Country Roads Magazine "The Film Issue" November 2022 Issue

in Robotic

Mo Al Efishat, MD, FSSO

Brent W. Allain Jr., MD, FASMBS

Mark G. Hausmann, MD, FACS, FASMBS

Kleinpeter

MD,

LeBlanc,

MBA,

FASMBS

John M. Lyons III, MD, FACS, FSSO

Events

11GATHER ‘ROUND

To raise glasses, admire artwork, and get in some early holiday shopping

REFLECTIONS

A night at the movies by James Fox-Smith

& NOTEWORTHIES

Contents

Features

40 45

THE PAPAJOHN EFFECT

One of Baton Rouge’s busiest actors talks Skip Bertman, stunting, and Spider-Man. by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

THE DOCUMENTED SOUTH

The best of this year’s documentaries tell stories of regional music, lost languages, and more. by Alexandra Kennon

50CRAFTY APES

The Louisiana artist-technicians behind Hollywood’s wildest illusions by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

On the Cover

THE HOMEGROWN CINEMA OF HOLLYWOOD SOUTH Cover artwork by Burton Durand

Thirty nine years of Southern storytelling in these pages has produced celebrations and expolorations of this region’s extraordinary landscape in terms of visual arts, performing arts, cultural eccentricities, culinary wonders, opportunities for adventure, scientific discoveries, and re-examinations of history.

One facet of the Gulf South that has been largely left to the margins of our cultural coverage has been its significant place in the world of filmmaking.

Recognizing the embarrassment of stories just waiting to be told about Louisiana and Mississippi’s place in the national film industry, we’ve decided this year to dedicate an entire issue to the subject—and still feel as though we’ve only scratched the surface.

ducing our inaugural Country Roads Film Issue is an original work by Burton Durand—a vintage film poster-inspired tableau capturing the co-existant joie de vivre and strangeness of Louisiana’s culture that so tantalizingly attracts the camera. Inside, meet one of the industry’s mosthired bad guys (the one who made Spider-Man, Spider-Man), get the scoop on this year’s most exciting Southern documentaries and the address for the new film acceessories store in Gretna, and mark your calendars for the annual Southern Screen Festival in Lafayette later this month. So read on, then sit back and watch the remarkable artistry emerging from our home, celebrated on the silver screen.

Publisher James Fox-Smith Associate Publisher Ashley Fox-Smith

Managing Editor Jordan LaHaye Fontenot Arts & Entertainment Editor Alexandra Kennon Creative Director Kourtney Zimmerman

Contributors: Beth D’Addono, Burton Durand, William Guion, Sophie Nau, Chris Turner-Neal, John Wirt, Poet Wolfe

Cover Artist Burton Durand Advertising

SALES@COUNTRYROADSMAG.COM Sales Team Heather Gammill & Heather Gibbons Advertising Coordinator Jen de Mers Raney

President Dorcas Woods Brown

54

Cuisine Culture

SPAGHETTI STORIES

Getting to the roots of New Orleans’ Creole-Italian cuisine

by Sophie Nau

58 LEFT IN THE 3RD DIMENSION

Ed and Susan Poole have dedicated their lives to preserving film ephemera and accessories.

by John Wirt

NOW SHOWING

A look inside the Prytania, Louisiana’s oldest continuously-operating movie theatre by Poet Wolfe

SOUTHERN SCREEN

The Lafayette film festival serves as a vibrant pedestal for Southern storytelling. by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

LOUISIANA HAS A PLACE IN HORROR

Why our homestate is the perfect setting for the unsettling by Chris Turner-Neal

Escapes

68BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD A guide to the arts

Country Roads Magazine 758 Saint Charles Street Baton Rouge, LA 70802 Phone (225) 343-3714 Fax (815) 550-2272

EDITORIAL@COUNTRYROADSMAG.COM WWW.COUNTRYROADSMAG.COM

Subscriptions

Reflections

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In the town where I grew up, there was a movie theatre named the Belgrave Cameo. A grand old Art Deco-style building complete with shiny, overstuffed folding seats and red velvet curtains that swept back as the opening credits rolled, the Cameo was a local institution that had already been showing movies for forty years by 1977—the year my dad took me there to see the original Star Wars. For the sevenyear-old boy that I was at the time, this was desperately exciting—something that I think counts as one of my earli est memories. Separating real memories from constructed ones is impossible, but I swear I remember being sunk into one of the Cameo’s huge, overstuffed folding seats in the dark as the red cur tains slid back to reveal George Lucas’s iconic title sequence rolling across a ga lactic sky. From that point forward, go ing to the movies at the Cameo played a not-inconsiderable supporting role in my childhood and teenaged years. First it was movies with my dad (Star Wars, Moonraker, Close Encounters of the Third Kind). Later came the sweaty, adolescent coming-of-age films with friends (Risky Business, Class, Romancing the Stone).

Eventually, during the inevitable first, awkward dates, the Cameo delivered welcome refuge in the form of dark ness—and relief from the need to make conversation—during movies like Back to the Future, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and of course, Crocodile Dundee

The Cameo became an even more vital prop to my social life during my teenaged years in the early eighties, when video cassette recorders arrived on Australian shores to begin under mining the cinema business. Apparently I was the only kid in my school whose parents were suspicious enough of the brain-rotting evils of television to refuse to own a VCR. So, while my friends got to spend their adolescences watching movies while lolling about on couches at home, I was still stuck in the folding seats at the Cameo. While I’m sure that thirteen-year-old me considered this a terrible hardship, it did make the act of seeing a movie continue to feel like an occasion—one that came with the added benefit of a well-stocked candy concession stand. My mother was a den tist, and if there was a bigger boogieman than television, it was sugar. So even if the movie showing at the Cameo wasn’t any good, the concession stand made a nice consolation prize.

When our own kids were little, we didn’t let them watch much TV—a

privation for which I suppose they have their paternal grandmother to thank. But whenever we took them to visit their Australian grandparents, the trips always included at least one movie night at the Cameo, which, through some combination of location, good manage ment, and blind luck, had not only sur vived the VCR, DVD, and streaming video revolutions, but thrived. By 2012, when we took the kids there to see Mad agascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, the cinema had expanded to three screens, the concession stand had started selling beer and gourmet sandwiches, and a secondhand bookstore had opened next door, which gave their TV-averse grand mother something to do when the mov ie got too much for her. There’s some

thing marvelous about taking your kids to experience a landmark of your own childhood and seeing them adore it. When I go back to visit now, there’s not much about my childhood hometown that hasn’t changed beyond recognition. The Cameo is a notable exception, and I’m grateful for that.

Sometime over the summer—our first with no kids in the house since 2003—my wife and I went to a Baton Rouge multiplex to see Top Gun: Mav erick, (this a full thirty-five years since I saw the original Top Gun at you-knowwhere). The movie, as everyone who’s seen it will agree, is awesome—a spec tacle of eye-popping flight sequences that just have to be experienced on a big screen to be fully appreciated. It was our first time back to a movie theatre since COVID-19, when like most everyone else, we let streaming TV change the act of watching a movie from a special oc casion, into a displacement activity. So, it felt good to be back in a packed the ater, popcorn in hand, feeling the rush and rise of a story arc ripple through the audience. Some experiences are better shared, and a good movie is one of them. All the streaming TV in the world is no substitute for that.

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

Noteworthy

NEWS, TIMELY TIDBITS, AND OTHER CURIOSITIES W

Recovering the Lost Histories

THE IBERIA AFRICAN AMERICAN SOCIETY CENTER FOR RESEARCH & LEARNING OPENS THIS MONTH

After retiring in 2013 from a long career as a professor of Communicative Disorders hand as Dean of the College of General Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Dr. Phebe Hayes decided to volunteer her time with the li brary in her hometown of New Iberia.

While working in the genealogy sec tion, she came across a book celebrat ing the great doctors of Iberia Parish from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth. Every single doctor in cluded was male and white. “But I knew that couldn’t be true, because I grew up about a block away from the home of Dr. George Dick, who had been a Black doc tor in Iberia Parish for over fifty years,” said Hayes. “And I knew it wasn’t true be cause I grew up hearing my grandparents talk about their wonderful Black doctors in the 1940s, and how some of them had been beaten and expelled from Iberia Par ish. Most Black kids growing up in my

generation had heard those stories.”

She was holding, in her hands, just one example of the way Iberia’s Black history had been completely erased. A researcher by nature and by profession, Hayes start ed doing the work to find these missing stories. “If you omit or exclude marginal ized people from the writing of the nar ratives of a community, then they don’t exist,” said Hayes. Among many, many other stories of Black achievement in Ibe ria, her research revealed that there were over twenty Black doctors associated with Iberia Parish—who were either born there or practiced there—during the pe riod covered in that book she had found.

All of this sparked in Hayes a fierce dedication to recovering the lost histories of Iberia Parish’s Black residents. In 2017, she founded The Iberia African Ameri can Historical Society—an organization devoted to researching, educating, and commemorating the history of African Americans in Iberia Parish.

The Society’s work has included vari ous educational lectures; publication of books, articles, and a journal; and the installation of various historical markers around Iberia Parish honoring the contri butions of important African American figures in the area’s history.

And soon, the Society will do all of this and more from a dedicated destination, open to the public. The Iberia African American Historical Society Center for Research & Learning will officially open later this month on the second floor of the Shadows-on-the-Teche Visitor Center as a space in which the Society will collect and archive primary documents, digitize them, and grant the public—includ ing schools, historians, researchers, and more—access to them.

The Center is a result of a partnership between the Society and the National Trust for Historic Preservation—which owns and manages the Shadows prop erty—as part of the Trust’s efforts to

provide more truthful and thorough his torical programming at former sites of enslavement around the country.

Hayes’s goal, she said, is to educate on this history in Iberia Parish, but also to encourage and stimulate interest in re searchers so that more of it can be uncov ered. “And it’s also understanding that we aren’t unique. Every state like ours that’s a former Confederate state has this same history, and in all of these places, there is African American history that has been hidden, and needs to be recovered.”

—Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

Learn more about the society at iaahs.org and about the National Trust’s work at Shadows-on-the-Teche at shadowsontheteche.org. A soft opening of the Iberia African American Historical Society Center for Research and Learn ing will be held on November 12 at 2 pm.

The Morality of Heart Transplants

A Q&A WITH ALEX COOK AND LANCE PORTER ON THE RAKERS’ NEW ALBUM

Almost a decade in, how would you describe the way The Rakers has evolved as a band?

Alex V. Cook: On one hand we’ve be come like an old couple that completes each other’s sentences, as it were. We have that kind of ingrained musical relation ship. On the other hand, it’s a kind of frisky marriage where we are open to try ing new things.

Lance Porter: We all know what we are supposed to bring to the table, so the cre ative process moves much more quickly now. I think we are just starting to hit our stride.

How does this record represent where you guys are at now?

AVC: We’ve become a lot more confi dent about opening ourselves up in our songs. I think Lance’s tunes on the record are some of the best he’s ever written. “I Think You’re Wrong” is the kind of state

ment people should be saying more in life. And we loved Lewis’s tune (“Silent Movie”) so much we took the album title from it.

LP: I feel the same way about Alex’s tune, “Orion’s Belt”! Alex also recently taught himself pedal steel, so that instrument has added a lot to our sound.

AVC: When we started almost a de cade ago, we had a lot of ideas on what it meant to be a band. With this record, I think we found out that it is really just being this group of people making art to gether.

LP: This one allowed us to really get into the process of making a record. Since we did it ourselves, we could take our time. We could write in the studio and re-re cord stuff we weren’t happy with. Now we’ve settled into that process and have a lot of momentum built up. We've already written most of the songs for the next record.

What sorts of storytelling can listeners look for ward to in this col lection of songs?

AVC: I like auda cious protagonists. The kind of person who somehow thrives despite themselves. Like “Iron Jaw Samson”: a true story about a guy in the ‘70s who would go from town to town, showing up some

where and eating a lightbulb. There is a line in there: “What kind of dreams does a man like that have?” But the answer is the same kind of dreams we all have. He’s just found a unique way to get there.

LP: There are some deeply personal songs on this record. We’ve written a lot

of songs in the past about loveable losers, but I think we are starting to realize those losers are us.

Read the rest of the interview at countryroadsmag.com, and find the al bum, Morality of Heart Transplants, on YouTube, Bandcamp, and Spotify.

We Are the Lucky Ones

REMEMBERING KUAN LIM, BELOVED OWNER OF BOSSIER CITY’S LUCKY PALACE RESTAURANT

Five years ago, I visited Shreve port and Bossier City on a press trip. A lifelong resident of Louisiana who had attend ed high school just down the road in Natchitoches, this was somehow my first visit to the hub of North Louisiana. Honestly, I simply hadn’t been in any hurry. South Louisianans love to rag on North Louisiana, lump it in with Texas, say that the food and hospitality is inferi or to that in the southern part of the state. That weekend, I learned that those folks could not have been more wrong.

Our group pulled up at the Bossier Inn & Suites, a run-down looking mo tel across the bridge in Bossier City, right by I-20. “Surely this can’t be right,” I’m sure I wasn’t alone in wondering. But after walking past the motel’s fluores cent-lit reception desk, into the doors of Lucky Palace, we found ourselves in another world entirely. We could hard ly believe the beautiful dining room, draped in soft gold lighting and Chinese red accents; decorated tastefully-yet-ex travagantly with Asian artwork, plants, and tropical fish. We sat down at a large round table equipped with a lazy Susan—where Lucky Palace’s owner Kuan Lim soon greeted us, then much

to our delight and surprise, joined us for dinner.

Lim remains the warmest and most gregarious host I have had the pleasure of dining and drinking with. As a jour nalist, you learn to gauge when someone is just buttering you up for coverage. That wasn’t Lim. He was genuinely ex cited to meet us, befriend us, feed us, drink wine with us; it was evident that connecting with people in this way was at the very core of his nature.

We pored over his tomes of menus, amazed—one containing delicacies selected by Lim from across the Asian continent (from Thai green curries to thinly-sliced duck breast on scallion pan cake, a beloved Lucky Palace signature), another containing an international wine list more varied and extensive than I’d ever seen (the same exquisitely-curated winelist that would land on the semifi nalist list for James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Wine Program, year af ter year). For how extensive the menus were, each dish and bottle had been thoughtfully curated by Lim, who on top of his kindness and hospitality, was a keen tastemaker, self-taught somme lier, and gourmand—always excited to try a new wine, and honing in on the

perfect dish to pair it with.

When I wrote about how impressed I was with Shreveport’s food scene for Country Roads that year, I devoted more words to Lucky Palace than any other restaurant. I was captivated with Lim’s story—how he had grown up in Malay sia, and was on his way to open a restau rant in San Antonio when he stopped in Bossier City. He liked the friendly people there so much, he decided to stay. I would evangelize to anyone who happened to be traveling through or to the area to vis it Lucky Palace, try the duck on scallion pancake, and say “hi” to my friend Lim for me. They were never disappointed.

On October 5, Lim passed away after a long battle with osteosarcoma cancer. Even after he lost his right leg and was undergoing treatment, Lim continued to make rounds in the Lucky Palace dining room, visiting his customers who were never just customers, but friends and fam ily.

Lim reminds us that when truly spe cial things exist in unexpected places, it’s not just coincidence. Unexpectedly spe cial things—like a world-class Chinese restaurant in a dingy Bossier City motel, for example—only exist because of the intentions, effort, and love of singularly

special people. Lim also reminds us that those special places and people are worth the drive, because they won’t be there for ever.

Lim shared his passion and light with his community and all who knew him. And for that, we are the lucky ones.

—Alexandra Kennon

Visit Lucky Palace for yourself at 750 Diamond Jacks Boulevard Bossier City. Learn more at lucky-palace.com.

Photo by Chris Jay.

UNTIL NOV 13th BROADWAY ON TOUR

THE LION KING

New Orleans, Louisiana

The six-time Tony Award-winning musical, based on Disney's animated film based on Hamlet, has been enjoyed by more than eighty million people worldwide. See the characters of Pride Rock in all their breathtaking glory when they return to the Saenger Theater. Tickets start at $27. saengernola.com for all showtimes and details. k

UNTIL FEB 26th

CERAMICS EXHIBITIONS

PEARLWARE, POLISH, AND PRIVILEGE

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

When you look at a pretty plate, themes of colonialism, gentrification, and race don't immediately come to mind. But in the LSU Museum of Art's exhibition Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott —traditional ceramics

Events

receive a new angle. In his practice, British printmaker Paul Scott uses and explores traditional ceramic processes and decoration of eighteenth and nineteenth century mass-produced English wares and tiles. lsumoa.org. k

NOV 2nd - NOV 25th

CONCERTS

MUSICAL PERFORMANCES AT YES WE CANNIBAL Baton Rouge, Louisiana

November 2: Child Abuse (whose name comes from the violence inflicted by a toddler rather than on one) alongside Flesh Narc and Shining Fields. 8 pm.

November 11: New Orleans-based electric cellist/vocalist Helen Gillet is joining Swiss drummer and sound artist Simon Berz for a performance as Shaking Souls. 8 pm.

November 16: New Mexico-based percussionist and composer Tatsuya Nakatani will join Baton Rouge’s Hal Lambert and Mitchell Mobley, alongside Dr. Thomas Stanley (AKA Bushmeat

Sound). 7 pm. Free, suggested $10 donation. yeswecannibal.org. k

NOV 2 nd & 16 th

LIVE MUSIC CONCERTS AT CHORUM HALL Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Chorum Hall welcomes the following musical artists this month:

November 2: The Paris-based trio M.O.M. November 16: Doug Stone with his quartet and saxophonist/vocalist Darmon Meader.

7:30 pm–9 pm. Tickets are $20 at bontempstix.com. k

NOV 2 nd - NOV 15 th BOOK TALKS EBRPL AUTHOR TALK SERIES Online

The East Baton Rouge Parish Library continues its Author Talk virtual series, which connects best-selling authors with their readers through interactive,

CREATIVE & COZY

EMBRACE THE CRISP AIR OF AUTUMN FOR ART MARKETS, LIVE CONCERTS, THEATRICAL PERFORMANCES, AND FOOD FESTIVALS W

Live Zydeco music, Creole food favorites, and a gospel choir concert that's drawn crowds for over twenty-five years now—it's all part of the Holy Ghost Creole Festival on November 4–6. See listing on page 14. Image courtesy of St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission.

Events

Beginning November 2nd - November 4th

live online Q&A sessions. This month, featured authors are as follows:

November 2: Lisa Napoli—S usan, Linda, Nina, and Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR. 3 pm.

November 10: Bonnie Garmus— Lessons in Chemistry. 1 pm.

NOV 3rd - NOV 6th MUSIC FESTIVALS

A TASTE OF THE DEEP SOUTH Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Celebrate the Baton Rouge blues with one of our city's biggest musical icons for the annual Henry Turner, Jr. Day, which also brings the sixth-annual A Taste of the Deep South Festival. In addition to the tunes, the festival promises a Vendors' Village, an international food court offering Southern and ethnic foods, and more. Free and family friendly, from noon–8 pm at Riverfront Plaza. VIP

Also: Don't miss the Pre-Party on Thursday from 8 pm–midnight, held at Henry Turner Jr.'s Listening room. Admission includes a buffet and no-host bar, as well as performances by Henry Turner Jr. & Flavor, some of the Listening Room All Stars, plus members of the Phoenix Rouge and Shakshuka Belly Dance troupes. $25 in advance, $30 at the th

SABINE FREESTATE FESTIVAL

the New Orleans Film Festival positions itself as a platform for perspectives that are underrepresented in film. Thousands of directors, actors, and industry professionals are expected to attend this year's festivities, with dozens of film selections to screen over the course of six days. neworleansfilmsociety.org for up-todate information. k

NOV 4th ART EXHIBITIONS

ANIMALS IN ART EXHIBITION Folsom, Louisiana

On the first Friday of this month, head down to Giddy Up for a special evening of artist booths, local food, live music, and more—all in celebration of the Far Horizon Gallery's new juried exhibition, Animals in Art. 6 pm–9 pm. farhorizonsart.com. k

NOV 4th CONCERTS

THE MUSIC OF LED ZEPPELIN & ZEBRA WITH LPO New Orleans, Louisiana

In an all too satisfying merging of rock and roll and classical music, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, alongside Zebra, will perform The Music of Led Zeppelin and The Music of Zebra at the Mahalia Jackson Theater. 8 pm. $47–$97. $59.50–$114. lpomusic.com. k

FESTIVAL Mandeville, Louisiana

The Ozone Music Foundation returns with its annual Ozone Songwriter Festival, spotlighting over one hundred local, regional, and national songwriters—from skilled amateurs to chart-topping Nashville songwriters— while raising money for music youth education. The Ozone Songwriter Festival is a two-day, Nashville-style songwriter circle music festival. The melodies start with songwriter rounds on two stages at Slidell's Wine Garden at 6 pm on Thursday. Mandeville's Old Rail Brewing Co. hosts the showcase on Friday at 8 pm. And Saturday brings the heart and soul of the thing to the Mandeville Trailhead and surrounding venues—with two days of live performances featuring genres ranging from country to folk to pop to AfroCaribbean and everything in between. All in all, the festival features over onehundred-and-eighty performances over the course of its four days. And it's free. ozonemusic.org. k

Turn back time to the days when the "Neutral Strip" between Spanish lands and the fledgling United States fostered a unique "No Man's Land" culture in Western Louisiana (1806–1821). Live out your wildest West adventures with a shoot-out, or point your guns to the sky for a skeet shoot. Take part in pioneer demonstrations, a parade, a treasure hunt, and more—plus plenty of live music all day long. It all takes place on the Sabine Freestate Festival Grounds at 237 West Port Arthur Avenue Florien, Louisiana. sabine-freestate-festival.square.site. k

NOV 3rd - NOV 13th

SILVER SCREEN

NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL New Orleans, Louisiana

This year, the New Orleans Film Festival will not only offer in-person screenings in venues throughout New Orleans (November 3–8), but online programming will be available for those who want to enjoy the fest without venturing into a theatre, as well (November 3–13). Not to mention panels, filmmaker pitches, parties, and more. With a commitment to ensuring that at least 50% of films are created by by female and gender non-comforming directors and 45% by directors of color,

NOV 4th - NOV 5th PACK RATS

ST TAMMANY COLLECTORS CONVENTON Mandeville, Louisiana

If you have an epic collection, are working on one, or aspire to have one: this convention is for you. Over one hundred tables and booths packed with action figures, comics, toys, video games, local art, and so much more will fill the Castine Center for your perusal. Also catch a costume/cosplay contest, photo opportunities, and charity events. 10:30 am–5 pm. $5. sttammanycollectorscon.com. k

NOV 4th - NOV 5th MUSIC FESTIVALS

MUSCLE SHOALS

SONGWRITERS FESTIVAL Florence, Alabama

Muscle Shoals, Alabama is legendary in the music world for the recordings that have been produced by FAME Studios —including those by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Elvis, Mick Jagger, and other musical powerhouses. And now, entering its third year, Muscle Shoals is celebrating music and songwriting with the Muscle Shoals Songwriters Festival, presented by The Muscle Shoals Songwriters

Events

Beginning November 4th - November 5th

Foundation. The weekend of music will highlight more than thirty songwriters, who will showcase original music at venues throughout Muscle Shoals. The larger shows and main festival location will take place at the Marriott Shoals Conference Center. $45–$166.88. mssongfest.com. k

NOV 4th - NOV 5th

FALL FESTIVALS ABITA FALL FEST Abita Springs, Louisiana

Abita Springs welcomes the season with its annual fall festival, featuring two stages, with a lineup that includes Imagination Movers, The Bad Sandys, Ever More Nest, Sunpie & the Louisiana Sunspots, Bon Bon Vivant, and plenty more. At the Kid Zone, adventurous tykes can try out the rock wall; explore their creative side at the art bus, or make friends at the petting zoo. Adults can play, too. $25; $30 at the gate. abitafallfest.com.

Plus: Start the festivities early with the Fall Fest's After Dark Pre-Party on Friday night, featuring the Rebirth Brass Band, Flow Tribe, and Brasshearts Brass Band. 5 pm–10 pm. $20; $25 at the gate. k

NOV 4th - NOV 5th LITERARY FESTS

FESTIVAL OF WORDS Grand Coteau, Louisiana

Grand Coteau's annual Festival of Words takes place the first weekend of November. This year's event features readings by nationally-renowned authors Clemonce Heard, John McNally, and Ashley M. Jones. Outside of those, participants can partake in creative writing workshops in public schools and community centers; a community stage for open mics; “Drive-by Poetry” pouring forth from grocery stores, boutiques, and restaurants; plus many opportunities to interact with authors. festivalofwords.org. k

NOV 4th - NOV 6th FALL FESTIVALS

HOLY GHOST CREOLE FESTIVAL Opelousas, Louisiana

Live Creole and Zydeco music, Creole food favorites, and a gospel choir concert that's drawn crowds for over twentyfive years now—it's all part of the Holy Ghost Creole Festival. The fun begins Friday morning with finger-lickin' fried catfish to the tune of the gospel choirs from Holy Ghost Catholic Church. Rise early for more music, and arrive with an empty belly—ready to sample

famous backbone stew and barbecue pork steak—not to mention sweet dough pies, boudin, cracklins, and other local delicacies. Or, start with the 5K or 1-mile fun walk, then get to eating. Sunday brings the Creole Festival Parade, running from Landry Street to Union Street. Grounds open at 10 am Friday and Sunday; 8 am Saturday. Free. holyghostcreolefestival.com. k

NOV 4th - NOV 6th OPERA

ASO: AN EVENING OF OPERA Lafayette, Louisiana

Join the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra and the UL Opera Department for a presentation of Giacomo Puccini's famous comic opera, Gianni Schicchi in ULL's Angelle Hall. 7 pm Friday; 3 pm Sunday. $43.50. acadianasymphony.org. k

NOV 4 th - NOV 13 th

PERFORMING ARTS

EAST BANK THEATRE: BLITHE SPIRIT Bossier City, Louisiana

East Bank Theatre at the Bossier Arts Council's latest production is the classic Noel Coward comedy. This lively story features Charles Condomine, a successful novelist who arranges for an eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, to hold a séance at his house as research for his next novel. At the séance, she inadvertently summons Charles's first wife, Elvira, who has been dead for seven years. The ghostly Elvira makes continued, and increasingly desperate, efforts to disrupt Charles's current marriage. Friday and Saturday at 7 pm, Sunday at 2 pm. $17 at eventbrite.com. k

NOV 4th - NOV 20th

LIVE MUSIC NOVEMBER AT THE RED DRAGON

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

In its modest digs on Florida Boulevard, the Red Dragon Listening Room pulls in artists who are anything but in terms of their abilities. Well-known and emerging songwriters take the stage here several times each month, and with the venue's non-profit status all money raised at the door goes directly to the artists. Join the audience for these concerts:

November 4: Tara Janique & Company Jazz Band

November 9: Melissa Carper, Kelly Willis, and Brennen Leigh

November 10: Melissa Carper, Kelly Willis, and Brennen Leigh

November 17: Slaid Cleaves

November 18: IV and the Strange Band

November 20: Chuck Cannon

Shows usually start at 8 pm. (225) 9397783. Tickets and prices can be found at the Red Dragon Listening Room Facebook Page. k

NOV 4th - NOV 27th

LIVE MUSIC L'AUBERGE CONCERTS

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Here are the shows you can catch coming up at L'Auberge, when you want a safer bet than playing the slots:

November 4: Live on the Lawn: Better than Ezra. $35. 8 pm.

November 11: Grits & Glamour ft. Pam Tillis & Lorrie Morgan. $20. 8 pm. November 27: Grand Asian Concert. 7 pm. $10. lbatonrouge.com . k

NOV 4th - DEC 16th

LOCAL ART SLIDELL ART LEAGUE'S ARTISTS OF THE YEAR EXHIBITION

Slidell, Louisiana

Join the City of Slidell for the new exhibit, Artist of the Year, presented by Slidell Art League on display in the Slidell Cultural Center at City Hall. This exhibit opens with a reception on November 4 from 5 pm—7 pm. Regular gallery hours are Wednesday through Friday, noon–4 pm. Free. myslidell.com. k

NOV 5th

THRIFTY BUSINESS EXIT 11 YARD SALE

Grand Coteau, Louisiana

This shopping experience runs through the historic towns of Grand Coteau and Sunset, where residents and visitors are invited to set up tables to sell anything from crafts, antiques and furniture, jewelry, glassware, and one-of-a-kind items. Some shops will feature special sales or oneday discounts. 7 am–4 pm, along highways 93 & 182 in Grand Coteau and Sunset, I-49 Exit 11. Free. (337) 313-4448. k

NOV 5th

FALL FESTIVALS

LOUISIANA NATIVE AMERICAN ART FEST, VETERAN'S POWWOW, AND WILD GAME COOK-OFF Zwolle, Louisiana

The Louisiana Native American Art Fest and Veteran's Powwow will be held at the Choctaw-Apache Tribal Grounds, drumming up delights for all the senses. There will be live music, art, cook-offs for

wild game and fry bread, and much more. Free. (318) 645-2588. k

NOV 5th

FALL FESTIVALS BAYOU BACCHANAL

New Orleans, Louisiana

It's the Caribbean Festival that happens in America's most Caribbean city! Hosted by Friends of Culture, an organization run by New Orleans locals native to parts of the Caribbean, Bayou Bacchanal exists to share the festive traditions of the Caribbean with the Crescent City community. Day-long festival happenings at Louis Armstrong Park. Free. bayoubacchanal.org. k

NOV 5th FOOD FESTIVALS GIANT OMELETTE CELEBRATION

Abbeville, Louisiana

The locals of Abbeville will be highly eggcited if you choose to join them for their annual Giant Omelette Celebration. No less than five thousand eggs go into the giant omelette in question, and there are plenty of other activities to keep festival-goers occupied while the omelette cooks in a twelve-foot skillet balanced over an open fire in historic Magdalen Square.

Eggspect one of Acadiana's largest juried art shows, the procession of chefs, kids' world activities, exhibits of antique cars and farm equipment, a charity walk and bike ride, an egg-cracking contest; and live music. Visitors from abroad will be present to represent "the sisterhood of cities who celebrate the omelette." Free. 9 am–5 pm. giantomelette.org. k

NOV 5 th

CRAFT FAIRS SOUTHDOWN MARKETPLACE ARTS & CRAFTS FESTIVAL Houma, Louisiana

It happens for one day, twice a year in spring and fall—the outdoor arts & crafts show that brings more than three hundred local and national vendors and their unique handmade products to the grounds of Southdown Plantation House and Museum in Houma. They arrive bearing jewelry, clothing, woodcrafts, furniture, pottery, paintings, photography, toys, dolls, metalwork, florals, candles, and more.

There are usually books by local authors, home-grown plants, antiques and collectibles, and children’s hands-on craft projects. Alongside, food vendors bring a huge sampling of Cajun food favorites.

Tours of the house, too. $5 adults; free for children twelve and younger. 8 am–4 pm. southdownmuseum.org. k

The Family Line

GOAT IN THE ROAD'S IMMERSIVE PLAY AT THE BK HOUSE BRINGS NEW ORLEANS' 1892 GENERAL STRIKE TO LIFE

By Alexandra Kennon

When the bell rang out through the Historic BK House and Gardens' courtyard, signifying the start of Goat in the Road Productions' brand-new immersive play about the 1892 General Strike, I could feel my heart pounding in my throat. When it comes to live performance, such a sense of urgency and ownership is usually reserved for a production's actors and technicians. In Goat in the Road's production of The Family Line, though, the audience is invited to step from behind the fourth wall and share in the thrilling anxiety of storytelling.

At the ring of the bell, the cast of characters each entered into their daily lives in 1892 New Orleans, scattering into the various historic outbuildings and basements of the historic venue. It is up to each audience member to decide who they follow,

and the action of the play is dependent upon which actor one chooses to pursue. In the absence of the fourth wall, the audience is encouraged to move around, enter the spaces that have been transformed into a grocery store, a bedroom, and a storeroom; to watch the characters' reactions from mere feet, even inches.

My first choice of adventure brought me to Dez (played by Constance Thompson), the strong-willed and determined workers' rights advocate who urges others to join her in the strike. Then later, Pascal (played by Dylan Hunter), the drunk-but-charming Sicilian who lost his brother to violence in the family store, and realizes his murderer was less random than was first assumed. And Natalia (played by Grace Kennedy), who is hesitant to join the strike, but cannot even afford to fix a painful tooth on her current wages. Much like life, each individual comes with their own unique story and reality, and the performance reflects these multiple realities by offering multiple experiences for the audiences, depending on which characters' stories you pursue.

Thank fully, the entire show repeats twice in seventy-five minutes—with another ring of the bell the characters reset, meaning their audience gets to experience the same world from two entirely different perspectives. The first ending I watched was a high-stakes blowout where one character is accused of being complicit in another's murder; the second was a quietly-introspective monologue about finding God in a tavern. While massively different, both were incredibly moving.

Such a n immediate format is perfect for bringing history to vivid life in a way that cannot be replicated by books or tour guides. The Family Line hones in on a tumultuous period of New Orleans history, when Sicilian and AfricanAmerican workers joined together to organize a strike that eventually resulted in improvements in workers' rights. By setting the show at the Historic BK House, which was once at the heart of the Quarter's "Little Palermo," the audience is made to feel like they've actually travelled in time; like they're witnessing history unfold before them. h

The Family Line will run at the Historic BK House and Gardens from October 21–November 20, with performances at 7:30 pm Wednesdays and Thursdays, 6 pm and 8 pm Fridays, and 2:30 pm Sundays. $40 at goatintheroadproductions.org.

of care

KC Simms, Constance Thompson, and Alexandria Miles in The Family Line. Photo by Josh Brasted.

Events

Beginning November 5th - November 6

NOV 5th

FIDDLE-OFF

BATTLE OF THE BOWS CAJUN FIDDLE COMPETITION Jennings, Louisiana

Don't miss this grand tournament of sound taking place at Jennings' historic Strand Theatre, featuring local fiddlers of all ages and experience levels showing off their chops—all for the title of this year's Cajun Fiddle Master. 9 am–noon. jeffdavis.org. k

NOV 5th

FARMERS MARKET PARTIES

RED STICK FARMERS MARKET ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

For twenty-six years, the Big River Economic and Agricultural Development Alliance (BREADA) has connected farmers to families and families to farmers through its signature Red Stick Farmers Market. This Saturday, Baton Rougeans will celebrate the occasion with BREADA's over fifty member farmers, fishers, ranchers, and food artisans with a special market. The anniversary party will also include cocktails by Oxbow Rum,

live musical performances, interactive photo opportunities, and an art market. Free to attend and open to the public. breada.org. k

NOV 5th - NOV CYCLE PARTIES BIKES, BREWS & OMELETTES TWO Arnaudville, Louisiana

A combined two hundred miles of bike routes, great local craft beer, and one giant omelette...what more could a cyclist ask for? The back-to-back Bayou Teche Brewing Bike Bash and Giant Omelette Celebration Ride join forces to form Bikes, Brews, and Omelettes Two, a weekend of cycling quite unlike any other. On Saturday, Arnaudville's Bayou Teche Brewery hosts the The Bayou Teche Brewing Bike Bash, where delicious craft beer, lunch and a Cajun Jam at Tante Marie, and a general good time awaits cyclists at the finish line, no matter how long their route. Check-in at 6:30 am at the brewery, start times beginning at 7:50 am with festivities extending into the afternoon and evening. On Sunday, it's on to Abbeville for the second day of the

Giant Omelette Celebration—featuring antique cars on display, live music—and the majestic procession of chefs, eggs, and bread to the twelve-foot skillet awaiting its five thousand egg fate. These non-competitive rides both offer various routes with distances from ten to one hudnred miles. This event is hosted by TRAIL, a non-profit organization dedicated to building and maintaining parks, paths and trails for hiking, walking, running, kayaking, biking, and canoeing. Tickets start at $40 for individual rides; combo registration deals and bike rentals are available. latrail.org/bbot. k

NOV 5th - NOV 6th CRAFT FAIRS

PETER ANDERSON ARTS & CRAFTS FESTIVAL Ocean Springs, Mississippi

The Peter Anderson Arts & Crafts Festival was created to honor master potter, Peter Anderson, original potter of Shearwater Pottery, and to celebrate the arts community that has grown up in today's Ocean Springs. Come spend a weekend exploring one of the most appealing little towns of the Mississippi Gulf Coast—and take a little bit of it home with you. 9 am–5 pm both days. peterandersonfestival.com. k

Join cyclists in riding to the Bayou Teche Brewing Bash and the Giant Omelette Celebration in Arnaudville

NOV 5th - NOV 6th GREEN THUMBS

SMALL STANDARD FLOWER SHOW AND TEA Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The floral fans that make up the Baton Rouge Garden Club are hosting the National Garden Club Small Standard Flower Show and Tea this fall, with the theme "They All Asked For You". 1 pm–4 pm at the Baton Rouge Garden Center. Free. janwal9340@att.net. k

NOV 5th - NOV 20th

THEATRE

30 BY NINETY: DEATH TRAP Mandeville, Louisiana

In this riveting twist-and-turn-filled play by Ira Levin, Broadway thriller writer Sidney Bruhl is suffering from writers' block as he copes with a recent series of failures and lack of funds. When he receives a promising script from a student at a nearby university that he recognizes has the potential to be a smash hit, he and his wife devise a plan to collaborate with the student for co-credit. Or do they come up with something more sinister entirely? Find out what happens in this production by 30 by Ninety Theatre. 8 pm Friday and Saturday; 2:30 pm Sunday. $19; $17 for seniors; $14 for students; and $11 for children younger than twelve. 30byninety.com. k

NOV 5th - NOV 30th ART EXHIBITIONS

THE CAT MADE ME DO IT! AT GALLERY 600 JULIA New Orleans, Louisiana

Stop by Gallery 600 Julia to view Thomas Lofton's realistic paintings derived from historical photographs, which draw the viewer into a narrative and typically feature a cat—hence the title of the exhibition. The exhibition opens in conjunction with the Warehouse Arts District Art Walk November 5, with an opening reception from 6 pm–9 pm. Free. gallery600julia.com. k

NOV 5th - DEC 3rd ART EXHIBITIONS

NOVEMBER AT ARIODANTE GALLERY New Orleans, Louisiana

Ariodante Art Gallery on Julia Street in New Orleans continues to cycle in fresh artists and their creations this month. November's Featured Artist is foundobject sculptor Stephen Palmer, who makes playful and colorful fish out of a variety of unexpected items. Works also include crafts by Raenette Palmer and jewelry by Chester Allen, along with the work of Jennifer Serio Psalmonds in the

Lagniappe Area. An opening reception will be held on November 5 during the First Saturday Artwalk from 5 pm–8 pm. ariodantegallery.com.

NOV 5th - DEC

TIME TRAVEL LOUISIANA

RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL Hammond, Louisiana

Bring your falcon and step back in time to party like it's 1499. Each autumn the festival gathers more than six hundred artists, entertainers, and educational demonstrators, converting the ten-acre compound into a sixteenth-century English "Village of Albright" that features a Queen's Arms Pavilion, Village Common, Blacksmiths Way, and Piper's Pub. Festival-goers enter the turkey-legwaving, mead-guzzling, knight-andpeasant-infested Renaissance village to experience period shows, music, games, food, and more. With more than fifty shows on a dozen stages, different themes each weekend, and one hundred booths featuring arts, crafts, and demonstrations, it's a jousting good time at RenFest, as it's affectionately known. $25 per day for adults; $15 for children younger than thirteen; free for children younger than six. Ticket prices increase by $5 when purchased after the Wednesday before. Weekend camping options. 9:45 am–5 pm Saturdays and Sundays at the Louisiana Renaissance Grounds. larf2022.org.

NOV 5th - DEC ART EXHIBITONS

FIREWORKS FOR MONSTERS ON FIRE AND REVIVED & RECOLLECTED

New Orleans, Louisiana

LeMieux Galleries presents Kathryn Hunter's Fireworks for Monsters on Fire, and Masy Hebert Chighizola's & Recollected. Hunter, who is known for her printmaking, also utilizes stitching, cut paper, and laser-cut metal to express themes of freedom and conflict in America.

Chighizola's inaugural show presents two collections of hand fans and ceramic lady head vases, offering a portrait of sorts of items that have been collected. There will be an artist reception on Saturday, 6 pm–9 pm during the First Saturday Artwalk.lemieuxgalleries.com. k

NOV 6th RED, WHITE & BLUE VETERANS ON PARADE

Port Allen, Louisiana

Port Allen's annual parade was the first in South Louisiana to honor those who've served and all military who are currently serving, and it'll be rolling once again this year. The West Baton Rouge

Events

Beginning November 6th - November 10th

Museum will also host an exhibition honoring local veterans. 1:30 pm. Free. westbatonrougemuseum.com. k

NOV 6th

CONCERTS

MUSIC AT ST. JOHN'S SERIES: DAVID SIGLER Thibodaux, Louisiana

St. John's Episcopal Church in Thibodaux's Music at St. John Series returns for the 2022-2023 season with a performance by guitarist and composer David Sigler, who will perform a variety of pieces from the Baroque period through the twentieth century. 3 pm. $15, students free. stjohnsthibodaux.org. k

NOV 6th FUN FUNDRAISERS

MEN WHO COOK GALA Covington, Louisiana

You know what they say about Louisiana: it's a state full of men who can cook like their mamas, and women who can drink like their daddies. Hope House is celebrating the former with their Men

Who Cook event, now entering its tenth year. Local "celebrity cooks" who are leaders from throughout St. Tammany and Washington Parishes will join forces with favorite local restaurants to help Hope House in their mission of combating child sexual abuse on the Northshore. Each cook/ restaurant team will prepare tastings of a favorite menu item for attendees to sample and vote on, competing for the titles of Judge’s Choice, People’s Choice, and most money raised for Hope House. The event also includes a raffle, silent auction, live music by Louisiana Music Hall of Fame inductee Gregg Martinez, live painting by local artist Scott Withington, and complimentary wine and beer. Held on the rooftop of the Justice Center parking garage in Covington. 4 pm–7 pm. $70 in advance; $125 for couples; $500 for reservation of an eight person table. cachopehouse.org. k

NOV 6th FUN FUNDRAISERS

BOUJEE IN THE PARK Covington, Louisiana

The St. Tammany Art Association is

hosting a "boujee" fundraiser at Bogue Falaya Park in Covington. There will be food by Del Porto Ristorante provided by the Louisiana Seafood Grant, live music from Pontchartrain Shakers, and all proceeds from the extravagant event will go toward rebuilding the Art Association's building on Columbia Street. 4 pm. Tickets start at $75. sttammany.art. k

NOV 6th SYMPHONY HANDEL'S MESSIAH Natchez, Mississippi

To celebrate the upcoming holiday season, the Natchez Festival of Music, as well as Trinity Episcopal Church's bicentennial in 2022, Handel's moving classic, Messiah. The world-renowned oratorio will be performed by a group of sixty-seven instrumentalists and vocalists, conducted by Jay Dean, Artistic Director of the Natchez Festival of Music and Artistic Director and Conductor of Opera Mississippi. 3 pm. $30 at trinitynatchez.org. k

NOV 8th CONCERTS MAT KEARNEY AT THE MANSHIP Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Back on tour with his latest studio album

January Flower, which was written in solitude at Joshua Tree and at his home studio in Nashville, singer/songwriter Mat Kearney is bringing his multi-platinum songs to the Manship Theatre. 7:30 pm. $65–$75. manshiptheatre.org. k

NOV 9th

LOCAL HISTORY

ALL SOULS: THE NUANCED LANDSCAPES OF THE ST. LOUIS CATHEDRAL CEMETERIES New Orleans, Louisiana

For this special Gallier Gathering and closing party for the Creole Death & Mourning exhibition, Architectural Historian Heather Veneziano will give a presentation on New Orleans' cemeteries, focusing on how their social history has influenced their design. 6 pm. $25. Tickets available at eventbrite.com or hgghh.org. k

NOV 9th

LIVE MUSIC

HARPSICHORD RECITAL FEATURING JOHN WALTHAUSEN New Orleans, Louisiana

In conjunction with the Historic New Orleans' Collection's exhibition Spanish New Orleans and the Caribbean, the HNOC is presenting a recital of

harpsichord music relevant to New Orleans' Spanish-colonial era from internationally-acclaimed organ and harpsichord soloist John Walthausen. 6 pm–8 pm. Free. hnoc.org. k

NOV 9th FALL FESTIVALS

BAYOU BEER FEST

Houma, Louisiana

South Louisiana is known for pulling out all the stops when it comes to festivals, and the Bayou Beer Fest is no exception. Look forward to food booths, live music from Nathan Plumbar and Steady Steppin' and Nonc Nu & Da Wild Matous, and, of course, hundreds of craft beers from Louisiana breweries and others around the world. $35 ticket includes forty sample tickets and a free sample glass. All proceeds will benefit veterans. This festival is sponsored by Mudbug Brewery and Southdown Museum, and held at the Southdown Plantation House. 11 am4 pm. $35. bayoubeerfest.com. k

NOV 10 th

HISTORY & ART CERAMIC RETAILERS IN THE 19TH CENTURY NEW ORLEANS Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Join Lydia Blackmore, the Decorative Arts Curator at the Historic New

Orleans Collection, for a lecture on the profitable and lively Louisiana ceramics trade during the 1800s. 6 pm. Free. lsumoa.org. k

NOV 10 th

MUSIC HISTORY

THE EARLY DAYS OF LADY DAY WITH MIKHALA IVERSEN Port Allen, Louisiana

The West Baton Rouge Museum invites all to attend a presentation by New Orleans jazz singer and storyteller Mikhala Iverson, who will enlighten a lunchtime audience about beloved jazz and blues icon Billie Holiday, in conjunction with the traveling exhibition Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill. Noon. Free. westbatonrougemuseum.org.

NOV 10 th FUN FUNDRAISERS

AN ALL RED AFFAIR

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Support Family Service of Greater Baton Rouge with their newly redesigned fundraising gala. It will be a night of food, music, honoring families who have donated, and an exciting auction. 6:30 pm–8:30 pm. $50 per person, $75 couples, and $500 for a table. fsgbr.org. k

funds for their cause of combating child sexual abuse on the Northshore. See listing on page 20. Image courtesy of Sarah Federer.

NOV 10th

CONCERTS

BRSO ORCHESTRAL SERIES:

AMERICAN CLASSICS Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Maestro Chad Goodman, who has been recognized by Forbes for bringing innovation to classical music. The program for the evening of music at the River Center Theatre for the Performing

Arts includes Bernstein's "Serenade, Gershwin's "An American In Paris," and others. 7:30 pm. $19–$65. brso.org. k

NOV 10th FUN FUNDRAISERS

WINE AND DINE WITH HOSPICE Mandeville, Louisiana

The Hospice Foundation of the South will hold their annual Wine and Dine

Events

Beginning November 10th - November 11th

with Hospice fundraiser at Benedict's Plantation. Enjoy over one hundred wines and spirits and signature dishes from local restaurants, along with live and silent auctions, and a raffle for wine. All proceeds benefit The Hospice House, a care facility providing free hospice care to terminally ill St. Tammany patients and their families. $75 per person. 6 pm–9 pm. wineanddinetickets.com. k

NOV 10th - NOV 13th SILVER SCREEN SOUTHERN SCREEN FILM FESTIVAL Lafayette, Louisiana

The Southern Screen Film Festival is again bringing filmmakers and film lovers together for four days of film fandemonium in the heart of Acadiana. Conceived to blend creativity and ingenuity with the unique Cajun joie de vivre, Southern Screen shows awardwinning, independent films from around the world in the form of short, documentary and feature-film formats, then presents open discussion panels, workshops, and demonstrations for filmmakers hosted by artists and professionals. This year's event will be hosted in downtown Lafayette and virtually, with films and sessions screened on Eventive. Visit southernscreen.org for film schedule and details.

Read more about the festival's history, and what to look forward to this year, on page 63. k

NOV 10th - NOV 13th FOOD FESTS PORT BARRE CRACKLIN FESTIVAL Port Barre, Louisiana

Celebrate over three decades of crispy fried pork skin as you crunch your way through this pork-fueled fiesta. In addition to a cracklin cook-off, there will be carnival rides, live music, a parade, and other blood-pressure-raising kinds of excitement. After a Thursday family-night preview (free admission), the festival opens again at 5 pm Friday with the Brad James Swallow Band, followed by performances by other local favorites; a parade opens things on Saturday at 10 am, with live bands playing from all through the rest of the weekend. $5 per day; ages ten and under get in free all weekend. cracklinfest.com. k

NOV 10th - JAN 12th ART EXHIBITIONS

ART GUILD OF LOUISIANA HOLIDAY SHOW

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Art Guild of Louisiana is hosting

a holiday exhibition of members' works with the theme "Deck the Halls", at the Guild's Studio in the Park. A “People’s Choice “ ribbon will be awarded. artguildlouisiana.org. k

NOV 11th FUN FUNDRAISERS

THE BIG 15 GALA

New Orleans, Louisiana

For the last fifteen years, The Roots of Music has brought music education, academic tutoring, and hot meals to countless New Orleans youth. Help fund their good work with a good time by attending The Big 15 Gala. Held at the Sazerac House, the Gala will include live entertainment by Roots Studio Academy, The Roots of Music Marching Crusaders, and The Nayo Jones Experience, followed by a Second Line led by Re-Creations Brass Band, featuring current and former Roots students. Food and drink will be provided by Messina’s and a silent auction featuring unique and priceless items will be held, too. Gala starts at 8 pm, Patron Party starts at 7 pm. therootsofmusic.org. k

NOV 11th

FALL FESTS

JEAN LAFITTE SEAFOOD FESTIVAL

Jean Lafitte, Louisiana

After last year's grand return after fifteen years, the Jean Lafitte Seafood Festival is back again for 2022, fresher and tastier than ever. Highlight are live music, visual artists, swamp tours, and of course plenty of local seafood to try are highlights. Friday gates open at 5 pm until 11 pm, Saturday 11 am through 11 pm. townofjeanlafitte.com. k

NOV 11th

HISTORICAL CABARETS

DRY: A PROHIBITION CABARET Slidell, Louisiana

New Orleans arts and entertainment leaders Lisa Picone Love and Ricky Graham join drink historian Elizabeth Pearce for a night journeying through the driest era of American history, in song. The trio will sing temperance hymns, rhymes about secrets to drinking illegally, and more. All at Cutting Edge Theater for a one-night only performance. 8 pm–10 pm. $32–$45. cuttingedgetheater.com. k

NOV 11th

RED, WHITE & BLUE IBERVILLE SALUTE TO VETERANS

Plaquemine, Louisiana

This Veterans Day, follow the crowds

Events

Beginning November 11th

to one of the largest Veterans Day ceremonies in the region. Held in front of the Iberville Veterans Memorial and Vietnam helicopter display in Plaquemine, the event will begin with a speech from Governor John Bel Edwards, who will lead a presentation of the Purple Heart to an Iberville Parish family—whose son Percy died in combat in the Vietnam War. Afterwards, guests can enjoy live performances by local country musician David St. Romain, a rifle drill by the Zachary Jr. ROTC, military color guard units, the Marine Corps Reserve Band, a performance by Baton Rouge Pipes & Drums, and more. 10 am–noon. Free. Guests are invited to bring supplies to be donated to active military personnel. ibervilleparish.com. k

NOV 11 th

GOOD EATS

BIG BOY'S MAIN STREET COOK-OFF Thibodaux, Louisiana

Big Boy’s Main Street Cook-Off is a culinary showcase of Cajun cuisine prepared with fresh ingredients

found along the bayou. In a two-block area of historic downtown Thibodaux, Big Boy’s celebrates the Cajun lifestyles of Thibodaux and Lafourche Parish. Admission goes to benefit Downtown Thibodaux and includes servings from over thirty cook-off participants. Gates open at 3 pm, and participants begin serving at 6 pm, with musical entertainment courtesy of Nonc Nu and da Wild Matous. $10. (985) 413-9886 downtownthibodaux.org. k

NOV 11 th - NOV 12 th

CONCERTS

LPO PRESENTS DVORÁK'S SYMPHONY NO. 8 New Orlean and Covington, Louisiana

The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra is setting up at the Orpheum Theatre and Covington High School this month for performanes of Dvořák's Symphony No. 8, introduced by Gabriella Smith's Field Guide and a symphony by Florence Price—all led by guest conductor Vinay Parameswaran.

November 11: Orpheum Theatre. 6 pm. $25–55; $10 for students and children.

Celebrate Louisiana's favorite crispy fried pork treat at the Port Barre Cracklin' Festival, complete with live music, a carnival, a cracklin' cook-off, and parade. Image courtesy of St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission.

November 12: Covington High School Auditorium. 6 pm. $35; $10 for students. lpomusic.com. k

NOV 11 th - NOV 12 th

FALL FESTS

FALL CAMELLIA FESTIVAL Folsom, Louisiana

Fall is prime bloom time for the glorious

C. Sasanquas Camellias, as Mizell's Camellia Hill Nursery invites all to celebrate the knockout beauty of one of Louisiana's favorite flowers. Bring the kids for enriching gardening activities, enjoy complimentary refreshments, and shop special deals on camellias and other woody ornamentals. 10 am–3 pm each day. Free. mizellscamelliahillnurserys.com. k

NOV 11 th - NOV 12 th

FALL FESTIVALS

ALLUMER NATCHEZ Natchez, Mississippi

Allumer Natchez brings artists from near and far to historic Natchez for the purpose of reimagine Dunleith Historic Inn and its grounds using dazzling light-based contemporary art installations. This year, Allumer will be a full-blown festival featuring a maker's market of arts & crafts, and food vendors selling snacks and sweet treats. Free. More at allumernatchez.com. k

NOV 11 th - NOV 13 th FALL FESIVALS

THE FESTIVAL OF THE LAKE Mandeville, Louisiana

Three days of community celebration and fundraising return to Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church this fall, featuring a slate of fun family games including Ring Liters, Catchin' Fish, Dipping Ducks, Confetti Eggs, a Frog Fly, and much much more—not to mention a fantastic slate of live local performances by the likes of Category 6, Adam Pearce Music, Peyton Falgoust Band, and Christian Serpas & Ghost Town. Local vendors will be ready to dole out delicacies like chargrilled oysters, smoked brisket, and the obligatory cotton candy and artisans will be peddling unique wares across the grounds. Kicks off Friday at 5 pm; Saturday and Sunday at 11 am. festivalofthelake.com. k

NOV 11 th - NOV 13 th FOOD FESTS

ST. FRANCISVILLE FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL Saint Francisville, Louisiana

Delicious, innovative food. Lively, danceable tunes. Creative culture bearers and storytellers. A beautiful, historically-immersed site. All of the things that have inspired this magazine's work for thirty-nine years now come together in perfect, joyful synchronicity at the fourth-annual St. Francisville Food and Wine Festival. On the grounds of the Myrtles Historic Inn and Restaurant 1796, readers, dancers, and diners will convene for a fall day in the company of many of our region's most celebrated chefs. In between the decadent sips and bites, roam the grounds to enjoy tastings of select wines and spirits from area purveyors, a beer garden showcasing Louisiana and Mississippi craft brews, live cooking demonstrations from celebrated chefs, and live music from the festival stage. There'll be plenty of room for dancing, so choose your shoes appropriately! 1 pm–5 pm. $95

(VIP tickets are already sold-out, so we suggest getting your remaining generaladmission tickets fast).

Join us in the very town that inspired this magazine's conception, with all of the things, and the people, that we at Country Roads love best. stfrancisvillefoodandwine.com. k

NOV 11 th - NOV 20 th THEATRE

BATON ROUGE THEATRE: THE ADDAMS FAMILY Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge Theatre brings America's first family of ghastly giddiness to

the stage. Wednesday Addams has brought a new boyfriend home to meet her wonderfully weird family. There’s just one issue—he’s normal. From the creators of Jersey Boys, this witty musical brings Gomez, Morticia, Lurch, and the rest. 7:30 pm Thursday–Saturday, 2 pm Sunday. $25–$35 at theatrebr.org. k

NOV 11 th - DEC 16 th

CRAFT EXHIBITIONS FINE AND FUNCTIONAL EXHIBITION

Hammond, Louisiana

The Fine and Functional exhibition

returns to Hammond Regional Arts Center just in time for the holiday season. This unique, handmade art experience offers wonderful pieces by artists in the surrounding parishes as well as many locally-made in Hammond and Ponchatoula, and some by national artists. Join the HRAC holiday tradition and take advantage of the opportunity to purchase unique crafts from pottery, to jewelry, to wood works, and holiday ornaments to fill out your Christmas list. The exhibition at HRAC will open with a reception on November 11 from 5 pm–8 pm. hammondarts.org. k

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

Upcoming Events

StoryTime in the Garden

November 12 and December 3 9 a.m.-noon Free

LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens

Wine & Roses Rambler*

November 13 Noon-2 p.m.

LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens Learn more at https://bit.ly/WineRoses2022

Red Rooster Bash*

November 17 6:30 p.m..

LSU Rural Life Museum

Advance registration is required.

Birding at Burden* November 19 and December 17 7-9 a.m.

LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens Tickets available at Eventbrite.com

Poinsettia Show & Sale

November 26 9 a.m.-noon

LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens

A Rural LIfe Christmas*

December 4 10 a.m.-5 p.m..

LSU Rural Life Museum

Botanic Gardens

For details about these and other events, visit our website or call 225-763-3990. Admission may be charged for some events. Burden Museum & Gardens . 4560 Essen Lane . 225-763-3990 . DiscoverBurden.com . Baton Rouge . Open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily

Events

NOV 11th - FEB 11th HISTORY EXHIBITIONS

TOM LEA, LIFE AND WORLD WAR II Lafayette, Louisiana

During World War II, artist, novelist, and historian Tom Lea traveled 100,000 miles as an artist correspondent for LIFE magazine and a muralist for the WPA. His work will be on display in a special exhibition at the Hilliard Museum. hilliardmuseum.org. k

NOV 12th - NOV 13th

HOLIDAY SHOPPING NOEL ON THE PRAIRIE Eunice, Louisiana

More than thirty Eunice business will open their wreathed doors and offer special discounts in time for the holiday season. Free. cajuntravel.com. k

NOV 12 th

FALL FESTIVALS

THIBODEAUXVILLE FALL FEST Thibodaux, Louisiana

Since its 1992 beginnings with just

to welcome nearly two hundred vendors and thirteen thousand visitors. In addition to the arts, crafts, and Cajun food on Saturday, Thibodeauxville will feature several stages' worth of continuous live musical entertainment. Activities for the whole family include a car show and the popular Duck Race in Bayou Lafourche—the rubber ducky's day in the sun. 8:30 am–5 pm. Free. thibodauxchamber.com. k

NOV 12 th

BROADWAY ON TOUR DR. SEUSS'S HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS Lafayette, Louisiana

This is the record-setting Broadway holiday sensation, which features hit songs like “You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch” and “Welcome Christmas” from the original, animated special. Max the Dog narrates as the mean and scheming Grinch, whose heart is “two sizes too small,” and decides to steal Christmas away from the holiday-loving Whos. Elaborate sets and costumes inspired by Dr. Seuss’s original illustrations do

whimsical world of Whoville, for a Seuss-y reminder of the true meaning of the holiday season. 2 pm and 7:30 pm. Tickets start at $36. lafayettebroadway.com. k

NOV 12th

ART MARKETS HOLIDAY ARTS AND CRAFTS BAZAAR Lacombe, Louisiana

Come by the Women's Center for Healing and Transformation for a holiday bazaar featuring work by local women artists. Browse paintings, ornaments, ceramics, stained glass, wall plaques, and much more while enjoying holiday snacks. A percentage of sales will benefit the Women's Center. 10 am–3 pm. womenscenterforhealing.org. k

NOV 12th

GOOD EATS

NATCHEZ ROTARY CHILI COOK-OFF Natchez, Mississippi

The Natchez Rotary Club is stirring the pot again, commemorative Tom Hughes bowls and all. The annual Chili Cookoff, held on the Bluff across from the Natchez Grand Hotel, will benefit Natchez Children's Services. 11 am–2 pm. Free admission; tasting kits are $10. visitnatchez.org. k

NOV 12th

VROOM VROOM

JEEP JAMBOREE Mandeville, Louisiana

A grande exhibition of the iconic hot rod will take place at Pelican Park, featuring Jeep-focused activities, a kids' battery-powered Jeep Obstacle Course (kids must provide their own battery-powered vehicle), a food court, vendors, and awards. 10 am–3 pm. Free. pelicanpark.com. k

NOV 12 th

FALL FESTIVALS

ATCHAFALAYA

BASIN FESTIVAL

Henderson, Louisiana

Settled right on the basin itself, Henderson's Henry Guidry Memorial Park makes an ideal site for the annual celebration of this unique landscape. Expect a day of dancing, eating, rock-wall climbing, and more. In addition to a lineup of local musicians—including Sweet Cecilia, Chubby Carrier, Geno Delafose, and Jamie Bergeron—festival-goers can expect car and truck shows, live and silent auctions, raffles, and cooking contests. All funds raised will go towards Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church and Sacred Heart of Jesus Chapel. 7 am–10:30 pm at 103 Park Drive. Free. basinfestival.com. k

the holidays at The 121, a special events venue in the heart of Downtown Baton Rouge. Whether it’s a corporate or family celebration, we have all of the space and amenities necessary to carry on those annual traditions.

242-9904

RAISE A GLASS

The St. Francisville

Food & Wine Festival

A SUNDAY MADE OF LOUISIANA’S BEST QUALITIES: GOOD FOOD, GOOD DRINK, GOOD COMPANY

By Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

The Sunday afternoon of November 17, 2019 seemed as though it were made just for us—a small cultural publication collaborating with The Myrtles to throw the grandest “darty” ("day party," that is) of the season. We made the obligatory jokes that our publisher James had paid the gods to save the most beautiful day that fall for the inaugural St. Francisville Food & Wine Festival.

Even we staff, who had each had some small or large part in the organization and/or publicity of the festival in the previous months, were giddy with wonder at it all: Seven Three Distilling was serving up Moscow Mules on one side of the courtyard. On the other, 3Tails Wine and Cheese displayed a charcuterie board of legends. In the gazebo at the center of the pond, the award-winning oyster shucker Duke Landry was doling out a dozen fresh bivalves a minute. And in the back, beneath the Louisiana cypress and moss-strewn oaks, five of the region’s most creative and fascinating chefs presented artfully-plated works of delicious art. Shrimp tostadas, crab cakes, pork belly dice, braised beef rib in grits, bourbon chocolate pecan pie. Each paired with a carefully-curated slate of fine wines, to be enjoyed in the signature festival glass. And in the background: local musicians Ship of Fools and Steve Riley and the Playboys completed the cultural tribute to our region. In gathering so many like-minded, creative, culturally-attuned folks and businesses in one place, we had somehow personified so much about the mission of our magazine—brought it to vibrant, physical life. We all looked to each other, grins plastered on our faces for the day. We had done it.

we at this magazine know all too well—the possibilities are boundless when it comes to celebrations of Louisiana food, music, wine, and culture. Each year, the St. Francisville Food & Wine Festival has grown larger: more chefs, more wine, more guests. In 2020, we added a bloody Mary bar, a beer & brats garden, and a chefs demonstration stage. In 2021, a Saturday Winemaker Dinner and VIP tent—and the beer & brats garden expanded to a festival almost entirely its own.

has expanded to feature over twenty chefs and restaurants, a selection of over forty wines and eleven locally-crafted beers and ales, craft cocktails, whiskey tastings, and so, so much more. This year, we’ve also made the event more friendly to those who celebrate sober—featuring an exciting pop-up by Dream House Lounge, who will add specially-crafted zero-proof cocktails and an oxygen bar to the mix. gathering around the most indulgent parts of our Southern culture. We can’t wait to see you there. Don’t wait to buy your tickets—they’re going fast. stfrancisvillefoodandwine.com.

Photo by Raegan Labat

Featuring Brian Shaw and Ensemble

Events

Beginning November 12th - November 29th

NOV 12th

INDIGENOUS CULTURE NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE DAY Lafayette, Louisiana

Join the representatives from many of Louisiana's Native American tribes and communities in celebrating their unique expressions of living culture. Explore crafts, music, dance, storytelling, and more at the Vermilionville Living Museum & Folklife Park. 10 am–4 pm. Free. vermilionville.org. k

NOV 12 th

FUN FUNDRAISERS

ODYSSEY AT NOMA

New Orleans, Louisiana

As far as fundraisers go, it's hard to find one more elegant than The Odyssey Ball at New Orleans Museum of Art. Support NOMA’s nationallyrecognized exhibitions and educational programs, which bring more than 300,000 annual visitors to the museum and sculpture garden. 8 pm–11 pm. Tickets start at $150. noma.org. k

NOV 12th

RED, WHITE & BLUE VETERANS DAY FESTIVAL Lafayette, Louisiana

Moncus Park in Lafayette is joining forces with the Acadiana Veterans Alliance to honor those who have served our country in the best way Louisiana knows how: with live music, good food, and community. 2 pm–7 pm. Free. moncuspark.org. k

NOV 12th

FALL FESTIVALS

KREWE DU ROUX GUMBO COOK-OFF & FAMILY FEST Mandeville, Louisiana

At high schools across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida—juniors and seniors come together once a week for lunch clubs directed at mentorship and leadership development. The program, Next Generation Clubs, is the beneficiary of the Krewe Du Roux Cook-Off and Family Fest to be held at Fontainebleau State Park this fall. Guests can jive to live music, take advantage of the family photo booths, play carnival games, and taste

Through the years, we’ve celebrated many milestones.

We’ve celebrated our patients’ successes following dementia diagnosis, strokes, illnesses, and surgeries. We’ve celebrated friendships that span the years as our patients become like family. We’ve celebrated being a team and making a difference.

And now, we are pleased to celebrate our 38th year of service to our amazing community.

A special thanks to all of our patients who have warmly welcomed us into their homes and their lives.

Providing home health services including skilled nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, medical nutrition therapy, medication management, fall prevention, personal care, social services, and palliative care transition assistance.

Allumer Natchez, which transforms Dunleith Historic Inn with light-based contemporary art installations, returns this year as a full-blown festival. Pictured from the 2021 festival is "ALVEARE Luminoso," an illumi nated, suspended hive-like structure by Luba Zygarewicz. See listing on page 25. Photo by Bryce Ell Photogra phy, courtesy of Allumer Natchez.

lots and lots of gumbo. $10; $15 at the gate gets you two food and beverage tickets, with more available for purchase. All-access wristbands are $25; $100 for families four or more. nextgenclubs.com/krewe-du-roux. k

NOV 12th CHEERS LOUISIANA

BOURBON FESTIVAL Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Entering its seventh year of celebrating local bourbon culture while supporting community causes, The Bourbon Society of Baton Rouge brings back its premiere event. Learn from leading authorities in the whiskey industries at educational seminars, and sip on craft bourbons from over thirty distilleries from around the country at a grand tasting. Ages twenty-one and up. $50 for designated drivers, $100 tasting tickets, $150 all-day seminar and tasting tickets, $250 VIP tasting and dinner tickets. louisianabourbonfest.com. k

NOV 12th FUN FUNDRAISERS

UNLEASHED! RESCUE ME GALA Mandeville, Louisiana

The St. Tammany Humane Society's annual Unleashed! gala will be held at the Pontchartrain Yacht Club this year, where animal lovers will find a silent auction,

cuisine from fine local restaurants, and live music by Four Unplugged—all with a nautical yacht theme. Proceeds go towards the no-kill shelter that provides low-cost veterinary care to the community and care for homeless animals. 7 pm–11 pm. $125. northshorehumane.org. k

NOV 12th ART PARTIES STUDIO 9170 FALL OPEN HOUSE

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Studio 9170 continues its mission of sharing art with Baton Rouge by throwing a two-day art party. Artwork will be displayed and available for sale, and sixteen artists will be milling about two galleries and sixteen studios chatting, taking commissions, and discussing their work. Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm and Sunday from 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm. janechapmanart.com. k

NOV 12th

HOLIDAY SHOPPING

NUTCRACKER MARKET Lafayette, Louisiana

Over one hundred local vendors convene in the Cajundome—giving you absolutely no excuse to not shop local this holiday season. Find everything from clothing to decor to gourmet food items and so,

so much more. 9 am. $8. Details at the Lafayette Nutcracker Market event on Facebook. k

NOV 12th FOOD FESTS WINGS AND ALE FEST Hammond, Louisiana

After a three-year hiatus, Low Road Brewing is bringing back its Wings & Ale Fest, doling out homebrew and wings to fill your belly with all things glorious. Take part in the silent auction, where all of the proceeds will go to support area veterans. Noon–4 pm. $25 in advance; $30 at the door; $20 for designated drivers. lowroadbrewing.com. k

NOV 12 th

FALL FESTS FORESTIVAL

New Orleans, Louisiana

A Studio In The Woods once again welcomes the public into its creative haven for the twelfth annual FORESTival, a celebration of art and nature. One of a few live-in artists’ retreats in the Deep South, A Studio in the Woods occupies seven-and-a-half acres on the Mississippi River in New Orleans and fosters both environmental preservation and the creative work of all artists. This year's FORESTival

will showcase the work of artist/ residents—including Brandon Ballengée, Pippin Frisbie-Calder, Shay Nichols, Sha'Condria "Icon" Sibley, and The Weavers Project featuring kai barrow, Willa Conway, and La Tonya Green—as well as the history and happenings of this unique environment. It's a chance to experience Louisiana’s wetlands set to live music with food, artistic demonstrations and activities, a walk in the woods with scientists, and more. This year's musical lineup includes Shamarr Allen, Sabine McCalla, and Wayne Singleton & Same Ol' 2 Step, along with Zydeco dance instruction from Harold Guillory. 11 am–5 pm. $15; children enter for free. astudiointhewoods.org. k

NOV 12 th

LOCAL HISTORY

SPANISH NEW ORLEANS COMMUNITY DAY

New Orleans, Louisiana

To celebrate the exhibition Spanish New Orleans and the Caribbean, THNOC is hosting a free Community Day, inviting folks from New Orleans and beyond to visit the Center's Tricentennial Wing to check out the exhibition and enjoy live performances from OperaCréole, historic demonstrations, and hands-on activities. 10 am–2 pm. Free. hnoc.org. k

Destrehan Plantation's fiftieth-annual Fall Festival lures vendors from all over the country who come to offer pottery, jewelry, quilts, ceramics, art, stained glass, baskets and more. An 1840s mule barn will be designated for antique vendors; as for the food, festival-goers will feast on everything from cochon-de-lait poboys to kettle corn and caramel apples. Period craft demonstrations and children's activities like pony rides, face painting, hand waxing, and fall crafts will keep the attention of all family members. Plus, there will be live musical entertainment from Les Bons-Riens, Bad Habit, Ryan Foret and Foret Tradition, and Kayla Woodson. 9 am–4 pm each day. $8 admission; $5 for children ages six to twelve; Free for children younger than twelve. destrehanplantation.org. k

NOV 12th - NOV 13th

ART FESTS

PERKINS ROWE ARTS FESTIVAL Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Perkins Rowe and the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge will again bring Baton Rouge the Annual Arts Festival. The Baton Rouge Arts Market will bring with it fine arts from local, regional, and national artists. Live music performances throughout the weekend include the Baton Rouge Concert Band, 2 Domestic 1 Import, Derrick Lemon, and Blue

Crab Redemption. Free. 10 am–6 pm on Saturday, Noon–6 pm on Sunday. perkinsrowe.com or artsbr.org. k

- NOV 13th

HOLIDAY SHOPPING

Peruse hundreds of vendor booths from Baton Rouge and beyond in the LamarDixon Expo Center, offering clothing, jewelry, home décor, candles, toys, Christmas décor, food, bath and body products, art, and more. Saturday from 9 am–6 pm, Sunday from 10 am–5 pm. $10 admission, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Bella Bowman Foundation. Children under ten get in free. On Saturday, there will be Mimosas in the Morning VIP Shopping from 8 am–11 am for $25 if purchased in advance. There will also be an event for children called Cookies & Crafts with Santa on both Saturday and Sunday, advance purchase tickets are $30. merrymarket.shop. k

- NOV 13th

THREE RIVERS ART FESTIVAL

Covington, Louisiana

The largest juried art festival in the Sout heast region will celebrate the work of over two hundred artists from across the country. Across Covington's historic downtown district, discover works of art in every medium, from ceramics to paintings to fiber art to jewelry. In addition to the vibrant parade of art booths, the festival will present a Children's Village, an "Arts Alive!" demonstration tent, live music, and an impressive demonstration of our region's culinary arts as well—featuring local vendors serving up delicacies like turkey gumbo, crawfish étoufée, tacos, gyros, and deep-fried brownies, too. 10 am–5 pm. covingtonthreeriversartfestival.com. k

NOV 12th - DEC 27th

HOLIDAY SHOPPING HOLIDAY MARKETPLACE

Denham Springs, Louisiana

With the change of the seasons comes more opportunities to grab gifts for your friends and family, including the Arts Council of Livingston Parish's annual Holiday Marketplace. With many different art works in various mediums, there is sure to be a wide range of possible gifts for everyone on your list. 10 am–noon Wednesday–Friday, 10 am–2 pm Saturday. Free. artslivingston.org. k

Enjoy a

Find holiday magic, historic sites, a winery, and famous Sabine River fishing, just waiting to be discovered in DeSoto Parish, a stop along the Holiday Trail of Lights!

Events

NOV 13th

KID SHOWS

THE POUT POUT FISH Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Watch the whimsical text and vibrant illustrations from The Pout Pout Fish children's book series spring to life on the Manship Theatre stage in the form of musical theatre and puppetry by TheaterWorksUSA. Recommended for ages three and up. 2 pm. $20. manshiptheatre.org. k

NOV 13th

ART HISTORY

ETHEL CLAIBORNE DAMERON LECTURE SERIES: ELIZABETH CHUBBUCK WEINSTEIN Port Allen, Louisiana

For its 2022 presentation of the Ethel Claiborne Dameron Lecture series, the West Baton Rouge Historical Association welcomes Elizabeth Chubbuck Weinstein, curator of the ongoing exhibition Angela Gregory: Doyenne of Louisiana Sculpture Weinstein, who has studied Gregory's life extensively, will present on the pioneering sculptor's career, from her early years in New Orleans to her tutelage in Europe

to how she became internationally recognized as a sculptor at a time when it was very rare for women to "cut stone". 2 pm. Free. westbatonrougemuseum.org. k

NOV 13th FUN FUNDRAISERS

WINE & ROSES RAMBLER Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens at Burden's Rose Garden offers an elegant setting for the annual Wine and Roses Rambler, where attendees can cultivate engaging conversation and share a lovely meal al fresco among some of the most enchanting roses in the state, while enjoying live music from the Civic Orchestra of Baton Rouge, a wine toss, and a special surprise raffle. Food will be catered by the Gilded Artichoke with desserts provided by Nannette Mayhall Cakes; seafood will be provided by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. Donning your favorite whimsical and elegant garden party attire is encouraged. Noon–2 pm. $100 per person; $90 for Friends of LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens members; $20 wine toss tickets; $10 raffle tickets. lsuagcenter.com/botanicgardens. k

NOV 14th

COMMUNITY HEALING THE IMPACT OF THE LOSS OF DENVER SMITH: A COMMUNITY CONVERSATION Port Allen, Louisiana

The West Baton Rouge Museum invites all to attend a discussion led by Denver Terrance of the Denver Smith Foundation. Smith was a student of Southern University who grew up in New Roads, who was killed needlessly during a peaceful protest on Southern's campus on November 16, 1972. Panelists will share their perspectives on the way his death impacted their lives, and about how the nonprofit organization The Denver Smith Foundation was established in 2019 with the purpose of honoring his life and legacy with educational opportunities and resources for students from vulnerable populations. Noon. Free. westbatonrougemuseum.org. k

NOV 15 th

ART TALKS

ARTIST GALLERY TALK: PAUL SCOTT Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Paul Scott, the artist behind the LSU Museum of Art's exhibition Pearlware,

Polish, and Privilege will present an Artist's Talk about his process in printmaking and ceramics. 6 pm. Free. lsumoa.org. k

NOV 15 th CONCERTS

JAZZ LISTENING ROOM: GERMAINE BAZZILE AND LARRY SEIBERTH TRIO Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Germaine Bazzile and the Larry Seiberth Trio will perform at the Cary Saurage Community Arts Center as part of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge's Jazz Listening Room Series. 7:30 pm. $20 at bontempstix.com. artsbr.org. k

NOV 16 th

KNOWING NATURE ADVENTURES OF A LOUISIANA BIRDER

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Author of Adventures of a Louisiana Birder Marybeth Lima will present a talk about her quest to identify three hundred Louisiana birds, with plenty of tips for fellow birders, at the East Baton Rouge Main Branch Library on Goodwood as part of the Baton Rouge Room Series. 6 pm. Free. ebrpl.com. k

NOV 16th GOOD EATS

SOUTHERN SOUL FOOD SHOWDOWN

New Iberia, Louisiana

A family-oriented soul food cook-off, fais-do-do, arts & crafts show is coming to mes amis in New Iberia. 10 am–5 pm. (337) 577-5591. k

NOV 17th

BROADWAY ON TOUR ANASTASIA AT THE HEYMANN CENTER Lafayette, Louisiana

From the Tony Award-winning creators of the Broadway classic Ragtime, this dazzling show transports its audience from the twilight of the Russian Empire to the euphoria of Paris in the 1920s, as a brave young woman sets out to discover the mystery of her past. Presented as part of the Broadway in Lafayette series at the Heymann Center. 7:30 pm. Tickets start at $46. lafayettebroadway.com. k

NOV 17th - NOV 19th

FALL FESTS

WORDS & MUSIC FESTIVAL New Orleans, Louisiana

After two years of hiatus, One Book One New Orleans returns with its very popular music, literature, and activism extravaganza, the Words & Music Festival. This year's festival focuses on the intersection of the arts with social justice. Featured writers will include local favorites Jarvis DeBerry, Chelsey Shannon, Elizabeth Miki Brina, Stacey Balkun, A.E. Rooks, and Alex Jennings. Filling out the musical side of the event will be Stooges Brass Band discussing their recently-released book, a performance by Joy Clark, and a conversation between DJ Soul Sister and musician Dawn Silva. Held at the New Orleans Jazz Market and beyond. wordsandmusic.org. k

NOV 17th - NOV 20th

HOUND DOGS LOUISIANA BAYOU KING FESTIVAL Covington, Louisiana

Introducing Louisiana's premiere tribute festival to The King of Rock 'n' Roll: Elvis Presley. Promising eleven full Elvis concerts performed by world class tribute artists, plus a Gospel and Inspirational performance, a Tribute to the Movie Years, The 1968 Leather Special, the 1970s Vegas Concerts, the Louisiana Hayride performance, AND an Elvis Tribute Contest backed by The King Creole Orchestra—these four days are set up to be an Elvis fanatic's heaven. Plus plenty of after parties, meet and greets,

and so much more. All at The Fuhrmann Auditorium in Covington. General Weekend packages start at $250, with discounts for couples; $135 for a day pass and $25 for the Sunday Gospel Concert. louisianabayoukingfest.com. k

NOV 17th - FEB 26th ART EXHIBITIONS

MEDITERRANEA: AMERICAN ART FROM THE GRAHAM D. WILLIFORD COLLECTION Baton Rouge, Louisiana

In this new exhibition at the LSU Museum of Art, seventy-one late nineteenth century and twentieth century paintings offer a peek into the experience of American artists on their grand tours of Europe's Mediterranean region—visual investigations of the land, history, and heritage they encountered. lsumoa.org. k

NOV 18th CABARET

LISA SINGS LEE AT CUTTING EDGE THEATER Slidell, Louisiana

Lisa Picone Love steps on stage to honor Miss Peggy Lee in a special cabaret show featuring many of her beloved classics— from "Fever" to "Big Spender" to "He's a Tramp". Originally performed at Le Chat Noir in New Orleans in 2010, this show makes its way to Cutting Edge Theater. 8 pm. $32. cuttingedgetheater.com.

NOV 18th CONCERTS

BILLIE HOLIDAY & LESTER YOUNG TRIBUTE Port Allen, Louisiana

For its Historical Happy Hour series this month, the West Baton Rouge Museum is presenting another tribute concert to waltz audiences back in time to the Golden Age of jazz and blues. This time, the evening of music will be led by jazz singer Mikhala “Jazz Muffin” Iversen, who will be joined by New Orleans musicians Larry Sieberth on piano, Christian Winther on tenor sax, Ted Long on bass, and Gerald French on drums to perform a Billie Holiday & Lester Young Tribute Concert. Visitors can also view the museum's traveling exhibition Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill. 6 pm–8 pm. Free. westbatonrougemuseum.org. k

NOV 18th - NOV 19th COLLECTORS

CRESCENT CITY COIN CLUB COIN SHOW Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Hope your pockets are jingly for this year's Crescent City Coin Club, Winter Coin Show. Be prepared for buying, selling, and appraisals of U.S. and

Events

Beginning November 18th - November 19th

foreign coins, paper money, Mardi Gras doubloons, and gold and silver buillion. Door prizes every hour. 11 am–6 pm Friday; 9 am–5 pm Saturday at the Columbus Room in Kenner. Free. coinshownola.eventbrite.com. k

NOV 18th - NOV 19th FALL FESTS

HONEY ISLAND SWAMP FEST Pearl River, Louisiana

Head out to Pearl River Town Hall to enjoy live music, food and beverages, a monster truck show, raffle, carnival rides, and vendor booths with arts and crafts. Plus, live performances by Keith Anderson, the Sweet Tea Trio, Joel Galloway, Jay Jones, 985 DJs, and many more. Leave outside food and drink and pets at home. Gates open 4 pm Friday, 10 am Saturday; $20; $25 for a weekend pass. deepsouthpromo.com. k

NOV 18th - NOV 20th OPERA

NEW ORLEANS OPERA'S HANSEL AND GRETEL New Orleans, Louisiana

Engelbert Humperdinck set this classic

fairy tale to opera, and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and New Orleans Opera plan to bring those folk melodies to life on the Mahalia Jackson stage. A delight for children and adults alike. 7:30 pm Friday; 2:30 pm Sunday. $32–$227. neworleansopera.org. k

NOV 18th - NOV 20th

ART PARTIES

FOUNDERS' BALL IV New Orleans, Louisiana

Be among the first to lay eyes on the exhibition Creole New Orleans, Honey! The Art of Andrew LaMar Hopkins at the historic Cabildo in Jackson Square, while mingling with the artist and viewing the exhibit at the Pre-Party (6:30 pm–7:30 pm), and then show off your finest Empire-period costume and stringquartet-accompanied dance moves at the Founders Ball IV (7:30 pm–10:30 pm). Pre-orders for the exhibit catalogues will be available and the opportunity to partake in a robust silent auction with an item donated by Andrew LaMar Hopkins himself, a framed original work inspired by the Founders Ball IV. There will also be an opportunity to take a French-style

afternoon tea among Hopkins' paintings at Le Goûter with Désirée on November 20 from 2 pm–4 pm. thelmf.org. k

NOV 18th - NOV 20th HOLIDAY SHOPPING HOLIDAY MARKET AT THE MILL New Roads, Louisiana

A spectacular shopping experience lands

in New Roads for the holidays with the annual Market at the Mill. The nearly 40,000 square foot Cotton Seed Oil Mill will be packed with country furniture, architectural pieces, pottery, glassware, ceramics, art, woodwork, metalwork, and loads of good cheer. Shop 'til you drop—all proceeds will go towards the renovation of the old mill building. Food and refreshments,

Support the holiday tradition that is Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre's Nutcracker: A Tale from the Bayou at a festive kid-friendly tea where dancers will prance, sweets will be eaten, and photo opportunities will abound. Pictured is dancer Lena Laroussi. Image courtesy of Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre. See listing on page 37.

too. 11 am–5 pm Friday, 10 am–5 pm Saturday, 11 am–4 pm Sunday. New this year, shoppers can purchase a VIP Early Bird Shopping Pass for Friday morning from 9 am–11 am for an additional $5. Admission is $5 per day; $10 for a weekend pass. marketatthemillnewroads.com. k

NOV 18 th - SEP 15 th

ART EXHIBITIONS

CREOLE NEW ORLEANS, HONEY! THE ART OF ANDREW LAMAR HOPKINS

New Orleans, Louisiana

For the first time, a solo exhibition of over seventy of Andrew LaMar Hopkins's paintings will be displayed at the Cabildo in Jackson Square, alongside artifacts that inspired some of the works from the Louisiana State Museum treasured collections. Hopkins, who is originally from Mobile, Alabama but resides in New Orleans, is known for bringing nineteenth-century Creole culture to life in vibrant color on canvas. The exhibition is presented by Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser and the Louisiana State Museum. louisianastatemuseum.org. k

NOV 18 th - DEC 31 st

ART EXHIBITIONS

ELIZABETHAN GALLERY ANNUAL FALL ART SHOW

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Elizabethan Gallery is opening its doors for its annual show and sale, with an opening reception offering refreshments in conjunction with White Light Night on November 18 from 5 pm–9 pm. The show features works by Carol Hallock, who is known for her serene impressionistic paintings that frequently capture the landscapes and waterways of Louisiana. Other artists whose work will be featured in the gallery include Mickey Asche, Diego Larguia, Krista Roche, Claire Pasqua, Betty Efferson, Keith Douglas, Kathy Daigle, Nancy Smitherman, Justin Patin, and Heather Connole. Free. elizabethangallery.com. k

NOV 19 th

LIVE MUSIC

ABITA SPRINGS

OPRY CONCERTS

Abita Springs, Louisiana

The Abita Springs Opry is devoted to preserving Louisiana's indigenous music in all its guises, and naturally is going all-out for its twentiethanniversary show this November. Arrive early (around 5 pm-ish) and join the folks who've made a ritual of enjoying gumbo, hot dogs, and

homemade pastries, not to mention the pre-show sound checks and front porch concerts. It all adds up to the good ol' family atmosphere that the Opry strives for. The lineup for November includes performances by The Bad Pennies Pleasure Makers, The Right Tolerable String Band, Patchwork Bluegrass Band, and The Zion Harmonizers. 7 pm–9 pm. $20. abitaopry.org. k

NOV 19 th

FOOD FESTS SMOKE & BARREL: A CELEBRATION OF FINE BOURBON, BBQ & WHISKEY Lake Charles, Louisiana

The nonprofit Smoke & Barrel Inc. is setting up shop on the Calcasieu Parish Courthouse Lawn with eighty bourbons, whiskeys, and scotches in tow, alongside award-winning regional BBQ vendors from across the region. Live music will be provided by Ole Lonseome, Mayeux & Broussard, and Holly Rock. Proceeds will benefit United Way of SWLA. smokeandbarrel.org. k

NOV 19 th

FALL FESTS PINEY WOODS HERITAGE FESTIVAL Picayune, Mississippi

Celebrate the early days of the Piney Woods. Saturday welcomes a variety of musical performances and exhibitors to the Crosby Arboretum, with demonstrations of traditional skills and crafts such as blacksmithing, quilting, spinning, basket-making, and more. $6, children $3, free for members. 10 am–2 pm. crosbyarboretum.msstate.edu. k

NOV 19 th

FUN RUNS COLOR DASH 5K & 1 MILE FUN RUN Covington, Louisiana

For the second year in a row, Coquille Parks & Recreation District 14 presents the Color Dash 5K & 1-Mile Fun Run at the sports complex, featuring two 5Ks and two fun runs for ages five and older—land at the finish line a (sweaty) rainbow of achievement. Check in starts at 8 am. All proceeds go towards cranio-facial research. coquillerec.recdesk.com. k

NOV 19 th

LIVE MUSIC JAZZ'N THE VINES Bush, Louisiana

Wild Bush Farm + Vineyards' longrunning outdoor concert series brings celebrated Louisiana musicians to a gorgeous pastoral setting. Entertaining

Events

Beginning November 19th - November 29th

assembled picnickers this month will be Buckwheat Zydeco. 6:30 pm–9 pm at 81250 Highway 1082. Gates open at 5 pm. It's recommended to bring a picnic blanket, lawn chairs, and bug spray. Wine from Wild Bush Farm + Vineyards and various foods will be available for sale from local vendors. wildbushfarmandvineyard.com. k

NOV 19 th

GOOD EATS CAMELLIA CITY CHEESE & WINE FESTIVAL Slidell, Louisiana

The world of cheese settles brie(fly) in Olde Towne Slidell, as a cadre of vendors comes equipped with a vast variety of delicious dairy delights to be paired with wines and cured meats from around the world. Test your palette by competing in the blind taste test, create your own wine and cheese pairings, and vote for your favorites. Noon–10 pm. Details, including VIP opportunities, on the Camellia City Cheese & Wine Festival Facebook Page. k

NOV 19 th

HOLIDAY FESTS LOGANSPORT CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL Logansport, Louisiana

Get in the mood for the season on the Sabine. There will be lights, live music by Bubba Reeves and Reid Soria, over forty vendors, a car show, a parade, fireworks, and the grand lighting of the town Christmas tree. 1 pm. logansportchristmasfestival.com. k

NOV 19 th - NOV 21 st

HOLIDAY CHEER NATCHITOCHES CHRISTMAS TOUR OF HOMES Natchitoches, Louisiana

Hosted by the Natchitoches Historic Foundation, these tours take you into some of the historic district's most fascinating homes, all decked out with lights, holly, and grand trees for the season. Docents will lead commentaries on the history of each property, as well as provide background on their unique holiday decorations. $25. natchitocheshf.com. k

NOV 19 th - JAN 7 th

HOLIDAY CHEER NATIONAL GARDEN CLUB CHRISTMAS TOUR OF HISTORIC HOMES IN NATCHEZ Natchez, Mississippi

Natchez has been called the "Christmas movie capital of the South," and now for the first time, some of the Bluff City's most beautiful historic homes will open their wreathed doors for the town's first-annual Christmas Tour of Historic Homes. Homes included will be Magnolia Hall, The Towers, Choctaw, Sunnyside, Myrtle Terrace, and The Thomas Staniforth House— and each is guaranteed to be bedecked with holiday displays, from a Victorian Christmas theme at Magnolia Hall to a Jeweled Christmas theme at The Towers. Find more information at littleeasytours.com. k

NOV 24 th

FUN RUNS

TAMMANY TURKEY TROT

Covington, Louisiana

What is it they say? Before you marry her, make sure her family isn't the type to run a 5K on Thanksgiving? If you're in the market, I'd stay away from Covington for the holidays—where

families and groups will be gearing up to #earnyourstuffing. Mapped as a tour of downtown Covington, the Tammany Turkey Trot benefits Our Lady of the Lake and the Northshore Food Bank, which also serves as its starting line. Races begin at 8 am. $40 for 5K/ Walk; $45 for 5 Mile Run/Walk. tammanyturkeytrot.com. k

NOV 25 th CONCERTS

JAZZ LISTENING ROOM: LARRY SIEBERTH QUARTET

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Larry Sieberth will perform with his new quartet that features saxophonist Rex Gregor, Doug Belote on drums, and Amina Scott on bass; at the Cary Saurage Community Arts Center. 7:30 pm–9 pm. Tickets start at $20 at bontempstix.com. k

NOV 26 th

HOLIDAY SHOPPING

GRAND NOEL

Grand Coteau, Louisiana

Knock your holiday shopping out early against the scenic backdrop of Grand Coteau, where boutiques will offer special discounts alongside photos with Santa, and the life-sized Nativity will

be on display at St. Ignatious Catholic School at 180 Church Street. 2 pm–8 pm. Free. cajuntravel.com. k

NOV 26 th - NOV 27 th

HOLIDAY SHOPPING OLDE TOWNE CHRISTMAS MARKET Slidell, Louisiana

Holiday shopping falls like snow upon Olde Towne Slidell this postThanksgiving weekend. The shops all along First and Erlanger Streets will open their doors, offering antiques, delicious food, and local arts and crafts, and more. 10 am–5 pm. (985) 710-8323. k

NOV 27 th

HOLIDAY CHEER BATON ROUGE BALLET THEATRE'S LAND OF THE SWEETS TEA Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Goody goody gumdrops! Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre's ever-popular Land of the Sweets Tea returns, this year at the Lod Cook Alumni Center. Children and parents alike will join their favorite characters from The Nutcracker, A Tale from the Bayou for a fun-filled festivity of delicious sweets, crafting, photo and autograph opportunities, and, of

course, dancing with some of the stars of the show. 2 pm. $60 each or a table of ten for $550. batonrougeballet.org. k

NOV 27 th

LIVE MUSIC SOUNDS OF THE SEASON CHRISTMAS CONCERT

New Iberia, Louisiana

The Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, in a show presented by the Iberia Cultural Resources Association, is set to ring in the holiday season with a set of Christmas carols accompanied by classical holiday selections such as "The Nutcracker". 3 pm–4:30 pm at St. Peters Church. Free. iberiacultural.com. k

NOV 28 th - NOV 30 th

HOLIDAY CHEER VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS AT RIP VAN WINKLE GARDENS New Iberia, Louisiana

The character Rip Van Winkle was beloved by the children in his village for telling them stories and giving them toys. Sound like anyone we know? What better way to celebrate the season than to enjoy a Victorian Christmas at the Joseph Jefferson Home at Rip Van Winkle Gardens. The twentyfive acre paradise will twinkle with Christmas cheer and the Jefferson

Home, decorated for the holidays, will be open for tours from 9 am until 4 pm. ripvanwinklegardens.com. k

NOV 29 th - NOV 30 th BROADWAY ON TOUR SIX AT THE SAENGER New Orleans, Louisiana

Six, the hilarious, high-energy new musical sensation about Henry VIII's six wives that has taken Broadway by force, is bringing its national tour to the Saenger Theatre. Six features an all-woman band as well as an all-woman cast, and took home a whopping twenty-three awards in the 2021/2022 Broadway season, including a Tony Award for best original score. Most performances at 7:30 pm with performances at 8 pm on Friday and Saturday, an additional performance at 2 pm Saturday, and at 1 pm and 6:30 pm (ASL performance) on Sunday. $39–$169 at saengernola.com. k

NOV 29 th - NOV 30 th CONCERTS COOL WINTER NIGHTS AND HOT JAZZ AT THE MANSHIP Baton Rouge, Louisiana

For the eleventh year, The Manship Theatre will bring a broad assortment

of jazz talents to the stage for its Cool Winter Nights and Hot Jazz concert. This year, the evening of contemporary arrangements and holiday classics will be performed by Brian Shaw, Willis Delony, Fr. Greg Daigle, Sasha Masakowski, and Bill Grimes, alongside a fifteen-piece jazz ensemble. 7:30 pm both nights. $30–$45. manshiptheatre.org. k

For our full list of events, including those we couldn't fit into print, point your phone camera here.

Christmas in the Country - December 2, 3, 4, 2022

Christmas

in St. Francisville has been a picturesque time since the nineteenth century, when the little river town still served as a commercial center for the surrounding plantation country. Some things don't change. Beginning right after Thanksgiving, owners of historic homes start stapling white lights to windows, doors, gallery posts, shrubbery, yard ornaments, slow-moving tourists, and any other architectural features within ladder's reach. Expect community choirs, historic homes to peep into, fresh Christmas wreaths for sale, holiday fun and games for kids, downtown entertainment, and other kinds of jolly good fun. Rosedown and Audubon State Historic Sites schedule interpretive Christmastime programming throughout the weekend, so leave time to swing by.

Here’re a handful of highlights from across the three-day weekend. There are many more. A full rundown of events, and links to buy tickets, can be found at stfrancisvillefestivals.com.

Friday, December 2

• 10 am–4 pm: Annual Wreath Sale – Old Benevolent Society Building, 11738 Ferdinand Street.

• 5 pm: Music on the Porch – West Feliciana Schools choirs perform on the front porch of the Town Hall. Town Christmas Tree Lighting and fireworks to follow at 6 pm

• 6 pm–8 am: Peep Into Holiday Homes along Ferdinand & Royal streets

• 6:30 pm–10:30 pm: Jingle Bell Mingle along Commerce Street. Artists, food, live music, friends, and fun in front of Parker Park.

Saturday, December 3

• 8 am–11 am: Breakfast with Santa: Seatings at 8 am, 9:30 am, and 11 am at Jackson Hall on Ferdinand Street

• 10 am–4 pm: Annual Wreath Sale – Old Benevolent Society Building, 11738 Ferdinand Street.

• 10 am–4 pm: Artists in Parker Park - Over 50 artists offering handmade things

• 10 am–4 pm: Friends of the Library Tour of Homes – Visits to four local homes decorated for Christmas.

• 6 pm–8 pm: A Jane Austen Christmas at Audubon State Historic Site. Candlelit tours, seasonal decorations, food tastings, & dancing

• 6:45 pm: Sounds of the Season Concert & Dessert Reception featuring Ivan Griffin at Grace Church & Jackson Hall.

Sunday, December 4

• 10 am–4 pm: Artists in Parker Park

• Noon–2 pm: Blu Rouge live music in the Gazebo at Parker Park

• 2 pm: St. Francisville Christmas Parade down Ferdinand and Commerce streets.

* Some events require a ticket. For a complete schedule of events, and links to ticketing, visit stfrancisvillefestivals.com/features/christmas-inthe-country

Features

PROFILE

The Papajohn Effect

ONE OF BATON ROUGE’S BUSIEST ACTORS TALKS SKIP BERTMAN, STUNTING, AND SPIDER-MAN

By Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

You’ve seen Michael Papajohn before.

You’ve seen him as a fall ing body tumbling off of the sinking Titanic. A security guard jumped by Jake Gyllenhaal. A fireman taking Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pulse. You’ve seen him choking under Cameron Diaz’s stiletto boot and dying in Nicholas Cage’s arms. You’ve seen him on NCIS, running from the cops in between Mardi Gras floats, wearing a tuxedo. He’s Rich, the vice cop in True Detective Season 3 who gives Roland a crucial tip. He’s Spe cial Agent Larry Hooper in Bourne Leg acy, sent with a team to assassinate Marta Shearing. In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, he is Meghan Fox’s dad. In For the Love of the Game, Kevin Costner’s char acter says “Can’t think of a better reason not to be a Yankee,” in reference to Papa john’s Sam Tuttle. If you watch foot ball scenes from The Waterboy, and note some of the bigger hits taken by Bobby Boucher—it’s not Adam Sandler you’re

looking at. It’s Papajohn. One of his best-recognized roles, though, remains to this day the carjacker in Spider-Man; the man believed to have killed Uncle Ben, who begged Toby Maguire’s Peter Par ker to “Give me a chance, just give me a chance!” before the emerging superhero shoved him out of a window.

Sitting in his office at Baton Rouge’s Celtic Studios, though, Papajohn is wholly himself—wearing a plain black t-shirt and khakis, a salt-and-pepper beard. He’s effusively friendly, and he talks with his hands, a million miles a minute. He’s made this space his own— part work station, part personal museum. A basketball net hangs on the back of the door. Along with artwork depicting Southern landscapes, the walls display a gallery of photographs from the 1986 and 1987 LSU Tigers baseball team, a poster from his 2001 producing debut Rustin, and a rendering of his iconic Spider-Man scene, signed by Stan Lee. In the corners and on the shelves are mementos from

some of the sets he’s worked on: two base ball bats—one from For the Love of the Game, another from Little Big League —a rubber billy club from his role as Major Cloud in Selma, a belt buckle from Emancipation, to be released in Decem ber 2022. Taped to the back of a framed photo of him working one of his first jobs as an extra, he’s got two paystubs—one reports he was paid $40 for a job, another $52.68.

Papajohn doesn’t forget where he started. On the shelves, he still displays a palm-sized trophy from his child hood football team, a photo of his Little League coach, and another of his high school baseball coach in Birmingham, Alabama. “He was a huge influence on me,” he said. “Really got behind me and taught me the fundamentals.”

This enduring respect for mentors is a continuous thread through my conver sation with Papajohn—who remembers the names of every single person who ever made a call on his behalf, offered him

advice, or gave him an opportunity. It all goes back to a conversation he had with his college baseball coach in 1987—a still relatively new figure at Louisiana State University at the time, Skip Bertman. Papajohn, soon to graduate, was consid ering making the move to California to work as a stuntman. “Skip was the only person I knew that knew anything about the movie business,” said Papajohn, not ing that he had coached actors Mickey Rourke and Andy Garcia when they were in high school in Miami. “So, I walked across Nicholson. His office door was open. He’s smoking a cigar. ‘What’s up Papajohn?’”

He asked his coach what he thought about making the move to Hollywood. “He took a big hit of his cigar, blew it up,” remembers Papajohn. “He said, ‘I think you should do it. I think you should go for it.’ And then he gave me some incredi ble advice: ‘Look for the best mentors, the best coaches. Whatever you decide to do. Look for the best.’”

Born and raised in Vestavia Hills, Ala bama, Papajohn’s ties to Louisiana go back to 1985, when he was playing base ball for Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Florida—dreaming of playing for an SEC team. That fall, his team traveled to Baton Rouge to play the Tigers for the football team’s homecom ing weekend, and Papajohn still remem bers the instant effect the campus’s beauty had on him—its lakes and ageold oaks. Playing centerfield, he listened to the sounds of live music rising over the diamond, could smell barbecue in the air. “I thought to myself, ‘This campus is rockin’!’” He watched the way Coach Skip Bertman talked to his players, and he knew he wanted to be a part of it. The following season, he was drafted by the Texas Rangers and turned down the gig to accept a scholarship at Louisiana State University. The two years Papajohn played for the Tigers were the first two years that the team made it to the College World Series.

During his last semester at LSU, if Papajohn hadn’t been walking into the weight room at exactly the time that a

40 MICHAEL PAPAJOHN SAYS THE SECRET TO ACTING IS AUTHENTICITY // 45 SIX LOCAL DOCUMENTARIES TO ADD TO YOUR “TO WATCH” LIST // 50 THE VISUAL EFFECTS ARTISTS WORKING IN BATON ROUGE W

The rendering of Papajohn’s role in the 2002 film Spider-Man, in which he played the carjacker, was provided courtesy of Papajohn.

bunch of his old teammates were walking out—his life might look very different. The group stopped him and asked if he knew about the movie gig being offered to LSU athletes. He didn’t. “We’re going to interview right now with the NFL coach Lew Erber at the Sheraton,” they told him. “They need some guys to be part of the movie’s football team. You want to come?” A few weeks later, Papa john was working his first job as a stunt man for the film Everybody’s All Ameri can. When the director Taylor Hackford offered higher pay to anyone interested in taking real football hits, Papajohn raised his hand. “I had $11 dollars in my check ing account at the time,” he laughs, look ing back. Later, Hackford tapped him

as Dennis Quaid’s stunt double. At the November 14, 1987 LSU vs. Mississippi State game, they filmed at halftime, and in front of the entire crowd, Hackford gave Papajohn a trophy inscribed with “World’s Greatest Hitman”. When it was all over, Hackford pulled him aside and told him, “I think you should really look at becoming a stuntman.”

Papajohn kept what he had said in mind, but went off to spring training, hoping to get drafted to a minor league team. When he didn’t, he gave Hackford a call. “He stayed true,” he remembers. “He led me in the right direction.” And Papajohn left the Deep South for Holly wood.

You’re twenty-two, twenty-three years

Top: Papajohn (left) pictured with another stuntman on the set of Titanic. Left middle: Papajohn on the set of For the Love of the Game, in which he played the character Sam Tuttle. Right middle: Papajohn in discussion with Adam Sandler on the set of The Waterboy. Bottom left: Papajohn pictured with his mother on the set of Eraser. The inside cover of a Spider-Man comic book, with notes to Papajohn from writer Stan Lee and actor Tobey Maguire. All courtesy of Papajohn.

old and you’re just looking to how to get in this business,” he said, recalling the way he started out doing lawn work for one of the producers he’d met on Every body’s All American, Alan Blomquist. “You have people who are there, you’re under their wings. Man, it helped so much.” Blomquist told him who to call, which casting agencies to get started with. And he gave him the crucial advice: “Let work lead to more work.”

Within a few months, Papajohn found himself on the set of the 1985 film Moonlighting, working as a photo double for Bruce Willis. “I mean, I got to wear Bruce’s clothes. I got to be right there by the director. I got to see Bruce come on set, tell a joke, everybody laugh. Bruce would leave and they’d shoot over my shoulder. And I’m reading lines with Cybill Shepherd. I’ve only been out there less than a year.”

When he thinks about his early days in Los Angeles, he says memories arise of living in a studio, grinding his way through the business, not knowing a soul. He joined a stuntman softball league, and met fellow professional fight ers, fallers, and die-ers. “Stunts is a tough racket,” he tells me. “It really is. But I loved it at the time.” And he was getting work. Crime films, mostly: Mobsters; Blood in, Blood out ; Mafia!; Money Talks

Lots of commercials (which paid better), often sports-themed. “I played to my strengths,” he said. “And I wasn’t a jerk, you know? I was athletic. And they could

see that without me telling them, and I just moved really fast because of all these relationships I was making.”

Towards the end of the eighties, Papa john had scored a role as a baseball player in an AT&T commercial directed by the award-winning British director, Rid ley Scott—who at the time was enjoy ing the accolades of his recent projects Alien and Blade Runner. On set, Papa john was shooting pool with some of the other guys when the assistant director approached him, saying: “Hey Papajohn, Ridley has been filming you a lot, with a zoom lens, shooting pool like this. He really likes your look, and wanted me to

something in me.”

Six months later, he was reading for a part as a hitman in the Bruce Willis film The Last Boy Scout. “It was really uncom fortable, it wasn’t in a private room,” remembers Papajohn. All of the other candidates were standing around, watch ing as he read the lines—“Something like ‘yeah we got the money, here are the drugs,’ whatever it was”. And the stunt

denly Papajohn pointed at him. “Hey, are you related to Ridley Scott?” It was Tony Scott, Ridley’s brother (his major credits, at the time, included Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, and Days of Thunder). “Well, I just did a commercial with Ridley.” Confidence boosted, Papjohn landed the part.

Around the same time, he heard about another Ridley Scott movie in the works:

Michael Papajohn pictured standing on top of his car the day he arrived in Hollywood in 1988. Courtesy of Papajohn.

Thelma and Louise. He decided to go for it. “And I just remember, I got in there and I couldn’t get off the page,” he tells me, shaking his head. “I said … look I’m sorry I’m a stunt guy.” He kept start ing again, and again. “I was so insecure, and just the reading and the audi tioning, no technique, no training.” Thoroughly embarrassed, he walked down the stairs onto Santa Monica Boulevard and thought to himself, “I am going to take an act ing class.”

(In the end, he actually did land the role of an FBI agent in Thelma and , despite the rough audition, but had to decline the opportunity because of a prior commitment as the principal baseball player in a Budweiser commer cial. “I had to slide headfirst into home plate at Dodger Stadium.”)

Papajohn wanted to grow in the indus try, but he knew he needed gain confi dence. “I wanted to walk onto a movie set and feel like I felt when I played at LSU. Like you want the ball to hit to you. You’ve done the fundamentals, you’re ready for those high pressure situations.”

So, falling back on Coach Bertman’s advice, he sought out the perfect mentor.

Larry Moss was the best acting coach in the business at the time. Today, Papa john joins A-Listers Tobey Maguire, Helen Hunt, Hilary Swank, and Leon ardo DiCaprio as his alumni. When Papajohn first called to sign up for classes, Moss’s secretary told him there was a two-year wait.

A few weeks later, he called back. “Hey Catie, it’s Michael Papajohn. I just got a movie with Denzel Washington that works in three weeks. I was hoping I could study with Larry privately.”

“Okay, you can meet Larry in Venice Condominiums, a private next week.”

When Papajohn showed up, a stack of folders in hand, Moss came out wear ing a baseball hat and glasses. “He goes, ‘Michael, congratulations, you got a part with Denzel!’… ‘No, Larry. I didn’t get a part with Denzel. I just wanted to meet you.’

“That hour warp speeded my career,” he tells me. Moss asked him if he had ever read Shakespeare. He hadn’t. He told him, “I want you to read Othello There’s a character in there called Iago, and I think you have this nemesis thing about you. Iago is the best nemesis ever written.”

Papajohn spent a year with Iago, prac ticing various scenes over and over again. He entered his villain era—finding him self right in that particular Hollywood niche of the action-oriented bad guy with a couple of killer lines. “I started getting in the business as a stunt guy who acts,”

he said. He played the corrupt Special Agent Schiff, who meets his end at the wrong side of Arnold Schwarzeneg ger’s gun in the 1996 film Eraser; the bathroom thug who tries to strangle Cameron Diaz in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. Watching that scene, don’t miss Papajohn’s improvised flirty “hey” to Diaz in the mirror, just before he throws a chain around her neck. “Just before I went into that scene, the director McG came up to me and said, ‘Hey Papajohn, have fun. Film lasts forever.’”

It was around this time that he got one of his biggest breaks yet, in For the Love of the Game. Papajohn had learned that Augie Garrido, coach of the Texas Long horns, was going to be the technical advi sor on the movie. He sent in his audition tape, and then he called up his old coach, Skip Bertman—who he still saw fre quently, and had even come to visit him in California from time to time. “Hey Coach, do you know Augie Garrido?” Bertman did, and promised to put in a good word. Three weeks later, Papajohn flew up to New York and got the part of Sam Tuttle, a snarky player for the Yan kees and Billy Chapel’s arch-enemy.

“Skip’s gotten me more breaks than anybody in the movie business,” laughs Papajohn. “I joked to him once that he gets me more work than any agent or manager, and I don’t have to pay him.”

Through For the Love of the Game, Papajohn developed a relationship with director Sam Raimi, who was getting

ready to begin the project that would define his career, the Spider-Man trilogy. When the time came for casting, Papa john immediately came to Raimi’s mind. His assistant Grant Curtis called, and invited him to come in and read for the role of the carjacker. He didn’t immedi ately realize the significance of the role at first, assumed it was just another thug part involving a stunt or two. But the very first day on set, Raimi spelled it out for him: “You’re the evil that creates Spi der-Man.”

More doors opened. Papajohn kept up his training, absorbed every bit of advice Moss had to offer—from going to therapy to building character biogra phies. “You’re a real authentic guy,” Moss told Papajohn once. “Directors like that, you’ll always work.” “He planted that in my head,” says Papajohn. “And there were ups and downs, times I wanted to quit. But those words always came back. Another guy who is really good at what he does, who saw something in me. And I took it to heart.”

In 2010, he was on the set of Drive Angry —which was filmed in Shreve port. A few of his old college buddies and teammates took advantage of the proximity and came to set to see him work. “And we’re bullshitting and hav ing a good time, and one of the directors, Johnny Martin, gets in my ear, ‘Papa john, you ever think about moving back here man?’” He pointed out the burgeon ing local film industry resulting from

the expanded tax credits in Louisiana, and the fact that he had connections here. “He just kind of planted the seed,” Papajohn tells me. “Can I really move out of Hol lywood and still do this?”

Two years later, he and his wife and their toddler made the move home to the South. And he’s never looked back. “The quality of life is so much better,” he says. “And Louisiana people are very passionate and they’re generous, and that’s what their crews are like.”

Papajohn’s son Sean, age fourteen, is enjoying the ben efits of jumping into the movie business without having to make the once-obligatory pilgrimage to California.

“He works more than I do!” Papajohn beams, shar ing that Sean was cast in three movies over the past year—including the role of young John Wilkes Booth in the forthcoming Apple TV+ miniseries Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer starring Tobias Men zies. “I’m excited for Sean. And he’s still got that qual ity of life. He goes to school, goes to wrestling, goes to track. When he’s got an audition, it’s not like I even have to drive him into New Orleans. I just set up my camera and we go to my buddy’s studio … I don’t even have to pull him out of school.”

Papajohn, now fifty-seven, has mostly given up the stunt lifestyle. “Now I need a stunt double,” he laughs. He stays busy, though he is more selective than he used to be—seeking out, more intentionally than ever, roles that allow him to exercise and explore that quality of authenticity that Moss once pointed out in him. “That’s what I got attached to watching movies as a child,” he says, retrospectively. “I was drawn to moments that were really authentic. I could see that Burt Reynolds really loved Sally Field … that’s not acting. I got connected to that authenticity. If you’re gonna be in front of a camera, you want to be real.”

One of the more recent roles Papajohn is most proud

of is the oncologist Dr. Felton in the Ridley Scott-di rected 2019 biographical drama Our Friend, starring Jason Segel, Dakota Johnson, and Casey Affleck. To prepare for the role, Papajohn decided to meet with a real oncologist and interview her. “I just wanted to ask her what it’s like to tell people they’re not going to live, you know, six weeks. How do you do that?”

It is likely this attraction to authenticity that drives Papajohn’s passion for documentaries. During his time in Los Angeles, one of his favorite haunts was the Santa Monica indie video store Vidiots—“you could get stuff from filmmakers, cutting edge artists, stuff you would never see at Blockbuster.” He became an avid watcher of the best documentaries in the industry, which inspired him to start filming everything. For the last twenty-five

years, he brings a camera with him constantly, film ing conversations with his family, with the people who inspire him, behind-the-scenes moments on set. And Papajohn has plans for this growing mountain of con tent—with half a dozen documentary concepts in the works, some featuring stories he’s been preparing to tell for over a decade.

“Personally, I just kind of work from my gut, my heart—you know. What stories do you want to tell? What sort of legacy do you want to leave behind?” h

Keep up with Papajohn’s work at michaelpapajohn.com.

Papajohn pictured with his son Sean on the set of Sean’s first film. Courtesy of Papajohn.

Opelousas Sunset Breaux Bridge

Washington New Iberia

Scott

Crowley Morse

The Documented South

SIX GULF SOUTH-PRODUCED AND -FOCUSED DOCUMENTARIES IN PRODUCTION OR ON THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT IN 2022

By Alexandra Kennon

From biographing the life and shocking death of a gay New Orleans gospel singer, to marking the history of a Baton Rouge high school that elevated its athletics programs with inclusivity, to chronicling the urgency of preserving Cajun music in today’s age—documentary filmmakers in Louisiana and Mississippi have been busy this year, and they have something to show for it at the slate of local film festivals coming up over the course of the next several months. Here are half a dozen of the documentaries either currently in production or on the festival circuit that we’re most excited about—for their own artistry as films, as well as for their importance in the realm of Southern storytelling.

of the culture, pushing the music and language into the future. Besides Thibodeaux (of Jourdan Thibo deaux et les Rôdailleurs), Roots of Fire features Kristi Guillory (of Bonsoir, Catin) Joel Savoy (son of Marc and Ann Savoy, founder of Valcour Records and Stu dio SavoyFaire, who plays in the Savoy Family Band, among other projects), Wilson Savoy (Joel’s brother who also plays in the Savoy Family Band, as well as with the Pine Leaf Boys, and others), and Kelli Jones (who plays with the band Feufollet, among others). Besides following these musicians along their personal journeys and exemplifying their roles in Acadiana’s tightly-knit music community, the film also weaves in important and often neglected or misinterpreted Cajun music history. Wilson Savoy, for example, takes care to emphasize that Cajun music is not “strictly a white creation”—crediting the African American accordion player Amédé Ardoin as the first person to record almost every Cajun standard still played today. Thirty years later Ira “Iry” LeJeune, a white musician, recorded the same songs with different titles and earned that original attribution. “But thirty years before that, Amédé recorded them all. Exact same songs, had dif ferent titles for them. So actually, the roots of what we consider Cajun music, as far as accordion style of Cajun music, were recorded by Amédé Ardoin, a Black man, in the 1920s.”

in that way before,” said Jeremey—who had grown up around the previous generation’s penchant for Zydeco and more traditional Louisiana music. But this kind of modern interpretation was new for both him and his wife/creative partner. “So, we just kind of like got fas cinated with this song. And then kind of took this You Tube rabbit hole, listening to all these younger Cajun bands at the time,” Jeremey said. “And we’re just watch ing these YouTube videos, listening to this music … seeing these dance clubs in Lafayette full of kids danc ing. And it just, it was really refreshing and interesting. And it sparked my homesickness for Louisiana.”

At the time, the pair had been making music docu mentary content for Pandora through their company Lavoi Creative. So, they began reaching out to these younger Cajun artists. They met the band Feufollet in 2014 at South by Southwest in Austin, befriended them, and followed them to San Francisco two months later to film two of their shows—all with the intent of making a “mini doc” centered on the band. “And so that was the beginning of Roots of Fire, of the journey, was that shoot,” Jeremey said. “But over the course of that time, the project sort of changed a lot, it evolved.”

Initially, he and Abby were working to produce digi tal shorts with the Cajun and Zydeco content they were capturing. As time went on, they narrowed their focus from both Cajun and Zydeco artists to the five Cajun musicians whose work and thoughts are included in the final film.

In Roots of Fire, considerable screen time is devoted to educating the viewer about the history of the French language being made illegal in Louisiana and the steep rate at which Louisiana’s Francophone population is being lost, emphasizing why it is so important that Cajun musicians continue to sing and write music in French today. And of course, pulsing through these more serious and educational moments is the electric energy of the remarkable footage gathered from live musical performances at festivals, concerts, fais-do-dos, and beyond. “The thrust of the documentary is hearing the live music,” Lavoi said. “Because that’s kind of what it’s all about.”

Roots of Fire

The film opens with the three women musicians in a forest clearing surrounded by tall trees, acoustically per forming their French ballad, “Les anneaux de Marian son”. Then, Cajun musician Jourdan Thibodeaux deliv ers Roots of Fire’s opening lines, excerpted from a speech he delivered to an audience at Festivals Acadiens et Cre oles:

“I’m gonna get real damn serious, and I want y’all to pay attention to me. I’m gonna say this section in English ‘cause I want to make sure that everybody understands me. If there’s somethin’ I hear a lot—and quite often—that pisses me off, it breaks my heart, it does a million emotions at one time—is that ‘it’s a shame, this culture’s dyin’. It’s a shame that the language is dyin’.’ Let me be the one to say: lan guages don’t die. Cultures don’t die. They’re killed by choice. Every single day, every one of you, every one of us, has a choice: that you’re gonna get up, and you’re gonna preserve the way that your daddy, and your grandma, and your great grandparents, and everybody that made you. That made you. The fact that if you’re not living your culture, you are killing your culture—and there’s no in-between. There is no middle ground.”

Once Thibodeaux (passionately, borderline aggres sively) sets up Roots of Fire’s call to action, the rest of the documentary illustriously shows us what is at stake. The filmmakers follow five contemporary Cajun musi cians of a younger generation—whose creative output and public message extends beyond composing and playing Cajun music to preservation and promotion

Producers and directors Jeremey Lavoi and Abby Berendt Lavoi were inspired to take on the project in part by homesickness for Louisiana. Jeremey grew up in Lake Charles, and the couple was visiting Abby’s family in Colorado when they stumbled upon the Louisiana Music Issue of the Oxford American in a bookstore in 2013. It came with a CD, which included a Chris Staf ford’s rock-n-roll-ified version of “Parlez Nous á Boire”. “And I’d never at that time heard Cajun music played

Roots of Fire had its world premiere at the Oxford Film Festival in March of 2022, and will be screened at the New Orleans Film Festival this year on November 6 at 8 pm at the Broadside—with a pre-screening con cert by Wilson Savoy and Jourdan Thibodeaux—and on November 8 at 2:45 pm at the Broad Theater. It will also receive a “hometown premiere” at the Southern Screen Festival in Lafayette on the weekend of Novem ber 10. (Read more about that festival on page 63.) rootsoffire.com.

Still from the intro scene of Roots of Fire. Courtesy of Jeremey Lavoi and Abby Berendt Lavoi.

A Taste of Heaven

Though gospel singer Raymond Anthony Myles’s name and voice may not be as widely recognized as Mahalia Jackson’s, his personal and musical legacy looms just as large in New Orleans—and perhaps even more colorfully. The docu mentary A Taste of Heaven takes on the monumental task of depicting Myles’s larger-than-life persona, and the many ways he impacted New Orleans and gos pel music at large—despite the discrimi nation he faced as a Black, gay man, and his tragic murder at the age of forty-one.

It makes sense that such an unconven tional musician’s life would be preserved by an unconventional documentarian: Grammy-winning music producer and Rutgers University professor Leo Sacks, who recorded Myles’s only full-length studio albums back in 1995, and who recognized how singularly special Myles was the very first time he saw him per form at Jazz Fest in 1982.

Sacks recalls his first Jazz Fest experi ence with a sort of reverent nostalgia— the scent of fried oysters on the breeze and the cold strawberry lemonade he held as he walked into the Gospel Tent that first time are forever affixed into his memory. “And there he was: Liber ace meets Little Richard, prowling the stage, his choir in bright, chromatic col ors behind him,” Sacks recalled. “I knew he was a gospel artist, but it was the most special music I had ever heard. And it spoke to me in a way that music never had.”

Sacks had attended the festival on assignment from Billboard magazine, and he described the experience in those pages. He returned to the Gospel Tent the following year, and this time he introduced himself to Myles. He began attending Myles’s choir’s rehearsals in a shotgun house, and Sacks soon realized Myles’s impact extended far beyond his music. Having grown up in the St. Ber nard projects, Myles was more than a

performer—he was a public school music teacher and community activist. “He was a kid from the projects and he became a role model for anyone with a voice and and innovation and determination. And, you know, the kids looked at him like he was a Pied Piper—he had the flashy clothes, he liked cars, he liked jewelry. And he preached education as a path out of poverty,” Sacks said. “I recognized that this man was more than a singer. He was more than a pianist, he was more than an arranger and a choir director. He was a surrogate mother and father, an uncle, an older brother, a confidant, he was a men tor, he was a role model.”

During those rehearsals, Sacks was the only white person in that shotgun house, and he hadn’t even been raised within the Christian faith. But the music and energy Myles and his choir created cap tivated him spiritually on a deeper level than he’d ever experienced. ”Raymond gave me the chance to feel the power of unconditional love. No one ever asked me to accept Jesus as my Lord and Sav ior. I was just being given the opportu nity to feel and to love and to reflect and to dream. Along with everyone there and the power of these voices lifting up—I compare it to a being strapped in a rocket ship and blasting off, because the voices raised the roof, they went to the heav ens. It was astonishing. And there was Raymond in front of everyone, we were all looking at Raymond, he was at the keyboard, and he had his fan on his key board. And he was a one-man band. And he was a human jukebox.”

Sacks went on to record an album of Myles and The R.A.M.S. (The Raymond Anthony Myles Singers) in 1994. “So, I got Raymond’s music to people at the highest levels of the pop and R&B and gospel [industries], and everyone rejected the record we made,” Sacks shared, the disappointment still audible in his voice decades later. “I was told that we made

content for art, not commerce…and that the perception that Raymond was queer was too alienating for gospel’s evangeli cal fans. He said, ‘Don’t they know that I’m talented? And if I’m a Christian man, doesn’t that make me a child of God, too?’ And it was crushing. It was abso lutely crushing.”

Even more crushing and unexpected was when Myles was murdered in the fall of 1998—shot three times while driv ing his white Navigator just outside the French Quarter. Sacks recalled speaking at his service at Greater Saint Stephen Full Gospel. “I remember standing over his open casket—he was fully clad in snakeskin. There were four thousand people. And you know, I wondered what would happen to his legacy.”

When the levees failed following Hur ricane Katrina in 2005, Sacks was sitting in at Patsy’s Italian restaurant in Mid town Manhattan, watching the devasta tion unfold on CNN. He turned to his friend, the late Andy Kowalczyk, and said, “Someone has to start the healing process, and it’s got to begin with music.” Kowalczyk, despite never having visited New Orleans, wrote Sacks a check in response. “That allowed me to bring all of my favorite piano ticklers, and rhythm and blues singers, and Mardi Gras Indi ans, and brass band players, and funk iteers to Austin, Texas,” Sacks said. He formed a house band that included such New Orleans music royalty as Ivan Nev ille, Henry Butler, Raymond Weber, George Porter Jr., and Leo Nocentelli; featured guest artists included every one from Irma Thomas, to Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, to John Boutté. They recorded an album within six weeks after the hurricane, titled Sing Me Back Home “And everyone there knew Raymond, and he should have been there,” Sacks said. “And that’s when I decided I had to make this documentary.”

So, Sacks embarked on writing, pro

ducing, and directing his first docu mentary project, driven to share the life and message of the man who had such a profound spiritual impact on him and others. What Sacks lacked in filmmak ing experience, he made up for in sto rytelling ability and connections, both to those from the New Orleans music community and from Raymond’s per sonal life: featured interviewees in the documentary who testify to Raymond’s talent, impact, eccentricities, and life story include everyone from New Orle ans music greats like Allen Toussaint, Big Freedia, Cyril Neville, and Irma Thomas; to Raymond’s son and daugh ter, his sister JoAnn, and The R.A.M.S. JoAnn Myles was also instrumental in providing Sacks with a “treasure trove” of archival tapes of Myles performing at church services, concerts, and beyond, which contribute to depicting Myles’s powerful talent and stage presence.

The film portrays Myles as a musi cian, teacher, and activist—projecting his musical life and legacy, which Sacks believes tells a universal story of a strug gle for artistic acceptance and spiritual fulfillment in two unforgiving worlds: the gospel music business and the Baptist Church. “In telling the story, about his struggle for acceptance, it also involves overcoming racism, and bigotry, and intolerance and homophobia, and judg ment. You know, his message was so powerful to me that I was able to tell myself the truth about the spiritual con dition of my own life, and that I needed to make changes,” Sacks said. “If he could do that for me. Can you imagine?

Imagine the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of students and choir members and every day Orleanians he must have touched?”

A Taste of Heaven was first screened as a sneak peek at New Orleans Jazz & Heri tage Festival in May 2022. The film will have another preview screening at the

New Orleans Film Festival on November 5 at 8 pm at Second Line Stages, with an anticipated release in 2023 (either in June

Only on the Northside

The demographics of North Baton Rouge have shifted considerably over the course of the decades. But as the neigh borhood evolved from a majority-white community to a majority-Black one, the student body of Redemptorist High School on Plank Road demographically remained the same. The Catholic high school, opened in 1947, continued to enroll almost exclusively white students into the 1990s, even as the neighbor hood around it changed. “So now the whole area of town becomes Black, but the high school is still the same,” Adam Chenevert, the director of Only on the Northside, said. In 1997, Redemptorist’s football team hadn’t won a state champi onship since 1959. At points, the school was on the verge of closing down, with only around two hundred students in attendance.

Then, Coach Sid Edwards arrived at Redemptorist. Edwards was an alumni of the school himself, and had a plan to improve the school’s sports performance by extending financial assistance to neighborhood residents who wouldn’t otherwise have the means to attend. “So, he goes out and starts offering opportu nities for a lot of the inner city kids who couldn’t afford to go there, and created a way for them to attend,” Chenevert explained. “Obviously, the sports teams start looking a little different at this point in time, right? They start winning cham pionships, and it happened very fast.” Within around six years of “Coach Sid’s” arrival, the population of the student body was up to over eight hundred stu dents, with a massively successful sports program. In 2000, they returned to the championships—winning in 2001 for the first time in forty years. They won again in 2002, 2003, and 2005. In 2015, the school closed down.

Chenevert knew about how diversify ing the student body fueled Redempto rist’s football comeback in part because his older brother had played football at Redemptorist as part of Edwards’s sec ond class of students. A big Black kid who showed a lot of promise on the field and off, other Catholic high schools in Baton Rouge had offered him scholarships to attend. “But Redemptorist was the one that had the most people that actually, I mean, just looked like him,” Chenevert

Rhythms of the Land

In the beginning of the twentieth cen tury, more than 920,000 Black families in the United States lived and worked on farms—usually as tenant farmers or sharecroppers. In the last century, there has been a steep decline in Black farming families, down to fewer than 50,000.

Dr. Gail Myers, director of Rhythms of the Land, believes in the importance of preserving the stories and legacies of African American agrarian families from

for Pride Month or October for the anni versary of Myles’s death). raymonddocu.com.

recalled. “Coach Sid just made him feel like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna make you feel like home over here. We’re not gonna make make you feel like an alien in this envi ronment. We’re building something here. We want you here.”

After having the idea to make a docu mentary based on Redemptorist’s story, Chenevert, who had more experience in music than film, going by the name Adam Dollar$ as a rap and hip-hop art ist, tweeted “I’m gonna work on my first film this year.” Within hours, the announcement had generated excite ment. “And it just catches a bunch of fire, like, hundreds, hundreds of hundreds of retweets and likes on Twitter and stuff,” Chenevert said. A producer, Jordan Lewis, asked if he would be interested in doing his first film with Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

When Chenevert pitched his docu mentary to Louisiana Public Broadcast ing Executive Producer Linda Midgett in December 2021, she loved the story and wanted to help actualize it as a two-part documentary. Around a month and a half later, they were signing paperwork to put gears in motion, and have been work ing on the film ever sense. Redemptorist’s is an important story to tell, Chenevert explained, because it serves as an example of how Louisiana’s obsession with sports often acts as a unifier in a state that still struggles with racism. “Granted, if you’re from South Louisiana, you know that we still are battling some of these old issues of race. And it’s directly in front of our face. So, at the end of the day, I believe one thing that people always come together on is athletics,” he said.

“Redemptorist Field, Majella Field, that’s one of the few places you can go in the South, and you actually see shared enthu siasm between different demographics— like you see shirt and ties, and then you see gold teeth, and they all cheer for the same thing. And I think that is import ant.”

Only on the Northside is currently in production, and has an estimated pre miere date of summer 2023 on Louisiana Public Broadcasting. To donate to the production, contact Jeanne Smith, Direc tor of Corporate Support for Friends of LPB at jsmith@lpb.org.

the time of enslavement through the pres ent day, especially since their way of life is rapidly disappearing. In partnership with the organization Farms to Grow, Inc., which “advocates for Black farmers and other underserved farmers across the country,” Myers has turned her decades of research on African American agrar ians and their way of life into the docu mentary film Rhythms of the Land

In 2012, Myers spent the summer

traveling to ten different Southern states (Texas, Arkansas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Missis sippi, Georgia, and Tennessee), where she interviewed dozens of Black farm ers, sharecroppers, gardeners, and even a fifth-generation basket weaver with the goal of preserving and sharing their sto ries. During that summer Myers gath ered rich oral histories from a swath of individuals across generations, some as elderly as one-hundred-and-nine.

“Suffice it to say, the wisdom and per sonalities of the elder farmers are infec

Hollow Tree

While working with the climate change educational organization Ripple Effect, it struck New Orleans documentary filmmaker Kira Akerman that students living in Louisiana lacked a real under

tious,” Myers said in her Director’s State ment about the film. “These interviews represent generations of cultural tradi tions of Black farming philosophy that honors land, sustainability, God, family and love for their community.”

Rhythms of the Land will be screened at the 2023 Natchez Literary and Cin ema Celebration February 23–24, and is currently on a twelve-month, twelvecity screening tour with screenings this month at the New York Botanical Gar den and Stanford.

rhythmsoftheland.com.

standing of how the environmental cri sis would affect them. “I was thinking about why was it that none of these stu dents knew that the city of New Orleans was sinking? Why were they expressing

dismay that no one had ever told this to them before?”

In pursuit of answers, Akerman set out to make the 2017 film Station 15, with support from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, Tulane’s Center for the Gulf South, and Rip ple Effect. Station 15 is about a young person learning about the New Orle ans drainage system, and how the city’s pumping system has shaped their life. “I think a lot of people feel alienated from their infrastructure systems. Especially women, but people more broadly, and how do you bring in the largest possible audience?” Akerman asked. “How do you make people feel like infrastructures are for them? And important, and inti mate, and not just something that you can pretend doesn’t exist?”

Similarly to Station 15, Akerman’s new film Hollow Tree aims to connect viewers more closely with their envi ronmental infrastructures through the perspectives of young people who grew up in Louisiana, and are learning about these infrastructures for the first time. Akerman clarifies that the three young women featured in Hollow Tree are not merely subjects of the film, but rather were active participants in shaping the narrative, because it was their own. “I see them as active participants,” Akerman clarified. “They were genuinely learn ing through the process of making the film, and contributing to what the film

became through asking questions, and collaborating with each other and me.”

It was important to Akerman that the three young women came from distinctly different backgrounds and could speak to their shared experience of flooding and climate change from those unique perspectives. One of the pro tagonists immigrated to Baton Rouge from Angola, Africa when she was six; another is a Cajun girl based in Lafay ette; another is connected to the Houma Native American community in Terre bonne Parish. “They all kind of brought really unique and particular experiences based on their geography, and also based on their identities,” Akerman reflected.

By presenting Louisiana’s intimate and complex relationship with environ mental changes through these young voices discovering and gaining owner ship of their surroundings, Hollow Tree educates its audience about the impact humans have on their geography, while also underscoring the ways climate change impacts us in return. “It’s not only a film about people experiencing climate change, but it’s about young people understanding how climate change is fundamentally altering who we are,” Akerman explained.

Hollow Tree will receive its world pre miere and the launch of its impact cam paign at the New Orleans Film Festival this year, with screenings November 5 and 7.

kiraakerman.com

A still taken from Hollow Tree, a documentary by Kira Akerman that follows three young Louisiana wom en as they come to better understand the impact of climate change on their lives. Courtesy of Akerman.

RIDGELAND

Voices of Renewal

Kouri-Vini, also known as Louisiana Creole, has experienced a resurgence in recent years—though with fewer than 10,000 speakers as of 2010, the Louisi ana-indigenous language is still greatly at risk of being lost. The Nous Foundation, which was founded to serve as “an inde pendent platform for exchange between the United States and the French-Speak ing world,” has taken up the cause of helping preserve Kouri-Vini by chroni cling its current resurgence in their short documentary Voices of Renewal. Nous Foundation co-founders Scott Tilton (from New Orleans) and Rudy Bazenet (from France) met Los Angeles-based Autumn Palen, who now serves as the Nous Foundation (and the film’s) artistic director, when the three were in Paris.

Palen was passionate both about film making and the French language—Cal ifornia offered plenty of opportunities in the former, but not so much the latter. She was drawn to the Nous Foundation’s mission of French language preservation, and wanted to help tell the Louisiana Creole chapter of that story, particularly in this moment when the language is experiencing a resurgence. “This is a nice sort of sweet spot in terms of sharing and spreading the word [about Kouri-Vini’s resurgence], because we’re kind of on what I would hope is just the very begin ning of an upswing,” said Palen.

The film focuses on five individuals from Louisiana who are in some way

devoted to carrying on the Kouri-Vini language. One is Clif St. Laurent, origi nally from Baton Rouge, who is a profes sional musician, singer, dancer, and actor based in Los Angeles; who also works as a freelance translator and transcriber of Kouri-Vini. He says he started learning the language when he was around sev enteen years old, and doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that that is also when his pro fessional career as a performer began. “In some kind of mystical, mysterious, mag ical way, the two are very closely inter twined,” St. Laurent says in the film. “I haven’t figured out the nuances yet, but they’re both a very special part of my life, and a special part of who I am.”

Voices of Renewal also turns its lens to Jonathan “Radbwa Faroush” Myers, also from Baton Rouge, a visual artist and the Poet Laureate of Baton Rouge. Myers, who conducts his interviews for the film entirely in Kouri-Vini with English sub titles, explained that he learned the lan guage after his Mythologies Louisianaises exhibition at Arthur Roger Gallery in 2018. “I asked people to help me trans late everything [for that exhibition] into Kouri-Vini (Louisiana Creole), because I recognized it was important.”

Another featured proponent of Louisi ana Creole is Tiffany Guillory Thomas, from Lake Charles, who hosts the pro gram Entre Nous (en Français, of course) for Nous Foundation. Then there is New Orleans’ Givonna Joseph, the founder

and artistic director of OperaCréole—an organization, “dedicated to researching and performing lost or rarely-produced operatic and classical works by composers of African descent; with a special empha sis on nineteenth century New Orleans free composers of color.” The final Kou ri-Vini speaker in Voices of Renewal is Julien Gills, also from New Orleans, who began teaching themself Louisiana Cre ole only a year and a half ago—remind ing viewers it’s not too late for them to start learning, too.

Palen said that between conducting her interview with Myers entirely in French (with her asking questions in French and him responding in Kouri-Vini, still able to understand each other), talking with Gills about modifying Louisiana Creole for the non-binary identity, and all of the other profoundly educational moments

during the film’s production, she hopes audiences learn as much and glean as much excitement from the project as she did. She says that organizations like the Nous Foundation, whose mission along side French language preservation is to uplift otherwise unrepresented voices, “spark so much hope and so much of a fire in my soul … it’s just an undying love and gratitude for every aspect,” Palen said. “I really hope that anyone who comes across Voices of Renewal gets even even a little spark of that joy and excite ment in watching it, as I did making it.”

Voices of Renewal has been shown on WYES (PBS) through October. Palen and the Nous Foundation are still in search of “a more permanent home for the documentary,” so keep an eye out for updates about future screenings.

nous-foundation.org h

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A still taken from Voices of Renewal, a documentary film produced by The Nous Foundation following five speakers of the language Kouri Vini. Pictured is the Baton Rouge Poet Laureate Jonathan “Radbwa Faroush” Myers. Courtesy of The Nous Foundation.

MOVIE MAGIC

Crafty Apes

THE BATON ROUGE ARTIST-TECHNICIANS BEHIND HOLLYWOOD’S WILDEST ILLUSIONS

By Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

The love story at the core of Olivia Newman’s film adaptation of Delia Owens’ blockbuster novel Where the Crawdads Sing emerges in a forest clearing, where the wind—embodied by golden, flut tering leaves—begins to dance around Kya and Tate, eliciting laughter, unbridled joy, and then a kiss. The camera circles the couple, a sunbeam breaking into the space between them, Spanish moss dripping from branches above, the leaves twirling in approval. Such a scene is not created by happy timing. Nor

are there special effects production assistants tossing leaves out of the camera’s view. Such magic can be attributed, rather, to visual effects (VFX) teams— and this particular moment was the work of the Baton Rouge branch of the international VFX com pany Crafty Apes.

“We’re really just a bunch of computer nerds in a dark room,” laughed Sam Claitor, head of studio pro duction at the Baton Rouge branch, based at Celtic Studios. “We are one of the bridges between what happens during production and delivering the final

film. We are the digital side of cinematic effects.”

For Where the Crawdads Sing —which was filmed in the swamps of Houma, Fairview-Riverside State Park, Venice, and several other locations across Lou isiana—VFX played a crucial role in enhancing the richness of the film’s setting-heavy backdrops, in raising the story’s stakes, and in making certain scenes possible at all. The hundreds-feet-tall fire tower from which Kya sees the entire swamp for the first time, and from which a certain character meets certain peril, would have presented a very danger ous filming situation on a practical level. So, those scenes were actually filmed in a parking lot, with a twenty-foot-tall tower setup against a greenscreen.

“When the characters are on top of the firetower, none of the glass windows are real,” explained Kolby Kember, Crafty Apes’ Senior VFX Supervisor/ Creative Director. “That’s CG (computer graphics) glass on everything.” The moths and fireflies popu lating the verdant swamp? Created from nothing, on a computer. When Kya, in self-defense, lands a killer punch—the effect is enhanced by the VFX team. The Pontchartrain Bridge, Claitor said, was in the back ground of just about every scene that they shot at Fontainebleau State Park, and had to be removed in postproduction.

It’s a collaborative effort, explained Kember, whose role as supervisor involves working closely with direc tors, actors, and film crews to anticipate and plan for VFX that will be added in post-production. For instance, he explained that for the 2019 DC televi sion series Swamp Thing, there was a scene in which an actress held a flower that would unfold and emit a dust—all to be created via VFX. Kember had to sit down and explain, in as much detail as possible, what the flower looked like and how it was going to open, and where the dust would go, so that she could con vincingly react to it.

“I think my favorite type of work,” said Kember, “is getting to work with the showrunners and direc tors to develop sort of how a character should look.

A moth from the film Where the Crawdads Sing, created by the Baton Rouge Crafty Apes team using VFX. Courtesy of Crafty Apes.

I enjoy that sort of concept building during the creative phase.” This is par ticularly fun, he said, for superhero films—which involve a lot of creative VFX when it comes to developing characters’ powers and how they man ifest in the film.

Kember’s first-ever VFX gig was as a roto artist on the night shift of Captain America

“Even though my role in it was very small, it was still exciting to see those kinds of big projects coming together and play a part in helping do the work,” he said. Since then, his career

has brought him to projects such as The Avengers and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and television series Gotham, Scream , Black Lightning, and The Passage

After a few years working in Los Angeles, Kember—who grew up in

Plaquemine—learned that the VFX company Pixomondo was opening a studio in Baton Rouge. He headed home, and it was while working at Pix omondo that he met Claitor.

Claitor, a New Orleans native who grew up in Baton Rouge, had been

working in design and advertising, with Celtic Studios as one of his cli ents. They introduced him to the folks at Pixomondo, where “I went into what I thought was going to be a potential freelance gig one day, and walked out with a whole new career.”

Mediterranea

—KOLBY KEMBER

At Pixomondo, Claitor and Kem ber worked on major projects that included Star Trek: Into the Darkness and the Game of Thrones Season 3 epi sode “Mhysa”. “The story I tell people about working on Game of Thrones,” said Claitor, “is I remember working on this show and wondering why people

AMERICAN ART FROM THE GRAHAM D WILLIFORD COLLECTION

William Clothier Watts, Grazing Sheep, Temple of Luxor, Egypt

“I THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE IN VISUAL EFFECTS WILL TELL YOU THAT THEIR FAVORITE EFFECTS ARE THE HIDDEN EFFECTS.”

Before and after shots (on the previous page and this one) showing how the Baton Rouge team at Crafty Apes added swirling leaves to the iconic kissing scene in Where the Crawdads Sing. Courtesy of Crafty Apes.

larger disruption in the global visual effects industry spurred by the bank ruptcy of the high-profile VFX com pany Rhythm & Hues, which took place only a few days before winning the 2013 Oscar for best visual effects on Life of Pi. The event revealed and elevated awareness of the film indus try’s unsustainable exploitation of visual effects artists—who were in increasing demand but consistently underpaid and overworked.

“A lot of us visual effects artists saw the writing on the wall,” said Clai tor, who moved on to take a job with Gentle Giant Studios as a manager and coordinator, working with companies like Marvel and Universal Pictures— before founding his own Louisiana production company, Fable House, in 2014. Kember opted to stay with VFX, doing some 3D work for Louisiana Economic Development before taking up dual residence in Atlanta, Georgia to work independently on movies full time.

In 2019, Kember was working in Georgia as a visual effects supervisor on the set of Black Lightning, and Clai tor was in town for a conference. “Ser endipity is a real thing,” said Claitor. While at the conference, a friend of Claitor’s (who had worked on episodes of American Horror Story) told him he should meet with the guys at Crafty Apes—who at the time were a growing VFX company based in Los Angeles,

Atlanta and New York. Claitor wasn’t particularly interested in getting back into the VFX world, but he had heard that Crafty Apes co-founder Chris LeDoux was also a producer and direc tor, and decided to meet with him to discuss making a movie together.

During the course of the conversa tion, Claitor mentioned some ideas he had for if he were ever to own a visual effects company. “It wasn’t a pitch or a proposal, it was really more like say ing ‘Hey have you ever thought about doing this before? I’m not in the VFX business anymore, but if I was I would consider trying this or that.’” Two weeks later, LeDoux came back to him with a proposal: “Why don’t you do those ideas, but for Crafty Apes?”

In January 2020, Claitor opened the Baton Rouge office, bringing Kember on board immediately. “At that point, Crafty Apes maybe had one hundred and fifty employees globally,” said Claitor. “Today they have over six hun dred employees, seven offices across two countries.” Today, the company is considered one of the top VFX com panies in the industry, tapped to exe cute the post-production magic that brings many of today’s biggest televi sion shows and films to life—including Stranger Things Season 4, Yellowstone, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Respect: The Queen Arrives, Mulan, and many more.

Since its opening and in addition to Crawdads, Crafty Apes in Baton Rouge has contributed to Seasons 2 and 3 of Hightown , Halle Berry’s direc torial debut Bruised , the Sean Payton biopic Home Team for Adam Sandler‘s Happy Madison Productions, and the forthcoming film, National Treasure: Edge of History —among many others. Though much of the work completed

by artists like Claitor and Kember is easily appreciated—explosions and superpowers and dancing leaves— much more of it is incredibly subtle, secret adjustments you’ll likely never notice (if they are done well, at least). Since the pandemic, Crafty Apes has done a lot of crowd replacement—a strategy that relieves the film com pany from having to organize and hire masses of extras. Claitor said that other, more grist of the mill work that they do are things like creating phone screens,

aging, de-aging, and removing blem ishes. “If someone has a big ole beer belly and they need to look a little more fit? We can do that. We do a lot of that kind of work,” he said.

“I think a lot of people in visual effects will tell you that their favorite effects are those hidden effects,” said Kember. “Background replacements or set extensions and things that the aver age viewer wouldn’t notice, unless it looked awfully wrong.”

The work, though certainly creative,

is—Claitor and Kember agreed—more technical than most people likely real ize, involving constantly-evolving tech nology and software. “The new push with AI is huge right now,” said Kem ber. “And I would say that visual effects is part of the leading edge of developing modern AI stuff with face replacements and tracking … you sort of tie that sci ence and art together.”

Kember reflected on how far the effects industry has come over the last century—the 1940s and ‘50s setups

with video wall backdrops and cars on treadmills. “Now, we’re able to do it in ways where we can track the cameras in real-time, and the background is moving in sync with the camera. You can control things like lighting and the time of day, with just a click of a button. The technology is all brand new, and it’s still growing.” h

Learn more about Crafty Apes at craftyapes.com.

From the film Home Team, before and after the Crafty Apes Baton Rouge team added in the crowd using VFX. Courtesy of Crafty Apes.

FOODWAYS

The Taste of Creole-Italian

A CULTURAL HISTORY TOLD IN TERMS OF CUISINE Story by Sophie Nau • Photos by Alexandra Kennon

Creole is a short word for a long history. Describing race, culture, cuisine, and language, it can be hard to untangle all it encapsulates. When it comes to food, Creole is a category of cooking influenced by West African, French, Native American, German, Italian, English, and Spanish peoples; but it’s a title affixed to cream cheese, spice blends, tomatoes. What then, do the Italian restaurants of New Orleans mean when they tout their food as “Creole-Italian”? Is it a way to say po boys and penne coexist side-by-side, or does it suggest an attitude? A nod to time and place?

My research included the oh-so-burdensome ground work of sampling the garlicky chicken cacciatore of

Mosca’s, the tomato-stewed shrimp of Mandina’s, and chatting with the owners and servers of some of the city’s longest standing Creole-Italian spots. But first, a little history was in order.

I turned to the work of Loyola University professor Justin Nystrom, author of Creole Italian: Sicilian Im migrants and the Shaping of New Orleans Food Culture (2018, University of Georgia Press). Nystrom sifts through the tourist-grabbing mythology of “Creole” to unmask the historical contributions of Sicilians in New Orleans. Throughout the nineteenth century, po litical conditions in Sicily and a need for labor in Lou isiana encouraged Sicilians to pour into New Orleans and surrounding rural areas. The Quarter had become

an enclave for Sicilians and other Italians who worked as importers, plantation laborers, and fruit vendors. By the 1910s, 45,000 Sicilians were residing in Loui siana and the French Quarter had emerged as one of the country’s largest pasta hubs. Markets throughout the city offered Italian imports like citrus and olives. Central Grocery, original home of the muffuletta, is a still-surviving stand out.

As the Italian working class began to gain foothold, so did their restaurants. In his book, Nystrom covers a 1908 Mardi Gras banquet dinner that served “ a spa ghetti supper” to the financial elite at the St. Louis Ex change Hotel. He noted that at the time, serving pasta at such an event was “a daring choice … bewildering many non-Italian diners only beginning their acquaintance with red sauce,” es pecially in this fine dining setting. But it marked the beginning of Sicilian prosperi ty outside of the Quarter’s “Little Palermo”.

Now that the Italians were brushing shoulders with the ruling Creole class of New Orleans, perhaps the term Cre ole-Italian was a knighting of approval? I asked two long time experts about their Creole-Italian label: the former Manag er of Liuzza’s, Lori Bordelon—whose late husband Frank’s family ran the Bienville Street restaurant for decades before she sold it in September—and Lisa Mosca, part owner/manager of Mosca’s in Westwego. Their answers surprised me.

“I know they call the restaurant Cre ole-Italian,” explained Bordelon, “but I don’t know that if that’s really a name. You know, I feel like that’s something some body just sort of put together.”

“Everyone calls it Creole-Italian, and I do too,” echoed Mosca when I interviewed her before dinner service at her family’s fa mous restaurant, located on Highway 90. The dining room smelled of butter and gar lic from the pots her mother was stirring in the kitchen, and Michael Jackson was play ing as servers set a table for twenty. “And I [wonder], what is Creole-Italian?”

Mosca’s grandparents grew up in Central Italy, so Mosca’s Italian menu hits

POBOYS

54

Chicken Cacciatore at Mosca's.

Mandina's in Mid-City's chicken parmesan, crab fingers in wine sauce, and oyster and artichoke soup.

a slightly different culinary tone than its Sicilian counterparts. Mosca sees the Creole of her family’s menu as the inevitable synthesis of traditional Ital ian dishes with available product, but also, as a matter of perception. Diners at Mosca’s have compared their shrimp dish to barbecue shrimp, the Oysters Mosca to Louisiana oyster stuffing and dressing. Even though “that wasn’t the intention, it’s comparable to that … maybe the Creole-Italian comes in be cause it’s things people recognize,” she said.

Still, I wanted to find the specific dishes that screamed Creole. Perhaps it’s the mirliton stuffed with soft shell crab and shrimp, appropriately fried and buttered at Vincent’s Italian Cuisine on St. Charles. Or the red gravy of Liuzza’s and Mandina’s on Canal—both exam ples of how French cooking is incorpo rated into the Italian, the tomato paste browned like flour for a roux. The col liding of influences seems especially ob vious in Luizza’s “Frenchuletta,” which entails the muffuletta’s Italian curedmeat-and-olive-salad filling served on French bread. There are other examples of confluence: the French-inspired Bor delaise sauce of Mosca’s spaghetti, the “Creole crawfish cream sauce” layered

on top of Vincent’s seafood medallions.

But there was one dish whose inclu sion on many Italian menus across the city had a different story: the poboy. How the classic sandwich ended up alongside lasagna and meatball specials was a matter of responding to the needs of the neighborhood, according to Cin dy Mandina, the fourth-generation pro prietor of Mandina’s. “When you used to go eat at little neighborhood plac es or a little counter somewhere, they would serve you a poboy because people couldn’t afford a big plate of food,” she said. Mandina’s, which originated as a Mid-City grocery store in 1898, has readily adapted as needed. Bordelon shared the sentiment: “You had to get on with what people wanted. It’s just al ways been on the menu.” The neighbor hood expected poboys, could afford po boys, and so that was offered alongside chicken parmesan (and in Liuzza’s case, chicken parmesan as a poboy).

Though the poboy won’t be found on every menu, Creole-Italian restau rants seem to share a similar spirit of adapting to the community. Whether their institutions cater to casual week night dinners or anniversary celebra tions, the owners are out there on the floor, bridging tradition with current

Spaghetti Bordelaise, and Oysters Mosca at Mosca's.

customer needs. From teenagers getting their bearings in their first job to longtime bartenders shaking up a martini like Tom Cruise in Cocktail, service is paramount, with an emphasis on local ly-sourced ingredients.

During my night at Mosca’s, sizzling plates of Oysters Mosca arrived in front of the table for twenty. Tables of birth days and get-togethers ordered second rounds of martinis. Between sips of Chianti and ice-cold Peroni, my table dug into chicken cacciatore and dunked our bread into the white wine sauce of our Shrimp Mosca. We topped off our meal with crisp and creamy cannoli from Angelo Brocato, as the pho tographs on the walls welcomed us into the past decades of ex cursions out to Highway 90. When Mosca’s grandparents opened the restaurant in 1946 on a quiet stretch of highway, they cooked for the workers or gamblers of the nearby casi nos. Now, bachelorette parties rent party buses for the trek to Westwego.

The term “Creole-Italian” cer tainly adds to the mythos of New Orleans cuisine. It’s a moniker spat out from the gumbo pot, a bridge to

the red gravy pot next to it on many New Orleans stoves. An easy way to say: it’s a little bit of this, it’s a little bit of that. That hyphen also localizes a distant cuisine, as Mosca observed.

“Creole-Italian” emphasizes the reinven tion and adaptation of both cook and diner. h

Find Nystrom’s book at ugapress.org.

Peruse the menus of the best Creole-Italian restaurants in the Crescent City at: liuzzas.com; moscasrestaurant.com; vincentsitaliancuisine.com; mandinasrestaurant.com; angelobrocatoicecream.com

A traditional cannoli from Angelo Brocato’s.

Culture

FILM COLLECTIONS

Left in the Third Dimension

THE VITAL WORK OF PRESERVING LOUISIANA FILM EPHEMERA

By John Wirt

Ed and Susan Poole embarked on their love affair with movie ephemera around 1977. Strolling through the French Quarter during one of their early dates, they spotted a vendor whose offerings in cluded an original poster for the 1959 romantic com edy Gidget. The poster summoned Susan’s memories of visiting The Famous Theatre on Marigny Street with her older sister, and of her childhood crush on James Darrin’s Gidget character, Moondoggie. Ed, noticing his future wife’s enchantment with the post er, bought it for her.

The Gidget poster now hangs above Susan’s desk in the office she shares with her husband. As Ed ex plained, “That’s what started all of this. It changed our lives.”

Today, much of the Pooles’ home is devoted to more than 10,000 Louisiana “film accessories,” as the couple describes the posters, lobby cards and movie stills. “It’s getting hard to walk through the house,” Ed said. “It’s taken over almost every closet, every walkway and three rooms. We’ve got a room for the grandkids and it’s creeping in on that now.”

For years, the Pooles collected posters for films shot just about anywhere. In 2011, they narrowed their focus to Louisiana films. Their favorite acqui sitions to date include the dramatic poster for El vis Presley’s French Quarter-set King Creole. The rock and roll superstar’s acting performance in the 1958 drama is widely regarded as his best. The cou ple’s other favorites include The Wacky World of Dr. Morgus, the 1962 comedy starring New Orleans’ beloved House of Shock TV host, Sid Noel. There’s also the Louisiana Hussy poster, in which actress Nan Peterson stands beneath the caption “Born to Take Love and Make Trouble.” It’s an awful movie, Ed ad mits, but everyone loves the poster.

It didn’t take long for the Pooles’ passion for old movies to expand beyond posters. Almost fifty years in, they have now acquired the titles of film research ers, documentarians, and authors. They followed their first book, Collecting Movie Posters (1997), with twenty-three more film reference books. Among these is Movie Poster Artists: Volume 1—U.S. and Canada (2016), which documents 242 movie poster artists through biographies, filmographies, and post er images.

In 2011, a poster for the 1913 silent film White Slave, which featured plantation imagery, piqued the couple’s curiosity. “We called libraries and museums, trying to document this film, but nobody had any information about it,” Ed said. The Pooles realized that there were no significant efforts in place to pre serve Louisiana film history. “We assumed that the museums, universities, and libraries in Louisiana

The poster from the 1959 Louisiana Hussy film is one of the Pooles' favorites from their collection. "An awful movie" according to Ed, but an incredible artifact. Courtesy of MPA.

were doing that,” Ed said. “But we found out almost nothing was being preserved. And nobody knew how much film production had been done here, which is an unbelievable amount, for any state.”

Because most silent films (including White Slave) are lost, posters, stills, and lobby cards—film accessories—can be the major record of those productions. Films have even been reconstructed from stills and related materials. “When the film is lost, the next best thing is the paper,” Ed said.

In 2016, the Pooles joined entertainment industry veteran Linda Thurman as archivists at the New Orleans-based nonprofit, Movie Poster Archives (MPA)— which notably features a virtual Louisiana movie poster museum on its website.

When Thurman launched Movie Posters Archives, she fulfilled the Pooles’ longtime goal to create a nonprofit entity dedicated to movie accessory preserva tion. Thurman met the couple when she was searching for images for her 2016 book, Hollywood South: Glamor, Gumbo, and Greed.

“I was looking for a retirement gig, and I love movie posters,” Thurman said. “Movie Poster Archives fit me perfectly ... At our poster exhibits, we get such fan tastic stories about what the movies mean to people. The posters take them to a different time and place.”

The Pooles, she added, “are caring, passionate and knowledgeable. Sue is ex tremely detailed. Ed is a great personality."

Thurman entered the Pooles’ good graces in part by, in 2019, helping to bring a historical marker to Canal Street in New Orleans in recognition of Vitascope Hall, the first movie theater in the United States. “They had been trying to do that for about twenty years,” she said. “I knew a little more about how government functions, and Louisiana has its own way of doing things. It took me three years, but we got the marker erected.”

MPA, Thurman went on to explain, has an international collection of posters from different eras, in various styles. “The art is phenomenal,” she said. “The early ones were drawn by artists. Now we’re getting more of a digital style. And because the process has changed through the years, you can see the evolution of graphic art and design in the posters, and the way they were produced.”

Thurman, the Pooles’ and MPA’s more recent activities include stocking the Louisiana Film Channel’s movie collectibles retail store. Opened in September at 334 Third Street in Baton Rouge, the shop sells posters, stills, lobby cards, and

Another favorite poster of the Pooles' is the 1958 film King Creole, Elvis Presley's most critically -acclaimed acting performance. Courtesy of MPA.

related items. On October 31, MPA also held the grand opening for its own retail store and research facility at Bellemeade Plaza Shopping Center in Gretna.

Prior to the opening of its brick and mortar location, MPA conducted periodic poster auctions on the Bidding for Good Auction platform, accessible through the MPA website. “We’ll get an entire case of the same poster,” Thurman said. “We’ll probably keep the two best copies, but the rest will be available to sell.”

Interns from Loyola’s film program assist the Pooles in organizing MPA’s mas sive stockpile of unsorted items—many of them tax-deductible donations from public and private entities. In the process, the couple teach the Loyola students about archiving. “We’ll be teaching everything that they won’t be able to learn everywhere else,” Ed said. “Like how to use the production code on the stills to identify which film a still is from; how to read lithography plate numbers; how to read markers on posters, stills, and press books.” Interns Christophe Cogerino and Alex Ryscavage are even making a documentary about MPA’s work titled In troducing Movie Poster Archives: Preserving Paper Memories

As of late August, Ed estimates that a half-million donated items to MPA have yet to be reviewed. Recent donations include material from Brigham Young Uni versity in Utah and a New York advertising agency that has transitioned from physical to digital files.

At seventy-four and sixty-eight respectively, Ed and Susan Poole see no end to their film accessory work. "I could have one hundred employees and not preserve the information that needs to be preserved," said Ed. "I don't have time to retire. There's too much to do. h

Through mid-November, the Movie Poster Archives store in Gretna will present an exhibition of posters from horror films made in Louisiana (prepare for the exhibition by reading Chris TurnerNeal's story "Louisiana Has a Place in Horror" on page 65).

Learn more and peruse the Louisiana Movie Poster Virtual Museum at movieposterarchives.org.

Ed and Susan Poole have been collecting movie posters and accessories for almost fifty years, and are now working as the archivists at Movie Poster Archives. Courtesy of the Pooles.

The Prytania

Shhave one foot firmly in the pres ent and the other reaching back into the past century. Inside the historic lobby, chandeliers hang from the ceiling and radiate dim golden light; the conces sion embraces nostalgia with glass bottles of Coca-Cola and striped boxes over flowing with popcorn. At the corner of the theatre is a cocktail lounge, mirrored walls and dim lights recalling that iconic scene in The Shining, when Jack Torrance tells the bartender how he would give his goddamned soul for a beer. On my way to take my seat in front of the famed theatre’s only screen, I’m captivated by framed charcoal drawings of Hollywood stars—James Stewart, Katherine Hep burn, Bette Davis.

Before the start of every film, the Pry tania Theatre carries on its tradition of playing the 1957 advertisement “Let’s All Go to the Lobby,” where cartoon char acters gleefully dance across the screen and sing about getting a treat at the con cession stand. If you’re lucky enough, the theatre’s former operator René Brunet, father of current operator Robert Brunet, will appear onscreen and introduce the old film you’re about to watch.

While the circa-1914 theatre has gone through various renovations over the years, Brunet and general manager Eric Ramstead go to painstaking efforts to maintain its original, historic mien. Ag ing, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and new technology have motivated the pair to make updates to the seats, drapes, projector, and sound system. Brunet and Ramstead want to bring a high-quality experience, while staying loyal to the the atre’s past.

“We took the mentality of 'As long as

okay with it,’” Brunet said.

There was even a time that the two considered opening a second screen in the theatre, but decided instead to pre serve the very thing that makes their institution so unique—the Prytania is the only single-screen theatre left in Louisiana.

In this way, Prytania Theatre joins other New Orleans institutions like Angelo Brocato, Café du Monde, and Commander’s Palace that have persist ed through the city’s tumultuous ex istence in the spirit of keeping history alive. As the string orchestra soundtrack of a James Bond film played behind the closed doors of the theatre, Brunet and Ramstead met with me to discuss the Prytania Theatre’s historical significance.

Originally opened by United Theatres to show films, the Prytania showcased other forms of entertainment as well, including fashion, comedy, and magic shows. However, during the World Wars, the theatre gained a new level of impor tance as the only other way people could watch newsreels of the war on screen.

By the 1950s, according to Brunet, the single-screen neighborhood theatre had gained a loyal following that continued until around the 1970s, a time where televisions, suburban life, and social set tings like malls continuously advanced. When United Theatres went out of busi ness, the new owner, Patrick McNamara, renamed the theatre the Energy The atre and attempted to bring customers back by presenting a combination of live events and movies, though he was largely unsuccessful.

At the time, the Brunet family owned several movie theatres in New Orleans,

the early twentieth century. Brunet’s fa ther became known as “the man who saved theatres as they closed”. In the 1990s, the Brunets used their experience and knowledge of the industry, as well as their value for showmanship and cus tomer needs, to take over the Prytania Theatre. Since then, the theatre has been dedicated to preserving the past and giv ing back to the community.

“We really pay attention to what our customers want and do our best to give it to them,” Brunet said.

The film programs of Tulane Univer sity and Lusher Charter School are just a couple of partnerships the Prytania Theatre has made throughout the years to support young, local film makers and showcase their work. The theatre is also a popular location for summer camps, school field trips, and kids’ birthday par ties.

“We feel it’s important to offer a good place for kids to come, as well as film makers to come and watch their movies, and support the arts,” Ramstead said.

Still to this day, during the week, the Prytania Theatre plays a combination of old and newly-released films—though the old ones hold a special place at the Prytania, because as Ramstead put it: they are “what a lot of new movies are based off of.”

“It’s important to kind of take a step into the past,” he said. “Movie theatres are one of those things where you walk in and you can sit down for two hours and forget everything that’s going on out in the real world.” They are, he said, “the place to escape.” h

Story and photo by Poet Wolfe

Southern Screen Festival

LAFAYETTE'S ANNUAL GATHERING OF STORYTELLERS RETURNS THIS MONTH

By Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

From 2006 to 2010, Julie Borde lon and Jana Godshall’s Acadi ana Film Festival brought local creatives together in downtown Lafayette each spring—fostering a vi brant community around the thrill of viewing independent films that couldn’t be seen anywhere else, and around ed ucation opportunities for aspiring

myself eat, sleep, and drink the film fes tival. It’s more than a job for us. It’s a mis sion. It’s something that we want those in the state to take advantage of.”

But in 2010, Godshall—who had been living with one foot in Louisiana and an other in California—finally heeded the call of the West Coast. At first, Bordelon felt that the festival, an enormous bur

having to drive to New Orleans at the very least—and even that selection was limited.

Plus, the festival had served an im portant role for area creatives. Without a central, unified industry, working in film in Louisiana, by nature, can be dissociative—people are working proj ect-by-project, for different production

or even just creatives,” she said. “We were all like, kind of young, coming up in our own—whatever it was we did—our own professions.” Everyone had something to offer, and “we were all having a good time,” she said. They decided to create a new festival altogether, and hosted the inaugural Southern Screen Film Festival in November 2011. That first year, head

filmmakers, writers, actors, and more.

The two Lafayette locals had been con nected by their mutual passion for fur thering the film industry in Louisiana, and Acadiana in particular—Bordelon as a location manager and burgeoning producer, and Godshall as a screenwriter.

In a 2009 interview, Godshall described the year-round dedication the two of them put into the initiative, “Julie and

den to shoulder alone, had simply run its course. “I was like, ‘well, I’m not gonna do it by myself.’”

It didn’t take long before the prospect of the festival’s absence started to weigh on her, though. “I realized that we real ly needed this … I’ll just have to do it.”

She noted that at the time, Acadiana residents had far fewer opportunities to see great independent films, usually

companies and in different sectors, trav eling back and forth or working remote ly. To have a designated time and place each year to gather as a community, col laborate, share work, and learn was in valuable.

Bordelon started reaching out to her friends throughout the area—people who represented the gamut as far as tal ent and industry. “Not just film people

lining films included Terrence Malick’s critically-acclaimed art film The Tree of Life and Asif Kapadia’s documentary on the Brazilian motor-racing champion Ayrton Senna, along with shorts by sev eral local filmmakers including Alison Bohl, Natalie Kingston, and Benjamin Kutsko.

A little over a decade later, The South ern Screen Festival continues to take

Left: The Southern Screen Festival's official 2022 Poster, created by Makemade. Top: Live Podcast by Mission to Zyxx at the 2017 Southern Screen Festival. Middle: Performane by Julie Odell at the 2017 Southern Screen Festival. Bottom: The audience at a screening at Southern Screen Festival. All images courtesy of Southern Screen.

place each November—now shorter in name, and expanded in scope. In 2017, as a result of what she calls the “seven-year itch,” Bordelon and her team decided to drop the “Film Festival” qualifier.

Southern Screen had well-earned its reputation as a film festival, but had evolved to incorporate celebrations of cre ative endeavors in other media, as well. “We started off pretty film heavy, and then we kept going, and started slowly adding in other things—more music, writing. We want to keep it open to just storytelling.”

While the festival’s impressive slate of independent feature films and shorts— often highlighting local filmmakers and projects set here in Louisiana—remains at its heart, the four-day celebration now includes various live music events, work shops, readings, panels, and more.

In the past, such programming has in cluded Foley expert Michael Lyle demon strating how to recreate the sound of squelching blood by smashing watermel ons on Visqueen, an improv workshop taught by Parks and Recreation’s Alison Becker, and a TV writers’ panel featuring writers from Family Guy, Always Sun ny in Philadelphia, and Saturday Night Live. Bordelon has invited podcast hosts to present live podcasts for the public, and local writers to submit to pitching, short story, and screenwriting competi tions. Last year, special sessions included workshops on documentary budgeting and editing for feature films, a lecture on

the biased history of music in advertising, and a special presentation on visual ef fects by Academy Award-winner Robert Legato—known for his groundbreak ing work on major films such as Titanic, Apollo 13, The Lion King, Avatar, and The Wolf of Wall Street

“It was awesome because he came, and we had a screen set up, and he showed like ‘Here’s what [Titanic] looked like when we filmed it, and then here’s what it looked like when we added this layer of effects,” said Bordelon. “So, you really see like, here’s what it looks like from start to finish. It’s incredible.”

She went on to say that while getting such high-caliber guests as Legato and even, in 2017, the president of Magnolia Pictures Eamonn Boles, is incredible— the festival is also committed to really supporting early-career filmmakers and to avoiding hierarchy in any interactions. “It’s a mixed group of people, and it’s all about keeping everyone very accessible,” she said.

Another aspect of the festival is the opportunity to showcase Acadiana cul ture to film industry leaders—“We really kind of let them have the Cajun experi ence,” said Bordelon, allowing creatives from outside of Acadiana to see the pos sibilities, as far as talent and setting and culture, that the region offers for a wide range of projects.

“The state is such a hotbed for creativ ity,” said Bordelon. “Like all of our aunts and uncles play music … it’s like every

body in some way has some sort of cre ative bone in their body.”

The thing about Louisiana, she said, is that this creative energy—in music and in film—is nurtured so organically. It’s not funneled through an organized in dustry in the way that places like Nash ville or L.A. or New York incubate talent. “We don’t want to take away from that at all,” she said. “It’s what makes this art feel so amazing here. I feel like what this festi val is doing is just giving a space for peo ple to go all together at one time and kind of be able to meet each other and talk to each other and get inspired by each oth er to do more. And it’s also a way to offer people the tools to make their art their business, if they want to.”

Something that has always set South ern Screen apart from other film festivals in the region is its lack of a competition. “When we started, we just kind of de cided that we didn’t want it to be that kind of feeling … we wanted it to be a festival for filmmakers to just celebrate their work, without feeling competitive towards each other at all.” Up until last year, films were selected by a panel via an open submission process. 2021 was the first year that Southern Screen pre sented a totally curated slate of films—a method they’ve replicated this year. At tendees of the 2022 Southern Screen Festival can look forward to screenings of some of this year's most exciting in dependent films, including: Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb's But

terfly in the Sky —a documentary on the classic PBS children's show Reading Rainbow; Sara Dosa's widely-acclaimed documentary love story on volcanolo gists Katia and Maurice Krafft, Fire of Love; Ruben Östlund's drama Triangle of Sadness, and Jeremey and Abby La voi's much-anticipated documentary on South Louisiana's Cajun music revival, Roots of Fire —which will celebrating its hometown premiere (read more about Roots of Fire on page 45). There will also be a Louisiana Storytellers Panel mod erated by Emmy-winning filmmaker, producer, showrunner, and screenwrit er Linda Midgett featuring New Orle ans-based writer/director Abraham Felix; the award winning reporter and audio documentarian Cheryl Devall, who just recently transplanted to Lafayette from San Fransisco; the director and filmmak er Drake LeBlanc, who helped found the production company Above The Beyond and Télélouisiane. Plus, so, so much more. h

Southern Screen will take place November 10–13 in various venues in downtown Lafayette. For a complete schedule of the festival’s sessions, films (which will also be offered virtually!), and parties, visit southernscreen.org.

Louisiana Has a Place in Horror

OUR HOMESTATE HAS A HISTORY OF HOSTING THE UNCANNIEST OF STORIES

By Chris Turner-Neal

As we have taken pains to inform you in these pages, Louisiana is like nowhere else in the world. This uniqueness makes it han interesting place to live and buoys our crucial tourism economy—and also renders the state a great setting for horror fiction. Noël Carroll, a philoso pher of horror, argues that horror emerges when some thing breaks or defies the categories we use to organize the world. We might be scared of a dog or a strange man, but they make sense; a dog that is a man when it’s not a full moon or a man who dresses as his mother and stabs hotel guests should not be Louisiana is consistently un categorizable. Much of the land is only kind of land, and what looks like a reasonable foothold in the swamp might give way under your weight. Creoles and free people of color, prominent in the state’s history, were cat egories outside the established American racial classification.

Still widely religious in a secular izing world, Louisiana is home to many Catholics, outliers in the Deep South, and to prac titioners of Voodou, a religion born from boundary-blurring that frequently (if unfairly) dis turbs outsiders. The state’s grand plantation houses underpin the tourism economy and serve as the setting for plentiful stories of hauntings—which, depend ing on the particular tale, may or may not address the real-life horrors of the state’s bygone slav ery-based riches. Louisiana is composed of juxtapositions and often simply weird, and all it takes is a dimming of the lights and a creaky floorboard for that to get scary. And in most of the big trends in horror in the last sixty years, there’s been at least one entry that is distinctly Lou isiana.

Call it hag horror, psychobid dy, or grande dame guignol— once the big-shouldered broads of the golden age of cinema reached a certain age, they start ed making horror movies. Joan Crawford with an axe. Shelley Winters as the deranged Auntie Roo. Bette Davis had the best run, making Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?; Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte; the undercelebrated Dead Ringer ; and Wicked Stepmother, in which Davis was replaced part way through with a cat puppet that smoked cigarettes.

Her turn in 1964’s deliciously insane, Ascension Parish-set Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte works best

for audiences that see Louisiana as exotic. Olivia de Havilland’s character comes from up north to “help” Bette Davis save her condemned plantation house (Houmas House). Her chic appearance contrasts with Davis’s creepy younger-woman dresses and Agnes Moorehead’s tattered clothes. De Havilland is “the real world,” the rational character, who throws into re lief how bizarrely Davis’s shotgun-wielding faded belle behaves. Local audiences may find Davis’s character more sympathetic—of course you resist an eminent domain claim with gunfire—but she (and her halluci

capture a particular camp glamor—it’s almost worth being crushed under a modernist statue to get to spend time in the elegant Roman settings. Most stayed in Italy, but Fulci’s 1981 The Beyond gives the Southern Gothic the spaghetti Western treatment. Weak on narrative but heavy on creepiness, the dreamy-night marish film sees a woman inherit a hotel in New Orle ans that—drat the luck—has a gateway to Hell in the basement. (“But is there off-street parking?”) Ghouls pester her and winnow down the cast before one of the most depressing endings in horror. The setting doesn’t strictly matter to the story—the inherited hotel could have been in Venice or Sicily or Transylva nia—but the Spanish moss and distinctive architecture of the city do some of Fulci’s work for him. He, and his audience, know that if there is a gateway to hell, it’s probably in a place like New Orleans.

nations) can’t claim to represent the established order.

From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, Italian hor ror creators like Dario Argento, Daria Nicolodi, Lucio Fulci, and Mario Bava created giallo movies; gory, gor geous films full of suspense and bizarre violence. (Gial lo, Italian for “yellow,” connects them to cheap crime paperbacks published in Italy with yellow covers.) The forerunners of modern slasher movies, the best of them

A couple of decades later, after The Blair Witch Project upend ed expectations of what a horror movie could be, directors raced to create “the next Blair Witch Project.” The winner for speed if not quality, The St. Francisville Experiment (2000), is not, by most standards, a good movie, but it’s important as one of the first found-footage horror films to be released. The plot argues that Madame LaLaurie, after the discovery of her cabinet of horrors, fled not to Paris but to the Florida Parishes. 170 years later, some twenty-somethings turn up with a camera and en counter the impatient dead. The genre that would dominate multiplexes during the aughts was still defining itself, and if this Feliciana-set haunted house caper doesn’t follow the “rules,” that’s partly because it predates them. The relevant point here is that when filmmakers sought to follow where Blair Witch led, the answer to the question “where might some goobers with a cam era encounter a supernatural force they can neither under stand nor control” was immediately “Louisiana!”

The found footage genre returned to the state in 2010’s The Last Exorcism, in which a scamster exorcist comes across a case of possession that doesn’t respond to his placebos. Along with 2007’s The Reaping, in which a small town is beset with the plagues of Exo dus, The Last Exorcism depends on the state’s repu tation for religiosity for effect. For tension between

characters to work effectively, some of them need to take possessions and prophecies at face value—otherwise, these would be short movies about tak ing a teenage girl to a psychiatrist and testing soil samples for anthrax. There are people of faith all over the world and

creators can and do make films with re ligious characters set in other places, but again, setting can support the director’s goals: a sign that reads “What Are You Waiting for? The Lord Don’t Have All Day” tells the audience we’re in a place where the burden of proof is on science,

not on the faith that’s part of the land scape. (Plus, The Reaping offers a chance to see a young Idris Elba pelted with dead frogs.)

Louisiana even has its own slow-mov ing, tool-wielding, never-dying big bad guy in the Freddy and Jason vein. The

Hatchet series of films focus on Victor Crowley, a tool-wield ing denizen of the Honey Island Swamp who occasionally dis rupts swamp tours with colossal violence. (By no means does he limit himself to the titular hatch et.) The first movie was released in 2006, and so there’s a lot of winking in between the blood spray—the killer is even played by Kane Hodder, an alum of the Friday the 13th series. If it’s silli er than its inspirations—torsos don’t really fly apart that easily, or you could learn surgery in a night class—the MPAA that assigns film ratings remained unamused, threatening an NC-17 rating and demanding cuts. Audiences liked them better, with director Adam Green promising a fifth film and star Danielle Harris teasing a sixth.

As public history has become more open about the real-life horrors of slavery, fiction address

ing similar issues has found a broader audience. The horror in 2020’s Ante bellum comes from a modern look at what parts of Louisiana used to be. The viewers share the point of view of a pres ent-day Black woman transported onto a pre-emancipation plantation, who ex

Movie posters for The Blob and The Last Exorcism—both examples of horro films shot and set (respectively) in Louisiana over the last several decades. Courtesy of MPA.

periences the horror both as an Afri can American and as a person from a time when slavery is no longer considered part of the natural order. The horror works because slavery horrifies modern audiences as well as the character—we understand her dislocation. If Antebellum is more interested in making a point than some other horror movies—and according to some reviewers, more interested in a point than making the best creative choices—that just makes it part of the contemporary movie-making landscape. Escapism will always have a following, but to day it competes with entertainment with a message.

In fairness, I should also say: there’s a vibrant film industry here, which has helped make the state a horror haven. The 1988 remake of The Blob dressed Abbeville up (unconvincingly) as a California ski town, but more recent films ha ven’t bothered. Late in 10 Clover field Lane, a highway mileage sign appears to place the events some where between Lafayette and Lake Charles. Happy Death Day and its sequel Happy Death Day 2U don’t need to take place in New Orleans, but it’s also fine for a hapless co-ed to attend a recognizable Loyola Uni

versity. (The killer’s mask, reminiscent of the short-lived Baby Cakes mascot, led to a lawsuit from the designer of that grim moment in baseball history.)

As long as the film industry contin ues to fulfill audiences’ dark desires for

the creepy and macabre, and as long as Louisiana stays uncategorizable enough to set the scene, we’ll continue to see our state on the screen—and to watch through our fingers. h

Through mid-November, visit the Movie Poster Archives store in Gretna for an exhibition on Louisiana horror films. Learn more about MPA on page 58.

"LOUISIANA IS COMPOSED OF JUXTAPOSITIONS AND OFTEN SIMPLY WEIRD, AND ALL IT TAKES IS A DIMMING OF THE LIGHTS AND A CREAKY FLOORBOARD FOR THAT TO GET SCARY."

Movie still for the 2020 film Antebellum which amplifies the horror of American slavery through a modern character.

Escapes

GETAWAYS

Beyond the Battle

AN ART-LOVER'S GUIDE TO VICKSBURG

By Beth D'Addono

Vicksburg is best known to the average visi tor as one particular thing: a centerpiece of Civil War history. Because of the city's stra tegic location on the Mississippi, the for ty-seven-day siege that led to the Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863 gave the Union troops control of the Mississippi River, officially turning the tide of the war.

Vicksburg was “the key,” as President Abraham Lincoln famously said, adding that “the war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket.” Civil War his tory lovers flock here, considering Vicksburg a must-see battlefield on their bucket list.

I’ll just say it straight out. I’m no military history buff. Yes, I’ve thoughtfully taken in the occasional battlefield,

and I’ve made my pilgrimages to visit the grim memo rials of World War II in Poland and Germany. But on vacation, I’ll take arts, culture, and cuisine over war his tory any day.

So, with some input from the helpful folks at the Vicksburg Tourist Information Center on Old Highway 27, just one of the region’s pretty ribbons of rolling coun try, I took a different track.

Art of Commemoration

The first suggested stop on my arts-focused journey was the 1,800-acre Vicksburg’s National Military Park, a verdant space dotted by more than 1,400 memorial monuments and markers paying tribute to all the states

and battalions that fought in the Civil War. Wait … what?

“We started thinking that not everybody in every vis iting family and group comes here because of Civil War history,” explained national park ranger Andrew Miller. Which is why in 2012, a group of park, military, art, and architecture experts put their heads together to come up with the “Art of Commemoration” guidebook, which takes a look at the stone memorials from a different per spective.

Although the guided tour covers a lot of literal ground, the best way to see the art behind the history in the leafy park is on foot, meandering over gentle hills and taking the time to get up close to the stories that

68

STAINED GLASS AND LAZY SUSANS

The Art of Commemoration Tour offers a new perspective of Vicksburg's National Military Park—focusing on the artistic elements of the park's memorials. Image courtesy of Visit Vicksburg.

play out in plaster, stone, and bronze.

Throughout the park, the guidebook’s author Parker Hill points out that the sculptors and architects behind these monuments were influenced by the French Beaux-Arts movement ground ed in the Greek classics. Architectural terms pepper the commentary, as the likes of porticos, friezes and cornices are identified. A sculpted bronze version of a bald eagle called “Old Abe” perches atop the Wisconsin Doric column. The three bronze figures in the 2004 Mississippi African American Monument honor ing the 1st and 3rd infantry regiments are resting on a pedestal of African black granite. The eight-foot-high stone “Spir it of Michigan” gracing the towering Michigan memorial is modeled after the Greek goddess Athena, who stands in the Acropolis.

Glass & Galleries

See the light filtering through the bril liance of “Music,” one of six Tiffany stained glass windows in the Church of the Holy Trinity in downtown Vicks burg, and it’s clear that all stained glass is not created equal. Tiffany glass was pro duced by Louis Comfort Tiffany and his team of artists from 1878 to 1933 when he died, and there are only about one hundred churches or museums around the world where that work is on display today.

The fact that church guide Brenda Hawkins encourages visitors to peer

up close, even touch, these six gorgeous windows, filling the church with opal escent beauty, is astonishing. There are other perfectly fine German-crafted windows around the church, but they fade in comparison. “Peace” is another stunner, a square-jawed model clothed in voluminous robes in all shades of sun rise pink. In the “Archangel Raphael,” the angel’s wings rise up like blue flames from his back. Like the other windows, it

was commissioned in honor of a passed parishioner, whose death left a legacy of brightly shining light.

On the more traditional art front, Vicksburg is now home to a new gallery, its third, located in the back of the new ly-opened Mulberry Hotel, a repurposed Margaritaville casino steps away from downtown. The Jackson Street Gallery at the Mulberry is an inviting, light-filled space representing more than sixty local

artists. Owner Paula Jackson, who also has a gallery in Ridgeland, Mississippi, has more than twenty years’ experience forging relationships with talented artists of all stripes.

Downtown, the H.C. Porter Gallery showcases the work of local artist Por ter, an internationally-recognized paint er, printmaker, and photographer. Her work fuses those talents into a singular keen-eyed vision, whether she’s focusing

The H.C. Porter Gallery showcases the work of internationally-recognized painter, printmaker, and photographer H.C. Porter. Image courtesy of Visit Vicksburg.

on blues artists or Civil War figures, her work is startlingly original. Also downtown, the Attic Gallery, at fifty-one the oldest independent art gallery in the state, displays a fetching collection of colorful outsider art that dives deep into Southern culture. Owner Lesley Silver is the gentle visionary at the gallery’s heart and soul, making each visit a balm for any art lover.

As I walked around town and down by the river, a slew of murals brought the town’s history and culture into focus, public art that brightens the landscape while edifying step by step.

Taste of Vicksburg Art-seeking can sure conjure up an appetite. The Tomato Place on Highway 61 south of town is at the top of my must-eat list. If a dive bar married a roadside produce stand, this would be their baby. The family-run spot offers pristine produce, locally-made sauces and honey, a case full of homemade smoothies, a scattering of funky seating inside and out, and a tomato-centric menu led by what may be the best BLT in the universe. It comes either with ripe red tomatoes or fried green ones, keeping company with perfectly grilled thick-cut bacon and crisp romaine leaves bursting from two slabs of country white slathered with mayo. There are other things on the menu: tuna melts, Our writer's biggest foodie recommendation in Vicksburg is The Tomato Place on Highway 61.

courtesy of Visit Vicksburg.

PREMIERING:

PREMIERING:

tomato pie, fried catfish, BBQ pork po-boy, but get this first and then keep eating.

Back in town, Walnut Hills Restaurant is a gem, one of those downhome Southern spots with a big old lazy Susan in the center of every table. Get the fried chicken, peri od. It’s some of the best you’ll ever have, but the shrimp and grits and fried catfish are tough to ignore. Save room for dessert—the house-made cakes and pies tease from a come-hither restaurant display case. The carrot cake is outstanding, but the red velvet is a close second.

If I was planning date night, it would be catching the sunset with drinks at 10 South Rooftop Bar & Grill overlooking the river. Then dinner at Relish Bistro, a lunch and dinner spot from brothers Jason and James Penley. With exposed brick walls, mood lighting ,and a wine wall, this approachable spot dishes tasty Mediterranean fare, from prosciutto and fig flatbread to pasta Bolognese and steak frites. The house-made focac cia is a dream.

After just a few days in Vicksburg, my mind was open to seeing a new side of this lovely Southern town, a city of neighborhoods and folks who nod and say hello to friends and strangers on the street. Fortunately for me, the Tomato Place was on the way home, since another BLT was absolutely on the itinerary. h

visitvicksburg.com

The Jackson Street Gallery is Vicksburg's newest artistic addition, featuring over sixty local artists. Image courtesy of Visit Vicksburg.

Directory of Merchants

Albany, LA Livingston Parish CVB 13

Alexandria, LA Alexandria/Pineville Area CVB 7

Baton Rouge, LA Allwood Furniture 20

Alzheimer’s Service of the Capital Area 49 Becky Parrish Advance Skincare 70

Blue Cross Blue Shield 16 BREC 56 Calandro’s Select Cellars 12 East Baton Rouge Parish Library 74

Elizabethan Gallery 60 Fireside Antiques 6 Louisiana Public Broadcasting 70 LSU Foundation Burden Museum and Gardens 25 LSU Museum of Art 51 LSU OLLI 64

LSU Rural Life Museum 53 Manship Theatre 27 Mid-City Artisans 59 Mid City Merchants 61 The 121 26 Opera Louisiane 57 Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center 3 Pinetta’s European Restaurant 59 Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church & School 29

Stafford Tile & Stone 22 Studio 9170 66 Wilson & Wilson Attorneys, LLC 56 WRKF 89.3 FM 69

Brookhaven, MS Brookhaven Tourism Council 9

Cleveland, MS Visit Cleveland 18

Covington, LA Three Rivers Art Festival 19

Destrehan, LA Destrehan Plantation 37

Ferriday, LA Brakenridge Furniture 33

Grand Isle, LA Grand Isle Tourism Department 60

Hammond, LA Tangipahoa Parish CVB 75 Jackson, MS Visit Mississippi 5 Lafayette, LA Allwood Furniture 20 The Hilliard University Art Museum at LSU Lafayette 69 LARC Noel Acadien Village 23 Louisiana Crafts Guild 44

Mandeville, LA St. Tammany Parish Tourist Commission 30

Mansfield, LA DeSoto Parish Tourism Commission 31

Mansura, LA Avoyelles Tourism Commission 47

Metairie, LA Jefferson Performing Arts Society 17

Morgan City, LA Cajun Coast CVB 52

Natchez, MS

Allumer Natchez 10 Brakenridge Furniture 33

Copiah-Lincoln Community College Natchez Literary Festival 34

Monmouth Historic Inn 32 Murray Land & Homes Realty 11 Natchez City Sightseeing 36 Natchez Convention Promotion Commission 35 Natchez Olive Market 59 Natchez Pilgrimage Tours 33 Olivina Boutique 34 United Mississippi Bank 35

New Orleans, LA Louisiana Crafts Guild 44 The Historic New Orleans Collection 14, 15 Stafford Tile & Stone 22

New Roads, LA Arts Council of Pointe Coupée 71 City of New Roads 30 Pointe Coupée Historical Society 71 Pointe Coupée Tourism 2

Opelousas, LA St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission 21

Plaquemine, LA Iberville Parish Tourism Department 43

Port Allen, LA West Baton Rouge CVB 24 West Baton Rouge Museum 42

Ridgeland, MS

Ridgeland Tourism Commission 48

Scott, LA

Bob’s Tree Preservation 52

Sorrento, LA Ascension Parish Tourism Commission 57

St. Francisville, LA Bohemianville Antiques 39 The Conundrum Books and Puzzles 39, 41

The Cotton Exchange 39 District Mercantile 39

Grandmother’s Buttons 42 The Magnolia Cafe 64 Matt Paxton, Veritas Counseling 59

The Myrtles/Restaurant 1796 39 NK Boutique 39 Phoebe Rose 71

Prevail & Reign Atelier & Boutique 39 St. Francisville Food & Wine Festival 73 Stems Boutique Florist 39

Total Performance Specialties 41

Town of St. Francisville 38

West Feliciana Animal Humane Society 71 West Feliciana Parish Tourism Commission 38

Vicksburg, MS Visit Vicksburg 67

Zachary, LA

Signature Southern Accents 66 Lane Regional Medical Center 28

“Ghosts”

AN ESSAY AND PORTRAIT FROM HEARTWOOD

By William Guion

Growing up in south Louisiana’s Cajun country, I’ve come to know many of the old live oaks located within sight of state Highways 1 and 308 as they follow Bayou Lafourche’s course from Donaldsonville to Golden Meadow.

Solitary oaks, standing like sentinels in open fields, have always held a fascination for me. They call to me as I drive by on whatever rural route I happen to trav el.

This particular oak has become an old friend—I’ve watched him grow and weather the seasons for al most fifty years along this stretch of Hwy. 308 near Raceland. He has survived far more storms than I have, as well as the seasonal exposure to sugar cane-growing chemistry in his location on the edge of a sugarcane field.

I’ve studied his form from different perspectives

until I arrived at this image—what I feel is my favorite of the many photographs I’ve made. Still, each time I pass him, I take a slow glance to see how he’s changed and if the light and weather on this day might reveal something new about his character and story.

We’ve had long conversations during our portrait sessions about how the years and the seasons have shaped our lives. The sugarcane rows have slowly en croached on his canopy and root space. Several hack berry trees stand to his immediate left. The branches of one crowd into the edge of my camera’s viewfinder.

If I move my tripod a few feet to the right you would see the outer reach of the hackberry’s limbs. A few steps to my left, and the visual balance of the oak’s limb spread on either side of its trunk is lost.

During spring and summer, towering sugarcane stalks hide the lower third of the oak’s trunk and limbs. The only time I have a clear view of the oak’s

silhouette is in winter, after sugarcane harvest, and before spring planting begins. Even then, the back ground has a far-away horizontal line of trees that is distracting to the composition of a straightforward and clear portrait.

It’s only in winter fog that the oak’s shape and char acter is fully revealed. Draped in a gray robe of Span ish moss, the old oak appears like Scrooge’s ghost of Christmas past. Like in Dickens’ story, he speaks to me of seasons we have both weathered.

But instead of an unnerving spectre, he is a spirit of quiet peace and a soothing signpost of our shared his tory.

One day in the future when I drive past, I will glance toward this cane field and he will be gone. But the memories we shared along the bayou will remain in this portrait, a ghostly reminder of all the old oaks that I have known—past, present, and yet to come. h

Editor’s note: This essay is excerpted from Return to Heartwoood – A Pilgrimage into the Heart of Live Oak Country, a new book by Louisiana native author and photographer William Guion. A collection of essays accompanied by arresting photographs, the book chronicles Guion’s four-decade photographic journey to document the stories and portraits of the state’s historic live oak trees, before they are lost and forgotten. Over forty years, Guion has come to understand the old oaks as sentient beings who are an essential part of the history, culture, and ecology of the Southern landscape. He has also found that the old est oaks are vanishing—victims of more powerful storms, climate change, depleted soil, and unchecked development—faster than most of us realize.

Return to Heartwood presents fifty-seven of Guion’s “tree portraits,” accompanied by fifty-five essays.

Copies are available from independent bookstores and from returntoheartwood.com.

“Oak in Winter Fog,” Hwy 308 near Raceland. By William Guion