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ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
Well documented
PHOTOGRAPHER ZANELE MUHOLI
STARTED DOCUMENTING the queer Black community in their native South Africa in 2006. Though the nation had just became the first country on the continent to legalize gay marriage, the Black LGBTQ community largely remained marginalized and hidden from view.
Muholi (who uses they/them pronouns) has continued that project for two decades, both in South Africa and England. Now, they’re expanding to the United States. Muholi is coming to New Orleans and will give the keynote address at PhotoNOLA, the annual photography festival, which takes place Dec. 10-14 at museums, art galleries and other spaces across New Orleans.
The connection between Muholi and New Orleans and PhotoNOLA is photographer Lori Waselchuk, who was one of the New Orleans Photo Alliance founders. She lived in Johannesburg for a decade, working as a photojournalist, art photographer and educator. She taught at South Africa’s renowned Market Photo Workshop, where Muholi studied in 2004.
“I saw their first photographs, and it was clear to me that Muholi was going to use the camera for incredible good,” Waselchuk says. “It was a lot like their ‘Faces and Phases’ project. They were looking at the Black LGBTQ community. It’s their community and one of (Muholi’s) main purposes is to make their stories visible. They’re also documenting hate crimes against members of the community.”
Muholi took portraits of Black queer, transgender and intersex people, as the community faced discrimination and abuse and dealt with Africa’s AIDS epidemic.
“They have a direct eye-to-eye observation,” Waselchuk says. “Not many people can be so direct and so poetic at the same time.”
As Muholi has continued the project, their work has been displayed in South Africa, London’s Tate Modern and the Brooklyn Museum, global art shows including the Venice Biennale and Documenta, and in the art photo journal Aperture.
Muholi is hoping to do some portraits while in New Orleans for PhotoNOLA. The keynote address is at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at Le Petit Theatre, preceding the PhotoNOLA Gala at Tableau.
PhotoNOLA’s core events include a photo portfolio review, the “Currents” show of work by New Orleans Photo Alliance members at Ogden Museum
and the PhotoWALK Exhibition and bookfair, also at Ogden.
The closing event is the Jules L. Cahn John H. Lawrence lecture at The Historic New Orleans Collection. This year, the event is a celebration of New Orleans in the 1990s. Photographers Cheryl Gerber (a longtime Gambit contributor) and Gus Bennett will lead the panel, along with members of the HNOC digital collections staff. They’ll explore both archived work from The Times-Picayune and street photography.
There also will be a dozen booths of local photographers sharing their work. The event is 1-4 p.m. Sunday at the Williams Research Center and 420 Royal St. Admission is free, but registration is required.
During PhotoNOLA, more than 25 museums, art galleries and alternative spaces present photography shows, and most are open through December or beyond. The New Orleans Photo Alliance, which runs PhotoNOLA, has a show about family relationships at its space at 7800 Oak St.
The New Orleans Museum of Art has a few shows. “Dawoud Bey: Elegy” features black-and-white landscape photos of places with troubled histories in Louisiana, Virginia and Ohio. Bey is a past PhotoNOLA keynote speaker. Other exhibits include American landscape photos by women photographers and a show of monochromatic works of water contrasted with black-and-white landscape images from the Mississippi River and its tributaries.
The Ogden Museum has “The Unending Stream: Chapter II,” which features six New Orleans photographers’
by Will Coviello |
work on subjects ranging from the environment to Carnival traditions. Inspired by a photo from renowned Louisiana photographer Clarence John Laughlin, the show’s works attempt to define a particular place, time and sense of memory.
Other shows include photos of the Vietnamese diaspora throughout the Gulf Coast at Antenna Gallery. Farrington Smith Gallery shows artist duo Louviere + Vanessa’s surreal, photography-based multimedia works connecting the earthbound and the celestial. A Gallery for Fine Photography celebrates the release of Josephine Sacabo’s latest book “Tagged,” featuring work inspired by graffiti and questioning labels and pejoratives directed at women. Claire Elizabeth Gallery presents aerial photos by Ben Depp. Smith Gallery’s group show explores current social and political protests.
The festival also includes a couple of films. There’s a screening of the 2000 documentary “Benjamin Smoke” at The Broad Theater. Poet and musician Benjamin, who was born Robert Dickerson, led a band called Smoke and sometimes performed as drag star Opal Foxx.
Before he died of AIDS-linked illness, he wanted to perform with Patti Smith. With the help of R E.M.’s Michael Stipe, that happened, and Smith later wrote a song inspired by the exchange, titled “Death Singing.” The film documents the final stages of Benjamin’s life and the musical connections. It screens at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11.
North Carolina photographer Kennedi Carter won last year’s PhotoNOLA Portfolio Prize for her images of Black intimacy. She will give an artist talk along with Camille Lenain at Arthur Roger Gallery at 3:30 p.m. Friday. The gallery also presents a group show of local photographers. Joshua Mann Pailet, an art photographer and owner of A Gallery for Fine Photography in the French Quarter, is the subject of “Chasing the Light: A Life Through Photographs.” The documentary screens 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 10, at NOMA and will be followed by a Q&A with Pailet and NOMA photography curator Brian Piper. Before the screening starts at 5:45 p.m., Piper will lead tours of the museum’s current photo exhibits, including Bey’s. The screening is the festival’s opening event. For a full list of PhotoNOLA events and photography exhibitions, visit photonola.org.
Krampus: The Fright Before Christmas
The New Orleans Nightmare haunted house gets a seasonal Alpine makeover, as Krampus leads evil elves and a host of gruesome holiday characters on a long winter’s fright. The theme carries through to mini escape rooms, a themed bar and more. The Krampus pop-up is Friday, Dec. 12, through Sunday, Dec. 14, at 319 Butterworth St. Tickets $29.99 and up via neworleansnightmare.com.
David Gborie
Comedian and “All Fantasy Everything” podcast co-host David Gborie released the special “Gbirth of a Nation” last year. He returns to New Orleans 7 & 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12, and Saturday, Dec. 13, at Sports Drink. Tickets $29.69 at sportsdrink.org.
Todd Barry
Todd Barry is known for his deadpan delivery, and the comedian’s specials include 2023’s “Domestic Shorthair.” He’s also appeared on TV in “Flight of the Conchords” and “Chappelle’s Show,” and has voiced characters on “Bob’s Burgers” and more. He performs stand-up at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12, at The Howlin’ Wolf. Tickets $24 and up via laughlife.standuptix.com.
Tank and the Bangas
New Orleans’ Tank and the Bangas started 2025 by winning their first Grammy Award. They now finish the year strong with a hometown show with pop artist Dawn Richard at 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12, at Tipitina’s. Tickets are $40.06 via tipitinas.com.
Shovels & Rope
Married musicians Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hurst have recorded and performed together as duo Shovels & Rope for nearly two decades. The two switch instruments and lead vocals in a mix of folk and Americana. Their latest album is last year’s “Something Is
PhotoNOLA features photography shows and flms across New Orleans
PHOTO PROVIDED BY DAVID GBORIE
Zanele Muholi has documented South Africa’s Black LGBTQ community. PHOTO PROVIDED BY PHOTONOLA
OPENING GAMBIT
NEW ORLEANS NEWS + VIEWS
Needing to match your car to your outft is a totally normal thing for a mayor to do
THUMBS UP/ THUMBS DOWN
Impact 100 recently gave a $100,000 grant to People’s Housing+, Inc., a New Orleans organization working to build affordable housing units for low-to-moderate income families. Part of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, Impact 100 includes more than 100 area women who each commit $1,100 every year toward a grant for a local nonprofit.
New
Orleans City Council approves $1.6
MacKenzie Scott, the novelist and philanthropist, recently gave a $19 million gift to Dillard University, the largest single contribution in the historic Black university’s history. It’s the second donation Scott — who was formerly married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — has given to Dillard, following a $5 million gift in 2020. Scott in 2019 pledged to give away half of her wealth and so far has donated more than $19 billion, including $220 million to Louisiana organizations.
billion budget following mayoral outburst
THE NEW ORLEANS CITY COUNCIL
DEC. 1 PASSED A $1.6 BILLION BUDGET for 2026, including $74 million in additional revenues aimed at easing the blow to city agencies and programs as part of a broad cost-cutting effort incoming Mayor Helena Moreno hopes will get the city’s books in order.
The vote came following a public meeting with Mayor LaToya Cantrell during which she lashed out at the council for their efforts to address a budget crisis that occurred during her term and threatens to harm many basic city services.
positions, a hiring freeze and cuts to a variety of programs.
But it could have been significantly worse. Cantrell’s proposal, which the council rejected, would have instituted 30% or more spending cuts to every department except the New Orleans Police Department and did not include the $74 million in revenues.
THE NUMBER OF CITY-OWNED CARS IN A FLEET USED BY MAYOR LATOYA CANTRELL AND ONE OF HER TOP AIDES.
Mayor-elect Helena Moreno has said these extra vehicles are an unnecessary expense she will cut when she assumes office. Cantrell defended having multiple city-owned cars, citing public safety concerns and her need to choose a vehicle based on her outfit or guest.
C’EST WHAT ?
Louisiana allows the use and processing of paraquat, a toxic farming pesticide commonly used in the U.S. but banned in more than 70 countries, a recent Verite News article noted. Syngenta, a facility located in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, repackages paraquat, and the Port of New Orleans is its largest point of entry in the U.S. Notably, the use of paraquat is banned in China — the home of Syngenta’s parent company.
It’s unclear if Cantrell will sign the budget. Although she has vetoed a number of ordinances, all of them have been overridden.
The council unanimously passed the budget following an hours-long hearing during which members of the public pled with members to protect a host of programs which were seeing spending reductions, including an RTA program that gives city youth free transit fares, modest cuts to Youth Force Nola, city tree trimming and other services.
The budget also includes one day per pay-period furloughs for 724 employees, reductions in so-called “unclassified”
Budget Chair Joe Giarrusso, who will serve as the city’s Chief Administrative Officer under Moreno, told Gambit that while the cuts are painful, the council tried to craft spending reductions in a way that would cause as few disruptions as possible.
“The addition of the extra revenue means better delivery of services and less impact on city employees. In the end, that’s what matters most,” Giarrusso said.
Giarrusso, Moreno and Council President JP Morrell identified those additional funds in the week leading up to Monday’s council vote from four main areas. They reached an agreement for the Sewerage & Water Board to pay back $29.5 million it owes to the city by the end of 2026.
It also includes an estimated $16.4 million in revenues from the Wisner Trust, oil rich land donated 7.5%
New Orleans Mayor-elect Helena Moreno, center, with City Council Budget Chairman Joe Giarrusso, left, and Council President JP Morrell, right.
PHOTO BY JAVIER GALLEGOS / THE ADVOCATE
to the city which has been the subject of litigation by Cantrell and the Wisner heirs. Cantrell is siding with the heirs who believe they should continue getting money from the trust, despite a court ruling that that money should go to the city. During the budget hearing, Moreno said after she is sworn in, she would direct the city attorney to withdraw from that suit.
The city will also use $14.75 million in remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds, and hopes to collect $13.5 million in parking fines, about half of which would come from the collection of unpaid tickets.
None of that sat well with Cantrell. During a rare public appearance not involving football or a parade, prior to the budget hearing she chaired a hearing of the Revenue Estimating Conference (REC). Under city law, the REC is required to provide the council with recommendations on expected revenues for the coming year, which would inform the council’s decisions on spending.
But Cantrell refused to allow the committee to consider those revenue sources — or even to allow Giarrusso to discuss them.
In fact, the meeting quickly devolved into a Festivus style airing of grievances for Cantrell. The mayor alleged the council had not communicated with her — only to have Giarrusso produce a raft of emails proving they had.
In fact, Moreno noted that while in the past the council has “worked with the CAO’s office all the way
through the weekend, late into Sunday night, work weekends, worked whatever it took to get the numbers right” for the budget.
Moreno said it was actually Cantrell who refused to meet with the council on Friday.
“I did decline that meeting because it was first asked of staff on Thanksgiving
Eve if they would be available on Friday during holiday,” Cantrell responded.
City Hall was closed on Thursday and Friday but not Wednesday.
Council Member Oliver Thomas, meanwhile, had his own criticisms of the process, saying he felt he had been left out.
“I’m being asked to vote on a budget today, Dec. 1,” he said. “I don’t know how I can and why I would even when no one has thought enough to sit down and say, ‘Hey, dummy who’s been around here a long time, this is what’s going to be cut. This is what we’re going to do to enhance revenue. This is what we’re not going to do now.’ I personally don’t think that’s fair.”
In the end, Thomas voted for the budget.
PHOTO BY BRETT DUKE / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE Mayor LaToya Cantrell
Perhaps sensing an ally in the room, Cantrell responded, “I agree with you, sir. You say, ‘you dummy.’ I must be Dummy No. 2 because again my team and I have not had the thorough conversations and vetting that we have asked for.” But Thomas was having none of that.
“Madam Mayor, no disrespect, but we still have a CAO, we still have an administration. We still have people who are monitoring the budget, and over the last several years all the years I have ever been in office ... there was still meetings about line items and issues that were being proposed. I remember those meetings with [former] CAO [Gilbert] Montano. And I have not had those meetings to date,” he said. Perhaps predictably, the meeting ended in acrimony, with no agreement on a revenue estimate. The frustration was clear during much of the following budget meeting. At the beginning of that meeting, Morrell slammed the mayor, calling her a “petulant child” and accusing her of not prioritizing city workers.
“When you have the city council working to recognize revenue to avoid furloughs, the mayor found the time to be on a float on Thursday and Bayou Classic on Saturday, but she could not find the time to do her job,” he said. “I know the election is over, but everyone up here is still in elected office, and the mayor is still pulling a paycheck. And to not care about ... how her lack of action is going to impact employees and city services next year shows you that this petulant child has taken the ball and gone home.”
Although the council was still able to pass the budget without the new revenue estimate, Moreno will still look to pass one after in the brief time after she is inaugurated as mayor but while the current council is still in office.
According to Giarrusso, while that step isn’t legally required, Moreno “wants to have the revenue truly be the forecast ... you want the REC to be in line with what the budget has done.” — John Stanton
Joe Giarrusso PHOTO BY MADDIE SPINNER / GAMBIT
Hey Blake,
While visiting the Joseph S. Yenni Building in Elmwood, I wondered about its history as a headquarters for Jefferson Parish government. Was it built for the parish or for another use? When was it named for Yenni?
Dear reader,
THE JOSEPH S. YENNI BUILDING HAS BEEN THE CENTER of Jefferson Parish government on the East Bank since 1987. Before that, parish offices were housed at various locations in East Jefferson, including the Thomas F. Donelon Parish Office Building at 3330 N. Causeway Boulevard in Metairie. Both buildings were named for former parish presidents. The Causeway Boulevard building was named to honor Donelon in 1979. Donelon, also former mayor of Harahan, served as parish president from 1964 to 1976 and died in 1977. Yenni, who also served as Kenner mayor, led the parish from 1980 until 1987. When he died in April 1987 of brain cancer, The Times-Picayune called him “the most popular chief executive in the parish’s modern history.”
During his administration, Yenni was a strong proponent of consolidating parish departments into a single
BLAKE VIEW
East Bank building. In 1985, when a 10-story office building owned by the Elmwood Industrial Corp. became available, he and other parish leaders led the effort to dedicate $17.8 million toward its purchase. After $1.8 million in renovations, the building opened in April 1987, one month after Yenni’s death. The Jefferson Parish Council voted to name the building in his honor. Yenni’s son Michael J. Yenni followed his father as Jefferson Parish president, serving two terms before his death in 1995. Joe Yenni’s grandson, Michael S. Yenni, served as Kenner mayor and then Jefferson Parish President from 2016 to 2020. He opted not to run for re-election following a scandal about him allegedly texting a teenager.
THIS WEEK, AS ENTERTAINMENT ICON DICK VAN DYKE TURNS 100 years old (Dec. 13), we remember his brief stint as a New Orleans television personality. This was the second stop in Van Dyke’s broadcasting career. He worked as a comedian in Atlanta, where a local TV station noticed his work and added him to its lineup. In 1954, WDSU recruited him for an on-air job on Channel 6 as a staff announcer and comedy show host. “Every night I would go home,” Van Dyke told The Times-Picayune in 1998, “my wife and I would sit in front of the television, my portable typewriter in my lap, watching the news and trying to get some idea for a sketch for the next day.”
Van Dyke recalled his New Orleans stay in his 2011 memoir, “My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business,” writing that he was paid $200 a week, enough for him and his wife to rent a “cute little house” where they lived with their three children.
“The station was located in the French Quarter and I was able to walk to work in the morning as the restaurateurs and barkeeps cleaned up from the previous night and cafés brewed fresh coffee. It was nice,” he wrote. “Within about six months I owned the New Orleans market. I was beating Arthur Godfrey’s national broadcast, which in those days was something.”
Van Dyke’s ratings got the attention of CBS, which brought him to New York for an audition. He wrote that the network offered him a seven-year contract and starting salary of $20,000 a year — “twice as much as I had made in my life.” Within the next decade, his career would explode with his own sitcom,
and more
Jefferson Parish President Joseph S. Yenni toasts entertainer Chris Owens in preparation for a Renaissance festival at Lafreniere Park in Metairie.
PHOTO BY RONALD LEBOEUF / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE ARCHIVE
FIZZING OUT?
FIZZING OUT?
Future of THC products hangs in the balance as industry fights federal ban
BY KAYLEE POCHE
ON NOV. 12, NEWS BROKE THAT CONGRESS HAD FINALLY AGREED to reopen the federal government through the winter holidays, allowing food stamps to resume and government workers to start getting paid again.
The longest shutdown in U.S. history was officially over — at least until the end of January.
But what almost nobody in the public knew was that conservatives had quietly turned the bill into an anti-THC Trojan horse by slipping in a nearly complete ban on hemp-derived products, outlawing any with more than .4 milligrams of THC per container starting Nov. 13, 2026.
In fact, even lobbyists for the cannabis industry were largely caught off guard, only learning the language was in the bill a few weeks before — and well past the point where it could be changed.
“It just seemed like a train that was hard to stop,” says Jacob Landry, founder of New Orleans’ Urban South Brewery, which sells its own line of THC seltzers called Driftee. He estimates the THC side of his business accounts for a fifth of Urban South’s revenue.
The ban would essentially decimate the consumable THC industry, as popular products like seltzers and gummies would become illegal.
And with a cap that low, those in the industry say even non-intoxicating hemp products like CBD gummies and industrial hemp could be in jeopardy.
But the industry isn’t going down without a fight.
Joe Gerrity, who owns New Orleansbased company Crescent Canna, says seeing the writing on the wall that the ban would pass, he and others in the industry began working on a plan to keep it from going into effect next year.
”It became more of a question of how we respond to the ban,” he says.
Afterall, it wasn’t the first time they’d experienced politicians attempting to wipe out their businesses.
In 2024, they successfully fought against a ban on THC products in Louisiana. The end result was regulations that were tighter than some in the industry wanted, causing many to have to modify their products. But they were allowed to keep operating despite anti-cannabis sentiment among many Louisiana legislators.
Now, the industry, which brought in an estimated $33 million in sales and $4.3 million in tax revenue in Louisiana last year, is facing extinction again.
“It’s like a nightmare that I just keep on reliving,” Gerrity says. “I just want to operate my business without the threat of disaster every six months.”
THC and CBD seltzers and other beverages for sale in 2024 at Rad Dad Hemp in Baton Rouge.
PHOTO BY HILARY SCHEINUK / THE ADVOCATE
With 40 employees at national company Crescent Canna (about half of which live in New Orleans) and 15 at local retailer Simply Cannabis, Gerrity and his team have a lot to lose if the ban goes into effect.
“It would be devastating, and it would destroy everything we’ve spent the last seven years building,” he says. “If the ban goes into place as it’s currently constructed, it would mean that the majority of our employees would have to be let go.”
How’d we get here?
as the Senate Republican leader for nearly half that time.
Over the summer, Rep. Andy Harris, a Maryland Republican, put a THC ban into a House Appropriations bill. McConnell then attempted to put a THC ban into the Senate Appropriations bill, but Sen. Rand Paul, a fellow Kentucky Republican, stopped him. Congressional leaders revived the ban by adding it to the bill to reopen the government, forcing the House to pass it to end the shutdown.
The THC ban didn’t really come out of left field, though it certainly seemed that way to consumers.
Ever since the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp nationally, there have been lawmakers in Congress who want to ban any intoxicating amounts of THC altogether.
As products like THC edibles and seltzers became popular with the public, that opposition strengthened, including from a number of competing industries who felt threatened.
“The industry has been crying wolf because there’s literally a wolf outside the house for about a year and a half now,” Gerrity says. “This one was kind of the perfect storm in that it had political cover, and it was never going to be debated on its own.”
Perhaps the most powerful opponent of THC products in Congress currently is U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has represented Kentucky in the Senate for 40 years and served
Jim Higdon, who owns Kentucky-based Cornbread Hemp and previously covered cannabis policy for Politico, says McConnell’s opposition to the industry can be explained by his focus on his legacy since he’s retiring next year.
“What that means to McConnell is buildings with his name on it and building funds,” Higdon says.
“Those sorts of projects are ... rare in that they are a way for corporations to donate unlimited amounts of money outside of normal campaign contribution laws and requirements.”
As the Kentucky Lantern reported in October, the Republican Party of Kentucky had raised $4.2 million to expand their headquarters, named the Mitch McConnell Building. Of that, bourbon companies donated $650,000, including $300,000 from Louisville-based BrownForman Corp., $200,000 from Japan-based Beam Suntory and $150,000 from Louisiana’s own Sazerac Inc., headquartered in Metairie but whose principal office is in Louisville.
THC and CBD products for sale in 2024 in Baton Rouge.
PHOTO BY HILARY SCHEINUK / THE ADVOCATE
15
Why does this matter?
“The bourbon industry wants the hemp industry dead because the bourbon industry blames the hemp industry in part for the declining bourbon sales because of the popularity of hemp beverages,” Higdon says.
Gerrity says another piece to the equation is that McConnell likely does not want part of his legacy to be legalizing recreational cannabis in a roundabout way.
“What he does not want is for arguably the biggest piece of legislation he ever passed, which was the Farm Bill, to be remembered for accidentally legalizing marijuana,” Gerrity says. “And that is the reality of what he did.”
Higdon agrees, calling McConnell “an old school drug warrior from the Reagan administration.”
“He’s [almost] 84 years old, so he’s definitely fighting yesterday’s culture wars,” he says.
Higdon says to have his own senator push a ban that would destroy his business feels like a “betrayal” to him, his 100 employees at Cornbread Hemp and the family farm they support. He says his line workers average $26 an hour, and the farm was planning to expand from 60 acres of hemp to 100 next year.
“The whole reason we’re in this business in the first place is that McConnell in 2018 appeared to make it clear that this was the new law of the land and that he supported it,” he says. “And then he turned around and did what the bourbon industry wanted and betrayed us all.”
Asking for an extension
According to the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, which lobbies for the industry in D.C., the ban would wipe out 95% of the entire $28.4 billion national hemp industry, risking 300,000 jobs and $1.5 billion in tax revenue.
Gerrity notes there would be unintended consequences for even opponents of the THC industry because the ban doesn’t protect other hemp products that don’t produce a high, like CBD and industrial hemp.
“The bill, as it’s passed, basically shuts down hemp in all shapes and forms,” he says. “You can’t grow hemp without at some point in the process possessing something that will be federally illegal.”
Higdon says members of Congress are already hearing from veterans’ groups and parents of sick children who rely on CBD products to ease their pain, so there seems to be an appetite to make at least some changes to the ban.
Medical marijuana would remain legal in Louisiana and 39 other states, and recreational marijuana would remain legal in 20 states. However, the U.S. Hemp Roundtable says the ban “would also severely disrupt the cannabinoid supply chain of the regulated marijuana market.”
Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican who has been an advocate for cannabis, has already introduced a bill to reverse the ban. However, those in the THC industry say there doesn’t seem to be much will among members to do that without putting federal regulations on the products.
“I think members of Congress realize that something needs to be done to weed out what they consider to be
the bad actors and that the status quo is unacceptable,” Higdon says. “Something needs to be done ... going back to where things were does not seem to be where Congress is.”
With the ban set to take effect next November, it may seem like there’s plenty of time for Congress to create regulations for the industry. But the reality is farmers need to know soon whether they should grow hemp next year.
Higdon says to grow hemp his farmers would need to bring in H2-A visa workers, whose contracts must be signed 90 days before they arrive. To start planting in mid-May, they’d need to complete the contracts by mid-February.
The consensus is that’s not enough time to pass federal regulations on the products but it is enough time to push back the ban for another year while Congress debates regulations.
Because Congress has to agree on another government funding bill by the end of January to avoid another shutdown, the best bet is to get the extension included in that bill.
In other words, the clock is ticking.
Two Louisiana Congress members will play an important role in determining whether Congress extends the deadline: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health Committee.
On a reporter call, Cassidy said he was not familiar with an effort to push back the deadline on the ban. He said he’d want to be more familiar with the specifics of a proposed extension before commenting.
Cassidy, a doctor, also did not say if he’d rather let the current ban go into effect or create federal guardrails on the products, though he
reiterated concerns about products being allowed to be sold to children in states without regulations.
Push to regulate, not ban
Many selling THC seltzers and edibles agree the industry needs to be regulated at the federal level.
“We absolutely believe these products should be age-gated, that the labels should be accurate, that the product should be tested, that marketing shouldn’t target children, and that the milligram levels in these products are reasonable, that provide value to the consumer,” says Chris Lackner of the Hemp Beverage Alliance.
Currently, Louisiana’s hemp laws accomplish those goals, including capping products at 5 milligrams per container and limiting packs to no more than four drinks. Edible THC products can have no more than eight servings per package and must be individually wrapped. The products also are not allowed to be sold at gas stations but can be sold at grocery stores.
Louisiana’s laws are some of the strictest in the country, with some states allowing up to 10 or 15 milligrams of THC per serving and others having no limits at all.
Landry of Urban South says he would welcome some uniformity in hemp regulations rather than the current “crazy patchwork of laws,” which he believes would make it easier to operate across multiple states.
“We all want some framework, and hopefully the positive outcome of this will be that a framework is put into place federally that will make it easier for the industry in the category to grow,” he says.
THC and CBD merchandise for sale in 2024 at Rad Dad Hemp in Baton Rouge.
PHOTO BY HILARY SCHEINUK / THE ADVOCATE
Kristin Marshall holds up a Stratus THC seltzer, Paradise Park hard seltzer, Driftee THC sparkling water, and Holy Roller non-alcoholic IPA at Urban South Brewery.
STAFF PHOTO BY BRETT DUKE, THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
Many are working with Congress members to come up with a compromise bill that regulates the hemp industry.
“I think what you’ll see in the next six months or so is a very robust, coordinated effort by all the stakeholders to push for a regulatory framework at the federal level,” Lackner says.
“Right now, in a Republicancontrolled Congress, the best that we could hope for from the House and the Senate is five milligrams per serving,” he says. “We’ll be very lucky to get five milligrams per serving.”
‘This is not over’
There are some powerful players on both sides of the hemp fight. In addition to the bourbon industry’s general opposition to THC beverages, The Beer Institute, the American Distilled Spirits Alliance, the Wine Institute and others sent a letter to Congress members urging them to ban THC products until “a robust federal regulatory framework is established.”
But Gerrity says some independently owned alcohol distribution companies and some of the biggest retailers in the country who sell THC drinks, like Target, Winn Dixie and Total Wine, support keeping the industry alive. The Wine and Spirit Wholesalers Association also favors legalizing cannabis nationally and regulating hemp products.
Also on the side of the industry is public opinion. In a Pew Research survey at the beginning of the year, 54% of Americans said they believed that cannabis should be legal for recreational use.
The U.S. Hemp Roundtable supports labeling requirements, testing and age restrictions, but the group is pushing for states to have the power to set their own rules regarding different types of hemp products and how many milligrams of THC are allowed per serving. However, the group supports a federal floor of 5 milligrams of THC per serving. They also want to ban “artificial cannabinoids masquerading as hemp.”
Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican, and Sen. Ron Wyden, a Kansas Democrat, have both been working on the issue for a while, and their teams have been meeting with those in the hemp industry in recent weeks.
Griffith, whose district borders Kentucky, has been a seemingly unlikely ally in the hemp fight. He’s conservative and doesn’t drink, but he believes regulation is the best way to ensure the products on the market are safe, according to Higdon.
“He realizes that a ban would only hurt good actors, and bad actors would still import synthetic crap from overseas,” Higdon says.
Griffith could introduce a regulatory bill as early as January, according to Gerrity. However, it’s unclear how many milligrams of THC the bill would allow.
“The milligram caps is really the sticking point,” Higdon says.
The hemp industry is pushing for 5 milligrams of THC, but Higdon says it could likely be less.
“We have a lot of really good people,” Gerrity says. “It’s just a challenge to fight against big alcohol and Mitch McConnell.”
Having recently warded off a ban at the state-level, Louisiana THC business owners say they are hopeful a similar compromise — tighter regulations instead of a ban — can be worked out on the national level.
Eric Becker, co-founder of Basin Street Beverages which makes THC seltzer Louie Louie, says when lobbying at the Louisiana Legislature, they focused on their status as small business owners who employ people locally.
“It’s something that as the Louisiana contingent of businesses, we have kind of gone through this before, and so we feel like there’s a path at the federal level just like we had in Louisiana,” he says.
Though the struggle for survival can be exhausting, Gerrity remains determined.
“This is not over by any means,” he says. “We’re gonna fight this thing. We’re gonna beat this thing, and with the public on our side.”
A Driftee THC sparkling water at Urban South Brewery.
PHOTO BY BRETT DUKE / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
VIPER Mad
VIPER Mad
Kermit Rufns sings reefer song
BY JAKE CLAPP
NEW ORLEANS TRUMPETER AND VOCALIST
KERMIT RUFFINS put it succinctly during a 2011 interview with cannabis magazine High Times: “I need two things to have a perfect show, reefer and people.”
Ruffins’ affection for reefer — his preferred term for cannabis — is well known among locals who might catch sight of a stray pipe or bong hanging around the Motherin-Law Lounge. Reefer and jazz have long gone handin-hand, as Ruffins puts it, and his sets often include a couple of “reefer songs,” like “If You’re a Viper,” first recorded in 1936, and his own “Hide the Reefer,” written about a neighborhood wanderer who often got too enthusiastic with Ruffins’ joints.
Ruffins grew up in the Lower 9th Ward and attended Joseph S. Clark Sr. High School in Treme, where he co-founded the Rebirth Brass Band in the early-’80s. During Ruffins’ years with Rebirth, promoter and Jazz Fest co-founder Allison Miner, who managed the band, gave the trumpeter a copy of “Reefer Songs,” a compilation of music from the ’20s to the ’40s mostly focused on cannabis — among other illicit substances. With songs like “If You’re a Viper,” “All the Jive is Gone” and “Reefer Man,” the album left a lasting impact on his music, Ruffins says.
Gambit spoke with Ruffins about reefer, writing “Hide the Reefer” and his thoughts on cannabis becoming more popular. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.
GAMBIT: Could you tell us about “Hide the Reefer”? When did you write the song?
KERMIT RUFFINS: There was a guy that was in the service, he was a veteran, and he was the guy that walked through the neighborhood. I think he was homeless and was a little schizophrenic, and his name was Creeper. Everybody called him Creeper. I’d be standing on the corner, smoking reefer in front of Joe’s Cozy Corner, and every time he passed, he’d be like, “Hey you, Kermit, let me hit the weed.” I would just give him the whole joint because we would slobber all over it. Then one day, I’m standing on the corner and thought, “Hide the reefer. Here come the Creeper.”
It was time for me to write some songs, and I normally write my songs maybe a week before the recording because I get real motivated when it’s time to go in. But I ride around with a tape recorder in my truck, and I started singing “Hide the reefer. Here come the Creeper.” That’s how it came about.
GAMBIT: Do you know if he ever heard the song?
RUFFINS: Oh, he definitely heard it because I would pull up in my truck and all the guys would gather on the corner. This was Treme.
And I would blast my CD all the time. I wanted the neighborhood to hear it. When I get the rough copy from the studio, I would go on a drive and study and listen to it, ‘cause I would go back and rethink things. So yes, he definitely heard it — and he always said, “Kermit, where’s my royalty?”
GAMBIT: I was reading you had a CD called “Reefer Songs” that you would listen to a lot when Rebirth was out on tour. Could you tell me about that album?
RUFFINS: Oh yeah, that’s right. Thanks to Allison Miner. Allison was our manager for Rebirth, and she gave me two CDs before she passed (in 1995). She gave me the CD with nothing but reefer songs, and the other one was Eddie Jefferson. And those kind of molded me, between those two CDs and all of Louis Armstrong’s work. I think I covered a lot of them too. It was maybe 15 songs.
GAMBIT: When were you introduced to reefer?
RUFFINS: I think I was in high school. I could remember coming from the Lower 9th Ward, and I would get on the St. Claude bus to go to (Joseph S.) Clark Sr.
Kermit Ruffins
PHOTO BY MADDIE SPINNER / GAMBIT
High School, which is in the heart of the Treme. I would get off the bus and walk down Esplanade to the high school, and I’m getting off the bus and I’m lighting up a reefer before the first class, which was algebra. I think I was maybe in 11th grade — I probably was smoking before then. I had to be right around 16.
GAMBIT: Was it essentially anything you could just get your hands on or did you have anybody that kind of hooked you up?
RUFFINS: I’m not quite sure that I had a connection, but that stuff wasn’t nothing. Until we went to New York the first time. This was in the ’80s, when I met Dan Untermyer, Ice Cube Slim. He managed the Rebirth, and he was coming in from Santa Cruz, California, where he’s from. He took us all over the world. But as soon as we landed in New York, I can remember him reaching in the bag and putting a whole bunch of reefer on the table for the Rebirth, and we never had nothing like that. Best reefer in the world. No seeds, real sticky, beautiful, shiny. You can tell it came from Planet Earth. We had been smoking brown stuff, but all of a sudden, we saw something real green. We couldn’t understand it for a second.
GAMBIT: How did you see the audiences react to your reefer songs?
RUFFINS: I started playing at Vaughan’s, and before you know it, I had all the Tulane and Loyola students following me everywhere like crazy because I was singing about marijuana. They were just waiting for me to start singing, “I dreamed about a reefer five feet long” (the song “If You’re a Viper”). Before you know it, all those guys — they were probably super rich — started giving us reefer all the time. I guess the students had a damn good connection.
A lot of times, people give me reefer, and I’ll give it away. I don’t like reefer that’s already rolled. Now if they gave me a bag of reefer, that’s different. But a lot of times, they’ll come up with a bunch of pre-roll stuff that they buy from California or Colorado, and sometimes I’ll smoke it and sometimes I don’t.
I don’t smoke like I used to because it’s so good in today’s world. You don’t need a lot of it no more. Back in the days, you’d smoke all day long and nothing would happen because it wasn’t good weed.
GAMBIT: Out of curiosity, have you grown your own weed?
RUFFINS: I have had one plant in my whole lifetime, and it came out horrible. The guy just gave it to me for my birthday, and it was a little small plant. It attracts certain bugs that if you’re not aware of — these little green bugs were all over the place, just eating it up, and I really didn’t know how to care for it. But I did smoke a little bit of it, and it was pretty good.
GAMBIT: These days, are you still a consistent smoker? Or have you slowed down a little bit?
RUFFINS: It’s damn sure every day. It might be about 10 hits a day, because I have this little bitty pipe. I have a bunch of bongs, though, so whatever I feel like that day.
GAMBIT: That was my next question. What’s your preferred method? Do you like a pipe or joints, vaping or anything like that?
RUFFINS: The main thing I have is a one-hitter. And I love the bong. Love them to death. I have some huge, huge bongs, and I got some pocket-sized bongs. Some regular sized glass pipes. Just scattered throughout the bar. They’re sitting on display, too. I’ve dropped a few of them, too. I had one made like a machine gun, and it fell right off the edge of the bar. Most people try to do [a bong] too hard. But every time I smoke anything I do it with a lot of ease. That way I’m not choking or getting too stoned. Make sure I take it real, real easy. I used to smoke joints, too, but it was probably about four years ago
since I last smoked one. I don’t like the taste of the paper. It’s too harsh. You put it in a cigar or paper, it has too much of an effect on the joint
GAMBIT: How do you feel about edibles? Have you checked out these THC seltzers that have been coming out?
RUFFINS: Nah, I don’t. But years ago, I used to chop reefer up real fine, cook it on the stove with butter, real, real slow and pour it into a brownie and pass them out at football games I’d host at the bar or my house. But one time I was shooting a scene on “Treme,” and I ate about two brownies not realizing what it could do. I was playing a DJ in a scene, and I couldn’t drive home. I had to call someone to come get me. So I left edibles alone. I learned my lesson the hard way. The room was spinning.
GAMBIT: Reefer has had a long history in the jazz community. Do you have any thoughts about why jazz and reefer have had this close relationship? Is there a particular reason for that?
RUFFINS: That’s a good question. When the red light district (Storyville) was there, I’m quite sure that reefer had a lot to do with the birth of jazz. I think it goes hand-in-hand. It changed the music. I think when all those cats started smoking — actually probably already smoking, especially up North, because Louis (Armstrong) said when he got to Chicago, and they hand him this good reefer and said “Man, put that stuff
down. That’s not the good stuff at all. Here’s what you want to smoke.” We didn’t have [good stuff] down South.
GAMBIT: Do you think there’s some connection to helping relax and prompt creativity?
RUFFINS: I’m quite sure it does. But I think it’s different strokes for different folks because some of the best trumpet players I know don’t even smoke.
GAMBIT: Are you a little surprised it’s easier to get reefer these days or that it’s becoming more mainstream?
RUFFINS: Yeah. I’m grateful, that’s for sure. I went to jail for reefer, maybe four times. I remember one time I had to stop smoking for six months and go pee in a cup and pay a fine every Friday. The craziest part is that during that time, we had a tour in California for about a month, the Rebirth. And all the guys in the car smoking, and I’m trying to hit a little cigar, trying to feel a little something. That was the worst six months of my life.
I’m thinking about suing the city in today’s world [laughs]. I gotta figure out a way to get some compensation for what they did to me behind one joint. Now we can smoke in front of the police on Bourbon Street.
I’m always dreaming about opening up a shop and calling it Ruffin’ Puff. I better hurry up and patent it. I’ve been digging into it. The first thing I’ve got to do is find a grower, somebody I can buy from.
Kermit Ruffins
PHOTO BY MADDIE SPINNER / GAMBIT
CARNIVAL Detour
CARNIVAL Detour
THC king cakes ... from Memphis?
BY MATTHEW HAINES
COLLIN BERCIER is a proud lifelong resident of Lafayette, Louisiana, and he’s spent his career operating a variety of businesses.
“In the past, I’ve owned a solar company, a handful of Planet Fitness gyms, a multi-unit CC’s Coffee franchisee, and a local donut shop,” Bercier said. But perhaps his most interesting venture is his Ounce of Hope Dispensary and Aquaponic Farm, which he opened in 2018. There, he uses waste from the 5,000 gallons of koi and tilapia he raises to provide nutrients to the cannabis grown on the 10,000-squarefoot property.
Bercier doesn’t only grow cannabis. He calls the business “vertically integrated,” meaning it engages in multiple levels of the supply chain. He uses the cannabis he grows to produce as many as 150 different products, which he then sells in-person at Ounce of Hope and through the dispensary’s online store.
But it’s one of Bercier’s newest creations — the THCinfused king cake — that has Louisiana written all over it. Except it’s not sold in Louisiana. In fact, Ounce of Hope’s entire
PROVIDED PHOTOS BY EMMA FOX - VIXEN RUSE, LLC
operation is based in Memphis, Tennessee.
“I would love nothing more than to do business in my home state, but regulations make that challenging,” he said. “For example, unless you’re part of the medical marijuana program, Louisiana doesn’t allow you to sell bud [flower] in stores, and bud makes up almost 50% of my business.”
“To succeed, I had to open my farm and dispensaries in Tennessee instead.”
A new kind of king cake
Midway through his college career, Bercier made the decision to leave the University of Memphis and come back to Lafayette. His mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a progressive and incurable disease that would eventually take her life.
“I knew cannabis could help ease her pain, but there was no medical marijuana program in Louisiana at the time,” Bercier said.
It was a desire to provide that relief to those who needed it that first sparked his interest in the cannabis industry. Bercier hired experts to work alongside him, and he learned the ropes. Today, his business manufactures a variety of cannabis-derived products in forms as varied as vapes, flower, edibles, beverages, topicals, and oils.
Bercier is proud of what he has created at his Memphis farm, but his heart still bleeds for Louisiana and its traditions.
The THC-infused king cake was a natural result of that love. The cake itself is made by a popular Lafayette bakery, which Bercier keeps anonymous so they are not overrun with requests for the cake that can only be ordered through his website.
Several times each week during Carnival season, Bercier picks up king cakes from the Lafayette bakery
at 2 a.m. He then drives or ships them six hours to Memphis where his team mixes packets of their THC into the icing. The result is the traditional purple, green, and gold Carnival treat — but packed with 300 mg of THC, or 15 mg per slice. By 4 p.m., the cakes — including familiar varieties such as praline-pecan, cream cheese, chocolate, and traditional cinnamon — are boxed and loaded onto a Fed-Ex truck for their destination. Bercier drives back to Lafayette and gets a little sleep before he repeats that process each day the cakes are shipped.
It’s laborious, but customers across the country agree they are the perfect addition to a holiday centered around celebration. Ounce of Hope sold more than 280 THC-infused king cakes in their first month of production last Carnival.
Still, Bercier can’t help but feel frustrated he has to drive the cakes across state lines just to ship them back to Louisiana customers.
“It’s so unnecessary,” he said. “I want to contribute to the Louisiana economy, and I have a dozen years of experience growing hemp. But I’m not welcome to do it in my home state.”
A cannabis monopoly
The barriers to entry in Louisiana’s cannabis industry extend far beyond the types of products Bercier is able to sell. The Pelican State also has stricter limits on the concentration of THC per serving as well as the amount of THC per package. But the biggest barrier is on the growing side.
“It’s essentially a monopoly of good ol’ boys here in Louisiana’s medical marijuana sector,” Bercier said.
When Louisiana’s Alison Neustrom Act began the process of creating a statewide medical marijuana system in 2015, LSU and Southern University were selected as university
partners to grow the plant. Private sector participants, Good Day Farm and Ilera Holistic Healthcare, were selected to process the crop. Last year, however, when both universities were pushed to give up their growing licenses to those private companies, some began to worry it put too much control over the cannabis industry in private sector hands.
Good Day Farm, in particular, is said to be cultivating as much as 75% of the state’s cannabis plant. Additionally, they own an increasing percentage of medical marijuana dispensaries across the state.
“In other states, you have many growers and many dispensaries, but in Louisiana, it’s severely limited,” Bercier said. “Two growers and only 10 companies licensed to sell to customers.”
It’s a statewide system that continues to shut small business owners like Bercier out.
“People keep asking me if they can buy my THC king cakes from a storefront in Lafayette, Baton Rouge or New Orleans this year, but Louisiana has made that illegal,” Bercier said. “I just tell them to buy the king cakes online and I’ll ship them. It doesn’t make sense, but it’s all I can do.”
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EAT + DRINK
Dinner and a show
NEW ORLEANS TRUMPETER KERMIT
RUFFINS CALLS HIMSELF “a master chef who plays music on the side.”
Indeed, Ruffins’ homestyle red beans and rice will be part of the draw every Monday at Mayfield’s 208 Bourbon, a new all-ages performance space and extension of Felix’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar opened by Ruffins’ friend and colleague Irvin Mayfield.
“I get everything but the water ready in the pot at the (Mother-in-Law Lounge) and bring it with me into the kitchen,” Ruffins says. That means a pot filled with 12 pounds of red beans, 10 pounds of smoked neck bones and five pounds of smoked sausage.
“The kitchen staff adds the water and watches the pot, which takes about four or five hours to cook,” Ruffins says. “It really doesn’t need a lot of babysitting, just a stir now and then.”
Ruffins is scheduled for a 6 p.m. show every Monday, which turns into a jam session with Mayfield and other local musicians, like Gerald French or Cyril Neville.
“Some of the best jazz is back on Bourbon,” Ruffins says. “I like to cater to my friends who are getting off of work. They can come in, listen to me and Irvin and have some red beans, some raw and char-broiled oysters. When I tell you, the fried fish is so delicious. The food’s amazing, and we even have a balcony.”
Mayfield has been friends with Felix’s owner Danny Conwill for years. Conwill suggested a collaboration that would turn the restaurant’s spillover upstairs dining room into a place for families to eat traditional New Orleans food and listen to music.
“He mentioned it to me a few years ago, then again over dinner at my house maybe six months ago,” Mayfield says. “So, I went and looked at the space. I was blown away. The truth is people want to have fun. If there’s great music and great food, and if a space has a balcony, that’s the most fun.”
The musical entertainment is ticketed, with prices for upcoming dates ranging from $24 to $56. Dining is a la carte.
“Felix’s has been an institution for raw oysters and homestyle food since the ’40s,” Mayfield says. “I’ve thought for a long time there needs to be more opportunities to have a musical and dining experience.
Over the last few years, playing banjo and guitar in Kermit’s band, it’s been so instructive to see his intuitive nature when it comes to food.”
Mayfield says this setup was a way to share his cooking without having to run a full restaurant.
ICE’d outA MEXICAN RESTAURANT THAT OPENED IN NEW ORLEANS shortly after Hurricane Katrina will temporarily close due to the fear and disruption brought by the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions.
Taqueria Guerrero, at 208 N. Carrollton Ave. in Mid-City, closed at the end of business Nov. 30 for an undetermined time.
A manager at the restaurant confirmed the plans and asked not to be identified by name. The individual said the restaurant’s owners plan to reopen when they feel it is safer for their staff and customers.
The room, which can accommodate between 80 and 100 people, is not handicapped accessible, reachable only by climbing a steep flight of stairs.
“I wish that was different, but it’s due to the age of the French Quarter building,” Mayfield says.
Feeding the musicians who are in residence is part of the deal, he says. Before the opening, he had lunch with a group of them, and their favorite picks are now part of a musiciancurated daily specials menu for the upstairs space. Felix’s regular menu, for both dinner and Sunday brunch, is available as well.
Besides Kermit’s red beans on Mondays, Tuesday’s brings Gerald French’s favorite fried fish platter. Wednesday is Jason Marsalis’ scampi shrimp. For Thursdays, Glen David Andrews recommends stuffed redfish, and on Friday, Mayfield’s wife Cydney Hedgpeth handles date night and music programing for the “girl dinner,” including a small Caesar salad, fries and a sparkling cocktail.
On Saturday, it’s Neville’s dozen char-grilled oysters, and Sunday features Mayfield’s recommendation for gumbo ya-ya and his own recipe for chocolate chip cookies.
“This is magic because I can focus on playing and not spend a lot of time figuring out the restaurant side,” he says. “It’s all in place to work together.”
The two-time Grammy award winning musician has been back on the local music scene since his release from federal prison two years ago, after pleading guilty to defrauding the New Orleans Public Library Foundation out of $1.3 million. He’s performed with Ruffins at the MotherIn-Law and elsewhere.
Having New Orleans style cuisine fits the vision for the new place, Mayfield says.
“You could have Kermit playing in a tapas bar, but that’s a disconnect,” he says. “He’s part of more than a century of New Orleans musicians passing down recipes for music. He knows thousands of songs. We get together and tap into that collective consciousness. The food is part of that foundation.”
Mayfield is in the process of building a musician’s dressing room and a green room where they can eat before the gig.
“We want to nourish them, to support them in every way so they can be successful,” he says. “Good food just makes the music better.”
The arrival of federal immigration enforcement agents to the New Orleans area has spread deep anxiety across southeast Louisiana’s immigrant communities. Some schools, churches and businesses with high Hispanic representation have seen fewer people turning up.
Taqueria Guerrero posted about
the decision to temporarily close on social media.
“The safety, dignity and peace of mind of our staff and our community mean more to us than anything,” the post reads, in part. “We refuse to operate in a way that puts anyone at risk or adds to the fear that so many are feeling.”
Taqueria Guerrero opened in 2007, at a time when much of New Orleans was still in ruins after flooding from the Katrina levee failures. At the time, new restaurant openings were early signs of hope for the city’s comeback. Many of these restaurants were Latin American, reflecting a demographic shift as Hispanic laborers who arrived to rebuild the city set down roots.
The taqueria took over a one-time pizzeria and joined a diverse restaurant row that was then building back, joining the Italian dessert parlor Angelo
Irvin Mayfeld returns at Bourbon Street restaurant by Beth D’Addono |
New Orleans food in a new Bourbon Street music venue
Kermit Ruffins and chef Trashina Carter on the balcony at Mayfield’s 208 Bourbon.
PHOTO BY MADDIE SPINNER / GAMBIT
Taqueria Guerrero
PHOTO BY ENAN CHEDIAK / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
Brocato’s Ice Cream, an emblem of a much earlier wave of immigration to New Orleans, and another Latin American tavern, El Rinconcito, which permanently closed earlier this year.
Taqueria Guerrero has gained a wide following through the years for its traditional Mexican cooking and warm hospitality. As news of the temporary closure spread last weekend, people have filled the brightly colored dining room for plates of tacos, pozole soup and enchiladas, and with the intent to bolster the restaurant’s business with uncertainty ahead.
The restaurant manager said staff were grateful for the support.
There is a GoFundMe.com fundraiser to support the restaurant and its staff during the closure. — Ian McNulty / The Times-Picayune
Reveillon revelry
HOW DO YOU REVEILLON? The answer can be as varied as the restaurants and bars taking part and the holiday traditions New Orleans people build around them.
More restaurants are going big this year with truly decadent tasting menus for Reveillon. Others are bringing a parade of wintry dishes and local holiday classics, including daube glacé and turducken. And more bars are in the mix with holiday cocktails too.
Below is a preview of this year’s offerings. But first, the basics. Originally, Reveillon was rooted in this Creole city’s holiday customs, a meal served at home after midnight mass on Christmas Eve. The idea of Reveillon was reinvented more recently as a seasonal promotion at restaurants, where it now takes the form of set-price, multi-course meals served throughout the holidays.
This year, about 50 restaurants have Reveillon menus, while more places have specialty cocktails, running from classic to pure holiday kitsch.
Normally held through December, Reveillon runs a tad longer this year, until Jan. 6, since the calendar essentially gives us an extra holiday weekend after New Year’s Day.
Restaurants serving Reveillon menus also offer their regular a la carte menus. Diners can find full menus and holiday service schedules at neworleans.com.
At any point in the year, people might wonder where they can find turducken. The answer is a butcher shop for preparation at home — unless it’s Reveillon, when this medieval oddity sometimes turns up at the table.
This year, the turducken trail leads to Gabrielle (four courses, $65), where it’s served along with daube glacé, the jellied Creole beef dish spread and
rabbit with smothered purple hull peas, evoking this restaurant’s ties to rustic Louisiana cooking.
If some old restaurants go more contemporary, some modern restaurants go more traditional for Reveillon. Gris-Gris, for instance, is giving a big ole hug to the holiday motif (four courses, $85) with an entire platter of baked ham, green bean casserole, dirty rice and gravy… and that’s after the gumbo and the baked macaroni pie. Gris-Gris also has a number of holiday cocktails this season.
Avo’s Reveillon menu (four courses, $77) is a more condensed read on the feast of the seven fishes, a holiday tradition in some Italian families. This one has seven types of seafood embedded in three dishes, plus a dessert (thankfully seafood-free).
While it’s not pitched this way, Pascal’s Manale is serving an all-seafood menu that could be a “feast of four fishes.”
The historic Creole-Italian restaurant, now run by Dickie Brennan & Co., is showing more of its progressive revamp, including this gently modernized holiday menu (four courses, $65) with salmon crostini, oyster dressing cannelloni and shrimp and crab gnocchi. Diners also can double down on the bivalves at the stand-up oyster bar.
Along these lines, Domenica has a “feast of three fishes” on its all-seafood Reveillon menu (four courses, $70). If you think of Domenica mainly for salumi and pizza, this could be a fuller picture, and it’s right by the glittering, Sazeracsoaked holiday wonderland lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel.
The city’s old line historic restaurants are custom cut for the nostalgia of the season, while Reveillon brings different dishes from their French Creole set pieces. That goes for the lobster thermidor among the choices at Antoine’s (four courses, $72), and the short ribs with truffled grits at Galatorie’s (four courses, $58).
Arnaud’s delves into its own culinary traditions for Reveillon (four courses, $70) and folds in a newer holiday tradition — its annual Teddy Bear Drive, in partnership with the New Orleans Police & Justice Foundation.
Some Reveillon are lavish, and this year more restaurants are really swinging for the fences.
At the top is Restaurant August, where Reveillon is a $200 dinner over
WI NE OF THE WEEK
seven courses, plus some lagniappe dishes, for a meal that includes a fruits de mer with four chilled dishes all on its own, a caviar course and both seafood and meat courses before getting to the desserts.
In the same category, count Commander’s Palace, which always puts on a show for Reveillon and this year has five courses at $135, with oysters, a five-hour egg, marrow and escargot, sweetbreads and port-soaked sponge cake.
Others in the C-note menu club this year include Saint John (four courses, $110), Seawitch (four courses, $100, or $145 with wine pairing), M Bistro (five courses, $115) in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Miss River (five courses, $125) in the Four Seasons, where the hotel’s Chandelier Bar is also on the Reveillon map for holiday cocktails.
In addition to Reveillon menus, a collection of restaurants and bars take part in a more casual cocktail offshoot. These run the gamut from acclaimed cocktail destinations Cure and Revel Cafe and Bar to the neighborhood barroom Rendezvous Tavern and the Frenchmen Street music club d.b.a.
In the French Quarter, there’s a White Christmas martini at Mr. B’s Bistro (part of a larger holiday cocktail menu) and Cane & Table offers the Gilded Dream (a take on a Paper Plane). Other options include a flame-licked Trial by Fire at High Grace and a traditional eggnog daiquiri at Manolito, part of the cozy spot’s winter cocktail program. — Ian McNulty / The Times-Picayune
Abeautiful wine with aromas of brightlemon and green apple with subtle notesofpie crust, oak, and hints of vanilla. It has avelvety finish that keeps youwanting more
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Reveillon dinners bring prix-fixe menus and holiday drinks to participating local restaurants.
PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
Bezel Chardonnay
Out to Eat is an index of Gambit contract advertisers. Unless noted, addresses are for New Orleans and all accept credit cards. Updates: Email willc@gambitweekly.com or call (504) 483-3106.
Angelo Brocato’s — 214 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-1465; angelobrocatoicecream.
com — This Mid-City sweet shop serves its own gelato in flavors like praline, salted caramel and tiramisu, as well as Italian ices in flavors like lemon, strawberry and mango. There also are cannolis, biscotti, fig cookies, tiramisu, macaroons and coffee drinks. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $
com — Gulf Drum Yvonne is served with brown butter sauce with mushrooms and artichoke hearts. There also are oysters, seafood pasta dishes, steaks, lamb chops and more. Reservations recommended. Dinner Thu.-Mon. $$$
Bamboula’s — 514 Frenchmen St.; bamboulasmusic.com — The live music venue’s kitchen offers a menu of traditional and creative Creole dishes, such as Creole crawfish crepes with goat cheese and chardonnay sauce. Reservations accepted. Lunch, dinner and late-night daily. $$
The Blue Crab Restaurant and Oyster Bar — 118 Harbor View Court, Slidell, (985) 315-7001; 7900 Lakeshore Drive, (504) 284-2898; thebluecrabnola.com — Basin barbecue shrimp are served with rosemary garlic butter sauce over cheese grits with a cheese biscuit. The menu includes po-poys, fried seafood platters, raw and char-grilled oysters, boiled seafood in season, and more. Outdoor seating available. No reservations. Lakeview: Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. Slidell: Lunch Wed.-Fri., dinner Wed.-Sun., brunch Sat.-Sun. $$
Broussard’s — 819 Conti St., (504) 581-3866; broussards.com — The menu of contemporary Creole dishes includes bronzed redfish with jumbo lump crabmeat, lemon beurre blanc and vegetables. Brunch includes Benedicts, avocado toast, chicken and waffles, turtle soup and more. Reservations recommended. Outdoor seating available in the courtyard. Dinner Wed.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$$ Cafe Normandie — Higgins Hotel, 480 Andrew Higgins Blvd., (504) 528-1941; higginshotelnola.com/dining — The menu combines classic French dishes and Louisiana items like crab beignets with herb aioli. Sandwiches include po-boys, a muffuletta on flatbread and a burger. No reservations. Breakfast and lunch Mon.-Sat., dinner Fri.-Mon. $$
The Commissary — 634 Orange St., (504) 274-1850; thecommissarynola.com — Dickie Brennan’s Commissary supplies his other restaurant kitchens and also has a dine-in menu and prepared foods to go. A smoked turkey sandwich is served with bacon, tomato jam, herbed cream cheese, arugula and herb vinaigrette on honey oat bread. The menu includes dips, salads, sandwiches, boudin balls, fried oysters and more. No reservations. Outdoor seating available. Lunch Tue.-Sat. $$ Curio — 301 Royal St., (504) 717-4198; curionola.com — The creative Creole menu includes blackened Gulf shrimp served with chicken and andouille jambalaya. There also are crab cakes, shrimp and grits, crawfish
$ — average dinner entrée under $10
$$ $11-$20
$$$ — $20-up
etouffee, po-boys and more. Outdoor seating available on balcony. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner daily. $$ Dahla — 611 O’Keefe Ave., (504) 766-6602; dahlarestaurant.com — The menu includes popular Thai dishes like pad thai, drunken noodles, curries and fried rice. Crispy skinned duck basil is prepared with vegetables and Thai basil. Delivery available. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. $$
Desire Oyster Bar — Royal Sonesta New Orleans, 300 Bourbon St., (504) 586-0300; sonesta.com/desireoysterbar — A menu full of Gulf seafood includes oysters served raw on the half-shell or char-broiled with with Parmesan, garlic and herbs. The menu also includes po-boys, po-boys, gumbo, blackened fish, fried seafood platters and more. Reservations recommended. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$
Dickie Brennan’s Bourbon House — 144 Bourbon St., (504) 522-0111; bourbonhouse.com — There’s a seafood raw bar with raw and char-broiled oysters, fish dip, crab fingers, shrimp and more. Redfish on the Half-shell is cooked skin-on and served with crab-boiled potatoes, frisee and lemon buerre blanc. The bar offers a wide selection of bourbon and whiskies. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner daily. $$$
Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse — 716 Iberville St., (504) 522-2467; dickiebrennanssteakhouse.com — The menu includes a variety of steaks, plus seared Gulf fish, lobster pasta, barbecue shrimp and more. A 6-ounce filet mignon is served with fried oysters, creamed spinach, potatoes and bearnaise. Reservations recommended. Dinner Mon.Sat. $$$
El Pavo Real — 4401 S. Broad Ave., (504) 266-2022; elpavorealnola.com — The menu includes tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, ceviche. tamales and more. Pescado Vera Cruz features sauteed Gulf fish topped with tomatoes, olives, onion and capers, served with rice and string beans. Outdoor seating available. No reservations. Lunch and early dinner Tue.-Sat. $$
Juan’s Flying Burrito — 515 Baronne St., (504) 529-5825; 2018 Magazine St., (504) 569-0000; 4724 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-9950; 8140 Oak St., (504) 897-4800; juansflyingburrito.com — The Flying Burrito includes steak, shrimp, chicken, cheddar jack cheese, black beans, rice, guacamole and salsa. The menu also includes tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, fajitas, nachos, salads, rice and bean bowls with various toppings and more. Outdoor seating available. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Thu.-Tue. $$
Katie’s Restaurant — 3701 Iberville St., (504) 488-6582; katiesinmidcity.com — The Cajun Cuban with roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard. The eclectic menu also includes char-grilled oysters, sandwiches, burgers, pizza, fried seafood platters, pasta, salads and more. Delivery available. Reservations accepted for large parties. Lunch and dinner daily. $$
Kilroy’s Bar — Higgins Hotel, 480 Andrew Higgins Blvd., (504) 528-1941; higginshotelnola.com/dining — The all-day bar menu
includes sandwiches, soups, salads, flatbreads and a couple entrees. A muffuletta flatbread is topped with salami, mortadella, capicola, mozzarella and olive salad. No reservations. Lunch Fri.-Mon., dinner daily. $$ Legacy Kitchen’s Craft Tavern — 700 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 613-2350; legacykitchen.com — The menu includes oysters, flatbreads, burgers, sandwiches, salads and sharable plates like NOLA Tot Debris. A slow-cooked pulled pork barbecue sandwich is served with coleslaw on a brioche bun. Reservations accepted. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$
Legacy Kitchen Steak & Chop — 91 Westbank Expressway, Gretna, (504) 5132606; legacykitchen.com — The selection of steak and chops includes filet mignon, bone-in rib-eye, top sirloin and double pork chops and a la carte toppings include bernaise, blue cheese and sauteed crabmeat. There also are burgers, salads, pasta, seafood entrees, char-broiled oysters and more. Reservations accepted. Outdoor seating available. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. $$
Mikimoto — 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 488-1881; mikimotosushi.com — The menu of Japanese cuisine includes sushi, signature rolls, tempura items, udon noodle dishes, teriyaki, salads and more.The South Carrollton roll includes tuna tataki, avocado, snow crab, green onion and wasabi roe. Reservations accepted. Delivery available. Lunch Sun.-Fri., dinner daily. $$
Mosca’s — 4137 Highway 90 West, Westwego, (504) 436-8950; moscasrestaurant.com — This family-style eatery serves Italian dishes and specialties including shrimp Mosca, baked oysters Mosca and spaghetti Bordelaise and chicken cacciatore. Chicken a la grands is sauteed with garlic, rosemary, Italian herbs and white wine. Reservations accepted. Dinner Wed.-Sat. Cash only. $$$
Mother’s Restaurant — 401 Poydras St., (504) 523-9656; mothersrestaurant.net — This counter-service spot serves po-boys dressed with sliced cabbage like the Famous Ferdi filled with ham, roast beef and debris. Creole favorites include jambalaya, crawfish etouffee, red beans and rice and more. Breakfast is available all day. Delivery available. No reservations. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$
Neyow’s Creole Cafe — 3332 Bienville St., (504) 827-5474; neyows.com — The menu includes red beans and rice with fried chicken or pork chops, as well as shrimp Creole, seafood platters, po-boys, chargrilled and raw oysters, salads and more. Side items include carrot souffle, mac and cheese, cornbread dressing, sweet potato tots and more. No reservations. Lunch daily, dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$
Nice Guys Bar & Grill — 7910 Earhart Blvd., (504) 302-2404; niceguysbarandgrillnola. com — Char-grilled oysters are topped with cheese and garlic butter, and other options include oysters Rockefeller and loaded oysters. The creative menu also includes seafood bread, a Cajun-lobster potato, wings, quesadillas, burgers, salads, sandwiches, seafood pasta, loaded fries and more. No reservations. Lunch daily, dinner Mon.-Sat. $$$
Orleans Grapevine Wine Bar & Bistro — 720 Orleans Ave., (504) 523-1930; orleansgrapevine.com — The wine bar offers
cheese boards and appetizers to nosh with wines. The menu includes Creole pasta with shrimp and andouille in tomato cream sauce. Reservations accepted for large parties. Outdoor seating available. Dinner Thu.-Sun. $$
Parish Grill — 4650 W. Esplanade Ave., Suite 100, Metairie, (504) 345-2878; parishgrill. com — The menu includes a variety of burgers, sandwiches, wraps, pizza and salads. For an appetizer, sauteed andouille is served with fig preserves, blue cheese and toast points. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. $$
Peacock Room — Kimpton Hotel Fontenot, 501 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 324-3073; peacockroomnola.com — At brunch, braised short rib grillades are served over grits with mushrooms, a poached egg and shaved truffle. The dinner menu has oysters, salads, pasta, shrimp and grits, a burger, cheese plates and more. Reservations accepted. Dinner Wed.-Mon., brunch Sun. $$
Rosie’s on the Roof — Higgins Hotel, 480 Andrew Higgins Blvd., (504) 528-1941; higginshotelnola.com/dining — The rooftop bar has a menu of sandwiches, burgers and small plates. Crab beignets are made with Gulf crabmeat and mascarpone and served with herb aioli. No reservations. Dinner Mon.-Sat. $$
Tableau — 616 St. Peter St., (504) 9343463; tableaufrenchquarter.com — The menu features traditional and creative Creole dishes. Pasta bouillabaisse features squid ink mafaldine, littleneck clams, Gulf shrimp, squid, seafood broth, rouille and herbed breadcrumbs. Outdoor seating available on the balcony. Reservations recommended. Dinner Wed.-Sun., brunch Thu.-Sun. $$$
Tacklebox — 817 Common St., (504) 827-1651; legacykitchen.com — The menu includes raw and char-broiled oysters, seafood platters, po-boys, fried chicken, crab and corn bisque and more. Redfish St. Charles is served with garlic-herb butter, asparagus, mushrooms and crawfish cornbread. Reservations accepted. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$
Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 1212 S. Clearview Parkway, Elmwood, (504) 733-3803; 2125 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 510-4282; 4024 Canal St., (504) 302-1133; 4218 Magazine St., (504) 894-8554; 70488 Highway 21, Covington, (985) 234-9420; theospizza.com — A Marilynn Pota Supreme pie is topped with mozzarella, pepperoni, sausage, hamburger, mushrooms, bell peppers and onions. There also are salads, sandwiches, wings, breadsticks and more. Delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily. $ The Vintage — 3121 Magazine St., (504) 324-7144; thevintagenola.com — There’s a full coffee drinks menu and baked goods and beignets, as well as a full bar. The menu has flatbreads, cheese boards, small plates and a pressed veggie sandwich with avocado, onions, arugula, red pepper and pepper jack cheese. No reservations. Delivery and outdoor seating available. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$
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Working Up Above My Head.” At 9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11, at Chickie Wah Wah. Tickets $39.29 via chickiewahwah.com.
Merry Songwriter Revue
Americana singer-songwriter Kelcy Mae (who performs as Ever More Nest) every couple of years gets some songwriter pals together for a holiday night of original music, seasonal favorites and stories. This year, Ever More Nest will be joined by Gregg Hill, Lilli Lewis, Dusky Waters, Paul Faith and more for the 6th Biennial Merry Songwriter Revue at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, at BJ’s Lounge. Admission is $15 at the door. Find info on Instagram: @evermorenest.
‘A Christmas Carol’
In recent years, Crescent City Stage has staged Patrick Barlow’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Known for a comedy adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps,” Barlow took Dickens’ sprawling tale and slimmed it down to a fast and fun work for five actors. The company presents a staged reading of Barlow’s “Christmas Carol” as a benefit for the theater. The event includes small bites and a cash bar. At 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11, at The Josephine. Find information at crescentcitystage.com.
Handel’s ‘Messiah’
New Orleans Symphony Chorus presents the holiday classic with performances at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, at St. Dominic Catholic Church in Lakeview and at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14, at St. Mary’s Assumption Catholic Church in the Lower Garden District. Visit symphonychorus.com for information.
A Night of Fringe
A fundraising event to launch a New Orleans fringe festival features music by the Cicadas and Johanna Rose and the Dreamboats, dance, clowns, poetry, storytelling, art installations, psychic readings, food and more. There’s a family-friendly set of performances as well. At 6-10 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12, at New Marigny Theater. Admission is sliding scale. Find information, visit @fringefestneworleans on Instagram.
‘Back to the Future: The Musical’
In the musical adaptation of the popular movie, Marty McFly travels back in time with the help of scientist Doc Brown and his converted DeLorean. McFly meets his parents and changes
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
history. The musical includes original songs and popular tunes like “Johnny B. Goode” and “The Power of Love.” The touring Broadway production comes to Saenger Theatre Dec. 9-14. Showtimes vary. Find tickets via saengernola.com.
Christmastime in New Orleans with The Big Easy Boys
The Big Easy Boys celebrate New Orleans R&B and popular tunes of the ’50s and ’60s. The group harmonizes with popular holiday tunes at Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts. There are shows at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 11, Sunday, Dec. 14, and Friday, Dec. 19, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 21. Tickets start at $52.19 via rivertowntheaters.com.
‘The Muppet
Christmas Carol Live’
The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra provides a live score to the Muppet holiday movie, in which Kermit the Frog plays Bob Cratchit, Michael Caine is Ebeneezer Scrooge and Fozzie Bear runs a rubber chicken factory. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec, 12, at the Mahalia Jackson Theater. Tickets start at $41.48 via mahaliajacksontheater.com.
The Velvet Sessions
Sommelier Mahlik Rich and events producer Devin Montrel earlier this year launched The Velvet Sessions, a monthly series combining a curated wine and cocktail program with live R&B jam sessions. The next Velvet Session takes place Friday, Dec. 12, at the Dew Drop Inn and will feature DJ FTK with members of the band Gumbo Funk performing. A cocktail hour starts at 8 p.m., and the music begins at 9 p.m. Tickets are $27.04, and there are VIP options. Find more information at thevelvetsessions.club.
Light It Up
The Andre Cailloux Center for Performing Arts and Culture Justice hosts a holiday gathering and fundraiser on Wednesday, Dec. 10, with lights, music and cocktails. There is a free portion starting at 6 p.m. outside on Bayou Road with lights and projections on the building. The party then moves indoors at 6:30 p.m. for choral performances by St. Mary’s Academy students, dishes by Loretta’s Pralines, a holiday raffle and cocktails by Justini’s. Admission to the indoor portion is $25 suggested donation. Find more information at accneworleans.com.
SCHOOL REGISTRATION
MUSIC
FO
To learn more about adding your event to the music calendar, please email listingsedit@gambitweekly.com
— New Orleans Concert Band 50th Annual Holiday Concert, 1 pm
MUSIC
King from the East
by Jake Clapp
AS THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW TELLS IT, a group of wise men, the magi, saw a star heralding the birth of Christ and set out to find the newborn child. The Nativity story has grown over the last 2,000 years, and now the Three Wise Men, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, are well-known figures around Christmastime. They also hold special significance in New Orleans as Carnival season kicks off on Jan. 6, also known as King’s Day.
Today, those Three Kings have names: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, who tradition often depicts as a man with dark skin. And in composer Margaret Bonds’ “The Ballad of the Brown King,” Balthasar and his African heritage are highlighted during his journey to find the baby Jesus.
OperaCreole, which focuses on classical music composed by people of color, will host a performance of “The Ballad of the Brown King” on Saturday, Dec. 13, with a visit from King Balthasar for the kids in the crowd.
“My thought about it was he was following the star but then looked over and saw a constellation that looked like a king cake and got curious,” OperaCreole founder Givonna Joseph says with a laugh.
Following the performance, which runs about 30 minutes, the familyfriendly event at The New Marigny Theater will include a children’s tea party, with food by Messina’s, and more music by Plessy Strings, a group made up of students at Homer Plessy Community School. Journalist and longtime WDSU anchor Norman Robinson will play King Balthasar during the tea party.
The event also is a fundraiser for OperaCreole’s educational programs. Bonds, a ground-breaking Black American composer and pianist, composed “The Ballad of the Brown King” in the early ’50s and turned to her frequent collaborator Langston Hughes, the poet and playwright, to write the lyrics.
The cantata tells the Nativity story but centers King Balthasar as he and his fellow Wise Men follow the star toward mother and child. There also are songs
that ask who the “Brown King” was and where he may have come from.
“The Ballad of the Brown King” premiered in 1954, and Bonds and Hughes later expanded it for a televised event in 1960.
It’s “very beautiful, very lush,” Joseph says. “Sometimes it has some jazzy elements in the rhythmic aspects, and sometimes it’s serious and lyrical and other times it’s fast and fun.”
OperaCreole’s performance will include soloists William Alber, Sakinah Davis, Valencia Pleasant, Taylor White and more. There also is a chorus made up of 10 vocalists. Steven Edwards will conduct, and pianist Anna Briscoe is a featured performer.
The Dec. 13 event was the brainchild of Joseph’s daughter and OperaCreole co-founder Aria Mason, Joseph says.
“She’s always loved the piece, and she has always wanted to do something with children for Christmas,” Joseph adds. “In particular, she wanted to do something that would speak to AfricanAmerican kids.”
Joseph says she hopes the show teaches children about discovering their purpose.
“One of the things I like as a message to young kids is: You too were born to be someone special. You have a reason for being here in this world. You have to find why you were born, and there’s something special that you also have come here to do,” she says.
“The Ballad of the Brown King” starts at 2 p.m. Tickets are $75 for adults and $35 for kids. Find more information at operacreole.org.
Large figurines used in a Nativity scene, including King Balthasar, one of the Three Wise Men
PHOTO BY TRAVIS SPRADLING / THE ADVOCATE
IN THE NEW YEAR BRING Brunch
Return of the king
by Will Coviello
THE NAPOLEON HOUSE IN THE FRENCH QUARTER gets its name for a plan to offer the building as a residence to Napoleon Bonaparte if he could escape exile in Saint Helena. But Napoleon never arrived.
That grand and unrealized fantasy is the launching point of another homecoming. Writer, bon vivant and former New Orleanian Andrei Codrescu has written a surreal operetta about a handful of New Orleanians awaiting Napoleon’s arrival. He’ll also play a leading role in “Carnival of Time,” a collaboration between writers, actors, musicians, photographers and artists in a single performance at the Marigny Opera House at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 10.
“It’s a fun community project, and Andrei is the circus master of it all,” says Constance Lewis, who is directing the show and is the chairperson of Art Span NOLA, which is presenting it.
Codrescu is well-known for his NPR commentary and profiled in the documentary “Road Scholar.” He taught at LSU and lived in New Orleans, where he was the monarch of Krewe du Vieux in 2002. He currently lives in Brooklyn, but he wanted to return to New Orleans, and “Carnival of Time” is a collaboration that connects artists and reconnects some who’ve worked together over the past two decades.
In the show, Codrescu plays Baron von Reizenstein, a Bavarian immigrant who lived an exotic life. Born into a wealthy, land-holding family in Germany, he struck out for Louisiana. Things did not go well financially at first, and he traveled around the states before returning to New Orleans and writing for a German language newspaper in the 1840s and 1850s. He penned a serialized saga, later collected as “The Mysteries of New Orleans,” a salacious fiction involving a Black Messiah and lesbian romance, and he was not afraid to parody influential local figures.
In “Carnival of Time,” Baron von Reizenstein is similarly down on his luck but quite spirited. He’s tasked with looking out for Napoleon’s arrival, which leaves him plenty of time for other pursuits.
In the piece’s time-traveling scheme, Reizenstein socializes with the renowned photographer Clarence John Laughlin. Though best known for his ghostly images of abandoned plantations, Laughlin here is working on different types of images with his model Rosie, played by Diana Shortez. Ryan Hayes plays Laughlin, and Andrei’s son Tristan Codrescu also
returns to New Orleans to play Pierrot, essentially a narrator.
The operetta is live scored by the Atlanta band W8ing4UFOs. The story also is told through light and photo projections by painter Monica Rose Kelly, who is using AI to augment archival photos of New Orleans and other images. The visuals also incorporate surreal images by art photographer Josephine Sacabo.
“Carnival of Time” is being presented by Art Span NOLA. The group formed three years ago to generate artist connections and opportunities highlighting New Orleans after the pandemic shutdowns. Exchanges have brought artists to New Orleans and local artists elsewhere.
Lewis is an independent photography curator who’s lived in New Orleans for a decade. She met Codrescu while studying at the San Francisco Art Institute. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he connected some local artists to Lewis’ photo gallery in Atlanta, and she hosted Courtney Egan and Michel Varisco.
Some of the musicians in W8ing4UFOs left New Orleans for Atlanta after Hurricane Katrina and ended up staying there. Art Span brought the band to New Orleans in the spring to live score the silent film “The Passion of Joan of Arc.”
On this trip, the band also will perform on Thursday, Dec. 11, at the Broad Theater after the screening of “Benjamin Smoke,” a documentary about Atlanta drag performer Opal Foxx. They’ll also perform at St. Roch Tavern and do a drop-in show at Euclid Records on Saturday, Dec. 13.
For information about “Carnival of Time,” visit marignyoperahouse.org or artspannola.org. Suggested donation $25.
Andrei Codrescu wrote and performs in ‘Carnival of Time.’ PROVIDED PHOTO BY MICHAEL A MOSS
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PREMIER CROSSWORD PUZZLE
INITIAL EVALUATION
By Frank A. Longo
Michael Styles (504)
31 In the thick of
Mil. downtime
God of love
Noisy clamor
Original
“-- Lot” (Stephen King novel)
Southwest art mecca
Aykroyd of “Yogi Bear” 38 Base for a banana split
Besides
City in Texas
“Will you let me?” 46 Wallet stuff 47 They grow when waists expand
48 1966 Michael Caine film 49 Tongue-lash
50 Singer Judd 51 Chose (to)
53 Leer at
Vaccine developer Salk
55 Bit of resistance
56 Russian news source
57 “Am not!” comeback
58 1980s-’90s legal drama
59 Chino, serge or denim
60 Carpenters’ curved tools
62 Do a juice cleanse, say
63 He starred in “Sommersby”
65 “Washboard” muscles
69 Texted “ta-ta”
70 Not fooled by
75 Fasten again, as a brooch
77 Sierra --
78 “Psst” relative
80 Rds.
81 Rings for infants to bite on
82 Victoria’s Secret stock
83 Voting “nay”
84 -- News (Utah paper)
85 Old stage star Hagen
86 Writer Capote, to pals
87 Ill-fated Ford
88 Peaks
89 Person named in a directory
90 Gas rating
91 Yarn coils
92 Cents-off voucher
93 Enthusiastic
96 “-- were the days”
97 Protest props
101 Ginger --
102 “-- boy!”
103 Blind guess
105 “No more seats” abbr.
107 Negative conjunction
108 Nest egg for srs.
109 Have lunch or dinner
110 Booming jet of old, in brief
One routine visit. Alifetime saved.
Your primary care provider does more than check yourblood pressure.
For NewOrleans jazz pianist Rickie, an annual visit with his primary care provider uncovered asilent threat—dangerousheart blockages withno symptoms. Rickie’s PCP recommended acalcium score test that revealed the danger. Thanks to earlydetection andthe expertteam at Ochsner Health, Rickie is back to playing the music he loves.
Routine primary care visits help detect issues early and support long-term well-being. Scheduleyourannual appointmenttoday at ochsner.org/primarycare.
