTV India’s Music Summit.
Her first EP, Me —a blend of soul, pop, jazz and R&B—debuted in 2013, followed by her Billboard charting jazz EP Songbird Sessions in 2016. Songbird Sessions was the career defining moment Barnes had dreamed of, ranking #5 on Traditional Jazz Albums and #8 Top Current Jazz Albums. “It showed the caliber of artist I am.”
Barnes has also garnered much-deserved praise and accolades in her hometown of New Orleans. In 2015, Gambit named her an artist to watch, the same year she was named “Favorite New Orleans Musician” by New Orleans Magazine And almost a decade later, this past year, Gambit named her and her band, The Fiya Birds, the Best Local Artist/Band of 2024.
Music extends to every facet of Barnes’s life—opening up doors not only
for incredible performances, but also to make a difference.
Barnes started the Move Ya Brass fitness program in 2013 after returning from her first European tour with a rare infection that left her right kidney permanently damaged. It was a difficult recovery, during which she required a cane to walk. Barnes searched but couldn’t find any accessible fitness programs to help get her back on track.
One day, she was lying in bed, thinking over her troubles and the debilitating expenses of her medical bills, when her mom entered her room and said, “Get off your ass and move your brass.”
She got up and made a Facebook post asking if anyone wanted to meet up and walk. Ten strangers showed up, and the Move Ya Brass movement officially launched as a free run/walk group who to this day meet up at City Park every Monday. “I started this to save my life, and it’s snowballed into a positive movement helping thousands of people,” she said.
Today, Move Ya Brass has expanded beyond its cardio group to offer a range of free group fitness classes, including “Bounce Ya Brass,” “Hip Hop Ya Brass,” sunrise “Stretch Ya Brass,” “Twerk Ya Brass,” and more.
In 2017, Barnes married the love of her life, musician Pat Casey of Pat Casey and the New Sound.
The first time the duo encountered
each other was at a rehearsal at a musician’s house. Casey was leaving as she arrived. Their eyes locked momentarily, and she asked her friend his name. The friend replied, “Bob.” For four years, Barnes searched for Bob the bass player on social media, and never found him.
As fate would have it, Barnes’s dad retired as her bass player, and she needed to find his replacement. Her best friend recommended “one of the baddest,” a guy named Pat Casey.
When Casey walked into the Windsor Court, he looked at Barnes and said, “Hi.”
“Bob?” Barnes replied.
“Nah, Pat.”
After Casey’s audition, she asked him, “What are you doing for the rest of your life?” He replied, “I guess playing bass with you.” The rest is history.
While some people might find it challenging working with their spouse, Barnes credits Pat for being a calm breeze to her dynamic personality. “If you want to marry a great guy who is also a musician, I tell people to marry a bass player,” she said. “They’re the core foundation of the band, and although they’re the most important part, they’re the background. They’re just happy about the music and [being] a supportive role.”
But Barnes's and Casey’s partnership gained altogether new layers during the pandemic—when they could no longer perform.
“[We were] two musicians with a brand-new baby and no money,” Barnes recalled. Once again, the art of the pivot became her most valuable tool. She and Casey began live-streaming on social media. Casey didn’t think they could do a duo with just bass, so he decided to learn guitar. “Most people take their whole lives to learn guitar, but it took him six months,” she said. Thanks to donations from fans and artists’ grants, they made it through, emerging with an altogether new concept: Robin and Pat—Da Love Birds.
Still today, Da Love Birds perform a stripped-down acoustic version of old school R&B love songs every Thursday night at the Peacock Room in Hotel Fontenot.
“You come to our show if you’re trying to make love or break up,” Barnes laughed.
Nine years since releasing Songbird Sessions, Barnes is gearing up for her debut full album in 2026—and will release her first single, “Hey Na (Iko Iko)” featuring New Orleans “Queen of Bounce” Big Freedia in early February. “This album is my love letter to my roots. I wanted to make something unique and something that was recognized and loved. ‘Iko’ is one of my favorite classics. I’ve been singing it since I was four,” Barnes said of the popular song made famous by the Dixie Cups in 1965. “The Dixie Cups’ version
was beautiful, but I wanted to make it me. I didn’t want a rendition like I copied them.”
Barnes said the thing she is most looking forward to with the album’s release is showcasing the diversity within Louisiana’s musical tapestry. “I’m an eight generation Louisianan, and my album is a journey of me discovering my regional roots,” she said. “It’s going to be a plethora of New Orleans brass, bounce, Louisiana Creole, dancing from Cajun and zydeco . . . that’s my DNA . . . When you hear it, you want to move. I want this whole album to be a celebration of life . . . of what our culture is.”
In an industry where today’s artists release music annually, and those that take a hiatus are questioned relentlessly (i.e. SZA, Rihanna and more) Barnes’s wait was purposeful.
“I’ve been putting out singles and EPs because I was still searching for myself . . . for my sound,” she said. “With this album, I’m able to finally hone in on, ‘Who is Robin?’ And Robin is Louisiana. I’m able to showcase the music of my culture, of my city, my state, my family, and my heritage.” 1
Barnes's rendition of "Hey Na (Iko Iko)" with Big Freedia will be available to stream on February 5. And don't miss her on stage as part of the Super Bowl's pregame performances on February 9. More at robinbarnesmusic.com.
Murder on the Bandstand
IN 1931 IN RAYNE'S "PROMISED LAND," JAZZ TRUMPETER EVAN THOMAS MET AN UNTIMELY END
Story by Sam Irwin
There’s an old jazz tune that goes, “I’ll be glad when you dead, you rascal, you”; it's intended to be a funny song about marital infidelity. The cuckold is often depicted in literature as a comic figure to be ridiculed, not a murderer. But on November 21, 1931, in Rayne, Louisiana, John Guillory requested the song and meant every word of it. Unfortunately, musicians get murdered all the time (Pinetop Smith, Lee Morgan, Sam Cooke, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, John Lennon, Jaco Pastorius, Tupac Shakur). But perhaps none have been quite so dramatic as the murder of jazz trumpeter Evan Thomas at a Holt Avenue dancehall in Rayne’s “Promised Land” neighborhood.
Jazz in Rayne?
When we think of jazz we think of New Orleans, Chicago, New York—Rayne ain’t exactly a hotbed of jazz. What was Thomas doing there anyway?
When Buddy “King” Bolden, the “first man of jazz,” started playing his cornet a certain kind of way on the streets of New Orleans around 1895, the club owners, the “ratty” people, the pimps, prostitutes and the so-called “gentlemen” who frequented Storyville knew the King’s style was different. That difference was jazz. Bolden set the stage for Louis Armstrong, who was born and raised in “back ‘o town” New Orleans.
But many of the early jazz greats came to “La Ville” from rural Mississippi River towns and bayou communities. They couldn’t wait to leave the farm. Bassman great Pops Foster cited his reason for leaving McCall, Louisiana—“On the plantation you didn’t see anything but sugarcane and corn.”
Johnson—the acclaimed trumpet player born in New Orleans, then rediscovered in New Iberia, who let jazz historians believe he was part of Buddy Bolden’s band. Johnson didn’t necessarily reveal to jazz chronicler William “Bill” Russell that he only played with Frankie Duson’s Eagle Band, created from the remnants of Bolden’s band after his departure. And if Russell wanted to believe Johnson taught Louis Armstrong to play trumpet, that was fine with Johnson.
was thriving in rural Acadiana communities. Author Austin Sonnier Jr., in his slim volume Second Linin’ Jazzmen of Southwest Louisiana, 1900-1950, noted that no jazz historians, writers, record producers, or promoters took much interest in going off to "discover" anyone after Johnson’s musical rebirth. “The best years of some of Louisiana's finest musicians just went up in sound,” Sonnier lamented.
As a result, no one beyond Acadiana audiences ever heard the genius of Thomas and his Black Eagle Band, Gus Fontenette’s Banner Band of New Iberia, the Hypolite Charles Band of Parks, the Yelpin’ Hounds of Crowley, or the Martel Family Band of Opelousas.
Other notable jazz greats from the “country”: cornetist Joe “King” Oliver was from Aben; reed man Joe Darensbourg played clarinet on Armstrong’s 1964 number one hit “Hello, Dolly!”—he came from Baton Rouge. Edward “Kid” Ory invented the jazz trombone sound in LaPlace. “Papa” John Joseph, of St. James Parish, famously died on the Preservation Hall bandstand in 1965 after playing numerous verses of “When the Saints Go Marching In.” “That piece just about did me in,” he said to pianist Dolly Adams as he died.
So why do so few of today’s jazz lovers know about Evan Thomas? In a word: Geography. Born in 1896 in Acadia Parish, Thomas—unlike so many better-known musicians who hightailed to the Crescent City—was one of the ones who stayed.
The historians of jazz in sincerity only glanced at rural Louisiana once, it seems, for the occasion of Bunk
The record seems to indicate that Johnson’s drinking and condescending attitude towards his fellow musicians is how he ended up toothless and hornless in New Iberia toiling away in rice mills and driving sugarcane wagons, or teaching music to Black children for a WPA gig. The important thing for jazz lovers, and especially Johnson, is that Russell believed he was a link to the “pure” sound of Bolden-era jazz. Russell arranged for false teeth (fitted by saxophonist Sidney Bechet’s dentist brother), got Johnson a trumpet, recorded him, and sent him up North on swank gigs where he became, according to Matt Vernon’s “Talk of the Teche” September 7, 1946 column in the Daily Iberian, “the most famous Negro trumpet player in the country,” save Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong.
If Russell had kept on looking during his time in Bayou Teche country, he would have found that jazz
Talk About a Sound
For his book, Sonnier interviewed trained musicians who played alongside Thomas—who had been trained by Joseph Oger, a student of the Mozart Conservatory. He learned that Thomas was a trumpet player of high voltage.
“He was a blues king,” said saxophonist Morris Dauphine of Parks. “He could play you a blues like nobody else.” Dauphine studied under Lorenzo Tio Jr. and played in Papa Celestin’s Tuxedo Brass Band.
“Talk about a sound,” said Mercedes Potier, a jazz pianist who graduated in music from Xavier University. She played in her father’s Banner Band for forty years. “Boy, could he play. You could hear him for blocks around. My father used him to advertise the band. The second floor of the True Friends Hall in Lafayette had all these windows and Evan would go up there on the day of the dance and sit down and play his trumpet out the windows on every side of the place. By the time the dance would start, the hall would be packed with people.”
Master clarinetist Lawrence Duhé, who hired King Oliver and Sidney Bechet to play in his Chicago band, told William Russell that he “never heard no one no better than E. T. Thomas. For high work, high register. He was as good as Louis Armstrong in those days.”
Thomas’s talent and twenty years of experience as a band leader allowed him to attract top musicians, and he assembled a veteran band of local and established New Orleans names to embark on a tour of the southwest in 1931. Included in the Black Eagles were established pros like clarinetist George Lewis, drummer/ vocalist Abbey “Chinee” Foster, and trumpeter Bunk Johnson. A piano player named Louis Robertson, Thomas’s brother Walter, and a tenor saxophone player only identified as “Al” were also onstage for the practice gig in the “Promised Land” that fateful night.
The Rayne Acadian Tribune's front page story, November 27, 1931. Excerpt published with permission from the Rayne Acadian Tribune
A Killing in The Promised Land
Gene Tomko, author of the Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians, located the Holt Avenue site where Thomas met his bloody end. Fittingly, the “little country hall” was across from a cemetery. Tomko has driven through the majority Black neighborhood many times, looking for clues as to what happened. An empty lot is all that remains of the club where Thomas was murdered. A neighbor speaking to Tomko pronounced Thomas’s name in the French-style—Ee-vann.
“Across the street was a shed where Guillory was selling his whiskey,” Tomko said. “There was a chicken farm here. Prohibition was still in effect.”
In those days, fortune favored Evan Thomas as much as fortune could favor a Black man in Louisiana during Jim Crow. But calamity seemed to follow his assassin, a white-passing Creole named John Guillory. While Thomas was a professionally-trained musician performing with Acadiana’s top bands, Guillory was a farmhand and a convicted felon, who served eighteen months at Angola for stealing chickens. But the two men did have two things in common: whiskey, and Guillory’s wife Mabel.
Before the show on that night in November 1931, members of Thomas’s Black Eagles spent all their ready money on liquor, and asked Guillory for credit.
“Hell, no,” Guillory may have said. “Get out of here, you goddamn drunks.”
Maybe a musician retorted—liquor makes you say things—“Oh, yeah? Your old lady Mabel has been diddling Evan while you was in Angola!”
Was it Johnson, or maybe Foster—both notorious alcoholics according to the account of their bandmate George Lewis? Maybe it was Al, the tenor player, who Lewis said was “hogged” that day.
The written record is incomplete. Lewis was divulgent with his biographer Tom Bethell, but the tape ran out for this particular conversation. Bethell was an English journalist who came to New Orleans to study jazz while working for New Orleans District Attorney as a researcher on the John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy probe. Because he wasn’t local; he may have had a difficult time understanding Lewis’s dialect. Lewis also may have jumbled his facts. There are some discrepancies.
What’s undeniable is that Guillory was “burned up” by the idea of Evan Thomas “going with his wife.”
The record shows that Guillory came into the club and requested Sam Theard’s new song, “You Rascal, You.” Guillory wanted Thomas to be dead so bad, that night he armed himself with a blade with a custom deer hoof handle. The knives were popular with German soldiers in World War I.
“We really had a good crowd,” Lewis recalled. The band had “ballyhooed” throughout the day from the back of a truck to advertise the evening show.
“Someone came back and told Evan, you know, what was said [to Guillory],” Lewis said. “[Guillory] walked to the front of the stage. . . Evan knew what was coming up, I guess. Evan said: ‘John, what’s that tale you’ve heard?’”
Guillory didn’t want to hear it. He slapped the trumpeter and started slashing at him. Thomas ran for the door, but Guillory drove the blade so deep and with such force into the musician’s back that it severed a rib. “Oh, my,” was all Thomas could utter.
“I just stood there frozen, my shirt all full of blood,” Lewis said. “Chinee had been drunk, he had been drinking all day … and … and …”—and that’s when Bethell’s tape runs out.
The old musician talked for another ten minutes. Bethell’s transcript relays that Guillory left the club after killing Thomas, but returned to destroy the band’s instruments with a gun.
“I got the impression that he was trying to tell me who ‘told’ on Evan without being explicit about it,” Bethell wrote. Most of the conversation was about Chinee Foster and the sax player, so it seems likely one of those musicians was the one who accused Evan Thomas and Mabel Guillory of adultery. The cantankerous Johnson is not completely off the hook, however. He had a reputation for being mouthy.
Guillory was sent back to Angola for the crime. Within five years, he had escaped and was shot dead by a Rayne police officer who tried to apprehend the convict. Sadly, the police officer was wounded by knife during the arrest and died a few days later.
Legend has it that Thomas, a good Catholic, ran from the club and died on the steps of a church. The Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy is three blocks away from the crime scene. Evan Thomas found his way to the “Promised Land,” but his music was gone forever. 1
“It Was the Honesty.”
A Q&A WITH CROWE BOYS
Interview by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot
Brothers Ocie and Wes Crowe grew up in rural bayou country, traveling through small hSouthern towns with their family's gospel hband. Today, based out of New Orleans, the duo have been marked as rising stars in the alternative/folk circuits—stemming in large part from the relationships they've cultivated with online fans since going viral on TikTok in early 2024 with their song, “Where Did I Go Wrong?” A year later, we sat down with the brothers to discuss their roots, their inspiration, and new music on its way this month.
So, you guys grew up performing gospel around Louisiana with your family—can you describe what that was like? What are some of your favorite memories?
Ocie: It was definitely a different way to grow up. We had a lot of opportunities to meet new people and see new places. Traveling as a child came with lots of cons. It was hard in that there weren’t many opportunities for long term friendships and community, but we were able to find that within ourselves as brothers. One of my favorite memories was when we built our own skate ramp at a church. We had our RV docked up at this church for a week doing a revival, but during the day there wasn’t much to do. We used a bunch of random things we found lying around outside and constructed a very … not safe ramp that we used to jump with our skateboards.
Wes: I personally loved growing up on the road and performing music. That was also just my normal. It definitely had its ups and downs. I loved getting to jam with my brothers all the time, and as a kid I loved exploring the new places with them. Sometimes the RV was way too cramped, but when that was the case, I’d go explore by myself or find somewhere peaceful to read a book. I think finding those places to skate are some of my favorite experiences. And building that death trap ramp Ocie was talking about was definitely a highlight too.
How did you learn to perform music? From your parents? Was there any formal training or was it more organic?
Ocie: There really isn’t one answer to this question for me. I’d say it started with our mom, Amie. Her side of the family has deep roots in music. It was my passion from early on. I would listen to anyone who would stop to show me something in music. I’d watch videos and read books. Eventually I did a little classical training in voice and piano, but found that I excelled more in a less “academic” setting and in a more “jam” setting.
Wes: I learned a little from my parents and brothers but mostly I was self-taught. I’d sit for hours watching videos and try to replicate whatever the musician on the screen was doing.
How has Louisiana as a place influenced you as musicians?
Ocie: We traveled the whole southern region as kids, so we had a lot of opportunities to see different things. New Orleans, on the other hand, became a huge part of my personal writing and artistic center as a musician and singer. The culture of art that surrounds this place is different from anything I’ve experienced anywhere else. It’s almost tangible. It’s impossible to visit this place surrounded by the artists who live here and not feel inspired—much less actually live here and fully embrace the community. It’s become an integral part of my mindset towards the arts as a whole.
Wes: New Orleans has definitely played an influential role in my artistic mind. From skating at the park, listening to punk music, to working at a small coffee shop hearing the ambiance of indie folk. New Orleans has brought a very diverse sense of artistic energy.
What were some of your earliest musical influences?
Ocie: As much as we traveled singing gospel, we didn’t actually spend much time listening or living in that world as artists. However, there were a few moments where I did dig a little deeper into gospel music. I really enjoyed work from artists like Jason Crabb and David Phelps. Personally, I was more focused on the genres like alternative rock and pop. I loved bands like Switchfoot and NeedToBreathe. Under the surface though, I really loved listening to female-driven pop like early Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus. And I still love to religiously listen to artists in that genre, like Dua Lipa and Sabrina Carpenter.
Wes: I think what influenced me the most growing up is when I found one of my parents old Journey CDs. That’s pretty much what I listened to for quite a while, until I eventually started listening to punk, alternative rock, indie folk, etc.
Tell me about when you started to play outside the context of gospel, when you started experimenting with other genres and styles. What sparked that?
Ocie: I really didn’t get outside of it until I moved to New Orleans. It was the first time I’d ever seen artists, in a more personal context, write and sing outside of the genre I was used to. I quickly fell in love.
Wes: Mostly, when I moved to New Orleans and started trying new things, music kind of shifted with that.
Today, who are some of your biggest musical influences?
Ocie: Today some of my biggest musical influences are artists like Noah Kahan, Coldplay, Gregory Alan Isakov—and a more recent artist I’ve been listening to a lot is Gracie Abrams.
Wes: Gregory Alan Isakov, Caamp, Chance Peña
Can you describe your songwriting process? What influences do you draw from, how do you operate together when creating new music?
Ocie: For me it’s almost always pulled from personal, true events; or is based off something I’ve actually experienced. It is about trying to understand something inside of myself that I don’t know how to process.
Wes (left) and Ocie (right) Crowe of Crowe Boys. Courtesy of Crowe Boys.
Music is my therapy, and instruments like my therapist. I’d start to play, and how I felt would form into words.
Wes: It’s all about experiences for me. Experiences bring inspiration, and inspiration brings art. A song is like a blank canvas for me personally. I don’t know where to start painting, but when I do the end goal becomes clearer with each brush stroke. Sometimes that means making a terrible song that ends up in the trash; sometimes that means making a beautiful painting.
Mardi Gras
What is it like sharing an artform with your brother?
Ocie: To me it’s one of the coolest experiences. I love being able to share this with Wes.
Wes: It’s awesome! I love getting to do this with Ocie. I wouldn’t change a thing.
About a year ago, you went viral—skyrocketing your platform and career. What do you think it was about that video/song that captured the hearts of so many people? You’ve continued to cultivate an intimate relationship with your fans through social media—can you share a little about that dynamic of the musician/fan relationship?
Ocie: I think it was the honesty. Early on, we spent a lot of time trying to be something we weren’t in our music. We got really burned out as artists and brothers, even. We spent some time shifting our focus; and that song “Where Did I Go Wrong?” was one of the results. Now, we really try to remain honest and continue writing from that place. Honesty has been a super important part of our relationship with our fans. This past year has been a lot of fun, but the best part has been building this family (I think our fans are more like family at this point). We consider ourselves really fortunate to have the fan base that we have, because I think as artists, it’s our job to push the boundaries of life and then share it with the people who follow us. It’s a huge and rather scary job, but one we find very honorable—that we would be entrusted by people in such a deep and meaningful way.
Wes: I think people connect with the heartfelt honesty behind the lyrics in that song. I feel like in today’s world there is a lot of confusion, mistrust, self-doubt, and other things that I believe we all go through. “Where Did I Go Wrong?” is just a testament to those real-life things that I believe we can all connect with.
What are the biggest ways your lives as musicians have changed over the last year?
Ocie: I cry a lot. The emotional toll from this past year has pushed me in ways I didn’t know were possible. In a good way, too.
Wes: I’ve learned so much this year about myself, people, the industry, etc. My perspective have changed in a lot of ways and I’m a better man for it. I’ve met so many amazing people and made connections that won’t fade.
I hear you have new music coming out in February. Can you give readers an idea of what to expect?
Ocie: Honestly, I don’t think we even know what to expect. As funny as it sounds, this is kinda like our official debut, and we’ve never done this before. But the song we’re releasing is way past due, and we’re so excited to share it!
Wes: What Ocie said! 1
FOODWAYS
The Flavors Bananas Bought Us
THE HISTORY BEHIND NEW ORLEANS'S VIBRANT HONDURAN CULINARY SCENE
Story by Sophie Nau
Tho me, strip malls have always felt like portals, concrete cacophonies of businesses cozied up together in jarring harmony. In New Orleans, Metairie, and Kenner, it’s often the strip malls where you’ll find some of the region’s best secrets: authentic Honduran cuisine. In these restaurants, platters are piled high with chicken and plantains; breakfast plates with blocks of salty cheese, refried beans, eggs, and sliced avocado; and one of the Central Ameri can country’s most famous dishes,
If you order a baleada at Norma’s Sweets Bakery in Mid-City, the woman behind the counter will smack dough between her hands, flatten it into a patty, and roll it into a full moon before throwing it on the stovetop. The resulting tortilla is pillowy and chewy and between its folds is a spread of refried beans, zig zags of scrambled eggs, and slices of ripe avocado. Go to Nor ma’s any week day at lunch time, and the line will be long, a few construction crews deep.
If you stop by the hot food bar of Big Easy Fresh Mar ket on Broad, you’ll find it contains more than moderate Honduran selections: baleadas that sell out in the morn ing, and on Saturdays (last this author checked), the Honduran specialty sopa de caracol con coco conch soup with coconut milk, chunks of seafood, and potato. You can find the same soup at Pollitos Azucar, where a party extends into the sidewalk on Fridays and Saturdays—not to mention the dozens of other special ties at the restaurants that dot Williams Boulevard in Kenner.
It’s a little-known fact that New Orleans houses the largest Honduran American community in the United States. And how it got that way has a lot to do with one now-quotidian fruit: the banana.
Samuel Zemurray arrived in the U.S. from Eastern Europe in 1891 at the age of fourteen. He started his business in Mobile as a fruit peddler reselling the United Fruit Company’s discarded bananas (the “ripes”) to gro cers across the South. After almost a decade in the busi ness, he partnered with fruit merchant Ashbel Hubbard to form the Hubbard-Zemurray Steamship Company, soon after acquiring the Cuyamel Fruit Company and purchasing property in Honduras to establish his own plantations. By this point, he was settled in New Orle ans, which had a larger port.
The American author O. Henry coined the term “banana republic” in his 1904 novel Cabbages and Kings in reference to Honduras, to which the author fled (after a stint in New Orleans) to escape embezzlement charges. The term refers to a small country whose instability stems from the reliance on a single commodity—or rather, a larger country’s exploitation of said commodity.
Zemurray had an enormous hand in controlling the sways of the banana republic of Honduras, supporting a failed coup against President Miguel Dávila in 1908 and a successful one a few years later. His competitor, United Fruit Company, owned vast swathes of land in Central America to harvest the crop, which gave it overwhelming power in governmental politics. It wasn’t long before “Sam the Banana Man” took over the United Fruit Company, acquiring all that land, and power, for himself. As president, Zemurray continued to politically wrangle things in his favor in Central America. The United Fruit Company lobbied for the U.S.-backed coup of Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz after his reform laws were set to undermine their land dominance and labor abuse (Notably, the company’s revenue was twice that of the Guatemalan government).
At the center of it all were the boats that transported the bananas from Honduras to the United States. This is how the family of Chef Melissa Araujo, of the modern Honduran restaurant Alma, ended up in New Orleans.
Araujo has citizenship in three countries (Italy, Honduras, and the United States) and a family history of immigration and industry tied closely with the banana trade. Her maternal grandfather, originally from Sicily, came to New Orleans and then to Honduras to work for the United Fruit Company. Her father, a Honduran with Mayan and European lineage, initially came over to New Orleans on the banana cargo boats the company operated. Araujo herself was born in La Ceiba, a city on the northern coast of Honduras, and she grew up in the States with summers spent between Honduras and Italy.
After years running a catering company in New Orleans, Araujo opened Alma Café in 2020. Operating out of the Bywater, the restaurant is perhaps the most visible of the city’s Honduran offerings. Alma is geared towards the roving dining class, with a decked-out space, a bar program, a prime location, and a contemporary take on tradition. Here, Araujo invites the uninitiated to the Central American table.
Dishes from Alma Café, where chef Melissa Araujo takes traditional Honduran dishes and gives them a contemporary twist. Top row, left to right: Pollo en Crema, a traditional Honduran breakfast, and a baleada. Bottom: Pescado Ceibeno and a spread of Alma's Honduran dishes. Photos courtesy of Alma Café.
She anticipated criticism. “The traditional food stays in the house,” she said. “In Alma, I take what is modern, and I interpret it to what I want the Honduran cuisine to be pushing toward.”
Araujo’s hope is to put Honduran food on the map as a cuisine worthy of dining out. She also hopes to push it out from under the shadow of the Mexican food umbrella, where too many diners tend to place Central American cuisine.
“In the beginning, when we opened in 2020, a lot of people [would ask], ‘Oh, can we have chips and salsa?’ And my waiters would make sure that I was not around because my answer was, ‘I'm not Mexican!’” Araujo said, laughing.
One only needs to consider the geography of Central America to recognize the myriad influences underscoring the Honduran table. With its Caribbean coastline, Honduras possesses the African influence of all countries touched by the slave trade. The cuisine takes cues from the Garifuna in the north, who are descendants of Indigenous and Afro-Caribbean peoples. Their use of coconut milk inflects the national cuisine, and can be found in rice and beans, soup, and even the tortillas.
As Alma expands into dinner service, Araujo is intent on incorporating more Mayan techniques into her cooking. The Huevos Creillos references the Indigenous Lenca, the Mediterranean, and the African influence in Honduras. The Pollo en Crema y Loroco has layers of crema and caramelized leeks to cut the bitterness of the loroco (you’ll often see it in Salvadorian pupusas), as well as sofrito, infused olive oil, and herbs.
“You have layer against layer against layer,” Araujo said, referencing traditional tajadas of fried meat and plantains with chismol (similar to, though distinct from, pico de gallo), piled on like eras of history pushed up against each other.
Then there’s the baleada. Araujo has faced criticism over the double-digit price of her baleada, where elsewhere they can be found for under ten, sometimes five dollars. But she’s filling hers to the brim with well-seasoned beans, crema, egg, avocado, and meat. She aims to make the handheld delicacy abundant and heavy, like she remembers them growing up.
Thus, the effects of the industry that created the channel between Honduras and the United States still lingers around the table. The hefty chorizo platters of La Hacienda 504 or the pollo chucho of Sabores de Mi H, where the fatty meat is cut with slaw and sweet plantain, is food meant to nourish after hours of labor. Araujo calls it a “raw cuisine,” though that doesn’t mean unrefined.
“You know Honduras, our food is very heavy because we work the fields. If it's not the mountains, it's working the ocean, especially where I'm from. The fishery is huge … But everywhere you go, you're always going to see a lady in the corner selling baleadas.”
Last year, Araujo visited her home country for a month, teaching in culinary schools for the United States government. She lamented how much she observed the “colorful culture” of Honduras becoming increasingly subsumed by the shadow of its upstairs neighbor. “I found out that there is a lot of talent, but they're using that talent to get out of the country. And Honduras is becoming every year more and more Americanized, and we're losing our traditions of cooking…I always tell people, I am not the best chef, but I’ll be the one to open that door that will bring those chefs more opportunity.”
In New Orleans, the history is encoded in the streets, the names, the flora. Honduras is tucked in there, too. The name and image of Francisco Morazán, who attempted to unite the Central American countries into one powerful nation, is dotted all over Honduras, El Sal-
vador, Costa Rica, and can be found in statue form on Basin Street. The 504 country code for Honduras might sound familiar to New Orleanians. The banana tree in my New Orleans backyard is often overgrown, seasonally lush with tiny buds and then droopy with fruit. It grows relentlessly, slowly trekking upward and into the roof and windows, a subtle forcefulness that echos Zemurray’s capital dedication to commodify its fruits. And of course, the history is in the dishes, hearty and delicious. Whether you visit Alma or Tia Maria’s, order the conch soup or Honduran tacos, you’ll be sure to get a taste of banana. 1
Melissa Araujo, Executive Chef at Alma Café. Photo courtesy of Alma Café.
By CR Editorial Staff
Breaking the Hallowed Rules of the King Cake
Some might call it a sin to depart from the traditional king cake recipes— the delicious cinnamon, brioche, cream cheese delights that they are. But the truth is that Mardi Gras has always been for the rule-breakers. Some unconventional approaches to the Carnival cake have caught our eye this year, such as Molly’s Rise and Shine’s Meyer Lemon Pistachio confection, filled with lemon mascarpone and topped with cream cheese frosting, lemon zest, and pistachio “puppy chow” made of white chocolate Chex and chow mein noodles. Instead of a baby fève, these babies hold plastic dinosaurs.
And then, of course, there’s the savory king cakes. Call up your favorite local butcher’s shop, and chances are they’ve got one—though some standouts include Lilah’s in Shreveport, City Pork’s in Baton Rouge, and Twins in Lafayette. There’s also Cavan’s crawfish and goat cheese king cake, or—a classic—Rock’n’Sake’s sushi king cake (my personal plan for Valentine’s dinner, in case anyone was wondering).
What are your favorite unconventional king cakes? Send submissions to editorial@countryroadsmag.com for a chance to see them featured on our social media.
Black-Owned Restaurants to Visit This Month
It’s Black History Month, and the perfect opportunity to get to know Blackowned businesses in your favorite Louisiana food cities. In New Orleans, there are too many to count—but Dooky Chase’s is a classic; rich in history thanks to the iconic Chef Leah Chase, this Creole restaurant should be at the top of your New Orleans restaurant list. Newer and sparklier, Chef Serigne Mbaye’s Dakar has been recognized across the country in recent years for its historical (and delicious) exhibition of Senegalese cuisine. In Baton Rouge, Zeeland Street has been serving up good old fashioned comfort food, made with intention, by Chef Stephanie Phares—who was recognized last year in the New York Times’ 2024 Restaurant List. Another Baton Rouge classic is Chicken Shack—a Capital City legacy serving some of the best fried food in the city. Open for ninety years now, the “Shack” is a family-run business operated today by a Civil Rights icon, Joe Delpit, who gave Baton Rougeans rides in the chicken delivery truck during the 1953 bus boycott.
And in Lafayette, if you haven’t yet tried the Creole stuffed bread at Creole Lunch House, run. The changing menu will fill your belly with grandmother-approved plates of red beans and rice, fried pork chops, fried catfish, and more. And while you’re in town, you might as well try Shane Vallot’s viral Quesadilla Burgers. The former UL Ragin’ Cajuns football player’s recipe has taken the Internet by storm, and already required a second location to meet the growing demand.
Obviously there are hundreds more fantastic Black-owned restaurants across our region. Send your favorite spots (and why you love them) to editorial@countryroadsmag.com for a chance to see them featured on our social media.
Where Culture Makes Cuisine
A LOOK INSIDE THE LOUISIANA COOKING SCHOOL WHERE CAJUN/CREOLE CUISINE, IN ALL ITS NUANCE, IS A CRAFT
Story by Ava Borskey • Photos by Matthew Noel
What is the secret to the perfect gumbo? What ingredients do you need for an étouffée? What are the rules for making redfish courtbouillon?
The answers to those questions depend on who you ask. And in Chef Randy Cheramie’s professional opinion, it usually comes down to, “what your grandmother made.”
“Louisiana cooking goes down family lines,” said Cheramie, an award-winning chef who recently retired as a full-time instructor at the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute after twenty-five years. “I can taste a gumbo and tell you if a Gisclair or a Guidry made it.”
Cheramie grew up on Bayou Lafourche in Golden Meadow, Louisiana, where land dissolves into water. He was born into a restaurant family, and officially took over his parents’ circa-1940s restaurant, Randolph’s, in the ’80s. For two decades, he fed area fishermen some of the best meals they’d ever eaten and hosted many of the bayou town’s biggest celebrations. In 2001, he sold the restaurant and joined the faculty at the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute in Thibodaux full time. Now, more than twenty years later, he continues to play an integral role in preserving and promoting Cajun-Creole cuisine at the Institute.
“Like no other culinary school in the United States, we are very much a part of Cajun-Creole culture,” Cheramie said.
A regional cuisine as unique as it is flavorful, Cajun and Creole culinary techniques are described as some of the most important art forms to emerge from the New World.
Seven nations had their hands in the pot to create the collection of recipes we now recognize as Louisiana cuisine: Native American, African, French, Spanish, German, Italian and English. Recognizing the contributions of each of these distinct cultural influences has long been at the core of Chef John Folse’s philosophy, which is now passed on to the students of the Institute—the next generation of Louisiana-influenced chefs.
While the seven nations often get grouped under the simplified amalgamations of Cajun or Creole, certain, sometimes subtle, influences retain a stronger tie to their cultures of origin.
“Why do people in Mathews, Louisiana, put olives in their sauce piquante?”
Chef Cheramie posed the question as if our interview was his Cajun-Creole Cuisine class. The answer is simple: Because many of the families who historically settled in Mathews came to Louisiana by way of Spain, where olives are a major part of agriculture and cuisine.
Such eccentricities and variations are found in every home kitchen across the state. Few, if any, dishes in Cajun-Creole cooking have a fixed recipe.
For instance, Amelie Zeringue, the department head at the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, likes her gumbo with a controversial addition: tomatoes.
“That is, to me, the best gumbo I've ever had,” Zeringue said. “That gumbo with sausage, okra, shrimp, crab, tomatoes in it.”
Zeringue’s grandmother was from New Orleans’s Eighth Ward in the
Gentilly neighborhood, so her gumbo leaned more Creole, or “city” style, as opposed to the more rustic, “Cajun” styles of rural Louisiana—where Chef Cheramie’s preferred gumbos originate. He said he would never add salted or smoked meats to a seafood gumbo, preferring to emphasize the sweetness of the crabs and shrimp as the flavorful centerpiece. And while Zeringue’s gumbo recipe includes both roux and okra—“I like to put the roux with the okra because I like that mouthfeel of the richness of it,” she said—Cheramie counters that using both thickening agents is redundant. When cooked correctly, he said, a little oil and okra caramelizes and browns to just the right consistency for a gumbo. This ongoing debate, which unfolds in infinite variations across the region, gets to the heart of what Louisiana cuisine is, in all its diversity. Understanding, and respecting, the many influences that inform different approaches to regional cuisine is the goal of the Institute’s Cajun and Creole Cuisine course, CULA 319—which is a required course for all students at the John Folse Culinary Institute. Over the course of seven weeks, the class focuses on each of the seven nations, and the students learn to prepare regional dishes influenced by that particular culture.
Chef Randy Cheramie, who taught at the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute for more than twenty years, retired from his full-time position in 2024—but remains part of the staff as an adjunct professor.
EXPERIENCE THE JOY OF LEARNING
Though the course will be taught this spring by Zeringue, for the better part of fifteen years, Cheramie led the Cajun and Creole Cuisine course curriculum. His secret to a successful semester involved discussing multiple preparation styles and renditions of Cajun or Creole dishes—such as an étouffée made by adding crawfish fat to smothered onions and garlic, or alternatively, with a roux.
Cheramie enjoyed observing which iteration students enjoyed more, though at the end of the day, it usually came down to whichever style they grew up eating.
“That’s what they grew up with, then it’s right for them,” Cheramie said. “Whether you do some little eccentricities that are different from other families, that's just your family. It's all good food.”
Regardless of preparation styles, Cheramie asserts that the overall esteemed reputation of Louisiana food can be mostly attributed to the cultural connections to local resources.
“The Mississippi River and the Mississippi Delta offer ecosystems like no other place,” he said. “So many varieties of fish are available to us. Anything you stick in the ground is going to grow. Our local product is second to none.”
And it’s readily available for the pot. Growing up, Cheramie remembers trawling for shrimp at his family’s camp, where he holds his best food memories. They had a twelve-foot net, the perfect size to catch just enough for supper. If they weren’t in the mood for shrimp, there was a small bed of oysters close to the wharf, and a ready supply of trout, redfish, and crabs, all for the catching.
The other, less concrete quality that is inherent to local cuisine is its connection to gathering. A vital part of the culture of Cajun-Creole cuisine is the company it’s eaten with.
“Gathering around a table, breaking bread and opening up a bottle of wine, conversing and laughing and having a good time, is a big part of our culture,” Cheramie said.
It's something Cheramie has a little more time for since his retirement in May of 2024. As an adjunct, he still teaches the Culinary Foundations class at the Institute, but his part-time schedule leaves lots of room. Recently, he’s been spending his off days preparing for an upcoming family boucherie.
Two pigs are being fattened, and all his first cousins are planning trips home. The boucherie is a special time for Cheramie’s family that happens about once every five years.
“We drink, and we eat, and we talk about what was and what is,” Cheramie said.
It’s a day that starts early and stretches late into the night. It’s a time and a place where the value of food is made tangible, visceral. And it’s a tradition that connects Cheramie, and all who partake in it, to the culinary world of Louisiana that gave us the dishes that so characterize our culture.
“You only have to leave it for a little while to understand how truly important it is,” Cheramie said. “I’ve eaten all over the country, I've eaten abroad, I’ve seen a lot. I would not want to cook anywhere else but here.” 1 nicholls.edu/culinary.
44
OUR SUSTAINABLE GARDEN
In Defense of the “Trash Tree”
EVERY NATIVE TREE HAS ITS PLACE
By Jess Cole
Iin our region, came from seed brought from China a hundred years ago that were sown at Money Hill Plantation, a once thriving tung oil operation, just a stone’s throw from our property. Our area was chosen by the U.S. government as an “ideal” place to grow these strange trees. There was oil to be made, money to be had, and the U.S. wanted its part in it.
Fifteen years of working with natives later, I see these trees differently. Despite their strange, charming features, tung trees are taking over my precious woods. They seed profusely and grow quickly. Over the years, I have seen them choke out species that have been there for thousands of years.
Some people like to call trees like the Tung “trash trees.” Personally, I can’t bear to call any tree or plant “trash,” no matter where it comes from or what it does to my woods. They, after all, are innocent and are just doing what, evolutionarily, they were created to do: grow, seed, and spread.
No, the blame here lies on us, humans—and our inclination to intervene. Throughout all of history, humans have moved plants around, occasionally for pure beauty and enjoyment, sometimes for medicine, very often with the hopes of new cash crops and riches. Whatever the reason, pretty commonly the newly transplanted exotic plant out competes the complex local systems that have been slowly evolving together over millennia, setting things off-kilter.
berry tree, a “trash tree.”
Below I want to highlight a handful of other common “trash trees” that are actually lovely native trees. Having evolved and grown naturally here for millennia, these trees all have a purpose in our native ecosystems. They also tell us a good bit about the unique natural history of the lower Mississippi alluvial floodplain, as well as how this big river shapes our landscapes in southern Louisiana. All except the cherry laurel can handle flooding in ways other trees cannot. These trees show up as survivors where forests and landscapes have been decimated. They often appear and rejuvenate on their own without much human help. A Louisiana without these trees would be a lot more barren a place. And perhaps most importantly, as native trees do, they are all wildlife powerhouses. Together they host incredible amounts of pollinators, give up large quantities of food, and offer more homes to birds and small mammals than we could ever imagine. They live through drought, deluge, pollution, and human havoc. They carry on.
Swamp Willow/Black Willow, Salix nigra
was raised on a special tract of land that straddles the line between St. Tammany and Washington hParishes. A slow moving, often clear creek surrounds my family’s land, underneath a wonderfully diverse forest made up of ancient sweet bay magnolias, tulip poplars, and swamp titis. Native azaleas and elderberry sprawl and arch over the sunny edges of the creek.
One of the most bizarre looking trees, the Louisiana tung tree, also grows throughout our woods, finding itself happy in clearings where sunlight touches the forest floor in plenty. When I was a little girl, one grew right outside my win-
dow. It was interesting to see as a single specimen, with its bizarre lanky form and giant tropical heart-shaped leaves with their lovely fall color. We threw the giant fruit at each other as children. Our road is even called “Louisiana Tung Road.”
When I left for college, I thought about tung trees a lot less. One day, a few years into university, I spotted one behind the geoscience building. That tree, in the middle of the city, reminded me of those trees of my childhood merriment. I quickly learned it was not native flora (names don’t always tell the truth after all), but an animate and thriving remnant of plantation-era past. These trees,
From this phenomenon emerge exotic trees dubbed “trash” for their invasiveness and damage to our natural environments, including: tung, tallow, paper mulberry, Chinese privet, and parasols.
However, along the way certain natives—especially ones that are fast-growing, quick-to-seed, and highly-adaptable—got thrown beneath that umbrella, too. Recently, I went by my friend Ana’s house in the garden district of Baton Rouge, where she proudly showed me the hackberry tree she had just planted in her small front yard. She said that her friend down the road couldn’t believe she would purposely plant and encourage a hack-
You can find the swamp willow growing throughout our various waterways. They grow in enormous stands along the Mississippi River, which is my favorite place to interact with them. They offer great wildlife refuge, are an excellent erosion stabilizing agent, and are a keystone species in riparian areas throughout their range. Their weeping manner makes them one of the most beautiful trees on this list for me. There is nothing like fishing beneath them on a windy day.
Sweet Gum, Liquidambar styraciflua
I cannot tell you how often people ask me why I would ever plant a sweet gum. As far as I am concerned, the fall color is a good enough answer alone! Those seed balls that people love to hate are beloved by birds in the winter and a crucial foodsource for various types of wildlife. The tree also has a dense canopy, offering great shelter.
Black willows, or swamp willows, are sometimes mistaken as "trash trees" but are actually deeply beneficial to wildlife and battling erosion. Photo by Nikki Krieg.
Water Oak, Quercus nigra
Water oaks are famous “widow makers,” as some like to say. More than anything else, they are known for their quick growth and short life spans; they rot, break, and topple over often. But, what people do not realize is that the natural world needs trees like these. Due to this rapid growth and short life span, the water oak is an excellent housing unit for wildlife—especially cavity-nesting birds. Their role in the natural world is to be a “transitional species”. When a forest is rejuvenating, they come to the job first, popping up and growing fast. Then, when the slower-growing hardwoods get to where they need to be, the water oaks die out to offer them space. Sometimes the reasons why humans don't like a plant are, in turn, the exact characteristics that benefit our ecosystems and what they evolved to offer our world.
Hackberry, Celtis laevigata
I find these guys all over the bottomland hardwood forests and swampy areas I like to explore. You can always identify a hackberry by their interesting corky bark. They are characterized also by a soft, close-grained wood great for furniture making and other building uses. Unlike the water oak, these are a long-lived species. Sometimes the wildlife activity
around the hackberry’s fruit is an actual party. You can see the commotion from afar. Another name for the hackberry is sugarberry, which explains the fight for its fruit. The hackberry is also a larval host to numerous butterflies and moths.
Cherry Laurel, Prunus caroliniana
Distinct from the other trees included here, the cherry laurel cannot withstand flooding, but it does seem to grow in almost any other type of environment. Once established, the trees are incredibly drought tolerant. Cherry laurels are evergreen, and can be a nice native option for privacy screening and year-long greenery. This tree also offers great amounts of early spring nectar, and is an excellent city tree in that it has an ability to absorb high amounts of man-made pollutants.
I find it's often the intersection of these powerhouse natives and the urban environment (tight quarters, abundance of human activity) that cause the “problems” that give them a rough reputation. But I believe all of these trees’ “bad characteristics” can be overlooked and even embraced with some learned tree identification skills and a bit of knowledge, which can aid us in better placement/ planting of trees, better control of where they pop up, more thoughtful pruning agendas, and long-term care. 1
February Plant Spotlight: Eastern Red Cedar, Juniperus virginiana
In February, nearly every deciduous leaf has fallen, and the evergreens stand boldly—lush, solitary greens scattered across the forest vista. Hollies, magnolias, yaupons, and one of my favorite trees of all, the Eastern Red Cedar. This tree is magnificent. It shows up on my property the moment you reach the top of the ridge and step away from the low moist areas. This forever-green beauty grows tall and wide, and is excellent as a single specimen or in a collection. The evergreen nature of the tree makes her an ideal green fence for privacy or a solo focal point year-round. I love collecting small branches from my trees as they fall for fence posts, arches, or arbors. Partnering with the red cedar is a fun creative endeavor within the garden as the wood is dense, aromatic, and rot resistant. The tree is also an important habitat for wildlife, yielding enormous amounts of fruit to be feasted on. I love watching the cedar wax wings flock to the tree. Legend has it, the Eastern Red Cedar is responsible for the namesake of Baton Rouge, “The Red Stick.” Thank you Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville.
Photo by Jess Cole.
2025
46 THE WORK OF PRESERVING TUNICA-BILOXI CULTURE AND LANGUAGE // 49 DO YOU GO FOR THE DOUBLOONS OR THE MOONPIES? // 50 COMMEMORATING BLACK HISTORY IN MISSISSIPPI // 52 THE NOT-BLUE-ENOUGH BLUES // 55 A Q&A WITH JEFFREY ROEDEL
REMEMBERING
Those That Walk Before Us
FOR THE TUNICA-BILOXI TRIBE OF LOUISIANA, THE PAST IS THE KEY TO SECURING THE FUTURE
Story by Jacqueline DeRobertis-Braun
John Barbry has found, in his decade at the helm of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana’s Language and Culture Revitalization Program, that there is an art to the interview—a finesse required when coaxing oral histories from community members.
People are at their most verbose when they’re relaxed—for instance, when a sitdown invitation to chitchat on the record is an agreeable afterthought following a social function or family day. The information offered does not have to be sweeping or insightful; according to Barbry, there is also deep value in the quiet mundanity of everyday life.
“The details—that’s the nuance, that’s the flavor that you just don’t get sometimes on a flat page,” Barbry said. “It’s putting it in context.”
Examples of questions he might ask members of the tribe include: What did your parents do for a living? Where did y'all live? How did you get certain things done? How did you make money? What kind of things did your mom cook?
The process brings Barbry, now sixty-two, to return again and again to his own family and the hazy, almost incidental moments of his past—the ones that retrospectively were sculpting part of his own tribal identity.
“I remember my grandmother doing some traditional Tunica basketry. I remember her singing Tunica songs,” he said. “I was very young. I didn't really realize at the time how important that was, but as I got older, I realized these were parts of our traditional culture that were still there, still evident, just not as on the front line, as far as the public was concerned.”
Barbry and his small team of three have spent several years collecting oral histories from members of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe, which today includes 1,500 members spread across the United States, primarily in Louisiana, Texas, and Illinois. It’s a big job, and the Language & Cultural Revitalization Program has numerous other responsibilities and projects on deck. However, a recent grant award of $75,000 promises to ramp up these
ongoing oral history efforts to create an accessible, searchable archive to preserve the tribe’s cultural identity.
“Through our everyday work, we try to reinforce the fact that the only way we’re going to be able to preserve our history is to talk about it,” Barbry said. “We want to remember the small things about our community and where we came from.”
Funded in part by the Tribal Heritage Grant Program through the Historic Preservation Fund (administered by the National Park Service, Department of Interior), the grant will allow Barbry’s program to not only collect and catalogue oral histories and traditional songs, but also to facilitate cultural workshops that will be captured on video, audio, and in photographs. With the funding, they hope to expand their current vault of around forty oral histories to upwards of seventy.
“It ties back to our cultural language, our life ways, and that is extremely important in the Tunica-Biloxi nation,” said Marshall Pierite, Chairman and CEO of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana.
“Knowing about your history points you in the right direction.”
The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, one of four federally recognized American Indian tribes in the state, traces its origins to the historic Tunica, Biloxi, Ofo, and Avoyel Tribes, which unified in the early twentieth century. Just south of Marksville, the Tunica-Biloxi reservation comprises approximately 1,717 acres of Trust and Fee property in Avoyelles and Rapides Parishes—and is where the tribe has resided for more than two centuries. Before merging with other tribes, the Tunica held sway over a broad swath of land, including present-day Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Alabama. Entrepreneurs and traders, foremost in the manufacturing and distribution of salt, the Tunica likely first encountered a group of Spanish explorers led by Hernando de Soto in 1541, in the northwestern Mississippi town of Quizquiz, according to some historians and archaeologists. But the Tunica Tribe’s first documented contact with
Tunica-Biloxi Elders, as documented in the 2017 book, The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe: Its Culture and People—from left to right: Rose Jackson Pierite, (photo by Ernest "Chuck" Downs) Herman Pierite Sr., Clementine Pierite Broussard, Nathan "Loke" Barbry (photos by David Richmond). Images courtesy of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe.
Europeans was near the mouth of the Yazoo River in the late 1600s, when French Jesuits established a mission.
Pushed out by the Europeans—who brought disease, warfare, and famine— the tribe eventually followed the Mississippi River south.
On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, meanwhile, the Biloxi first encountered French colonizers Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville and Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville in 1699. The Biloxi allied themselves with the French, which facilitated economic and political benefits. And after the French were expelled from the region, they formed an alliance with the Spanish when they took over.
In the late 1700s, both the Tunica and Biloxi moved to present-day Avoyelles Parish, and have remained there ever
customs to add to the mix.
All of these vantage points are important for a thorough, nuanced oral history project—though Barbry’s team does have a target demographic.
His ideal interview candidates, he explained, are community members who are around seventy years of age or older. They are the ones who might remember snippets of the Tunica or Biloxi languages, certain traditions and stories, and—in a more emotional vein—experiences of bigotry or racism. They may recall how People of Color were treated while attending school in decades past, the barriers they faced, or the migrations they endured to find more opportunities elsewhere.
“They have so much life experience and know so many people who maybe are not with us anymore,” Barbry said.
since. Following the Louisiana Purchase, the natives who lived in Marksville were spared the horrors of the Indian Removal Act of the 1830s that relocated native peoples from their homelands, as they were deemed insignificant “remnants” of the tribes by US officials. After the Civil War, following rejection from both the state and federal government for official recognition, the Tunica merged with the Biloxi, Avoyel, Ofo, and Choctaw Tribes in the hopes of combining their resources to one day achieve an officially recognized status.
The Tunica and Biloxi tribes formally joined in 1924, and the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana received federal recognition in 1981.
By now, in 2025, there is so much intermarrying between Tunica and Biloxi (and other tribes besides) that the lines blur together, Barbry pointed out. His grandfather was more Biloxi, his grandmother more Tunica. There are also plenty of community members who marry beyond the tribe, bringing in apparent outsiders with different perspectives and
Pierite describes this process as allowing “those that walk before us, our ancestors” to pass on the narratives of their pain, capturing the journey of survival and struggle inherent in their tribal identity. “That sacrifice that they have done through blood, sweat, and tears actually paved the way for us to live our lives more abundantly and with purpose,” he said. Today, around 160 community members have some experience speaking the Tunica language, according to the chairman. After tribal leader Sesostrie Youchigant died in 1948, the Tunica language and cultural traditions experienced a marked decline. Despite the language’s limited usage today, Pierite sees it and culture as intertwined. Together, the two threads create a rich tapestry of identity—one the tribe must prevent from fraying. “They very much rely on each other,” he said.
Although the tribal elders are the ones telling their stories, the effort is ultimately to benefit the community’s youth. To keep the tribe’s cultural memory alive, it must be passed down to those who will one day become the community’s leaders.
“The young people have no clue. They've seen the current society and how things are done,” Barbry said. “It's like, you know, like kids who don't even know how to use one of those old phones where you have to turn the dial? It's something that’s just gone out of use, and so it gets forgotten. So we can't let that happen.”
And the longer they wait to record those fragments of memory from the elders, Barby added, the harder the task. There is a danger in waiting too long, a fear that tribal knowledge will be lost each time an elder passes.
Hand-in-hand with capturing the experiences and wisdom of the tribe’s elders
is the multifaceted effort to include and inspire young people in the cultural revitalization of their tribe. Barbry explained that the Language & Cultural Revitalization Program facilitates language lessons, cultural craft workshops, stick ball games, and traditional storytelling—all activities and events designed to bring children into the fold.
“I used to have this ongoing joke with one of our elders that, you know, we have to be evangelists about this. We know you just can't take a stab at it and then expect it to be an ongoing concern,” Barbry said. “You build on that curiosity, and then hopefully they want to know more. They want to know how they can be part of that preservation work, and how we can keep our community thriving.”
When recently dwelling on the importance of revitalizing the Tunica-Biloxi cultural identity, Pierite shared an anecdote he had in conversation with Kylie Malveaux, the 19-year-old vice-chairwoman of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana’s Seventh Generation Youth Council. She reminded him to “be more concerned with being significant than successful, because when you're successful, you only bring value to yourself; when you're significant, you bring value to others.” He found the truism inspiring, a gentle reminder that the youth of the community have their own wisdom to share.
Malveaux is now a sophomore at Louisiana State University, but continues to be a leader to her tribe in Marksville—understanding intimately the importance of telling her elders’ stories, which she said is critical to
“keep[ing] our traditions and culture alive and well, and to be[ing] able to teach it and pass it along to our peers, siblings, our children, and future generations to come,” she said.
Today, Pierite sees promise in the tribe’s youth, which, just a decade ago, he described as disaffected and facing a crisis of identity. Since then, there has been an explicit push to heal in mind, body, and spirit—particularly in the native relationship to the land in the wake of climate change.
“Nobody knows Mother Earth like we do. Mother Earth is the same Mother Earth that sustained our people for centuries. So that is where our identity comes from,” he said. “[Our young people] recognize that the soil—a handful of soil to one might mean a handful of dirt—to them, that's what sustained us for centuries. And the water that we see, the clean water should [be] a reflection of our Creator that is within us.”
All of it is connected—the language, the culture, the land—and all of it must be lovingly and deliberately safeguarded for the tribe to flourish in the future. If the tribal community is a tree, Pierite said, the branches are the different paths people take on their own journeys, the leaves reflecting the changing seasons of life. But it’s the roots that keep the members of the tribe bonded to each other, even as they grow in their own unique directions.
Now that the federal funding for the oral history project has kicked in, Barbry and his team will be working in the new year to bring awareness to the project, to get people involved and interested—continuing that evangelist mission with renewed energy. He is seeking professional assistance with the archival work and planning how to best steer people into interviews where they feel comfortable enough to share the experiences that will preserve the tribe’s cultural memory.
“This is our way to tell our story,” he said. “Knowing where we came from and why—that's what keeps me going every day.” 1 tunicabiloxi.org.
Today, the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana’s Language and Culture Revitalization Program works to preserve the stories and traditions of its elders, while also engaging its youth through cultural programming. Photo courtesy of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe.
What Your Favorite Mardi Gras Throw Says About You
THROW ME EVERYTHING, MISTER
Story by Megan Broussard • Illustrations by Kourtney Zimmerman
You ran for class treasurer. You know Shark Tank judge if they asked for equity. You were a crypto millionaire for at least five minutes.
MoonPies
People have called you ‘wise beyond your years’ in a way that wasn’t a compliment. You fight about conspiracy theories on Reddit. You love root beer and are prepared to fight to the death if someone calls it an “old person drink” to your face again.
Cups
You’d drink wine out of anything. You’ve been sipping from the same Krewe of Cleopatra glitter cup since 2016. You reuse Shein bags for road snacks.
Stuffed Animals
Your idea of a nice, relaxing getaway is Disney World. Every so often you check eBay to see how much your Beanie Babies are worth. You’ll never forgive your brother for ripping off the arm of your childhood teddy, Mr. Inky Binky Bear.
You still have sweatshirts from your exes. You’re the one friend who finds the one cute thing at a thrift store. You own three pairs of jeans you wear no where and one pair of jeans you wear everywhere.
Frisbees
You played intramural sports in college and are overly confi dent at bar trivia nights. You could subsist solely on Popeye’s biscuits.
Koozies
You judge people who don’t use koozies. You can’t stand to be hot or cold. You prefer hot pizza, but leftover pizza has to be cold.
Beads
You have a ton of friends.
Beads with Medallions
You have a ton of friends on floats.
Beads That Light Up
You have a ton of friends wearing crowns on floats.
Women’s Undergarments
You sometimes sleep in socks or naked. You keep your eyes half open when you kiss. Your love language is all of them.
Sunglasses
The thought of going outside is more appealing to you than the act of going outside. You blame your bad eyesight on a dare to look directly at the sun in the second grade. You went through a purple phase in high school.
Plungers or Toilet Brushes
There’s definitely an issue with the way
Masks
Halloween is your second-favorite hol iday. You tell everyone who’ll listen that you’ve seen Phantom of the Opera times, but it’s actually twenty. You love costume parties as long as yours is the clear winner.
Mirror Compacts
You answer “femme fatale” when people ask about your hobbies. You feel weird putting chapstick on in public. You could never be “a faithful” on the show The Traitors
Genie Lamps
Your favorite people are from the Westbank. You’re convinced you’re one lottery ticket away from never having to pretend to care about people’s personal problems at work ever again. You used to think you were a clairvoyant, but it turns out you’re neurodivergent.
Coconuts
You’re a beach person—and by beach person, you mean a pool person. You think pineapples are overrated. You haven’t been able to drink rum in five years since “the incident.”
Shoes
One of your many toxic traits is you think you could win a foot race in heels. You prefer boiled shrimp over boiled crawfish but have never said those words out loud. You feel a deep, in explicable bond with Scrim, the dog fugitive.
Beer
This is not a Mardi Gras throw at all. This is just some thing your friend tossed to you be fore you passed out at the pregame and missed the parade entirely. 1
"I Don't Want History Hidden Anymore"
IN MISSISSIPPI, THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY SEES A RISE IN APPLICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC TO ERECT MARKERS AT BLACK HISTORICAL SITES
On an overcast day a few years ago, I walked ha half-mile from my home in downtown hEllisville, Mississippi, to a spot along a two-lane highway to watch the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) unveil a new state historical marker. The crowd waiting for the ceremony to begin was somber, and we made small talk in low voices. The drab weather played some role in this. But so did the history we had gathered to commemorate.
Mississippi natives and history buffs can recognize these state historical markers from almost a mile away—literally. Deep green and topped by the image of a blooming magnolia, each one is adorned with yellow lettering that, in a brief narrative, explains the historical significance of a location. During the last seventy-six years, more than 1,000 such markers have gone up in the state.
Titled “Lynching of John Hartfield,” this marker stands near the site of one of the most brutal racial killings in U.S. history. In 1919, a white mob murdered Hartfield, an African American, in front of a crowd of hundreds. Hartfield had been accused of raping his white girlfriend, though the veracity of that claim later came into question. Despite the murder occurring in public (there was even an advanced notice in the news-
paper), no arrest was ever made. Many of the thousands of onlookers even took pieces of Hartfield’s body home as souvenirs. And afterwards, life in Ellisville just went back to normal, like nothing had happened. More than a century later, we gathered where Hartfield died to bear witness anew.
A lynching isn’t something owed celebration, or even commemoration in the traditional sense, especially when considering that when the state began its marker program in 1949, the director of the MDAH said the goal was to “encourage justifiable pride in our state.” For decades, the moments of history this encompassed were overwhelmingly white, almost entirely bypassing the struggles and achievements of the many African Americans who called Mississippi home. Early on, old towns, old colleges, and Civil War sites were popular marker destinations. In the 1970s, markers went up at several historically Black colleges. It wasn’t until the twenty-first century, though, that many locales relating to the Civil Rights Movement began receiving markers, including one dedicated to the memory of Emmett Till in 2007.
But Marian Allen, the local woman who pursued the Hartfield marker, which would document a blight on Mississippi’s history, did so for reasons other than pride: remembrance and acknowledgment. “I don’t want history hidden anymore,” she said.
Despite being born and raised near Ellisville, Allen did not learn of the Hartfield lynching until 2021. An African-American woman in her fifties, she feels this was no oversight. Allen believes local leaders purposefully hid the lynching’s story for generations to avoid grappling with what happened. Now, because of her efforts, every person who comes through Ellisville on Highway 11 passes a marker that presents the details of Hartfield’s murder. “Just acknowledging what happened and not sweeping it under the rug anymore—I see it as part of a healing process,” she said.
Allen’s concerns about hidden history join a larger movement across the American South and beyond demanding an honest reckoning with the past, particularly regarding racial violence and the achievements of African Americans. Mississippi is a nucleus for much of this history, and in the years since the Hartfield marker went up, countless other members of the public across the state have followed Allen’s example.
Since 2022, the MDAH Board of Trustees has approved 118 new state historical markers, and more than half are related to African American history.
Some of these include commemorations of African Americans whose lives made an impact on their state and until now have been overlooked in Mississippi history; there are markers for Robert G. Clark Jr., the first
In 2023, the MDAH erected a historical marker recognizing the site at Duck Hill, Mississippi where Roosevelt "Red" Townes and Robert "Bootjack" McDaniels were violently tortured and killed by a white mob in 1937. Talamieka Brice, pictured, is a community member who submitted the application and oversaw the funding for the marker.
Photo by Rory Doyle, courtesy of Brice.
African American elected to the Mississippi Legislature in the twentieth century; the 1907 House in Jefferson Davis County—which is the site of the Prentiss Normal and Industrial Institute, a school for African American students; and the late Peter Crosby, the first African-American sheriff of Warren County.
Others are acknowledgments of the heinous acts committed against African-Americans in Mississippi, like the Hartfield marker. In 2023, a marker went up at the Duck Hill site where Roosevelt “Red” Townes and Robert “Bootjack” McDaniels were violently tortured and killed by a white mob in 1937. A few months later, a marker went up in Brookhaven honoring Lamar Smith, an African-American man involved in voter registration who in 1955 was killed on the courthouse lawn in broad daylight. The narratives on these plaques can be unpleasant to read. In coming months, even more historical markers bearing these stories and others will appear across the Mississippi countryside.
“We’re embedding these important stories into our landscape, ensuring they are visible and cannot be overlooked,” Linda Fondren, who pursued the Crosby marker, said.
For Fondren, who is the executive director of Catfish Row Museum in Vicksburg, it is a matter of passing on a more complete version of history to subsequent generations. She wanted the Crosby marker to not only honor his legacy but to connect “our past to present civil rights issues.”
“This visibility,” Fondren said, “serves as a powerful tool for education, encouraging future generations to understand our history and build a fairer future.”
“Some of our history is horrible, but it happened,” Debra Mabry, a Holmes County supervisor who pursued the Robert G. Clark Jr. marker, said. “It doesn’t need to be hidden. It needs to be told.”
For Talamieka Brice, who pursued the Townes and McDaniels marker, the stories serve an important function by simply existing in the public sphere because they “give voice to a historically marginalized community.”
The markers are not the only measures the state of Mississippi has taken toward acknowledging its fraught racial history. In 2017, the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum opened alongside the Museum of Mississippi History in Jackson. Known collectively as Two Mississippi Museums, the complex cost $90 million, and the civil rights museum presents an extensive and nuanced history of white supremacy, Jim Crow laws, and the Civil Rights Movement. Three years later, in 2020, the state Legislature removed the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag.
But the current trend of championing historical markers to document African American history in Mississippi has a more grassroots feel. The MDAH Board of Trustees, while overseeing the program, does not choose which parts of Mississippi history should be considered for historical markers. Instead, members of the public—like Fondren, Allen, Mabry, and Brice—apply for markers; the board then votes on the applications. If a proposed marker is approved, the applicant pays for its physical production. (Each marker costs roughly $2,700.) No taxpayer dollars are spent.
This means most of these new markers are being pursued by people connected to the communities where they are going up—suggesting a groundswell of a movement that wants Mississippi to tell a version of its history that it did not want to tell for a very long time. It’s not just the historians and the institutions vying for a true telling—it’s the people.
Historical markers certainly will not cure Mississippi of its fraught racial legacy, nor solve the ongoing repercus-
“WE’RE
EMBEDDING THESE IMPORTANT STORIES INTO OUR LANDSCAPE, ENSURING THEY ARE VISIBLE AND CANNOT BE OVERLOOKED."
—LINDA FONDREN
sions of inequality caused by enslavement, Jim Crow, and segregation. There remains a powerful faction within the state that is still hesitant to acknowledge certain aspects of its history—even going so far as to ban study of African American history in schools. Confederate figures and their ideals are still honored across Mississippi—the path I took to the Hartfield ceremony two years ago took me right by one such memorial. And every governor since 1993 has designated the month of April as Confederate Heritage Month.
Still, I cannot help but view the markers as a step, albeit a small one, toward creating a more honest Mississippi. I remember traveling the state with family members as a child, and each time I encountered a historical marker I had never seen before. The shape of the state I held in my head shifted a bit, deepened and widened, into something new. Where history is concerned, that shifting is never ending—it's how the past swims in the present. I have a young son now, and I wonder what shape Mississippi will hold in his mind. I hope it is one driven by the unifying vision Brice has for what these new historical markers can accomplish.
“My hope,” she said, “is that [the markers] inform others of the work that has been done here, inspires them to be more active in community, as well as acknowledge the fertile soil for revolutionary change and empowering narratives that we all stand on.” 1 mdah.ms.gov
Not Sad Enough for the Blues
FURRY LEWIS WAS ONE OF THE DELTA'S GREATS, BUT HE WAS TOO FAMILIAR FOR THE WORLD TO KNOW IT
Story by Andrew Comer
It is hard to know Walter “Furry” Lewis. I wouldn’t need to say this if you had met him, of course, but with every new year there are fewer people alive who have. When it comes to the blues, mystery is not uncommon, nor is it surprising. Trying to draw up an objective history of the genre is practically impossible. Blues “history,” in fact, bears more the hallmarks of myth and shadow than it does any objective light. But the mystique that surrounds Furry Lewis has nothing to do with mythology. There are few bluesmen whose lives have been better documented. We know the place Lewis was born (Greenwood, Mississippi); we know where he lived after he stopped recording (Memphis, Tennessee); and we know the exact year he died (1981). Lewis’s mystery is not historical, but instead frustratingly cliché: why was he not given the credit he deserved in the time that he lived? Even more mysterious: why didn’t he seem to care?
During the heydays of his career, in the 1910s and ‘20s, Lewis had developed a name for himself as a performer at parties, dances, fish fries, and gatherings on Beale Street, before taking to the road with various “medicine shows” and at juke joints across the south—which exposed him to new guitar and vocal styles. Following the
Walter "Furry" Lewis singing and playing guitar at the Wisconsin Delta Blues Festival, Beloit, Wisconsin, March 28, 1970.
Photo by Jeff Titon. CC BY-SA 4.0
music industry’s new attraction to the “country blues” style coming out of the Delta, Lewis recorded more than twenty songs for Vocalion and Victor. Around this time, though, the financial struggles of the Depression made it increasingly difficult for traveling musicians, much less one with a prosthetic leg (the result of a grisly train accident in 1917).
Lewis took a job as a street sweeper, and worked for the next forty years doing odd jobs for the City of Memphis. Though he still performed some local gigs on occasion, for most of the days of the week, he was not a musician. At two every morning, he sat in his kitchen, alone, listening to the soft percolating of the coffee machine and reading the newspaper while his wife, Versie, slept nearby. Then, it was walking the street corners around Beale and Maine, then Hernando, and so on, picking up the trash and other little bits of waste left behind the previous night. Sometimes friends in the street that knew him would wave, some days they wouldn’t. When work was over, Lewis would stop by Rothschild’s grocery store to try to get some beer on credit.
In those years, he rarely left Memphis, where he had lived most of his life—save for the few times a year he could visit Greenwood, the place of his birth. Inevitably this made him a far reach for blues audiences on the East and West coasts. Even if you were in Memphis, you still had to find him first. There were, of course, a few tricks. Haunt the local bars downtown; he'd play there from time to time. If you were lucky, you’d find one of his friends. They knew the hours he would be home, and they’d take you to the duplex apartment he owned on Mosby Street. I’ve heard that sometimes he would play for guests in his pajamas, if you can imagine that. But despite the way his own elusiveness stunted his rise to fame, it appeared Lewis was happily settled
down, in every sense of the phrase.
Dr. David Evans, who recorded Lewis in 1968, put it this way: “He didn't tour coffee houses, clubs, folk festivals, etc. With his civil service job and eventually Social Security, he was content to be a local musical hustler with a steady stream of visitors who would bring drinks and some money, plus occasional local club and festival gigs. It was a very different adaptation from most of the other Blues giants of his generation.”
In addition, Lewis’s songs didn’t seem to fit in with the public’s definition of “blues” music. Before its explosion in the sixties, blues music was primarily defined by New York City, whose audience tied it to a single quality: misery. The blues was the long day with the sun on your back. It was pain and longing. While there is truth to this, what the audience in New York did not know was that, historically, this was dancing music. It was customary for the audience to sing along, to laugh and to drink.
As the story goes, this changed when Leadbelly and so many other itinerant musicians took up permanent residence in New York in the ‘30s and ‘40s. Suddenly, their rural music was being played in large concert halls and at prestigious universities. This was far removed from its usual stages in barrelhouses and on street corners. The blues, which up until this point had been an orally-transmitted tradition, was transcribed and analyzed, and conclusions drawn. The “southern blues” forms were interrogated, then cataloged, and this included its performers. Even the music’s thick local accents were removed so the lyrics could be more readable and ultimately, sell-able, in books and magazines. In performance, audiences often politely chuckled at the music’s perceived crudeness. Leadbelly himself chose to perform in the costume of a country bumpkin,
complete with overalls and bare feet, to covertly play into this perception and make a profitable living.
In general, the blues was treated like classical music. White city bankers and professors in high-waisted trousers went to Carnegie Hall with their secretaries and listened rapturously from their seats to lyrics about farm living, cotton picking, corporate corruption, housefires, racism, and lynchings. In the end, they were there for the misery; they craved these gothic stories that illustrated the South as a largely evil and backward place, soaked in blood and darkness. The new record companies at the time were obliged to craft mysterious, often exaggerated, backstories for their singers to complete this shadowy picture. Thus, the beginnings of blues mythology. But these stories were not just on-the-ground reportings of the devastation and oppression from slavery and the Jim Crow era. They were also the darkest comedies ever written about America.
An example of this is the song, “Black Betty,” which by now has been covered hundreds of times. It was common to hear prisoners on Texas chain-gangs singing its popular refrain, “Whoa, Black Betty, bam-balam," while they worked. From his travels throughout the Deep South, folklorist Alan Lomax discovered the chilling meaning of these words: “Black Betty was the ironic name the prisoners gave to the punishment whip, then still in frequent use. . . When this strap fell upon the spread-eagled prisoner, it would raise him inches off the ground. We were told the song mimicked the sound of the whip [bam-ba-lam]. I marveled at the fierce courage of men who could make ironic and bawdy fun of so frightening an antagonist.” Around the time “Black Betty” was first heard in New York, droves of white audiences looked upon these words with gasping solemnity; its Black authors threw a party and danced.
In those days, a musician that played old folk music could make a killing in New York so long as they played the “lonesome” blues. A musician like Furry Lewis, who used blues largely as an expression of humor, had little space in that music scene. His music was mostly concerned with entertainment and its emotions, like its singer’s, were usually playful, full of sudden moments of great pride and ecstasy.
And his story, as well as his personality, weren’t well suited for mythology either. There was no mysterious past; he would have told you all about it, if you’d asked. Lewis didn’t have a disappearance to answer for, as other blues singers did—he’d been right there in Memphis the entire time. He hadn’t been plucked out of some ghost town like John Hurt or found dying in a hospital bed like Skip James. Memphis was this bustling city that everyone had heard of and could attach no exotic antiquity to, as they could to Avalon or Tunica. Had Lewis stopped touring because he’d witnessed a murder like Son House and thought the Devil was hunting him? Perhaps he’d crawled right into a bottle and out of sight?
No, it was simply life, cliché, that halted Lewis’s life as a traveling musician. The Depression came, and facing complete destitution, Lewis was forced to take work wherever he could find it. It was the dreary tale of many a musician during that time. What set Lewis apart was his attitude towards the events of his life, and the musical success that always eluded him. In his own words, in 1976, “I'm 83 years old, half-blind, and gots a wooden leg. But I sure gots a lot of friends.” Even in old age, he refused to make more of himself than the simple facts. So, even after he was rediscovered by Sam Charters in
“I'M 83 YEARS OLD, HALF-BLIND, AND GOTS A WOODEN LEG. BUT I SURE GOTS A LOT OF FRIENDS.”
1959, the audience didn’t hold their breath when Furry Lewis’s name was announced, as they did with the others, thinking to themselves, "Just who or what is coming to the stage?" They’d most likely already met him somewhere. You can see it in the footage—the Memphis Blues Festival in 1969, for example: Lewis strolls blissfully in from the wings as if he had just been asked to come perform for some friends. Odds are, that’s exactly who they were. The festival announcer even says with an elated sigh, “Now, a man that needs no introduction around here…” and Lewis smiles wide knowing that he is at home.
One thing is still true, and more important than legacy. Few can paint like Furry Lewis can with music. Listen to the “Why Don’t You Come Home Blues,” and you’ll believe me. The story takes place over just a few midnight hours, yet its implications ripple across the singer’s entire life. After finding his bed empty and his woman gone, the narrator is attacked by childhood
—FURRY LEWIS
advice from his mother and has visions of his own coffin rolling down the street. He wants to hurl himself from the treetops. Then, to boot, he has prophesying dreams of the world collapsing. Meanwhile, through all of this, the guitar is chugging along like a coal engine. Narratively, this is the past, the future, the present, the inner and the outer world, all in just three minutes. Even when the woman returns at the end, the man still cannot help but admit he would’ve liked to have died when he was younger—the final “punchline” being that if this is what life is, I hope they kill me now. This is cosmic humor worthy of Shakespeare
So, listen to Furry Lewis speak, listen to his music, listen to how he laughs at everything, how he winks and smiles when he lies. Listen to how his machinery fails when he speaks; how his tongue cannot help but trip over itself trying to put that great spirit into words. When you believe you are done, imagine then a man that is crushed by a freight train, laughing. 1
Listen to the Waves
A NEW SPOKEN POETRY
ALBUM BY JEFFREY ROEDEL
Interview by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot
In December, Baton Rouge multi-disciplinary artist Jeffrey Roedel released his latest album of spoken word poetry—Waves. The project is the artist's fifth fulllength collection since he started publishing poetry during the pandemic—seeing hthe artform as an opportunity to collaborate with local musical talent. For Waves, he brought on board the GIVERS' Josh LeBlanc, Royal Teeth's Gary Larsen, Seth Kauffman (guitarist for Lana del Rey and Jim James), and a host of others to contribute to this atmospheric study on heartbreak, its ebbing and its flowing. For this year's Music issue, we sat down with Roedel to learn more about the album's backstory.
How is Waves a continuation of your body of work? How is it different?
Waves became a little more personal than the last album. It started as an idea for a smaller project, but when I really dug into a lot of ideas around resilience, stillness, spiritual purpose, and waves, I realized this had to be a full album. But throughout, the line from “Sudden Moves” remained a core theme: “Baby, I’m the best of the best when I’m breaking.” That’s a wave. We appreciate them most when the surf explodes and the water screams and crashes into the sand. But maybe that’s people, too. The “baby” in question is me. This is positive self-talk. I thought, maybe I’m at my best when I’m breaking. Because that’s when I’m most in tune with my feelings and learn ing and growing through something difficult. That’s the hope.
How do you go about working with other creatives to create the soundscapes for your poetry?
I like to think of it as a cinematic process. A composer scoring a film scene will watch the scene and listen to the dialog over and over before he starts to write the music. Making these poetry soundscapes is similar to that.
The music tracks can start with a simple mood, a discussion about the feel of the poem, or something as specific as a riff on guitar or keys that fits well. But it all begins with the words, or the rhythm of the demo vocal track I make and how my friends and I feel when listening to the bare poem itself.
As for the poetry itself—what are the stories, themes, language that inspire these works in Waves from a lyric standpoint?
A lot of these words grew out of a heartbreaking situation for sure. Several of these are my attempts to grapple with being suddenly shoved into that state, to think through what happened and what’s next.
But water arrived as a theme one day, and it just felt right to explore that with Waves, and I knew it would be therapeutic. Even if I was the only person who read them, I needed to write these poems in a desperate way. So that was enough of an impulse to begin again. 1
Find an expanded version of this interview at countryroadsmag.com. You can now listen to Waves, by Roedel et Alia, on Spotify.
The St. John Cathedral Oak
A sentinel of centuries stands in the heart of Lafayette
On the grounds of Lafayette’s Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist stands the St. John Cathedral Oak. With a massive, twisting trunk more than twenty-nine feet in circumference, this venerable live oak could be as much as five hundred years old. So, it would have been impressive already when Lafayette founder Jean Mouton donated this land to the Catholic Church in 1821.
Typically, live oak trees grow more slowly as they age. But the Cathedral Oak—one of the original Live Oak Society’s best-known surviving members, has been carefully nurtured in recent years.
With consideration and expert care, heritage live oaks like the Cathedral Oak can be protected and preserved, enabling these great sentinels of Southern history to endure for centuries to come.
Jeffrey Roedel's new album, Waves, came out in December 2024. Album photo by Micah Nickens, portrait by TahJah Harmony.
Escapes
MUSICAL MEANDERINGS
All Are Welcome
NIGHTS, PAST AND PRESENT, AT THE DEW DROP INN
Story by Joey Cirilo • Photos by Rush Jagoe
In the heart of New Orleans’s Central City neighborhood, on an otherwise dimly-lit Lasalle Street, ha red, white, and black sign illuminates the side of a standalone building: The Dew Drop Inn. Hotel. Lounge. Restaurant. A red arrow with glowing amber lights signals that the place is, in fact, open. But what a casual passerby might not fully realize is that this opening has been almost twenty years in the making. Though, the history goes back much further than that.
The year was 1939. Frank G. Painia was selling ice cold refreshments out of his barber shop at 2836 Lasalle Street to those within earshot at the nearby Magnolia Housing Project, which provided shelter to low-income individuals and families post-World War II. Organically, the barber shop expanded, and the Dew Drop Inn developed around it. The sound of brass instruments, familiar notes of jazz and rhythm and blues, flowed from the building’s doors and
out into the streets. By 1945, a proper dancehall had taken shape. With local musicians Edgar Blanchard and Dave Bartholomew holding residency at his venue, Painia began booking acts with cash deals and comped rooms in exchange for entertainment in the hotel’s lounge. Along with its evolution, a nickname developed: “The Groove Room.” In October of the same year, the Louisiana Weekly dubbed it, “New Orleans’s swankiest nightclub.” The Dew Drop Inn had taken on a life of its own, transforming into a must-stop destination for Black musicians and music lovers—demonstrably featured in the Negro Motorist Green Book, an invaluable resource for African Americans that identified friendly places of businesses and services, published from 1936 to 1966 by Victor Hugo Green.
The Groove Room became a mainstay, and, for the most part, remained unbothered, until seven years later, in 1952, when Painia and associates were placed
under arrest for serving Black and white people together, which was prohibited by law at the time. The complaint was submitted via an anonymous tip to the New Orleans Police Department. Ultimately, the charges were dropped and Painia filed suit against the city.
Even so, the 1950s and 1960s were the heyday at the Dew Drop Inn. A one-ofa-kind establishment at the forefront of music in the days of segregation, the Inn hosted artists the likes of James Brown, Tina Turner, Little Richard, and Ray Charles, who provided otherworldly, unrepeatable performances that attracted audiences across racial lines.
When segregation laws were repealed, the Inn’s popularity dropped as other such clubs began popping up all over the city—many of which were replicating the Inn’s success. Painia’s health declined with age, and once regular musical acts turned irregular, then nonexistent, the Dew Drop Inn fell into disrepair. Years later, it was Hurricane Katrina, though,
that brought the death knell—flooding the club and forcing closure. The Dew Drop would remain abandoned for almost twenty years, despite multiple attempts to save it.
Finally, in 2021, Kenneth Jackson, Painia’s grandson, with the assistance of real estate developer Curtis Doucette Jr., secured the nearly $8 million necessary to restore and redevelop the Dew Drop Inn—a three-year project dead set on respectfully and accurately revitalizing what is now a designated New Orleans Historic Landmark. Emphasis was placed on architectural preservation, and the design included maintaining the building’s original street-facing balconies, arched entrance, and lunette windows— while readjusting the floor plan to create seventeen larger rooms, including three suites.
Almost a year ago, in March 2024, they accomplished just that. And once again, lights flickered to life and music filled the rooms at the Dew Drop Inn.
Today, guests at the club find themselves in a small but cozy, well-lit lobby. Art and signage adorn the tan-colored walls. An “All are welcome” sign greets you once you’ve entered the double doors. Nestled between the messaging, there is a quote from Irma Thomas, the Soul Queen of New Orleans: “A lot of Black businesses became a safe haven from the perils of segregation. Because that’s where we could enjoy ourselves and be who we were, Black people. Human Black peo-
ple. Having a good time. Entertaining each other. And going on with our lives as they were at the time.”
Staying at the hotel is an immersive experience. Walk up the Wes Anderson-esque, sunset-hued staircase, its purple railing illuminated by three large, glowing orbs, and step onto a narrow hallway with a funky patterned carpet and red lipstick colored doors. Each room is dedicated to an individual who played a part in the Dew Drop’s history. Patsy Vidalia, long-
time hostess and entertainer at the Inn, is immediately to your left. Down the hall, there is local R&B singer and songwriter Tommy Ridgley. And so on. The homage extends into the rooms themselves, with art and memorabilia decorating the walls amongst the modern furnishings.
Adjacent to the hotel is, of course, the music venue. Odds are, your ears will guide you right to it. A number of tables and chairs half-occupy the spacious, wooden room, leaving appropriate
space for dancing. The room is complete with a sizable stage, sleek bar, and full kitchen from Chef Marilyn Doucette of Meals From the Heart Café—serving up late night bar bites, pool snacks for the Haven Pool Club located out back, a daily lunch, and a prix fixe Sunday buffet brunch. Well-made, traditional New Orleans fare is at the center of it all: French toast with house-made sweet mascarpone, Creole breakfast potatoes with sautéed peppers and onions, piping hot grits & grillades, and other classics.
But what really steals the show is the room situated to the left of the venue’s entrance: Frank Painia’s meticulously revamped barber shop-turned-museum. And while a cut and a shave is not made readily available, you can stand, walk through, and peruse the storied history in the very spot the Dew Drop Inn was founded in 1939.
A symbol of Black entrepreneurship and culture, a reprieve and a safe haven, a shining beacon amid darker times— eighty-six years later, the Dew Drop shines brighter than ever in the heart of New Orleans’s Central City neighborhood, on an otherwise dimly-lit Lasalle Street. And as everyone there would eagerly tell you, all are welcome. Ladies & Gentleman, it’s showtime at the Dew Drop. 1 dewdropinnnola.com
HONKY TONKS
Give it a Whirl
A MOVEMENT OWNS ITS MOMENT
Story by Ashley Hinson • Photos by Molly McNeal
Fhor the past twenty years, a cultural movement has been unfolding in Opelousas, Louisiana, and at its center is the Whirlybird Compound—a fever dream of a place that honors the legendary Cajun, Zydeco, and honky tonk halls that once served as cultural hubs in Acadiana. Jim Phillips’ and Christy Leichty’s tribute to Louisiana’s rich musical heritage, which began as a kind of speakeasy-style secret dancehall, has evolved into a dynamic, multifaceted creative coalition. As a host of live performances, workshops, and an artist residency program, the Whirlybird offers a space for artists of all disciplines to connect and collaborate, re-imagining the communal role these venues once played when dance halls dotted the prairies. Its DIY ethos has created its own ecosystem, which will be bolstered by a new nonprofit status in 2025.
A Honky Tonk is Born
The Whirlybird’s origin story begins on a San Francisco dance floor, where Philips and Leichty met. Phillips had founded a Montessori school in town, and later Leighty would join him there. But it was that first dance that sparked a lifelong collaboration steeped in a zeal for music and dancing, a passion that would
eventually bring them to Louisiana.
“We both have always been outsiders in one way or another,” Phillips explained. “But when we met, we knew we had a shared vision. Our feet took us to different parts of the world, but it always felt like we were headed in the same direction.”
Their first Mardi Gras together in Louisiana was the catalyst for their decision to eventually move to Opelousas. Phillips recalls that they had also visited New Orleans, but the charm of the more rural parts of the state captivated them. “It was the sense of something real, something genuine,” Phillips said. “We just fell in love with it.”
In 2000, they took the plunge and bought property just outside Opelousas while they were still living in California—calling the place their “camp.” As they watched surrounding dance halls in the Acadiana area start to shut down, they started to joke about putting one in the yard. They moved full-time to Louisiana in 2006, and it didn’t take long before the manifestation came true, and the Whirlybird was born. The goal was to have a place where the community could come together to experience music and art. They envisioned it as an underground modern-day honky tonk—a place where
the local culture could thrive in a contemporary way, all while remaining deeply rooted in tradition.
“In Louisiana, grassroots creativity flourishes in ways big cities can’t match,” said Leichty, who for many years acted as program director at the Lafayette community theatre Cité des Arts and today is a teacher in the Lafayette Parish School District.
In the early days of the South Louisiana Blackpot Festival & Cookoff in nearby Lafayette, word about the Whirlybird quickly spread among the festival’s performing musicians. The pre- and post-Blackpot jam sessions cemented its reputation. “That’s how it all started,” Phillips said.
More than a Place
Today, when you first reach the Whirlybird compound, it might feel as though you've wandered into a dream—a world that feels part whimsical, part grounded, and all hand-made. The grounds of the compound are large but secluded by forest. Rusted metal sculptures greet you on the lawn. More than just a haven for musicians, in the Whirlybird, Philips and Leichty have created a vibrant melting pot of creativity through musical performances, workshops, camps and retreats. The space brings together artists of every kind, spanning music, theater, visual arts, textile creation, and more.
The venue—with its multicolor lights, old warehouse pine floors that creak satisfyingly underfoot, and walls packed to the gills with music memorabilia, antique phones, photos, flags, lights, and posters
—holds a rustic atmosphere that would be a set designer’s dream. Each décor item was thrifted or repurposed, and the place's namesake, a small personal helicopter, is at the center of it all.
Vintage-style campers provide the accommodations for the Whirlybird’s residency program, with themed rooms such as the “Kingdom of Zydeco,” and expansive outdoor spaces that invite collaboration and interaction. Yet, despite its sprawling nature, the compound retains a sense of intimacy, something intrinsic to Phillips’ and Leichty’s vision for a cultural sanctuary that is simultaneously wide-reaching and deeply personal. The space offers artists an opportunity to work on their craft in an inspiring, welcoming environment fostering creation.
Out back, the Tower Art Gallery stands as the largest piece of folk art on display, crafted from found materials and countless windowpanes. Its winding, oblong corners mislead you into thinking you’re headed one way only to lead you to another. The Tower serves as a workshop, artist residency space, and a testament to Phillips’ craftsmanship. He built the stairs to the gallery from recycled wood and tin, and it's dotted with everything from band posters to shibori scarves. Light comes in easily from lifting ceilings, and a stained glass light bulb drives the point home.
“We like to avoid too many rules,” said Phillips. “People come here because they value the hidden, underground nature of it. It’s purposeful, tied to the culture.”
For the past three years, the Whirlybird has also hosted the Blown Away on
Christy Leichty and Jim Phillips, owners of the Whirlybird.
the Bayou Blues and Harmonica Summit, an event that brings blues musicians together to connect and collaborate. The summit’s rapid evolution from a “what if we” idea between them and harmonica master Grant Dermody into reality highlights Leichty and Phillips’ knack for creating impactful programs at just the right moment—a talent they hope to expand as they transition into a nonprofit organization.
Looking forward to the new status in the coming year, Phillips and Leighty are eager to explore new opportunities for Whirlybird to support local artists. Through fundraising and grants, the couple has finally reached a point where they are able to commit to fair payment for their artists. “It’s a really important part of our mission,” Leichty said. “When we started, it was tough, but now it’s a priority. We’ve come a long way from where we started.”
With plans for a major overhaul of their digital platform, the couple hopes to bring even more attention to their work and attract new artists and audiences.
In addition to the residency programs and calendar of live music shows, the Whirlybird is working to expand its slate of workshops and classes. By providing more opportunities for learning, collaboration, and artistic development, Phillips and Leighty hope to create a sustainable future for the arts in Louisiana.
“We’re committed to providing more opportunities for young artists to connect with established artists, to create something new, and to continue to keep the creative spirit of this region alive,” Leichty said. “We do this because it’s beautiful and fun—a celebration of our humanity,”
“There’s nothing else like this place,” said Phillips. 1 thewhirlybird.com
February 8 through April 13, 2025
Bluesman and songwriter, Ray Bonneville at his January 3, 2024 performance at the Whirlybird.
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WEDNESDAY,
PERSPECTIVES: ART OF OUR STATE
“Pavicons”
OVER THE COURSE OF FORTY YEARS, FRANCIS PAVY MEDIATES A VISUAL LANGUAGE FOR ACADIANA
By Jordan LaHaye Fontenot
When Francis Pavy was a young child, there was a day when his mother took him and his siblings out to Cankton to pick blackberries. Despite the fact that Cankton was merely fifteen miles from their home in Lafayette, Pavy somehow got the idea that they were headed to the “Wild West.” “We were at a farm, and there was barbed wire, and blackberry bushes with their thorns, and I just distinctly remember equating that with cowboy country, bucking broncos,” he recalls.
The image stayed with him, and acquired new texture years later when he was picking up a girlfriend, waiting for her to get ready. “I was walking in the newly plowed field, just killing time. I turned around, and the sun was setting and illuminating all these briars and thorns. They had these real fuzzy, kind of red thorns on green stems.”
More than half a century later, the scene, the briars in
swamp pop in Vacherie when Pavy was three or four, at his aunt’s wedding—a night that forever instilled within him a love for Louisiana French music.
This collection of iconography emerges from Pavy as something viscerally familiar for others who grew up in Acadiana, holding shared understandings and interpretations between the artist and his community. Examining Pavy’s work, we know, instantly, where we are.
Pavy’s is an artist’s mind, nurtured by a succession of influences beginning with the early 1950s Saturday morning television show, Learn to Draw. The program featured fifteen-minute lessons by artist Jon Gnagy. Pavy joins other artistic giants—including Andy Warhol—in being inspired by the show, begging his parents for the official John Gnagy art kit.
When that didn’t satisfy him, Pavy’s parents signed him up for art classes with the internationally-recognized contemporary landscape artist Elemore Morgan
particular, remain imprinted in his brain, one of many that “seem to haunt” him, manifesting in variations across his vast body of artwork. “I have a lot of things that visit me or make an impression in my memory,” he said, describing them as “visual memories—memories associated with color and form and shape, instead of language.”
Other such “Pavicons”—as the artist’s friends refer to them—include accordions and coffee cups, clouds and cane grass, distinct from the marsh grass motif, which Pavy believes he collected from a map his father’s geologist friend showed him when he was young. Likewise, Pavy’s birds come from memories of a high school friend who dreamed of becoming an ornithologist. Vignettes of couples dancing can be traced back to a seminal night of
Jr., who was at the time teaching at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette). Pavy took Morgan’s children’s class in Girard Park, where he recalls learning the art of color-mixing, turning blue and yellow into green. “After that, I mixed color in my head all the time, throughout my childhood. Like when the sky was pink, I’d wonder what I would . . . what colors I would use to make that. I thought about it all the time.”
Years later, after switching from USL’s music program (“I was a blues freak,” he said) to fine arts, he and Morgan reunited. “He’s who taught me to draw,” said Pavy. When the time came for him to follow the conventional path of the Louisiana artist undergrads—attending graduate school somewhere far away—Pavy felt an
overwhelming inclination to stay. “There was too much to investigate here,” he said. “I didn’t want to go and be an artist anywhere else.” During this time, he found subjects in the center of the emerging late 1970s “cosmic Cajun” dancehall scene of the time—marked by experimental takes on the Louisiana French music traditions led by bands like Michael Doucet’s Coteau. His senior thesis project was a ceramic work depicting a full Cajun band.
After graduation, Pavy opened up a studio in his garage shed in Lafayette, working an offshore oil job to make ends meet. Eventually he got an opportunity to work at a glass shop in Lafayette, and it was around the 1980s when he returned to the idea of being a painter. He dates the beginning of his professional life as a fulltime artist as 1985.
Over the course of his career, memorialized in a retrospective book published in December 2024 by UL Press titled Francis Pavy: Forty Years, Pavy’s work has become instantly recognizable, despite his resistance to being bound by style or form. “I don’t limit myself in any way, to any one style,” he said. Though the majority of his work tends toward formalism built from abstraction, symbolism, and bright color—he has also created several remarkable photorealist portraits of Louisiana icons, including artist and musician Dickie Landry, multi-instrumentalist and record producer Joel Savoy, Creole accordionist Cedric Watson, and artist Douglas Bourgeois. “Sometimes I want to challenge myself,” he said of this stylistic shift. “I want to see where my chops are, and I’ll decide to paint something realistic.”
Most of the time, though, Pavy describes his work as like jazz—improvisational. “I’m always kind of inundated with ideas,” he said. From these, as well as his collection of mental images and his notebooks of drawings, he’ll decide what he wants to explore. “It’s intuitive,” he said. “My work has always fed on itself. I am always kind of looking at my peripheral vision as influencing color themes and ideas. So, it kind of builds over time. Very few things come out full-fledged.” Though, when they do, it’s often like magic—a burst of obsessive inspiration, all at once. Pavy describes one evening after he had been out, dressed up. He sat down to paint and didn’t stop for five hours, completing the entire thing and covering his nice clothes in paint.
The process of putting together his retrospective, gathering works from the past forty years, reminded Pavy of many ideas and themes he didn’t feel he’d finished exploring. The works he is creating today are largely inspired from earlier versions of himself. “I figured this was a good opportunity to go back and start at the beginning again,” he said, “embracing those old themes and coming back with the skills and knowledge of these past forty years.”
Many of these pieces will be featured in an exhibition of new works, called Echoes of Hue and Song, showing at the Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans this February, including “Full Moon at the Blue Moon,” which emerged from a particularly magical night at the Lafayette dancehall jam. Pavy, who plays the lap steel guitar, described the musical synergy as “like two people making ten, like an orchestra. It’s multiplication instead of addition.” The night was an incredible one, with a full moon, he said. “So, I made a painting.” 1 pavy.com
