Country Roads Magazine "The Film Issue" November 2023

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Introducing

�e St. Francisville Inn's latest addition and Louisiana's newest Luxury Inn

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Contents

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Introduction

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Features

32

REFLECTIONS Home Movies

by James Fox-Smith

NEWS & NOTEWORTHIES French news, virtual production at LSU, and the new Civil Rights museum

Events

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PLENTY TO SEE Fall fests, film fests, and the first flurries of the holidays

37 44

SOUTHERN GOTHIC, BUT CAJUN Cory St. Ewart’s new short uses Louisiana folklore to bring local culture to the arthouse screen

by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

Publisher

James Fox-Smith

Associate Publisher

Ashley Fox-Smith

THINGS WELL-DOCUMENTED 6 Louisiana-made documentaries we’ve got our eyes on

by Alexandra Kennon

Managing Editor

Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

Arts & Entertainment Editor

Alexandra Kennon

THE “RAIDERS” KIDS The story of three ‘80s Ocean Springs teenagers who recreated Spielberg’s masterpiece scene for scene

by Cherie Ward

Creative Director

Kourtney Zimmerman

Contributors:

Mimi Greenwood Knight, Shelby McClure, Ted Talley, Chris Turner-Neal, Joseph Vidrine, Cherie Ward

On the Cover

ON THE SET OF “EVANGELINE” Edwin Carewe, producer-director of the 1929 film Evangeline starring Dolores Del Rio, with Robert Kurrle, A.S.C. filming a dusk shot; from the June 19, 1929 issue of American Cinematographer

In 1929, Texas director Edwin Carewe set out to create a silent film version— starring Mexican actress Dolores del Río—of Cleveland Broadway producer Arthur Hopkins’s play, which was adapted from New England poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem Evangeline. To this day, Longfellow’s poem remains the best-known work of art concerning the experience of the Acadians during the Deportation and ultimate journey to Louisiana.

Almost a century later, Lafayette filmmaker Cory St. Ewart decided that he wanted his Southern Gothic version of the Evangeline story to be told

by Louisianans—and subsequently gave the role of the iconic character to a French-speaking Cajun musician, who sings one of her original songs about conjuring magic in the Louisiana wilderness. (Read more on page 32.)

It’s true that 2023 has been a difficult year for the film industry nationwide, but we are honored to use this issue to celebrate the work of local stories, told in film, by Louisianans.

Cuisine

48

CROP TO POP A popcorn farm in Mississippi, plus two recipes from regional chefs

by Mimi Greenwood Knight

Culture

52 54

FILM = JOBS A difficult year for Louisiana’s film industry

by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

A FILM FEST CALENDAR Celebrations of independent filmmaking across Hollywood South

by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

57

CHINESE NEW YEAR A review of Casey O’Banion’s latest novel

by Chris Turner-Neal

Escapes

58

THE BEST LITTLE HOLLYWOOD IN TEXAS Waxahachie, and all its film history, calls.

by Ted Talley

Perspectives

62

“ABOLITION PLAYGROUND” kai lumumba barrow’s installation for Prospect New Orleans’s Artists for Public Memory Commission

by Alexandra Kennon

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Advertising

SALES@COUNTRYROADSMAG.COM

Sales Team

Heather Gammill & Heather Gibbons

Operations Coordinator

Camila Castillo

President

Dorcas Woods Brown

Country Roads Magazine 758 Saint Charles Street Baton Rouge, LA 70802 Phone (225) 343-3714 Fax (815) 550-2272 EDITORIAL@COUNTRYROADSMAG.COM WWW.COUNTRYROADSMAG.COM

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Copyrighted. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without permission of the publisher. The opinions expressed in Country Roads magazine are those of the authors or columnists and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, nor do they constitute an endorsement of products or services herein. Country Roads magazine retains the right to refuse any advertisement.

Country Roads cannot be responsible for delays in subscription deliveries due to U.S. Post Office handling of third-class mail.

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Reflections FROM THE PUBLISHER

L

ike virtually every household in 21st century America, ours contains a cache of obsolete electronic devices. Incongruously, our cache lives in a century-old roll-top desk, two drawers of which are packed with sedimentary layers of defunct phones, cracked tablets, and coffee-stained laptops, all enmeshed in a dense latticework of cables. Through the years, this collection has accumulated for the same reasons that I imagine it does in everyone’s home: the devices were expensive to buy. They still worked when they were put in the drawer. And they just might harbor sensitive personal information, state secrets, cute pet photos, or all of the above … but nobody can remember for sure. For all these reasons and more, these things are hard to throw away. Still, my wife and I have been on a bit of a throwing-thingsaway bender lately (I understand this is a common response to the youngest child leaving for college), so on a recent weekend I opened these drawers with the intention of clearing out the collection. I didn’t get far.

The iPad was one of the large, early models that dated from about 2011. Its screen was cracked, and it was heavily battered, despite being shrouded in one of those chunky, rubber protective cases that suggests exposure to military conflict or young children. Surprisingly, when another fishing expedition into the drawer produced the matching power cable and I plugged the iPad in, the thing started up.

My intention had been to start each device and erase the contents before taking it somewhere for recycling.

But since the iPad was the first device that emerged, my mistake was to open its photo album. In there was a series of home movies made by our kids and their cousins—who are also our neighbors—when the four of them were aged between about six and nine.

Country kids, they were growing up in an off-grid location which has only gotten reliable internet access this year and still hasn’t come to the attention of cell phone providers. So, these kids spent their childhoods in a kind of digital dark age that the glittering distractions of modern entertainment never quite caught up with. When we first got this iPad, I remember the kids being overjoyed. But since there wasn’t any internet for it to connect

to, the thrill of photographing each other, or playing whatever little games the device had installed, quickly wore off. Deprived of the on-demand kids’ entertainment streaming to their city-dwelling brethren, the kids set out to make their own. Their movie plot— some kind of wild-west-whodunnitwith-fairy-princess-and-evil-dog murder mystery—involved every outfit in their costume collection, and played out in a series of shakily filmed scenes that involved much waving of swords, running through long grass, getting variously captured, threatened, and rescued; and dramatic dying. It was inadvertently hilarious and mostly awful, calling to mind Oscar Wilde’s quote that life imitates art far more than art imitates life. The best part, if you don’t count the sight of our then-six-

year-old son trying to look menacing while stuffed into a Scooby-Doo outfit made for a toddler, is the background commentary. In one scene, in which the heroine/princess is tied to a tree as the crazed hound (snarling in falsetto) approaches, we hear the cameraman (in this case our kids’ cousin, Layson) squeak, “Oh no! Battery at one percent.

Quick … Somebody die!”

Twelve years on, with three of the four stars away at college and nary a princess or Scooby Doo costume to be found, the kids’ home movie mightn’t be great art, but it stirs the imagination all the same. While we’re pretty sure none of the cast members are destined for a career in the entertainment industry, who knows how their adventures in backyard moviemaking might have readied them for the lives to come?

As Eric Zala, co-creator of the iconic Raiders of the Lost Ark fan film says in Cherie Ward’s (terrific) profile story on page 44 of this issue, “Life is forever unexpected, but then it reveals itself and you find you’re right where you need to be.” So, just in case, that iPad is going back into its drawer for a few years longer.

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

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Noteworthy

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N E W S , T I M E LY T I D B I T S , A N D

LO O K C LO S E R

ASSORTED CURIOSITIES

•

On the Frontier of Virtual Production LSU’S XR STUDIO IS BREAKING GROUND IN FILM TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION

Still from the online children’s program Keepsake, created by Jason Jamerson using the technology of LSU’s XR studio. Courtesy of Jamerson.

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n 2019 when Jon Favreau’s Star Wars spin-off series, The Mandalorian, premiered, the average viewer was likely more captivated by trending “Baby Yoda” memes than the film’s special effects, which—while magnificent—seem at first glance par-forthe course for modern big-budget movie making.

Meanwhile, within the film industry, The Mandalorian was debuting the biggest paradigm shift in film and television production since the introduction of green screen.

The innovative system used to create the world of The Mandalorian on screen—developed by the visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)—brings together video game engine and video wall technology in a confluence being termed “on-set virtual production”.

The technology utilizes an LED screen and real time, in-camera visual effects to increase imaginative possi-

bilities, while also streamlining the creative process to reduce needs, in some cases, to film on-location or coordinate complex lighting scenarios in volatile environments. It also gives actors the chance to directly interact within the virtual environments of the scene they are shooting, as opposed to static green walls.

In the four years since The Mandalorian’s groundbreaking premiere, virtual production has gained significant traction and is being used in almost half of television and film projects today.

At Louisiana State University, media technology experts didn’t miss a beat. In 2021, Derick Ostrenko, an Associate Professor in the College of Art + Design, and Marc Aubanel, the Director of the Digital Media Arts + Engineering Program, applied for a grant from the Louisiana Economic Development Entertainment Development Fund for the development of a new curriculum to support student learning in the quickly-evolving space of digital storytelling.

Seeing the potential of investing in future talent and in our growing local film industry, LED awarded the university a five-year grant of $1.25 million to establish the LSU Virtual Production Program, complete with a state-of-the-art XR Studio, featuring the same cutting-edge technology used in productions like The Mandalorian.

“There are only a couple of universities in the country that have these facilities,” said Jason Jamerson, who has been serving as the Director of the XR Studio at LSU’s Digital Media Center since its completion in the Spring of 2022. “It’s basically an educational, hands-on laboratory, where we’re working in whatever is state-of-the-art

in creating media today.”

The studio features a full-scale LED wall with motion-capture technology, and has already been used by students in a range of disciplines in seven of the University’s colleges—ranging from Digital Art, to Electrical Engineering, to Screen Arts. Students have shot music videos, documentaries, commercials, and even used the technology to elevate performances such as aerial silks and dance—using the wall’s motion-tracking technology to create backdrops that respond to body movements or music. “There’s such a wide variety of ways we can have an interaction between the digital world and the real,” said Jamerson.

Placing LSU at the forefront of education and experimentation in this field, the Virtual Production Program is already preparing students for a range of career opportunities, from filmmaking, to animation, to 3D modeling, and more—even beyond film and television.

Jamerson noted that the studio is already involved in a $7.5 million grant project for NASA, producing a digital twin of the 2-million-square-foot Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

“Basically what we try to do with the XR studio is to find the world between the digital world where we can achieve anything,” said Jamerson, “and the real world where we can be present in it and tell stories and create media.”

Learn more about LSU’s Virtual Production program at dmae.lsu.edu.

—Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

A Launchpad to Discover Civil Rights History THE LOUISIANA CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM ARRIVES AT THE MORIAL CONVENTION CENTER IN NEW ORLEANS.

F

rom the 1967 Bogalusa to Baton Rouge March, to the sit-ins organized by Southern University students in 1960, to Freedom Fighters strategizing over bowls of Leah Chase’s gumbo, civil rights history was made all across the Louisiana landscape. The Louisiana Civil Rights Trail marks many such locations, reminding visitors of the courage and tenacity that carried Black Louisianans through the eras of slavery and Jim Crow to today. On October 8, the Louisiana Civil Rights Museum opened in the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, providing a space to educate the public about all of Louisiana’s groundbreaking and heartrending civil rights history with the help of images, text, and audio and video components.

Offering such an intentional home for this history so prominently in downtown New Orleans is important, according to Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, “To tell the story of what we've discovered through the Civil 8

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Rights Trail, and much of what the country and other states brag about started right here—those heroes that stood up and sat down right here in Louisiana, deserve the recognition.”

Nungesser was particularly moved to share such stories after a Civil Rights Trail plaque was presented bearing the name of local civil rights trailblazer Dr. Johnnie Jones. “...to be able to recognize Dr. Jones, and see him cry seeing his name on that plaque…” Nungesser recalled. In the wake of Jones’ death in May of 2022, the urgency to recognize figures like him while they are able to appreciate the honor is evident.

The hope is that the Louisiana Civil Rights Museum will serve as a starting point from which visitors can explore other sites on the Louisiana Civil Rights Trail.

“We're on a mission to get as many of these stories captured as possible. But I thought it was important to open this museum now, as a kick-off point. I'm hoping to see one- two- and three-day tours all over Louisiana, much

like they do in Alabama and Mississippi, that will help bring tourists all over the state,” Nungesser said. “But not only for their tourism dollars—it'll tell a story.”

The state is also creating accompanying educational materials that will be available to download and utilize by schools, churches, and at home, “To capture these moments and tell the story from the people that lived it,” according to Nungesser. The fact that the launch-point for it all is centered in the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center named for New Orleans’s first African American mayor—whose son and mother attended the ribbon cutting on October 7—is particularly special.

“It's going to be something that will live on for generations,” said Nungesser.

Learn more at louisianastatemuseum. org/louisiana-civil-rights-museum Louisianacivilrightstrail.com —Alexandra Kennon

Some News, en Français FRENCH NEWS IS BACK IN LOUISANA, IN A BIG WAY

I

n 1925, Louisiana’s last French-language newspaper, l’Abeille de la Nouvelle Orleans folded after ninety-eight years in publication. This past September, after ninety-eight years with an exclusively English-language newspaper landscape, Louisiana can once again read regular news in French, as well as in Creole, via the new digital publication Le Louisianais, which works in collaboration with the French media platform Télé-Louisiane.

Helmed by longtime Country Roads contributor Jonathan Olivier as editor-in-chief, deputy editor Aurélie Saulnier, and a host of local language activists and writers that include David Cheramie, Megan Broussard, and Joseph Dunn—the publication will not only produce articles written in Louisiana French and Creole (made accessible to English-only speakers as well through a translate toggle on the website), but also will focus on news directly impacting French- and Creole-speaking communities around the state and offer educational resources for English-speaking Louisianans interested in learning these languages.

“If you look at virtually every community in Canada where French speakers are the minority outside of Quebec, such as in Nova Scotia or Ontario, there is a Fran-

cophone newspaper to serve these people,” said Olivier.

“Although Louisiana remains a region with a vibrant French-speaking population, we really haven’t had local journalism in French since the early 20th century. So, Le Louisianais functions as a voice for our communities of heritage language speakers, and it provides these people a space to express themselves in French or Creole. This expression is vital to the evolution and advancement of our French and Creole-speaking communities.”

Beyond the written word, Télé-Louisiane is also bringing French news back to Louisianans’ televisions with the return of Louisiana Public Broadcasting’s weekly La Veillée news segments. The program, which premiered its first season in 2022 and instantly received international acclaim via online streaming, brings stories from Louisiana’s French and Creole-speaking communities to the screen, delivered in Louisiana French (with English subtitles). Season 1 featured stories covering Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, efforts to save rural Louisiana schools in Grand Caillou and Catahoula, French radio in Acadiana, and more.

Season 2 of La Veillée premiered on October 5, celebrating the recent opening of École Pointe-au-Chien, the country’s first Indigenous French immersion school,

and has featured episodes on the diverse Creole community of Pointe Coupée Parish, alligator hunting with Swamp People’s Troy Landry, and the struggles of the local shrimping industry.

“What makes La Veillée so special isn’t just that it’s almost exclusively in Louisiana French (or Louisiana Creole),” explained host and Télé-Louisiane’s Chief Executive Officer Will McGrew, “but also the show’s uniquely Louisianist angle of storytelling. We try to tell stories that are broadly appealing, relevant, and interesting to people across Louisiana but at the same time relatively undercovered in mainstream local and national TV media.”

New episodes of La Veillée are broadcast on LPB on Thursdays at 7:45 pm, and previously-aired episodes can be watched at lpb.org/programs/la-viellee or telelouisiane.com/laveillee. And look out for future stories in Le Louisianais published in partnership between Télé-Louisiane and Country Roads.

—Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

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This holiday season, tackle all of your gift shopping with a weekend getaway to Ridgeland. Choose from 17 hotels, 150+ restaurants, and an array of shopping in this small vibrant town with big city vibes.

Book your next visit to Ridgeland at www.visitridgeland.com/stay

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Events

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FOOD, MUSIC, AND GUIDE

TO

THE

ARTWORK REIGN

SUPREME

THIS

FESTIVALS, GALAS, AND SHOWS

SW E A T E R W E A T H E R

Christmas Pilgrimage 2023 Tour of Historic Homes

AUTUMN—HERE'S OUR

CELEBRATING

THEM. •

Friday, November 24 - Saturday, December 31 Natchez, Mississippi

The Houses The Towers Magnolia Hall Sunnyside Linden Myrtle Terrace Ellicott's Hill Monmouth Dunleith Choctaw Hall

Special Events

Allumer Natchez will emlighten Natchez's downtown and bluff with light-based contemporary art installations by talented artists from across Mississippi, Louisiana, and beyond; alongside a full-blown festival. Photo of a visitor viewing "Metaflora" by Courtney Egan at Allumer Natchez, 2022; courtesy of Allumer Natchez. See listing on page 20.

UNTIL NOV 5th

GREEK LIFE ANTIGONE PRESENTED BY THE GIRLS OF ST. CATHERINE’S AT THE LSU STUDIO THEATRE Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Brought to you by LSU Lab Season, plays produced entirely by students, is an adaptation of Madhuri Shekar’s enthralling play Antigone Presented by the Girls of St. Catherine’s. The story follows Catholic school girls in a drama club experiencing the loathsome betrayal of their director, while also exploring the complexity of relationships and moral dilemmas. Watch this powerful performance at LSU’s Studio Theater. 7:30 pm; 2 pm Sunday. $22; $9 for students. lsu.edu. •

UNTIL DEC 31st

LIFE OF ART CELEBRATE! JUDI BETTS 60 YEAR WATERCOLOR RETROSPECTIVE AT LSU MOA Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge watercolor artist Judi

Betts has claimed over one hundred awards for her paintings, most of which impressionistically capture the natural beauty and scenes from daily life in South Louisiana. An exhibition in the LSU Museum of Art foyer and the Manship Gallery at the Shaw Center celebrates sixty years of her paintings, tracing her journey as an artist from the early years of her career through the present day. A reception will be held from 5 pm– 7 pm on the first and fifth f loors. Free. lsumoa.org. •

UNTIL JAN 19th

ABSTRACT LOVE LETTERS SHADES OF LOUISIANA AT BRASS BY CIRCA 1857 Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge artist Joe Mustachia's work utilizes bright colors and bold brush strokes to explore his deep passion for his home state, from the landscapes to cuisine and beyond. Now, his abstract expressionist love letters to Louisiana are

on display at Brass by Circa 1857. brassbr.com. •

UNTIL APR 21st

TICKETS

littleeasytours.com or at each house

601.443.9065

natchezgardenclub.org

See nine exceptional Historic Homes from the late 1700s to the mid 1800s: Some large and grand, some small and exquisite, all beautifully decorated. These houses are worthy, interesting and have great stories to tell. Visit, enjoy and get in the holiday spirit!

SEEING STARS THE ART OF LOOKING UP AT LASM Baton Rouge, Louisiana

In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Irene W. Pennington Planetarium, the Louisiana Art and Science Museum presents The Art of Looking Up: Following the Stars, from Ancient Cultures to the Webb, a new exhibition showcasing impressive artworks from LASM’s private collection, the LSU Museum of Art, and the Hilliard Art Museum, including pieces

by Salvador Dalí. Humans have been mesmerized by the night sky from the dawn of civilization to the invention of the James Webb Space Telescope, and this exhibit explores our long history of searching the stars to understand the universe. lasm.org. •

Available for Group Tours, Weddings and Candlelight Dinners 601-443-9065 The Natchez Garden Club 215 S Pearl Street, Natchez natchezgardenclub.org AND DON'T MISS Spring Pilgrimage Tour of Historic Homes March 8–April 29, 2024

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Events

Beginning November 2 - November 3 nd

NOV 2nd - NOV 3rd

VAUDEVILLIANS BRITANICK FEATURING WHAT NOW? New Orleans, Louisiana

Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher make up the award-winning comedy duo BriTANicK, who regularly sell-out shows in New York and L.A. with their chaotically hilarious, fast-paced, two-man sketch show. This month, you can catch them at Le Petit Theatre in the French Quarter. Recommended for those over the age of sixteen. 8 pm. Tickets start at $15. lepetittheatre.com. •

NOV 2

nd

- NOV 5

th

LOCAL BEACONS LIGHTHOUSE FESTIVAL Berwick, Louisiana

The Town of Berwick again sets up along the riverfront for a festival of local libations, arts and crafts, cook-offs, and a carnival—not to mention a bike ride, tours of the Berwick Heritage Museum, the Cypress Car Club Car Show, and Mass on the Riverfront on Sunday. Enjoy live music all weekend long by local

rd

virtual screening; $350 for all access passes; $100 for all access virtual passes; $80 for 6 Film Pass; $60 for student/ teacher pass. Find the complete schedule at neworleansfilmsociety.org. •

favorites Cliff Hillibran, the Chee-Weez, Geno Delafose, Chase Tyler, and more. cajuncoast.com. •

NOV 3rd

NOV 2nd - NOV 12th

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

SILVER SCREEN NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL New Orleans, Louisiana

The New Orleans Film Festival returns to venues across the Crescent City with over 150 films, ready to celebrate the work of emerging and established filmmakers from as near as down the street and as far as across the ocean.

Forty-nine of the films premiering at this year's event are by Louisiana filmmakers, who represent 22% of the lineup. Some of these include Commuted by Nailah Jefferson, The Precipice by Ben Johnson and LPB, and Born to Fly by Brennan Robideaux. In addition to screenings, this Oscar-qualifying event will feature panels, filmmaker pitches, programs, parties, and more. In-person screenings will take place from November 2–7, and a majority of the lineup will also be available via the NOFF Virtual Cinema through November 12. $15 per in-person screening; $8 per

TICKLING IVORIES THE SETH FINCH TRIO AT CHORUM HALL The Seth Finch Trio will perform in the intimate setting of Chorum Hall, with Simon Lott on drums an Max Moran on Bass. 7:30 pm. $15–$35 at bontempstix. com. •

NOV 3rd

GIRL DINNER WINE & CHEESE FÊTE Covington, Louisiana

Enjoy an evening of elegance and indulgence at the Southern Hotel for Covington Supermarket’s annual Acquitapace’s Wine and Cheese Fête. In addition to a curated assortment of wines from all over the world, Veuve Clicquot, Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, craft cocktails, sophisticated food, and live music will be featured. 6:30 pm– 9:30 pm. $125 in advance; $150 at door. acquistapace.com. •

NOV 3rd

NOV 3rd

GALA-VANTING JEFFERSON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION GALA Kenner, Louisiana

Get ready to glam up, groove, and give back at the Jefferson Community Foundation’s Annual Gala, taking place at the Chateau Golf and Country Club. This night will be packed with entertainment including live music, a buffet dinner, and an open bar. Proceeds will benefit projects that focus on the needs of the Jefferson Parish community including education, race equity, and wellness for all. 8 pm–10 pm. $250– $1000. jeffersoncommunity.org. •

VIVA LA MEXICO NOCHE DE MUERTOS GALA New Orleans, Louisiana

Adorn yourself in vibrant colors, f lower crowns, and sugar skull face paint at the New Orleans Jazz Museum for “Noche de Muertos at the Museum,” a gala organized in conjunction with the Mexican consulate. The night promises to be a celebration of culture, an immersive experience including traditional Mexican dishes and drinks as well as live music.

Prizes will be awarded to those who don the most imaginative Day of the Dead attire. 7 pm–10 pm. $100. nolajazzmuseum.org. •

LIFE IS music

01MK7923 08/23

For life’s moments, big and small.

We’re here with the strength of the cross, the protection of the shield.

The Right Card. The Right Care.

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NOV 3rd

NOV 3rd - NOV 5th

Folsom, Louisiana

Mandeville, Louisiana

Local artists have been putting brush to canvas (and other mediums, too) to depict pets and the other animals who so enrich our lives. To celebrate the opening of Far Horizon Gallery's juried exhibition, Animals in Art, The Giddy Up is hosting a special evening of artist booths, local food, live music, and more.

6 pm–9 pm. Free. farhorizonsart.com. •

Learn about the many ways cultural identity can be expressed through headwear as you walk through this exhibition at the Alexandria Museum of Art, which features around eightynine different headdresses and hats from across forty-three different countries. An opening reception will be held at 6 pm. themuseum.org. •

The Ozone Music Foundation returns with its annual Ozone Songwriter Festival, spotlighting over one hundred local, regional, and national songwriters—from skilled amateurs to chart-topping Nashville songwriters— while raising money for music youth education. The Ozone Songwriter Festival is the first of its kind, a three-day, Nashville-style songwriter circle music festival. The melodies start with the songwriter showcase at Spoke & Barrel Brewpup on Friday. Doors open at 6:45 pm; $60; $125 for VIP, which includes a meet and greet, dinner, and wine and beer. Saturday and Sunday consist of the songwriters' workshops—focusing on Performance (Saturday 9–noon) and Home Studio & Professional Production (Sunday 10:30 am–12:30 pm). All the while, visitors can enjoy live performances featuring genres ranging from Country to Folk to Pop to Afro-Caribbean and everything in between at the Trailhead.

And it's all free. ozonemusic.org. •

NOV 3rd - NOV 4th

NOV 3rd - NOV 5th

FURRY MUSES ANIMALS IN ART EXHIBITION OPENING AT FAR HORIZON

NOV 3rd

HATS OFF THE GLOBAL LANGUAGE OF HEADWEAR AT AMOA Alexandria, Louisiana

LITERARY TAKEOVERS FESTIVAL OF WORDS Grand Coteau, Louisiana

Grand Coteau's annual Festival of Words returns, featuring readings by nationally-renowned author Dante Stewart, musician and composer Charlie Rauh, and poet Ken Hada.

Outside of those, participants can partake in creative writing workshops in public schools and community centers; a community stage for open mics; “Drive-by Poetry” pouring forth from grocery stores, boutiques, and restaurants; plus many opportunities to interact with authors. For complete schedule of events, including workshops by presenting authors, visit festivalofwords.org. •

NOV 3rd - NOV 5th

ECLECTIC FINDS PONCHATOULA ANTIQUE TRADE DAYS AND ARTS/ CRAFTS FAIR Ponchatoula, Louisiana

Head to Ponchatoula's downtown commuter lot, where you will find hundreds of vendors selling everything from antiques, to collectibles, to repurposed arts and crafts, to handmade food treats from across the South. It's the longstanding Ponchatoula tradition known as "trade days". 9 am–5 pm. ponchatoulachamber.com. •

ORIGINAL MUSIC OZONE SONGWRITER FESTIVAL

NEW TUNES MUSCLE SHOALS SONGWRITERS FESTIVAL Florence, Alabama

Muscle Shoals, Alabama is legendary in the music world for the recordings that have been produced by FAME Studios—including those by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Elvis, Mick Jagger, and other musical powerhouses. And now, entering its fourth year, Muscle Shoals is celebrating music and songwriting with the Muscle Shoals Songwriters Festival, presented by The Muscle Shoals Songwriters Foundation. The weekend of music will highlight more than thirty songwriters, who will showcase original music at venues throughout Muscle Shoals, including Lost Pizza, Swampers Terrace, Flobama Music Hall, Champy's, and more. The larger shows and main festival location will take place at the Marriott Shoals Conference Center. $40 for headliner show only; $75 for one-day pass; $100 for weekend pass; plus, VIP options available. Find the schedule and more information at mssongfest.com. •

CALENDAR OF EVENTS November 2023 Lit Art Show • Bailey's on the Square, Marksville, LA November 2, 2023 @ 6pm • 318.264.1826 Bunkie Trade Days • Main Street, Bunkie, LA November 4, 2023 @ 7:00am-3:00pm • 318.346.2575 St. Peter’s/St. Michael’s Fair • Bordelonville, LA November 10-12, 2023 • 318.359.9121 Veteran’s Memorial Observance Fifth Ward Veteran’s Memorial November 11, 2023 @ 9:00am Fifth Ward/Moncla KC Council Christmas on the Island Fifth Ward Community Center November 11, 2023 @ 9:00am 318.419.4260 Holiday Shopping Ladies’ Night Downtown Bunkie November 16, 2023 @5:00-8:00pm 318.346.2575 Cruisin Southern Style Car Show Paragon Casino Resort • November 17-18, 2023 318.623.9899/318.419.0419 TBIPAC Fall BBQ Throwdown Paragon’s RV Resort • November 17-18, 2023 318.253.1946 Christmas Extravaganza Paragon’s Mari Center November 18, 2023 @ 8:00am – 4:00pm 318.253.8599 Holiday Market • Village of Hessmer November 25, 2023 @ 9:00am-3:00pm • 318.717.0774

NOV 3rd - NOV 5th

NO MAN'S LAND SABINE FREESTATE FESTIVAL Florien, Louisiana

Turn back time to the days when the "Neutral Strip" between Spanish lands and the fledgling United States fostered a unique "No Man's Land" culture in

8592 Hwy 1, Mansura, LA 800.833.4195 travelavoyelles.com // N O V 2 3

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Events

Beginning Novemer 3rd - November 4th Western Louisiana (1806–1821). Live out your wildest West adventures with a shootout, or point your guns to the sky for a skeet shoot. Take part in pioneer demonstrations, a parade, a trail ride, a treasure hunt, and more—plus plenty of live music all day long. It all takes place on the Sabine Freestate Festival Grounds at 237 West Port Arthur Avenue. Details at sabine-freestate-festival.square.site. •

fun walk, then get to eating. Sunday brings the Creole Festival Parade at 11 am, running from Landry Street to Union Street. Free. hgcatholic.org. •

NOV 3rd - NOV 5th

Make your way down to Main Street in New Roads for the annual Harvest Festival on False River, a celebration of community and agricultural heritage. This year the festival features carnival rides, live music, arts and crafts vendors, food vendors, contests, and much more to showcase the local harvest. The parade is at 5 pm on Friday, and the Sugar Rush 5K at 9 am Saturday. $10; $5 for ages under 12. harvestfestivalnewroads.com. Tickets at bontempstix.com. •

GOOD FOOD & ZYDECO HOLY GHOST CREOLE FESTIVAL Opelousas, Louisiana

Live Creole and Zydeco music, Creole food favorites, and a gospel choir concert that's drawn crowds for over twenty-five years now—the Holy Ghost Creole Festival returns. The fun begins Friday morning with finger-lickin' fried catfish to the tune of the gospel choirs from Holy Ghost Catholic Church. Rise early for more music, and arrive with an empty belly—ready to sample famous backbone stew and barbecue pork steak—not to mention sweet dough pies, boudin, cracklins, and other local delicacies. Or, start with the 5K or 1-mile

NOV 3rd - NOV 5th FALL FESTS HARVEST FESTIVAL ON FALSE RIVER New Roads, Louisiana

NOV 3rd - NOV 12th

ON STAGE SWINE PALACE PRESENTS ROE Baton Rouge, Louisiana

ROE is an inciting play by Lisa Loomer

New Orleans Opera is staging 2020's Best New Opera Blue, which follows the struggles of a family confronting police violence from their home in Harlem. See it on the Mahalia Jackson stage November 10–12. See listing on page 20.

RED ROOSTER BASH Thursday, November 16, 2023 6:30pm Join us for our annual Red Rooster Bash presented by Friends of the LSU Rural Life Museum. It's an evening of: Culinary Delights: Savory BBQ small plates by Chef Phillip Beard of Unleaded BBQ, paired with exquisite cocktails.

Live Music: The Remnants, Louisiana's premier 60's tribute band.

Get your tickets now and savor the flavors while enjoying timeless tunes. Don't miss this unforgettable night!

ADMISSION: Individual Ticket: $65 Sponsorship: $1000 (Includes a reserved table for 8 and event recognition)

Sunday, December 3, 2023 • 10 am until Dusk Ring in the Christmas season with a magical journey back in time to 19th century Louisiana! Immerse yourself in the charm and traditions of a bygone era at our enchanting holiday celebration.

Enjoy live music, artisan crafts, captivating storytelling, and costumed re-enactors.

For tickets, point your phone camera here.

ADMISSION: Age 0-3: Free • Age 4-11: $10 Age 12+: $12 Join us for a day of history, music, and holiday spirit.

Bring your family and friends for a unique Christmas experience!

LOCATED AT BURDEN MUSEUM AND GARDENS OPEN DAILY 8:00–5:00 I-10 AT ESSEN LANE, BATON ROUGE, LA FOR MORE INFO CALL (225) 765-2437 OR VISIT WWW.LSU.EDU/RURALLIFE/ 14

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that explores the enduring impact of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Loomer’s courageous production delves into the personal stories often overlooked in the ongoing abortion debate. This touching interpretation is opening the Swine Palace season at Reilly Theatre. 7:30 pm; 2 pm on Sundays. $32; $9 for students. lsu.edu. •

NOV 4

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NATIVE TRADITIONS SOCIAL WITH COCO TRIBE OF CANNECI Opelousas, Louisiana

important stuff—so what's stopping you from heading to the Warren J. Harang Auditorium in Thibideaux for barbecued meat, blues music, and cigars? 11 am– 7 pm. $10, $100 for the "Juke Joint Pass" that includes the bourbon tasting. eventbrite.com. •

homebrew and wings to fill bellies with all things glorious. Take part in the silent auction, where all of the proceeds will go to support area veterans. Noon– 4 pm. $35 in advance; $40 at the door; $25 for designated drivers. lowroadbrewing.com. •

NOV 4th

NOV 4

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Celebrate National American Indian Heritage Month with Chief Cougar Goodbear and members of the Coco Tribe of Canneci Tinne, a local tribe with origins in St. Martin and Lafayette parishes. Gather at the Opelousas Museum, for an opportunity to explore their well-preserved tribal traditions through discussions, drumming, and singing with treasured relics such as rattles, war clubs, and drums. 10 am–noon. Free. museum@cityofopelousas.com. •

For twenty six years, the Big River Economic and Agricultural Development Alliance (BREADA) has connected farmers to families and families to farmers through its signature Red Stick Farmers Market. This Saturday, Baton Rougeans will celebrate the occasion with BREADA's over fifty member farmers, fishers, ranchers, and food artisans with a special market. The anniversary party will also include cocktails, live musical performances, interactive photo opportunities, and an art market. Free. breada.org. •

NOV 4th

NOV 4th

TRIPLE THREATS BBQ, BOURBON & BLUES FESTIVAL Thibodaux, Louisiana

The name pretty much covers the

WINNING COMBINATIONS WINGS AND ALE FEST Hammond, Louisiana

Low Road Brewing brings back its annual Wings & Ale Fest, doling out

#SHOP

NOV 4th

HOG WILD THNOC'S FOOD FORUM: PIG TALES 2023 New Orleans, Louisiana

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FRESH FINDS RED STICK FARMERS MARKET ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Coteau and Napoleon Avenue in Sunset.

Free admission. (337) 948-8004. •

DANCE PARTIES BOGUE FALAYA BOOGIE Covington, Louisiana

Support the Northshore Traditional Music Society with an evening of—what else—live music and dancing at the Bogue Falaya Pavilion in Covington. Miss Martha and Her Goodtime Gang and Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots will play from 6 pm–9 pm. $20 donation, kids are free. bontempstix.com. •

NOV 4th

TREASURE HUNTS EXIT 11 YARD SALE Grand Coteau, Louisiana

This shopping experience runs through the historic towns of Grand Coteau and Sunset, where residents and visitors are invited to set up tables to sell anything from crafts, antiques and furniture, jewelry, glassware, and one-of-a-kind items. Some shops will feature special sales or one-day discounts.

7 am–4 pm, along MLK Drive in Grand

From boudin and andouille to cracklins and cochon de lait, pork has certainly played a leading role in Louisiana culinary tradition.

Pork is also the star of the thirteenth annual Food Forum, hosted by The Historic New Orleans Collection and Dr. Jessica B. Harris, esteemed food historian. Taking place at the Williams Research Center at 10 am, the forum is dedicated to exploring the culinary heritage of the Gulf region and will provide plenty of events aimed at educating and celebrating pork's contribution to our culture with featured authors and historians, as well as a cooking demonstration. A tasting of various dishes by distinguished local chefs will be offered at 5:15 pm. $100. Tickets must be purchased in advance. hnoc.org/ foodforum. •

NOV 4th

PARTIES OF THE CARRIBEAN BAYOU BACCHANAL New Orleans, Louisiana

In America's most Caribbean city comes the "Original Caribbean Carnival". Hosted

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IBERVILLE SALUTE TO VETERANS

FRIDAY, NOV. 10, 2023 10AM - NOON Featuring:

FA L L I N L O V E W I T H

• Special performance by the nationally renowned U.S. Coast Guard Silent Drill Team • Baton Rouge Pipes & Drums • Patriotic Music • Veteran James ‘Fry’ Hymel honored speaker • Collection of supplies for troops • Military color Guard units • Victory Belles

VISITIBERVILLE.COM/EVENTS for information on farmers/shopping

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#DISCOVER

markets and other events in the parish

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Events

Beginning November 4th - November 5th

by Friends of Culture, an organization run

by New Orleans locals native to parts of the Caribbean, Bayou Bacchanal exists to share the festive traditions of the Caribbean with the Crescent City. Festival happenings kick off at 11 am with the Bayou Bacchanal Parade, starting from the Hilton Riverside Hotel. The carnival takes place from noon– 6:30 pm, featuring live performances by Craig Camacho MC, DJ Lady Perppertree, Mas 'n' Motion, and more—all culminating with a late night Saturday concert featuring Farmer Nappy and Band at the historic Carver Theater (11 pm–3 am). Free (except for the late night concert, which starts at $60). bayoubacchanal.org. •

NOV 4

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FUN RUNS SUGAR RUSH 5K AND 1 MILE New Roads, Louisiana

Lace up your running shoes for the Sugar Rush 5K and 1-Mile at 9 am in downtown New Roads, beginning and ending at Harvest Festival grounds. This year the race helps raise funds for Rougon Elementary. $25 1 Mile Run. $30 5K Run. harvestfestivalnewroads.com. •

NOV 4th

ARTS ABOUNDING SOUTHDOWN MARKETPLACE ARTS & CRAFTS FESTIVAL

feats—works to combine the five senses to produce the illusion of a sixth. At this one-night-only show at Cité des Arts, mentalist/magician D.M. Savant will break open a world of mental magic, exploring the depths and possibilities within each audience-member's mind.

7:30 pm. $20; $15 for seniors and students. citedesarts.org. •

Houma, Louisiana

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

Alongside, food vendors bring a huge sampling of Cajun food favorites. $5 adults; free for children 12 and younger.

8 am–4 pm. southdownmuseum.org. •

NOV 4th

THE MENTALIST COMPLETELY MENTAL AT CITÉ DES ARTS Lafayette, Louisiana

The art of mentalism—which incorporates hypnosis, telepathy, mind control and other remarkable mental

Unlock a Healthier Future

NOV 4th - NOV 5th EASY RIDER BIKES, BREWS & OMELETTES TWO Youngsville, Louisiana

A combined two hundred miles of bike routes, great local craft beer, and one giant omelette... what more could a cyclist ask for? The back-to-back Bike Bash and Giant Omelette Celebration Ride join forces to form Bikes, Brews, and Omelettes Two, a weekend of cycling quite unlike any other. On Saturday, the ride will stop by (and fuel up at) the VFW Post 9210's annual gumbo cook-off. Check-in at 6:30 am at the Youngsville Sports Complex, with options to start at 7:30 am, 8 am, and 9:15 am. Lunch will be provided at the Cook-off from 10 am–2 pm.

On Sunday, it's on to Abbeville for the second day of the Giant Omelette Celebration—featuring antique cars

on display, live music, and the majestic procession of chefs, eggs, and bread to the twelve-foot skillet awaiting its five thousand egg fate. These noncompetitive rides both offer various routes with distances from ten to one hundred miles. This event is hosted

by TR AIL, a non-profit organization dedicated to building and maintaining parks, paths and trails for hiking, walking, running, kayaking, biking, and canoeing. Tickets start at $30 for individual rides; combo registration deals and bike rentals are available. latrail.org/bbot. •

NOV 4th - NOV 5th

EGG-CENTRIC ACTIVITIES GIANT OMELETTE CELEBRATION Abbeville, Louisiana

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

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the procession of chefs, kids' world activities, exhibits of antique cars and farm equipment, a charity walk and bike ride, an egg cracking contest; and live music. Visitors from abroad will be present to represent "the sisterhood of cities who celebrate the omelette." Free.

9 am–5 pm both days. giantomelette.org. •

NOV 4th - NOV 5th

RE-TELL TALE HEART SWAMPLIGHT THEATRE'S EDGAR ALLEN POE RETOLD Ponchatoula, Louisiana

Ponchatoula's Swamplight Theatre is reimagining some of your favorite— and most haunting—Edgar Allen Poe short stories for the stage. 7 pm. Tickets are $15 at bontempstix.com. •

NOV 4th - NOV 5th

IN BLOOM BATON ROUGE GARDEN CLUB'S FLOWER SHOW & TEA Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Join the Baton Rouge Garden Club for its annual f lower show and tea at the Baton Rouge Garden Center this fall.

Guests will immerse themselves in a wonderland of f loral designs crafted by members, exploring a stunning array of native and exotic plant specimens.

1 pm–4 pm. Free. Details at the Baton Rouge Garden Club's Annual Flower Show & Tea event on Facebook. •

NOV 4th - NOV 25th

NOV 4th - NOV 5th

Breaux Bridge, Louisiana

ART & GULF BREEZES PETER ANDERSON ARTS & CRAFTS FESTIVAL Ocean Springs, Mississippi

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

NOV 4th - NOV 6th LET'S GET CRACKING COLFAX LOUISIANA PECAN FESTIVAL Colfax, Louisiana

Celebrate and indulge in Louisiana's very favorite nut at Colfax's annual Pecan Festival. Think of all the potential: pralines, pies, crusted fish— it'll all be awaiting, along with musical entertainment, a carnival, a parade, and more—at 611 Eighth Street. Find the full schedule at lapecanfest.com. •

BAYOU BEATS TUNES ON THE TECHE

Bring a picnic blanket and enjoy a night of free live, local music on the banks of the Bayou Teche in Downtown Breaux Bridge, each Saturday in November from 5:30 pm–8 pm. Free. cajuncountry.org. •

NOV 4th - NOV 26th

TIME MACHINES LOUISIANA RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL

hundred booths featuring arts, crafts, and demonstrations, it's a jousting good time at RenFest, as it's affectionately known. Too many special events and highlights to list here, so be sure to visit the website. $25 per day for adults; $12 for children ages 6–12; free for children younger than 6. Ticket prices increase by $5 when purchased after the Wednesday before. 9:45 am–5 pm Saturdays and Sundays at the Louisiana Renaissance Grounds. larf2023.org. •

NOV 5th

PERFECT PAIRINGS WINE & ROSES RAMBLER

Hammond, Louisiana

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Bring your falcon and step back in time every weekend through December 10 to party like it's 1499. Each autumn the festival gathers more than six hundred artists, entertainers, and educational demonstrators, converting the ten-acre compound into a sixteenth-century English "Village of Albright" that features a Queen's Arms Pavilion, Village Common, Blacksmiths' Way, and Piper's Pub. Festival-goers enter the turkey-leg-waving, mead-guzzling, knight-and-peasant-infested Renaissance village to experience period shows, music, games, food, and more. With more than fifty shows on a dozen stages, different themes each weekend, and one

From the earth to the skies, there's plenty of delight and wonder in bloom at the LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens at Burden. The Rose Garden offers an elegant setting for the annual Wine and Roses Rambler, where attendees can cultivate engaging conversation and share a lovely meal al fresco among some of the most enchanting roses in the state, while enjoying live music, a wine toss, and a special surprise raffle. Donning your favorite whimsical and elegant garden party attire is encouraged. 2 pm–4 pm. $100 per person; $90 for Friends of LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens members; $20 wine toss tickets; $10 raff le tickets. lsuagcenter.com/wineroses. •

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Events

NOV 5th

Beginning November 5th - November 10th NOV 5

NOV 5

Port Allen, Louisiana

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Port Allen's annual parade was the first in South Louisiana to honor those who've served and all military who are currently serving our country, and it'll be rolling once again this year. The West Baton Rouge Museum will also host an exhibition honoring local veterans. 1:30 pm. Free. westbatonrougemuseum.com. •

Plenty of malls offer the chance for the tykes to bounce on Santa's knee, reciting their Christmas lists as the cameras flash.

But what of our beloved family pets?

CAAWS (Capital Area Animal Welfare Society) hosts its annual pet photos with Santa event at Perkins Road Community Park. 10 am–4 pm. caaws.org/santacaaws. All proceeds benefit CAAWS. $35; $58.50 for Greeting Cards. •

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LOCAL HEROES VETERANS ON PARADE

PET PORTRAITS SANTA CAAWS

NOV 5th

AFTERNOON OUTDOORS PICNIC ON THE LAWN Opelousas, Louisiana

Spend a perfect autumn afternoon picnicking on the lawn of the Historic Michel Prudhomme House, an event that helps support preservation efforts of one of the oldest homes in St. Landry Parish. Food, snacks, desert, and beverages will be provided, you will have the opportunity to tour the home, and there will be games for children to enjoy.

Noon– 2 pm. $30. Text (337) 288-5524 for tickets. •

NOV 5th

ART & WELLNESS RED SHOES WOMEN'S MAKER MARKET AND OPEN HOUSE Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Red Shoes will be showcasing their many wellness-oriented offerings and hosting women artists and vendors at their Open House & Women’s Makers Market. Besides mini yoga and meditation sessions, there will be tasty food and a Women's Makers Market.

Free. 4 pm–6 pm. theredshoes.org. •

FUN FUNDRAISERS CAP CITY BEER FEST Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge's annual Cap City Beer Fest pops tops today in Downtown Baton Rouge. More than one hundred special domestic and international beers, some not otherwise available in Baton Rouge, will be here for the sampling, complementing a festive fall mix of gourmet food, music, and games. 2 pm– 5 pm. For $45, attendees can sample all the beers while enjoying live music by the Michael Foster Project; $85 VIP passes get you early admission, a commemorative VIP tasting glass, and a T-shirt. $10 for designated driver tickets (you get a free mocktail, and free soft drinks and water all day)—all benefiting the Companion Animal Alliance. capcitybeerfest.org. •

NOV 5th

KID SHOWS CAT KID COMIC CLUB: THE MUSICAL AT THE MANSHIP Baton Rouge, Louisiana

This musical, presented by TheaterworksUSA, has Cat Kid and Molly Pollywog attempting to start a club to teach twenty-one baby frogs how to draw comics. Their fishy father Flippy, unable to handle the frogs' bickering, loses

it—threatening the future of the club. Based on Dav Pilkey's book series, this musical shows how creativity can always save the day.

Recommended for grades 1–5. 2 pm. $25. manshiptheatre.org. •

NOV 5th

COOKING FOR CAUSES MEN WHO COOK GALA Covington, Louisiana

You know what they say about Louisiana: it's a state full of men who can cook like their mamas, and women who can drink like their daddies. Hope House is celebrating the former with their Men Who Cook event. Local "celebrity cooks" who are leaders from throughout St. Tammany and Washington Parishes will join forces with favorite local restaurants to help Hope House in their mission of combating child sexual abuse on the Northshore. Each cook/ restaurant team will prepare tastings of a favorite menu item for attendees to sample and vote on, competing for the titles of Judge’s Choice, People’s Choice, and most money raised for Hope House.

The event also includes a raffle, silent auction, live music, and complimentary wine and beer. Held on the rooftop of the Justice Center parking garage in Covington. 4 pm–7 pm. $75 per person. cachopehouse.org. •

Celebrating 30 Years of Handcrafted Furniture Excellence H andcr af t ed in Louisiana

by Local Cr af t speople Solid Wood Cons t ruc t ion Superior Finishes Cus tom Designs

L arge In v entory Friendly, Know ledge able Staff

We Offer : Cus tom Builds Louisiana Deli v ery Pri vat e Consultat ions W hit e Glov e Deli v ery

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NOV 5th

FUNDRAISERS ON WHEELS GEARS & BEERS CHARITY BIKE RIDE & PUB CRAWL

titled "Katherine Choy: Radical Potter in 1950 New Orleans," a monographic review of the artist’s life and works. Free. lsumoa.org. •

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

NOV 9th - NOV 12th FAT & SALT PORT BARRE CRACKLIN FESTIVAl Port Barre, Louisiana

Help raise money to support Front Yard Bikes's mission of helping the youth of Baton Rouge lead healthy and fulfilling lives while biking through Baton Rouge with other cycling enthusiasts, starting at the Perkins Road Community Park and looping back at the LSU Lakes. The group will stop to revel and socialize at three stops along the way. This event is for those twenty-one and over. Noon–6 pm. $50. bontempstix.com. •

NOV 7th

SHAPING CERAMICS LSU MOA LECTURE ON POTTER, KATHERINE CHOY

NOV 9th

SING OUT A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A SWEET ADELINE CONCERT Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Enjoy a special fall concert with the whole family, presented by the Baton Rouge Chorus of Sweet Adelines—a barbershop style singing group, directed by Sherry Barron. The show will be held at the Ingleside Methodist Church. 7 pm. Free. batonrougechorus.org. •

NOV 9th

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

BLOCK PARTIES FALL INTO DOWNTOWN

Katherine Choy frontiered the world of ceramics in the 1950s, combining elements from her Chinese roots and innovating the abstract concept of emotional expression in pottery. In 1952 Katherine brought her talent to New Orleans, as head of the Newcomb ceramics department. Head to the LSU Museum of Art at 6 pm for a presentation

by Mel Buchanon, the RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at NOMA,

Support the local businesses and restaurants of downtown Eunice in their third annual “Fall into Downtown,” an evening of entertainment including live music, dancing, crafts, and delectable food fare. Performing this year will be Three– Thirty Seven and Gerald Gruening & Gentilly Zydeco, starting at 6 pm on Second Street. Free. (337) 457-7389. •

Eunice, Louisiana

LSUMOA.ORG

Celebrate over three decades of partying around crispy fried pork skin as you crunch your way through this pork-fueled fiesta in Port Barre. In addition to a cracklin' cook-off, there will be carnival rides, live music, a parade, and other blood-pressureraising kinds of excitement. After a Thursday family-night preview (free admission), the festival opens again at 5 pm Friday with a performance by Rory Suire, followed by performances by other local favorites; a parade opens things on Saturday at 10 am, with live bands playing all through the rest of the weekend. $5 per day; kids 10 and younger get in free all weekend. cracklinfest.com. •

NOV 10th

FUN FUNDRAISERS PALLETS WITH PURPOSE Covington, Louisiana

The Northshore Food Bank is hosting their annual fundraising soiree, Pallets with Purpose, at the food bank’s warehouse. The night promises merriment and offerings including a full bar and buffet, casino games, and raffle prizes. Tickets start at $125. 6:30 pm–9 pm. northshorefoodbank.org. •

NOV 10th

REMEMBRANCE VETERANS DAY CEREMONY Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Join the General Philemon Thomas Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution for a Veterans Day ceremony at the Baton Rouge National Cemetery.

The ceremony will take place beside the grave of the chapter’s namesake, Philemon Thomas. 1 pm. Free. lassar.org. •

NOV 10th

HISTORICAL MEMORIES THE MARINE CORPS BIRTHDAY Saint Francisville, Louisiana

Celebrate the 248th birthday of the US Marine Corps at Grace Church of West Feliciana. The grand occasion will commence at 9 am with a wreath–laying ceremony in honor of General Robert H. Barrow, followed by a cake ceremony.

Free. gracechurchwfp.org. •

NOV 10th

CREATIVE FORCES ART BY MANON BELLET AT YES WE CANNIBAL Baton Rouge, Louisiana

French artist Manon Bellet explores the expressive potential of vital materials such as metal, light, fire, and most recently

EXPLORE EXHIBITIONS • ENGAGE IN PROGRAMS • CREATE COMMUNITY

LEARN ABOUT EXHIBITIONS & PROGRAMS

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BATON ROUGE @LSUMOA // N O V 2 3

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Events

Beginning November 10th

NOV 10

Held in front of the Iberville Veterans Memorial and Vietnam helicopter display in Plaquemine, the event will feature a speech from honored local veteran James ‘Fry’ Hyme. Guests can also enjoy live performances by the U.S. Coast Guard Silent Drill Team, Baton Rouge Pipes & Drums, the Victory Belles, and military color guard units. 10 am–noon. Free.

Guests are invited to bring supplies to be donated to active military personnel.

Find a complete list of desired supplies, along with other event details, at ibervilleparish.com. •

Metairie, Louisiana

NOV 10th

ferrofluids on glass. Her art emphasizes the interactions between chemistry and organic form which lend to a free and autonomous creative force. Highly venerated, Bellet has received multiple residencies and has exhibited her work at various esteemed institutions, and now you will have the chance to experience her novelties at Yes We Cannibal Gallery.

Opening reception starts at 6 pm. Free. yeswecannibal.org. •

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PIROUETTES AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE AT JPAC Jefferson Performing Arts Society will be presenting the globally acclaimed American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, the junior company of ABT of which Misty Copeland was an alumni.

Performances will vary from timeless ballet classics including excerpts from Don Quixote and The Sleeping Beauty, to contemporary dances championing the work of female choreographers. 7:30 pm.

Tickets start at $38. jeffersonpac.com. •

NOV 10th

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM STARSTRUCK: A FASHION ODYSSEY GALA New Orleans, Louisiana

Polish up in your most dazzling formal wear for a jazzy night of fashion and art at the New Orleans Museum of Art. This year, the stylish soirée draws inspiration from the featured exhibition Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour, a showcase of the spirit of ingenuity and diversity which characterizes American fashion.

Throughout the evening, attendees will be able to explore the exhibition of works by over one hundred designers including Jordan Casteel and Roy Lichtenstien, while also helping to support and raise vital funds for NOMA’s exhibitions and educational initiatives. This event also promises performances by renowned clarinetist Dr. Michael White and the Rebirth Brass Band, as well as food and libations. 8 pm–11 pm. $300; $150 for ages 21-45. noma.org. •

NOV 10th

HONORING WHO SERVED IBERVILLE SALUTE TO VETERANS Plaquemine, Louisiana

This Veterans Day, follow the crowds to one of the largest and most popular Veterans Day ceremonies in the region.

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NOV 10th - NOV 12th MODERN OPERAS NEW ORLEANS OPERA PRESENTS BLUE New Orleans, Louisiana

QUIET CONTEMPLATION COMO SILENT RETREAT: REFRESHING THE SOUL Saint Francisville, Louisiana

If you’re in need of a serene escape from the hubbub of everyday life, Como Retreat is the place you’ll want to be— offering a tranquil three-day silent retreat for both men and women. Being nestled just north of St. Francisville makes Como a haven of natural wonder where you can wander the hiking trails or pause and rejuvenate your spirit with an unimpeded view of the Mississippi River. Find more information on upcoming retreats at comoretreat.org. •

NOV 10th

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

Big Boy’s Main Street Cook-Off is a culinary showcase of Cajun cuisine prepared with fresh ingredients found along the bayou. In a two-block area of historic downtown Thibodaux, Big Boy’s celebrates the Cajun lifestyles of Thibodaux and Lafourche Parish.

Admission goes to benefit Downtown Thibodaux and includes servings from over thirty cook-off participants, plus entertainment courtesy of Shorts in December. 5 pm–10 pm. $15. downtownthibodaux.org. •

NOV 10 - NOV 11 th

and at the Natchez Bluff. The theme of this year's presentation is "Sustenance," asking artists to consider what sustains us, from the river to the support we find in our communities. Allumer has blossomed into a full-blown festival, featuring a maker's market of arts and crafts, and food vendors selling snacks and sweet treats. Free. More at allumernatchez.com.

There will also be a VIP section at The Little Easy for those looking to upgrade their experience with hors d'oeuvres, an open bar, and a private seating area. $50 for Friday or Saturday, $100 for both nights at arts-danu.square.site. •

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LIGHT THE NIGHT ALLUMER NATCHEZ Natchez, Mississippi

Allumer Natchez brings artists and art lovers from near and far to downtown Natchez for dazzling light-based contemporary art installations. Over twenty illuminated installations will be featured throughout downtown Natchez

Blue, which won the 2020 Award for Best New Opera, tells the heartrending narrative of a Black couple raising their son in a world marked by police violence.

This tale of touching remembrance is set in Harlem and is composed of two acts with music by Jeanine Tesori and libretto by Tazewell Thompson. Opening night at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts will start at 6:30 pm with a Pre-Opera Party and Nuts and Bolts Lecture, followed by the performance. Sunday showtime will start at 1:30 pm. Tickets start at $32. neworleansopera.org/blue. •

NOV 10th - NOV 12th

COMMUNITY FESTIVALS THE FESTIVAL OF THE LAKE Mandeville, Louisiana

Three days of community celebration and fundraising return to Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church this fall, featuring a slate of fun family games, a robot rally, and magic shows—not to mention a slate of live local performances by the likes of Adam Pearce Music, Peyton Falgoust Band, and Christian Serpas & Ghost Town. Local vendors will be ready to dole out delicacies like chargrilled oysters, smoked brisket, and the obligatory cotton candy, and artisans will be peddling unique wares across the grounds. Kicks off at 11 am each day.

Free. festivalofthelake.com. •

NOV 10th - NOV 12th

RAISE A GLASS ST. FRANCISVILLE FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL Saint Francisville, Louisiana

Delicious, innovative food. Lively, danceable tunes. Creative culture bearers and storytellers. All of the things that have inspired this magazine's work for forty years now come together in perfect, joyful

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Events

NOV 11th

Beginning November 10 - November 11 th

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WETLAND WONDERS ATCHAFALAYA BASIN FESTIVAL Henderson, Louisiana

synchronicity at the annual St. Francisville Food and Wine Festival.

On the beautiful grounds of the Myrtles Historic Inn and Restaurant 1796, readers, dancers, and diners will convene for a fall day in the company of some of our region's most celebrated chefs. In between the decadent sips and bites, roam the grounds to enjoy tastings of select wines and spirits from area purveyors, a beer garden showcasing Louisiana and Mississippi craft brews, live cooking demonstrations from celebrated chefs, and live music from the festival stage. The 2023 festival is sold-out. stfrancisvillefoodandwine.com. •

NOV 10th - NOV 19th

ON STAGE STRAUSS THEATER CENTER PRESENTS BRIGHT STAR Monroe, Louisiana

When literary editor Alice Murphy crosses paths with Billy, a young soldier who’s just returned from World War II, secrets of the past must come to light.

Taking place in the American South during the 1920s and ‘40s, the setting

of Bright Star highly compliments the mystifying and deeply moving tone of this musical featuring a Tonynominated score by Steve Martin and Edie Brickel. Relish in the heartfelt entertainment at Strauss Theater in Monroe. 7 pm shows Thursday– Saturday; 2 pm shows on Saturday and Sunday. $30. strausstc.com. •

NOV 11th

RUBBER DUCKIES THIBODEAUXVILLE FALL FEST Thibodaux, Louisiana

Since its beginnings with just thirteen vendors, this festival has grown to welcome nearly two hundred vendors and thirteen thousand visitors. In addition to the arts, crafts and Cajun food on Saturday, Thibodeauxville will feature several stages' worth of continuous live musical entertainment by Phat Hat, Soul Survivor, Waylon Thibodeaux, and more. Activities include a car show and the popular Duck Race in Bayou Lafourche—the rubber ducky's day in the sun. 8:30 am–5 pm. Free.

Details at the Thibodeauxville Fall Festival Facebook Page. •

Settled right on the great water basin itself, Henderson's Henry Guidry Memorial Park makes an ideal site for the annual celebration of this beloved and unique landscape. Expect a day of dancing, eating, fun jumps, rockwall climbing, and more. In addition to a line-up of local musicians—including The Jo-Genes, Hunter Courville & Cajun Fever, Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band, Geno Delafose & French Rockin Boogie, Louisiana Red, and Jamie Bergeron & the Kickin Cajuns—festivalgoers can expect car and truck shows, live and silent auctions, raffles, and cooking contests. 7 am–10:30 pm at 103 Park Drive. Free. basinfestival.com. •

NOV 11th

GOOD EATS ANYTHING OVER RICE COOKOFF & TASTING Franklin, Louisiana

Brittany’s Project Activity Center, a facility in Franklin that aims to enhance and support the lives of individuals with disabilities, will be hosting an evening of delightful eats and live music.

Vote on your favorite dishes and enjoy performances by Louisiana local bands Better than Stiffler and Blazin Cane.

The tasting begins at 6 pm and will go on until 11 pm, but head there earlier for a day full of entertainment including a car show, sound competition, and a cornhole tournament. Admission is $10; $8 if participating in any of the earlier events of the day. To register, or for more information, contact Sandra at (337) 380-8243. •

NOV 11th

HOT & SPICY NATCHEZ ROTARY CHILI COOK-OFF Natchez, Mississippi

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

NOV 11th

BUGGIN' OUT WORKSHOP: INSECTS AND ART Port Allen, Louisiana

Get a first look at the West Baton

River Center Theatre

t!

Tickets going fas

nutcracker Tea DANCE MORE!

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Culinary historian, cookbook author, and journalist Jessica B. Harris will be a speaker at Pig Tales, THNOC's Food Forum on November 4. See listing on page 15.

Rouge Museum’s newest exhibit, Small Wonders: Insects in Focus, and create a handcrafted souvenir to take home in this workshop led by professional artist Kellie Rountree. The event will include a morning workshop from 9:30 am–11:30 am, suitable for children ages eight and up to participate in carving their own beetle sculptures. From 1 pm–3 pm, there will be a jewelry making workshop where adults will be invited to create lustrous beetle pendants.

Free. westbatonrougemuseum.org. •

NOV 11th

ART & NATURE FESTS FORESTIVAL New Orleans, Louisiana

A Studio In The Woods once again welcomes the public into its creative haven for the annual FORESTival, a celebration of art and nature. One of a few live-in artists’ retreats in the Deep South, A Studio in the Woods occupies seven-and-a-half acres on the Mississippi River in New Orleans and fosters both environmental preservation and the creative work of all artists. This year's FORESTival will showcase the work of residents and guest artists—including Spy Boy Walter Sandifer of the Beautiful Creole Apache and Quintron and Miss Pussycat, and Ida Aronson—as well as the history and happenings of this unique environment. It's a chance to

experience Louisiana’s wetlands set to live music with food, artistic demonstrations and activities, a walk in the woods with scientists, and more. This year's musical lineup includes RAM Haiti, Brass-A-Holics, and Andrina Turenne.

11 am–5 pm. $15; children are free. astudiointhewoods.org. •

NOV 11th

VROOM VROOM CLASSICS ON THE BOULEVARD CAR SHOW Covington, Louisiana

This Veterans Day at TerraBella Village’s Classics on the Boulevard, you can jam out to oldies while admiring a classic car show. There will also be a plethora of local food vendors, a raff le, and Fan Favorite Classic contest. 10 am–1 pm.

Free. terrabellavillage.com. •

NOV 11th

WILD FOR ART ART FOR ANIMALS FESTIVAL Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Join BREC’s Baton Rouge Zoo for the inaugural Arts for Animals Festival, an appreciation of animals and arts that brings awareness to the significance of conservation efforts. At the heart of the festival there will be a curated exhibition of local artists’ works inspired by the splendor of animals // N O V 2 3

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Events

Beginning November 11 - November 15 1h

and their natural world. Attendees will also be able to engage in educational sessions with zookeepers, see art demonstrations, enjoy live music, and participate in a silent auction to support conservation projects. 10 am– 4 pm. $8.75; $5.75 for children. brzoo.org. •

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Foret Tradition, and Peyton Falgoust Band.

9 am–4 pm each day. $9; $5 for children ages 612; free for children younger than 12. destrehanplantation.org •

NOV 11 - NOV 12 th

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ART FESTS THREE RIVERS ART FESTIVAL Covington, Louisiana

NOV 11th - NOV 12th

ANTIQUES & ART DESTREHAN FALL FESTIVAL Destrehan, Louisiana

Destrehan Plantation's annual Fall Festival lures vendors from all over the country who come to offer pottery, jewelry, quilts, ceramics, art, stained glass, baskets and more. An 1840s mule barn will be designated for antique vendors; as for the food, festival-goers will feast on everything from cochon-de-lait po-boys to kettle corn and caramel apples. Period craft demonstrations and children's activities like pony rides, face painting, hand waxing, and fall crafts will keep the attention of all family members. Plus, there will be live musical entertainment from Kayla Woodson, Ryan Foret and

As it has each November for years now, the largest juried art festival in the Southeast region will celebrate the work of over two hundred artists from across the country. Across Covington's historic downtown district, discover works of art in every medium, from ceramics to paintings to fiber art to jewelry. In addition to the vibrant parade of art booths, the festival will also present a Children's Village, an "Arts Alive!" demonstration tent, live music, and an impressive demonstration of our region's culinary arts as well—featuring local vendors serving up delicacies like turkey gumbo, crawfish étoufée, tacos, gyros, and deep-fried brownies, too.

10 am–5 pm. covingtonthreeriversartfestival.com. •

NOV 11th - NOV 12th

while expressing Klimitas' admiration of animals. westbatonrougemuseum.org. •

Gonzales, Louisiana

NOV 11th - JAN 14th

HOLIDAY SHOPPING MERRY MARKET

Peruse hundreds of vendor booths from Baton Rouge and beyond offering clothing, jewelry, home décor, candles, toys, Christmas décor, food, bath and body products, art, and more.

Saturday from 9 am–6 pm, Sunday from 10 am–5 pm. $10 admission, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Bella Bowman Foundation.

Children under ten are free. $20 for VIP Shopping, which grants early entry from 8 am–9 am and 20% off select VIP vendors. There will also be an event for children called Cookies & Crafts with Santa on both Saturday and Sunday, advance purchase tickets are $30. merrymarket.shop. •

NOV 11th - DEC 30th

WATERCOLOR SEASCAPES OFF THE HOOK: A JOURNEY BENEATH THE WAVES AT THE WEST BATON ROUGE MUSEUM

BUG'S LIFE SMALL WONDERS: INSECTS IN FOCUS AT THE WEST BATON ROUGE MUSEUM Port Allen, Louisiana

Insects, a species millions of years older and more abundant than humans, are the centerpiece of Small Wonders, an exhibition by artist Bob Sober. Presented by the West Baton Rouge Museum, this exhibit displays Sober’s use of state of the art photographic and technological methods to bring us closer to the intricate, elusive world of insects. Through thirty inspirational images, you will be taken on a journey of the natural world, the place where art and science intersect. westbatonrougemuseum.org. •

NOV 12th

KIDS' BOOKS ON STAGE THE RAINBOW FISH AT THE MANSHIP THEATRE

Port Allen, Louisiana

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Discover watercolorist Katheine Klimitas’ latest exhibition at the West Baton Rouge Museum featuring seascapes in vibrant colors and metallic hues. This collection offers an intimate view of ocean life

Bring your youngsters to watch the award–winning book, The Rainbow Fish, come to life in a performance by Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia. The magical puppetry promises an afternoon

Elizabethan Gallery More than just a frame shop.

White Light Night

Friday, November 17th, 5-9pm

Client Appreciation Wine & Cheese, 5 – 7 pm Meet the Artists!

Free and open to the public.

Show hangs until Saturday, December 30th

Jazz Happens II, Mixed Media

by Keith Douglas, 23x32

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Quarter Courtyard, Oil,

by Carol Hallock 40x30

Spoonbill, Collage,

by Krista Roche, 12x16

O N E DAY F R A M I N G AVA I L A B L E 680 Jefferson Highway, Baton Rouge, LA 70806

SCOTT, LA • 888-620-TREE (8733)

225-924-6437

WWW.BOBSTREE.COM

N O V 2 3 // C O U N T R Y R O A D S M A G . C O M

of delight as it follows the adventure of a dazzling fish who learns a lesson on the value of sharing. 2 pm. $25. manshiptheatre.org. •

NOV 12

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LINE DANCING BATTLE IN THE BOOT Opelousas, Louisiana

Sing along to soothing soul music or line dance to the “Cupid Shuffle” at Evangeline Downs Racetrack, where local legends Roi “Chip” Anthony and Cupid will be performing and competing to determine the ultimate entertainer. The fun starts at 7 pm. $25. (337) 594-3000. •

NOV 12

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RIDE OF THE REGION TOUR DE JEFFERSON Marrero, Louisiana

The Jefferson Chamber of Commerce is returning with their annual Tour de Jefferson, considered "The Ride of the Region" around those parts. Whether you are a fly by the seat of your pants sort or a stop and smell the flowers sort of rider—this event is one of the best ways to join the community in experiencing the scenic landscapes of Jefferson Parish. All proceeds will go towards the Chamber's efforts in advocacy and quality of life initiatives.

Kicks off at 7:30 am. $50 (day-of, $60); $20 for youth; bike trailers for kids and pets are $10; child bike seats are free. jeffersonchamber.org. •

NOV 12th

SONGWRITERS ROBERT CLINE JR. AT NUNU WITH TED RUSSELL KAMP Arnaudville, Louisiana

Folk and Americana, with a touch of Texas barhouse country rock and bluegrass, are sounding their way to the stage at NUNU Arts & Culture Collective for a special singer/songwriter performance

by Robert Cline Jr., with an opening show

by Ted Russell Kamp. Music starts at 6 pm.

Food will be available for purchase from 5 Mile Cafe. $15 at Eventbrite. •

NOV 13

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CHAMBER MUSIC NEW ORLEANS FRIENDS OF MUSIC CHAMBER CONCERT: MODIGLIANI QUARTET New Orleans, Louisiana

The New Orleans Friends of Music continues its 2023–2024 season with a performance by the French string virtuosos who comprise Modigliani Quartet at Tulane University's Dixon Hall. 7:30 pm. $35; students are free. friendsofmusic.org. •

NOV 14th

theories surrounding the tragedy. 6 pm.

Free. ebrpl.com. •

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

NOV 15th

IMAGES OF HISTORY TALK WITH PHOTOGRAPHER CECIL J. WILLIAMS At Louisiana’s Old State Capitol, acclaimed South Carolina photographer, publisher, and author Cecil J. Williams will give a first-hand account of his powerful documentation of the civil rights movement, as well as his recollections of John F. and Jaqueline Kennedy. 5:30 pm. Free. louisianaoldstatecapitol.org. •

NOV 15th

MURDER ON THE PRAIRIE TRUE CRIME AUTHOR TALK: HOME OF THE HAPPY Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Meet author and Managing Editor of Country Roads Magazine, Jordan LaHaye Fontenot at the Main Library at Goodwood for an intimate conversation on her forthcoming book, Home of The Happy: Murder on the Cajun Prairie. The book tells the story of a baffling crime that has deeply affected Fontenot’s family and the city of Mamou since 1983—the kidnapping and murder of her greatgrandfather. Join her as she discusses her experience conducting extensive interviews with family and community members, and explores the various

DISNEY MUSIC RIVER CITY JAZZ MASTERS Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge's annual series attracting some of the world's most talented jazz artists welcomes the "When You Wish Upon a Star" Jazz Tribute to 100 Years of Disney to the Manship Theatre stage. 7:30 pm. $28–$48. artsbr.org/rcjm. •

NOV 15th - NOV 19th

LITERARY FESTS WORDS & MUSIC FESTIVAL New Orleans, Louisiana

One Book One New Orleans returns with its popular music, literature, and activism extravaganza, the Words & Music Festival. This year's featured writers will include Stacey Balkun, Kristy Laschober, Father Anthony "Amde" Hamilton, Tiffany Guillory Thomas, Molly N. Mitchell, Lousiaiana Poet Laureate Alison Pelegrin, and many more. The festival's main events include the announcement of winners of the Patty Friedmann Writing Competition, including the "Beyond the Bars" category—which celebrates the work of talented incarcerated juveniles; as well

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Events

Beginning November 16th - November 18th as a workshop for teachers on using comics to foster empathy in the classroom, staged readings of one-act plays, and much more.

Filling out the musical side of the event will be a poetry tribute to the legendary Tina Turner at the festival's Late Night Lit session.

Details to come at wordsandmusic.org. •

NOV 16th

FUN FUNDRAISERS RED ROOSTER BASH

LOCAL ARTWORK ELIZABETHAN GALLERY ANNUAL FALL ART SHOW Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Honor the important work of the LSU Rural Life Museum Restoration Volunteers with music by '60s tribute band The Remnants, a barbecue dinner, and—naturally—the famously tasty Red Rooster cocktails. $65 general admission, $1000 for a sponsor table for eight.

Tickets at bontempstix.com. •

Elizabethan Gallery is opening its doors for its annual show and sale, with an opening reception offering refreshments in conjunction with White Light Night from 5 pm–9 pm. The show features works by Carol Hallock, who is known for her serene impressionistic paintings that frequently capture the landscapes and waterways of Louisiana. Other artists whose work will be featured in the gallery include Keith Douglas, Krista Roche, Andrea Phillips, Cathy Smart, Kay Lusk, Claire Pasqua, Nancy Smitherman, and Justin Patin. Free. elizabethangallery.com. •

FIDDLIN' AROUND LOBBY LOUNGE CONCERT: AMANDA SHAW Slidell, Louisiana

Northshore fiddle sensation Amanda Shaw is performing an intimate concert at the Lobby Lounge in the Harbor Center.

7 pm, doors at 6:30 pm. $20–$100. harborcenter.org. •

NOV 16th - NOV 19th WORLD PREMIERES SOUTHERN SCREEN FILM FESTIVAL Lafayette, Louisiana

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

NOV 17th

BARREL OF LAUGHS TODD BARRY AT THE MANSHIP Baton Rouge, Louisiana

You might recognize this half-ass, halfjokester from his roles in Bob's Burgers, The Wrestler, and Wanderlust—or maybe you've seen him on late-night shows like N O V 2 3 // C O U N T R Y R O A D S M A G . C O M

NOV 17th

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

NOV 16th

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Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman, and Conan. Now, with deadpan comedy and wit at his disposal, he's stepping onto the Manship Theatre stage with his Half-Joking Tour. 7:30 pm. $30–40. manshiptheatre.org. •

NOV 17th

OUTDOOR CONCERTS TWILIGHT SYMPHONY Slidell, Louisiana

From classics to pop or whatever is your jazz, you’ll be sure to enjoy this candlelit outdoor concert taking place at Pinewood Country Club. The Twilight Symphony features the Pan String Quartet, who will perform a grand variety of musical themes and genres. There will be a cocktail hour, including dinner followed by the concert which starts at 7:30 pm. $75. visitthenorthshore.com. •

NOV 17th

ARTY PARTIES WHITE LIGHT NIGHT Baton Rouge, Louisiana

'Tis the season to celebrate local art, music, and culture in the Mid City Art and Cultural District. Chat with the artists shaping Mid City Baton Rouge's creative scene, sip a seasonally appropriate beverage, grab a tasty bite, hear some live tunes, and maybe even knock out some holiday shopping in a whirlwind evening of locally-made bliss. 6 pm–10 pm. midcitymerchantsbr.org. •

NOV 17th - NOV 18th

SHOPPING SPREES HOLIDAY MARKET AT THE MILL New Roads, Louisiana

A spectacular shopping experience lands

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

Food and refreshments, too. 10 am–7 pm Friday, 10 am–5 pm Saturday. Admission is $5 per day; $10 for a weekend pass. marketatthemillnewroads.com . bontempstix.com. •

NOV 17th - NOV 19th

MUSIC FESTS YEAH YOU RIGHT FESTIVAL

Shakers, and Rick Ledbetter. 7 pm–9 pm. $20. abitaopry.org. •

Louisiana heritage. 10:30 am–noon. Free. westbatonrougemuseum.org. •

NOV 18th

NOV 18th

NOV 18th

Covington, Louisiana

LOCAL HISTORY HISTORY TALK: THE BATTLE OF BATON ROUGE 1862

FALL FESTS PRAIRIEVILLE HARVEST FESTIVAL

Port Allen, Louisiana

Prairieville, Louisiana

Dive deep into one the most pivotal moments of Louisiana history at the West Baton Rouge Museum, where guest speaker Ronnie Harris will be educating the audience on The Battle of Baton Rouge 1862. As the previous mayor of Gretna, Ronnie Harris, is a businessman turned passionate historian and preserver of

Revel in the spirit of autumn at Prairieville’s annual Harvest Festival.

There will be an assortment of food trucks, market vendors, and plenty of fun to be had. Head to 31162 Pookey Lane with your family and friends for a day of fall delights. 11 am–5 pm. visitlasweetspot.com. •

ART & GLAM FUNDRAISER: BOUJEE IN THE ART HOUSE For the first year since Hurricane Ida, the Tammany Art Association will be making a special return to the Art House on Columbia Street, for their annual fundraising gala, “Boujee in the Art House.” Join the fun for a night of luxurious fun including delicious food, libations, and music. Donations are welcome. 6 pm–10 pm. sttammany.art. •

Morgan City, Louisiana

NOV 18th- JAN 6th

ALL OF THE LIGHTS NATCHITOCHES CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL Natchitoches, Louisiana

The famous Christmas festivities in Natchitoches mean the holiday spirit is in full swing here, when over 300,000 holiday lights flicker on every evening for six weeks straight. Saturdays bring vendors, live music, fireworks, and kids activities to the Riverbank area and require armbands for anyone older than six. $10. natchitocheschristmas.com. •

NOV 18th

COMMUNITY MUSIC ABITA SPRINGS OPRY Abita Springs, Louisiana

The Abita Springs Opry is devoted to preserving Louisiana's indigenous music in all its guises. Arrive early (around 5 pm-ish) and join the folks who've made a ritual of enjoying gumbo, hot dogs, and homemade pastries, not to mention the pre-show sound checks and front porch concerts. It all adds up to the good ol' family atmosphere that the Opry strives for. This month, the lineup includes The Bad Pennies Pleasure Makers, Old Man River Band, Pontchartrain

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

Upcoming Events StoryTime in the Garden November 4, December 2 and January 20 . 9 a.m.-Noon LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens Birding at Burden* November 11 and December 9 . 7-9 a.m.

LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens Wine & Roses Rambler* November 5 . 2-4 p.m.

LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens Red Rooster Bash* November 16 . 6:30 p.m.

LSU Rural LIfe Museum A Rural LIfe Christmas* December 3 . 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

LSU Rural LIfe Museum

Photo by Ravynn Garcia

What better way to celebrate veterans than with three lively days of music, food, games, crafts, and activities adults and kiddos alike will be sure to enjoy.

Morgan City will be holding their annual Yeah You Right Music Festival at Victor Guarisco Lake End Park Campground and Marina. The music lineup includes local musicians such as David St. Romain, South 70 with guest performer Don Rich, an all day Wayne Mills 10Year Memorial Tribute Jam, and many more. The Vet Church will also sponsor a stage where you can check out veteran songwriters and artists. While donations are welcomed, admission is free. Music starts at 6 pm Friday, 11 am Saturday, and noon Sunday. yeahyourightfest.com. •

Arbor Day at Burden January 20 LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens

Botanic Gardens *Visit our website for advance ticket or registration information for these and other events or call 225-763-3990.

Burden Museum & Gardens . 4560 Essen Lane . 225-763-3990 . DiscoverBurden.com . Baton Rouge . Open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily // N O V 2 3

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Events

Beginning November 18th - November 30th NOV 18th - DEC 21st

FABRIC & BEYOND COLOR, LINE, AND SHAPE: CONTEMPORARY FIBER ARTISTS OF LOUISIANA AT HRAC Hammond, Louisiana

An eclectic and vibrant exhibition of quilting, weaving, digital transfers onto fabric, beading, crocheting, mixed media, and other fiber mediums will be on display at the Hammond Regional Arts Center as part of the Contemporary Fiber Artists of Louisiana's new exhibition Color, Line, and Shape. An opening reception will be held in conjunction with the Downtown Development District’s Starry Saturday event on November 18 from 4 pm–7 pm. hammondarts.org. •

NOV 19

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BETWEEN THE BUNS OAK STREET PO-BOY FESTIVAL New Orleans, Louisiana

The Oak Street Po-Boy Festival became an instant hit when the folks along

Oak Street realized that this local dietary icon had somehow been denied its rightful recognition of a day in its honor. So the festival was founded as a celebration of the storied sandwich and the role it has played in New Orleans’ culinary culture. This event attracts some of the best restaurants, artists and musicians in the city. More than forty different food vendors serve their own take on the tasty classic while local bands provide the soundtrack. Follow your nose to the Carrollton and Oak intersection, which is accessible by streetcar. 10 am–6 pm. poboyfest.com. •

NOV 23rd

GOBBLE GOBBLE TAMMANY TURKEY TROT Covington, Louisiana

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

creole HOL I DAY FA I R

DEC. 10 NOON - 5 P.M.

Celebrate Christmas with French Creole Traditions MUSIC + STORY T ELLING + CRAF TS + CARR I AGE R I DES + MORE

BREC.ORG/CREOLECHRISTMAS 28

N O V 2 3 // C O U N T R Y R O A D S M A G . C O M

Find out what happens before The Wizard of Oz begins when the national tour of Wicked arrives for a run at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans on November 29. See listing on page 29. Photo of the National Touring Cast by Joan Marcus.

NOV 25th

ILLUMINATING EVENINGS LIGHTING OF THE OAKS & GRAND NOEL Opelousas, Louisiana

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Downtown Opelousas is going aglitter with the twinkling glory of holiday lights and spirit. Santa will be on site, as well as a petting zoo, storytelling, and a performance by the Our Lady of Angels Church choir. Food and craft vendors will offer refreshments for purchase, and local boutiques and businesses will be open late.

3:30 pm–6:30 pm. Free. (337) 948-6263. •

NOV 26th

HOLIDAY MUSIC SOUNDS OF THE SEASON CHRISTMAS CONCERT New Iberia, Louisiana

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

NOV 26th

TREATS & BALLERINAS LAND OF THE SWEETS NUTCRACKER TEA Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Don't wait to immerse yourself in the magic of the season. Area children are all invited to attend the annual Land of the Sweets Nutcracker Tea at Lod Cook Alumni Center, where they will meet the glittering cast of the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre's The Nutcracker: A Tale from the Bayou. Guests will enjoy tasty treats and sugary drinks, with plenty of chances to take photos with the dancers, and even learn a dance from them. Kids will leave with crafts and memories to last a lifetime. Recommended for preschool and elementary aged children and their families. 2 pm. $60 for early bird tickets purchased before November 20; $70 afterwards. batonrougeballet.org. •

NOV 28th

CREATIVE SOLUTIONS "CAN'T BEAT 'EM? EAT 'EM!" WITH PHILIPPE PAROLA

NOV 29th - DEC 17th

DEFYING GRAVITY WICKED AT THE SAENGER New Orleans, Louisiana

Mark your calendars for the return of New Orleans's favorite musical Wicked, presented at the Saenger Theatre. This timeless Broadway sensation tells the spellbinding story of a girl with emerald skin as she journeys through the Land of Oz. Tickets start at $39. saengernola.com for showtimes. •

NOV 30th

EATS & SIPS DENHAM SPRINGS CHEF'S EVENING AND WINE TASTING Denham Springs, Louisiana

Stroll Denham Springs's Antique Village, while nibbling samples prepared by local chefs, and sipping fine wines. 7 pm–9 pm. bontempstix.com. •

NOV 30th

RADIO PERSONALITIES DEBBIE ELLIOTT AT WRKF FOUNDERS LUNCHEON Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Crowne Plaza Hotel plays host to WRKF, Baton Rouge's NPR station, and its annual Founder's Luncheon featuring Debbie Elliott. Elliott is a top NPR correspondent, and will speak on “Stories, Secrets and Scoundrels of the South”. Noon–1 pm. $100; $80 for WRKF members; full table reservations for groups available. bontempstix.com. •

NOV 30th - DEC 2nd HOLIDAY CHEER CHRISTMAS AT COTEAU Grand Coteau, Louisiana

Christmas at Coteau offers a holiday market featuring more than seventy-five unique vendors, gourmet seated lunches, and a gumbo cook-off on Saturday. At the market, expect to find antiques, estate jewelry, Christmas accessories, objets d’art, children’s apparel, and home and garden accessories. All proceeds benefit Schools of the Sacred Heart at Grand Coteau, where the event is held. sshcoteau.org. •

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Nutria, feral hogs, and carp sure are some pesky little critters in Louisiana’s ecosystem.

Chef Philippe Parola, author of Can’t Beat ‘Em? Eat ‘Em! has devised a sustainable approach to combat invasive species by incorporating them into our cuisine. Join him at LSU Hilltop Arboretum’s Beverly Brown Coates Auditorium to learn more about his concept of culinary conservation and try one of his famous recipes using invasive carp. 6:30 pm–8 pm. $15; $10 for students. Register at lsu.edu/hilltop. •

For our full list of November events, including those we couldn’t fit in print, point your phone camera here. // N O V 2 3

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“Nack-A-Tish”

“Nack-A-Tish” Experience the charm of the original French colony in Louisiana. Natchitoches (Nack-a-tish) was established in 1714, and retains its European flavor through its architecture, heritage and lifestyle. Historic Natchitoches offers numerous attractions, museums, Creole plantations and year around festivals including the Festival of Lights, Louisiana’s premier holiday destination.

All Roads Lead to Natchitoches

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NOV.18, 2023 thru Jan. 6, 2024

NATCHITOCHESCHRISTMAS.COM

Celebrate the Christmas season in Louisiana’s oldest city. Over 300,000 Christmas lights and over 100 lighted set pieces illuminate Downtown Natchitoches and Cane River Lake through January 6, 2024.

Christmas Tour of Homes Dec. 8 & 9 and Dec. 15 & 16 “Nack-A-Tish”

Mark Your Calendar and Plan to Join Us!

800-259-1714 Natchitoches.com

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Features

NOVEMBER 2023

32 A RETELLING OF EVANGELINE, TOLD BY LOUISIANANS

IN PRODUCTION

// 3 7 S I X L O U I S I A N A D O C U M E N T A R I E S W E ' V E

G O T O U R E Y E S O N // 4 4 T H E M O S T W H O L E S O M E C A S E O F C O P Y R I G H T - I N F R I N G E M E N T Y O U ' V E E V E R HEARD OF

•

FOLKLORE ON FILM

Southern Gothic, but Cajun

CORY ST. EWART'S CINEMATIC RETELLING OF EVANGELINE EMPHASIZES THE VALUE OF LOUISIANA STORIES TOLD BY LOUISIANANS

Story by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

A still of musician Renée Reed as Evangeline in Cory St. Ewart's short film inspired by Louisiana culture and folklore. Courtesy of St. Ewart.

O

n a hot and humid day in June, Lafourche Parish actor Hick Cheramie sat on a cypress porch on the edge of a pond in Breaux Bridge, dressed in a thick wool button-down.

In the cabin behind him, cameras were being positioned, lighting adjusted.

His co-star, the musician Renée Reed, was having her braid rearranged just so, the dirt on her face touched up. And Cheramie was sitting with Lafayette-area French language activist Matt Mick repeating, over and over again: "Tu peux passer à la grocérie por les attraper?"

The two passed the phrase, which translates to English as “Could you get this from the store?” back and forth until Mick, acting as the film’s language consultant, was satisfied, and told 32

Cheramie, “You got this.”

Cheramie, who is “from down the bayou,” speaks with a natural Cajun French accent, but like many Louisianans of his generation, doesn’t speak the language fluently. To accurately portray Theodule, father of the iconic Acadian heroine Evangeline in director Cory St. Ewart’s horror interpretation of Longfellow’s poem, he worked tirelessly with Mick to get the dialogue, spoken entirely in proper Acadian French, just right.

Cheramie has worked on major productions like Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s Antebellum, Antoine Fuqua’s Emancipation, and Michael Uppendahl’s Mayfair Witches, but said that as a person of Cajun descent, he found the character of Theodule one of the most intense and important

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roles he’s taken on yet. “It was a little bit more personal for me with this,” he said, “because I feel like our culture is so misinterpreted a lot of the time, so the desire to honor this role, and honor this story, and honor where I come from … the drive was really poignant. I was really pushing hard in my soul, you know, to honor the true language. And I didn’t want to embarrass myself and our culture, you know.”

Such a commitment to authenticity was central to St. Ewart’s vision for his film from the very beginning. An artist and filmmaker who got his start in Lafayette, he is currently completing an MFA at Columbia University; his darker, surrealist version of Evangeline was conceived to fulfill his summer short film assignment. “We had so much freedom to do anything we wanted,”

he said, “as long as it was within five to twelve minutes, and under a certain budget cap. So, of course, I challenged myself in the most sense—doing a period piece in a language I don’t fully understand, shot in the middle of the Louisiana summer.”

The film’s concept was initially the result of St. Ewart’s homesickness after almost a year since leaving Lafayette— leading him down various deep dives studying Louisiana culture and folklore.

In the story of Evangeline, he saw opportunities to showcase elements of the culture—architecture, clothing, language—that are rarely seriously depicted in film.

“Cajun culture is thought of as so hospitable and fun, and Louisiana’s a fun place, and everyone is having a good time—that’s what it’s known for,” he said. “People love that. I love that.

But, I thought it would be interesting to explore what happens when you bring in Southern Gothic, in a Cajun way. To have that contrast and opportunity to drive home the point that— this isn’t all just for a good time, it’s not just for laughs, it’s not just for tourism.

There’s a real depth, with potential and possibilities for storytelling. What happens when you present Cajun culture in a highbrow, arthouse sense?”

The result is a film that uses the dramatics and intrigue of Louisiana history and folklore, as well as the enchantment of a distinct sense of place, to explore a universal experience of generational tensions between a father and a daughter. “We have so much folklore here, that’s been around for so long, and is timeless,” said Reed. “And I love when that gets used in a way that’s original. Paying homage to these traditional stories, but then putting your own spin on it—that’s what keeps it going.”

Mick echoed the sentiment, saying, “Cory, as a really talented young storyteller, saw the potential in this evergreen folktale, and he saw the way you could still do something new, something that feels like a fresh take

on that same story that is reflective of where we are, but also incorporates these characters and themes and ideas which have been present in Louisiana and elsewhere for a long time.” Mick also noted the significance of St. Ewart’s decision to consult local language experts to ensure that the story is represented with accuracy and care.

“If you’re producing a piece of art about Louisiana, and you want it to reflect something about our culture, handling the language carefully is, in my opinion, a huge part of that,” he said. “So, the fact that Cory, even not being a speaker himself, had the cultural awareness to seek out people who do work with the language and who know how to handle some of that and help out in those respects, I really admire. I think it shows a level of care and artistry that’s really important if you’re going to try to engage with culture in Louisiana.”

This degree of intentionality extended beyond language to every detail in the film, from finding the perfect location, to sourcing period-appropriate

consultant on deck, St. Ewart started to assemble the rest of his cast and crew. By the end of it—besides one of his classmates from Columbia, Carsen Smith, who served as a producer—everyone involved in the project, from gaffing to makeup to set design, was a Louisiana talent. “Cory is nothing if not someone who wants to support cultural actors in this area,” said Mick.

“He got accepted to Columbia, went to New York to study film, but came back here to shoot this film, and use local talent and local resources. I think that’s a real testament to the way that Cory wants to engage with people and lift them up.”

Reed, a culture bearer in her own right, had been part of the vision from the very beginning.

In his early research for the film, St. Ewart became captivated by her original song, “Où est la fée,” a folklore-inspired, swampy enchantment sung in Louisiana French, which tells of being drawn into the forest by a mysterious, magical being. “I fell in love with the song,” he said. “It fit the tone, the lyr-

“IF WE’RE GOING TO PRESENT EVANGELINE TO THE REST OF THE CINEMA WORLD AS ONE OF THE VERY FEW EXAMPLES OF A PERIOD PIECE SET IN ACADIANA, THEN I WANT IT TO BE AS CLOSE AS WE CAN TO WHAT A PERIOD PIECE IN ACADIANA SHOULD BE. BECAUSE IT MATTERS.” —CORY ST. EWART costumes, to utilizing local talent. “If we’re going to present Evangeline to the rest of the cinema world,” said St. Ewart, “as one of the very few examples of a period piece set in Acadiana, then I want it to be as close as we can to what a period piece in Acadiana should be. Because it matters.”

The final filming location was discovered after locations producer Brad Guillot had scouted all across Acadiana—on a tip. Following the advice of another property owner in the Breaux Bridge area, he knocked on the door of former Cecilia football coach Lowell “PeeWee” Guidry, whose expansive and eclectic collection of historic artifacts spills fantastically across his yard, and includes several traditional Acadian-style cottages and structures, all arranged around a pond. “He’s like ‘alright, well you guys come to the back and check it out,’ and it was perfect.” When Guillot texted photos to St. Ewart, he immediately responded “This is exactly, exactly what we need.”

With a distinctly 18th century Louisiana backdrop, a script written in Louisiana French, and a language

ics even played into the subject matter.

I didn’t know if the actual song was going to make it into the film. And I didn’t know if Renée was going to be my Evangeline. I was just going with it.”

When he came home to Lafayette at the beginning of the summer, ready to assemble his cast, he told his set producer, Jon-David Mahoney (of Magic Bus Films) that he had modeled his idea of Evangeline off of Reed. “And JD was like, ‘Why don’t you just ask Renée?’”

In a mysterious act of kismet, Reed had just started considering responding to some of the acting opportunities that occasionally landed in her inbox.

A natural performer, but never having worked in front of a camera in this manner, she said acting “has always been something I’ve thought about and would enjoy doing, but I just never really pursued it.” But that summer, she had started to imagine what her dream role would be. As a longtime lover of Louisiana folklore, “it was actually Evangeline,” she said. “And then, I swear, it was a week later that Cory messaged me.”

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Reed immediately agreed to be part of the project, despite having no acting experience. “I had no doubt that she would do a good job,” said St. Ewart.

“She’s a performer, she’s in front of crowds all the time. I had faith in her, and faith in myself as a director.”

Cheramie, who got the role after responding to an online casting call (St. Ewart described receiving Cheramie’s resume and headshot—which features his archetypal beard—as ‘love at first sight’), admitted that when he learned his costar had never performed in front of a camera, he was skeptical. “Then she absolutely blew me away,” he said. “She was just a natural talent, and a joy to work with.”

St. Ewart said it was “divine providence” that he was able to secure such talent as Reed and Cheramie, both of Acadian descent themselves. Cheramie agrees that a higher power had a hand in it all, especially after discovering that the property where they shot the film had been the place his late father had evacuated to during Hurricane Katrina. “Once PeeWee found out who I am, he proceeded to tell me that he knew my father really well, and that my father loved this property,” he said. “So there I am in this room, like, ‘man my father was here, and he lived here for seven days, and he loved it here.’ So, was I supposed to do this film? Absolutely.”

The combination of connecting to his late father, having an opportunity to represent his ancestors on screen, and being able to connect with so many other local talents in the industry made the filming experience one of Cheramie’s most profound yet as an actor. “This film changed my life,” he said.

St. Ewart assured that the final result, which will hit the festival circuit in 2024, will not disappoint.

“I’ve never had a film that I was confident [in] coming out of the editing bay, like the flaws were always so glaring. This is not that film. I’ve never been so

proud of anything I’ve made.” He’s already received positive feedback from his peers and professors at Columbia, but it’s the Louisiana audiences he is most eager to share it with. “People who have no attachment to the culture are enjoying the ride, so I can only imagine when it finally makes its premiere

Evangeline is expected to premiere at film festivals in the fall of 2024.

Find more of St. Ewart's work at vimeo.com/stewart.

A still of Renée Reed as Evangeline and Hick Cheramie as Theodule in Cory St. Ewart's short film inspired by Louisiana culture and folklore. Courtesy of St. Ewart.

Come decorate your Jeep at WBRCVB and listen to classics by Jude

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in Louisiana, how people are gonna enjoy hearing Louisiana French on the big screen, seeing architecture they recognize. It’s them, but in a cinema sense.

It’s a reflection of the community that I come from, that can only exist because of the community that I come from.” •

Upcoming Events NOVEMBER

Car Show- Antique Village • November 5, 2023 Walker Veteran’s Parade Event • November 11, 2023 Denham Springs Veteran’s Appreciation • November 11, 2023 Grand Country Junction • The Fabulous 50s Encore • November 18, 2023 Lighting of the Old City Hall • November 24, 2023 Christmas Open House • November 25, 2023 Christmas in the Denham Springs Village • November 24-December 17, 2023 Chef’s Evening and Wine Tasting Event • November 30, 2023

DECEMBER Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra Antique Village • December 2, 2023 Walker Christmas Parade • December 2, 2023 Diversion Christmas Boat Parade • December 2, 2023 Kiwanis Christmas Tree Lighting • December 7, 2023 Denham Springs Kiwanis Christmas Parade • December 9, 2023 A Grand Ole Christmas at Grand Country Junction • December 16, 2023 Christmas Alive • December 17, 2023

Shopping

Juban Crossing Bass Pro Denham Springs Antique District V-Watts Trade Days • 2nd Saturday of the month Farmers Market • Every Saturday in Denham Springs • Walker

www.livingstontourism.com (225) 567-7899 // N O V

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the

Acadian Museum

E R AT H , LO U I S I A N A The Acadian Museum, located in the heart of Cajun country, commemorates and honors the Acadian heritage and Cajun people of Louisiana. Featuring many rare Acadian artifacts, the Acadian Museum strives to preserve a culture and heritage that has endured for over 400 years, here and in the far reaches of France and Canada.

Did You Know?

The Acadian Museum has a YouTube video channel that is a certiied smash hit, with 140 videos, 1,000 subscribers, and more being added every day. The lms run the gamut of everything Cajun—from music and entertainment to history, culture, French language videos, and much more. The music includes Cajun favorites like Zachary Richard, D. L. Ménard (pictured), Steve Riley, Zydeco and Creole standards, Festivals Acadiens, and everything else. Get a window into the world of South Louisiana at youtube.com/@acadianmuseum where you can subscribe for free and stay in touch every day of the week with the best of Acadiana.

is video of world-famed Cajun musician D.L. Ménard has been viewed by subscribers more than 45,000 times.

Scan here to visit our YouTube channel.

Visit the Acadian Museum!

Admission is FREE. 203 South Broadway, Erath, Louisiana 70533 info@acadianmuseum.com (337) 456-7729 36

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Louisiana Acadian flag

BINGE-WORTHY

Well-Documented

THE PRECIPICE

Directed by Ben Johnson, for Louisiana Public Broadcasting

SIX ILLUMINATING SOUTHERN DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS BY LOUISANA FILMMAKERS

By Alexandra Kennon

D

ocumentary filmmakers in Louisiana have no shortage of cultural phenomena to draw inspiration from. This year, they’ve been intently gathering footage about faith healers, Creole cowboys, indigenous communities fighting to save their home, nostalgic line dances, and so much more. Documentary filmmaking is often a slow process—many of these films have been in production for years already—but local audiences will soon be rewarded with opportunities to watch them, either online or on the big screen at upcoming film festivals. Below are six films in production or premiering this year that we’re especially looking forward to, each exploring a unique cross section of Louisiana culture; collectively presenting a vibrant and complex picture of our state.

Director of Footwork Drake LeBlanc. Photo by Joseph Vidrine.

FOOTWORK

Directed by Drake LeBlanc, with support from Télé-Louisiane Drake LeBlanc, co-founder of Télé-Louisiane and director of the forthcoming documentary Footwork, grew up immersed in the Creole cowboy culture in and surrounding his home town of Lafayette. “Some of our classmates were, like, trying to go to the clubs or trying to go to the skate zone or trying to go play laser tag. And I'm like, we're just trying to go be around some horses,” LeBlanc recalled with a laugh. “We were always the country boys in class.”

As early as middle school, he said, he and his cousin were frequently scheming for ways to skip class to attend local trail rides— basically big parties on horseback that might last multiple days, with live music every night. “It's something that I always appreciated as a kid and wanted to be around.”

During the pandemic, LeBlanc became concerned that these trail rides, which were so important to his community and culture, might not return.

So when they slowly began happening again, he realized he needed to turn his lens as a cultural filmmaker to the events that were so important in his own life and community. “I just need to make a personal investment in something that I appreciate, personally, and document it, because I don't know how long it's gonna be here,” he said.

He started by gathering footage of the rides by himself, occasionally hiring a friend to help with filming. After a little over a year of filming sporadically as he was able, he was encouraged to apply for #CreateLouisiana’s French Culture Film Grant, which the project received this

year. Since then, production on Footwork has been full speed ahead, with plans to premiere at the 2024 New Orleans French Film Festival next March. “It kinda puts a fire under my feet, which is good. Because, you know, I want to get the project out and let people see it, and to hear these stories that we're capturing.”

LeBlanc explained that around half of the interviews he’s gathered are conducted in French or Creole. Subtitles in the alternate language will be included with all of them, maximizing the documentary’s accessibility and reach across languages.

LeBlanc met the film’s subjects by participating in the trail rides himself, building familiarity and trust as he was organically making friends. “I met people going to the trail ride as a guest, not necessarily with my camera, not necessarily with the intention of filming on that day,” he said. “And it's synonymous with barbershops, to like, have conversations and talk about things, and figure out who's from where and where their family's from. . . I think that goes a long way with them, because it doesn't feel like outsiders coming in to probe them with a bunch of questions. It’s just somebody that they actually know, and I would be at their family members’ houses either way, you know, just because of events that they host or just hanging out and cooking or whatever,” LeBlanc said. “So it feels very natural and organic.”

Having a crew made up entirely of Louisiana natives contributed to LeBlanc’s ability to foster a natural, conversational storytelling environment on the rides. “They know that laissez faire attitude, and how to just go with the flow sometimes, have a good time,” LeBlanc said. “And you know, just make that environment feel welcoming, which it always should feel like. So that's how we've been able to get a lot of these stories.”

Ultimately, the project as a whole aims to challenge the generalized perception of what a ‘cowboy’ is, and what cowboy culture can look like. “My idea of this project is showcasing the different perspectives and a different take on what it means to be a Black cowboy in Louisiana, and what it comes from, and where it's going in the future,” LeBlanc said. “So as far as who I'm interviewing, they’re diverse: it's men, it's women. It's old, it’s young. It’s French-speaking, it’s non-French-speaking. So I'm covering all the bases, and then there will be a center point of that story, which people just have to see when they watch the film.”

Footwork will premiere at the New Orleans French Film Festival in March of 2024.

From the first time director Ben Johnson drove down to Pointe-au-Chien, at the edge of the ball of Louisiana’s boot, where the land thins out to a patchy lacework of marsh, he was struck by the urge to share the powerful story of the tribal community that calls it home. “The people were speaking French, and it was just a little fishing community,” Johnson said. “It was unlike anything I've ever seen.”

After getting the green light from LPB, Johnson reached out to Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, the Tribe’s attorney and a member herself. After a long process of being vetted, and eventually welcomed by them in that small town Louisiana way, Johnson began filming at the Tribe’s annual culture camp. “It was like coming into a little tight knit community, a little family community, where everyone knows each other,” Johnson said. “So I originally kind of just fell in love with that aspect of it, and the different pace of life there.”

Johnson had been working on The Precipice for four months—seeing and shooting all that is at stake as the community’s children learned about Pointeau-Chien tribal culture and way of life—when Hurricane Ida made landfall, driving home all of the interviews he had been having with leaders about the imminent threat of erosion, and how it’s left the community vulnerable to storms.

“Sure enough, the hurricane comes, the eye of the storm comes right over Pointe-au-Chien,” Johnson said. “And pretty much brings everything we've been talking about to life.” Though Johnson initially thought the project would be a short documentary as part of another series, Ida’s staggering impact made it clear that the Tribe’s story merited a longer feature. While dealing with minor damage from the storm at his own home in New Orleans, he spent weeks after Ida filling LPB’s large truck with supplies to hand out in Pointe-au-Chien. Then, he’d pull out his camera. “​​And so that was pretty rough, you know, trying to ask people to open up to you in one of the hardest times is not an easy thing to do,” Johnson said. “But it's something I tried to effectively communicate to them that ‘you know, it's important that I capture your emotions.

It's important that people see just what is at stake.’ And I couldn't have asked for a better response from the Tribe. They let me follow them along throughout the whole process.”

Johnson continued to document the Tribe’s multiple months without water or electricity, still feeling somewhat uneasy about filming such a difficult experience.

But within only a few months, the Tribe was back to rallying around their most recent community initiative: advocating in Louisiana’s legislature to get their ele// N O V

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mentary school open. “And my feelings kind of changed from like a sadness, to like a hopefulness—just the strength of the Tribe to keep fighting to get what they want.”

When the bill approving the opening of Êcole Pointe-au-Chien—which will be the country’s first Indigenous French immersion school—passed unanimously in the state’s House and Senate, Johnson’s conviction for the importance of his project surged with the community’s triumph. “I felt an incredible amount of pride in the project.

It really had a full arc of like this hopefulness in the beginning of showing what the town was like, showing this beautiful way of life, then the destruction from a storm that was inevitable to come when the land is disappearing the way it is,” he said. “And then being able to end on a hopeful note of, despite all of these things, this Tribe is able to secure education for their future generations. It really just completed the arc of the story.”

The Precipice will be screened at the New Orleans Film Fest on November 4 at 2:30 pm and November 7 at 5:15 pm at Broad Theatre.

THE FREEZE

Directed by Peter DeHart and Allison Bohl DeHart, founders of MakeMade It’s no secret that the people in Acadiana and the surrounding areas love to dance— fais do-dos, two-steps, line dances. Usually they’re dancing to home-grown Cajun music, but in the early 1980s, an unexpected transplant song and accompanying line dance worked its way onto the scene, taking root and spreading as rapidly as kudzu.

This might be less remarkable were the song a Billboard top-charting national hit. But to the surprise and amusement of countless Louisianans, Ronnie Milsap’s “If You Don’t Want Me Too”—which, within the sixtysquare-mile radius of “Cajun Country,” became associated with a line dance inexplicably called “The Freeze”— was never a hit. It wasn’t even a single; it was a B-side.

Millsaps did produce many country music hits, but “If You Don’t Want Me To”—which doesn’t include the phrase “The Freeze” at any point in the lyrics—was not one of them. So how did this song so seamlessly infiltrate Cajun culture?

“I kind of slowly put together that there was this song and this dance that were important to people around here, like extremely important, ingrained in their culture,” Co-Director Allison Bohl DeHart said about first encountering “The Freeze” after moving to Lafayette from Shreveport-Bossier when she was eighteen. “And I always kind of just thought it was a Cajun thing, and that the person that wrote and recorded the song was from Lafayette.”

Her partner and Co-Director Peter DeHart had grown up with the song in Lafayette in the ‘90s, as had their friend and producer of the film Rachel Nederveld.

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learned it like in P.E., and—people in Lafayette would remember this— KSMB would come to your school and have these big music parties and dance, and it was always part of that,” Peter DeHart recalled. “So you know, I always knew it. But again, I never really questioned it.”

What started as three friends laughingly Googling and asking people about their memories of the song soon turned into a full-blown investigation, which will be presented in their forthcoming feature documentary The Freeze. They initially thought the final cut would be a “silly little gem” of a short film at around fifteen minutes, “but as we've done the research, it's just gotten deeper and deeper,” said Bohl DeHart.

They’ve filmed a great deal of footage in the Acadiana area, and are in the process of raising money to follow their investigation out of state to film interviews with the song’s producers, the songwriters, and Ronnie Milsap himself. “We’ve got to go with our cameras to Nashville,” Bohl DeHart explained, “but we’ve also got to get money to go with our cameras to Nashville.”

While funding is often a hurdle for filmmakers, the DeHarts have encountered another challenge more distinct to Louisiana. “One of the biggest hurdles we've come in contact with is that in the Acadiana region in the early ‘80s, people were having a really good time, and they don't remember,” Peter DeHart laughed.

“I think as a Southern filmmaker, you're always like, you know, ‘my film has to be a Southern story. It has to be a Cajun story, it has to be, like, a true South story.’ And we were really drawn to this because it's something that over time has become identity for the people here, but it's actually not from here—or the reality was, we didn't know where it was from,” Bohl DeHart said.

In a landscape of more serious documentaries, “we wanted to just try something that was borderline kind of silly,” Peter DeHart said. But The Freeze is more than that, too. “As we've dug deeper, it is so complex, and like this fun, funny, silly song and dance is very complex and very interesting, and kind of mysterious, and just a whole wild ride,” said Bohl DeHart. “What it really is, is intangible culture that is bringing people together… it's a flippant thing that they pass by every day. But when you dig deeper into something so mundane, it's magical … even though it's kind of just a fun song. It brings people together more than they realize.”

The Freeze is tentatively expected to be completed in 2026. Learn more about the project at facebook.com/thefreezedoc Courtesy of Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

Ronnie Milsap, the singer of "If You Don't Want Me To," (called "The Freeze" in Acadiana), in concert. Photo courtesy of Peter and Allison DeHart.

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Title design by André Broussard, image by John Paul Summers, and graphic design by Olivia Perillo.

TRAITEMENT

By Creative Producer Syd Horn, Director Andrea Villien, Creative Producer/Director of Photography Olivia Perillo, and co-writer Matt Mick Faith healers and their traditions have existed for thousands of years across countless cultures. In French-speaking Louisiana to this day, they exist as traiteurs like Becca Begnaud, who is the primary resource for and subject of a three-part documentary series currently in production called Traitement, or “treat-

ment,” from Honest Art Productions.

“I talk about healing in this particular culture— healing is in every culture," Begnaud said. “This is not about, ‘become Catholic, talk French, and become a traiteur.’ This is using that culture, this culture that we are all living in because we live in Lafayette, to let people look at healing.”

Begnaud’s influence and impact on the community extends far beyond her work in Reiki and several other modalities of healing, which she turned to following a mastectomy in 1989. That is why after including Begnaud in Honest Art’s 2020 film Intention about eleven women who, in different ways, reflect the cultural heritage of Southwest Louisiana, Horn and the team approached Begnaud about featuring her even more prominently in Traitement.

“Her opening up her world to us, for me personally, was really beautiful, because I think Traitement is an extension of her segment of Intention. Because she does do so much community work and all these different aspects,” Perillo explained. “And I think that's a really beautiful part of healing is that you have different people in different areas.” She noted that in addition to Begnaud, the film features the work of anthropologist Ray Brasseur, bereavement educator Sarah Brabant, and French historian Mathé Allain. “And just the span of those three subjects in itself really encompasses, makes up so much of her, you know—and not limited to that, of course, but I think it's a good starting point for telling her story.”

Along with the three-part docuseries, the other major aspect of the project, which is being funded by a 2023 ArtSpark grant from the Acadiana Center for the Arts, is community outreach, which will include a four-part “healing arts gathering” featuring talks with Begnaud and various other local healers that concludes with an

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art exhibition at Maison Freetown.

Villien is a first-time director, embracing Honest Art’s mission of giving opportunities to non-traditional filmmakers. “That's something that I'm very passionate about,” Horn said. “I love working with artists that are of a plethora of modalities, because it typically lends itself to a very interesting and unique result.” “[I’m] just a fan of Becca,” said Villien. “And all of these creative people, and [I] really value the collaborative process of this entire project and how we're really a team—everyone kind of sharing those responsibilities, those roles, and creating something pretty special.”

“It's been experimental. It's been challenging. It's been fruitful. It's been many different things,” Horn explained of the production process for Traitement. It’s also been very personal, as Horn and the other creators’ drives to tell this story come directly from their relationships with Begnaud and her philosophies on healing.

“Becca's story reminds me that in one single lifetime, you can live a million lifetimes. And that gave me a lot of hope, knowing her, because it has seriously informed my life and my own healing journey, and I could see how that could be beneficial to others as well,” Horn said. “But also, that the people that you know in your life are really the ones carrying you. You know, it's not all about you, it's about this village of people that are giving their single contribution to build something greater. And I think from a team perspective, that's kind of the mentality that we're all trying to embrace.

But also from a thematic perspective, I think that's a very important aspect to the project.”

Intention, the precursor feature to Traitement, will premiere on Youtube on November 22. The first installment of Traitement is anticipated to be released early 2024. honestartproductions.com/traitement.

COMMUTED

Directed by Nailah Jefferson In 2017, Nailah Jefferson, director of the feature documentary Commuted, was working as a full-time filmmaker and had just finished making her first narrative short film, Plaquemines. Because of her status as a storyteller and her own personal experiences of having a family member incarcerated—plus her experience working with the New Orleans nonprofit Resurrection After Exoneration—the pastor of her church, Bishop Lester Love, approached her. He said he knew of someone who had a story, and “You all should meet.”

The following Sunday, Jefferson connected with Danielle Metz, who had recently been released from prison after serving twenty-three years. “And we got to talking.” Metz shared with Jefferson her experience of being sentenced to triple life, plus twenty years, for nonviolent drug offenses, before receiving clemency in 2016 from the Obama administration. “I thought this was a story that I could help lend myself to as a storyteller, because we don't hear enough stories about incarcerated women.”

Jefferson pointed out that often women like Metz get caught up in crimes their husbands or boyfriends are involved in, and can end up having excessive charges levied against them. “We also don't learn about how these women are used kind of as pawns really. And when they don't play ball, then all of these charges are levied at them, and they end up with these ridiculous sentences,” Jefferson explained. “In Danielle's case, it took her away from her seven-year-old and her three-year-old. She was only twenty-six when she received that time, and she was gone for twenty-three years, and it's really been an interruption to her life, their lives.”

Knowing that Metz’s story is only one example of countless women whose lives have been irrevocably dis-

rupted by excessive sentences, Jefferson wanted to lend her voice to shed light on their experiences, and the way the war on drugs can ruin lives over nonviolent offenses.

Commuted is not about whether or not Metz committed the crime she was charged with, Producer Darcy McKinnon pointed out. “I think our point of view is that those films have been made. Danielle's sentence was disproportionate to what she did. And really, irrespective of guilt or innocence, our criminal justice system in America puts a huge burden on Black people and Black families and on Black women,” McKinnon said. “And so this is an exploration of one woman's experience.”

Oftentimes, conversations about prison reform are focused on men, which Jefferson clarifies is incredibly important, too—but Metz’s story serves as a reminder that incarceration impacts women, as well. “I think women often get lost in the prison system—more so than men do. I don't think people think it's a fight that women have. And they absolutely do have it, especially mothers like Danielle and the women that she was incarcerated with,” she said.

For Jefferson and her team, it was important to offer Metz an empowered role in telling her own story. “I think that was Danielle's goal coming home, like, ‘I spent all these years in prison, I have a story to tell. In this story, I'm going to turn it around for good.’ And so she wanted to make sure that she was a part of this process,” Jefferson said. “And I'm thankful that I had a partner like Darcy, who supported welcoming her into the storytelling process, and letting this be a film that empowered her to really use her voice.”

Often when someone is released from prison, the focus is on whether they’re able to find employment and housing, but Jefferson wanted to go further, emphasizing the emotional and psychological journey of the experience. “I think that's a hard enough struggle just in everyday life,” Jefferson said. “But imagine a woman who was incarcerated at twenty-six comes home, she's forty-nine. She's lost all of her youth to incarceration, and she has to not only figure out her life, but where she fits into the lives of the people who she's loved and who she's longed to be with all of these years … I think it's an emotional journey. That's a bit more universal. And I think that's what audiences can really hold on to. So while our industry wants to see more true crime, for us, it was important to show something that was a bit more immersive and emotional, so that people can really get the point of the damage that's done through incarceration.”

Commuted will premiere at the Contemporary Arts Center’s black box theatre as part of the New Orleans Film Festival at 7:30 pm on November 2, and 5 pm on November 7. commutedfilm.com.

Danielle Metz, the subject of Nailah Jefferson's new documentary, Commuted.

Courtesy of the New Orleans Film Festival .

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BORN TO FLY Directed by Brennan Robideaux

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Director of feature documentary Born to Fly Brennan Robideaux was twenty-one years old, living back in his hometown of Lafayette after dropping out of college, when he decided he wanted to tell the story of Mondo Duplantis. “I've been a filmmaker for all my life. I'm always chasing stories. And naturally, at that point, it was a real make or break moment: I'm either gonna really do this thing or it was time to find another career path, frankly,” Robideaux said.

“At that time, this kid in our hometown, Mondo Duplantis, was making small little splashes in our local paper…he jumped an incredible height. Everyone in Lafayette had kind of heard of his family, but didn't know too much about them.”

There was some lore surrounding the Duplantis family, according to Robideaux.

Some knew that Mondo’s father Greg had been a record-breaking pole vaulter himself, and his mom was a successful track and field athlete from Sweden. People talked about the fact that the Duplantis’s had a pole vaulting pit in their backyard. “But then I think seeing him appear in The Daily Advertiser—just a little blurb about how he had broken an age group world record, which he had been doing all of his life, come to find out—but that was just like that lightbulb moment.”

Given that Duplantis was only in high school and had already achieved record-breaking success, Robideaux wondered what he would accomplish next—and wanted to document it.

He got Duplantis’s number and texted him, asking if he could make a documentary about him (“because you know, seventeen year olds, they don’t talk on the phone”).

After getting the go-ahead, Robideaux dove straight into filming, wheeling his camera gear from his parents' house where he was living at the time across the street to Lafayette High School, where Duplantis practiced. “​​He had something in him . . . he grasped the concept of the sport better than anyone had ever seen. And he quickly surpassed his brothers, even at a young age,” Robideaux said. “And his development was extraordinary. I mean, it's not a joke when they say he was legitimately a prodigy.”

Robideaux said he just dove right into the project, chuckling retrospectively at his own boldness. “I figured, screw it. I'm going to jump in the deep end, to a multi-year type doc project of me following them, and just see kind of where it goes.”

Since the project was self funded, the production process wasn’t particularly glamorous. “I slept on the floor of Mondo’s hotel room for like three and a half years, four years straight. I basically ate peanut butter out of the jar for like, literally three years straight,” Robideaux remembered. “[Duplantis] was getting invited to these massive competitions and starting to really excel. And so I'd have to get to Europe, I would just sleep on his floor.”

As Robideaux sunk more of his savings and time into filming Duplantis, the stakes became increasingly high on the gamble—or “calculated risk”—he had taken on the young athlete. Yes, the heights of his jumps were impressive and steadily increasing, but as Robideaux learned later, oftentimes childhood athletic success does not translate into adulthood. “It was definitely a risk factor of even doing this at all, but I was young and dumb enough to go ahead and give it a shot,” he said.

It became clear as he filmed, and solidified when he edited, that the core of Duplantis’s story was a tale of a bond between a father and son, and their mutual love for a unique sport.

“You know, there was that magic of a boy falling in love with the same thing that his dad also excelled at, and wanting to impress his father, wanting to challenge himself,” Robideaux said. “You know, there's just that beauty of mutual love of something. And when you think about it, being a unique sport like this, to me, that's kind of magic. I love that. I love that it's untraditional, and so that's really what the film became.”

Born to Fly will have its North American Premiere at the Austin Film Festival on October 29 at 3:30 pm and November 1 at 4 pm. It will also be shown at the Prytania Theatre as part of the New Orleans Film Festival on November 5 at 7:45 pm. It will receive its hometown premiere at the Acadiana Center for the Arts as part of the Southern Screen Festival on November 18. borntoflyfilm.com. •

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Revel under the white lights adorning the streets, meet local artists, enjoy live music, and eat at Mid City's exceptional and unique restaurants.

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Special effects guru Jayson Lamb, star actor Chris Strompolos, and director Eric Zala in 1988.

HOME MOVIES

Little Raiders

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THE STORY OF HOW IN THE 1980S, THREE KID-FILMMAKERS FROM OCEAN SPRINGS ATTEMPTED TO REMAKE SPIELBERG'S MASTERPIECE

By Cherie Ward

onsidered a classic in the canon of American films, Spielberg’s iconic 1981 film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, instantly captivated filmgoers of the 1980s, including a couple of Mississippi kids with dreams of becoming filmmakers someday. In one of movie history’s most memorable fight scenes, Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, played by Harrison Ford, plans to escape from the German Nazi forces by stealing a plane. Instead, he comes face to face with a towering behemoth of a bare-chested strongman, grinning and ready for a bare-knuckle fight that ends in a propeller-puréed Nazi and a spectacular airplane explosion.

After seven grueling summers following the film’s release, teenagers Eric Zala and Chris Strompolos had nearly recreated the entire Spielberg film scene for scene—except for the famous airplane brawl.

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off that single scene of the plane blowing up was out of our reach,” Zala, now fifty-three, said.

After all, how could teenagers engineer a plane explosion, and with camels in the background at that?

“Our justification for leaving it out originally was that the narrative worked fine without it,” Zala said. “It was too complicated and too dangerous. But our drive was to eventually do it, even if we were adults.”

The endeavor began in a backyard in Ocean Springs, Mississippi in the blazing summer of 1982.

Zala, then-twelve, and Strompolos, then-eleven, had bonded on a school bus over the now-collectable Marvel Super Special comic book adaptation of Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. They started tossing around daydreams, brainstorming how they might create their backyard version of the movie.

The two friends started routinely pulling all-nighters,

but not to engulf themselves in the new adolescent crazes of premium channels on cable TV. Rather, they were occupied with memorizing dialogue, creating sets, and blowing stuff sky-high. While other boys asked for dirt bikes and Atari GameStations for birthdays and Christmas, Zala and Strompolos requested bullwhips, leather jackets, fedoras, cans of spray paint, and a VHS camcorder.

Strompolos was tapped to play the lead, while Zala took on the directing chores and played bad guy roles.

Their friend Jayson Lamb was tasked with running the camera and creating homemade special effects—many of which included fireworks, gasoline, and vehicles. His contributions, and the use of a fish tank, can be credited with the convincing replication of the film’s famous face-melting, ghost-swirling, grand finale.

“Jayson wasn’t as into Raiders as we were, but he liked creating special effects and wanted to be involved,” Zala said. “Chris wanted to embody Harrison Ford and

be the hero, and I had fantasies about being in Tunisia where Spielberg shot it, so everyone involved had a different motivation.”

Armed with a newfangled Betamax camcorder, a version of the film script from Waldenbooks, a grainy sound recording secretly made in a movie theater, and more than six hundred storyboards, the determined filmmakers recruited curious friends to help realize their production. Strompolos’s mom, Elaine Stevens (who also happens to be the first woman news anchor in the Magnolia State) assisted—granting the boys access to the WLOX-13 studio in Biloxi where she worked.

“It was an amazing effort that gave their childhood meaning,” Stevens said in a recent interview. “And they completed it. A lot of kids start things they can't finish, and these children finished.”

Throughout the exhaustive process, the various challenges of arguments, camera breakdowns, and elemental issues frequently, but always temporarily, shut down production. Much like the movie’s giant boulder (which they made with fiberglass), the boys rolled on summer by summer, moving ever forward to the final credits.

The production’s biggest holdup came about after filming a certain fiery bar fight scene, which resulted in Zala being set on fire and the family basement nearly burned to ashes. When Stevens and the other moms saw the footage, production was immediately halted for the remainder of the summer of 1983.

“As children, they took tremendous chances, and at times, I was afraid I would be childless,” Stevens said. “It all worked out, but they were fearless and determined, and even though we shut them down for a while, they eventually talked us into letting them restart production.”

After a little time and a few heavily promised concessions, the boys were back in business.

“By the following summer things had cooled down

literally and figuratively,” Zala recalled. “Chris and I concocted a plan. We put on a safety demonstration for the moms and promised to have an adult on site.”

At one point during the process, Zala remembers painting hieroglyphics on his mom's basement walls.

“Someone said, ‘Wouldn't it be cool if someday we actually finished this and Spielberg sees it and doesn't sue us and tells us he likes it?’” he recalled. “There was a pause, and another pause, and then we all laughed and said, ‘That’s never going to happen. Let’s get back to work and finish this.’”

After seven years, the A screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark : The Adaptation. Courtesy of Eric Zala. boys finally completed their film—a meticulously detailed recreation of the original, sans one scene.

They eagerly premiered Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Ad- Roth, the co-writer and director of Cabin Fever, when he aptation in 1989 before two hundred friends and family was then a student at New York University. He gave it at the Gulfport Pepsi-Cola Bottling Plant. Zala recalled to film critic Harry Knowles just before his 2002 Buttthe deafening, but glorious, applause and also having to Numb-A-Thon, an annual 24-hour film festival in Ausget up early the next morning to clean up the auditori- tin, Texas. When there was a gap in between screenings, Knowles filled it by unleashing the bootleg copy on an um and collect the "ark".

“There was just an immense sense of relief that we had unsuspecting audience.

A hush fell, and the audience watched quietly at first done it,” Zala said. “And I thought we had closed the and then erupted into huge laughs and bellowing cheers. book on Raiders, but I was wrong.”

The young men got on with their lives while pirated When organizers stopped the adaptation halfway VHS copies were passed around to Raiders fans. A fuzzy, through to show the scheduled screening, the audience watered-down version ended up in the hands of Eli booed.

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“It stole Butt-Numb-a-Thon,” Knowles later wrote on his site, Ain’t It Cool News.

“After key moments, cheers began rocking the Drafthouse. People started trying to guess how these kids would pull off the next big moment. And they always were doing it bigger than we could imagine.”

Thirteen years after The Adaptation’s completion, that improvised screening propelled the homemade movie on the path to fan film cult status, and Roth was so impressed with the buoyant audience response that the following year he tracked down Zala, Strompolos, and Lamb and organized an official screening at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. A year later, the film gained internet traction with an in-depth and detailed story in Vanity Fair’s 2004 Hollywood Issue.

Despite the fact that the film skipped the famous Flying Wing Fight segment and couldn't hide Strompolos’s scene-to-scene (summer-to-summer) aging throughout the course of the film’s story (which takes place over a couple of weeks), Roth offered a crisp copy to Spielberg. After watching it twice, Spielberg then sent Zala, Lamb, and Strompolos each a personalized letter, calling their childhood labors full of vast amounts of imagination, originality, and detail.

“I still remember opening the letter,” Zala said. “It was like my spirit left my body.

It felt like it was just too poetic.”

In 2014, with their wives and children in tow, the pioneer fan filmmakers and cast reunited in Vancleave, Mississippi, to finally complete the missing airplane scene.

They had raised $58,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to make it happen (for reference, the rest of their film had been made on a budget of about $5,000; the original about $18 million). The scene took seventy people, 124 shots, and eleven days to complete, but by the end of it, that great steely bird had been blown to bits, their boyhood dream finally realized in full. They’d even found a camel for the backdrop, loaned from an animal show at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi.

The final completion of Zala, Strompolos, and Lamb’s film was the occasion for a 2015 documentary film by Jeremy Coon and Tim Skousen titled Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, and an accompanying book by Alan Eisenstock. This revival of sorts has catapulted the project to the status of cult classic and launched its creators into public speaking roles across the country. And this time, the film gained the attention of not only the statewide paper the Clarion Ledger, but numerous national publications such as The New York Times, the Smithsonian Magazine, and others.

Zala said that he and the others have also been in discussions with various production companies about creating a television series around the story—though “there are no guarantees, of course.” Ideally serving as producers, Zala and Strompolos would then be making a show about their film, coming full circle.

“Life is forever unexpected but then it reveals itself and you find you're right where you need to be,” he said. •

You can watch Raiders of the Lost The Lost Ark: The Adaptation, shop merch, and find links to the Netflix documentary and book Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made at raidersguys.com.

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NOVEMBER 2023

Cuisine

48 THE POPCORN FARM OF MISSISSIPPI

•

BUTTERED UP

J

ohn Mark Looney, Jr. isn’t one to walk away from a challenge. So, in 2016 when a friend offhandedly asked whether his family had ever tried to grow popcorn on their farm just outside of Leland, Mississippi, a seed—or rather a kernel—of an idea planted itself in his mind. Looney started doing some research, exploring different varieties of popcorn. His dad, Mark, Sr., happily contributed an acre of their 2,700-acre Six Mile Farm to his son’s project. Today, that one acre popcorn crop has grown to twenty stretching out behind the family home.

Popcorn is, of course, corn. And the Looney family has been growing corn—along with cotton, rice, soybeans, and other commodity crops—for three generations. But popcorn has a smaller cob and kernel than traditional corn and must be picked when the moisture content is just right (Looney aims for 12.8%) to achieve the best pop. The learning curve, though, was adequately balanced by the effects of the rich Delta soil and the abundance of Mississippi sunshine.

CORNINESS

What's Poppin'

HEIRLOOM POPCORN GROWING IN THE DELTA

Story by Mimi Greenwood Knight • Photos by Shelby McClure

“MAYBE IT'S THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA CLIMATE. MAYBE IT'S THE SHORT TRIP FROM THE FIELD TO THE BAG. BUT PEOPLE SAY CROP TO POP IS WHAT POPCORN IS ‘SUPPOSED’ TO TASTE LIKE.” —JOHN MARK LOONEY, JR. Seven years in, no one is as surprised as Looney that Crop to Pop Popcorn has been such a success. “I really don't know what makes our product so great, but ever since our first crop of popcorn, people have told us that it tastes fresher [than store-bought popcorn],” he shrugged. “Maybe it's the Mississippi Delta climate. Maybe it's the short trip from the field to the bag. But people say Crop to Pop is what popcorn is ‘supposed’ to taste like.” One big difference is that all the kernels in a Crop to Pop bag are the same variety, while most major brands include a mix of cultivars. So, you know you’ll get the same great, fresh popcorn every time.

The variety of corn Looney eventually decided on is yellow butterfly corn, and the oil he recommends for popping is duck fat—although some customers

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have insisted that truffle oil, olive oil, or brown butter is better. Those customers were cultivated one by one as Looney cold-called businesses, starting close to the farm then working his way out around the state. “We’re in twelve states now,” said his proud mama, Rhonda. “And it’s happened mostly through word of mouth.

Once someone tries our popcorn, they can taste the difference. Someone will buy some in Mississippi then return to their home state and start asking for it there.”

From the beginning, Looney determined to sell only to small, family-owned businesses while handling the wholesale side of things. A buddy in nearby Cleveland, Mississippi designed the packaging, a no-nonsense craft-paper bag that boasts the fact that the product is farm-raised in Tribbett, Mississippi and features a message from the farmer on the back concluding with, “My mother says it’s the best popcorn that she has ever had.”

The popcorn has been a big hit in specialty shops and boutiques, general stores, restaurants, produce stands, and farmers markets throughout the South and even as far away as New York state. A couple of Louisiana CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) memberships have begun offering Crop to Pop to their members, and countless bags have found their way into suitcases as folks carry a taste of Mississippi home with them.

Six Mile Farm is still the only popcorn farm in the state of Mississippi, and as Looney has headed off to meet his next challenge—law school—Rhonda is happily accepting the reins. “The trick is getting a business to make their first order,” she said. “Once they see how well this popcorn sells, future order are almost a guarantee. My biggest challenge right now is that when I visit all these cute, little specialty shops and boutiques, I can’t seem to leave without buying something.” • sixmilefarmsllc.com

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Find live music, local art, and festival fun this fall along with historic attractions, delectable dining, golf, and swamp & kayak tours!

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Get an outfit for every occassion.

140 Liberty Road, Natchez, MS 601-446-8664 Mon - Fri: 10 - 5 Sat: 10 - 4

RECIPES

Deviled Eggs & Popcorn AN UNLIKELY, BUT CAN'T-GO-WRONG PAIRING

Recipe by Cole Ellis, Executive Chef at Delta Meat Market

Ingredients ½ cup of Crop to Pop Popcorn ¼ cup vegetable oil 2 tbsp smoked paprika 1 tbsp granulated garlic 1 tsp iodized salt 6 large eggs 4 tbsp. mayonnaise 3 tbsp. finely chopped chives 1 tsp. dijon mustard 1 tsp. dill pickle juice 2 dashes of hot sauce Salt and pepper, to taste Paprika, for garnish

Directions Popcorn In a large stock pot with a lid, heat the oil on high. Just before the vegetable oil begins to smoke, add a few kernels of popping corn. Once they begin to sizzle, add the remaining kernels and cover. Once the kernels start to pop, shake back and forth vigorously—stopping periodically to let the kernels settle to the bottom. Reduce the heat to medium and keep shaking until the kernels are almost done popping. Turn off the heat and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Before you remove the lid, make sure they’re done popping.

Add seasonings (paprika, garlic, and salt) while the popcorn is still hot (it sticks better).

Deviled Eggs Place eggs in a six-quart saucepan. Cover them with cool water by one inch.

Cover the pan with a lid and bring water to a rolling boil over high heat for six to seven minutes for perfect eggs. While the eggs are boiling, prepare an ice water bath and set aside. After the six to seven minutes have passed, submerge the eggs until cooled.

Once the eggs have cooled completely, peel them and slice in half lengthwise. Remove the yolk and place in a small bowl. Place the egg whites on a plate. In a food processor, add the mayonnaise, mustard, pickle juice, hot sauce, salt and pepper. Purée until smooth. Fold in chives and mix well before filling the eggs. Use a spoon or a Ziploc bag to fill the egg whites with the yolky goodness. Sprinkle on paprika for garnish. Put the popcorn on a platter and top with the deviled eggs. Enjoy! Note—At Delta Meat Market, toppings vary—including bacon jam, relish, tomato conserve, or smoked onion jam.

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RECIPES

Blackened Redfish Creole with Bacon Fat Popcorn EVERYTHING'S BETTER WITH BUTTER(ED POPCORN)

Recipe by Austin Kirzner, Exeuctive Chef at The Venue at Covey Rise

Ingredients Serves 4

4 oz. butter 2 bay leaf 2 onions, small dice 1 bell pepper, small dice 2 stalks celery, small dice 1 jalapeño pepper, small dice 1 oz. garlic, minced 2 oz. tomato paste 16 oz. roasted skinless heirloom tomatoes, medium diced 1 1/2 quarts seafood stock (Can sub vegetable stock.)

2 oz. hot sauce 1 oz. Worcestershire sauce 2 tbsp. cane sugar 2 oz. parsley Salt and pepper to taste 4 oz. corn starch slurry (corn starch and water) 4 large pieces redfish (can sub any white, flaky fish) 4 oz. blackening seasoning ¼ cup vegetable oil ½ cup of Crop to Pop popcorn 1 tsp. Iodized Salt 3 oz. crispy bacon 1 oz. bacon fat

Directions Blackened Redfish Creole

In a large pot, sauté onions, celery, garlic, and peppers in butter until translucent. Roast tomatoes on a pan in the oven at 350 degrees, until skin is easily removed (about twelve minutes). Add tomato paste to the pot and sauté until vegetables are coated. Add shrimp stock, and bring to a simmer. Add the bay leaf, garlic, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, and parsley.

Bring to a boil, then add the corn starch slurry. Once thickened, bring down to a simmer for 30-45 minutes. In a cast iron pan, heat a small amount of oil on high. Coat the redfish in the blackening seasoning and sear on both sides until fully cooked. Remove from heat. Once the creole is cooked, season to taste with salt and pepper, pour it over cauliflower rice, and place the fish on top. Garnish with the bacon-fat popcorn and green onions.

Bacon-Fat Popcorn

In a large pot with a lid, heat the oil on high. Just before the oil begins to smoke, add the popcorn. Once the kernels start to pop, shake back and forth vigorously, stopping to let the kernels settle to the bottom. Reduce the heat to medium, and keep shaking until the kernels are almost done popping. In another pan, heat the bacon in the bacon fat. Turn off the heat and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add the salt, toss in the hot bacon with the fat, and mix until incorporated.

A NEW LIVE REGIONAL DAILY RADIO PROGRAM ABOUT SOUTH LOUISIANA Monday through Friday live at noon and rebroadcast at 7:30 p.m.

In Baton Rouge on WRKF 89.3 FM In New Orleans on WWNO 89.9 FM and on wrkf.org and wwno.org

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NOVEMBER 2023

Culture

5 2 A D I F F I C U LT Y E A R F O R LO U I S I A N A ' S F I L M I N D U S T R Y

BEHIND THE SCENES

// 5 4 Y O U R F I L M F E S T I V A L C A L E N D A R F O R

L O U I S I A N A A N D M I S S I S S I P P I // 5 7 B O O K R E V I E W ; C H I N E S E N E W Y E A R

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S TAT E O F T H E I N D U S T R Y

Film Equals Jobs

THE RESOUNDING IMPACT OF THE WGA AND SAG-AFTRA STRIKES FOR LOUISIANA SCREENWRITERS, ACTORS, AND CREW

Story by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

T

his past May, hhwhile screenwriters and their supporters were picketing outside of Hollywood studios with signs that read things like “Are you not entertained? Pay writers!” and “WGA vs. Succession characters”—a group of Louisiana film workers assembled in the Louisiana legislature’s committee rooms wearing buttons that said simply: “Film=jobs”.

They were there to lobby for an extension of the Louisiana Motion Picture Investor Tax Credit, which offers tax subsidies of 25% to 40% on expenses related to film production for projects made in Louisiana—one of the country’s most generous incentive programs for filmmaking.

By June, Governor John Bel Edwards had signed HB562 into law, demonstrating the state’s continuing investment in its local film industry, which has seen significant growth over the past two decades since the program was first developed in 2002. In 2022 alone, Louisiana was ranked fifth highest in the country for number of motion picture industry jobs (over 10,000), and the industry generated over $286 million in earnings for Louisiana workers, plus $607 million spent in Louisiana on film projects.

The reinstatement of the tax credit program, which is now in effect until 2031, was a major win for the local film industry—which has not only brought lucrative projects to the region, but has also helped to make it a sustainable and opportune home for thousands of filmmakers, screenwriters, actors, digital effects creators, and crew workers.

“A lot of people, even locally, think of entertainment like making movies as a very California, Hollywood, thing. But all of the films made here in Louisiana are made by majority Louisiana residents. You can really make a decent living in Louisiana in film these days,” said Lucius Fontenot, who has worked as a lighting technician

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in the industry since 2020, “but right now . . .”

This summer’s local legislative victory was, of course, tempered by the discord taking place in America’s film industry as a whole. Starting on May 2, the WGA’s strike—followed on July 14 by a simultaneous strike by the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)—effectively shut down production for most major film and television projects across the country. The financial impact of Louisiana’s film industry in 2022, which saw a significant boost coming out of the pandemic, will be followed by an almost dead year, with negligible levels of production.

At press time, American film workers are only just starting to see a glimmer of light at the end of this long tunnel without work. On October 9, the (WGA) ratified a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), ending the union’s 148-day strike with wins that include increased royalties for streaming content and job protections put in place against the rise of artificial intelligence.

On October 2, SAG-AFTRA began their own negotiations with AMPTP after 76 days of striking for similar amendments to their contracts, which ended on October 12 after industry CEOs walked away from the bargaining table, refusing to meet the demands of the union. In a public statement, SAG-AFTRA said they would not be standing down, “We stand united and ready to negotiate today, tomorrow, and every day. Our resolve is unwavering.”

The walkouts that spurred the first shutdown of the industry in over sixty years are a reaction to the radically-altered landscape of media consumption—marked by decreased attendance at movie theaters, the shifts from cable and network television to streaming, and the introduction of artificial intelligence and other new technology. Hollywood’s existing economic model has failed to adequately adapt to the changing system, shifting proceeds even more heavily onto executives and studios over writers and actors, who have seen significant reductions in residual compensation across the board.

Though the strikes will hopefully result in import-

ant and necessary changes for the industry’s labor force, the impact of these past five months without work has been immense for film workers—even beyond the writers and actors actually on strike, extending to operators of studio facilities like Celtic Studios in Baton Rouge, to VFX workers, to crews—who make up the majority of Louisiana’s film industry employees.

“Louisiana’s film industry is based around crew— cameramen, hair and makeup, lighting, craft services—which are not technically on strike. Because we stand in solidarity with the striking unions, [crews] aren’t working on any of those projects. But also without the actors and actresses, there’s just nothing to work on,” said Fontenot—who also noted that in anticipation of the unions’ contract renewals earlier this year, many of the studios started slowing down production as early as January. “The reality is, most of us are going into eight or more months of not working.”

Fontenot, like most other film workers, said he has been getting by picking up small jobs here and there, working on low-paying independent projects and other creative gigs. “Some of the very low-budget, non-union shows are getting the cream of the crop as far as crew, because so little is being filmed right now, and everyone’s struggling, and everyone’s looking for work,” he said. He’s observed many people moving out of the industry altogether, taking jobs with construction crews or in the service industry. “Some are just kind of riding it out,” he said. “Making it work.”

Louisianans are used to volatile conditions, of

“A LOT OF PEOPLE IN FILM IN LOUISIANA COME FROM THE SERVICE INDUSTRY, FROM OFFSHORE, FROM THE MILITARY—THEY ARE USED TO THESE HIERARCHAL SYSTEMS, WHERE EVERYONE WORKS AND DOES THEIR PART THROUGH WHAT LOOKS LIKE AMAZING CHAOS.” —LUCIUS FONTENOT, A LIGHTING TECHNICIAN AND GRIP WORKING IN LOUISIANA'S FILM INDUSTRY

course—weathering the destruction of annual hurricanes, the ever-present threat of displacement. So many people here work in demanding and unpredictable sectors such as hospitality, agriculture, seafood, and oil. “It’s one of the reasons why Louisiana is a good place for the film industry, is we have these blue-collar skills already built in, this generational work ethic,” said Fontenot. “A lot of people in film in Louisiana come from the service industry, from offshore, from the military—they are used to these hierarchal systems, where everyone works and does their part through what looks like amazing chaos.”

As the fight continues for fair working conditions

in film in America, solidarity is owed to fellow Louisianans working to produce this media we all enjoy, that has contributed so much to our state in the realms of economy and storytelling alike. Following all the work and investment that’s been done to bring the magic and money of Hollywood down South come also the calls for change and the ensuing struggles—not to be felt only by the ultra-wealthy on red carpets half a country away, but in our backyard, by our neighbors. •

For the latest updates on SAG-AFTRA's ongoing strike, visit sagaftra.org.

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NOVEMBER 11, 2023 - JANUARY 14, 2024 845 N. Jefferson Avenue Port Allen, LA 70767 www.WestBatonRougeMuseum.org // N O V

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F E S T I VA L S

Screentime

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THE BEST REGIONAL FILM FESTIVALS IN LOUISIANA & MISSISSIPPI

H

ere, in the heart of Hollywood South, we are lucky enough to be driving distance from many of the country's most unique and devoted film festivals—from Oscar-qualifying events to small-town celebrations of local talent. Get out your calendar and start making your plans for these binge-worthy weekends.

November 2–12 New Orleans Film Festival

Recently named by MovieMaker Magazine “one of the 25 coolest film festivals in the world” and eleven years running as one of “50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee”—New Orleans’s signature film festival is recognized as one of the premiere film events in the country thanks to its stellar venues like the Contemporary Arts Center Black Box Theater, Prytania Theatre, and The Broad Theatre; commitment to supporting emerging creators, and reputation for elevating nuanced stories and storytellers from a diverse range of perspectives with an emphasis on regionalism and social issues. This year’s event will feature twenty-nine feature films and ninety-eight short films with over one hundred premieres—22% of which are

by Louisiana filmmakers. The festival also presents a series of panels, workshops, and artist talks—most of which are free and open to the public. In per54

Story by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot son screenings will take place from November 2–7, and virtual screenings will be available through November 12. All Access passes are $350; Virtual Cinema Passes $100 ; six film passes are $80. Individual films are $15 in-person; $10 virtually. Details at neworleansfilmsociety.org.

November 3–4 DeSoto Film Festival

Conceived to offer a film festival experience with families in mind, the DeSoto Film festival centers more “wholesome” films with an emphasis on creative and beautiful storytelling that is appropriate for viewers of all ages and generally uplifting. The event is hosted by the DeSoto Arts Institute at SouthPoint Church in Southaven, Mississippi. Festival passes are $25 for the whole weekend, which includes access to screenings from 6 pm–10 pm each night. More details to come at desotofilmfestival.com.

November 16–19 Southern Screen Festival

Held in the heart of Cajun Country, this iconic festival known for bringing the best of the year’s independent films to Acadiana—and hosting an annual gathering for local film professionals and creatives of other disciplines—returns to the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Already-announced programming for this year’s event includes the home-

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town screening of Brennan Robideaux’s documentary about local pole vaulting prodigy Mondo Duplantis, Born to Fly (read more about this film on page 42), a workshop on Filmmaking Ethics with Sarah Rachael Wainio (Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant, Sneaker Hustle, Me or the Menu), an animation workshop

by Gurleen Rai (Get Up, Pierrot; The Final Nights of E. Zann), and a live performance and music video screening by local band Kid Charleroi. Organizers promise plenty more announcements to come, including over twenty film screenings, parties every night, and workshops by industry professionals. $65 Festival Passes get you admission to all in-person screenings, sessions, and special events as well as access to all virtual programming; $95 for VIP Pass, which also grants access to the VIP Lounge at the ACA with food and drinks; $20 discounts are also available for creatives working in fields of film, music, radio, comedy, podcasts, writing and other creative storytelling mediums; $35 discounts for students. Tickets to individual events will vary. Details to come at southernsccreen.org.

January 10–14 Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival

For almost twenty years, Baton Rouge has celebrated its vibrant local Jewish community by showcasing new films

exploring and centering issues related to the Jewish experience. This year’s slate of screenings includes a tribute to American Jewish actor, comedian, writer, and filmmaker Gene Wilder (of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, The Producers, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil); a documentary on the 2016 Sarona Market terrorist attack in Tel Aviv; a “buddy comedy” called Not Quite Kosher; and a documentary on the photographer Roman Vishniac, who captured important images of life in Eastern Europe’s impoverished Jewish communities from 1935–1938, just before the onset of World War II. Screenings—held at 7 pm Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday and 3 pm on Sunday—will take place at the Manship Theatre. Tickets are $8.50 per screening, with discounts if you join the Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival VIP Movie Club. Details at brjff.com.

January 24–31 Cinema on the Bayou

For the nineteenth year, Louisiana’s second oldest annual international juried film festival will return for its eight-day event—held in venues across Lafayette, which in the past have included Cité des Arts, Vermilionville Performance Center, and the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Dedicated to presenting almost two hundred films running the gamut from narrative to documentary to ani-

Dates To Be Announced Spring 2024 Black Film Festival of New Orleans

Designed to foster and advance New Orleans’s vibrant community of Black creators, this free film festival showcases the city as a hotspot for filmmaking and film appreciation, offering virtual and in-person screenings of over fifty films, plus performances of poetry, comedy, and live music in some of the city’s most iconic venues. Visiting and local filmmakers can also take advantage of workshops and guest panels, which in the past have presented subjects such as special effects makeup, and “Producing and Budgeting for Narrative Film”. The festival is typically held in the spring. Dates and further details about the 2024 BFFNO to be announced at bffno.com.

Patois Festival

mation, the festival also dedicates special space to celebrating projects by filmmakers from across the Francophone world. More details to come about the 2024 festival at cinemaonthebayou.com.

January 26–28 Clarksdale Film and Music Festival

In the city called “Ground Zero” of Delta Blues country, a smart and celebratory curation of blues documentaries and Mississippi-centric films returns for the fourteenth year, to be cast upon the screen at the headquarters of Shared Experiences USA. Keep an eye and an ear out for a Whos-Who of Delta blues talents, many of whom will be taking the stage at local juke joints for shows scheduled around the festival screenings.

More details to come about the 2024 festival at clarksdalefilmfestival.com.

February 22–24 The Magnolia Independent Film Festival

Mississippi's first, and longest running, film festival, begun under the wing of the poet, journalist, and filmmaker Ron Tibett, has built an esteemed legacy of bringing high quality independent and lesser-known cinema to viewers in the Golden Triangle Area. A favorite of amateur and professional filmmakers, this intimate, hospitality-forward event in

Starkville is oriented towards creatives, with a mission to inspire and to foster the state’s vibrant film industry. “The Mag”’s lineup hasn’t been announced yet, but will feature films presented virtually and in person at the UEC Hollywood Premier Cinema. Details to come at magnoliafilmfest.com.

March 21–24 Oxford Film Festival

Called “OxFilm” by regular attendees, this celebration of independent cinema aims to cultivate audience appreciation of film while also encouraging filmmaking in North Mississippi. With a reputation for hospitality and creativity, the festival has been named by MovieMaker Magazine one of its “Top 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee” for several years. Visitors can expect over one hundred quality films from all over the globe, plus a thrilling slate of parties, and an extensive offering of filmmaking panels and workshops put on by successful folks in the industry on subjects ranging from set dressing to distribution to stunt acting. More details to come about the 2024 festival at ox-film.com.

March 23 Cane River Film Festival

Produced by Resurrection Fern Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Cane River Creole heritage, the annual Cane River Film Festival showcases the work of independent and student film-

makers, with an emphasis on Louisiana stories. Held at Natchitoches’s Parkway Cinema 6 from 11 am–4 pm, the festival will present its screenings, an award ceremony, and Q&As with directors while granting filmmakers access to directors, agents, and producers in attendance. Most of the lineup has yet to be announced, but guests can expect a presentation by special guest Dr. Ross F. Williams, Jr., who is the CEO and Founder of MIT Global Enterprises, LLC, and a screening of his film, Woman on the Barbed Wire Fence. More details to come about the 2024 festival at caneriverfilmfestival.com.

April 4–7 The Overlook Film Festival

New Orleans’s annual Overlook Film Festival conjures art and artists inspired by the city’s darker tendencies, presenting a showcase of new films in independent horror cinema, interspersed with interactive and live theatre shows across the city. Dubbed a “summer camp for horror genre fans”—Overlook has been named by MovieMaker Magazine as one of the Best Genre Festivals in the world each year since its inception, “one of the world’s best festivals” by FANGORIA, and “America’s most exciting new genre fest” by IndieWIRE. Held at New Orleans’ historic Prytania Theatres, Overlook Film Festival’s 2024 schedule will be released in the spring at overlookfilmfest.com.

For over twenty years now, New Orleans activists have linked up with New Orleans artists to present an annual film festival focused on stories about international human rights issues, while nurturing the local human rights community by supporting local organizations and organizers. In recent years, this spring festival has screened films on topics of climate justice, racism and corporate power at Disney World, and Angola prison. Dates and further details about the 2024 Patois Film Festival to be announced at patoisfilmfest.org.

French Film Festival

Hosted by the New Orleans Film Society, this festival is one of the longest-running foreign language festivals in the United States, and annually brings together diverse expressions of experiences across the Francophone world to New Orleans. In recent years, the festival—presented virtually and in person at New Orleans’s historic Prytania Theatres—has been the site of some of the first films presented in the Louisiana Creole language Kouri-Vini. Dates and details about the 2024 French Film Festival to be announced at neworleansfilmsociety.org/french-film-festival.

Summer 2024 Third Horizon X NOFF

This one-day program is a collaboration between the New Orleans Film Festival and Miami’s Third Horizon Film Festival, in which NOFF presents a slate of films by filmmakers from the Caribbean and its diaspora who have been featured at THFF in the past. Usually held in late spring or early summer, dates and details will be announced at neworleansfilmsociety.org.

Baton Rouge

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Irish Film Festival

Every year, in the late summer, the Baton Rouge Irish Club gets together for a wee weekend of bingeing the best in recent Irish cinema. Usually kicking off with a good old pub night at Phil Brady’s, the weekend includes screenings of a variety of genres—from documentaries to feature films to shorts— celebrating this distinct heritage as expressed in film. Dates and further details about the 2024 Irish Film Fest to be announced at batonrougeirishfilmfestival.com.

Louis Prima Film Festival

festival as a platform to celebrate the contributions of the LGBTQ+ community in the film industry and to our culture as a whole. Selected films raise awareness of concerns within the queer community, foster positive change, explore the history and experience of queer people in film, and push back against stereotypes through meaningful and diverse portrayals of LGBTQ+ in film. In recent years, the festival has been held in the fall at the Robinson Film Center in Shreveport. Dates and details about the 2024 OUTnorthLa Film Festival to be announced at outnorthla.org.

Hosted by the America-Italian Federation of the Southeast, the American-Italian Film Festival in 2023 was a celebration, held in New Orleans, of our region’s vibrant Italian/Sicilian heritage. The event screened four films, each thirty minutes long, with Q&As afterward—all kicked off with a Sicilian wine tasting. Plans are in the works for a 2024 event, renamed the Louis Prima Film Festival. Dates and details to be announced at aifedse.org.

Lake Charles Film Festival

Fall 2024

At Shreveport’s annual Prize Fest, creatives from film, food, music, fashion, and comedy disciplines compete for over $100,000 in cash and prizes. The film competition offers half of that award to one of around twenty film-

OUTnorthLa Film Festival

Since 2009, organizers at the organization People Acting for Change and Equality (PACE) have hosted this film

This annual event hosted by Louisiana Film & Video Art, Inc. brings dozens of the best of independent films to Calcasieu Parish, as well as filmmaking and music workshops designed to foster local creative talent. The festival is typically held in the fall in Lake Charles.

Dates and details about the 2024 festival will be announced at lakecharlesfilmfestival.com.

makers presenting short films to an audience, who will vote for the best of them. Split between two venues, the screenings are presented in two 2-hour slates. Viewers must see every film to vote. In addition to the competition are events like a red carpet extravaganza where you can meet filmmakers, an afterparty, a series of industry panels, and more. In recent years, Prize Fest has been held in the fall. Dates and details about the 2024 Prize Fest to be announced at prizefest.com.

Screamfest NOLA

A New Orleans spin-off of Los Angeles’s “Sundance of Horror,” this event is dedicated to premiering the newest and highest quality horror projects from American and international

Louisiana Film Prize

Look for our December edition

Holiday Traditions

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independent creators. Usually held around the same time as the city’s Halloween celebrations, select filmmakers from the festival also take part in the annual Krewe of Boo Parade.

Dates and details about the 2024 Screamfest NOLA to be announced at screamfestla.com/screamfest-nola. •

Find the complete guide, with dates updated as we learn them, at countryroadsmag.com.

BOOK REVIEWS

Chinese New Year A FUNNY, SHARP LOOK AT RETIREMENT IN THE NEAR FUTURE SOFT DYSTOPIA

Family Owned & Operated since 1966

By Chris Turner-Neal

I

’ve just finished C.E. O’Banion’s first novel, Chinese New Year, hand I enjoyed it so much I’m writing this review in the afterglow. This funny, intimate character study takes place in a credible near-future soft dystopia—I realized about halfway through that I’m in the same rough age cohort as protagonist Alton Tapscott, so it’s in my interest to pay attention to the world O’Banion creates. Pandemics are common, Celebrity Russian Roulette rules the airwaves, a professional wrestler is president, and most of the dogs are robots.

Tapscott’s hearing aids read him his messages—which include every Tangipahoa Parish Amber Alert. Perpetually irritated, he lives with his faithful cat Mack, until his deeply awful son Archie tricks him into entering a retirement home. The home turns out to be a Kafkaesque prison—East Germany with bingo—where order is enforced with drugs, tribunals, and therapy sessions with a nun in a hedge maze. The only holiday is Chinese New Year, which takes place every month for the benefit of memory care residents.

In Tapscott, O’Banion pulls off the difficult feat of creating a character who is like Ignatius J. Reilly, but distinct from him. (As a querulous, unfashionable man approaching my own life’s halftime, I took note of this as well.) A man who spends some afternoons drinking frozen margaritas until he feels brave enough to call into radio talk shows, Tapscott is irritable and aloof, but reflective, honest, and prone to declaiming—it’s easy to imagine O’Banion’s wife interrupting the author talking about trendy names or baseball and saying, “Put it in the book.” I would not necessarily want to be seated next to Tapscott (and he might well not want to be placed by me), but I’m firmly on his side. Loyal to his cat and his beliefs, straightforward enough to be truly shocked by callous deceit, the character builds on the archetype of the cranky old man to create a convincing portrait of a big personality unprepared for the diminishments of late life. His escape from the retirement home to attend a baseball game (“The outfield bleachers… were the last bastion of the common man”), only to start a riot and be forcibly ejected, is the closest a modern American can come to a Gilgamesh-style hero’s journey.

Chinese New Year isn’t quite a novel you read for the plot, which is episodic and somewhat confusing late in the book—part of the point is that you can’t tell if Tapscott is senile or hopped up on goofballs, but I wound up “wondering if I was supposed to be wondering” rather than exploring this interesting question. (On a potentially self-serving note, I’d also recommend tighter editing: I liked the mental images of “firing a canon” and “the Mississippi River levy,” but they’re not what he meant.) But sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph, it’s a hoot. Baton Rouge is the “tuna fish salad of America’s quasi-metropolises.” The people of Louisiana are “as ambitious as an upturned turtle.” Tapscott is revealed to have been widowed by a high-velocity self-returning shopping cart. It’s clear that O’Banion enjoyed himself writing this book, a pleasure he transmits to the reader. In closing, I can offer two final pieces of honest praise: I’m not sure which friend I most want to pass my heavily dogeared copy to, and I will read O’Banion’s next book. •

(225) 927-0531 • 2175 Dallas Dr., Baton Rouge, LA

DISCOVER MORE

SEARCH OUR ONLINE CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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Learn more about O'Banion, and purchase Chinese New Year, at ceobanion.com. // N O V

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Escapes

N OV E M B E R 2 0 2 3

58 ON

THE

LIST OF "UNEXPECTED SMALL TOWNS WHERE YOU

MIGHT SEE

A PLACE IN THE HEART

SOMEONE

FAMOUS"

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SCREEN TO SCENE

The Best Little Hollywood In Texas WITH AN ICONIC COURTHOUSE AND A LONG PORTFOLIO OF ICONIC FILMS, WAXAHACHIE IS A SURPRISING MUST-STOP IN THE "NORTH TEXAS NONDESCRIPT"

Story and photos by Ted Talley

The iconic 1897 Romanesque Revival Ellis County courthouse in Waxahachie—which has drawn many a film as an endearing backdrop.

L

ocated on Interstate 35 south of Dallas, Waxahachie is in an area I’d call “North Texas hNondescript”. To the east, the service road is dotted with chain motels, a hospital, and industrial parks. To the west, it’s all open ranchland.

But if you respond to a billboard invi58

tation to pull off into the small city, you’ll discover why it goes by three names: the Crape Myrtle Capital of Texas, the Gingerbread City, and, finally, the Best Little Hollywood in Texas. Thanks especially to the striking Ellis County Courthouse and its suitability as an iconic backdrop, Waxahachie has been the shooting loca-

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tion for almost ninety movies and television shows.

Completed in 1897 in Romanesque Revival style, the courthouse’s architectural features include turrets, curved window glass and a still-working clock tower.

Immediately across from the courthouse is the Ellis County Museum

which displays the interesting, yet expected, artifacts of a Texas town rooted in 19th century history and agriculture.

But modern times are noted in, if nothing else, the Waxahachie Movie Shoot T-shirt you can purchase. It is screened with as many titles as possible of films made here and nearby.

Time things right and you might just witness the action yourself, as I did on a visit last May when I stumbled upon the filming of Taylor Sheridan's new series Lawmen: Bass Reeves—set to premiere on Paramount+ November 5. The Ellis County Courthouse square was a beehive of activity surrounded by film production crews, cables, equipment cases, and prop trucks being stuffed with furniture removed from the building. Bass Reeves, the inspiration for The Lone Ranger, was the first black U.S. Marshall. Stars are David Oyelowo as the title character and Dennis Quaid.

The reason I first visited Waxahachie on my way home from Waco some years ago was not for the scores of movies but for just one: Places in the Heart, written and directed by Waxahachie native Robert Benton and starring Sally Field. Benton won the 1985 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay while Field took home her second for Best Actress, prompting her famous "You like me, right now, you like me!" acceptance speech. (Other high-profile stars have won Academy Awards tied to Waxahachie. Actor Robert Duvall and screenwriter Horton Foote won statues in 1983 for Tender Mercies, and in 1985 Foote was nominated for Best Screenplay and Geraldine Page took the Best Actress award in A Trip to Bountiful.)

Places in the Heart is a wonderful movie, but my trip to Waxahachie was really a search for the small-town church

that opens and closes the film as two old hymns are sung, standards from my youth attending Baptist churches in St. Tammany Parish, where my mother was the organist. “Blessed Assurance” sets the mood in the opening credits with establishing shots of the county courthouse towering in the distance. "In the Garden" closes the narrative with the passing of the communion tray, tiny cups filled with grape juice in Southern Protestant

style. The tinny piano music swells into a cathedral pipe organ as the tray reaches two dead characters—the sheriff and the teenager who killed him—taking their cups among the living in a poignant metaphor of the “communion of saints”.

I drove all over Waxahachie’s old neighborhoods in search of that church.

Ready to give up, I visited the Ellis County Museum, where I learned the church was some distance west of town, in the

rural community known as Bethel.

Within the hour, I found myself pulling up to a familiar scene—the church in reality appearing much as it had on the silver screen. Bethel Community Church dates to 1853, when a Methodist congregation met under a brush arbor a few miles to the southwest of the current sanctuary built in 1924. In the film, a former covered cattle pen across the road depicted a church fellowship pavilion.

If You Go:

Beyond stopping here solely for the nearness to celebrity, there’s much to enjoy in Waxahachie as a destination on its own.

Where to Stay

Built in 1900 and opened as an inn in 1993, the Chaska House and Cottages takes a “novel” approach. Rooms are author-themed with names Clemens-Twain, Margaret Mitchell, and Scott Fitzgerald. The cottages are decorated in a style lifted from Ernest Hemingway’s Key West home. The main house’s backdoor stoop is seen in the opening sequence of Places in the Heart as Danny Glover’s character says grace over a handout meal from a kindly woman. Companies like Seagram’s liquor and Calvin Klein, as well as several television shows, have chosen the site for a shooting location. Though listed as a bed and breakfast, the property no longer serves meals, however the cottages have kitchens.

Built in 1915, The English Merchant’s Inn is the former home of English cotton merchant James Wright Harrison in an era when Waxahachie and Central Texas were renowned around the world for cotton production. You’ll find the interior spaces finely decorated; the host and owner Mary Baskin is a world traveler and designer who has worked for Traditional Home, Country Home, and Better Homes and Gardens magazines.

Where to Eat

The fourth of Al Mack’s properties, (two in Dallas and the original Beer Bucket in Playa del Carmen Mexico) Big Al’s Down the Hatch is directly on the Waxahachie square, with food beyond the typical sports bar, including an extensive appetizer list, plus burgers and plate lunches. Saturday and Sunday brunch features a Bloody Mary and mimosa bar, shrimp and grits, breakfast quesadillas, and omelets. Evening entertainment might be anything from live bands to karaoke, or stand-up comedy.

Next door to the Ellis County Museum, Meat Church BBQ Supply is the headquarters for a company that supplies seasoning products to retailers across the country. Buy direct here: rubs, sauces, t-shirt souvenirs, plus barbecue tips and recipes. •

Plan your trip to Waxahachie at waxahachiecvb.com.

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Directory of Merchants Albany, LA Livingston Parish CVB

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Baton Rouge, LA Allwood Furniture 18 Alzherimer’s Service of the 47 Capital Area Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre 22 Becky Parrish Advance Skincare 53 Blue Cross Blue Shield 12 BREC 28 Calandro’s Select Cellars 20 East Baton Rouge Parish Library 64 Elizabethan Gallery 24 Joe Mustachia Originals & Fine Art Prints 39 Lagniappe Antiques 57 Louisiana Public Broadcasting 45 LSU Foundation-Burden Museum and Gardens 27 LSU Museum of Art (LSU MOA) 19 LSU Rural Life Museum 14 Mid City Merchants 43 Opera Louisiane 26 Pennington Biomedical Research Ctr. 16 Stafford Tile and Stone 23 Wilson & Wilson LLC 49 WRKF 89.3 FM 51 Brookhaven, MS Brookhaven Tourism Council 60

Cleveland, MS Visit Cleveland Donaldsonville, LA Donaldsonville Elks Lodge #1153 Erath, LA The Acadian Museum Ferriday, LA Brakenridge Furniture Grand Isle, LA Grand Isle Tourism Department Hammond, LA Tangipahoa Parish CVB Jackson, MS Visit Mississippi Lafayette, LA Allwood Furniture Louisiana Crafts Guild Mandeville, LA Visit the Northshore

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Natchitoches Natchitoches CVB

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New Orleans, LA New Orleans Public Library 21 23 Stafford Tile and Stone

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Mansura, LA Avoyelles Tourism Commission

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Morgan City, LA Cajun Coast CVB

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Natchez, MS Brakenridge Furniture 38 Crye-Leike Stedman Realtors 6 Katie’s Ladies Apparel 50 41 Live @ Five Natchez Convention 41 Promotion Commission Natchez Garden Club 11 Natchez Olive Market 46

New Roads, LA City of New Roads Pointe Coupee Historical Society Pointe Coupee Parish Tourist Commission Opelousas, LA St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission Plaquemine, LA Iberville Parish Tourism Department

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Port Allen, LA West Baton Rouge Museum 53 West Baton Rouge CVB 34

Ridgeland, MS Visit Ridgeland

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Shreveport, LA Shreveport Biscuit Company 56 Scott, LA Bob’s Tree Preservation

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Sorrento, LA Ascension Parish Tourism Commission

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St. Francisville, LA Poppin’ Up Plants St. Francisville Food & Wine Festival The Corbel The Magnolia Cafe The Royal Town of St. Francisville

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Tallulah, LA City of Tallulah

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Watson, LA Joe Mustachia Originals & Fine Art Prints

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Woodville, MS Community Grocery

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November 10-12, 2023 at the Myrtles, St. Francisville, LA

Louisiana’s Most Beautiful Food & Wine Event

Featured Events for 2023

Friday Night Winemaker Dinner featuring Chef Cameron Cage, City Pork, Baton Rouge & Miner Family Vineyards, Napa, CA presented by Didier Consulting

St. Francisville Saturday Night at the Magnolia Cafe featuring Chef Chaz Lindsay, Pulito Osteria, Jackson, MS presented by Visit Mississippi

Sunday Grand Tastings at the Myrtles

Craft Beer and Brats Garden presented by Bank of St. Francisville Spirits at the Myrtles’ Courtyard presented by Paretti Jaguar Land Rover Country Roads People’s Choice Chef Experience presented by Williamson Eye Center City Group Hospitality Tasting Experience Zero Proof Wellness Bar Presented by Pennington Biomedical Research Center Making Raving Fans Hospitality Group Tasting Experience 2023 Louisiana Seafood King Owen Hohl presented by Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board

www.stfrancisvillefoodandwine.com

Presented with generous support from

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Sponsored by Tangipahoa Parish Tourism P E R S P E C T I V E S : I M A G E S O F O U R S TAT E

“Abolition Playground”

KAI LUMUMBA BARROW’S INSTALLATION FOR PROSPECT NEW ORLEANS’S ARTISTS FOR PUBLIC MEMORY COMMISSION WORKS TO DISMANTLE OPPRESSION THROUGH PLAY

By Alexandra Kennon Photo by Jose Cotto of kai lumumba barrow’s Abolition Playground.

T

he neutral ground of Norman C. Francis Parkway— which until 2021 was Jefferson Davis Parkway—is a bustling pedestrian thoroughfare in Mid-City New Orleans. Besides joggers, dog walkers, and chatting neighbors, the stretch still contains a concrete elephant in the room: the large central pedestal that from the time of Jim Crow until May of 2017 housed a monument to president of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis.

As of September 22, there’s a new addition to the space at the intersection of Norman C. Francis Parkway and Bienville Street, and its proximity to the dismantled monument isn’t an accident.

A new gravel and board walking path cuts through the grass, periodically interrupted by eclectic blocks of reclaimed doors, shutters, and windows. Often these structures block the path entirely.

Interaction is encouraged and unavoidable in such an open public space, so pedestrians ambling along the path might try a doorknob to get through—some are locked, some aren’t. There is always a way forward, whether contorting through a window or circumnavigating the path entirely. This is Abolition Playground by kai lumumba barrow, the first installation to be unveiled from Prospect New Orleans’s Artists of Public Memory Commission.

Prospect New Orleans, the only arts 62

triennial of its kind in the United States, brings contemporary artists from across the globe to New Orleans for a city-wide exhibition that takes place every three years. During the early planning stages of the most recent triennial, Prospect.5 in 2021, it occurred to Prospect’s Executive Director Nick Stillman that the organization had an opportunity to support works relevant to themes of monumentality, made all the more relevant by the context of the recently-removed Confederate statues. Some of those works have since become permanent installations—including EJ Hill’s A Monumental Offering of Potential Energy at Joe W. Brown Park, and Paul Stephen Benjamin’s Sanctuary at the New Orleans African American Museum.

“So those pieces became monuments in the city that are still present,” explained Prospect’s Deputy Director Taylor Holloway. Prospect’s intention in commissioning them, she explained, was to support artists of color in creating public monuments in spaces that are frequented by and safe to people of color.

When those projects were completed, Prospect allocated funding to create more public works centered around themes of monuments, memorials, and public memory—this time, specifically

by Louisiana artists.

While Prospect is highly regarded in the art world—“we launch the careers of contemporary artists in America. It's

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literally what we do,” Holloway said— New Orleanians’ feedback about past triennials has been that not enough emphasis was placed on Louisiana artists and stories. Thus, the Artists for Public Memory Commission was born, providing funding for three public installations in New Orleans, each by local artists.

Besides Abolition Playground, the two other upcoming projects funded by the Artists for Public Memory Commission are an earthen intertribal mound that will be built by an intertribal collective of individuals from Louisiana and Mississippi on the Lafitte Greenway; and an outdoor photography exhibit by Shandra McCormack and Keith Calhoun called Memoirs of the Lower Ninth Ward, which will be displayed in the neutral ground of Claiborne Avenue near Flood Street and Fats Domino Avenue. kai lumumba barrow’s Abolition Playground is part of a larger, ongoing project called Breech, which the artist is developing with her evolving network of artists, activists, cultural workers, and others called Gallery of the Streets.

Breech as a whole is based on Black fugitivity, inspired by the 1974 Bedford Hills uprising in New York, when a group of incarcerated women revolted in response to the beating of fellow inmate Carol Crooks by prison guards.

Breech imagines what might happen if those prisoners escaped following their

uprising. “And along the way, they have these adventures. And the Abolition Playground is, in fact, one of the places where they would go, where they wind up, and meet other allies and guides and engage in communications exchange, and that sort of thing,” said barrow.

The installation confronts the idea of monuments first by nature of its location, blocks away from the empty pedestal that once held the monument to the president of the Confederacy. This choice was inspired in part by the concept of “hauntology,” the idea that aspects of our cultural and social history linger unseen and influencing the present, like a ghost.

“I was interested in how can we work with the actual facts and history of a place that's constantly changed and being redefined, and we're still here. And what’s to come? What do we do with it next?” barrow said, describing the project of removing Confederate monuments as “unfinished”. The narrative of the installation she leaves to the individual engaging with it, opening up the doors for discovery and new-world building through the philosophy of play—derived in part from watching her five-year-old grandson’s creativity emerge on a playground. “And so, this idea of play, of having the freedom to problem solve creatively, to work cooperatively, to use our bodies as well as our minds . . . The playground, or play space, has that potential for creative exploration.”

As an artist and in her personal life, barrow also finds it helpful, even healing, to find laughter and levity in the face of tragedy. “There's still a moment where you laugh,” barrow said. “I'm just really trying to, as an artist, explore the other side of crisis. The other side of trauma.”

As light as the concept of play and playgrounds may seem on the surface, barrow uses it as a tool to explore deeper matters of social justice, like the prison industrial complex, and who our urban environments serve. In her speech at the unveiling, she referenced Collin Ward’s thought that you can tell the decay of an urban environment by the amount of playgrounds and parks it contains. “Every place should be a playground and park,” barrow explained. “But that can’t exist in a society that thrives on incarceration.” •

prospectneworleans.org/artistsof-public-memory-commission galleryofthestreets.org

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