Gambit: Feb. 1, 2022 by Gambit New Orleans

February 1 - 7 2022 Volume 43 Number 5

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FEBRUARY 1 — FEBRUARY 7, 2022 VOLUME 43 || NUMBER 5

CONTENTS

COVER STORY

Civil rights icon Leona Tate........12 7 Civil rights landmarks in New Orleans....................................14

NEWS Opening Gambit ...............................7 Commentary.....................................9 Clancy DuBos..................................10 Blake Pontchartrain......................11

PULLOUT

cheers to carnival time!

DETAILS.................................................

FEATURES Arts & Entertainment ....................5 Eat + Drink.......................................19 FILE PHOTO BY GUS BENNET T / NEW ORLEANS PEOPLE PROJECT

Music Listings................................ 23 Comedy............................................ 24 Carnival ........................................... 26 Puzzles............................................. 27

Living History

The fight for racial eqaulity never ended

S TA F F

COVER PHOTO FILE PHOTO BY GUS BENNET T / NEW ORLE ANS PEOPLE PROJECT COVER DESIGN BY DOR A SISON

Publisher | JEANNE EXNICIOS FOSTER

SPIRITS • WIN E • B E E R • M I XERS RE ADY-TO -DR INK CO C KTA ILS • CHE ES E GL AS SWA RE R ENTALS • GO U R MET FO O D B A R ACC E S SO R I E S • G I F TS & M ORE

MARTINWINE.COM . SHOP ONLINE LOCAL DELIVERY D E L IVERY IS FR EE FO R OR DE RS OVE R $ 5 0

EDITORIAL (504) 483-3105// response@ gambitweekly.com Editor | JOHN STANTON Political Editor | CLANCY DUBOS Arts & Entertainment Editor | WILL COVIELLO

BUSINESS & OPERATIONS Billing Inquiries 1 (225) 388-0185

ADVERTISING

Advertising Inquiries (504) 483-3150 Advertising Director | SANDY STEIN BRONDUM (504) 483-3150

Staff Writers | JAKE CLAPP,

[sstein@gambitweekly.com]

KAYLEE POCHE, SARAH RAVITS

Sales Representatives

Contributing Writers | IAN MCNULTY

KELLY SONNIER (504) 483-3143

CREATIVE Creative Director | DORA SISON

Traffic Manager |

JASON WHITTAKER

Project Manager |

MARIA VIDACOVICH BOUÉ

[ksonnier@gambitweekly.com] CHARLIE THOMAS

(504) 636-7438 [cthomas@gambitweekly.com]

Sales and Marketing Coordinator ABIGAIL SCORSONE

[ascorsone@gambitweekly.com]

Senior Art Director | CATHERINE FLOTTE

Junior Art Director | EMMA VEITH

Senior Graphic Designer | SCOTT FORSYTHE

NEW ORLEANS | METAIRIE | MANDEVILLE | BATON ROUGE

@The_Gambit @gambitneworleans @GambitNewOrleans

Gambit (ISSN 1089-3520) is published weekly by Capital City Press, LLC, 840 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130. (504) 486-5900. We cannot be held responsible for the return of unsolicited manuscripts even if accompanied by a SASE. All material published in Gambit is copyrighted: Copyright 2022 Capital City Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

Air Power

Billie Eilish

AT JUST 20 YEARS OLD, BILLIE EILISH

has become one of the biggest music acts in the world. She comes to the Smoothie King Center Thursday, Feb. 3, as part of her tour for her latest album “Happier Than Ever,” which was released last July. WILLOW, who has found recent success with viral hits “Wait a Minute!” and “Meet Me At Our Spot,” opens at 7:30 p.m.

‘Fly’ recounts the Tuskegee Airmen’s battle for freedom by Will Coviello TREY ELLIS AND RICARDO KHAN

debuted the first version of “Fly,” about four Black men becoming Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, in 2007. The men enter training at the Tuskegee base to become fighter pilots in the segregated fighter squadrons that fought the German Luftwaffe. Ellis and Khan expanded the work after the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama, who invited surviving veterans of the Tuskegee Airmen to attend the ceremony. In the 2009 version of “Fly,” Chet Simpkins, a fictionalized veteran pilot, attends the ceremony and reflects on his years training to fly, and what fighting for freedom would eventually come to mean. Tommye Myrick directs this version of “Fly,” which runs Friday, Feb. 4, through Feb. 13 at Jefferson Performing Arts Center. It’s the show’s regional premiere, and it’s being presented by Jefferson Performing Arts Society. “Fly” focuses on four pilots who begin training at Tuskegee in 1943. While entering the army to serve their country, they also have other motivations for becoming pilots. Chet sees freedom in the chance to fly planes. J. Allen Braithwaite, who is from the Caribbean, has a sense of duty about serving. Oscar Hollingsworth wants to break down the barriers of segregation. W. Willis is interested in the personal prestige of becoming a fighter pilot. But they’re not being trained by the most supportive instructors. One white officer would be happy to flunk them out of the unit and military service. To many in the U.S. government, the Tuskegee project was a test, as much about training pilots for the ongoing war as about testing whether Black men had the capacity to become pilots. “It was an experiment that was destined, they thought, to fail,” Myrick says. “And instead, (the Tuskegee Airmen) didn’t fail; they excelled.” Despite proving their flight skills, they couldn’t directly confront the racism that was ingrained in the service. Khan and Ellis added a character known as the Griot to address the

PHOTO BY JOSHUA FREDERICK

bottled-up emotions, and it adds movement and dance to the piece. “It reminds me of the poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar ‘We Wear the Mask,’” Myrick says. African Americans in service, whether in the Air Force, Army or Navy — you wear the mask. We have always worn the mask that hides our feelings. The Griot lets the audience see how these men feel at certain times.” The pilots who successfully complete their training go off to war, flying mostly in P-51 Mustangs while defending bomber sorties. The production has minimal props, but it captures the dogfights in the skies above Europe with the use of video. In the war, the Tuskegeetrained squadrons were frequently tasked with protecting bombers from German fighter planes. During the war, the pilots helped defeat Hitler and his Aryan creed. Though victorious, Black servicemen and women returned to a segregated America. “At a time in America when they themselves could not have certain liberties, they were fighting overseas for the liberties of other people,” Myrick says. “When they came home, they still had to sit on the back of the bus, still had to drink from ‘colored’ water fountains, and they dare not wear their uniforms in the rural South, because of the fact that they would be targeted.” The success of the Tuskegee Airmen was one of the justifications President Harry Truman used for the desegregation of the military. The Tuskegee Airmen took that name from the Army Air Force training base in Tuskegee, Alabama, outside Montgomery. More than 900 pilots were trained by the program, as well as 14,000 other

Michael C. Forest (l. to r.), Donald Jones Jr., Jimez Alexander and Atlantis Clay star in ‘Fly.’

servicemen, including bombardiers, navigators, mechanics and others. At the time of Obama’s inauguration, there were roughly 300 surviving Tuskegee Airmen. Brigadier General Charles McGee, one of the oldest surviving Tuskegee pilots, died on Jan. 16. He was 102. “Fly” is the first drama Myrick is directing for Jefferson Performing Arts Society. Her Voices in the Dark Repertory Theater has not mounted any productions during the pandemic. Myrick expects to remount the theater’s version of “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” in the spring. Local singer Sharon Martin stars in the musical show about Billie Holiday. Myrick also expects to present her historical drama “Le Code Noir” in an outdoor production this summer. The show looks at Louisiana history through the eyes of an enslaved girl who arrives in New Orleans from Saint-Domingue in 1794, during the Haitian Revolution. Though she often directs plays that are based in history and address social issues, “Fly” feels unique, she says. “I am intimidated by it,” she says. “I am not making up this story. The play itself was written to give voice to these people. You don’t want to dishonor them in any form or fashion.” “Fly” starts at 7:30 p.m. FridaySaturday, Feb. 4-5, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 6, and also runs Feb. 11-13. Tickets are $23-$78 via jpas.org.

P H O T O B Y C H R I S P I Z Z E L L O /A P

Hiss Golden Messenger

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA, folk outfit Hiss Golden Messenger is marked by the distinctive gentle voice of M.C. Taylor. The group was busy last year, releasing “Quietly Blowing It” and a not quite traditional holiday album featuring covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “As Long as I Can See the Light” and Woody Guthrie’s “Hanukkah Dance.” Alexa Rose opens at 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 6, at Tipitina’s. Tickets $21 at tipitinas.com.

North by North

CHICAGO ROCK DUO NORTH BY NORTH

performs at Gasa Gasa on Sunday, Feb. 6. Local acts lofi pop singer Juno Dunes and alt-country singer Anne Elise Hastings open. The show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 at ticketweb.com.

Nate Bargatze

THE 42-YEAR-OLD COMEDIAN IS FROM NASHVILLE, in case the

title of his 2019 Netflix special, “The Tennessee Kid,” didn’t give it away. His most recent special, “The Greatest Average American” came out last March. He performs standup at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4, at the Orpheum Theater. Tickets start at $37 and can be purchased at ticketmaster.com. PAGE 25

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NEW ORLEANS NEWS + VIEWS

“Washington Mardi Gras” Is the Unseasoned Chicken of Carnival Parties

T H U M B S U P/ THUMBS DOWN

160

EPA announced it will begin ad-

dressing environmental justice issues in Louisiana, including speeding up a review of the toxic Gordon Plaza subdivision, conducting unannounced inspections of facilities, creating a pollution accountability team and using $20 million to set up new air monitoring stations in vulnerable communities. The decision comes following EPA Chief Michael Regan’s recent tour of the region.

THE PERCENTAGE BY WHICH CARJACKINGS ROSE DURING THE PANDEMIC. In 2021, 210 carjackings occurred, a major increase since 2019, according to data analyst Jeff Asher. Less than one in four of those incidents resulted in an arrest. The Times-Picayune reported that more than three dozen carjackings or attempts in January nearly top the total for all of 2013. That’s more than twice the monthly average last year, when the city ended the year with the most carjackings in at least a decade.

SCREEN GR AB OF GR APHIC BY JEFF ASHER

Science is wild y’all.

The Boom Heard Round The City Jefferson Parish recently gave

out free overdose rescue packs, which included a dose of naloxone, a nasal spray that quickly reverses the effects of an opioid overdose, and instructions on how to identify an overdose. The kit distribution occurred at fire stations in Metairie, Harahan, River Ridge, Kenner and Avondale. It was done in partnership with University Medical Center New Orleans, the Spirit of Charity Foundation and St. Bernard and Orleans parishes.

Entergy New Orleans has

backed out of a $30 million commitment it made to finance a new Sewerage & Water Board electrical power substation, putting the important project in jeopardy. The project, would have made Entergy the main power supplier for S&WB’s pumps. ENO — which most recently had annual revenue of more than $630 million — said it couldn’t afford the deal because of Hurricane Ida-related costs.

THE COUNT

NASA SAYS IT WASN’T A METEOR. NORAD ASSURES US IT WASN’T THEM. AND NOPD SAYS THEY HAVEN’T A CLUE . But one thing’s for sure, at

11:18 pm January 19 something went BOOM loud enough to rattle walls and startle slumbering New Orleanians from Treme to the Lower 9th Ward and Lakeshore to the Quarter. The boom was so loud in fact scores of residents took to social media to speculate on its origins, which In a city used to gun fire, mobile booming bass systems and random low flying fighter jets is saying something. The next day, intrepid TimesPicayune reporter Carlie Wells ran the proverbial traps to determine what caused the boom. While she wasn’t able to figure out the cause, she was able to rule out a number of things. In addition to determining it wasn’t a meteor or fighter jets, Wells reported the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed it wasn’t an earthquake. The fire department also said it hadn’t responded to any incendiary incidents that evening which could have caused such a loud boom. However, local data nerd Jeff Asher and the TP’s Jeff Adelson were able to narrow down the likely vicinity of the boom, using nosey neighbor doorbell camera

footage, temperature data and probably magic. According to the Jeffs, the sound likely emanated from the east side of the industrial canal, across from the Desire Area. As for the cause, at press time it remained a mystery, though the smart money was either on a rouge meth lab exploding, an alien incursion or a combination of the two. — John Stanton

Health director Jennifer Avegno will no longer lead Krewe du Vieux, parade modifies route

CITY HEALTH DIRECTOR DR. JENNIFER AVEGNO WILL NO LONGER LEAD THE KREWE DU VIEUX PARADE “due to

public health safety issues as well as threats to Avegno herself.” The announcement comes as the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19 continues to spread, though krewe officials stopped short of blaming the surge for her canceled appearance. With Avegno’s guidance, Mayor LaToya Cantrell greenlit the return of parades for Carnival season, urging residents and tourists to get vaccinated and re-implementing an indoor mask mandate until further notice. PAGE 8

C’EST W H AT

What have you missed most about Jazz Fest?

45.3% THE FOOD

7.6%

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39.6% THE MUSIC

7.5%

THE PAYCHECK

Vote on “C’est What?” at www.bestofneworleans.com

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OPENING GAMBIT

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Back in November as the delta variant waned, Avegno was named as the queen of the satirical parade, which rolls Feb. 12. She accepted the honor with a sense of humor, urging krewe members to make fun of her, though she also warned that if circumstances changed she would have to consider bowing out. According to krewe officials she will keep her title as the reigning monarch, but she will not be marching. A krewe official wrote on Facebook, “Our queen has chosen to reign without participating in the parade. It’s entirely appropriate given her chosen [Krewe du Vieux] persona — she’s the ‘Goddess of NO!’ — that she had to withdraw. However, she is still our queen and Krewe du Vieux will spare no effort in making sure that her decision receives our Krewe’s signature treatment during the parade.” The krewe will also have to largely skip the Marigny rectangle portion of its route, citing “insufficient NOPD resources.” They are among dozens of other krewes that have similarly — and controversially — been forced to modify and shorten their routes. Krewe du Vieux will start at Elysian Fields Avenue and Royal Street, then snake through part of the Marigny triangle and French Quarter. “Krewe du Vieux is disappointed to miss our home neighborhood this year, but we will make every effort to have future parades in the Marigny return,” wrote a krewe spokesperson. The krewe’s theme is, fittingly, “Vaxxed and Confused.” — Sarah Ravits

Expert calls Hammond police use of force among ‘most abusive’ he’s seen

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the Hammond City Council on Tuesday that video of white police officers subduing a handcuffed Black man inside the department’s booking room is “one of the most abusive uses of force” he has ever investigated. Council members have renewed talk of calling on Hammond’s mayor to fire Police Chief Edwin Bergeron, who was a sergeant at the time and one of the officers in the video. The FBI was reportedly referred the incident that followed the Dec. 6, 2017, arrest of Kentdrick Ratliff for obstructing a sidewalk, but the status of that remains unclear. Officers found a bottle of pills in Ratliff’s car, which he later said was prescription medication to treat his anxiety.

The city council heard a summary of findings Tuesday from an investigation they pursued 16 months ago after the Hammond Police Department’s internal affairs department and Mayor Pete Panepinto refused to hold the officers accountable. A Baton Rouge law firm was hired to look into the case, and it brought in Seth Stoughton, an attorney and former police officer who teaches at the University of South Carolina School of Law. A specialist in police procedure and criminal law, Stoughton has testified in state and federal courts across the country as a police useof-force expert, most recently as a prosecution expert in the 2021 trial of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was ultimately convicted for killing George Floyd. Stoughton attended Tuesday’s council meeting in person to present his findings, which included his conclusions on 10 uses of force against Ratliff. Bergeron did not respond to the Illuminator’s attempts to reach him for comment. Of the 10 uses of force seen in the video, Stoughton said only two were reasonable. He deemed the remaining eight “unreasonable and excessive,” with up to four “egregiously unreasonable and excessive” actions that could constitute criminal acts. One of the worst, Stoughton said, occurred at the end of the incident when Dunn stomped Ratliff’s face five times while Ratliff was lying on his side with his hands cuffed behind him. “This is egregiously unreasonable,” Stoughton said. “It is among the most abusive uses of force I’ve seen in reviewing I can’t even tell you how many cases.” Stoughton recommended the city council refer the matter to law enforcement for potential criminal prosecution of the officers. Another significant recommendation was to hire an outside firm to conduct a comprehensive review of the Hammond Police Department and its operations. Stoughton also noted that written reports from officers involved in the Ratliff incident omitted most of their use of force actions. One officer testified that Bergeron instructed him to not file a report, even though department policy and general practice required him to do so. — Wes Muller / The Louisiana Illuminator

propaganda and suppress the teaching of undeniable historical facts — particularly America’s shameful history of slavery and its legacy of racial oppression. The push to distance us from (or completely erase) history is, of course, preposterous. In the long arc of history, the civil rights battles of the 1960s and ’70s happened only yesterday, not in some dim, ancient past. As Domonique Tolliver reports in this week’s issue, later this month Louisiana’s first civil rights museum will open in the old McDonogh 19, led by Leona Tate — one of the three Black women who, as children, desegregated the school in 1960. Tate’s life and story continue that arc of history today. Black history continues to be writ large in New Orleans. LaToya Cantrell is the first Black woman elected mayor of this majority-Black city and one of the first in a major American city. A majority of voters re-elected her just a few months ago. Racists hope to obscure the reality that racial equality and justice still elude us, but the Black Lives Matter movement and the events that gave rise to it remind us that the fight for equality and justice continues, with a new generation leading the way. We must not let a white pushback, which took away Black citizen’s rights after Reconstruction, erode the hardwon progress made since Tate walked through the doors of McDonogh 19 for the first time. Nor can we let it weaken our resolve to continue fighting for racial equality and justice. New Orleanians embrace the past as a living, breathing part of our culture. The past, present and future come together in our music, our food and our institutions. So it should be with Black history. This month, let’s all take time to learn about the living Black history that literally surrounds us. The struggle is far from over, and we forget at our own peril.

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The long march to freedom continues, especially in New Orleans FEBRUARY IS BLACK HISTORY MONTH, and this week’s Gambit focuses on the significant but largely untaught role New Orleans has played in the ongoing struggle for racial equality and justice in America. While other Southern cities such as Little Rock, Birmingham and Atlanta are more often associated with the modern civil rights movement, New Orleans has been front and center in that long march from the movement’s earliest days. New Orleans was home to America’s first Black governor in 1872 P.B.S. Pinchback and to Homer Plessy’s courageous refusal in 1892 to leave a whites-only train car in the Bywater. Nearly a century later, MLK founded his Southern Christian Leadership Conference on Valentine’s Day in 1957 at New Zion Baptist Church in Central City. Three years later, Rudy Lombard, then a senior at Xavier University, joined three others in a sit-in at the McCrory’s lunch counter on Canal Street. Their arrests led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case — Lombard v. Louisiana — that ended racial segregation at restaurants and other public accommodations. These pivotal moments in American history did not happen here by accident. Before the Civil War, New Orleans was the epicenter of America’s domestic slave trade. It’s fitting that this city gave rise to some of history’s most honored resisters. The long march to freedom — and equality — is far from over, however. Since the end of legally enforced segregation, white supremacists have tried to convince the world that the civil rights movement had succeeded, that it achieved its objectives and now is ancient history. They wish to see it treated with no more impact on our lives today than Brutus’ betrayal of Caesar. That is evident in the current push to ban the teaching of “critical race theory” in elementary and high schools. This is yet another right-wing bogeyman designed to promote racist

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CL ANCY DUBOS @clancygambit

Redistricting session puts race and politics front and center THE REPUBLICANDOMINATED LOUISIANA LEGISLATURE will mark

the first day of Black History Month (Feb. 1) by convening a 20-day special session that, in all probability, will produce new electoral districts that severely limit if not reduce Black voters’ opportunities to elect leaders who represent their interests. A cursory review of Louisiana history shows this to be true, because history so often repeats itself, particularly in matters of race and politics. When it comes to drawing new electoral districts — a required exercise in all 50 states after every decennial census — race and politics are pretty much all that matters. The process of drawing new district boundaries is painfully difficult. The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR) noted in a recent commentary that state lawmakers face “a tight timeline to draw new maps and tricky politics to navigate. They’ll be grappling with competing demands, intense scrutiny and outside pressures.” To lawmakers’ credit, this year’s process has been more open and accessible to the public than ever — but the real work will still happen behind closed doors. A joint legislative committee held hearings in every corner of the state as part of a “road show” to gather citizens’ input, but as of press time no proposed new district maps had been filed for citizens to review. At the end of the day, the “road show” will have been just that: a show. Much is at stake. Lawmakers will redraw the state House’s 105 districts and the Senate’s 39; the state’s six congressional districts; eight state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) districts; five Public Service Commission (PSC) districts; and possibly seven state Supreme Court districts. It’s often said that elections allow voters to choose their representatives, but redistricting allows elected officials choosing their voters. Which brings us back to race and politics.

P H O T O B Y T R AV I S S P R A D L I N G / T H E A D V O C AT E

The Louisiana Legislature will take on a redistricting special session in February. Louisiana’s population is more diverse than ever, according to the 2020 Census. More than 40% of our 4.6 million people are minorities — including a third who are Black. As PAR notes, “Redesigned maps should offer more opportunities, not less, for people of color to win election to office.” Various groups are pushing for more Black legislative districts, a third minority BESE district, a second Black-majority congressional district, and a second Blackmajority state Supreme Court district. The numbers justify all of those demands, but the politics likely won’t allow it. Republicans control the state House and Senate, but they lack the supermajority needed in the House to override potential vetoes by Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat. The governor will play a huge role in this process, and he has said he favors a second Black congressional district — but he hasn’t put forth or endorsed a specific plan. Other political factors include incumbent protection and geo-politics. New Orleans should gain at least one full House district and possibly a majority of another Senate district — but that can only happen at other parishes’ expense. By Feb. 20, we’re likely to see more losers than winners. History tells who that’s likely to be, but history also tells us that the courts may have the final word. Stay tuned.

@GambitBlake | askblake@gambitweekly.com

Hey Blake,

I enjoyed the Historic New Orleans Collection’s new exhibit, “Making Mardi Gras,” but I was curious about one of the krewes they highlighted. What was the Krewe of NOR and when did it parade?

Dear reader,

THE KREWE OF NOR (which stood for New Orleans Romance) was a children’s Carnival parade. It rolled from 1934 until 1949 on the Saturday before Mardi Gras. While school parades have always been common, NOR was the first organized children’s krewe. Founded by Dr. Joseph J. Wymer and sponsored by the Association of Commerce, the first parade on Feb. 10, 1934, featured 56 floats. According to The Times-Picayune, 1,748 children from the city’s public schools rode in the procession. The theme was “The History of New Orleans.” Floats were pulled by teams of costumed schoolboys, the newspaper reported. The king, queen and court were selected at random from a drawing of the names of students nominated by their respective schools. Nine-year-old James Beck was chosen as king and Shirley Mae Schuster was queen. They toasted Mayor T. Semmes Walmsley at Gallier Hall.

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The Krewe of NOR, a children’s krewe, paraded on the Saturday before Mardi Gras from 1934 until 1949. According to Mardi Gras Guide publisher Arthur Hardy, by 1941, the NOR procession had grown to 100 floats. World War II canceled all parades, but NOR returned for two final presentations in 1948 and 1949. In 1948, first lady Bess Truman and her daughter Margaret reviewed the parade from Gallier Hall. According to Hardy, after NOR disbanded in 1949, there were a handful of other children’s krewes, including Sprites (1968-78), NOLAMISS (1972-75), Pan (197278) and Oz (1981-84). Metairie’s Krewe of Little Rascals first rolled in 1983. The children’s parade will not roll this year because of COVID-19 concerns but plans to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2023.

MARDI GRAS 2022 NAME THE MILLER LITE ALLIGATOR MASCOT Send in your name suggestions at BESTOFNEWORLEANS.COM/MILLERLITE to enter for your chance to win!

BL AKEVIE W THIS WEEK WE WISH A HAPPY 85TH BIRTHDAY TO GARRETT MORRIS, the comedian, actor and New Orleans native who became one of the original cast members of “Saturday Night Live.” Born at New Orleans’ Charity Hospital on Feb. 1, 1937, Morris lived in Gert Town until he was 6, then moved to Morgan City to live with his grandfather. Morris graduated from Booker T. Washington High School, then studied music and voice at Dillard University, where he graduated in 1958. After Dillard, he went to New York, trained at the Juilliard School of Music and landed a stint as a singer with Harry Belafonte and the Belafonte Folk Singers. He performed on Broadway and wrote several of his own plays. Canadian TV producer Lorne Michaels became familiar with Morris’ work and in 1975 asked him to audition for his new late-night NBC variety show “Saturday Night Live.” Morris became the first Black cast member when the show premiered on Oct. 11, 1975. Morris would become known for playing such characters as the Dominican Mets player Chico Esquela and starring in the “Weekend Update” segment “News for the Hard of Hearing.” Morris would later say he was frequently unhappy during his “SNL” run, which ended in 1980, because he was typecast in smaller, stereotypical roles. SNL” he has had a number of roles, including on “The Jeffersons” and “2 Broke Girls.

GRAND PRIZE The winning name suggestion will win a

MILLER LITE 15-QT GRIZZLY COOLER!

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BLAKE PONTCHARTR AIN™

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HOLDING ONTO HISTORY

FILE PHOTO BY GUS BENNETT / NEW ORLEANS PEOPLE PROJECT

Leona Tate

Desegregation activist creates first civil rights museum in New Orleans BY DOMONIQUE TOLLIVER

Education has always been at the heart of Leona Tate’s life.

Born in 1954 in the Lower 9th Ward, Tate took the first steps toward finally breaking the back of school segregation in New Orleans when she, along with Tessie Prevost and Gail Etienne, walked past angry white protesters and through the doors of McDonogh 19 Elementary School on Nov. 14, 1960, to become the first Black students at the school. At the same time, 6-yearold Ruby Bridges also was walking into the all-white William Frantz Elementary School. Looking back now, Tate says she is grateful she can never say she was afraid of going to school because at 6 years old, she didn’t fully understand what was happening. “I thank God that we were so young that we didn’t understand, I can never say that I was afraid because I wasn’t. I was made very comfortable by my teacher. The marshals that brought us to school every day made us very comfortable,” she says. As federal marshals escorted Tate, Prevost and Etienne to and from schools, crowds of white parents stood outside McDonogh 19 protesting against the court-ordered desegregation. They were the only three Black students for months. Brown paper bags covered the school windows at all times as the girls had recess indoors and were not allowed outside for their safety. Tate suffered constant abuse from the white students, and when the marshals stopped bringing

them to school, entering the building would mean walking a gauntlet of angry white people alone. Though New Orleans would move to turn McDonogh 19 into an all-Black school two years later, the roots of integration in the city’s schools had been planted and would eventually bring the Jim Crow practice to at least a temporary end. However, over the last 60 years, white flight, an increasingly conservative Supreme Court and a growing white supremacist movement have meant that New Orleans’ schools are increasingly segregated. Many of the other hard-won victories of the civil rights movement have been eroded or cast aside completely. But while the forces of discrimination and hate may be making a comeback, so too is Tate — and McDonogh 19, where later this month Tate will open a new civil rights museum and learning center. The goal is to help educate the public on the push to desegregate New Orleans as well as train the next generation of racial equity and justice activists. “McDonogh 19 ... is where I was introduced to racism,” Tate says. “I feel like that’s where I want it to end.”

Tate says she didn’t talk about her experience for years,

instead focusing on the present and raising her family. “For years, the three of us didn’t talk about it. We put it on a back

burner for many years and I started thinking about it again in my junior high school years,” she says. It’s understandable. As a 6-yearold, Tate had found herself at the center of the national fight for racial equality and justice. Six years earlier on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment in the Brown v. Board of Education case. Despite the ruling, it didn’t ensure racial integration. State and local governments across the country refused to abide by the order for years or even decades. In New Orleans, the push towards desegregation was met with anger among many white people, and many adults would routinely wait outside schools to taunt and threaten Black children. Tate says that while she experienced hatred and abuse from students, the press outside of the school was the most overwhelming part of the experience. Tate says she realized the significance of that point in her childhood when one of her high school gym teachers told her she was reading a book that she was in.

“I started thinking of it again in my junior high school year,” she says. “One of my gym teachers called me to the office and she told me, ‘I’m reading a book and you’re in it.’ And that made me start thinking of it again, the importance of it.” In fact, for a long time Tate didn’t tell her children her story because she wanted them to have a normal childhood. “My children didn’t even know for a long time because I didn’t want them to have an abnormal experience at school. Because once they found out who I was, that was going to make it a whole other ballgame for them,” she says. Soon, the fight for equality and justice would once again become a major part of her life. Tate’s flame for activism was reignited after Barack Obama became president in 2009. She began working as a community and civil rights activist and created a foundation, Leona Tate Foundation for Change, to provide children in New Orleans with equal access to educational services. The foundation hosts business and financial literacy programming, along with the G.R.O.W Adult pro-

Black History Month Orleanians still have to leave the state to find a museum that tells the story of the civil rights movement,” DeBerry wrote. Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, Mayor LaToya Cantrell and others installed a marker on Feb. 1 at the former McDonogh 19 building as part of the Louisiana Civil Rights Trail commemorating important locations during the civil rights movement across the state. The TEP Interpretive Center will be housed on the bottom floor of the building, focusing on both the events that happened to prepare

“I was one that was reluctant about telling my story, but now visiting the schools in New Orleans I see where it’s needed because the children don’t know where they come from.”

R E N D E R I N G D E S I G N E D B Y G A L L A G H E R & A S S O C I AT E S

When TEP opens later this month, it will include interactive spaces to teach the public about the history of the desegregation struggle in New Orleans.

the three women for their first day in a desegregated school and also what it was like for them to experience it. “I find that a lot of students are not aware of the desegregation of the public schools and how it happened. They just don’t know about it at all,” Tate says. “We are planning on a lot of visual aid and interactive materials. I want students to come in and understand and feel what we felt, but they can only do that if they see it.” The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, which provides anti-racism training and seminars across the country, will also be at the McDonogh 19 site. And Tate says it will also include 25 affordable housing units for people 55 or older. The Lower Ninth Ward Living Museum also will move into the new space, according to Tate. Back in 2011, Caroline Heldman and Ian Breckenridge-Jackson created the museum, located two blocks off St. Claude Avenue on Deslonde Street, to share stories from the community. Tate says she has been involved with the project since the group interviewed her for research. “It went from me talking about my experience to then gathering information from other people. It’s so good to hear from people that are still living … to hear their perspective and how resilient the Lower 9th Ward people can be,” she says. The museum showcases events that shaped the Lower 9th Ward from the community’s perspective through oral stories and recordings from residents. Tate says it’s im-

portant for residents to share their past in order to inform the future. Maintaining not only the history of the civil rights movement but its immediacy has become an increasingly important task in recent years. Since the death of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and the end of widespread civil rights protests in the early 1970s, the era has been regarded somehow as ancient history, despite the fact that Tate and millions of others who participated in the struggle are alive and well — as is racism itself. “Our schools have segregated again. It’s like white flight has taken another stand in the school system. If you don’t go on the outskirts of New Orleans, you barely see white students,” Tate says. The effects aren’t theoretical: According to October 2021 statistics from the Louisiana Department of Education, out of the 43,982 students enrolled in Orleans Parish public schools, 32,264 of those students are Black and 3,543 are white. That doesn’t reflect the demographics of the parish as a whole. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, out of the 383,997 individuals reported in the parish, 126,462 were white and 208,273 were Black. Additionally, over the last two decades anti-civil rights forces have pushed this narrative both in politics and education, culminating in the latest push against so-called “critical race theory” in legislatures across the country. The loss of history can also lead to a loss of culture in New Orleans as locals forget the stories of their communities that helped to build the city into what it is today. “We need those doors to the future. If we don’t document it somewhere, it’s going to be forgotten,” Tate says. “I was one that was reluctant about telling my story, but now visiting the schools in New Orleans I see where it’s needed because the children don’t know where they come from.” “When people see me,” she adds, “they are surprised because they think it happened long ago. A lot of kids think it was during slavery times. They don’t know it in their lifetime. I think it makes a difference when they see us.” Tate argues it’s important for both youth and adults to learn about the civil rights movement in New Orleans, but she worries that too few educators understand the city’s place in the movement’s history. “You can’t teach what you don’t know. I find that most of the teachers we have today are not from New Orleans. New Orleans has a culture that nobody has,” she says.

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gram that provides GED preparation and tutoring. Previously, it’s also hosted summer camps to educate youth on the desegregation movement in New Orleans. Now, Tate’s mission is to educate the New Orleans community on how the city was instrumental to the civil rights movement and desegregation. To keep these pieces of history from being lost or forgotten, Tate is creating the TEP Interpretive Center at the McDonogh 19 building, which she hopes to open to the public in mid-February. The center — named after Tate, Etienne and Prevost — will be the first space dedicated to preserving and teaching the history of the civil rights movement in New Orleans. “Nobody was aware of the history of that building,” Tate says. “That building stood dormant since 2004, and it just didn’t seem like it was important to anybody. I want everybody to know that that made a big difference. I even want the residents in the 9th Ward to know the Lower 9th Ward is very important because of that history.” The museum will not only be New Orleans’ first space dedicated to the civil rights movement, it will also be the first in the state — though not for a lack of trying. As Times-Picayune columnist Jarvis DeBerry noted in 2018, activists have been pushing for a civil rights museum for decades, even getting the state legislature in 1999 to pass a bill establishing the Louisiana Civil Rights Museum and mandating it be built in New Orleans. “Today, nearly two decades later, New

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Black History Month

SACRED

SPACES Seven landmarks of the fight for civil rights in New Orleans

When it comes to the fight for civil rights in New Orleans, all too often we think of history that predates any of us currently living. Everyone knows the history of Congo Square, for instance. New Orleans was a major hub for sale of enslaved Africans to plantations across the South, while also the home of the first free Black middle-class community in the United States. But while the city’s role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s is not as well-known as Birmingham or Atlanta, New Orleans played a crucial role in the fight against Jim Crow and segregation — you just have to know where to look for it. Here, we have collected a far-from-exhaustive list of places and people in New Orleans — many of them still alive or open — that played a critical role in our nation’s ongoing reckoning with racism. The Bywater was home to one of the earliest and most explosive acts of defiance against Jim Crow segregation laws, when Homer Plessy boarded a “whites-only” train car. Though the Supreme Court would rule against him, decades later young Black men and women across the South — including four young schoolgirls in the 9th Ward — would challenge the racist status quo at the beginning of the civil rights movement, ultimately bringing those Jim Crow laws to an end. Today one of the McDonogh Three, Leona Tate, is again fighting segregation in our classrooms and has turned the school where she and her friends challenged segregated learning into the city’s first civil rights museum. In February 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights and religious leaders gathered in Central City at the New Zion Baptist Church. Out of that meeting was born the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Under King’s leadership, the SCLC would become one of the main organizers of civil rights protests across the country and helped to successfully push through the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The fight for equal rights also happened in our cultural spaces. Dooky Chase’s Restaurant became a pivotal space for civil rights leaders to meet and organize, while throughout the 1940s and ’50s the Dew Drop Inn provided a rare space for Black musicians to perform before integrated audiences. These are just a few examples of how New Orleans fits into the broader fight for racial justice in America. In addition to the state’s online Louisiana Civil Rights Trail, there are a number of excellent resources in the area to learn more about both the civil rights movement and the history of Black south Louisiana, including the New Orleans African American Museum, the Amistad Research Center and the River Road African American Museum in Donaldsonville, among others.

PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

Keith Plessy, a descendent of Homer Plessy, stands in front of the Plessy V. Ferguson historical plaque.

Press Street Railroad Yards 700 Homer Plessy Way

At the corner of Royal Street

and Homer Plessy Way (a renamed stretch of Press Street) sits the site of an event that led to one of the most infamous Supreme Court decisions in history, Plessy v. Ferguson. On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy, a Treme shoemaker and Creole man of African descent, was arrested at Press Street Railroad Yards for sitting in the “whites-only” section of a train headed to Covington during segregation. The move was a strategic action by the Citizens’ Committee, which formed the year prior to fight the racist Separate Car Act, which mandated railroads provide separate train cars for Black people than for white people, according to an Xavier University project. Since Plessy was considered “7/8 white,” the Citizens’ Committee made sure to inform the railroad

about the action in advance and even hired a private detective with arrest powers to ensure he was arrested and they could challenge the law in court. Members of the group were present for the arrest and helped pay his legal fees as the case worked its way up to the Supreme Court. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was constitutional as long as the facilities were “separate but equal.” The Supreme Court overturned that precedent in its Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. A decade later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act which legally ended segregation, though forms of segregation still exist today, including through housing discrimination, which affects the public education system. Recently, the 19th century case made headlines again when Gov. John Bel Edwards pardoned Plessy on Jan. 5, nearly 100 years after his death. Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson, the descendants of the two key figures in the case, were present. — KAYLEE POCHE

Black History Month

3501 River Road, Jefferson Parish

Ellis Marsalis Sr., a successful Black businessman in the New Orleans area,

took a property once part of a plantation with enslaved people and turned it into a thriving motel, restaurant and lounge that served as a meeting place for some of the most prominent Black civil rights activists, politicians and musicians during segregation. Marsalis got his start opening an Esso filling station with his business partner in 1936. Less than a decade later, he bought a house with a barn on the Mississippi River levee. He originally planned a quiet family life with his wife and two children, Yvette Marsalis Washington and Ellis Marsalis Jr., who would go on to become a famous jazz pianist and teacher, The Times-Picayune reported. But racist segregation laws created a need for a place where Black people coming to town could meet and stay. He soon converted the chicken barn into the glamorous 40-room Marsalis Mansion, which he ran from 1944 to 1986. He counted among his guests the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Ray Charles, Etta James, Dinah Washington, Ike and Tina Turner and Nat King Cole, according to the Louisiana Civil Rights Trail and various news accounts.

The Dew Drop Inn

2836 LaSalle Street

The Dew Drop Inn was the place to be

in New Orleans nightlife in the late 1940s and ’50s. At the combined hotel, music club and barber shop, local and touring musicians performed and socialized, often well into the night after many finished performing elsewhere. Ray Charles lived in the hotel for a while in the late 1940s. James Brown, Sam Cooke, Solomon Burke, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Earl King, Dave Bartholomew and countless others performed in the club, and Allen Toussaint got his first gig there in the 1950s. In 1970, Little Richard released a song about it, howling about the good times meeting friends at the Dew Drop. But by the late ’60s, The Dew Drop was on its last legs. It had been one of the legendary spots on the Chitlin’ Circuit, the term for venues that booked Black performers, usually for Black audiences, during segregation. The Dew Drop welcomed white patrons as well, and New Orleans police sometimes busted the club for violating Jim Crow laws. Dew Drop founder Frank Painia was arrested numerous times, and he filed a lawsuit against the city. His case wasn’t heard before the Civil Rights

Marsalis was a civil rights activist himself. He started the Boosters Club, which helped register Black people to vote and raise money to send Black students to college. One of those students was Dutch Morial, who would become New Orleans’ first Black mayor, according to The Times-Picayune. He was also active in the Republican Party, serving as a delegate to the Republican Presidential Convention in 1964, according to Tulane’s Amistad Research Center. When segregation ended and the motel was no longer one of the only in the area open to Black people, business declined and it closed. The motel deteriorated, and the building was demolished in 1993. Marsalis continued living in the house on the property until his death in 2004. Three years later, the house was demolished as well.

Act of 1964 made segregation illegal. The Civil Rights Act also inadvertently hurt the Dew Drop, as Black patrons and performers went to venues previously closed to them. Business at the Dew Drop dwindled, and it finally closed in 1972. Painia originally opened the Dew Drop as a hotel in 1939. He added the music club in 1945, and it also had a barber shop and sandwich shop that served the surrounding Central City neighborhood. Many people have entertained the idea of re-opening the Dew Drop, including Painia’s descendants, but it sat largely empty until it was flooded following Hurricane Katrina. It’s boarded up, but a sign still identifies the spot at 2836 LaSalle St. But the bones of the building are still solid, says Curtis Doucette Jr., who has a plan to revive the Dew Drop. Doucette has a background in developing affordable housing, and his plan to restore the Dew Drop as a 17-room boutique hotel with a music club and bar was approved by the zoning board in April 2020. He expects to close on the financing within a month, he told Gambit, and historic preservation tax credits are part of his plan. “It’s quite a humbling project,” Doucette says. “I am excited to be the person bringing it back. I realize the importance — it’s important to that corridor, it’s important to the city and it’s important to the state as a tourism driver.” — WILL COVIELLO

FILE PHOTO PROVIDED BY ELLIS MARSALIS SR.

Ellis Marsalis at the Marsalis Motel.

In 2014, the Jefferson Parish Historical Commission put up a historic marker at the site of the former motel which today can be found in front of what is now a doggy daycare called Pawlins. A sign from the motel hangs at the nearby Rivershack Tavern. — KAYLEE POCHE

P H O T O B Y S O P H I A G E R M E R / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

The Dew Drop Inn and Hotel.

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Marsalis Mansion

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Black History Month

New Zion Baptist Church

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A Freedom Rider rally at the New Zion Baptist Church in 1961.

2319 Third St.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was a major force in the civil rights movement. The group worked with local organizations to help organize voter registration drives and mass protests, including the March on Washington. And it all started in Central City. On Feb. 14, 1957, close to 100 civil rights leaders met at New Zion Baptist Church and formally founded the SCLC, following the yearlong Montgomery bus boycott, which culminated in the desegregation of the city’s buses, according to the U.S. Civil Rights Trail. They elected Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. president and several Louisiana officers, including the Rev. A.L. Davis as vice president, the Rev. T.J. Jemison as secretary, Louis Berry as parliamentarian and Israel Augustine Jr. to the executive committee, The Times-Picayune reported. SCLC worked to desegregate buses around the South and register Black voters both ahead of and after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The group also worked with local churches for their campaigns, which advocated nonviolence and hosted leadership training programs in local communities, according to Stanford University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute. New Zion was a hub for other civil rights activity as well, and church leaders hosted a Freedom Riders rally there to protest bus segregation. In the ’60s, the SCLC launched a series of campaigns focused more broadly on tackling poverty. Those efforts included Operation Breadbasket in Atlanta and Chicago to create jobs for Black people and the Poor People’s Campaign, where 3,000 poor people camped out in D.C.

The area surrounding the church on Third Street has many sites important in Black history. Down the street from the church is A.L. Davis Park, where civil rights leaders and activists also held demonstrations and meetings. The park was the starting point for a Black Lives Matter march in 2020. A block away, at the corner of Lasalle and Second streets, sits the SCLC Memorial Walkway Pavilion. And two blocks over is the dilapidated Buddy Bolden house at 2309-2311 First St., where the early jazz pioneer and cornetist lived for 15 years. — KAYLEE POCHE

Dooky Chase’s Restaurant 2301 Orleans Ave.

No one can ever say that gumbo and

fried chicken can’t change the course of history. Dooky Chase’s has always been more than just a restaurant. For the politically ambitious, it’s long been a place to see and be seen. For tourists, a must-stop destination to sample the late, longtime chef and matriarch Leah Chase’s signature soul food dishes. And for generations of Black New Orleans, it was accessible, welcoming fine dining at a time when other New Orleans institutions refused them service. But perhaps fittingly, the restaurant also played a crucial role in the country’s history. Through much of the civil rights movement, Dooky Chase’s hosted lively — and often clandestine — meetings of civil rights leaders from across the South and early local proponents of desegregation, who were fueled to create social change with the help of Leah and her husband Dooky. The restaurant started as a humble sandwich shop and lottery ticket outlet

PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

Doves are released outside Dooky Chase’s Restaurant after the funeral mass for Chef Leah Chase on June 10, 2019.

in 1939 by Emily and Dooky Chase Sr. — Leah’s in-laws. But within two years, it had become a popular neighborhood spot and a destination for musicians, entertainers, activists and other influential figures. Leah began working at Dooky’s in 1946, shortly after marrying Edgar “Dooky” Chase Jr. As the Times-Picayune noted in its 2019 obituary for Leah Chase, the restaurant “was not only the only whitetablecloth restaurant for the city’s Black residents and visitors, but also a place

where Black and white New Orleanians mapped their strategy for the civil rights movement when interracial meetings were illegal.” The restaurant was also a meeting space for labor leaders during the Godchaux’s sugar refinery strike in 1955, and it quickly became home for civil rights activists from across the country. In the early ‘60s, it was where Congress of Racial Equality leaders, including Oretha Castle Haley, Jerome Smith and Rudy Lombard, planned their successful lunch counter protest campaign. In a 2014 interview with WDSU, Chase recalled feeding Freedom Riders, young activists who challenged segregation on buses. “When [Freedom Riders] left from New Orleans to meet them in Birmingham and other places, they came here first,” she recalled. “I fed them, and they would really always have their meetings over a bowl of gumbo and some fried chicken.” The list of luminaries that regularly ate at the restaurant is long, including social and political leaders like A.P. Tureaud and Thurgood Marshall, artists and writers like James Baldwin, and musicians ranging from Ray Charles — who mentioned it in his song “Early in the Morning” — to Beyonce and Jay-Z. — SARAH RAVITS

Black History Month

The Quorum

611 Esplanade Ave.

Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, between St. Philip Street and Howard Avenue By the 1950s, the Dryades Street commercial corridor — the stretch of Central City now named for Oretha Castle Haley — had become one of New Orleans’ major shopping districts and the main shopping area for the city’s Black community. The Dryades Market, part of the city’s public market system, was established in 1849, and over the following century, the area attracted businesses owned by Jewish people, Italians, Germans and African Americans. By the mid-20th century, around 200 shops, department stores, banks, medical offices and places to eat filled Dryades Street, The Louisiana Weekly wrote in a retrospective. Five streetcar lines serviced the area at one point. But despite the businesses along the corridor catering to a primarily Black clientele, most of the white-owned shops refused to hire Black workers — and the small number that did relegated Black workers to janitorial jobs. Fed up, civil rights activists decided to fight back and in 1960 organized a boycott of Dryades Street businesses. “About 90 percent of the business on Dryades Street was coming from Black people,” Lolis Edward Elie told the Times-Picayune in 1993. A lawyer and organizer, Elie was a central figure in the New Orleans civil rights movement. “We attacked them before any other shopping district because we constituted such a large part of their business, so we knew we could hurt them,” Elie said. In late 1959, a number of civil rights activists met at the Dryades Street YMCA and created the Consumers League of Greater New Orleans, including Dr. Henry Mitchell Sr., the Rev. Avery Alexander and the Rev. A.L. Davis — who had helped start the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. They planned to begin the boycott just before Easter, a popular shopping weekend for new clothes. Often demonstrating with signs that read “Don’t Buy Where

The Quorum ain’t dere no more, but for a brief time in the

PHOTO BY AP

Oretha Castle Haley

You Can’t Work,” the protest and boycott were a success, and 30 new Black employees were hired in the area. Although, some whiteowned businesses continued to refuse and instead relocated to the suburbs. Among those boycotting on Dryades Street were a number of students from colleges around the region, including from Xavier, Southern University of New Orleans, Dillard, Tulane and UNO. Inspired by the direct action, Oretha Castle, Rudy Lombard and others formed the local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality. A few months later in September, CORE organized lunch counter sit-ins at Woolworth’s at Canal and North Rampart streets and at the McCrory’s stores on Canal, both of which resulted in the arrests of the peaceful protestors. Castle, Lombard, Cecil Carter Jr. and Lanny Goldfinch were arrested at McCrory’s but appealed their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned the convictions. The case, Lombard v. Louisiana, was one of several that became precedent for striking down segregation laws. In 1989, Dryades between St. Philip Street and Howard Avenue were renamed for Oretha Castle Haley. The Dryades Street Boycott was a significant success for the civil rights movement in New Orleans. But the commercial corridor was struck by suburbanization and similar issues hitting urban areas across the U.S. in the 1970s and ‘80s, and more vacant storefronts began to dominate the area. There have been significant efforts, though, in the last two decades to revitalize the district, and today Café Reconcile, Ashe Cultural Arts Center and the Southern Food and Beverage Museum are among the businesses that make their home on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard. — JAKE CLAPP

1960s, this bohemian coffee house was one of the few places in New Orleans — and much of the South — where marginalized people, including Black folks and members of the LGBTQ community, and white progressives could call home and was one of a handful of spaces in New Orleans where early civil rights activists could gather. The Quorum opened in 1963, the brainchild of a collection of artists, poets and recent college graduates who’d met at the Ryder, a French Quarter coffee shop. The group rented the space from the Second Methodist Church, which included living space on the second floor. Roxy Wright, a Black woman who was among the club’s founding members and later served as an officer with many local cultural organizations, recalled going to the coffee shop with her husband, Don, a musician. “We used to go there quite a bit, at least once a week,” she told the Times-Picayune in 2004, in a story that reflected the raid’s 40th anniversary.

PHOTO BY ELIOT K AMENITZ / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

Members of the Quorum Club. In front of it is George Dureau, Jim Sohr, Eduard Burt, Roxy Wright, Lee Grue, Cathy Kahn and Lanny Goldfinch.

At the time, it was illegal for The Quorum to serve Black and white patrons, and it didn’t take long before the free-spirited outpost of beatnik and protest culture drew the attention of authorities and local racists. “We knew we were violating the law. But you know what, we both strongly felt we had a right to meet with people, whatever their ethnicity,” Wright told the paper. Captain Ron Grue, who lived above The Quorum with his poet wife Lee, says trouble started quickly. Lee Grue — who passed away in 2021 — had lived in New Orleans for most of her life, and was just beginning her career as a poet, regularly reading her work at The Quorum, so living at the club made sense for the couple. “This was well before desegregation. [My] cousin and my mother came down from Chicago and they stayed with us in that apartment. At 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, a truck full of young men started throwing bottles [at the building],” Grue told Gambit. “I ran down in my fuckin’ underwear and I had my cousin with me, and they drove off. I like to think I scared them off, but maybe they ran out of bottles,” he says with a laugh. The reason for the attack was clear, according to Grue. “This was a racist motivation; they were worried about Black people being customers.” The attack, along with harassment from authorities helped solidify the already progressive Quorum community around the need to actively oppose Jim Crow, Grue says. “It didn’t take much to take a leap to be against segregation. It seemed pretty ridiculous.” Despite threats from police and racists and repeated attacks on the club, The Quorum soon became a regular meeting place for activists fighting for desegregation, with freedom riders regularly stopping in on their way to protests in other parts of the South. The situation came to a head in the summer of 1964. The attacks on patrons, periodic arrests and general hostility hadn’t shut down the venue. On July 29, police raided The Quorum and arrested more than 70 people, ostensibly for disturbing the peace. But vice squad chief Sgt. Frederick Soule Jr. made clear to the States-Item what the true intent was — an effort to put an end to the “homosexual parties and integration agitation.” — SARAH RAVITS

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Where the Boys Are

Banh Mi Boys franchise in Uptown serves creative sandwiches PETER NGUYEN HAD THEM at the oyster Rockefeller po-boy. In 2015, Christian Lombardo and his partner Arleth Blanco discovered Banh Mi Boys, an unconventional banh mi and po-boy shop tucked next to a gas station on Airline Drive in Metairie. “We went there embarrassingly often,” recalls Lombardo, whose automotive business has a presence close to the shop. “The food became a passion for us.” “The flavor combinations were so different,” Blanco adds. “We daydreamed about opening our own location.” They did that in December, opening the first local Banh Mi Boys franchise at 3244 Magazine St., a space formerly occupied by a Reginelli’s Pizzeria. Banh Mi Boys is Nguyen’s brainchild. In his early 20s, he had zero restaurant experience, but he had an idea to go against tradition by stuffing banh mis and po-boys with lip-smacking combos like Koreanstyle bulgogi, bang bang shrimp and spicy Asian brisket. The menu at the original restaurant offered the traditional dishes of Nguyen’s Vietnamese heritage, including vermicelli and rice bowls topped with fresh herbs and grilled pork or shrimp spiked with lemon grass. But he wanted to do more. Despite his mom’s resistance, Nguyen knew he was onto something. “She didn’t go along with it at first, but when I said I wanted to do my own thing and start paying rent, she threw me the keys and said, ‘OK, go for it.’” Almost seven years in, his mom’s retirement was powered by Banh Mi Boys, and she’s a believer. Besides starters like grilled pork or tofu spring rolls, crab Rangoon and house-cut fries are big sellers. Beyond the usual cheese fries, there are cheeseburger fries, roast beef debris fries and the oyster Rockefeller fries that also are adapted to a po-boy. K-Town fries are a belly-busting combo of marinated bulgogi steak topped

| by Beth D’Addono

Banh Mi Boys

WHERE

Email dining@gambitweekly.com

Breakaway’s Opens in Marigny

CHEF PAUL ARTIGUES AND WIFE OLIVIA ARTIGUES opened Breakaway’s R&B

PHOTO BY CHERYL GERBER

with green onions, cilantro and kimchi mayo. Wings are served in eight flavors that hopscotch between traditional Buffalo and Korean barbecue to a pho-inspired version made with a rub Nguyen created with star anise, cinnamon and cardamom. While there are familiar Vietnamese banh mi filled with pork meatballs, grilled lemon grass chicken and steak and egg topped with a fried egg and pork pate, the specialty banh mi is the restaurant’s calling card. Spicy Asian barbecue brisket is prepared with a dry rub, cooked for 12 hours and served with a tangy sauce, cilantro and julienned daikon and carrots. The honey Sriracha shrimp sandwich features fried local shrimp in the sweet heat of honey and Sriracha. Banh mi are served on Dong Phuong bread, while the New Orleans po-boys are served on Leidenheimer bread. An array of specialty drinks include Vietnamese iced coffee, Thai and taro milk tea and green matcha milk tea. Figuring out how to make this first franchise succeed has been the team’s focus since they worked out an agreement in August. Nguyen

Joshua Gould (l. to r.), Arleth Blanco, Christian Lombardo and Peter Nguyen at the Magazine Street location of Banh Mi Boys. created a banh mi bible for them to use. “I’m really just a home cook, measuring by eye,” he says. “So, I broke every recipe down and measured everything to create formulas so there would be consistency.” Lombardo and Blanco brought in their friend Josh Gould as a partner to run the business. Gould cut his teeth at Waffle House, working his way up and eventually becoming a district manager. He then ran a Slidell seafood franchise and worked at Drago’s in Metairie. Gould spent a month working side-by-side with the Metairie Banh Mi Boys team, mastering the preparations. “Being an owner now, that’s really amazing,” he says. Blanco, grew up in her family’s restaurant business in Costa Rica, in a suburb outside San Jose. “I’ve always worked in customer service, and front of the house,” she says. “I know how I like to be treated. We are customers, too.”

? WHAT

FORK + CENTER

3442 Magazine St., (504) 354-8502; facebook.com/ banhmiboysuptown

WHEN

11 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday

HOW

Takeout, dine-in and outdoor seating available

CHECK IT OUT

Creative banh mi sandwiches in Uptown

in Marigny on Jan. 27. The New Orleans neighborhood-style restaurant is at 2529 Dauphine St. on the corner of Franklin Avenue, in the space formerly occupied by Lost Love Lounge. The name is inspired by Irma Thomas’ song “Breakaway.” The R&B means restaurant and bar more than rhythm and blues, but the Artigueses liked the idea of a reference to local music to help set the tone for their neighborhood place. Paul Artigues was the chef and owner of the vegetarian-friendly Green Goddess restaurant in the French Quarter for 13 years. His Breakaway’s menu includes some dishes from Green Goddess, but it’s more about serving traditional New Orleans dishes. “We’re being mindful of vegans and vegetarians, but with more of a New Orleans slant to it,” he says. “At the Goddess, it got kind

PHOTO PROVIDED BY OLIVIA ARTIGUES

Chef Paul Artigues and wife Olivia Artigues at Breakaway’s R&B. of ethereal, and I made up a lot of recipes. For 13 years people asked, ‘What kind of food do you serve?’ Now I’ll be able to say, ‘New Orleans food.’” Green Goddess was known for its vegan and vegetarian-dominated menu and its haute cuisine approach. The Artigueses decided to close the restaurant following Hurricane Ida. The Breakaway’s menu has vegetarian dishes, such as a vegan green gumbo, mushroom fritters, an avocado, cheese and sprouts sandwich and some salads. It also has turkey

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E AT + D R I N K

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FORK & CENTER

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TREMEHIDEAWAY.COM FMI & VIP: (504) 301-4441

1234 N. CLAIBORNE AVENUE, NOLA (N. Claiborne Avenue & Esplanade Avenue)

and beef daube sandwiches, crawfish etouffee and a fried shrimp plate. Some dishes are available in meat or vegan versions, including beans with either tofu or a ham hock. “It’s been fun going back to my childhood food experiences and the stuff I grew up loving — at my grandmother’s house and what my mom would make,” Artigues says. “I am trying to honor the food I grew up eating here.” Both Artigues grew up in Uptown. Olivia Artigues also has skilled cooks in her family. Her grandmother, Ursula Rochon Jupiter, who lived in Washington, D.C., cooked for two presidents, Olivia Artigues says. Breakaway’s has a bigger, better equipped kitchen than the Green Goddess space, the chef says. That will enable him to do more, but he says he’s going to keep the opening menu relatively simple and add to it later. The Artigues have given the space a facelift, but Breakaway’s has kept the bar in the front room, and there will be table service for dining in the back room. The bar’s signature is a small menu of snowball cocktails. The Green Goblin is made with absinthe, orange liqueur and lime over shaved ice. The Cafe Brulot snowball combines whiskey, chicory liqueur and cold brew. The beer list includes some brews form regional breweries, as well as some imported beers. Breakaway’s is open from noon to midnight Thursday through Monday. — WILL COVIELLO

Dian Xin to Expand

THE CHINESE RESTAURANT DIAN XIN

specializes in small blissful bites of dim sum. Eat one and you automatically want another. Soon, the French Quarter restaurant will have a second location, one that’s very close to the original.

P H O T O B Y I A N M C N U LT Y / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

Judy Ceng will open a second Dian Xin location in the French Quarter. Judy Ceng and her family opened the first Dian Xian at 1218 Decatur St., near the French Market. They’re now developing a second location on the other side of the Quarter, at 620 Conti St. Ceng expects to open in the spring, perhaps by April. “People have been so supportive, so we want to do something similar but with some differences,” she says. The menu is still in the works, though Ceng says it will include dim sum alongside more traditional specialties, including, perhaps, barbecued pork and Peking duck. The original Dian Xin is not a large restaurant, but the new one will be smaller. The address was formerly home to 9 Roses Cafe, a Vietnamese restaurant that closed early in the pandemic. This was a spin-off from the much larger 9 Roses restaurant in Gretna, which remains open. The new spot sits along Exchange Place, the one-block pedestrian mall near the Louisiana Supreme Court building. It will have outdoor seating in addition to its dining room. Dian Xin takes its name from another term for dim sum, and delicate, juicy dumplings have drawn a crowd ever since the restaurant opened early in 2019. Noodle soups, stir fries and saltand-pepper style fried seafood fill the menu, while soup dumplings are a specialty. Before opening Dian Xin, Ceng had built a following among local Chinese food fans with her family’s first restaurant, Little Chinatown, on Williams Boulevard in Kenner, serving dishes from her native Hong Kong. The family sold Little Chinatown in 2018, and it remains open. — IAN McNULTY / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

Kora Jansen

OF THE

WEEK

Doughnut maker by Will Coviello

KORA JANSEN STARTED MAKING VEGAN DOUGHNUTS because she couldn’t

find them in New Orleans. She grew up in Indiana and moved here five years ago. After working in restaurants and food companies, she started selling her doughnuts during the pandemic. Now she runs the vegan pop-up Kora’s House of Slop, which focuses on doughnuts, and for the season, king cakes. She sells her confections at the Sunday market at Coffee Science and by direct order. The pop-up can be contacted via its Instagram account, @houseofslop.

Why did you choose the name House of Slop?

KORA JANSEN: That started with making savory food. My partner and I made food together a lot during the pandemic. This was before I started selling food. So I made this soup that was really tasty, a cabbage and sausage soup with a vegan sausage that I seasoned with fennel and paprika and all sorts of goodies, but (the soup was) really splashy. We were joking that it made that slop sound when you poured it in a bowl, and it took off as the House of Slop. A lot of my food is sloppy when it comes to the savory side, like sloppy sandwiches. It can get kind of messy. And when you make doughnuts fresh, the glaze can get messy. At a certain point, I would like to make them hot out of the fryer, dip them in glaze and serve them like that.

How did you start your pop-up?

J: When I first moved here, I applied to some restaurants but I ended up working at Trader Joe’s for a long time. It kind of went downhill, and I applied to Pagoda Cafe. They are really focused on taking care of their employees and the community. That was what I initially liked about Trader Joe’s. I love (Pagoda), but by the time I worked there, I was starting to sell doughnuts. That started to take off quickly, so I started doing House of Slop full time. The doughnuts chose me. I started because when I moved down here, I started having a hankering for vegan doughnuts, but I couldn’t find anything that was like a Krispy Kreme experience — light and fluffy, not too sweet but

PHOTO PROVIDED BY KOR A JANSEN

the glaze makes it sweet. I was struggling to find something, and then I was like, I guess I’ll have to start making them. Once I did, my friends said they were so good they wanted to buy them, and then strangers wanted to buy them. My first pop-up was at a backyard art show. I did savory food, like loaded fries with my homemade vegan bacon. I did tofu bites, which resemble popcorn chicken, and you could get them as a side or in a wrap with lemon pepper or Buffalo (sauce). And I did doughnuts as well. I do all kinds of different glazes. I like doing the matcha latte one. It’s the prettiest with the green color on top and the nuts. There’s also blueberry which is fun because you blend up the berries and it has these little flecks of color. During the summer it was strawberries and blueberries. When fall comes in, it’s pumpkin spice and chocolate. In winter, you have cream cheese. It’s fun to provide new flavors and experiment with what people like. I have (vegan) bacon bits, so I was able to make a vegan maple bacon doughnut. I do mostly pickups for people who have birthday parties and want doughnuts or king cakes or birthday cakes. I’ll distribute wholesale to some small mom-and-pop coffeeshops, and I do the Coffee Science market on Sundays. Some weeks I sell 10 king cakes, other weeks it’s less. I make a traditional braided king cake. The dough is similar to doughnut

dough, but it’s baked. I make cinnamon dough with the doughnut dough and make doughnuts that look like little king cakes with Mardi Gras sprinkles.

Why did you switch to a vegan diet? J: In college, my partner at the time was transitioning into veganism and talked to me about it. I was worried about it because I have Crohn’s (disease), and I was concerned that I wasn’t going to get enough food to sustain my weight, because I had problems being underweight. Also, growing up on a farm, I knew animals are individuals, they have feelings and character and personality. I knew that factory farming is terrible. So, it was a matter of, how can I do this sustainably in order to eat a healthy diet? It took a little research, but it actually helped my Crohn’s. It was a fun challenge to learn to cook vegan. Ever since I was little, I was always in the kitchen cooking with my parents and my grandma. I grew up around food, so I knew how to cook. It was a fun challenge. I like pizza, so how can I cook pizza? It was a challenge here, because food is such a huge part of the culture. Sharing food is so important here. I would feel personally bad if I couldn’t eat someone’s food. It took finding the community to feel better about that. There is a really wonderful vegan community here that’s very supportive and shares recipes and ideas.

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WINE

3 COURSE INTERVIEW

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O U T T O E AT C O M P L E T E L I S T I N G S A T W W W. B E S T O F N E W O R L E A N S . C O M Out 2 Eat is an index of Gambit contract advertisers. Unless noted, addresses are for New Orleans and all accept credit cards. Updates: Email willc@gambitweekly.com or call (504) 483-3106.

$ — average dinner entrée under $10 $$ — $11-$20 $$$ — $20-up

LAKEVIEW

CBD Juan’s Flying Burrito — 515 Baronne St., (504) 529-5825; juansflyingburrito. com — See Uptown section for restaurant description. Outdoor dining available. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Thu.-Tue. $$

CARROLLTON Mid City Pizza — 6307 S. Miro St., (504) 509-6224; midcitypizza.com — See MidCity section for restaurant description. Delivery available. Lunch Thu.-Sun., dinner Thu.-Mon. $$ Mikimoto — 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 488-1881; mikimotosushi.com — The South Carrollton roll includes tuna tataki, avocado and snow crab. Delivery available. Lunch Sun.-Fri., dinner daily. $$

CITYWIDE Breaux Mart — Citywide; breauxmart.com — The deli counter’s changing specials include dishes such as baked catfish and red beans and rice. Lunch and dinner daily. $

FRENCH QUARTER Desire Oyster Bar — Royal Sonesta New Orleans, 300 Bourbon St., (504) 5860300; sonesta.com/desireoysterbar — The menu features Gulf seafood in Creole dishes, po-boys char-grilled oysters and more. Reservations recommended. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$

JEFFERSON/RIVER RIDGE The Rivershack Tavern — 3449 River Road, (504) 834-4938; therivershacktavern.com — This bar and music spot serves burgers, sandwiches and lunch specials. Delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily. $ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 1212 S. Clearview Parkway, Elmwood, (504) 733-3803; theospizza.com — Choose from specialty pies, salads, sandwiches and more. Delivery available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $

The Blue Crab Restaurant and Oyster Bar — 7900 Lakeshore Drive, (504) 2842898; thebluecrabnola.com — The menu includes sandwiches, fried seafood platters, boiled seafood, shrimp and grits and more. Outdoor seating available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$ Lakeview Brew Coffee Cafe — 5606 Canal Blvd., (504) 483-7001; lakeviewbrew. com — This casual cafe offers coffee, pastries, desserts, sandwiches and salads. Delivery are available. Breakfast and lunch daily. $

METAIRIE

Andrea’s Restaurant — 3100 N. 19th St., Metairie, (504) 834-8583; andreasrestaurant.com — Chef Andrea Apuzzo’s speckled trout royale is topped with crabmeat and lemon-cream sauce. Delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily, brunch Sun. $$$ Chef Ron’s Gumbo Stop — 2309 N. Causeway Blvd., Metairie, (504) 835-2022; gumbostop.com — The seafood platter includes fried catfish, shrimp, oysters, crab balls fries and a side. Delivery available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $$ Kosher Cajun New York Deli & Grocery — 3519 Severn Ave., Metairie, (504) 8882010; koshercajun.com — New York-style deli sandwiches feature corned beef, pastrami and more. Lunch Sun.-Thu., dinner Mon.-Thu. $ Martin Wine Cellar — 714 Elmeer Ave., Metairie, (504) 896-7350; martinwine. com — See Uptown section for restaurant description. No reservations. Lunch daily. $$ Nephew’s Ristorante — 4445 W. Metairie Ave., Metairie, (504) 533-9998; nephewsristorante.com — The Creole-Italian menu features dishes like veal, eggplant and chicken parmigiana. Reservations required. Dinner Tue.-Sat. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 2125 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 510-4282; theospizza.com — See Jefferson section for restaurant description. $ Short Stop Po-Boys — 119 Transcontinental Drive, Metairie, (504) 885-4572; shortstoppoboysno.com

— Fried Louisiana oysters and Gulf shrimp are served on a Leidenheimer loaf. No reservations. Breakfast, lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. $

MID-CITY/TREME Angelo Brocato’s — 214 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-1465; angelobrocatoicecream.com — Try house-made gelato, spumoni, Italian ice, cannolis, fig cookies and other treats. Lunch and dinner Tue.Sun. $ Frey Smoked Meat Co. — 4141 Bienville St., Suite 110, (504) 488-7427; freysmokedmeat.com — The barbecue restaurant serves pulled pork, St. Louis ribs, brisket, sausages and more. Pork belly poppers are fried cubes of pork belly tossed in pepper jelly glaze. No reservations. Lunch and dinner daily. $$ Juan’s Flying Burrito — 4724 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-9950; juansflyingburrito. com — See Uptown section for restaurant description. Outdoor dining available. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Thu.-Tue. $$ Katie’s Restaurant — 3701 Iberville St., (504) 488-6582; katiesinmidcity.com — Boudreaux pizza is topped with cochon de lait, spinach, red onions, roasted garlic and scallions. Delivery available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$ Mid City Pizza — 4400 Banks St., (504) 483-8609; midcitypizza.com — Shrimp remoulade pizza includes spinach, red onion, garlic, basil and green onions on an garlic-olive oil brushed curst. Delivery available. Lunch Thu.-Sun., dinner Thu.Mon. $$ Neyow’s Creole Cafe — 3332 Bienville St., (504) 827-5474; neyows.com — The menu includes red beans with fried chicken or pork chops, as well as seafood plates, po-boys, char-grilled oysters and more. Lunch daily, dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 4024 Canal St., (504) 302-1133; theospizza.com — See Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

NORTHSHORE The Blue Crab Restaurant and Oyster Bar — 118 Harbor View Court, Slidell, (985) 315-7001; thebluecrabnola.com — See Lakeview section for restaurant description. No reservations. Lunch Fri.-Sat., dinner Wed.-Sun. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 70488 Highway 21, Covington, (985) 234-9420; theospizza.com — See Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

UPTOWN

Joey K’s — 3001 Magazine St., (504) 8910997; joeyksrestaurant.com — Sauteed trout Tchoupitoulas is served with shrimp, crabmeat, vegetables and potatoes. Delivery available. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$ Juan’s Flying Burrito — 2018 Magazine St., (504) 569-0000; 5538 Magazine St., (504) 897-4800; juansflyingburrito. com — The Flying Burrito includes steak, shrimp, chicken, cheddar-jack cheese, black beans, yellow rice, salsa la fonda, guacamole and sour cream. Outdoor seating available. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Thu.-Tue. $$ Martin Wine Cellar — 3827 Baronne St., (504) 894-7444; martinwine.com — Sena salad includes pulled roasted chicken, golden raisins, blue cheese, pecans and field greens tossed with Tabasco pepperjelly vinaigrette. No reservations. Lunch daily. $$ Red Gravy — 4206 Magazine St., (504) 561-8844; redgravycafe.com — Cannoli pancakes are filled with cannoli cream and topped with chocolate. Reservations accepted. Dinner Wed.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 4218 Magazine St., (504) 894-8554; theospizza. com — See Jefferson section for restaurant description. $ Tito’s Ceviche & Pisco — 5015 Magazine St., (504) 267-7612; titoscevichepisco. com — Peruvian lomo saltado features beef tenderloin tips sauteed with onions, tomatoes, cilantro, soy sauce and pisco, and is served with fried potatoes and rice. Outdoor seating and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$$

WAREHOUSE DISTRICT

Annunciation — 1016 Annunciation St., (504) 568-0245; annunciationrestaurant. com — Fried oysters and skewered bacon are served with meuniere sauce and toasted French bread. Reservations required. Dinner Thu.-Sun. $$$ The Mill — 1051 Annunciation St., (504) 582-9544; themillnola.com — Short ribs are braised with red wine and served with risotto. Reservations accepted. Dinner Thu.-Sat., brunch Sat.-Sun. $$

WEST BANK

Mosca’s — 4137 Highway 90 West, Westwego, (504) 436-8950; moscasrestaurant.com — This family-style eatery serves shrimp Mosca, chicken a la grande and baked oysters Mosca. Dinner Wed.Sat. Cash only. $$$

PREMIER CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

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F O R C O M P L E T E M U S I C L I S T I N G S A N D M O R E E V E N T S T A K I N G P L A C E I N T H E N E W O R L E A N S A R E A , V I S I T C A L E N D A R . G A M B I T W E E K LY. C O M To learn more about adding your event to the music calendar, please email listingsedit@gambitweekly.com Note: Due to COVID-19, events may have certain restrictions or may be postponed; we recommend checking out a venues social media sites or call before you go for the most up to dateinformation.

TUESDAY 1 BAYOU BAR AT THE PONTCHARTRAIN HOTEL — Peter Harris Quartet, 7 pm FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Fritzel's All Star Band, 8 pm GASA GASA — The Dead Spies, Amuse and The Diplocrats, 9 pm KITCHEN TABLE CAFÉ — Kitchen Table Cafe Trio, 6:30 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — Javier Olondo & Asheson, 8 pm SANTOS — Authority Zero Ollie Ollie Oxen Free Tour, 8 pm SIDNEY'S SALOON — Marbin, 8 pm

WEDNESDAY 2 BAYOU BAR AT THE PONTCHARTRAIN HOTEL — Peter Harris Trio, 7 pm BOURREE — Jelani Akil Bauman, 6 pm FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Richard “Piano” Scott, 12:30 pm; Fritzel’s All Star Band, 8 pm GASA GASA — Lomelda with Alexalone, 9 pm REPUBLIC NOLA — Pinegrove, 8 pm SANTOS — Swamp Moves with Russell Welch, 8 pm THE HOWLIN' WOLF — Squirrel Nut Zippers, 6:30 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Funkin' It Up with Big Sam !!, 7:30 pm

THURSDAY 3 BAYOU BAR AT THE PONTCHARTRAIN HOTEL — Peter Harris Quartet, 8 pm BOURREE — Samantha Pearl, 6 pm CARNAVAL LOUNGE — Loose Cattle/ Steele Creek, 8 pm FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Richard “Piano” Scott, 12:30 pm; Doyle Cooper Trio, 2:30 pm; John Saavedra Trio, 6 pm; Fritzel’s All Star Band, 8 pm

GASA GASA — A Band Named Huckoriii, 9 pm KITCHEN TABLE CAFÉ — Dr. Mark St. Cyr Traditional Jazz Band, 6:30 pm ORPHEUM THEATER — Subtronics, 10 pm PEACOCK ROOM, HOTEL FONTENOT — Da Lovebirds with Robin Barnes and Pat Casey , 8 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie, 8 pm SIDNEY'S SALOON — DarkLounge Ministries, 7 pm SMOOTHIE KING CENTER — Billie Eilish with Willow, 7:30 pm SNUG HARBOR JAZZ BISTRO — Sansone, Krown, Fohl, 8 pm; Sansone, Krown, Fohl, 10 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Brass-AHolics, 7:30 pm TIPITINA'S — Sean Patton Live Special Taping, 7 & 9:30 pm

FRIDAY 4 ACE HOTEL NEW ORLEANS — Water Seed's Wild Nights, 9 pm BAYOU BAR AT THE PONTCHARTRAIN HOTEL — Peter Harris Trio, 8 pm BOURREE — Gordon Towell, 4 pm; Julie Elody, 7 pm CARNAVAL LOUNGE — Margie Perez, 6 pm; Jank Setup with LeTrainiump, 9 pm FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Richard “Piano” Scott, 12:30 pm; Aurora Nealand Trio, 2:30 pm; Lee Floyd and Thunderbolt Trio, 6 pm; Fritzel’s All Star Band, 9 pm GASA GASA — Tattered Rabbit with Swellin and Beach Angel, 9 pm KRAZY KORNER — DayWalkers feat. Waylon Thibodeaux, 1 pm POUR HOUSE SALOON — Tiffany Pollack & Co., 8 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — Zita plus LVVRS, 8:30 pm

SANTOS — Resurrection Dance Night, 10 pm SIDNEY'S SALOON — Wee Beasties, 9 pm SMOOTHIE KING CENTER — Legendz of the Streetz Tour, 7 pm SNUG HARBOR JAZZ BISTRO — Germaine Bazzle with the Larry Sieberth Trio, 8 & 10 pm SOUTHPORT HALL LIVE MUSIC & PARTY HALL — Mothership: Tribute to Led Zeppelin, 8 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Trixie Minx’s Burlesque Ballroom, feat. Romy Kaye, 7 & 9 pm ZONY MASH BEER PROJECT — Dwayne Dopsie and The Zydeco Hellraisers, 7 pm

SATURDAY 5 BAYOU BAR AT THE PONTCHARTRAIN HOTEL — Jordan Anderson, 8 pm BLUE NILE — Soul Brass Band, 10 pm BOURREE — Jonathan Baeur, 1 pm; Tim Nielsen, 4 pm; Cast Iron Cactus, 7 pm CARNAVAL LOUNGE — Shark Attack!! Chewbacchus Pre-Party, 6 pm; The Painted Hands and Dusty Santamaria, 9 pm FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Richard “Piano” Scott, 12:30 pm; Joe Kennedy Trio, 2:30 pm; Lee Floyd and Thunderbolt Trio, 6 pm; Fritzel’s All Star Band, 9 pm KITCHEN TABLE CAFÉ — Bad Penny Pleasuremakers, 6:30 pm KRAZY KORNER — DayWalkers feat. Waylon Thibodeaux, 1 pm PIROGUE’S WHISKEY BAYOU — Soul O'Sam, 8 pm POUR HOUSE SALOON — Lakeshore Drivers, 9 pm REPUBLIC NOLA — Boombox Cartel, 11 am ROCK 'N' BOWL — Clay Cormier and the Highway Boys, 8:30 pm

SANTOS — Hotel Motel, Hacks, 9 pm SMOOTHIE KING CENTER — Tool, 8 pm SNUG HARBOR JAZZ BISTRO — Mahmoud Chouki New World Ensemble, 8 & 10 pm TIPITINA'S — Perpetual Groove, Cosmic Fish Head Feat. Reggie Scanlan, Mikey B3, & Camile Baudoin with Andre Bohren, 10 pm

SUNDAY 6 BOURREE — Cam Dupuy, 2 pm; Lonesome Radio, 6 pm FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Richard “Piano” Scott, 12:30 pm; Joe Kennedy Trio, 2:30 pm; Marla Dixon Trio, 6 pm; Fritzel’s All Star Band, 8 pm GASA GASA — North by North with Juno Dunes and Anne Elise Hastings, 9 pm POUR HOUSE SALOON — An Evening with... Lance Villafarra, 5 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — Paul Varisco and the Milestones, 4:30 pm ROYAL FRENCHMEN HOTEL & BAR — Grayson Brockamp and New Orleans Wildlife Band, 10 pm SNUG HARBOR JAZZ BISTRO — Ricky Sebastian Quintet, 8 & 10 pm THE HOWLIN' WOLF — Hot 8 Brass Band, 9:30 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Sierra Green, 7:30 pm TIPITINA'S — Hiss Golden Messenger, 8 pm

MONDAY 7 FRITZEL'S EUROPEAN JAZZ CLUB — Twisty River Band, 8 pm GASA GASA — WATSON with Heyrocco plus H.A.R.D, 9 pm

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MUSIC

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GOING OUT

Stomping grounds by Jake Clapp

SEAN PATTON HAS THREE ALBUMS OF STAND-UP UNDER HIS BELT, has per-

formed on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” and “Conan,” appeared on a number of Comedy Central segments and spent years tirelessly touring. Although he’s not a household name, his work has won him the respect of other comedians and coveted spots at comedy festivals around the world. Now, the Slidell native is on the verge of finally getting to introduce himself to a larger audience thanks to a hour-long special he’s filming this week at Tipitana’s. “Other comedians and a lot of people in the comedy world know who I am — and that’s truthfully awesome to be in that place — but the world at large does not,” Patton says. “And this hour will give you a really, really good idea of who I am.” Patton got his start working open mics and shows around New Orleans, so the decision to film his first special here was an obvious one. Although he now lives in New York, Patton keeps New Orleans close to the heart, often relating a story back to growing up here. In fact “Scuttlebutt,” the title of his second album, is a reference to a strip club on the Northshore. Over the years, he’s had producers pitch him on some bizarre New Orleans ideas, he says, like filming a special on a moving parade float during Mardi Gras or building a stage on Bourbon Street. “When he said that, I laughed, like ‘Oh, nice attempt at a joke. I’ll be nice about it — oh, you’re not fucking joking!’” Patton said to Gambit. “He’s like, we’d have producers on both sides of the stage off camera making sure people weren’t too drunk to walk by. Yeah, that would work out perfectly.” Recently, comedy label 800 Pound Gorilla offered to produce Patton’s special. “They were like, ‘Hey man, this is your special. Do what you want to do,” Patton says. Tipitina’s was the first venue Patton looked at and it clicked. On Thursday, Feb. 3, Patton will tape two sets at Tipitina’s for his hour-long special. Comedian Cipha Sounds will open. “[Tip’s was] so positive about it,” Patton says. “I was like here’s the New Orleans part of it. I’m doing it in a classic New Orleans venue, with Professor Longhair’s image in the wood up there.” At Tipitina’s, Patton will pull from a show he performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019. When the

PROVIDED PHOTO BY MINDY TUCKER

Comedian Sean Patton films his first hour-long special on Thursday at Tipitina’s. pandemic hit, he put the material on a “slow broiler,” he says, and has let it ruminate. Meanwhile, he worked out a new set, culminating in his third stand-up album, “King Scorpio,” released in December. Patton is an expert storyteller, often taking his material in wild directions before weaving things back together in unexpected ways. On “King Scorpio,” Patton dissects being told “Go fuck yourself” by an old man on the streets of New York and turns it into an optimistic understanding to “go pleasure yourself, go better yourself, go enlighten yourself, or go be yourself.” His new special is “a lot about my personal flaws,” Patton says, “and I’ve got some serious flaws, we all do. But I’ve got some pretty humiliating, relatable flaws … I put that out there just because that’s what we relate to.” Given the personal themes in the new special — which doesn’t yet have a release date — it makes even more sense Patton would choose to film it in New Orleans. The material isn’t necessarily about the city, but its influence is always there, Patton says. “It’s interesting being from [New Orleans], because I love it, right, but I know so many people, especially comedians, who are from small towns or even larger cities that don’t like where they come from. And I get that — there are certain places in the world that are shitty,” Patton says. “But New Orleans, for all its flaws and all the bullshit associated with it, it’s a beautiful place and part of who I am.” Sean Patton performs at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, at Tipitina’s. Tickets are $15 at tipitinas. com. Find more about Patton at meseanpatton.com.

PAGE 5

King Cake Festival

BYWATER BAKERY’S KING CAKE FESTIVAL features an appearance

by Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, as well as performances by Deacon John, John Boutte, Herlin Riley, Bruce “Sunpie” Barns, Soul Brass Band, Washboard Chaz and more. There will also be a COVID-19 testing and vaccination site as part of the festival, which also acting as a benefit for the New Orleans Musicians Clinic’s Makin’ Groceries food program. The free festival is from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 6, in front of bakery at 3624 Dauphine St.

Tet Celebration

MARY QUEEN OF VIETNAM CHURCH

hosts its annual Vietnamese new year celebration with music by Vietnamese-born “American Idol” contestant Myra Tran, Don Ho, Diem Lien, Chau Ngoc Ha, Groovy 7, Royal Street and more. There also are lion dancers, drumming, food and more. Festival hours are 6 p.m.-11 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4, 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 5, and 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 6. Admission is free. At 14001 Dwyer Blvd.

‘Many Fires This Time: We the 100 Million’

NEW ORLEANS FILMMAKER JASON R.A. FOSTER and spoken word artist

Scribe Called Quess? Travel the country talking to poets and activists about economic insecurity, environmental challenges, LGBTQ rights and more. There’s spoken word performances by Quess, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Kendria “K-Love” Harris, Misty Skaggs, Diana Cervera and Marvin White. The film opens Feb. 4 at Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge. Visit zeitgeistnola.org for info.

Legendz of the Streetz

HIP-HOP HEAVYWEIGHT RICK ROSS

leads a stacked line-up on the Legendz of the Streetz tour, which had been postponed due to the pandemic. He’s joined by Jeezy, Gucci Mane, 2 Chainz, Fabolous, Trina and DJ Drama. At 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4, at Smoothie King Center. Find tickets at ticketmaster.com.

Smokehouse Brown

LONGTIME JOHNNY MAESTRO and

Mama’s Boys guitarist Smokey “Smokehouse” Brown brings his electric blues skills to the “9th Ward Livingroom” in the Bywater. Brown’s sound draws heavily from classic Delta and Chicago blues musicians, perfect for that roadhouse vibe everyone is looking for on a Wednesday night. The

PHOTO BY BRET T DUKE / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

Al “Carnival Time” Johnson free show at BJ’s Lounge starts promptly at 8ish, Feb. 2.

LET’S

Jank Setup

JAZZ FUNK AND SOUL BAND JANK SETUP takes the stage for their

first show of the year at Carnaval Lounge on Friday, Feb. 4. Sevenpiece fusion band Zahria Sims Collective and synth-infused pop artist LeTrainiump also perform, and the show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are $12 at ticketweb.com and $15 at the door.

Y’ALL!

‘How Graceful Some Things Are’

THE NEW ORLEANS CHAMBER PLAYERS

present a program of classic work by Bach and recent works by Peter Shin, Mark O’Conner, modernist composer Charles Ives and more. At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1, at Marigny Opera House. Suggested donation $20. Find information at neworleanschamberplayers.org.

CARNIVAL COVERAGE IN 2 BIG ISSUES

Krewe of Themis Umbrella Showcase

THE ALL-FEMALE KREWE OF THEMIS,

which started in 2020, will make its parade debut on Feb. 19 in partnership with the Krewe of Freret. But the group is offering a sneak peek of its signature throw in “Parasols on Parade,” a showcase of 30 decorated umbrellas at Stella Jones Gallery. Designs honor figures such as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and artist Frida Kahlo and groups such as the Baby Dolls. “Parasols on Parade” will be on display 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4. Find more information at stellajonesgallery. com and kreweofthemis.com.

Rex Exhibition

IN COORDINATION WITH THE REX ORGANIZATION’S 150TH ANNIVERSARY, the Louisiana State Museum

opens an exhibit of costumes, float designs and artifacts pulled from the krewe’s history. “Rex: The 150th Anniversary of the School of Design” is at the Presbytere through Dec. 11. Find more information at louisianastatemuseum.org.

Februar y 9-15 2021 Volume Number 42 6

2-8 February 2021 42 Volume 5 Number

Issue Date: FEBRUARY 15 Space Reserve: FEBRUARY 4 Issue Date: FEBRUARY 22 Space Reserve: FEBRUARY 11 Contact Ad Director Sandy Stein 504.483.3150 or sstein@gambitweekly.com

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GOING OUT

The Farce Reawakens by Will Coviello “NOBODY PUTS SWAYZE IN A CORNER,” says Chris Craine.

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Craine is one of the organizers of the new Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus subkrewe, Crazy for Swayze. It’s one of more than 105 subkrewes scheduled to march in the sci-fi and Bacchanalianinspired parade through Bywater, Marigny and the French Quarter at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 5. Crazy for Swayze is a loosely organized group of Patrick Swayze fans. Craine and several other members work in the film industry, though only one worked on a Swayze film (“Donnie Darko”). Craine has seen a lot of Swayze films, and for throws, he’ll be giving out VHS tapes of all of them, he says. “One lucky person is going to get a VCR with a Swayze VHS tape in it,” Craine adds. Asked for the group’s top list of Swayze films, he includes “Point Break,” “Ghost,” “Dirty Dancing,” “Road House” and “Too Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.” Crazy for Swayze members will costume as some of the most memorable and obscure Swayze characters. They also are open to Swayze movie tribute characters, such as the ex-presidents from “Point Break.” The more hardcore are going with deep-cut Swayze outfits. “Someone is coming as the corner,” Craine says, referring to the “Dirty Dancing” line, “Nobody puts Baby in the corner.” Craine and friends also organized the Carnival parading group Denim N’ Dem, which marches in Uptown on Feb. 27 before Bacchus rolls. Both groups have low to no barriers to entry, besides showing up in an appropriate outfit. People interested in marching with Crazy for Swayze can join Chewbacchus and show up at parade time, Craine says. Most of the fandom in Chewbacchus is directed at science fiction and fantasy, especially the worlds of “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” Harry Potter and more — all mashed up with Carnivalappropriated mythology. The line-up of subkrewes marching this year includes the Space Vikings, The Rolling Elliots (based on “E.T.”), Krewe of the Living Dead, the Princess Leia-inspired Leijorettes marching troupe, the Afrofuturist

PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

Women of Wakanda, Queer Eye for the Sci-fi, Krewe of Sharknadeaux and the Browncoat Brass Band. There also are groups dedicated to king cake babies, “Avatar” and “Doctor Who.” “Star Wars” mashups include the Darth Satyrs and Han & the Solo Cups. The procession also features signature mini-floats and rolling icons, such as the Sacred Drunken Wookiee Idol, Bar2D2 and the Space Farce, featuring a UFO hovering over a miniature model of New Orleans. This year’s procession also features memorial portrait tributes to Sid Noel Rideau, the man behind Morgus the Magnificent; David Prowse, who was the body of Darth Vader in the early “Star Wars” films; Jeremy Bulloch, who played bounty hunter Boba Fett; vampire novelist Anne Rice and actor Chadwick Boseman. The 2022 theme is “System Reset,” and krewe organizers say that after missing 2021, the group is simply focused on getting back up and parading. “Unplug it, plug it back in,” says one of the organizers, Brooke Etheridge, aka Padme Almandine. The krewe had more than 1,500 members registered to march as of its first Droid Collar (parade wristband) pick-up on Jan. 24. Held under the neon rings of the Saturn Bar in Bywater, it was the first in-person krewe event since the 2020 parade. The parade starts on St. Claude Avenue at Press Street, turns on Elysian Fields Avenue and crosses Decatur Street. It is followed by the Chewbacchanal at The Fillmore, featuring music by Mannie Fresh and other DJs. Tickets to the Chewbacchanal are $20 for general admission and $60 for VIP. For more information, visit chewbacchus.org.

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MAKING 20 OUT OF 9 By Frank A. Longo

94 Words of woe 95 Desert haven 96 Sch. founded by Thomas Jefferson 97 December mall temps 100 Consumer 103 Very talented 105 Setups whose name consists entirely of the letters in 117-Across 110 Some legumes 111 Lindsay of “Liz & Dick” 112 Be in debt to 113 Imp Simpson 114 Throat tissue 117 Lawbreaker 121 — fixe 122 Menu offering 123 In — (stuck) 124 Lasting mark 125 Betting info 126 “Mad” Carroll character 127 Some votes in Congress 128 Those folks DOWN 1 Great athletes are enshrined in it: Abbr. 2 Bobby in the Hockey 1-Down 3 Leguminous side dish 4 Low pelvic bones 5 Hosp. test in a big tube 6 “Mrs. Dalloway” novelist 7 Ed of “Lou Grant” 8 Is trustful 9 Citrusy diet soft drink 10 Idling type 11 Cruel Amin 12 Slower than andante 13 Socially distant 14 Side street 15 Give proof of 16 Novelist Toni 17 Strong-arm 18 Boston Red — 24 This evening 29 Building-blasting stuff 31 Bag-screening org. 32 Gotten sight of 33 Attempter

GARDEN DISTRICT OFFICE 2016, 2017 & 2020

34 Fibber’s admission 35 Cabbage side dish 36 Little hotel 37 Playtex item 42 “Ugly Betty” actress Ortiz 43 Crash-probing agcy. 45 Little plateau 46 Pickle liquid 49 Bubbly mixer 50 Blogging pundit Klein 51 Prescribed diet, say 52 Finishes up 53 Swamp wriggler 57 Round body 58 “Call — taxi” 59 Ocean east of Mass. 61 Inits. on an ambulance 62 Tailor’s edge 63 City on the Seine 64 Put- — (jokey pranks) 65 Knot up 66 Part of a jug 68 Yuletide song 69 Opposer 70 Climbing vine 72 Rigatoni’s kin 75 Ingrain 77 Filmdom’s Kazan 80 Shimmer

ABR, CRS, GRI, SFR, SRS

82 Golfer Ernie 83 Even up 84 Out-of-towner 85 “Shane” star 86 Teased one another playfully 87 International alliances 88 Harbinger 89 Medieval Scandinavian 90 Group’s activity in the community 91 Crooner Burl 92 Frowny-faced 93 Suffix with Vietnam 98 Aesthetic interest 99 Sewing unit 101 Bank job 102 “Neroli” musician Brian 104 Least 106 Maui greeting 107 Contrarian’s retort 108 Nile capital 109 Come next 113 Short history 115 Park oneself 116 Cooler cubes 118 Divs. of dollars 119 Scot’s turndown 120 Give it a whirl

ANSWERS FOR LAST ISSUE’S PUZZLE: P 22

PUZZLES

57 Arab nation 60 Titanic sinker 62 Didn’t type or text, perhaps 67 Relating to an eye layer 71 Corn, to a Brit 73 Neighbor of Latvia 74 Relatives of terraces 76 Silent performer 78 Consumer 79 Coup d’— 80 Attain 81 Exit 85 Film whose name consists entirely of the letters in 74-Across 93 Verve

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PREMIER CROSSWORD PUZZLE 32 Person whose name consists entirely of the letters in 23-Across 37 Los Angeles neighborhood 38 “I knew — along!” 39 Old Nissan brand 40 Stephen of “Angie” 41 Humongous 44 Foot, in verse 47 Tattered 48 Novel whose name consists entirely of the letters in 62-Across 54 Others, in Oviedo 55 Last letter, in Leeds 56 Trig function

CARROLLTON SPECIAL

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ACROSS 1 Pueblo dweller 5 Sound of an “air kiss” 9 Forensic facility in Quantico, for short 15 Gig hookups 19 Refined finds 20 Civil rights leader Parks 21 In an uncivil way 22 Lawn mower brand 23 Parts of wholes 25 Key related to G major 26 “Jurassic Park” dino 27 “Billions” channel, in brief 28 Some boxing blows 30 Horn blowers

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