April 6, 2021

April 6-12 2021 Volume 42 Number 14

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APRIL 6 – APRIL 12 , 2021 VOLUME 42 || NUMBER 14

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CONTENTS

NEWS

OPENING GAMBIT

6

CLANCY DUBOS

10

BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN 10

breezy maxi

COMMENTARY 14 PULLOUT

cotton & silk

DETAILS FEATURES

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 4 EAT + DRINK

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MUSIC 25 FILM 26 PUZZLES 27 EXCHANGE 27

@The_Gambit @gambitneworleans

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pandemic hours mon - sat 10 - 5:30 7732 m a p l e 865 . 9625

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Shattered trust The Louisiana Center for the Blind was supposed to help blind people learn vital life skills but many students say there was a toxic culture of abuse, racism and assault.

COVER PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES COVER DESIGN BY DORA SISON

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Re-opening night

Chuck E’s in print

BY WILL COVIELLO

SINGER RICKIE LEE JONES RELEASES HER MEMOIR “Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour” this week. She discusses the book and signs copies at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 6, at Preservation Hall.

Admission includes a copy of the book. Tickets are available on eventbrite.com.

AFTER ALMOST 900 PERFORMANCES

Garden grooves

Live entertainment is returning to local stages

at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera, Anthony Laciura is a familiar face to opera lovers. Fans of Martin Scorsese’s “Boardwalk Empire” know him as Eddie Kessler, butler to Steve Buscemi’s Nucky Thompson. But alumni of Holy Cross School, Loyola and Tulane universities may recognize him as a classmate.

While the pandemic has shut down Broadway stages and the Met, Laciura has spent much of the time teaching and working through his foundation to develop and promote dramatic singers. But he took up the offer of Holy Cross and Loyola classmate Dennis Assaf, co-founder and artistic director of the Jefferson Performing Arts Society, to come home and direct its next production.

“A Comedy of Tenors” opens Friday, April 9, at the Jefferson Performing Arts Center, with a seating plan adjusted for coronavirus restrictions. It’s one of two shows opening this weekend, as live entertainment returns to local stages, with more live theater, comedy and burlesque throughout the New Orleans area. The musical comedy “Nunsense” opens April 8 at Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts.

“A Comedy of Tenors” continues the story of Tito, the Italian opera singer in Ken Ludwig’s Tony Award-winning “Lend Me a Tenor.” “Comedy of Tenors” is a backstage comedy driven by outrageous egos, infidelity and mistaken identities as Tito goes to Paris for a grand concert. He is unaware his daughter is dating another of the concert’s stars, and there’s a bellhop in the hotel who looks like Tito and also is a talented singer.

Are opera houses actually hotbeds of backstage drama? Laciura says no.

“Backstage takes on the complexion of the show,” Laciura says. “When you’re focused on singing, it takes so much energy. There’s no microphones (on stage).”

While the show concerns overblown opera stars, there are just a few strains of “La Traviata.” Laciura says he’s a lifelong fan of the Marx Brothers and Carol Burnett, and the show dips into some slapstick.

Shows with romantic intrigue and crazy action also show that conditions are changing for what theaters can produce. Working on shows during the coronavirus pandemic has complicated rehearsals, backstage work and seating as theaters try to keep everyone safe. At Rivertown, the entire cast, creative team and front of the house passed the twoweek dates of being fully vaccinated against the coronavirus on April 2, says director Gary Rucker. But back when he cast the show, nobody working on the production was yet eligible for the shot. Rehearsals for “Nunsense” and “Comedy of Tenors” started with masks and an abundance of precautions.

Rivertown has presented productions for in-person audiences since early fall. It originally limited seating to 50 people per show and stuck with cabaret-style productions with three or four performers spaced out on stage.

Now it’s admitting roughly 100 people, which still is below half its capacity.

Not all of its subscribers are ready to come back, Rucker says, but Rivertown extended runs of a Christmas show and its recent youth production “Descendants: The Musical.”

Now, Rivertown is getting closer to one of its mainstays: boisterous musical comedies. “Nunsense” revels in absurdity, as the Little Sisters of Hoboken, which had run a mission to a leper colony in France, lose all but five members after Sister Julia, Child of God, poisons them with her food.

Mother Mary Amnesia lost her memory when a crucifix fell on her head, and all the sisters had colorful previous lives outside the nunnery.

Though “Nunsense” was developed from a cabaret show, the musical debuted in 1985, and has inspired five sequels and some spinoffs. The show usually calls for some updates.

In the original, Mother Superior blew the convent’s money on a VCR. That’s

P H OTO B Y A M Y K I R K- D U VO I S I N

The cast of ‘Comedy of Tenors’ rehearses at the Jefferson Performing Arts Center.

been updated to a plasma TV, and at Rivertown, a subscription to Disney+.

There also are a couple of references to the coronavirus, and Rucker says they’ve made some adjustments. He’s forsaking moments when the nuns go into the audience. At one point, Sister Mary Amnesia quizzes the audience, and there are prizes. Here, the winner will have to claim the prize, instead of a nun walking offstage for a handoff.

During the pandemic, the show offered another benefit.

“We’re doing ‘Nunsense’ because ‘Nunsense’ takes place on the set of ‘Greece,’ ” Rucker says. “So we’re going to do ‘Grease’ right after that. That’s how we’re juggling things.”

There always are challenges to budgeting productions and drawing ticket buyers. That balancing act has required more ingenuity with limited audience capacity. But Rivertown is moving forward.

“We just secured the rights to ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,’ ” Rucker says. “I can take the ‘Grease’ set and redecorate it and make it the ‘Joseph’ set.”

That show will open in summer, and Rucker hopes Rivertown can get back to producing the shows it had originally scheduled for last year.

Both directors hope the shows also can help people cope with pandemic.

“I think it’s the perfect timing for something that’s this funny and relaxing,” Laciura says. “You can just enjoy it and forget about corona and the anxiety.”

“Comedy of Tenors” runs April 9-11 & 16-18. Tickets are available at jpas.com.

“Nunsense” runs April 8-11 & 15-18. Tickets are available at rivertowntheaters.com.

MARINA ORCHESTRA, a local rock band infused with Caribbean musical influences, performs in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Boxed meals are available from Cafe NOMA, and a bar will be set up. The performance begins at 6:30 p.m.

Friday, April 9. Find tickets at noma.org.

High fever BURLESQUE PERFORMERS LOLA VAN ELLA AND JEEZ LOUEEZ PRESENT THE SPRING FEVER VARIETY HOUR. The show combines burlesque, comedy and music, and performers include Darling Darla James, Eddie Lockwood and Gigi Marx. There are outdoor shows at 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, April 10, at Okay Bar, and the pop-up Txow Txow Modern Pintxos will offer food. Tickets are available on eventbrite.com.

Heads up THE EARLY HEADHUNTERS — featuring keyboardist Herbie Hancock, percussionist Bill Summers, bassist Paul Jackson, and, at times, drummer Mike Clark — pioneered its own brand of jazz fusion. Jackson died in March, and this lineup featuring Summers, Clark, saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. and keyboardist Kyle Roussel, preforms a tribute to him.

Shows are at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, April 10, at The Howlin’ Wolf. Find tickets at thehowlinwolf.com.

Suspect activities LOCAL FUNK OUTFIT NEW ORLEANS SUSPECTS PERFORMS AN OUTDOOR SHOW at 7 p.m.

Saturday, April 10, at Zony Mash Beer Project. Visit zonymashbeer. com for tickets.

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The 24-hour Vaccine Fest at

The percentage of New Orleans residents who have received at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

the Shrine on Airline last week was a way to get the COVID-19 vaccines into more than 5,000 arms while providing a much-needed morale booster in signature South Louisiana fashion. The musical lineup included the Red Wolf Brass Band, DJ Jubilee, Amanda Shaw and singers affiliated with the New Orleans Opera Association. Ochsner Health and Jefferson Parish government officials organized the event and provided free and reduced-cost transportation to people who needed it.

P H OTO B Y C H R I S G R A N G E R / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E | T H E N E W O RL E A N S A DVO C AT E

Medical Assistant Keona Shepard holds up the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as she prepares to administer it at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

City Hall’s enforcement

of COVID-19 restrictions remains uneven at best. Last month, the city shut down Kermit Ruffins’ MotherIn-Law Lounge for capacity and distancing violations, the second time it has done so during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Bourbon Street and other tourist-heavy areas are routinely packed with maskless revelers. Ruffins took to Instagram to document the disparity, noting, “Somebody has to stand up for the local club owners and [against] the targeting of Black-owned bars.”

State Sen. Mike Fesi, a Houma Republican, has introduced draconian legislation aimed at curbing the basic human rights of trans and gender-nonconforming people in Louisiana. According to the Louisiana Illuminator, the bill, which is similar to one recently passed by Arkansas state lawmakers, would prohibit trans and gender-nonconforming teens from accessing health care without their parents’ consent.

Only half of Louisiana’s population is ‘willing’ to get the coronavirus vaccine JUST HALF OF LOUISIANA’S POPULATION IS WILLING TO GET VACCINATED against COVID-19, according to a study conducted last month

by public health officials, which also found that white women, Black men and Black women are most wary of the vaccine.

The study, conducted by the Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI), surveyed more than 1,000 Louisianans, and researchers broke down vaccine willingness into three categories: willing, hesitant and unwilling. Hesitancy was highest among white women and Black men, and unwillingness was highest among Black women.

Broken down by age categories, hesitancy was highest in men and women between the ages of 18 and 29. A third of the participants in the study identified themselves as women of reproductive age who were unwilling to get the vaccine.

The study also shows location plays a role in vaccine hesitancy — urban areas had higher numbers of people willing to get the vaccine compared to rural areas. Region 1 participants — which encompasses New Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes — showed the greatest willingness to get vaccinated.

Beth Nauman, director of LPHI, noted on April 1 at a news conference that “hesitancy is a spectrum” — indicating that many who considered themselves to be hesitant could be persuaded to get the vaccine and, in some cases, simply wanted more time to see how it affects people.

The study also showed that most Louisianans reported they trust doctors, health care providers and friends and family for information on the vaccine. The least trusted sources of information included public figures, like athletes, musicians and business owners.

The survey was commissioned by the Louisiana COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, which was established in April 2020 after early PAGE 8

About 20% are reportedly fully inoculated, according to city officials, and efforts are continuing to ramp up with greater supply — including a new shipment to the state of 300,000 doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The city has averaged 19 new cases per day with a positivity rate under 1%. The Louisiana Public Health Institute, meanwhile, reported that willingness to get the vaccine is highest in Region 1, which encompasses Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes — with most respondents to a recent survey indicating they want to be vaccinated as soon as possible.

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findings showed the virus impacting communities of color at greater rates than their white counterparts.

It was a follow-up to an earlier study conducted last year about attitudes surrounding the vaccine — when the concept of immunization was still largely hypothetical and vaccines were still in development.

Now, health experts say they will focus on reaching out to women of reproductive age, Black residents under 60, 18-29 year olds, and younger, white adults in rural areas to help them overcome concerns about the vaccine.

Nauman says the biggest motivator for people willing to get the vaccine is protecting their families, and factors for both hesitancy and unwillingness include concerns about side effects, safety and efficacy.

When respondents were asked “What information about the Coronavirus vaccine would like you like more of?” vaccine safety, efficacy, and side effects were the top choices, according to the study.

Louisiana ranks 38th in the country in percentage of its total population that is fully vaccinated, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

— SARAH RAVITS

13 men convicted by split juries are resentenced by a New Orleans judge A JUDGE IN NEW ORLEANS RESENTENCED 13 criminal defendants March 31

at a hearing that laid bare the frustration and forgiveness triggered by Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams’ project to undo split jury convictions.

Although Louisiana voters in 2018 ended the state’s non-unanimous jury verdict system, neither that vote nor a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decision applied to convicted defendants who had exhausted their appeals.

The high court is still considering whether to toss about 1,600 final convictions in Louisiana, including about 340 from New Orleans. Williams announced Feb. 26 he will not object to new trials for these defendants.

Criminal District Judge Nandi Campbell, who as a candidate last year supported the resentencing initiative, oversaw the first of these cases.

With the district attorney’s approval, Campbell vacated the convictions of 22 defendants, and most of the defendants agreed to plead guilty to identical or lesser charges.

Wednesday was what one defendant called “the moment of truth.”

Appearing one by one over video conference, 13 defendants learned their new sentences.

For most, it was a straightforward affair. In at least six cases — some stemming from decades ago — prosecutors said they had not located victims or survivors. In at least 10 cases, Campbell handed the defendants sentences that should allow them to walk free without delay.

Rayshaud Green, convicted by a split jury in 2009 of an armed carjacking, was a “completely different man” than the one who walked into prison 12 years ago with a 50-year sentence, said his defense attorney, Jamila Johnson of the Promise of Justice Initiative. In prison, he teaches anger management classes and speaks with newly sentenced prisoners at orientations, she said.

Green said he felt lost, hurt, broken and confused at his first sentencing.

Since then, he said, “a number of things has transpired within my life to make me see what really matters in life, such as relationships, family and ultimately the thing that we can’t get back, which is time.”

Campbell gave Green a sentence of 10 years, less than what he’s already spent behind bars.

Other resentencings provoked wrenching reactions from victims.

Michael Davis was serving life plus 198 years after his split-jury conviction in the armed robbery of a St. Roch bar that ended with an accomplice

shooting and killing a New Orleans police officer. The bartender on duty at the Club Tango on the night of Aug. 4, 2002, Peggy Pritchard-Buckner, said she still thinks she owes her life to the actions of officer Christopher Russell.

“She is left with the haunting reality that officer Russell died so that she might live, and she carries that with her every day,” said Ben Cohen, chief of appeals for the district attorney’s office. Pritchard-Buckner was “not happy” upon learning that prosecutors agreed to vacate Davis’s conviction and sentence, Cohen said.

He said the district attorney’s office thinks Davis should receive a sentence similar to two other defendants in the case. They pleaded guilty before trial and received 15and 25-year sentences. The man who shot and killed Russell, Dwight Patterson, remains incarcerated on a life sentence.

Williams has argued that the convictions must be overturned because they are linked to the origins of Louisiana’s non-unanimous jury law, which was first passed by an 1898 Constitutional Convention dedicated to maintaining white rule in Louisiana. — MATT SLEDGE / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

WE CARRY EACH OTHER It’s how we do things in Louisiana during times of challenge. We’re stronger together and we know our strength lies in the helping hands of our neighbors.

So let’s wear a mask and protect one another. And protect the life we love.

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CLANCY DUBOS

BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN™ @GambitBlake | askblake@gambitweekly.com

@clancygambit

Big names, tall tales come out in congressional race

Hey Blake, What can you tell me about a building in the 600 block of South Peters Street in the Warehouse District? The awning says The Lemoine Company but the sidewalk also says “The House of Quality” and “F. Hollander & Co.”

Dear reader,

THE STAGE IS SET FOR A SHOWDOWN in the Second Congressional

District special election. As the clock ticks down to the start of early voting on April 10, state Sens. Troy Carter and Karen Carter Peterson have trotted out major endorsements and, in Peterson’s case, thirdparty PACs have made exaggerated claims that border on outright lies.

It’s a measure of how much is at stake and how tight the race appears to be. First, the endorsements.

The biggest cache of votes up for grabs after the March 20 primary is that of progressives, particularly those of young white people in New Orleans. Third-place finisher Gary Chambers garnered more than 20,000 votes in the primary, nearly 12,900 of them in Orleans Parish.

He endorsed Peterson on March 29.

Three days later, DA Jason Williams, who likewise enjoys enormous popularity among young white progressives, threw his support to Carter.

Who’s got the longer, wider coattails? We’ll see. In some ways, it’s a contest between a guy who talks the talk and a guy who has walked the walk. Both are dynamic campaigners.

Chambers, who lives in Baton Rouge, is a product of social media.

He has never held elective office; he garnered 25% of the vote when he ran for state senator in 2019. In the primary, he finished second in his hometown, behind Peterson, who ran third in New Orleans (and in her Senate district). After endorsing Peterson, Chambers campaigned door-to-door with her and touted his endorsement on social media.

Among young voters, he’s a for-real force.

So is Williams, who won the DA’s race going away in December. Since then, he has kept his campaign promise to reform an office long

F I L E P H OTO S

Karen Carter Peterson, left, and Troy Carter

seen as oppressive to people of color. He began dismissing minor drug cases and old felony cases in which defendants were convicted by nonunanimous juries — a key goal of criminal justice reformers.

The efficacy of his endorsement may depend on whether he gets personally involved, in a high-profile way, in Carter’s campaign.

Meanwhile, voters who don’t know better may have gotten the impression that Carter and others spent $200,000 on an economic development trip to Hollywood 25 years ago, when Carter sat on the New Orleans City Council — or that Peterson almost single-handedly expanded Medicaid in Louisiana.

Those claims — both patently false — came from third-party political action committees (PACs) backing Peterson.

The trip to Hollywood came while Marc Morial was mayor; the attack mailer included Carter with Mayor LaToya Cantrell and others at a more recent event in Washington.

The trip cost about $26,000, not $200,000, and it appears to have paid big dividends judging by the films shot here since then.

And while Peterson supported expanding Medicaid, that happened because Gov. John Bel Edwards made it happen. Federal law gives that authority solely to the governor, not to legislators.

It’s odd that people would lie about something that’s so easily verifiable. Then again, like the growing list of endorsements, it’s a measure of how close the race is and how badly some people want to win.

Frederick Hollander was one of the city’s more successful wine, liquor and beer importers and dealers in the late 19th century.

He was originally with the firm of Kieffer and Hollander before forming his own business, F. Hollander & Co., in 1870.

“Mr. Hollander combines with a thorough knowledge of business the accomplishments of a gentleman and we doubt not will meet with the success he deserves,” wrote The Daily Picayune in July 1870 as it announced the opening of Hollander’s business at Decatur and Customhouse Street (later named Iberville Street).

Hollander died in 1891. His three sons, Mose, Simon and Lazard (known as L.F.), continued to run the family business.

In 1912, the company relocated to a new two-story building at Lafayette and South Peters

P H OTO B Y B L A K E P O N TC H A R T R A I N

Street. The newspaper described Hollander as having a “somewhat distinguished reputation of being the oldest wholesale liquor house in the city.”

“This firm probably has the most modernly equipped quarters of any liquor house in the South,” wrote The Daily Picayune, adding that the company’s new location carried “about as big a supply of liquors as will be found in the South” including a “car tank of California wine per week in addition to many carloads of finer American wines and imported goods … European wines, gins and other liquors.”

In 1918, Hollander merged with another major liquor distributor: Loeb-Lion-Felix Ltd. The operation moved to Loeb-Lion-Felix’s headquarters on Tchoupitoulas Street.

In recent years, the South Peters building has housed a mix of businesses, including a law firm, architect and now a construction company.

BLAKEVIEW OVER THE YEARS, LOCAL SPORTS FANS HAVE CHEERED for the Super Bowl

champion New Orleans Saints, the Pelicans, Jazz, VooDoo, Zephyrs, Baby Cakes, NOLA Gold, Jesters, Buccaneers and Brass. But do you remember the New Orleans Night?

The short-lived Arena Football League team was introduced to New Orleans 30 years ago this week. It was an unusual arrangement, with the league owning the team for its first season and leasing it to the management of the Superdome, where the Night’s home games were played. The team used the Dome’s basketball configuration to give fans the up-close feel for which arena football is known.

Led by veteran NFL coach and player Eddie Khayat (who played for Tulane University and was the Saints’ first defensive line coach) the team went 4-6 in its first season. Former Tulane coach Vince Gibson was hired for the second season, when the team finished with a dismal 0-10 record.

The team soon folded, with new owner David Briggs unable to find more investors to cover the high costs of playing in the Superdome. The Night averaged about 7,000 fans for its five home games each year. Management said they needed closer to 10,000 to be financially viable. “The only way to draw fans is by being successful on the field. We didn’t win and there wasn’t a demand for tickets,” Briggs told The Times-Picayune.

Arena football would return to New Orleans a decade later, when Tom Benson bought an expansion AFL franchise and named it the New Orleans VooDoo. That team played its home games at the Smoothie King Center from 2004 to 2008, when the league disbanded.

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Time to end the culture of protecting the ‘LSU brand’ THE ONGOING LSU SEXUAL ABUSE SCANDAL holds many

bitter lessons about the state of higher education administration in Louisiana — and about the importance of having gender diversity in higher education governance. Those lessons boil down to this: Unless and until more women sit in positions of power, young women who are victimized by sexual predators on our state’s college campuses will continue to be abused with impunity — and ignored when they dare to speak out.

It’s telling that we know as much as we do about the scandal because women hold at least some reins of power in Louisiana.

In the wake of ground-breaking investigative stories published by USA Today and The Advocate | The Times-Picayune, the all-female Louisiana Senate Select Committee on Women and Children has shined an even brighter light on the scandal by holding marathon hearings on the extent of the abuses and subsequent cover-ups.

The committee’s hearings have produced gut-wrenching testimony from victims who bravely spoke out, for the first time, about their experiences. Their stories share a common theme: When they reported abuse and named their abusers, they encountered a system that consistently showed indifference toward their suffering as it let abusers, particularly those who happened to be athletes or even then-head football coach Les Miles, go largely unpunished.

For years, former and current LSU administrators and members of the LSU Board of Supervisors, the school’s governing board, knew about this scandal and tried to keep it under wraps. They all share in the blame — and the shame — that now envelops LSU. Committee chair Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, told Gambit the hearings will likely continue for “quite some time” because the extent of the problem is only beginning to become known.

Barrow said more students are coming forward — and the problem extends beyond LSU. Meanwhile, the bipartisan committee’s next hearing is scheduled for Thursday,

P H OTO BY T R AV I S S PR A D L I N G / T H E A DVO C AT E | T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

Abby Owens, left, who has accused former LSU football star Derrius Guice of raping her, and Samantha Brennan, right, who accused Guice of sharing a partially nude photo of her without her permission, testified in front of the the Legislature’s Senate Select Committee on Women & Children.

April 8, when LSU athletic director Scott Woodward and others, possibly current head football coach Ed Orgeron, will testify.

Orgeron has been accused by a Mercedes-Benz Superdome employee of trying to cover up alleged sexual harassment by former star running back Derrius Guice.

Barrow says Orgeron has been “invited” to testify — and she hinted he may be subpoenaed if need be. The fact that the current head football coach has been dragged into the scandal is proof that the problem is not confined to people and events that predate the tenure of Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Though the committee’s work is far from over, it’s already painfully apparent that Louisiana’s higher-ed governing boards and administrations need more gender diversity.

Until recently, LSU’s 16-member board had only two women members. Edwards appointed a third woman to the board last week, but that’s like putting a Band-Aid on a shotgun wound. The governor would do far better by demanding the resignations of long-serving board members and replacing them with women who will work to end the culture of protecting the “LSU brand” at all costs — because for far too long those costs have been borne by victims of sexual harassment and abuse.

SHATTERED TRUST

Former students describe ‘toxic culture’ of racism, sexual abuse at Louisiana Center for the Blind BY K AY LEE POCHE

G

ROWING UP BLIND IN A RURAL COMMUNITY like Grand Lake, Louisiana,

can feel isolating for anyone. Even if you count the plentiful fish that draw anglers from across the state to Calcasieu Lake, Grand Lake doesn’t have enough people to be formally incorporated.

For a young blind woman growing up in the area, it took her first trip to a summer camp in Baton Rouge at 8 years old to make her realize that she wasn’t one of the only blind children in the world.

“Then I didn’t feel so alone because I was like, ‘Wow, look at all these blind kids!’” she said (Gambit has agreed to preserve anonymity for the woman and several other survivors).

She didn’t meet a blind adult until 2017, when she was 19 years old and a junior in high school. Despite being nervous about leaving home for two months, she nonetheless decided to attend a summer program for high school students at the Louisiana Center for the Blind (LCB) in Ruston. The program, which used blind instructors, aimed to provide a space in which to learn critical independent living skills, ranging from Braille instruction to basic home management skills.

“I was really afraid because I was kind of sheltered,” she said. “[But] I didn’t really know much or how to take care of myself.”

The LCB is largely funded through government grants, contracts and other programs. Between 2014 and 2019 — the last year financial data is available for the LCB — the organization received more than $8.6 million from various governmental agencies and programs.

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Her first few days at the center went well, she said, noting that the instructors and students seemed nice. But her sense of safety would quickly be shattered. During an exercise designed to teach her how to use a cane to cross city streets, her instructor Rex Schuttler — one of the first blind adults she had ever met — sexually assaulted her, she said. According to the young woman, the abuse continued throughout the eight weeks she stayed at the LCB’s facility in Ruston.

On Dec. 14, 2020, she decided to come forward and report her assault. A growing online movement in the blind community dubbed #MarchingTogether had taken hold. Men and women from across the country began openly discussing repeated instances of sexual assault and rape at the LCB and other facilities and events associated with the National Federation of the Blind, the oldest and largest nonprofit for people who are blind or have low vision.

“As human beings, we are hardwired to be in relationships with others,” Parquet said.

“If we can’t trust, it’s difficult to even form meaningful relationships with people throughout the rest of our lives.”

Three months later, on March 15, she received a letter from Mark Riccobono, who heads the NFB, detailing the results of an “independent investigation” into Schuttler by Tonya Bana, an outside employment attorney in Baltimore, Maryland. According to a copy of the letter obtained

by Gambit, Bana found Schuttler “has a longstanding and persistent pattern of engaging in inappropriate nonconsensual physical and verbal conduct and communications of a sexual nature with women at Federation training centers.”

The letter states that Schuttler acknowledged he inappropriately touched at least two

students and adds that “the undisputed evidence reflects that Mr. Schuttler engaged in overtly sexual physical and verbal conduct and communications.”

Despite those findings, the only disciplinary actions the NFB took against Schuttler were permanently expelling him from the organization and recommending he “seek psychological evaluation, counseling and/or treatment for his compulsive behavior.”

The NFB appears to have gone out of its way to include comments from Schuttler defending his actions and suggesting his abuse of the student “constituted an isolated lapse in judgment by emphasizing that she ‘is a pretty girl’ and asserting that at the time he was in a new relationship, stressed out, and begging for attention.”

Additionally, the letter mentions that Schuttler said during questioning that the student “did not object and ‘just kinda let it happen,’ ” which, she told Gambit, made her question once again if the abuse was her fault, something with which many survivors of sexual abuse struggle.

“I was thinking, could I really let this happen?” she said. “But then I thought, it’s not my fault. I just — I don’t know.”

The former student’s story is not an anomaly. Interviews Gambit conducted with former students at the LCB paint a grim picture of alleged chronic racism, sexual assault, homophobia and transphobia, as well as often harsh “teaching” tactics which experts say could result in longterm psychological damage.

Several former attendees describe the training center in Ruston as having a longstanding “toxic culture” of various forms of verbal, physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Gambit talked with eight people who say they experienced or witnessed abuse at the Louisiana center, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Although neither the LCB nor the NFB would respond to specific questions about complaints, both have previously acknowledged longstanding allegations of assault and misconduct.

Through NFB spokesman Chris Danielsen, both the LCB and the NFB said they are undertaking a series of steps to address these survivors’ concerns.

But survivors say so far, those steps have been insufficient.

“When I started [the LCB summer] program is when I’d seen confident blind adults and blind kids, so I really felt good. That’s

why I felt so let down now with everything that’s going on,” said the former student who reported Schuttler. “You’d think you’d have a support system with this organization, and that nothing bad would happen — that they’re there to protect you.”

The underlying philosophy at the Louisiana center, which has programs for middle school, high school and adult students, is that through skills building, learning alternative methods of completing daily activities and meeting other confident blind people, blind and low-vision students will gain the self-confidence they need to find employment and generally live more independently, according to the organization’s website.

But several former students at the center said while they support the center’s objectives, they question what they consider a one-size-fits-all approach and harsh methods used by instructors, some of whom are blind but have no formal education in teaching blind people.

According to those students, staff at the center have particular ideas about what makes a blind person “independent” and therefore they want all students to learn the same skills and complete them in the same way.

For instance, the center says on its website all students must use long, non-collapsible, white canes “at all times” — though it notes other centers only require you to use them for travel — and that guide dogs aren’t allowed during class hours. To ensure low-vision students at the center learn not to rely on their sight for daily activities, the center requires them to wear shades and learn the same skills, such as Braille and cane travel, as other students.

A former student who completed the center’s Buddy Program for middle school students in 1992 and STEP Program for high school students in 1993 said that when she was at the center, instructors offered little guidance for students when they needed help.

“I think the idea that they were trying to promote is that you’re supposed to make people confident by making them uncomfortable,” she said. “The idea is, oh, a blind person is never going to be independent if you don’t sort of make them do things themselves.”

The former student said a particular exercise for cane travel

“We would talk amongst ourselves and say, ‘He talks to us like a slave master,’” the former student said, referring to conversations he had about Mays with other students of color at the center. training would involve sighted staff dropping a student off somewhere in town and having them find their way back to the center alone. Another student, who completed the task at least four times during his training, reported feeling a “great sense of accomplishment” afterward.

But the student who attended the center in 1992 and 1993 and completed the exercise when she was 13 and 14 said she found it “traumatizing,” especially when she ended up in the middle of traffic.

“I was in the middle of a street somewhere in the middle of traffic, and it really scared me,” she said. “If you would ask how to do something or if you needed assistance to do something, people would just tell you ‘do it yourself.’

It was really set up to make you feel like a failure basically if there was something that you couldn’t accomplish or that you needed more support with.”

The former student said she had a major depressive episode after her time at the center. “I just felt like I couldn’t measure up to the type of blind person that I was supposed to be,” she said.

Stacy Cervenka, who attended LCB’s adult program from 2001 to 2002 and held several leadership positions in the national organization before leaving in 2018, also described an experience she had during one of her classes as “traumatic.”

Cervenka, who was 21 when she attended the program, said she has had a fear of open flames ever since one of her friends in high school died in a house fire.

At the center, staff told her to light birthday candles and then cook on a grill as part of her daily living skills building. When working at the grill, she began crying and begging not to continue, she

COVER STORY

Blind instructors working at the Louisiana center, who were tasked with teaching blind adults and children life skills, also face accusations of making racist, sexist and anti-LGBTQ comments to students.

One particular LCB instructor, James Mays, was well known among several students at the

center for making what they said were “aggressive” and allegedly discriminatory comments to students.

One former student reported Mays telling students he would like to “kick another student’s ass,” while another who attended the center in 2017 said Mays would tell students who weren’t paying attention in class to “Get your head out of your ass and focus.”

“As students, we would laugh at it,” the latter student said.

“When we’d hang out together, we would think that was so funny, but we thought it was rude, too.

We’re like, ‘A staff should not say that to a student.’ ” Two students, who attended the center’s adult program in separate years around a decade apart, said Mays also made comments to female students about how they should be trying to marry a rich man.

One of those students described Mays and other staff members using racial slurs toward students in class. He said he remembered Mays saying, “I’m not a racist but Black people need to learn that if they want something, they need to work for it.”

“We would talk amongst ourselves and say, ‘He talks to us like a slave master,’ ” the former student said, referring to conversations he had about Mays with other students of color at the center.

“I think it was an effort to get under people’s skin,” he added.

“It was a situation that they were made aware of and took no precautions or definite action afterward,” a former student said.

“All he had to do was say, ‘No, I didn’t do that.’ And they were like, OK, cool.”

“Like, ‘I’m being angry, I’m trying to ... tear you down before I build you back up, and I’m going to do everything I can to be mean. If a racial slur is going to be a part of the formula, I’m going to throw everything at you that I got.’ ” The student said when he would complain to staff about these comments, another staff member would tell him he needed to understand that older staff members grew up in a time and place where these comments were “acceptable.”

“The problem was my objection, not that they were doing it,” the former student said.

Likewise, two former students said staff at the center would make anti-LGBT comments in class, and even incorporate homophobic rhetoric into classroom examples.

The students said they witnessed in two separate years staff at the center refuse to use a transgender classmate’s preferred pronouns in class or to call them by their preferred name. One of the students, who attended the center in the last five years, said Mays would often make comments to other students about how being transgender was “unnatural,” “silly” and “crazy” in front of the transgender student.

When reached by phone, Mays did not deny the allegations, but said he “might have made a mistake” over the years and did not mean to “hurt anybody’s feelings.”

“I know that I haven’t done anything wrong,” he said, adding that he taught students at the center “toughness” and how to live in this “tough, old world.” Mays, who is in his 80s, said he’s “dealt with minorities and other people in the country” throughout his career.

Danielsen, the NFB spokesman, declined to comment on allegations against Mays but noted Mays no longer works at the Louisiana center.

One student said during lessons instructors would say LGBT people were “in denial” of their heterosexuality and compare that to people “denying their blindness.” When describing its methodology on its website, the center mentions how students are expected to “accept themselves as blind people” as part of their training.

“Sometimes the staff would be leveraging their homophobia ... in order to say, ‘Look, these people are confused, and they don’t understand they’re male, they’re supposed to be in love with women and women only because

that’s the natural way of things,” the student said. “They would just openly use that, like it was a textbook example, to talk about being in denial about blindness.

That just created a space where people were uncomfortable ... that led to this hostile culture.”

According to this student, “They would just openly use that, like it was a textbook example, to talk about being in denial about blindness that just created a space where people were uncomfortable ... that led to this hostile culture.”

The same student said on multiple occasions male staff members at the center would tell stories about women who were sexually assaulted, using it as an opportunity to make derogatory comments about these women and argue that abortion is wrong.

“They would be telling this like they thought they were teaching a life lesson, when in fact, they’re basically telling everyone there who’s a survivor of sexual assault that they’re at fault,” the student said.

He said when he would complain about these comments, staff at the center would tell him to stop complaining and “be a man.”

“Ultimately, if this center is supposed to be teaching me how to be a man, what kind of man are they teaching me to be — a misogynist and a racist?” the former student said. “That’s not the kind of man I want to be.

“The center would often take the stance: We’re not here to make this a safe space, we’re here to prepare you for the world,” he added.

Parquet, the Tulane professor, said creating a “safe space” — where community members are heard and respected — can actually go a long way toward preparing a person for the world.

“It’s a space where they can be themselves, where they can articulate their deepest thoughts and feelings, and do it in a way that they won’t be judged,” Parquet said. “What greater preparation for the real world can there be?”

Several people with whom Gambit spoke said they experienced sexual abuse and misconduct by LCB staff and students while attending the center. In some cases, they reported the abuse to Pam Allen, the director of the Louisiana Center for the Blind and the vice president of the National Federation of the Blind, but they say they believe too often little was done to

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said, but she felt pressured to complete the task.

“The whole time I was bawling, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to do this,’ ” she said. “As an adult, you shouldn’t be forced to do something that is traumatizing to you.”

Cervenka said the incident, which happened in front of her peers, was so upsetting that she has steered clear of open flames since. She said she believes the center could have handled the situation differently and without humiliating her in front of her classmates.

“It’s normal at a blindness center to have fears and to have to overcome them,” she said. “It’s very different to be forced while you’re bawling and saying you don’t want to do something.”

Reginald Parquet, a professor at the Tulane University School of Social Work, told Gambit he would have instead recommended having Cervenka take a series of “mini steps” such as holding a grill utensil in her hand and rewarding her for each step.

“To me, that activity only served to retraumatize the student,” he said. “It only served to reinforce her fears and to make overcoming that situation that much more difficult.”

Parquet said when a person enters a new environment, such as when students at the LCB begin their training, one of the most crucial parts in helping them adjust and engage in their environment is establishing trust with the people responsible for their wellbeing.

When that trust is broken, he said, it can have long-term effects on a person’s relationships with both others and themselves.

“As human beings, we are hardwired to be in relationships with others,” Parquet said. “If we can’t trust, it’s difficult to even form meaningful relationships with people throughout the rest of our lives.”

Cervenka said these experiences are evidence of a mantra repeated at the Louisiana center: “We tear you down to build you back up.”

“That tearing you down is really tough,” Cervenka said.

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COVER STORY

punish their abusers or prevent abuse from recurring.

One student said he witnessed what he described as a culture of “victim blaming” when women would report sexual misconduct to leadership. He said employees would ask women what they were wearing at the time and why they were present wherever the abuse took place.

The student said while he was at the center, students would often take matters into their own hands when a classmate would tell them another student had abused them.

“That’s something that staff should be comfortable doing, too, and showing role modeling that you take a stance against that kind of thing,” he said, “instead of asking the woman, ‘Well, what were you wearing?

Why were you there? You have to understand that he doesn’t understand boundaries.’ ” Even in instances in which the center investigated allegations, little was done, former students say. For instance, a student who attended the adult program in 2010 said she was touched inappropriately by a male student who was decades older than her when they were walking home one day. When she told Allen, the offender was given a warning but was still allowed to stay in the adult program and graduate, according to the student.

Likewise, another female student who attended the adult program in the last five years said she was touched inappropriately by an “immersion student” — a graduate student from Louisiana Tech University who sat in on adult program classes as part of his training to be an orientation and mobility instructor.

She said her girlfriend reported it to an instructor at the center, and the incident was eventually reported to Allen, but no one from the LCB ever called her in to ask her about what she experienced. Instead, she said, they questioned the student who abused her, and he denied everything. She said there were no consequences of which she was aware. In fact, she says, the immersion student continued abusing her for a month and a half. She was 18 and he was 28.

“It was a situation that they were made aware of and took no precautions or definite action afterward,” she said. “All he had to do was say, ‘No, I didn’t do that.’ And they were like, OK, cool.”

“There’s this type of everyone-knowseveryone vibe there,” a former student said. “So if you say something to the wrong person, or try to report something to the wrong person, not only is it probably not going to get reported, but it’s going to get [around] who said something.”

The victims allege Allen and Riccobono, the president of the NFB, were both aware of several instances of sexual abuse and misconduct within the organization for at least several years before issuing public apology letters last year.

Cervenka, who was a member of the NFB from 1999-2018 and held several leadership roles in the organization during that time, emailed both Allen and Riccobono on Sept. 28, 2018 about discussing how to better prevent sexual misconduct within the NFB. “I understand that you are both aware of many instances of sexual misconduct within our organization,” Cervenka wrote in the email. “I know that conversations and discussions have been taking place over the past few years and some action steps have been taken. But we still have people in positions of authority who we know have victimized young women. We still have a culture where these things are talked about by groups of friends in hotel rooms but not at National Board meetings.”

Cervenka said she had a long call with Allen following the email, in which she told her of every incidence of sexual misconduct

she had personally experienced or had heard about from friends, and Allen was aware of all of them.

“What Pam [Allen] does is she will make you feel heard, she will empathize with you, she’ll make you feel like you talked to your big sister,” Cervenka said. “But then that’s sort of the thing like, ‘OK, I’ve made you feel heard, you’ve gotten it off your chest,’ and then they don’t do anything about it. They kind of pacify you that way.”

She said after that call, she talked with several of her friends in the organization, and many of them said they’d had similar conversations with Allen and Riccobono.

“They keep us so siloed. If they can keep us not having them together, then they can act shocked and surprised at each person,” Cervenka said. “So many people have called Mark [Riccobono], but when we don’t know that each other is doing that, Mark can act surprised.”

This response is why many people who said they’ve experienced sexual abuse at the center have also said they felt alone in their experiences at the time, even though many people have similar stories spanning decades.

The former LCB student who told Gambit she was abused by an immersion student at the center said when people began sharing their stories on Facebook last year, she learned for the first time that some of her classmates had experienced abuse, too.

“I had never heard about a single incident like this until everything came out because of how much it had been silenced,” she said. “And then when it all came out, I found out that there were people I knew, girls I knew, that had experienced this that had never felt safe to speak up about it.”

Though survivors are finding strength in numbers, many are still scared to share their experiences of abuse at NFBaffiliated training centers and events because they fear loss of services and advocacy from the organization.

Among other things, the national organization provides scholarships and other opportunities to blind people. People wanting to work in the blindness training and education fields fear adverse professional consequences for speaking out against the organization.

The NFB is a large force in the relatively small blind and low-vision community, with an estimated membership of more than 50,000 and with state and local chapters across the country. Each chapter and division has leadership positions, and members can work their way up to higher positions in the organization.

The organization is the largest advocacy group for people who are blind or have low vision in the country. It advocates for policy changes and accessibility, hosts annual national conventions for its members and provides programming at its training centers, which people attend from all over the world.

In many places, “they’re the only game in town,” Cervenka said. “It’s easy to get blackballed.”

Back in December, people circulated an open letter from survivors from the NFB and the National Blindness Professional Certification Board, a national certifying body based in Ruston that certifies people to train and work with blind people. The letter outlined issues in the NFB, including its handling of “sexual misconduct, racism, ableism, psychological and other forms of abuse,” and recommended concrete actions for both organizations to take. More than 400 people signed in support.

“When it all came out, I found out that there were people I knew, girls I knew, that had experienced this that had never felt safe to speak up about it,” a former student said.

Cervenka said since then, she’s heard of at least a dozen cases where someone not employed by the NFB signed the letter and their employers were later contacted requesting their removal or other professional consequences. She said nobody was fired in these cases, but some employers have responded by telling their employees to “lay low.”

COVER STORY

“What it’s proven to me is how, even when we say in our society that we are against sexual assault and that we support survivors ... when it comes down to it, it’s surprising how many people don’t and how many people shy away from it,” Cervenka said.

At the Louisiana center, it’s an even smaller community, where word can travel quickly if someone reports an incident to staff. A former student who attended the center’s adult program in the last five years said staff gossiped a lot. She felt if she reported her abuse to a center employee, everyone would know within hours what was said and who said it. She said though her case was reported, she feared ostracization from staff and peers at the center for going to leadership.

“There’s this type of everyone-knows-everyone vibe there,” she said. “So, if you say something to the wrong person, or try to report something to the wrong person, not only is it probably not going to get reported, but it’s going to get back who said something.

“Honestly, I don’t really feel like there was a person [working] there ... where reporting something would have been kept secret,” she added.

After the initial flood of stories online from people who said they experienced abuse at NFB affiliated training centers and events, Riccobono, who heads the national organization, published an open letter to survivors on Dec. 16, 2020.

In the letter, he wrote, “Our hearts break for the survivors

of abuse and sexual misconduct who have bravely shared incidents that have happened within our organization over the decades.” He also apologized for “the mistakes I personally made in dealing with inappropriate behavior in the past.”

Likewise, Allen, who heads the Louisiana center, said in a December statement that the center’s executive board’s “highest priority and sincerest commitment is to strengthen existing and establish center policies, practices, and procedures that ensure we protect participants’ physical and emotional well-being.”

“We will support survivors to cope with sustained trauma and help them restore a sense of security,” Allen said. “This vow of protection extends to our responsibility to shield others from individuals who prove themselves predators or exhibit inappropriate actions.”

Danielsen, the NFB spokesman, declined to comment on specific allegations, including those against Schuttler and Mays — except to say that neither are currently employed at the Louisiana center. Schuttler did not respond to multiple requests for comment over several days by email.

However, Danielsen did acknowledge the “critically important issues” raised by survivors when speaking with Gambit and said the organization has “zero tolerance for sexual misconduct or abuse of any kind.” He pointed to a series of efforts the NFB and LCB have been taking over the last several months.

At the national level, Riccobono announced in a monthly address to members on Jan. 5 that the

“When a young woman comes up to you and says she was raped, does it take training to not discourage her from going to the police?”

Cervenka said. correctional system for years and having run the state’s correctional facilities for years, that the buck stops at the top,” Parquet said. “In the case of the Louisiana Center for the Blind, I will tell you that it even stops with the board.”

He added, “If there were any instances where the director of the Louisiana center or the national president knew of allegations and did not act to address them, then they should be held accountable.”

Many survivors express frustration that, although some have shared stories of their abuse repeatedly, the initial attention in December to the NFB’s longstanding abuse problem seems to be waning. They worry that outside of individual Code of Conduct complaints, there doesn’t seem to be any largescale investigation that will hold abusers as well as leadership accountable — particularly those who knew about the abuse and did little or nothing about it.

“I think people in December had hope,” Cervenka said. “They hoped that this was going to make a difference. And now there is, I would describe it as almost despair, like we did the best we could, we went out kicking and screaming, and we got this apology that acknowledged nothing.”

Months later, many survivors feel like they’re still waiting for justice, and it’s prolonging their pain.

The initial former student who reported experiencing sexual abuse at the Ruston center in 2017 said she feels as though “the whole situation with everybody just vanished away.”

“I don’t feel like there’s any change happening,” she said, “and it’s almost feeling like they don’t care.”

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Between 2014 and 2019, the Louisiana Center for the Blind has received more than $8.6 million in funding from various governmental agencies, including $2.5 million in grants. Louisiana Tech has also paid LCB more than $230,000 as part of its immersion program.

organization would immediately begin partnering with RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), an anti-sexual violence organization that operates a 24/7 hotline for victims of sexual abuse. The partnership includes trainings, developing a specific code of conduct regarding sexual misconduct and “developing strategic response protocols,” according to Danielsen.

RAINN held the first of 10 mandatory training sessions for its employees, board members, students and affiliates — including those working at and attending the Louisiana center — on March 23. LCB staff and students are also receiving training from The Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault, a nonprofit comprised of 13 sexual assault crisis centers and other agencies, as well as seminars on diversity, inclusion, microaggressions, unconscious bias and trauma-informed counseling.

In the January address, Riccobono also announced the creation of a temporary, six-member Survivors Task Force to help develop new policies within the organization aimed at preventing sexual abuse. Members host virtual weekly meetings in which they consult with the community to develop recommendations on training, changing the overall culture of the organization, involving the blindness community in those attempts to change, and improving the Code of Conduct and its oversight process.

Danielsen said that complaints of sexual abuse and misconduct are being “thoroughly investigated” by an independent investigator, and said while the organization usually requires Code of Conduct complaints to be filed within a year of the incident, the NFB is accepting all complaints until at least Aug. 1.

But some, like Cervenka, feel training and policies are not enough without enforcement and accountability for staff at the center who she believes mishandled complaints.

“When a young woman comes up to you and says she was raped, does it take training to not discourage her from going to the police?” she said.

Parquet said that “accountability is key” in enacting real change at the center, and that accountability should be applied to leadership at the Louisiana center and at the national level, including their board members.

“I would tell you, that having worked in the juvenile

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Vintage pairing A new wine bar with small plates in the Warehouse District

BY B E T H D ’A D D O N O WHEN MIMI’S IN THE MARIGNY ANNOUNCED last fall it wouldn’t

reopen, after closing a year ago due to the pandemic, the heartbreak of losing yet another iconic neighborhood bar cut deep. But for fans of chef Heathcliffe Hailey’s take-no-prisoners approach to imaginative tapas in his leased space in Mimi’s upstairs kitchen, it felt like tragedy.

Hailey’s exuberant approach to his global small-plates menu had drawn a loyal late-night crowd for more than 13 years, and Mimi’s played an important role in revitalizing the neighborhood after Hurricane Katrina. When Mimi Dykes did not renew the lease in November, Hailey didn’t have many options.

“I couldn’t really open and just throw food out the window,” he says.

The good news is that by December, thanks to an introduction from his former business partner Joaquin Rodas (now at Bacchanal), Hailey landed another gig. The Louisiana native, who marinates history into everything he cooks, is back, running the kitchen at the newly opened Pluck wine bar and restaurant in the Warehouse District. Opened by sommelier Skye LaTorre, who matches Hailey’s passion for cooking with her devotion to the grape, Pluck offers indoor and courtyard dining at 722 Girod St. The space, like its owner and chef, is unpretentious and welcoming, placing the emphasis on taking a progressive approach to both food and drink.

Hailey is tickled pink to be back in the kitchen.

“This has been the longest I’ve ever been out of work and not cooking until five in the morning,” he says.

For now, Pluck is open for dinner from 5 p.m. until 11 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

Pluck’s opening menu is Hailey’s trademark mash-up of Spanish, Creole and other global flavors, with many ingredients sourced from local growers and makers. He loves his new kitchen, which is similar in size but more linear than what he was used to at Mimi’s.

“I don’t need a lot of space,” he says, “just room enough to dance when I need to.”

The snack section of the menu includes his signature citrus-cured olives, along with “plucky popcorn” tossed with smoked chili and Cotija cheese.

He chopped back his grandmother’s fig tree and is using the wood to smoke nuts and hunks of tuna loin he makes into pate to spread on bread from Bellegarde Bakery or La Boulangerie. Bite-sized goat cheese croquettes are served with caramelized red onions, bright with a splash of sherry vinegar and local honey. A changing menu of charcuterie — a natural pairing with all kinds of wine — may include buffalo mozzarella from Italy, Humboldt Fog out of California and jamon serrano from Spain.

A “Between Two Breads” section offers the likes of ham and housemade butter on a baguette, Frenchstyle, with house-made cornichons.

The chef’s small plates include grilled wild mushrooms with garlic and a verdejo wine sauce, flashfried frog legs with herbs and more house-made butter, shrimp pastis and roasted quail with a Beaujolais reduction. For dessert, a piece of grilled French bread is swabbed with Sicilian dark chocolate and topped with black sea salt.

“I always lean more to savory than sweet,” Hailey says.

Hailey’s menu is designed to complement Pluck’s carefully curated wine list, which has more than 20 wines served by the glass.

Pluck

WHERE

722 Girod St.; pluckwines.com

WHEN

5 p.m.-11 p.m.

Wednesday-Sunday

HOW

Email dining@gambitweekly.com

Local Wetlands RICE MAY NOT BE THE FIRST THING

that comes to mind at the thought of south Louisiana’s Cajun and Creole food, but it’s everywhere — in jambalaya and boudin and served with red beans and a host of traditional dishes.

P H OTO B Y W I LL C OV I E LLO

P H OTO B Y C H E R Y L G E R B E R

Chef Heathcliffe Hailey serves a charcuterie board, frog legs and lamb chops at Pluck.

“I’ve learned so much from Skye already,” Hailey says. “Her knowledge is encyclopedic.”

The list of by-the-glass offerings is divided between sparkling, orange, pink, white and red wines. There’s a 14-page list of bottles, with prices between $32 and $1,200. Most bottles are less than $80, with many exceptions in the Champagne and Burgundy selections.

Working in the Warehouse District is different than inhabiting a funky corner of the Marigny on Franklin Avenue, but Hailey isn’t worried that neighborhood folks won’t find him. “Eventually, we’ll be open noon to midnight, so there’s always going to be service industry people getting off work to come by,” he says. “I can see Herbsaint from here, so I know those folks will be coming in. We’re all hungry and thirsty for humanity and conversation.”

?

WHAT

FORK CENTER

Reservations and walk-ins accepted

CHECK IT OUT

Curated wines and small plates in the Warehouse District

Now local entrepreneurs are using Louisiana-grown rice to make Wetlands Sake.

The Japanese spirit made from fermented rice is easiest to find in sushi restaurants, but sake lovers Nan Wallis and Lindsey Brower noticed it’s becoming more popular across the U.S. “We have traveled a lot and we were seeing sake in the U.S. starting to appear on menus in restaurants and bars that have nothing to do with Asian food,” Wallis says.

“You’d go into a French restaurant in New York and they’d have sake on the menu. You go into a restaurant in Chicago, Nashville and other cities, and California for sure, you’d see sake.”

Wallis and Brower created Wetlands Sake by studying sake production, sourcing Louisianamade rice and opening a production facility in the Lower Garden District.

Wetlands’ first releases are filtered and unfiltered flagship sakes in eight-ounce cans and sparkling sakes in blood orange and passion fruit flavors, available in 12-ounce cans. The unfiltered sake and the sparkling sakes are already hitting the shelves of local grocery and liquor stores as well as bars and restaurants. The filtered sake will be available later in April.

While sushi restaurants may be the easiest place to find sakes now, Wetlands doesn’t see their sake as being just for restaurants.

“We don’t think it has to be a foodpaired drink,” Wallis says. “When

EAT+DRINK They hired sake brewmaster Brock Bennett, who moved to New Orleans to join the brewing team.

The brewery has a tap room, which Wallis and Brower hope to open to the public in summer.

Visitors will be able to watch sake being made through glass walls.

The plan is to offer different sakes in the tap room than are available outside the facility.

The brewery is next to The Commissary, which serves food and supplies Dickie Brennan’s restaurants. Wetlands also has an outdoor space and may do events with food trucks. In addition, it will hold sake-education events and possibly live entertainment.

Wallis and Brower built Wetlands with Louisiana’s ecosystem in mind. They will donate 2% of profits to wetlands preservation efforts. The sake also is packaged in recyclable aluminum cans. — WILL COVIELLO

Faubeer arrives LIKE A HEAD OF PILSNER FOAM RISING OVER THE MUG , Faubourg

Brewing Co. is starting to build steam.

The official rollout is underway for Faubourg as the new brand for the former Dixie Beer. The first beers brewed under that name are flowing at Faubourg’s taproom in New Orleans East, where local bands perform in the beer garden each weekend.

That beer began shipping in kegs from the brewery on March 26.

Canned and bottled beer under the Faubourg name will follow later this spring, with distribution slated for May. Faubourg owner Gayle Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans franchises, made the decision to change the name over the summer, recasting the city’s oldest beer company just months after it had marked its return to New Orleans with a gleaming new brewery.

That move came amid protests against racial injustice across the United States. Many symbols tied to the era of slavery were toppled. Dixie Beer goes back to 1907, but the term’s association with the Confederacy led to a reappraisal of its future with the New Orleans brewery.

In November, the company revealed that its new name would be Faubourg, calling it “a tribute to the diverse neighborhoods of New Orleans,” many of which were called faubourgs through the city’s history. — IAN McNULTY/ THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

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you go to a bar and listen to music, drink a sake. We think it could become the next everyday drink.”

Wetlands’ sakes are available in cans only, which is part of the plan to make sake more accessible.

“It’s in a single-serve can to get it out in market, be more accessible, have it be grab-and-go,” Wallis says. “If you go fishing, take sake.

If you go to the pool, take sake. If you go to the beach, take sake. It’s really mobile.”

The single-serving size also makes it more approachable, Brower says.

“In a smaller format like that, it’s a lower price point,” Brower says. “People will try it and see if they like it — instead of presenting them with a $50 bottle, which they might be hesitant about trying for the first time.”

Brower is a member of the Brennan family and has experience in the restaurant industry. Wallis has an entrepreneurial background but is new to the spirits industry.

Both Wallis and Brower think that the time is right to bring sake to wider audiences.

“We don’t believe sake has to be a drink that’s just consumed with food, certainly not just Asian food,” Wallis says. “It goes with any food you can come up with: pizza, seafood, Italian food, Mexican food.”

Wetlands is the first sake made in Louisiana, but nanobreweries are popping up around the country. Wallis says there already are more than 15, and most operate like craft beer microbreweries, which serve mostly local customers. Wetlands is available in Louisiana, and they plan to expand distribution to other states.

Sake is made with a process similar to beer and winemaking, but it’s closer to beer, Wallis says.

“No fruit goes in,” she says. “You don’t squeeze anything. It’s really a fermentation process. Sake, other than steaming the rice, is a cold process.”

The sake is gluten-free and they add no sugar. Its sweetness comes from the rice, Wallis says. The filtered and unfiltered sakes are 14% alcohol. The sparkling sakes are 6.5% and are similar to the hard seltzers hitting the market.

It has just four ingredients, and the main one is a rice grown in Crowley, Louisiana. In Japan, sake is made with a short-grain rice, but in Louisiana, most production focuses on long-grain rice. Wetlands approached the LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station, which had developed a short-grain rice they chose for their sakes.

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EAT+DRINK

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WIN A

Adriane Hilliard

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON

Crawfish pop-up founder

STAYCATION

ADRIANE HILLIARD TEACHES AT DOLORES T. ARON ACADEMY in

New Orleans East. She also likes to cook. During the pandemic, she and her sister Shalisa Hilliard started a pop-up focused on crawfish dishes called Tail of Two Sisters. They serve food at events including Barcelo Gardens’ twice monthly market and a market at Edgewood Park in Gentilly on the third Sunday of the month. They also package food for pickup and delivery on weekends.

How did you learn to cook?

ADRIANE HILLIARD: My mom was a cook at Tulane University. She could cook anything, but she was well known for her gumbo. I got my style from my mom. She had so much flavor in her food, so much depth.

She died 20 years ago at the age of 51. But I feel her with me when I am cooking. All of my skills in the kitchen came from watching her in the kitchen every day.

I would always see how tired my mom would come home from work.

She would stand up for eight and nine hours. I said I would never cook, but it sort of fell into my lap.

I get so much pleasure from seeing people eat and enjoy the food.

How did you start Tail of Two Sisters?

H: In June of last year, we were in the height of Covid. For my birthday, I thought about inviting couples over every weekend, and I would cook. I had cooked some crawfish, corn and crab bisque.

My sister was like “Oh my God, this is delicious.” I, jokingly, said “Is it good enough to sell?” and she said definitely. That was on a Saturday, and on Sunday the idea kept running across my mind. On Monday, the Tail of Two Sisters name came to me. Tuesday, I called my sister and said, “We’re going into business.”

That week, I worked on the menu.

I am a teacher, so I am off in the summer. I told my sister to put posters up near her job. On June 19, we launched our business. It’s been rolling ever since.

P H OTO PR OV I D E D B Y A D R I A N E H I LL I A R D

It’s my sister and myself. My husband is a tremendous help. I have two daughters who are part of the business, and a niece, so it’s a family affair.

Crawfish is the theme. I wanted something that would be a niche for us and cause us to stand out from the crowd. During the pandemic, so many people started businesses cooking soul food or gumbo. I wanted us to be different. It’s Tail of Two Sisters, all things crawfish.

What is on your menu?

H: The first thing was the corn, crab and crawfish bisque. We also had crawfish pasta and crawfish egg rolls. Then we built the menu.

We took orders from my husband’s job and my sister’s job. I put it on Facebook and Instagram. They could pre-order. I never expected the amount of love and support that was shown.

The top seller is crawfish egg rolls. I roll them in the morning and then fry them at the markets. We also have crawfish quesadillas that I cook on the spot. The only thing we prep in advance is seafood lasagna and seafood pasta. Shalisa cooks the crawfish pasta and the crawfish pies. We offer a Cajunstyle egg roll with ground beef and cabbage. We serve that with my seafood fried rice.

I just added a brand-new item, a seafood-stuffed baked potato. We have shrimp, crawfish and a special sauce I created to go on top and lots of cheese. — WILL COVIELLO Find Tail of Two Sisters at facebook. com/tailoftwosisters and @tailoftwosisters_ on Instagram.

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3-COURSE INTERVIEW

OUT EAT TO

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Contact Will Coviello wcoviello@gambitweekly.com 504-483-3106 | FAX: 504-483-3159 C O M PL E T E L I S T I N G S AT W W W. B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M Out 2 Eat is an index of Gambit contract advertisers. Unless noted, addresses are in New Orleans and all accept credit cards.

Updates: email willc@gambitweekly.com or call (504) 483-3106.

Notice: Due to COVID-19, dining at restaurants is impacted, with limited indoor seating and other recommended restrictions. All information is subject to change. Contact the restaurant to confirm service options.

BYWATER Luna Libre — 3600 St. Claude Ave., (504) 237-1284 — Roasted chicken enchiladas verde are filled with cheese and served with house-made cheese dip. The menu combines Tex-Mex and dishes from Louisiana and Arkansas. Curbside pickup is available. Breakfast Sat.-Sun., dinner Wed.-Sun. $

CARROLLTON Mid City Pizza — 6307 S. Miro St., (504) 509-6224; midcitypizza.com — See MidCity section for restaurant description.

Takeout and delivery available. Lunch Thu.-Sun., dinner Thu.-Mon. $$ Mikimoto — 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 488-1881; mikimotosushi.com — The South Carrollton roll includes tuna tataki, avocado and snow crab. Takeout and delivery available. Lunch Sun.-Fri., dinner daily. $$ Pyramids Cafe — 3151 Calhoun St., (504) 861-9602 — Diners will find Mediterranean cuisine featuring such favorites as shawarma prepared on a rotisserie.

Takeout and delivery available. Lunch and 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. $

FAUBOURG MARIGNY Kebab — 2315 St. Claude Ave., (504) 3834328; kebabnola.com — The sandwich shop offers doner kebabs and Belgian fries. A falafel sandwich comes with pickled cucumbers, arugula, spinach, red onions, beets, hummus and Spanish garlic sauce. No reservations. Takeout and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Wed.-Mon. $

FRENCH QUARTER Desire Oyster Bar — Royal Sonesta New Orleans, 300 Bourbon St., (504) 586-0300; sonesta.com/desireoysterbar — The menu features Gulf seafood in traditional and contemporary Creole dishes, po-boys and more. Char-grilled oysters are topped with Parmesan, herbs and butter. Reservations recommended. Takeout available. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$

$ — average dinner entrée under $10 $$ — $11 to $20 $$$ — $21 or more

HARAHAN/JEFFERSON/ RIVER RIDGE The Rivershack Tavern — 3449 River Road, (504) 834-4938; therivershacktavern.com — This bar and music spot offers a menu of burgers, sandwiches and changing lunch specials. Curbside pickup and delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily. $ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 1212 S. Clearview Parkway, Elmwood, (504) 7333803; theospizza.com — There is a wide variety of specialty pies and toppings to build your own pizza. The menu also includes salads and sandwiches. Curbside pickup and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $

LAKEVIEW Lakeview Brew Coffee Cafe — 5606 Canal Blvd., (504) 483-7001; lakeviewbrew. com — This casual cafe offers coffee, pastries, desserts, sandwiches and salads. Tuna salad or chicken salad avocado melts are topped with Monterey Jack and Parmesan. Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery are available. Breakfast and lunch daily. $ Lotus Bistro — 203 W. Harrison Ave., (504) 533-9879; lotusbistronola.com — A Mineko Iwasaki roll includes spicy snow crab, tuna, avocado and cucumber topped with salmon, chef’s sauce, masago, green onion and tempura crunchy flakes. The menu also includes bento box lunches, teriyaki dishes, fried rice and more. Takeout and delivery are available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$

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.

Capelli D’Andrea combines house-made angel hair pasta and smoked salmon in cream sauce. Curbside pickup and delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily, brunch Sun. $$$ Kosher Cajun New York Deli & Grocery — 3519 Severn Ave., Metairie, (504) 888-2010; koshercajun.com — This New York-style deli specializes in sandwiches, including corned beef and pastrami that come from the Bronx. Takeout available. Lunch Sun.Thu., dinner Mon.-Thu. $ Mark Twain’s Pizza Landing — 2035 Metairie Road, Metairie, (504) 832-8032; marktwainpizza.com — Mark Twain’s serves salads, po-boys and pies like the Italian pizza with salami, tomato, artichoke, sausage and basil. Takeout and curbside pickup are available. Lunch Tue.-Sat., dinner Tue.-Sun. $ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 2125 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 510-

4282; theospizza.com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

MID-CITY/TREME Angelo Brocato’s — 214 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-1465; angelobrocatoicecream. com — This sweet shop serves its own gelato, spumoni, Italian ice, cannolis, fig cookies and other treats. Window and curbside pickup. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $ Brown Butter Southern Kitchen & Bar — 231 N. Carrollton Ave., Suite C, (504) 609-3871; brownbutterrestaurant.com — Sample items include smoked brisket served with smoked apple barbecue sauce, smoked heirloom beans and vinegar slaw. A Brunch burger features a brisket and short rib patty topped with bacon, brie, a fried egg, onion jam and arugula on a brioche bun. Dine-in, takeout, curbside pickup and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Wed.-Sat., brunch Sat.-Sun. $$ Doson Noodle House — 135 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 309-7283; facebook.com/ dosonnoodlehouse — Bun thit is Vietnamese-style grilled pork with cucumber, onions, lettuce, mint, cilantro and fish sauce served over rice or vermicelli. The menu includes pho, spring rolls and more.

Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery are available. $$ Five Happiness — 3511 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 482-3935; fivehappiness.com — The large menu of Chinese dishes includes wonton soup, sizzling seafood combinations served on a hot plate, sizzling Go-Ba and lo mein dishes. Takeout and delivery available. $$ Katie’s Restaurant — 3701 Iberville St., (504) 488-6582; katiesinmidcity.com — Favorites include the Cajun Cuban with roasted pork, grilled ham, cheese and pickles pressed on buttered bread. The Boudreaux pizza is topped with cochon de lait, spinach, red onions, roasted garlic and scallions. Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$ Mid City Pizza — 4400 Banks St., (504) 483-8609; midcitypizza.com — The neighborhood pizza joint serves New York-style pies, plus calzones, sandwiches and salads. Signature shrimp remoulade pizza includes spinach, red onion, garlic, basil and green onion on an garlic-olive oil brushed curst. Dine-in, takeout and delivery available. Lunch Thu.-Sun., dinner Thu.-Mon. $$ Neyow’s Creole Cafe — 3332 Bienville St., (504) 827-5474; neyows.com — The menu includes New Orleans favorites such as red beans with fried chicken or pork chops, as well as grilled or fried seafood plates, po-boys, raw or char-grilled oysters, pasta, salads and more. Dine-in and takeout available. Lunch daily, dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$ Nonna Mia — 3125 Esplanade Ave., (504) 948-1717; nonnamianola.com — A Divine Portobello appetizer features chicken breast, spinach in red pepper sauce and crostini. The menu includes salads, sandwiches, pasta, pizza and more. Curbside pickup and delivery are available. Dinner Tue.-Sun. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 4024 Canal St., (504) 302-1133; theospizza.com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

NORTHSHORE Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 70488 Highway 21, Covington, (985) 234-9420; theospizza.com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

UPTOWN CR Coffee Shop — 3618 Magazine St., (504) 354-9422; crcoffeenola.com — The selection includes Coast Roast coffees

made with beans roasted in antique roasters, and the sweet vanilla cream cold brew is a signature item. There also are pastries and snacks. Indoor and outdoor seating, online ordering and delivery available. Open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. $ Joey K’s — 3001 Magazine St., (504) 8910997; joeyksrestaurant.com ­— The menu includes fried seafood platters, salads, sandwiches and red beans and rice. Sauteed trout Tchoupitoulas is topped with shrimp and crabmeat and served with vegetables and potatoes. Takeout and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Mon.Sat., brunch Sun. $$ Red Gravy — 4206 Magazine St., (504) 561-8844; redgravycafe.com — Thin cannoli pancakes are filled with cannoli cream and topped with chocolate. The menu includes brunch items, pasta dishes, sandwiches, baked goods and more. Takeout available. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 4218 Magazine St., (504) 894-8554; theospizza. com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $ Tito’s Ceviche & Pisco — 5015 Magazine St., (504) 267-7612; titoscevichepisco.com — The Peruvian menu includes a version of the traditional dish lomo saltado, featuring beef tenderloin tips sauteed with onions, tomatoes, cilantro, soy sauce and pisco, and served with fried potatoes and rice.

Dine-in, outdoor seating and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$$

WAREHOUSE DISTRICT Annunciation — 1016 Annunciation St., (504) 568-0245; annunciationrestaurant. com — The menu highlights Gulf seafood in Creole, Cajun and Southern dishes.

Fried oysters and skewered bacon are served with meuniere sauce and toasted French bread. Reservations required.

Dinner Thu.-Sun. $$$ Carmo — 527 Julia St., (504) 875-4132; cafecarmo.com — Carmo salad includes smoked ham, avocado, pineapple, almonds, cashews, raisins, cucumber, green pepper, rice, lettuce, cilantro and citrus mango vinaigrette. The menu includes dishes inspired by tropical cuisines. Takeout and delivery are available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $$ NOLA Caye — 898 Baronne St., (504) 302-1302; nolacaye.com — The menu features Caribbean-inspired dishes and Gulf seafood. Seared ahi tuna is served with mango, avocado, mixed greens, citrus vinaigrette and sesame seeds. Takeout, delivery and outdoor seating available. D daily, brunch Sat.-Sun. $$$ Provisions Grab-n-Go Marketplace — Higgins Hotel, 500 Andrew Higgins Blvd., (504) 528-1941; higgingshotelnola.com — The coffeeshop serves salads, sandwiches, pastries and more. Takeout available.

Service daily. $

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, made with breadcrumbs and Italian seasonings. Curbside pickup available. Dinner Wed.-Sat. Cash only. $$$ Specialty Italian Bistro — 2330 Belle Chasse Hwy., Gretna, (504) 391-1090; specialtyitalianbistro.com — The menu combines Old World Italian favorites and pizza. Paneed chicken piccata is topped with lemon-caper piccata sauce served with angel hair pasta, salad and garlic cheese bread. Takeout and delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily. $$

25

MUSIC

SPRING STYLE

BY JAKE CLAPP

THE FASHION ISSUE All advertisers receive a

FREE Business feature RIGHT BEFORE CLAIRE GIVENS AND JEREMY PHIPPS started writing music

P H OTO PR OV I D E D B Y T H O M A S M C G OV E R N

together as People Museum, around 2015, the two were each experiencing dark times in their lives. Givens had recently left a band she was in and Phipps had stopped a solo music project and was leaving Los Angeles to return home to New Orleans.

A friend had introduced the two, thinking they should make music together — and they were right.

Givens, a vocalist, and Phipps, a trombone player, started writing and developed a ton of material for almost a year before they played a show.

The New Orleans electro-pop duo release the new EP “I Could Only See Night” on Friday, April 9. Three of the EP’s five tracks were written around that early time period.

The EP’s other two tracks were developed after Givens and Phipps started working with drummer and producer Aaron Boudreaux, who records under the name MoPodna.

People Museum didn’t set out to determine a theme for the EP, but natural connections became apparent for the release.

“It’s funny the album is coming out right now because [the past year] sort of mirrors that same moment,” Phipps says. “Where, I don’t know what’s going on, all of the puzzle pieces are scattered, and I don’t know what to do. I think in that way, it’s kind of full circle with this EP.” At first glance, it could be easy to read the title with a little gloom, but that would be misleading.

“There’s always a hopefulness to all of these songs,” Givens says. “There is a darkness and kind of a menace that we have in these new tracks, but it’s always got a dash of hope and joy, and you can dance to it. You’re in this thing that you can’t see your

Jeremy Phipps and Claire Givens are the duo behind People Museum. They release their new EP on Friday.

way out of, but you keep going and working because there is a way out.”

“It’s a double meaning for me, because the nighttime for me is a celebratory time,” Phipps adds. “I like the night.”

“I Could Only See Night” is a follow-up to People Museum’s “I Dreamt You in Technicolor” and the EP “I Made a Madman Out of Me and You Laughed,” which will be included on the vinyl version of the new release through Strange Daisy and Community Records.

Although Givens sings, Phipps plays the trombone and Boudreaux drums, each is credited with keys and drum programming on the EP. Musicians Charles Lumar II and Cassie Watson also are featured.

People Museum build on several synth-driven electronic music styles on “I Could Only See Night,” from the more meditative “Ice” to the faster House pace on the songs “Forever” and “Rush.” Givens’ voice and the brass sounds of Phipps’ trombone, filtered through effects, and Lumar’s tuba help the EP hold on to a warm touch.

“We are DIY, but we want this sound to be massive,” Givens says.

“We’re going for it as big as we can, but we can only go so big with the means that we have.”

People Museum recently released a video for the track “Forever,” directed by Riley Teahan. And the band will open for Big Freedia at the Broadside on Friday, April 9.

You can find the album at peoplemuseumband.com.

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SPACE RESERVATION

APRIL 16 ISSUE DATE

APRIL 27 Contact Ad Director Sandy Stein 504.483.3150 or sstein@gambitweekly.com

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Bringing light

PR OV I D E D B Y S A M U E L G O LDW Y N FI LM S

Herd mentality

BY WILL COVIELLO SIZE APPARENTLY DOES MATTER when gauging the

breeding capacity of a ram.

An unscientific gander at furry testicles the size of a small handbag distinguishes who the top studs are in “Rams,” an Australian comedy drama about brothers who are rival sheep farmers.

As the top breeders in a local livestock show, their rams get the most attention, but the brothers have barely spoken in years. The bloodline of their prized sheep is one of the few things that ties them together.

Sam Neill, who starred as the dashing paleontologist in the “Jurassic Park” movies, plays Colin Grimurson. He’s the younger brother and is more diligent and social. Michael Caton plays the older brother, Les, who with his shaggy gray beard and sagging body has let bitterness and alcoholism take over his life. The brothers maintain separate flocks of the same line of heritage sheep.

D!

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In a coincidental timeliness of the film’s release, it’s set in a world disrupted by plagues, natural disasters and resistance to change, government and science. A sheep disease has quietly infiltrated the region. In a dry season, massive fires rage through the forests and fields. The farmers are split over trust in the government and whether its solutions to the sheep illness are necessary or misguided rules imposed from afar. There’s even a bit of wrangling over species preference, as the heritage-line breeders look down their noses at the prospect of raising the more common and profitable Merino sheep — and worse, one farmer gets nothing but grief for having diversified into raising alpacas.

All of the chaos threatens to turn the brothers’ tense truce into a winner-take-all war.

The brothers’ best rams go head-to-head in a sheep judging contest, but problems arise when Colin suspects

Les’s ram has Ovine Johne’s Disease (OJD). That would be devastating, because the disease spreads long before a sheep shows symptoms, and the Australian government controls outbreaks by slaughtering affected herds. It has programs to compensate farmers, but the farmers would rather save their sheep.

“Rams” is an adaptation of the 2015 Icelandic film “Hrutar.”

It was filmed in the beautiful and rugged areas of western Australia, but with more starpower in the cast. It added

some comedy, much of it involving sheep reproduction and the dirty work of farming.

The brothers’ feud is complicated. Their homes are a stone’s throw apart, but they keep their distance. They practically share a sheepdog, which at times runs written messages between them like a carrier pigeon. Caring for sheep is the only thing they mutually respect. They barely talk to each other, and that both makes some of their silent discoveries visually powerful and also muffles the

drama of the film’s main thrust.

Sheep are a humorous choice for a grand battle between two stud farmers.

The film also touches on toxic masculinity. Colin has spent a lot of time isolated on his farm, and while he loves his sheep, he barely notices or tolerates overtures from Kat (Miranda Richardson), a local veterinarian torn between the farmers and assisting government efforts to control the outbreak.

Leon Ford is amusing as a technology-happy young bureaucrat. The humor there gets predictable at times, as he seems to care more about his smartphone reception than the prospect of destroying flocks of animals.

The drama hangs on what the various plagues push the brothers to do, and whether they would rather preserve the genes of their family or their family’s prized sheep. ”Rams” opens on April 9 at Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge.

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By Frank A. Longo 30 Endemic to 31 Bed for Baby 33 Pas’ partners 35 2006 Jack Black comedy 38 1999 Jason Biggs comedy 43 Psi preceder 44 1950s Ford 45 Hoped-for altar reply 46 Live wire 48 Airborne toy 50 Andrew Carnegie’s corp.

54 1970 Godfrey Cambridge comedy 59 Discoloration 60 Computer since 1998 62 Cellular stuff 63 Pipe mouth

64 Fly apart 65 Jazz singer Jones 67 Health resort 69 Unprocessed 70 1984 horror film based on a Stephen King story 76 Start-up loan org.

78 Cheyenne’s state: Abbr.

79 French painter Dufy 80 Grace under pressure 83 Attempts something 86 Big ball of energy 89 Bawled 90 Observers 91 1987 film about a Vietnam War battle 94 Fruity wine drink 96 Alan who played Pierce

97 Muscles worked by doing squats 99 Give a massage to 100 Kinda 103 Falsehood 105 1988 coming-of-age film co-starring Julia Roberts 110 1947 romantic comedy co-starring Claudette Colbert 113 1099 fig.

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68 Animal skins 71 2004-09 Showtime drama, with “The” 72 “— Towers” (telly sitcom) 73 Like sandals 74 Reveal one’s inner self 75 Mnemonic for rainbow colors 76 “Be quiet!”

77 Lamb’s cry 81 — Lanka 82 That, to Alejandra

84 Reduction 85 Soviet prison camp 87 Impelled 88 Puck-pushers’ org.

92 Addressee of a New Testament Epistle 93 Element name ending 95 Ellipse part 98 Declaration upon delivery of an item 100 Occupy, as a hotel 101 Electric resistance 102 Acid — (cause of heartburn) 104 Part of the plan 106 “By the power vested — ...”

107 Ones planning city partitions 108 Common lawn grass 109 One making others laugh 111 Decide to play for pay 112 Mosque chief 118 On — with 119 Toll hwy.

121 Roman 1,095 122 Org. rating films 126 Brian of rock 127 Actor Cariou 128 Train lines: Abbr.

DOWN 1 Upstate New York prison 2 Be injurious 3 Early baby 4 “Life of Pi” director Lee 5 Attire 6 List abbr.

7 Divisor, e.g.

8 Trash-talk 9 Fall 10 Not injurious 11 Eternally, in verse 12 Roofing straw 13 Fed’s interest increase, e.g.

14 Botany or history lead-in 15 Self-assured 16 Cute, in slang 17 Stannite, say 18 Glossy finish 21 Bed size 24 Cougar 32 Part of BBC 34 Invasive PC programs

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