Six groups of street musicians perform at Abita Springs Busker festival ä 5G
THE ST.TAMMANY
ADVOCATE
1G
WEDNESDAY APRIL 29, 2015 H
COVINGTON • FOLSOM • LACOMBE • MADISONVILLE • MANDEVILLE • SLIDELL THENEWORLEANSADVOCATE.COM
Sharon Edwards TAMMANY TIMES SEDWARDS@THEADVOCATE.COM
Celebrate Mom with art, music I call it Mother’s Day week. It all begins May 1, when we celebrate my mother Marlene Rice’s birthday. It concludes on Mother’s Day, after many great meals and visits with friends and family. Add to the mix two opportunities to see the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra that week in St. Tammany, led by rising young conductor Aram Demirjian. He has shared the stage with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and singer-songwriter Ben Folds, and the program promises music with wide appeal. Any mother can appreciate the chance to enjoy music and art at the two free, family-friendly outdoor concerts.
MOVING WORK Dance group marks comeback with Jazz Fest performance BY ANDREW CANULETTE Special to the Advocate
Javier Juarez admits there was a time not long after Hurricane Katrina pummeled the area in 2005 that he almost gave up on his award-winning dance studio in Slidell. “We had 3 feet of water in the studio (in the Brugier Addition near Olde Towne,) Juarez said. “We rebuilt rather quickly, within four months or so. I thought if we hurried up and got it open, we could pick up right where we left off.”
Nylyn Oubre, center, of Javier’s Dance Studio, and fellow dancers debut their performing group with a dance flashmob at the Presidents’ Arts Award.
ä For complete Jazz Fest coverage — including more photos, videos and performance times — see theneworleansadvocate.com The reality was, there weren’t many people in town then. “A lot of the students were still gone. The instructors had left. The costumes were ruined; the sound system was gone. I was very tempted to close the doors and just say ‘I’m done.’ ” Luckily for the local dance community, Juarez decided to stick with the studio he opened in Slidell nearly 30 years ago. And slowly, but surely, as Slidell began to re-
build, students returned to him to learn ballet, jazz and ballroom dancing, among a host of different styles. Now, nearly a decade after Katrina almost broke his practically indomitable spirit, Juarez said Javier Dance Studio will once again be home to a permanent performance group — the first time since the storm that the studio can äSee DANCE, page 3G
Advocate staff photo by SCOTT THRELKELD
Mandeville
PINCHING TAILS BY THE POUND
Old, new homes on Mother’s Day tour BY SHARON EDWARDS
sedwards@theadvocate.com
‘Some Enchanted Evening’
Held at sunset on Bayou Bonfouca, the LPO’s 13th annual concert, “Some Enchanted Evening,” will be held from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Heritage Park, 1701 Bayou Lane in Slidell. People can bring their ice chests, picnic baskets, blankets and chairs or enjoy the on-site catering. An Enchanted Art Walk begins at 4 p.m., with artists and their works on-site. Public parking and a shuttle is available from the corner of Bayou Lane and Pennsylvania Avenue. In the event of rain, the concert moves to Slidell Municipal Auditorium, 2056 Second St. For information, visit myslidell.com.
Advocate staff photos by SCOTT THRELKELD
Crawfish fans chow down on April 18 during the Hospice Foundation of the South’s 12th annual Crawfish Cook-Off at Fritchie Park in Slidell.
T
hrough rain, mud and shine, 60 teams cooked up 50,000 pounds of crawfish at the 12th annual Crawfish Cook-Off held in Fritchie Park in Slidell. Once the rain cleared, the competition turned out crowds for all-you-can-eat crawfish and live music to benefit the Hospice Foundation of the South. The annual event has helped build the St. Tammany Hospice House and will help to maintain it. The Wal-Mart Rollbacks won first place, with In-Telecom Consulting placing second, and Pai Gow placing third. Volume boiler winner was the Atmos team. Best decorated was Cass Marine Tugs N Bugs. Call (985) 643-5479 or email miranda@ hospicefoundationofthesouth.org.
‘Swing in the Pines’
The Bogue Falaya River has for more than a decade been the setting for the LPO performance “Swing in the Pines.” The concert begins at 6 p.m. Saturday, May 9, at Bogue Falaya Park, 213 Park Drive in Covington. Gates open at 4 p.m., and audience members are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, blankets and refreshments. Rain date is Sunday, May 10. The LPO will host a Musician Meet and Greet from 5:15 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. to give children an opportunity to meet the professional musicians and view several of their musical instruments. New this year is a student art exhibit, “A Tribute to Mothers,” in honor of Mother’s Day. The city of Covington invites young artists, ages 5 to 18, to submit works for the art exhibit by Tuesday. Artwork must be original, two-dimensional pieces and can be brought to the Covington Trailhead, 419 N. New Hampshire St., from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The art will be on display in a tent during the concert, then moves to the Trailhead Museum, where it will remain on display through June 15. For information, call (985) 867-1202 or email afaucheux@covla.com. Sharon Edwards is community news editor of the New Orleans Advocate.
Crawfish fans get down to Lil Jon and DJ Snake’s hit ‘Turn Down For What,’ at the Crawfish Cook-Off at Fritchie Park in Slidell.
ä See more photos from the cook-off at www.theneworleansadvocate.com/community
The nonprofit Old Mandeville Historic Association has come a long way since it began its annual Mother’s Day Home Tours. When Adele Foster and her husband, Mark, bought a circa-1859 home on Lakeshore Drive in 2006, there were no protections for historic homes. It was slated to be torn down by the owner, she said, who did not want to repair damage from Hurricane Katrina. Many historic homes were demolished before the Historic Association was established in 2009, and the area designated a Historic District in spring 2013. Now, almost 50 historic site plaques have been installed by OMHA throughout the district bounded by Lakeshore Drive and Florida Street, and Jackson Avenue and Galvez Street. The 2015 Mother’s Day Home Tour will be held from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 10. Foster said their restored home, the Numa Augustine-Foster House, 2135 Lakeshore Drive, is the “poster house” of this year’s tour of “Creole Houses, Old and New.” Tickets are $20 for adults and $12 for students. Nancy Clark, tour chairwoman and OMHA vice president, said the Fosters’ home was last seen four years ago for the “Up in the Air Tour” of elevated historic homes. The tour also features a new home that has been built in the historic style and a “drive-by” of a historic home undergoing renovation. “It’s what the Historic Association wants to see,” to help preserve the area, Clark said. Also on the tour is one of the äSee HOMES, page 8G
Tennis tourney raises $18K for aneurysm awareness The sixth annual Aces Against place April 26. While the support made Aneurysms Tennis Tournatournament founder Becky ment proved to be a smashing Winchell smile, what made her success, with approximately most proud was that two special $18,000 raised in doubles women were able to take events for both men and part in this year’s event, women. thanks in part to the work That’s approximately of Winchell’s self-started double what the tournonprofit — the Brain Supnament raised in past port NOLA organization. years, thanks in part to Cindy Kemp, 67, sufgenerous sponsors and fered an aneurysm four players. months ago but was a After being rained out chief organizer of the 2015 a week earlier, the wom- REC & LEISURE Aces Against Aneurysms en took to the courts at ANDREW Tournament. And Connie Mandeville’s Pelican CANULETTE L. Gaines, 50, had two anAthletic Club on April eurysms nearly 10 years 20. The men, who had been asking for a tournament of ago, but she was able to play in their own, finally got their wish, this year’s tournament. For Kemp, who lives in and that competition was to take
Madisonville, her ability to help Winchell, an aneurysm survivor herself, was a tremendous step. “It happened to me on Dec. 15,” Kemp said. “I was taking a shower, minding my own business, rinsing my hair, and all of a sudden, it was like someone hit me in the back of the head with a baseball bat. I was able to get out of the shower and yell for my husband,” she recalled. “From being in this tournament in the past, and hearing bits and pieces of what Becky went through and the signs to recognize when you’re having an aneurysm, I knew something about what was happening,” she said. “Honestly, I would have been completely lost without the in-
formation I learned in this tournament. I thought I was going to die right then and there.” Aneurysms are abnormal widenings of arteries. A bulging sac forms and can burst, resulting in massive bleeding. People who have an aneurysm typically are born with them, and it sometimes can take decades before causing a problem, if ever. An estimated 6 million people (1 in 50 Americans) have an unruptured aneurysm. If they do rupture, they can be mistaken for a sinus headache, a migraine or a toothache. But, of course, the consequences are much more dire in the case of aneurysm. When Winchell suffered her aneurysm six years ago, the 48-year old Mandeville resident
made it her mission to educate the public on the facts. She started the tennis tournament shortly after her episode and has watched the charity event grow in size and stature among the tennis community. Both men’s and women’s brackets were filled this year, and players came from as far as Natchez, Mississippi, to play. The money raised at this year’s tournament will go primarily to funding of patient education materials — much like the ones that Kemp said helped her alert doctors to what was happening to her last December. Gaines, a semi-retired MeräSee TOURNEY, page 2G