WITH THE ALBUM TITLE “THE LAST BALLOON,” Tank and the Bangas were bound to get some questions about the future. And Tarriona “Tank” Ball, the Grammy-winning New Orleans band’s dynamic vocalist, pretty quickly posted a reel to Instagram after the album announcement in March to explain.
“The Last Balloon” isn’t the end of Tank and the Bangas, she said. It’s just the appropriate cap to an informal trilogy that started with 2019’s “Green Balloon” and grew with “Red Balloon” in 2022.
Ball liked the idea of threes — and didn’t want to get stuck in a pattern that would have resulted in “Blue Balloon,” “Magenta Balloon” and every other color imaginable. And for a project that was built around poetry and meaning, there’s freedom in breaking away from expectations.
Ball also explains her reasoning during an interlude on the vibrant “Last Balloon,” and adds that she’s done floating away. She’s ready to stay still.
“We definitely have been floating around,” Ball recently told Gambit, “especially in our childlike nature and the ups and downs that bands go through. And to sit still with a group of people and yourself is a big thing. To just settle in with who you are and not always trying to define who you are by what people think you are or what you’re supposed to sound like based on how you look.”
It’s “just being more grounded in who we are and whatever we want to do and with whoever we want to do it with,” she adds.
“The Last Balloon” is out Friday, May 15, through Verve Forecast.
In the few years since the release of “Red Balloon,” Tank and the Bangas have gone through a lineup change: Ball and multi-instrumentalist Norman Spence II anchor the band and are joined live by drummer Deven Trusclair, bassist Kenaniah Turner, keys player Rob Kellner and saxophonist Etienne Stoufflet.
They also last year won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album for “The Heart, The Mind, The Soul” — a full-circle moment for a project that came together in the early 2010s at the Blackstar Cafe’s Liberation Lounge open mic.
Growth and change are steady topics on “The Last Balloon,” which also finds the band expanding its already genre-malleable sound. With
by Jake Clapp |
their 2013 first album “Think Tank” and then “Green Balloon” — which followed the band’s breakout NPR Tiny Desk contest win — Tank and the Bangas established a swirling mix of joy, poetry, grooves, hip-hop, soul and pop. They honed that sound on “Red Balloon.” And now “Last Balloon” continues the band’s evolution.
“I saw ‘Green’ and ‘Red’ interact,” Spence says when asked about connections between the “Balloons.” “We kind of wanted to do a double CD joint, ‘Red’ and ‘Green,’ but it made more sense to do it the way we did. Now the relationship between this album and those two albums, I can’t necessarily connect. But when I look at our first album — I would say start there.”
“They all feel like siblings to me,” Ball adds. “‘Think Tank’ is like the little sister. Then ‘Green’ got a little older. ‘Red’ is a little older and more mature. And ‘Last Balloon’ is like the big sister of all of those.”
Ball and Spence are at the center of “The Last Balloon,” but Tank and the Bangas are also fervent collaborators, and influences from the people they work with find their way into the music. They recorded the new album in Los Angeles with producer Austin Brown, who also produced “Red Balloon,” and there are guest appearances by Afropop singer-songwriter Shirazee, fellow New Orleans-born vocalists Ledisi, Jelly Joseph and Dawn Richard, bounce artist HaSizzle and The Revivalists’ frontman David Shaw.
Grammy-winning R&B vocalist Lucky Daye, also a New Orleans native, guests
on the lush, percussive “Move.” Richard, an electro-pop artist, helps give the affirming “Don’t Count Yourself Out” an ethereal quality. And Akeem Ali, whose Keemy Casanova alter ego digs into ’70s funk and soul, slides in for the late-night jam “Honeycomb.”
“Even sometimes just from a conversation, just from anything in the air, everybody’s kind of presenting their own take on [the song] and getting to feel it differently, and it just develops,” Spence says.
Ball, whose flexible vocals can turn on a dime, explores vulnerability, battles self-doubt and encourages the listener — and herself — toward confidence. The darker, trap-influenced “No Invite” finds Ball feeling angry about industry gatekeepers and not receiving the party invites she feels the band deserves.
But on “Ain’t That Deep,” she pushes away negativity, and with Ledisi on “Whole World,” reminds the listener there are more people in your corner than you may realize. Meanwhile on “Is It Over?,” she uses the hard calculation around staying or leaving home when a hurricane is on the horizon as a metaphor for the tough decision to leave a relationship.
“Your point of view isn’t always showing the whole thing. Got a lot of people clapping for us. Even with ‘No Invite,’ it’s like, create your own party. That’s what we realized,” Ball says.
Tank and the Bangas are spending a lot of this year on tour with “The Last Balloon.” At a hometown show at the Joy Theater in early May, the stage held glowing boxes and squares — a nod to a “Think Tank” track — as well as a few reflective balloons.
As with their past albums, joy and a sense of exploration is an important undercurrent on “The Last Balloon.”
“That’s how you learn. That’s how you grow. That’s how you know you ain’t done yet,” Ball says. “I can’t stand when anyone tells me, ‘I’m a grown ass man,’ ‘I’m a grown ass woman.’ When you’re really growing, you don’t have to say that. A plant wouldn’t say that. A plant is always growing until the day it dies.”
Gabrielle Cavassa
Vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa’s major label debut “Diavola” was released on Blue Note records on May 1, and she did release shows at New York’s renowned Birdland jazz club. After singing on Joshua Redman’s last album, Cavassa recorded “Diavola” with Redman and Don Was as producers. The album has an acoustic feel that highlights her often intimate and emotional vocals on songs of love and loss. Cavassa is back in New Orleans for a show at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 15, at the Jazz and Blues Market. Tickets $29.50 and up via ticketmaster.com.
‘The Book of Mormon’
“South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone drew a lot of attention when they — along with Robert Lopez — launched the Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon.” It follows two young Mormon missionaries to Uganda where they look for converts and encounter all sorts of problems, including a hostile warlord. It won nine Tony Awards and is one of Broadway’s longest running musicals — at least until a fire at the Eugene Theatre forced a temporary closure last week. But local audiences can catch the touring version at Saenger Theatre May 12-17. Showtimes vary. Tickets $39-$169.65 via saengernola.com.
Mac DeMarco
Guitarist and vocalist Mac DeMarco has been an irrepressible indie rock staple since his original project, Makeout Videotape, caught the love of the late 2000s blog era. His latest album, last year’s “Guitar,” was his first non-instrumental album in six years and finds DeMarco looking at how his life is different at 35. He plays the Civic Theatre at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 14. Resale tickets are available via ticketmaster.com.
PROVIDED PHOTO BY ROEG COHEN
Tarriona ‘Tank’ Ball and Norman Spence II PROVIDED PHOTO BY JEREMY TAURIAC
OPENING GAMBIT
NEW ORLEANS NEWS + VIEWS
Get out and enjoy New Orleans’ great outdoors before summer drops its humid blanket on us!
THUMBS UP/ THUMBS DOWN
Mount Olivet Episcopal Church recently put Jesus’ lessons to practice by raising money to help pay off local medical debt. The small congregation in Algiers Point collected around $17,000 and sent the funds to Undue Medical Debt, which used the donation to purchase and clear $1.7 million of debt for nearly 1,500 New Orleans area residents.
THE NUMBER OF MAJORITY WHITE CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS IN LOUISIANA, OUT OF A TOTAL OF SIX.
Gov. Jeff Landry’s rush to suspend the primaries for Louisiana’s six U.S. House races has caused confusion in the election cycle. More than 42,000 absentee ballots have already been received by the Secretary of State, the Louisiana Illuminator reported, and there are at least four separate legal challenges to Landry’s order. Landry suspended those primary elections following the U.S. Supreme Court’s shameful decision in Louisiana v. Callais
Michelle Woodfork sworn in as Orleans Parish sherif, pledging integrity and accountability
HUNDREDS OF SUPPORTERS
PACKED GALLIER HALL IN DOWNTOWN NEW ORLEANS MAY 4 for the swearing-in of Orleans Parish Sheriff Michelle Woodfork to an office fraught with challenges.
“Finally, we’re here,” said Woodfork, 56, after a cousin, U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Dana Douglas, led her in the oath of office.
Reciting scripture, those who spoke at Monday’s ceremony described Woodfork’s faith as a key factor heralding a new era at the beleaguered agency.
That figure is likely to increase following the Supreme Court decision in favor of the plaintiffs in Louisiana v. Callais, which challenged the state’s creation of a second majority-Black district. GOP lawmakers, who previously supported the current map, are now scrambling to redraw the maps to suit President Trump’s push for more Republican House seats. Louisiana GOP legislators are looking to eliminate one, if not both, majority Black districts, disenfranchising Black voters. About one third of the state’s population is Black.
C’EST
The Trump regime’s anti-DEI push will mean that Louisiana’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities, like Southern University and Grambling State University, will receive less funding from the state next year. Aligning itself with Trump’s push to suppress diversity, equity and inclusion programs in higher education, the Louisiana Board of Regents removed a metric focused on minority graduates from its complex funding formula. The change means Southern will lose about $1.5 million in funding from the state next year.
Woodfork, a career police officer who served as interim superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department, won election in October to take over a sheriff’s office beset by troubles and short staffing at the city’s 10-year-old lockup, the Orleans Justice Center.
Woodfork enters office as its most recent occupant, Susan Hutson, faces a state indictment handed up last week alleging 30 felony corruption counts.
The charges against Hutson include 14 counts of malfeasance in office, three counts apiece for obstruction of justice and filing or maintaining false public records, along with 10 related conspiracy charges. Bianka Brown, Hutson’s chief financial officer, was indicted with her on 20 counts. Details on those charges remain sketchy.
“If you watch the news, you know that the jail is in a lot of trouble right now,” said Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work and a lot of God’s grace to right this ship. So, she is the perfect person to have this responsibility.”
Williams was among the speakers who referenced Woodfork’s low-key departure from NOPD after a career capped by a stint as interim police chief.
Woodfork had been considered the local favorite for the permanent NOPD chief’s job, having led the department into a period of extended declines in violent crime as the interim chief. She was expected to follow in the footsteps of her uncle, Warren Woodfork, New Orleans’ first Black police chief.
But Mayor LaToya Cantrell had other thoughts, instead endorsing current Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, an outsider, for the chief’s post.
A subsequent federal case against Cantrell and her alleged
How would you improve the New Orleans RTA?
Sheriff Michelle Woodfork, left, and others gathered around her laugh at a joke made by former U.S. Congressman Cedric Richmond who was speaking at the podium during Woodforks’s swearing-in ceremony held at Gallier Hall in New Orleans on May 4.
STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
lover, former NOPD officer Jeffrey Vappie, suggests Woodfork paid a steep price for a decision to uphold discipline against Vappie over his timesheets. Vappie and Cantrell are accused of crimes to conceal an affair, and have pleaded not guilty.
Woodfork stayed on for the transition at NOPD, then went to work for Williams, the district attorney, before running for sheriff. Williams called Monday’s ceremony historic as he thanked Woodfork for taking on the challenge.
“This is the first time in our modern history that we’ve elected a law person to be sheriff of Orleans Parish,” Williams said. “A woman who has dedicated her whole life to protecting and serving, stepping up to take this mantle.”
Cedric Richmond, the former congressman from New Orleans, said Woodfork “is going to be an awesome sheriff.”
In a brief speech afterward, Woodfork addressed both the jail’s staff and its inmates.
To the former, she pledged to “build a culture where you are supported,
respected, and equipped to do your jobs with professionalism, pride and confidence.”
She offered parish prisoners a commitment to “dignity, fairness and respect” in jail.
“You are not forgotten. You are not invisible,” she said. “My commitment is that our facilities will be more than just places of detention. They will be centers for growth, rehabilitation and education.”
Hutson became the first Black female sheriff in New Orleans when she toppled the incumbent, Marlin Gusman, in 2021.
The city’s former independent police monitor, Hutson ran as a progressive. Her tenure proved rocky, beset by numerous scandals, none bigger than the May 16, 2025 jailbreak by 10 inmates that largely scuttled Hutson’s chances for re-election.
A grand jury investigation conducted by Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office into the jailbreak led to the recent indictment against Hutson and Brown.
Woodfork walks into a jail near its capacity that remains under the watch of a federal judge under a
12-year-old consent decree governing conditions inside the lockup. Federal monitors have described backsliding on that agreement in recent reports.
Meanwhile, a controversial wing of the jail known as “Phase III,” an 89-bed mental health annex, is slated to open this year.
Donning the sheriff’s green uniform and six-point star for
the first time, Woodfork didn’t get into particulars before the Gallier Hall crowd on Monday.
“I pledge to serve you with integrity. I pledge to lead you with accountability,” she said. “And I pledge to honor the trust you have placed in me every single day.” — John Simerman / The TimesPicayune
Orleans Parish Sheriff Michelle Woodfork stands next to United States Court of Appeals Judge Dana Douglas as Woodfork gets ready to be sworn in during a ceremony at Gallier Hall in New Orleans on Monday, May 4, 2026.
STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
Jazz Fest at the crossroads
Editor’s note: This is an opinion piece from Gambit Editor John Stanton.
WITH JAZZ FEST 2026 NOW IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR, it seems clear that the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation should begin making some hard decisions about the festival’s future. Jazz Fest is a popular event for a reason – its fun, unique and relatively affordable. But if they aren’t careful, the whole endeavor could eventually collapse under the weight of an increasingly expensive and unpleasant festival going experience.
One place where that conversation needs to start is a basic one: ticketing.
This year, the festival “sold out” one day, on Saturday, May 2. The term “sold out” is used loosely here, given the fact that a decision not to sell any more tickets was made that afternoon, and only after the Fair Grounds had become uncomfortably packed with people.
Crowds at the mainstage have long been a problem for the festival. By the time major headliners, like Lil Wayne last year and the Eagles this year, take the stage, walking paths have become choked with folding chairs, knots of standing festival goers and more than a few people who’ve passed out from a long day of standing in the sun and knocking back adult beverages.
For the disabled in particular this is a huge issue. During Lil Wayne’s set last year, multiple disabled people found themselves essentially stuck in place, unable to navigate through the sea of bodies and chairs — including on designated walkways. It’s also a major problem for emergency medical services. It’s not an uncommon thing to see an EMS team struggling to inch through the crowd with a gurney on their way to attend to someone suffering from heat stroke or another ailment.
So on a basic humanitarian level, some thought should be put into better managing the crowds, including better
controlled walkways and, frankly, limiting ticket sales on days the festival surely knows will be in high demand. But crowding extends well beyond issues of disability rights or safety. Nearly every part of the Fair Grounds was swarming with people on the festival’s second Saturday. Within hours of the gates opening, the Blues and WWOZ Jazz tents had overflow crowds camped out on the blacktop, the audience at the Fais Do-Do stage was threatening to spill into the Native American and Folklife Village spaces, and the Congo Square Stage was swelling to capacity.
Even the food areas were madhouses, with lines for everything from crawfish strudel to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches going 20 people or more deep. And although the PB&J happens to be a personal fest favorite, if you’ve got that many people in line for it, it points towards clear issues with prices and crowds.
Given the ever-increasing cost of tickets, food and drinks, is it really worth it to stand in line for 10 minutes to get a simple sandwich only to be stuck in a thick crowd seemingly miles from the stage?
Jazz Fest is still one of the most affordable bigtime festivals out there. Where organizers of Coachella and other mega festivals are increasingly turning their eye toward the ultrawealthy — or regular people who are ready to blow a year’s worth of savings on a couple of days of live music — Jazz Fest remains relatively affordable. And while the reality is a four-day weekend at the festival is probably not in the cards for the majority of New Orleanians, a day out at the track is still doable. The question Jazz Fest needs to wrestle with is: will that continue?
@ gaetanasnola
Views from a packed crowd near the Festival Stage at Jazz Fest on April 25.
PHOTO BY MADDIE SPINNER / GAMBIT
@GambitBlake | askblake@gambitweekly.com
Hey Blake,
What do you know about the monument in City Park near Ralph’s on the Park? It looks like a war memorial, with the branches of the military and the American Legion mentioned. What’s the story?
Dear reader,
The American Legion led the effort to erect the World War I memorial in City Park, and the monument was dedicated on May 30, 1921, which was observed as Decoration Day or Memorial Day that year. The war, which claimed the lives of some 920 Louisiana men and women, ended three years earlier, on Nov. 11, 1918.
“A grateful and loyal public paid honor to the fallen heroes in the world war on Sunday when their memory was revered in the unveiling of a monument at City Park and the observance of appropriate exercises in their honor,” reported The Times-Picayune.
The unveiling of the monument followed a parade through the streets featuring members of the American Legion, as well as other veterans’ organizations and the Boy and Girl Scouts. It began at the American Legion headquarters at Conti and Royal streets in the French Quarter and processed down Canal Street before making its way to City Park.
Parade participants “were grouped around the memorial when its draping fell away as a company of Marines from the Algiers barracks fired a salute,” according to the Picayune’s coverage.
BLAKE VIEW
News reports in the days leading up to the ceremony indicated that World War I hero Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, would deliver an address at the ceremony, but that apparently did not happen.
The four sides of the monument feature the emblems of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. One side of the monument’s base says it is “in memory of our comrades who made the supreme sacrifice.” On the other side is inscribed a line from “In Flanders Fields,” the well-known war memorial poem written by Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae: “To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high.” The monument is shaped like a lantern “to carry out the idea of the dead holding on high the torch,” reported the Picayune.
THIS WEEK WE REMEMBER ONE OF NEW ORLEANS’ LOST RESTAURANTS, T. Pittari’s, best known for its unusual wild game and lobster dishes.
Anthony Pittari opened the restaurant in 1895 at the corner of Washington Avenue and Magazine Street. It moved to 4200 S. Claiborne Ave. in 1948, taking up nearly the whole block and illuminated by a giant neon sign.
Pittari’s nephew, Thomas Pittari Sr., eventually took over the restaurant, running it with his wife and son, Tom Jr.
While the restaurant’s menu was extensive, offering French, Italian and seafood dishes, the wild game is what drew the most attention. “The epicurean may order steaks from tiger, elephant, hippopotamus, buffalo, bear, elk, moose and venison,” explained an ad in a 1960s tourist guide. A full-page ad promoted the restaurant as a place “where the food is different,” promising “the city’s most interesting food in the country’s most interesting city.”
Maine lobster was another specialty, with the restaurant selling some 2,000 lobsters a month in its heyday. According to Tom Fitzmorris and Peggy Scott
Laborde’s book “Lost Restaurants of New Orleans,” a signature dish was Lobster Kadobster, a baked lobster dish featuring a stuffing of Louisiana crabmeat, king crabmeat, shrimp, lobster, oysters and redfish.
The restaurant closed in 1980.
World War I monument at City Park
GAMBIT FILE PHOTO
Starring Cristina Perez Edmunds ith Script b Denise ltobello
he Lady in
utti Frutti Hat
PROFIT
MARGINS
Privatized healthcare was supposed to save the lives of the incarcerated. Critics say it may be killing them.
BY DANNY CHERRY
WHEN EXPOSED TO JUST ABOVE 90 DEGREES, the human body experiences stress. The body’s airways tighten as the air quality diminishes and becomes heavier. The high temperatures can make it hard to breathe — dehydration can set in — with prolonged exposure potentially leading to heat exhaustion within 10 to 15 minutes.
In June 2024, Michael Broadway, who was incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois, was left gasping for breath for just under an hour, Bolts Magazine reported. He was in his cell, where the windows were nailed shut, and there was no air-conditioning. Incarcerated men in neighboring cells estimated temperatures reached between 115-120 degrees.
According to court documents, when the facility’s medical staff arrived, they didn’t bring an emergency bag with an AED or Ambu Bag, devices that are meant for those in cardiac arrest and struggling to breathe, respectively. There was a stretcher, but there were no handles.
A nurse, according to an affidavit, stated, “It’s too hot. I’m not going up there. Tell him to come down here.”
When the nurse did get there, she administered him with Narcan, a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, twice.
The nurses allegedly didn’t immediately call in a Code 3, which alerts all correctional and medical staff to a medical emergency. By the time Broadway was transported to the hospital, he was dead, his widow Chunece Jones-Broadway
alleges in a lawsuit she brought against the state of Illinois in March.
The lawsuit is one of hundreds involving Wexford Health Sources, which provides medical care in prisons and jails across that country and which took over control of healthcare in Orleans Justice Center, the Orleans Parish jail, in June 2024.
Billed as a way for governments to save money and improve care for incarcerated people, critics say the privatization of these services has made healthcare about profit — not making people healthier.
The industry is “entirely profit-driven,” says Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, a nonprofit aimed at “exposing the commercialization of the criminal legal system.”
Over the past half-century, healthcare for incarcerated people has become a big business. While governments promised lower costs and better care, advocates for the rights of the incarcerated say the reality on the ground is much more troubling. For instance, a 2020 review by Reuters found there are higher rates of death in correctional facilities that have private healthcare providers instead of government-provided healthcare, ranging from 18% to 58% more.
The private prison healthcare industry came into fruition in the 1980s and ‘90s after a 1976 Supreme Court ruling in Estelle v. Gamble made it easier for the incarcerated to sue correctional facilities for poor healthcare, or lack thereof.
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, by the 1990s, almost every
The Orleans Justice Center
PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER / THE TIMES - PICAYUNE
state prison system and hundreds of jails were under court-ordered injunctions and consent decrees. That’s around when many prisons and jails started outsourcing their healthcare.
That decision came at a time when privatization of public sector services was coming into vogue with Republicans and Democrats alike, and many governments quickly began turning to private healthcare companies.
Treat Yourself
Education and Defense Fund report, meanwhile, alleged the company paid bonuses to doctors anytime they averted an ER visit.
“The way that they make profit is by not providing much of a service,” Reilly argues.
As of 2024, more than 60% of jails were using third-party contractors, according to a paper by the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund. According to Reuters, small to midsized counties/parishes, who are often cash-strapped, are the most likely to use their services. As of 2022, the industry is worth $9.3 billion.
Bruce Reilly of VOTE, a Louisiana advocacy group run by formerly incarcerated people, says that one of the main reasons jails and prisons continue to use third-party contractors boils down to diminishing their own liability.
“When it comes to things going wrong, then the company becomes liable,” says Reilly.
These contracts can be lucrative. According to the contract between Wexford and the city obtained by Gambit, the city is paying Wexford $22.9 million for the first year, and $23.5 million for the second year.
Wexford did not respond to questions about their profits in 2025.
Working on contract also means that companies have a built-in incentive to keep costs down, and if that ends up in substandard care “it’s the [inmates] who suffer,” Reilly says.
In practice, critics argue, this can end up making cost savings and profits the primary goal for companies.
Oregon Live reported in 2018 that another industry giant, Corizon (now YesCare), incentivized their doctors to avoid sending patients to the emergency room. The Disability Rights
Outside of the profit motive, critics point to a number of other issues with the industry. For instance, there are no enforceable uniform industry standards, and accreditation in the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare is voluntary.
As private entities, they also are not bound by the Freedom of Information Act, lowering government oversight and public accountability.
Tylek and other critics also point out it’s not uncommon to have situations in which a jail or prison switches contractors because of problems with care, and then the new contractors will rehire many of the doctors, nurses and administrators who worked for the previous company.
For instance, when Wexford took over healthcare at the Orleans Justice Center in June 2024, they retained some employees from Wellpath, according to the Times-Picayune.
While on the one hand retaining staff can make sense since they are already familiar with the facility and any longterm patients, Tylek argues it can lead to situations in which potential bad actors end up remaining on the job.
Between 2018 and 2025, Wellpath has faced 1,500 lawsuits. They entered into bankruptcy in 2024 with $644 million in debt, and exited in 2025, paying out $15.5 million to vendors and some incarcerated people who’d sued the company over the quality of their care.
In 2014, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office contracted with Correct Care Solutions (now Wellpath after a merger) to be their healthcare provider for the city jail. This came on the heels
Deidre Craige
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER / THE TIMES - PICAYUNE
of a consent decree — a legally binding court order mutually agreed to by both parties that settles a lawsuit — in 2013 after years of conditions that the Department of Justice found to be unconstitutional. Court documents and plaintiffs in a legal complaint alleged years of beatings and assaults, mental illness left untreated for months, suicides and rapes.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana Judge Lance Africk noted that individuals with mental illnesses were incarcerated in cells with feces smeared walls.
The partnership with Wellpath was supposed to be one of the remedies to the poor healthcare conditions of the facility. Wellpath is an industry giant that is in about 37 states and servicing about 550 facilities.
But the accusations of subpar care have continued. According to the Lens, Wellpath was named in several wrongful death suits filed over deaths in custody at the OJC.
When Deidre Craige’s father, Ronald, was arrested in 2020, she says, he was a “perfectly healthy” man in his
mid-60s — except for his diabetes. He was a painter and carpenter.
Several years later when she arrived at the Orleans Parish Jail to pick him up, Craige says she was greeted by a man in a wheelchair who needed to wear a diaper and smelled of feces.
Craige’s father faced several issues while in jail. Wellpath was providing health care at the time.
According to his daughter, whenever they spoke on the phone Craige would complain about having stomach issues and said that while he was supposed to be “on a list” to receive an ultrasound. That never happened.
The Times-Picayune also reported that Ronald Craige threw up into a trash can and was too ill to even attend the first half of his trial.
According to the Lens, in August 2022 he took part in a multi-day protest on his housing unit at OJC. When the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections entered the unit to retake the floor, he was allegedly handcuffed, then kicked in the face. Craige alleged that he also
didn’t receive his insulin for three days, a claim that OPSO has refuted.
According to Deidre Craige, a few months later in November 2022, her father suffered a brain aneurysm and laid unresponsive on the floor in the cell, vomiting blood while other incarcerated men beat on the walls and screamed to get help. She alleges the guards initially thought Ronald was faking, and 30 minutes later, he was finally retrieved in order to get aid.
In subsequent emails Deidre Craige sent to the sheriff’s department and then-Mayor LaToya Cantrell, she said that when her father finally arrived at University Medical Center, he had a blood pressure of 140/120 and dangerously high sugar levels of 315. He was admitted and rushed into emergency brain surgery, she said.
Craige says she was never officially notified about her father’s condition, alleging that instead multiple incarcerated men ended up calling her.
“The jail never called me,” she says.
According to the emails Deidre Craige sent, her father was released
on Nov. 16, 2022, but less than 24 hours later, he was sent back to the hospital.
After he was released, her dad was diagnosed with chronic kidney failure, Deidre Craige says.
Her father’s condition had deteriorated in the jail to such a point that the judge lowered his bond so that he could be released, she says, and he is now on dialysis.
Eddie Bolton, who was released from OJC earlier this year, says he felt there were a couple of healthcare employees who showed they cared about the wellbeing of incarcerated people.
But overall, “as a group they don’t really care about you,” he says.
Natalie Henderson worked as a nurse for Wellpath until 2018, when they were still Correct Care Solutions, and has since become a whistleblower. She told Gambit the company’s care was “terrible.”
In her time there, she says she witnessed instances of ignored sick-calls and delayed treatment, including one she says led to the death of an incarcerated man in 2017.
Inmates at OJC held a multiday protest over conditions at the jail
PHOTO BY SCOTT THRELKELD / THE TIMES - PICAYUNE
DOOR TO DOOR DECOR
PROFIT MARGINS
As the Times-Picayune reported, Henderson noticed the man had a heart rate of 200 beats per minute and blood pressure at “stroke levels” and was showing signs of gastrointestinal bleeding. She says she told her supervisor to take him to the hospital, but he wasn’t brought to the emergency room and ended up dying on the floor of the jail’s medical clinic.
“They kept him there when I insisted that he needed to be seen out in the ER.” Henderson says, adding, “he was only in jail for two days.”
Henderson says sometimes supervisors don’t want to send patients to the emergency room because it’s expensive.
“A lot of those companies … they fire you, they get mad, the supervisors get mad, they don’t want you to send patients out because they want the money, so they can put it in their pockets,” she says. “But the patients suffer.”
In the aftermath of Edwards’ death, Henderson ran into another issue while working as a nurse in the jail. Some of the detainees got ahold of pictures of her in a bikini, and she experienced sexual harassment, which she reported to deputies and supervisors, she alleges. She says she was told by deputies that she “shouldn’t be so fine.”
will not provide additional comment on personnel or human resources matters,” the company told Gambit in an email.
However, according to transcripts obtained by Gambit, Judge Africk chastised Doug Mote, corporate director of jail operations, for not alerting OPSO, federal consent decree monitors or the court to the fact that Wexford had launched an investigation into Blake and of not having a plan in place for replacing her, calling their lack of communication a “danger to the inmates.”
Henderson was later terminated by Wellpath.
“They didn’t protect the nurses,” she says. “The deputies didn’t give a damn.”
Henderson sued Wellpath in 2018 as well as then-Sheriff Martin Gusman for retaliation and sexual harassment.
When Wellpath’s contract with the city was under consideration in 2022, community members showed up to speak out against them. The committee instead eventually landed on Pittsburgh-headquartered Wexford, in partnership with Tulane and LSU.
Reilly of VOTE says he and others felt the contract should have gone to a local company. “We’re sending profits to shareholders at the expense of having actual health care providers,” he said.
Critics, including Reilly, point to a number of incidents involving Wexford at the OJC that they say validate their warnings.
For instance, in 2024 a woman with fraudulent credentials allegedly worked for Wexford at OJC for almost a year, administering drugs to the incarcerated. In March 2026, meanwhile, the Times-Picayune reported that the medical director, Andrea Blake, was abruptly fired without the sheriff’s office being notified first.
Wexford, however, denied this claim in a statement. “We provided designated OPSO staff with what we consider appropriate notice. We
The judge added that their actions indicated a “lack of thought and ineptitude on behalf of Wexford.”
According to the latest consent decree compliance report, filed September 2025, Wexford and OJC still have some “challenges” in the provision of “basic care, staffing, and recordkeeping.”
The report also raised concerns with the amount, and potentially quality, of psychiatric care being provided, warning it has declined with the “new contractor.” According to independent monitors, medications meant to be passed out at 8 p.m. were “routinely” passed out two hours late. In one instance, a patient requiring buprenorphine — a drug used to treat opioid use disorder — allegedly nearly took a dose meant for another patient, after the nurse passed it out incorrectly.
The report also alleges an immunocompromised patient with a transplanted kidney who had chills and abnormal labs was not assessed for 24 days in 2025. It was later found that his kidney was infected.
A 64-year-old man had test results taken on Feb. 26, 2025, that showed severe liver abnormalities, suggesting an emergency condition. But his results were not reviewed for 19 days, according to the report. On May 17, he was sent to the emergency department with life-threatening conditions.
Judge Lance Avril FILE PHOTO
MARGINS
The report also notes that OJC’s grievances backlogs had “significantly” increased in April 2025 to a number that raised “serious concerns.”
Members of the selection committee could not be reached for comment on the determining factors that led to choosing Wexford, and it is unclear whether they took into account other jurisdictions’ dealings with the company before landing on them.
For instance, Wexford Health Sources has faced nearly 100 lawsuits in a four-year period in just New Mexico alone, and a number of have ended up cancelling their contracts with the company. In the late 1990s, the DOJ found their healthcare unconstitutional; and in 2007, a New Mexico lawmaker compared the treatment Wexford provided to “torture.”
Meanwhile, in Illinois, where the company has been the sole provider of healthcare for the state’s incarcerated population, it has faced a host of allegations of substandard care.
According to the Americans Civil Liberties Union, media reports and
court documents, those allegations have included inducing labor in an incarcerated woman against her consent; an employee performing a botched, unauthorized surgery; medication mismanagement that left someone physically and mentally disabled after a brain aneurysm; and untreated diabetes that led to an amputation.
And in 2019, Chicago Public Radio published a story on the alleged “one good eye” policy in which the company was accused of not repairing eye damage if the patient still had “one good eye.” Wexford did not respond to multiple questions regarding this story.
Between 2011 and 2020, Wexford paid out $20 million dollars in 206 confidential lawsuits in Illinois alone.
In various court cases, the doctors listed in the lawsuits initially with Wexford often have their charges dismissed before a settlement is reached.
Sarah Grady, a lawyer from Chicago and advocate for the incarcerated, says this happens regularly.
“It’s certainly a common thing I’ve seen and certainly raises questions
about whether the intent is to avoid the need to report settlements for [medical] licensing purposes,” she says.
Filing for bankruptcy is another legal strategy companies use, known as the “Texas two-step.” It allows companies to only take partial accountability for their actions, oftentimes lowering or stalling payout to claimants.
One example is Corizon Health, who became YesCare. After years of mounting lawsuits across 27 states, in 2022, Corizon split into two companies, with its assets transferred to YesCare and its liabilities shifted to a shell company, Tehum. Tehum immediately filed for bankruptcy.
Improving the quality of prison and jail healthcare has long been a difficult problem to tackle.
Long-term, critics of the current system like Tylek argue correctional agencies should opt for public healthcare over private companies. That could be the state hospital system or state medical university system. But given the political influence of the industry and the long-term
contracts governments already have with companies, that is a long-term solution with no guarantee of success.
And even if state and local governments were to revert to a public model, it is unlikely to be a silver bullet, especially given the continued problems people in prisons with publicly operated healthcare still face.
In the short-term, advocates argue continuing to file suits and increasing transparency are needed to improve the system. Grady believes that litigation, advocating for protections for the incarcerated before municipal and state leaders, and reporting on the healthcare conditions inside jails and prisons are important tools in ensuring the incarcerated receive adequate care.
Grady says advocates aren’t asking for “top-of-the-line experimental treatment for their complicated medical condition” but rather basic, quality health care, including for common issues like high blood pressure.
“We’re talking about people who have no other option, who need basic care in order to prevent long-term premature death or disability,” she says.
PHOTO BY TED JACKSON / THE TIMES - PICAYUNE
EAT + DRINK
Homecoming
WHEN CHEF NHAT NGUYEN FINALLY
MADE IT to his ancestral country, Vietnam, for the first time six years ago, he had an epiphany.
“I fell in love with basic Vietnamese cuisine all over again,” says the 49-year-old chef. “I ate at all the local places. I cook for a living, so whatever they sent me to try, I ate.”
His recommitment to authenticity was heartfelt. Nguyen says he isn’t trying to “chef up” the homestyle Vietnamese food at his family’s Pho Parish restaurant in Chalmette. But he’s passionate about his food looking and tasting right.
Nguyen grew up in New Orleans East, and after studying culinary arts at Delgado Community College, he worked at highly regarded restaurants including chef Dominique Macquet’s Tamarind by Dominique and Namese. He had his own restaurant for six years, Fharmacy, but he closed it during the pandemic in 2022. Then he worked for chef Mike Gulotta at MoPho.
Nguyen’s journey in food started when he was 10, working in his family’s corner store.
“That’s where I first learned how to make fried rice and fried chicken,” he says. “Everywhere I’ve worked, I’ve learned to do all the jobs. So if anybody doesn’t show up, I can do their job. I believe it’s important to learn something every day.”
When his brother-in-law Chris Lai decided to open a restaurant, Nguyen left MoPho to help him in the kitchen. He brought refined techniques and a depth of experience to the project, talent that shines in layers of flavor throughout the traditional menu.
“I’m not changing dishes, but I’m trying to make sure all the details are right, the flavors real,” he says.
He concocted what he calls Parish sauce, made with braised pork, fish sauce, caramelized sugar and coconut water. He describes it as similar to adobo, without vinegary astringency.
“The fish sauce mixes with the caramelized sugar to really carry the flavor,” he says. “It is so good on rice.”
FORK + CENTER
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The fest of the year
FOR THOSE WHO REALLY DIVE IN, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival can feel like its own season in New Orleans, and it’s a short one. But Jazz Fest food lives on throughout the year in different ways. Here’s how to get a taste of it when you want to satisfy an offseason craving or bring a centerpiece dish to the next party, including a few that are now Jazz Fest memories.
Cochon de lait po-boy from Walker’s Southern Style BBQ, 10828 Hayne Blvd.
For the uninitiated, Pho Parish is a sleeper, an under-the-radar restaurant situated along a busy stretch of E. Judge Perez Drive in Chalmette. The place seats 54, and don’t let its no frills vibe fool you. The restaurant offers well-priced traditional Vietnamese dishes, and diners can bring their own beer or wine to dinner.
The menu is comforting and familiar. Start with a fresh spring roll filled with shrimp or pork, served with a house-made peanut sauce, bright with citrus and not overly sweet. There are steamed rice plates made with charcoal-grilled marinated pork, chicken, beef or pork chops.
Grilled or fried shrimp are served with perfectly cooked rice vermicelli and topped with a tangle of fried shallots. Vegetarians also will find plenty of options.
Slow simmered, deeply complex pho has flavors of star anise, cinnamon and ginger. As with all the dishes, details matter.
“It’s really important to bring the broth to a rolling boil before you simmer it,” Nguyen says. “That’s the only way to extract all the flavor from the bones.”
Although Lai isn’t a chef, he’s worked closely with Nguyen to keep the menu consistent and true to its homestyle mission. Lai, an educator by training, moved with his wife Nga Lai back to her native New Orleans after the couple lived in southern California. They arrived just a few months before Hurricane Katrina.
The couple purchased Captain Sal’s Seafood, which had to be rebuilt after the flood, and they ran that until opening Parish Pho a few years ago.
Not knowing the restaurant business didn’t phase Lai.
“My family escaped from Vietnam in 1979,” he says. “We lived in a refugee camp in Malaysia before coming to the U.S. We even had to build our own huts to stay in there. There wasn’t a choice, that’s what we had to do.”
“Vietnamese people don’t worry if they’ve never done something before,” Nguyen says. “If we don’t know how to do something, we figure it out and do it anyway.”
Keeping traditional Vietnamese cuisine alive is one way he celebrates, Nguyen says. That preservation is an ongoing effort, he adds.
“After Katrina, the city tried to designate New Orleans East as green space,” he says. “We were back, already rebuilding. This is our home, our traditions. Food is a huge part of keeping our community together.”
The cochon de lait po-boy has become one of the most popular dishes at Jazz Fest. Its vendor, Love at First Bite, has a dual identity with its restaurant, a counter-service barbecue joint on the lakefront in New Orleans East.
If you make the trip, it can be a surf-andturf day with a stop at the adjacent Castnet Seafood, the fish market and purveyor of fine po-boys and boiled crawfish.
Creole hot sausage po-boy from Vaucresson Creole Cafe & Deli, 1800 St. Bernard Ave.
The Vaucresson family has been serving Creole sausage po-boys at Jazz Fest since the first one in 1970. It was harder to find outside of festival season until 2022, when they opened a new deli and cafe at the site of their historic butcher shop in the 7th Ward.
Now they’re working with chef Bunny Young, who has greatly expanded the menu of Creole plate lunches and homestyle cooking. Of course, the po-boys are always available, and links are sold to cook at home too.
Creole file gumbo from Li’l Dizzy’s Café, 1500 Esplanade Ave.
This definitive Creole gumbo is served daily at the Baquet family’s restaurant, now a mainstay of the Treme in its next generation. The festival dishes trout Baquet (with crabmeat) and trout Dizzy
Pho Parish focuses on traditional Vietnamese favors by Beth D’Addono |
Owner Chris Lai and chef Nhat Ngyuen at Pho Parish
PHOTO BY MADDIE SPINNER / GAMBIT
Cochon de lait po-boy
PHOTO BY IAN MCNULTY / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
(with shrimp and crawfish) make periodic appearances as specials, and, more rarely, so does the crawfish bisque.
Natchitoches meat pies from Mrs. Wheat’s
Local maker Mrs. Wheat’s ships nationally, with a lineup of spicy or mild meat pies, crawfish pies, shrimp and andouille pies, and crab and artichoke pies, available in small and large versions.
They’re served at a few restaurants, including the Howlin’ Wolf Den (907 S. Peters St.), stocked in the freezer case at some groceries and sold hot at many Louisiana gas station delis. Order at meatpies.com.
Crawfish strudel and more from Cottage Catering, 1536 River Oaks Road, Harahan
The Harahan-based caterer and bakery has a “festival store” section on its website, offering all of its Jazz Fest dishes in large, party-sized quantities for shipping or pickup, including the incredible crawfish strudel and its white chocolate bread pudding, pork debris and grits and shrimp and grits. Order through cottagecatering.com.
Crawfish bread from Panaroma Foods
This classic Jazz Fest dish is served at the Fair Grounds as a slice of cheesy,
meaty stuffed bread. The Marksvillebased maker Panaroma Foods will ship whole loaves of crawfish bread, along with its sausage jalapeno bread and shrimp bread, from its kitchens in central Louisiana. See nolacrawfishbread.com.
Raw and charbroiled
Lady Nellie oysters
The off-bottom oysters at Jazz Fest are beauties, farmed off Grand Isle by Justin Trosclair. In addition to raw oysters, this year he offered them charbroiled, which were plump, full of juice, snapping with chili butter sauce and topped with exceptionally good cheese. He serves both styles each Sunday at a pop-up at Parleaux Beer Lab, the Bywater’s family-friendly taproom and beer garden. He also sells sacks of oysters directly to customers. Find information @ladynellieoysterfarm on Instagram.
Jama jama combo from Bennachin Restaurant, 1212 Royal St.
Jama jama, one of the signature flavors of the Congo Square area at Jazz Fest, is a well-seasoned sauteed spinach dish that’s always on the menu at this homey African eatery in the French Quarter. Diners can get it with poulet-fricassee (chicken on a stick) and fried plantains, its “Jazz Fest combo plate.”
Praline stuffed beignet, crabmeat beignet and pralines from Loretta’s Authentic Pralines, 2101 N. Rampart St.; and the French Market, 1100 S. Peters St.
Lorretta’s ships orders for its Creole candies around the country, and, at its Marigny restaurant and French Market stand, the menu includes the Jazz Fest specialty of stuffed praline beignets (along with some savory stuffed beignets not served at Jazz Fest). For shipping, see lorettaspralines.com.
Yakamein from Miss Linda Green “Old Sober” is a beefy, brothy remedy in a cup, the New Orleans street food classic. Linda Green is the queen of yakamein, and apart from Jazz Fest she and her family set up at numerous other festivals and hold frequent pop-ups, often at 2304 Washington Ave. For updates, see facebook.com/cheflindagreen.
And because Jazz Fest memories endure, here are more flavors that are no longer at Jazz Fest but still within diners’ reach.
Crawfish, spinach and zucchini bisque and more from Jamila’s Cafe, 7808 Maple St.
For nearly 30 years, the Sbaa family imbued the festival offerings with their North African specialties. While they said goodbye to the fest last year, the family restaurant is still open for dinner, serving all the dishes from its Jazz Fest menu. That includes a dish that’s a touchstone of the fest for many: their uniquely green crawfish bisque.
Creole stuffed bread from Creole Lunch House, 713 12th St., Lafayette Creole stuffed bread is a handheld flavor bomb, a blend of seasoned beef, sausage slices, jalapeños for a mild bite and cheddar between it all. It was one of the low-key sleeper hits of Jazz Fest food from its debut in 1983, when the Lafayette restaurant Creole Lunch House joined the food vendors.
Its last festival appearance was in 2019, before the pandemic hiatus; its creator, Merline Herbert, died in 2025 at age 84.
But her family still runs the little cottage restaurant and serves Creole stuffed bread on its menu of plate lunches. When in Lafayette, this is always worth a visit. — Ian McNulty / The Times-Picayune
Ken Wells
Writer by Will Coviello
KEN WELLS EXPLORED THE HISTORY OF GUMBO IN HIS MEMOIR “Gumbo Life: A Journey Down the Roux Bayou,” in which he detailed the bounty of South Louisiana food he had growing up in Bayou Black, near Houma. For his latest book, “Boudin,” he traveled the state, eating boudin at markets and gas stations, and talked to some of the families that have become the state’s biggest producers of Cajun sausages. There’s a thorough list of boudin makers and their locations in the book. Wells also has written six novels as well as other nonfiction books. “Boudin” was released by LSU Press. For more information, visit lsupress.org or bayoubro.com
Why did you write a book about boudin?
KEN WELLS: Boudin is traveling in the same way that gumbo started to travel and that andouille started to travel. In the early 2000s, if you wanted boudin, you had to live in or come to Louisiana. Then Amazon taught everyone the e-commerce model and how to ship. Vendors throughout the state do it, and now there are 50 or more. The (boudin-making) families figured out that there was this huge outside interest and said, ‘We’re going to start shipping.’ That’s a sea change.
It’s also popping up in all these local versions in odd places, like in Chicago. I found a butcher shop in Chicago. It’s not DezMeaux’s or Billy’s, but in a blind tasting, people would probably say this is OK. When I was in Austin and South Texas it was there.
It’s like gumbo when I was a kid growing up. When I went to graduate school in 1975 in Missouri and talked about gumbo, nobody knew what it was. Now I don’t think there’s anyone in America who doesn’t know what gumbo is. It’s another testament that we make really great stuff and it translates very well to the rest of the world. I was just on a book tour, and I went to places I hadn’t been before. You try the boudin, and it’s subtly different. But it’s almost always good.
I went to T-Boy’s Slaughter House in Mamou and and DezMeaux’s in Opelousas. DezMeaux’s is one of the few Black owned and run boudin operations in Louisiana. The first time I was there, I tried their boudin. But this time, I tried their boudin-stuffed chicken wings, and it is one of the
most amazing things I have ever put in my mouth. It’s worth going there just to try that.
What did you learn about boudin history?
W: If you look at classic French boudin, boudin blanc, from which Louisiana boudin clearly derives, it’s nothing like Louisiana boudin. We took it and made an explicit, indigenous makeover of the sausage. It’s earthier and spicier. Back in France, the vegetable component was green onions, and now it can be the trinity, or jalapenos. And the rice component totally transforms the thing.
It’s another story about our singular foodways. I think you have to go to Italy or France before you find another culture like ours that is so obsessed with food but does food so well in a local and indigenous way. There’s no other region in America that compares. I had no idea how the factory component had grown. These giant players like Best Stop, the Comeauxs and Richards began with mom-andpop recipes that they sold out of rice cookers. And they transmogrified these things. The Best Stop factory is 15,000 square feet of gleaming automated equipment. They sell it to rapturous reviews. But the origin story is almost always the same. It was mawmaw or paw-paw or someone who had a recipe. The original intention was to make something great for the family, but then suddenly they’re making something great for everybody.
When I was at Bourgeois (Meat Market), they showed me the inner sanctum. There is something about the notion that they are making goodness. They’re making money, but they’re carrying on the family tradition.
The DezMeauxs were saying, “Our recipe is 50 years old. It tastes like what boudin used to taste like.” They are purists. If you talk to the people at Bourgeois, they’d say the same thing, even though they’ve slightly lowered the liver proportion. As you go west, the rice proportion grows, and the liver gets less. Is that compromise or is it that they’ve always had more access to rice?
Getting back to the DezMeaux’s guys, not only do they stuff chicken wings, but they take boudin and turn it into a hamburger patty and bread it and fry it and serve it as a burger. There’s a restaurant that I didn’t get to that serves crawfish boudin sushi rolls. Maybe that’s getting carried away. But Donald Link says it’s the most versatile sausage on Earth, and that’s probably true.
If people want to take one day to explore boudin, where should they go?
W: Go to Scott. They have six boudin makers within 10 minutes of each other, all making high quality boudin. The variety — they have something like 50 varieties right in that little corridor. Someone makes cauliflower boudin. Now crawfish (boudin) has become big, and alligator has become big.
When I was in the farmers’ market in Covington, the boudin made with wagyu beef blew me away. Almost nobody makes beef boudin. The explanation is that pork lends itself in terms of moistness better than beef does, but this was killer. I had not expected to find an exotic Japanese beef boudin.
It was an enormous research effort. I was not prepared for how many places there would be. The web made it so much easier to search down these places. New places are popping up every day.
PROVIDED PHOTO BY ROBERT TOLCHIN
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.
3rd Block Depot — 316 Chartres St., (504) 552-4095; 3rdblockdepot.com — The menu ranges from seafood and sausage gumbo and Gulf shrimp ceviche to smashburgers and steaks. Brunch brings crab cake Benedict with hollandaise on an English muffin. Reservations available. Breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner daily. $$$
Acropolis Cuisine — 3841 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 888-9046; acropoliscuisine.com — The menu of classic Greek dishes includes souvlaki, gyros and pita wraps, spanakopita, hummus and Greek salads. Moussaka has layers of eggplant, potatoes, zucchini, ground beef and bechamel. No reservations. Lunch and dinner daily. $$ 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. $ Annunciation — 1016 Annunciation St., (504) 568-0245; annunciationrestaurant.com — Gulf fish Capri includes artichokes, crawfish, tomatoes and capers. There also are oysters, seafood pasta dishes, salads, steaks, lamb chops and desserts like bananas Foster bread pudding and lemon icebox tart. Reservations recommended. Dinner Thu.-Mon. $$$ Audubon Clubhouse — 6500 Magazine St., (504) 558-1200; audubonclubhouse.com — The menu by Dickie Brennan and Co. includes crabmeat cheesecake, shrimp remoulade, fried oysters, burgers, sandwiches and more. Shrimp Tchefuncte combines house-made andouille, mushrooms, popcorn rice and Creole meuniere sauce. Outdoor seating available. Reservations recommended. Brunch, lunch and dinner daily. $$$ Banana Blossom — 500 9th St., Gretna, (504) 500-0997; 504bananablossom. com — There are traditional Thai dishes like pad thai, green curry, pineapple fried rice, drunken noodles and coconut shrimp as well as original creations. Beef rib Chiang Mai features a slow-braised beef rib with yellow curry, egg noodles, pickled mustard greens, cilantro and chili oil. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $$
Boil & Barrel — 900 Harrison Ave., (504) 3322645; boilandbarrel.com — The menu includes dishes like barbecue shrimp, char-broiled oysters, boiled crawfish, seafood platters and roast beef po-boys. B&B fruit de mer includes shrimp, mussels and crawfish tossed with spaghetti in San Marzano tomato sauce. The bar offers a long list of bourbons and whiskies. Outdoor seating available. Reservations available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$$
Budsi’s Authentic Thai — 1760 N. Rampart St., (504) 381-4636; budsisthai.com — Chef Budsaba Mason prepares dishes from her native Issan region of Thailand and other popular Thai dishes like papaya salad, grilled pork shoulder, larb, khao soi, pad thai and red curry. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$
Chef Ron’s Gumbo Stop — 2309 N. Causeway Blvd., Metairie, (504) 835-2022; gumbostop. com — The Gumbo Stop has several gumbo
$ — average dinner entrée under $10
$$ $11-$20
$$$ — $20-up
varieties including chicken and sausage gumbo and seafood gumbo with shrimp, crab and crawfish. The menu also has boudin balls, Bayou shrimp scampi, crawfish etouffee and fried shrimp po-boys. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $$
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. $$
The Country Club — 634 Louisa St., (504) 945-0742; thecountryclubneworleans. com — The Bywater restaurant and pool has a menu of crab beignets, truffle mac and cheese, shrimp and grits, burgers and more. Seared redfish is served with kale, toasted chickpeas, sesame seeds, chili crisp and whipped tahini. Outdoor seating available. Reservations recommended. Lunch, brunch and dinner daily. $$$
With views overlooking the Mississippi River, the restaurant serves a mix of South Louisiana dishes like smoked duck gumbo, crawfish bisque, shrimp Creole, blackened redfish and crawfish étouffée. Drum amandine is served with green beans and stewed potatoes. Reservations available. Lunch and dinner daily. $$$
Desire Oyster Bar — Royal Sonesta New Orleans, 300 Bourbon St., (504) 586-0300; sonesta.com/desireoysterbar — A menu full of Gulf seafood includes oysters served raw on the half-shell or char-broiled with with Parmesan, garlic and herbs. The menu also includes po-boys, gumbo, blackened fish, fried seafood platters and more. Reservations recommended. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$
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. $$$
Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse — 716 Iberville St., (504) 522-2467; dickiebrennanssteakhouse.com — The menu includes a variety of steaks, plus seared Gulf fish, lobster pasta, barbecue shrimp and more. A 6-ounce filet mignon is served with fried oysters, creamed spinach, potatoes and bearnaise. Reservations recommended. Dinner Mon.-Sat. $$$
Domenica — 123 Baronne St., (504) 6486020; domenicarestaurant.com — The Italian restaurant offers a mix of wood-fired Napolitano-style pizzas and house-made pastas. Appetizers include various salumi and cheese boards, antipasti, roasted cauliflower and more. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner daily. $$$
Don’s Seafood — 4801 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 888-1555; donsseafoodonline.com — The seafood options range from char-broiled oysters to seafood gumbo, fried shrimp and catfish platters and stuffed flounder. The menu also has rib-eye steaks. Reservations accepted for large parties. Lunch and dinner daily. $$
Elizabeth’s Restaurant — 601 Gallier St., (504) 944-9272; elizabethsrestaurantnola. com — Elizabeth’s is known for its signature praline bacon, and the menu also includes boudin balls, shrimp and grits, chicken and waffles and eggs Florentine. Outdoor seating available. Reservations accepted for parties of 10 or more. Breakfast and lunch daily. $$
Katie’s Restaurant — 3701 Iberville St., (504) 488-6582; katiesinmidcity.com — The Cajun Cuban is stuffed with roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard. The eclectic menu also includes char-grilled oysters, sandwiches, burgers, pizza, fried seafood platters, pasta, salads and more. Delivery available. Reservations accepted for large parties. Lunch and dinner daily. $$
King Brasserie & Bar — Kimpton Hotel Fontenot, 501 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 324-3000; kingbrasserieandbar.com — The restaurant’s menu is inspired by the cuisine of the Riviera and southern France. There are dishes like steak frites and bouillabaisse as well as blackened Gulf fish and barbecue shrimp and oysters. Reservations recommended. Breakfast, lunch and 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) 513-2606; legacykitchen.com — The selection of steaks and chops includes filet mignon, bone-in ribeye, top sirloin and double pork chops and a la carte toppings include bearnaise, 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. $$ Luke — 333 St. Charles Ave., (504) 378-2840; lukeneworleans.com — The raw bar offers oysters, boiled shrimp, cured tuna, smoked trout dip and more. The menu has dishes like shrimp and grits, crab omelets, crawfish etouffee and steak frites. Reservations encouraged. Breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner daily. $$$ Lyons Corner — 537 Gravier St., (504) 5270006; lyonscornernola.com — The eclectic menu includes Cajun prawns, bang-bang fried oysters, chicken sandwiches, salads and more. In the morning, there are breakfast empanadas, muffins, croissants, scones, beignets and more. Delivery and takeout available. No reservations. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$ Mikimoto — 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 488-1881; mikimotosushi.com — The menu of Japanese cuisine includes sushi, signature rolls, tempura fried items, udon noodles, teriyaki, salads and more.The South Carrollton roll includes tuna tataki, avocado, snow crab, green onion and wasabi roe. Reservations accepted. Delivery available. Lunch Sun.-Fri., dinner daily. $$
—Brunch—
BbqShrimp withgrit cakes
French Toast
MonteCristo with hash browns andfruit
Smoked salmon Fritta
Friedgoatcheese strawberry spinachsalad
—LUNCH
Butter Beans withbaked chicken
FriedChicken sandwich tossed in aroasted garlic Parmesan sauce dressedwithCaesarsalad andfries
MAY8-10 BRUNCH Saturday &Sunday!
—DINNER—
Lamb Chops with Roasted sweetpotatomash andchimichurri
Root beer braise shortribs with Provel cheese grits
JumboSoftshell over eggplant
seafooddressing topped with seafoodcream
katiesi
3701 iberville st •504.488.6582 katiesinmidcity.com Mon-Thurs 11am-9pm Fri&Sat 11am-10pm•Sun 10am-5pm
COLLECTION CTION
fish is stuffed with crabmeat dressing and topped with shrimp cream sauce. The menu also includes fried shrimp and oyster platters, grilled redfish, crabmeat jalapeños, and boudin egg rolls. Reservations available. Lunch and 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. $$
Orleans Grapevine Wine Bar & Bistro — 720 Orleans Ave., (504) 523-1930; orleansgrapevine.com — The wine bar offers a selectoin of cheese boards and appetizers. Creole pasta combines shrimp and andouille in tomato cream sauce. Reservations accepted for large parties. Outdoor seating available. Dinner Thu.-Sun. $$
Pascal’s Manale — 1838 Napoleon Ave., (504) 895-4877; pascalsmanale.com — This Creole-Italian spot invented New Orleansstyle barbecue shrimp, and the menu also includes seafood gumbo, crab cakes, oysters and Italian-style pasta dishes. There’s also an oyster bar. Reservations recommended. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $$$
Peacock Room — Kimpton Hotel Fontenot, 501 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 324-3073; peacockroomnola.com — At brunch, braised short rib grillades are served over grits with mushrooms, a poached egg and shaved truffle. The dinner menu has oysters, salads, pasta, shrimp and grits, a burger, cheese plates and more. Reservations accepted. Dinner Wed.-Mon., brunch Sun. $$ Pizza Domenica — 4933 Magazine St., (504) 301-4978; pizzadomenica.com — Pizza is the focus of this offshoot of the Italian restaurant Domenica. There also are meatballs, roasted cauliflower and house-made pastas. No reservations. Lunch and dinner daily. $$
Restaurant August — 301 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 299-9777; restaurantaugust. com — The fine dining restaurant serves Creole and contemporary dishes featuring foie gras, Gulf fish, duck and more. Gnocchi are served with crab, summer truffles and Parmesan. Reservations recommended.
Dinner Sun.-Fri., lunch Fri. $$$
Rivershack Tavern — 3449 River Road, Jefferson, (504) 834-4938; rivershacktavern.com — This tavern along the levee offers a casual menu of roast beef po-boys, burgers, wraps, fried shrimp platters, catfish and gumbo. A country fried steak is served with brown gravy, mashed potatoes, vegetables and salad. Outdoor seating available. No reservations. Lunch and dinner daily. $$ Shaya — 4213 Magazine St., (504) 891-4213; shayarestaurant.com — The Mediterranean and Middle Eastern menu includes dishes like hummus, falafel, kebabs, grilled chicken and wood-oven pita bread. A chicken schnitzel sandwich is dressed with little gem lettuce, pickles and harissa mayonnaise on sesame brioche bread. Outdoor seating available. Reservations recommended. Lunch and dinner daily. $$$
Stingray’s Restaurant & Bar — 1303 W. Esplanade Ave., Kenner, (504) 443-4040; stingraysseafoodrestaurant.com — Zydeco
Tableau — 616 St. Peter St., (504) 9343463; tableaufrenchquarter.com — The menu features traditional and creative Creole dishes. Pasta bouillabaisse features squid ink mafaldine, little neck clams, Gulf shrimp, squid, seafood broth, rouille and herbed breadcrumbs. Outdoor seating available on the balcony. Reservations recommended. Dinner Wed.-Sun., brunch Thu.-Sun. $$$
Tacklebox — 817 Common St., (504) 827-1651; legacykitchen.com — The menu includes raw and char-broiled oysters, seafood platters, po-boys, fried chicken, crab and corn bisque and more. Redfish St. Charles is served with garlic-herb butter, asparagus, mushrooms and crawfish cornbread. Reservations accepted. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$
Tavi — 330 N. New Hampshire St., (985) 200-2045; tavirestaurant.com — The menu combines dishes from the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean. There’s hummus, falafel, kebabs, flatbreads, grilled fish, lamb burgers and more. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner daily. $$$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 1212 S. Clearview Parkway, Elmwood, (504) 733-3803; 2125 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 510-4282; 4024 Canal St., (504) 302-1133; 4218 Magazine St., (504) 894-8554; 70488 Highway 21, Covington, (985) 234-9420; theospizza.com — A Marilynn Pota Supreme pie is topped with mozzarella, pepperoni, sausage, hamburger, mushrooms, bell peppers and onions. There also are salads, sandwiches, wings, breadsticks and more. Delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily. $ The Vintage — 3121 Magazine St., (504) 324-7144; thevintagenola.com — There’s a full coffee drinks menu and baked goods and beignets, as well as a full bar. The menu has flatbreads, cheese boards, small plates and a pressed vegetable sandwich with avocado, onions, arugula, red pepper and pepper jack cheese. No reservations. Delivery and outdoor seating available. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$
Vyoone’s — 412 Girod St., (504) 381-4384; vyoone.com — The French-Creole menu includes dishes like escargot, crawfish beignets, crab cakes, shrimp pasta, duck a l’orange and lamb chops. Reservations recommended. Dinner Wed.-Sun. $$$ Willa Jean — 611 O’Keefe Ave., (504) 5097334; willajean.com — The bakery and cafe serves biscuits with honey butter, cookies, pastries, breakfast sandwiches, shrimp and grits and more. Avocado toasts are made with house-baked ciabatta topped with tomatillo, spiced pepitas, pickled onion, cilantro and chipotle aioli. Outdoor seating available. No reservations. Breakfast and lunch daily. $$
Yinzer’s Amazing Cheesesteaks — 1514 Delachaise St., (412) 860-6801; yinzersamazingcheesesteaks.com —There are classic and original cheesesteaks filled with steak, chicken and more. Diners can opt for toppings like provolone, house-made cheddar whiz, mushrooms, onions, banana peppers and more. Delivery available. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Wed.-Sun. $
Bubble Day
Last year, hundreds of people brought bubble-makers to the French Quarter for an afternoon bubble fest after a resident tried numerous times to get the bar MRB to turn off the bubble machine on its balcony. According to the internet, the second annual Bubble Day is Sunday, May 17, in the French Quarter, particularly on and around St. Philip Street near the French Market.
Doug Benson
Comedian Doug Benson loves at least two things, marijuana and movies. He says he was an extra in scenes in “Blade Runner” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” But he has starring roles in his TV and podcasts “Getting Doug with High,” “The High Court with Doug Benson” and “Doug Loves Movies.” He performs stand-up at 7 & 9 p.m. Friday, May 15, and Saturday, May 16, at Sports Drink. Tickets $29.69 via sportsdrink.org.
Drew and Ellie Holcomb
Husband-and-wife duo Drew and Ellie Holcomb have performed together often over the years, but largely as part of the Americana band Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors. Ellie, though, has had her own successful folk-leaning Christian music career and has won several GMA Dove Awards. Last year, Drew and Ellie released their first album together as a duo, “Memory Bank,” a sweet country album focused on honest love. They are on tour together and perform at 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 12, at the Joy Theater. Tickets start at $30 via thejoytheater.com.
Familee Day
Michigan native Keith Lee has built a following as a food influencer on TikTok and has raved about a few New Orleans businesses. The inaugural Familee Day festival features live music and plenty of food vendors. Performers include Kirk Franklin, Mannie Fresh, Tobe Nwigwe, Andra Day, La Reezy, HaSizzle, Flagboy Giz and more. The food vendors include Addis, Dee’s Xquisite Seafood, Fritai, Jamaican Jerk House, Kajunlicious Food Therapy, Morrow’s, Spicy Mango, Orleans Brothers and more. There also are amusement rides and games. The event is noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 16, at the UNO Lakefront festival grounds. Tickets $69.50 and up via famileeday.com.
Shea Pierre
Pianist, composer and educator
Shea Pierre has performed with Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, Donald Harrison, Weedie Brimah and Robin Barnes as well as leading his own ensembles. At the New Orleans Jazz Museum, he’ll play a solo piano hour at 2 p.m. Friday, May 15. Admission is free, and the concert will be streamed at facebook.com/ nolajazzmuseum/live.
Portrayal of Guilt
On Portrayal of Guilt’s new album, “...Beginning of the End,” the Austin, Texas, trio build on the hardcore punk and black metal that’s earned the band acclaim while mixing in heavy grooves, trip-hop and ambient experimentation. The band plays Siberia with Street Sects, Taraneh and The World is a Vampire at 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 12. Tickets are $24.92 via dice.fm.
Gnarfest
Gnarly Barley was one of a wave of new microbreweries to open when the craft beer craze hit the area a dozen years ago. The Hammond brewery is celebrating its 12th anniversary with a festival featuring live music and exclusive beer releases, including old favorites and Good Seed Sour and Strawberry Cherry Lemonade Sour. There’s entertainment by Soul Tribe, Byron Daniel and the Five Dead Dogs and the 610 Stompers. The fest is 11:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Saturday, May 16, at the brewery (1709 Corbin Road, Hammond). Admission is $10. Visit gnarlybeer.com for details.
‘Medea’
In Euripides’ tragedy, Medea is ruthless in seeking vengeance against her unfaithful husband, Jason, and King Creon. The NOLA Project is using Alistair Elliot’s modern translation of the drama, and director Gab Reisman is interested in the light the play shines on inequality between men and women and what happens as a marriage falls apart. Performances are outdoors at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 15, through Sunday, May 17, and continuing May 22, 24 and 28-30 at Greenway Station on the Lafitte Greenway. Tickets $20$55 at nolaproject.com.
Museum & Gallery Preview
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MUSIC
FOR COMPLETE MUSIC LISTINGS AND MORE EVENTS TAKING PLACE IN THE NEW ORLEANS AREA, VISIT CALENDAR.GAMBITWEEKLY.COM
To learn more about adding your event to the music calendar, please email listingsedit@gambitweekly.com
MONDAY 11
30/90 — The Dapper Dandies, 6 pm; Lapis, 9 pm
ALLWAYS LOUNGE — Betsy Propane & The Accessories, 7 pm
APPLE BARREL Mark Appleford, 6 pm; Decaturadio, 10:30 pm
BACCHANAL Christien Bold, 6 pm
BJ’S LOUNGE Red Beans & Blues: Washboard Chaz and Jonathan Freilich, 9 pm
BOURBON O BAR Kid Merv & All That Jazz , 8 pm
BUFFA’S David Doucet, 8 pm
CAFÉ NEGRIL Mother Ruckus, 6:30 pm; Keep It Rolling Brass Band, 9:30 pm
Pope performs with Aubrey Jane and Noa Jamir at No Dice Friday, May 15 at 9 p.m.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY IZZE THOMPSON
MUSIC
Born on the Bayou
by Will Coviello
THE MID-CITY BAYOU BOOGALOO HAS DRAWN REVELERS to Bayou St. John for live music, a craft fair and more for two decades. In recent years, it’s changed its footprint and is doing that again this year. The festival is marking its 20th anniversary event on May 15-17 at the Broadside and Pitot House.
“It’s a milestone we’re celebrating,” says founder and director Jared Zeller.
The festival’s main stage is at the Broadside, which will have two stages, craft vendors and more. Friday night features yacht rock cover band Where Y’acht and the self-described “wonky tonk” of country and soul band HollyRock. The music kicks off at 6:30 p.m. with Two-Tone Merigold, an electronic music group infused with guitars. On Saturday, the lineup starts with the River Eckert Band, keyboardist Tom Worrell and the Sinead Angele Band. Also performing is keyboardist Davis Rogan on the Piano on a Truck. Big Chief Brian and the Nouveau Bounce will be joined by trumpeter James Andrews on the main stage. That will be followed by chanteuse Anais St. John doing her tribute to disco star Donna Summer. Closing the festival is Neonautica, the electronic music and saxophone duo of Megan Ihnen and Alan Theisen. Music runs from 3:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
On Sunday, Al “Little Fats” Jackson channels Fats Domino, and there’s Colin Davis and the Night People. The River Eckert Band returns to close out the festival Sunday. Also on the bill are guitarist Jay Dufour and Jared Daws. Music runs from 3:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
The festival’s vendor market will occupy the Broadside parking lot, and there will be 15 craft vendors and two food vendors. The music portion of the fest is ticketed, but the vendor area is free to access.
The festival has long offered a VIP experience called Canopy Club. This year, that element of the fest has its own venue, lineup and separate hours. Canopy Club will be on the grounds of Pitot House along Bayou St. John from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Canopy Club passes include a cochon de lait spread on Saturday and a crawfish boil on Sunday. Urban South beers and cocktails also are included. Passes include admission to both venues.
On Saturday, the lineup includes the Johnny Vidacovich Trio, Kristin Diable and guitarist Robert Eustis with pianist Andre Bohren. Diable just released “Impossible Things,” her first new album in 10 years.
Sunday is headlined by Americana singer-songwriter Dusky Waters, the tumbleweed country of the Desert Nudes and Americana artist Shawn Williams.
Zeller founded Bayou Boogaloo in 2006 when the Bayou St. John area was still recovering from flooding from Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures. For many years it was a free festival. As the event grew to three stages and stretched from Dumaine Street to the Lafitte Greenway, the festival looked for ways to adequately fund itself, from suggested donations to ticketing the event. It also gets grants, and its largest current support comes from the New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund, Zeller says.
The growth also drew criticism from some neighbors. The festival shrank its footprint last year, and Zeller says this year’s split event also is about finding the balance between event size and funding. The future is unclear, as Zeller would like the event to stay on Bayou St. John. Some elements have become a local tradition, and he expects some people will still bring boats and improvised rafts to the bayou for the weekend.
Single day tickets are $20 for the Broadside and $100 for Canopy Club, and weekend passes are $50 and $200, respectively. Children 12 and under get in free with ticketed adult. Find information at thebayouboogaloo.com.
Kristin Diable will perform at Bayou Boogaloo’s Canopy Club.
PHOTO BY TED JACKSON / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
Dining Issue
GOING OUT
Flashbacks
by Will Coviello
IN “WATCHING MR. PEARSON,” Robert Pearson, a wealthy actor well out of his prime, decides he hasn’t driven into town in too long, so he pulls his 1956 Porsche 356 Speedster out of the garage. Caroline, who he employs to help care for him, isn’t eager to get in the sporty convertible’s passenger seat, but she can’t let him drive alone. It’s a wilder ride than she wants.
Pearson looks distinguished with his white beard and still has some swagger about him, but mostly he reminisces about his glory days on the silver screen and spends his days at his beachside home. Caroline realizes that reading old scripts with him pulls him out of his increasingly quiet and distant shell.
The film is rich in cinema references and reverie, but it’s a portrait of a person coping with growing vulnerability and relying on others for help. “Watching Mr. Pearson” screens at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 16, and Sunday, May 17, at Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge, and director Dillon Bentlage, screenwriter Simon Kincade and actress Dominika Zawada, who plays Caroline, will attend and participate in Q&As after screenings.
Pearson spends some of his time watching his old films. The movie opens with what looks like a classic black-and-white film noir, with a driver’s view of a car careening down a twisting highway while a trumpet sounds a moody and ominous note. In other films within the film, the much younger Pearson stars in dramas and action movies from different ages, including 1970s style political thrillers.
The character of Pearson was inspired by actors with long distinguished careers, like Paul Newman and Jack Nicholson. Newman famously had a vintage Porsche Speedster, and in his later years, he lived in Connecticut, where “Watching Mr. Pearson” was filmed.
Aging isn’t easy on anyone, and Pearson denies elements of it. After the drive into town, an old acquaintance mistakenly compliments him for dating the young and beautiful Caroline.
Pearson doesn’t want to admit that she’s more like a traveling nurse and not a girlfriend, and Caroline’s feelings are hurt by the old men’s objectification.
While Pearson is fortunate to live well, he has no apparent connections to family, and many of his old friends are gone. Caroline sincerely cares for him, but he’s also her boss, and as an immigrant pursing legal status, having a job is important. Another assistant, Miguel, is attentive, but he secretly wants to be a screenwriter and has his own concerns. Pearson also has a financial advisor, and at times, he has no idea if he can trust her or his own memory.
In some scenes, Pearson argues with his much younger self, or with characters he played long ago. That exposes questions about what’s going on in his mind as he ages, sometimes gracefully and sometimes not. Some of his old ways pop entertaining surprises on his assistants.
Reviving Pearson’s old characters brings out his old strengths, and he jokingly chides Caroline for stepping on his lines or dramatic pauses. He’s much less sharp about the way the world has changed around him, and it leaves open the question of who’s really giving his life direction.
Hugo Armstrong is excellent as the older Pearson and looks the part of an aging legend. The veteran film and stage actor captures his alternating charm and vigor and confusion and anger. Polish actress Dominika Zawada also is excellent as Caroline, projecting a natural affection for Pearson. As young Pearson, Sam Bullington doesn’t look like a Hollywood leading man, but he’s strong in the scenes confronting the old man.
This is Bentlage’s directorial debut, and he’s worked on the TV series “Atlanta,” Steve McQueen’s “The Occupied City” and more. He is on a tour doing screenings and engaging audiences, and he’s doing outreach to spark discussions about aging and mental health.
For tickets and information, visit zeitgeistnola.org.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY KT PICTURES
Furever Home Needed for Jazzfest Rescue!
PREMIER CROSSWORD PUZZLE
WOOZY AND ROSY
By Frank A. Longo
31 Drug for a trip
1 Informal talks
6 Data entry worker, often 12 Undresses
20 Snip anew
21 Email part before the message 22 Bohemian quality
23 Earthy color, to Brits
24 Cry from Jesus on the cross meaning “My God, my God”
25 Rigid salary limits, say
26 Start of a riddle
29 Lucy’s Arnaz
30 Letters before esses
What Elmo calls Dagwood in “Blondie”
Snout
Riddle, part 2
Dollar part
-- Bo (fitness system)
Fed. agency doing raids 52 Arthur of tennis fame
Gridiron org. north of the U.S. 57 Modify
59 Riddle, part 3 66 Refined finds
“Rumor has it
Plane path
Former Houston hockey team 71 Alpha follower 73 Riddle, part 4 78 Not at all cool 80 Equine beast 81 Worker welfare org.
82 Amazement
83 It produces a test-tube baby, in brief 84 Some cobras 87 Nest resident
90 Cooing 87-Acrosses
86 Advanced deg. 87 Mother Who in Dr. Seuss’ Whoville 88 Tyrant Amin 89 -- room (play place)
91 Really dwells on, with “over” 93 Flowers in many ponds
