Gambit: December 15, 2020

December 15-21 2020 Volume 41 Number 48

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CONTENTS

DEC. 15 — 21, 2020 VOLUME 41 | NUMBER 48

A stunning

NEWS

sets the scene for FOND HOLIDAY MEMORIES

OPENING GAMBIT

6

COMMENTARY

9

CLANCY DUBOS

11

BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN

13

GIFT GUIDE

ORDER YOUR CENTERPIECE TODAY!

LOCAL LIFE

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PULLOUT

PETS FEATURES

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

GIVE THE GIFT OF CREATIVITY THIS YEAR COME JOIN US AND CREATE SPRING REGISTRATION OPEN NOW

CLASSES OFFERED IN PAINTING, DRAWING, CERAMICS, SCULPTURE AND MORE!

24

FILM

32

GOING OUT HOLIDAY GUIDE

33

PUZZLES

35

EXCHANGE

34

@The_Gambit @gambitneworleans @GambitNewOrleans

16

VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE

Suburban parishes struggle to protect students and teachers from COVID-19.

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SARAH RAVITS

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SWEETEN THE HOLIDAYS WITH

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Gambit (ISSN 1089-3520) is published weekly by Capital City Press, LLC, 840 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130. (504) 4865900. We cannot be held responsible for the return of unsolicited manuscripts even if accompanied by a SASE. All material published in Gambit is copyrighted: Copyright 2020 Capital City Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

The social networks

Holiday funk NEO-SOUL AND FUNK SINGER ERICA FALLS TEAMS UP WITH trombonist and vocalist Glen David Andrews for a holiday show from the balcony at the New Orleans Jazz Museum at 5 p.m.

Tuesday, Dec. 15. Tickets are available on nolajazzmuseum.org.

InFringe Fest presents a trio of plays

by Black writers

BY WILL COVIELLO

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

DALTON KIRK LIVES IN THE NOT TOO DISTANT FUTURE , and his life

NEW YORKER EMMA WILLMANN has appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and was a regular on the comedy drama “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” She recently appeared on the Netflix special “The Comedy Lineup.”

She performs stand-up comedy at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 16, at The Broadside. Tickets are available on broadsidenola.com.

is overrun by digital interaction and mood balancing medications. When he logs into the computer network of his employer, it evaluates his state of mind before allowing him to work. His virtual assistant Sapien, an enhanced version of Alexa or Google Home, monitors his sleep, reminds him of the details of his life and, to engage him, throws shade like a cast member of the “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” or a drag performer, says Cameron-Mitchell Ware, author of “The Wake-Up Call.”

It’s one of the shows in the InFringe Fest, which presents three original dramas beginning Sunday, Dec. 20.

All are by Black writers, in a showcase meant to highlight work by artists of color.

Beyond the corralling of his daily life by snarky artificial intelligence, Dalton is living in a trade-off he long has left unquestioned. Dalton, who is Black, provides online services purporting to guide clients on how to interact with Black people, and for a fee, he’ll impersonate Barack Obama critiquing Michelle Obama’s outfit.

Dalton lives during the second President Joe Biden/Vice President Kamala Harris administration, in a world in which things like the COVID19 vaccine have further polarized the nation. While it sounds like the drama was written in response to the recent election, Ware has been thinking about the concept — partially inspired by James Baldwin — for some time.

“There’s always been a thin line between white supremacy and white liberalism in America, and what does that actually do for the Black body in a 21st century understanding if left to fantastical devices?”

“The Wake-Up Call” is framed by high tech and politics, and Dalton struggles to break out of his bubble of isolation and online connections and reconnect with people.

Ware was a member of the now disbanded Cripple Creek Theatre Company and starred in its productions of “Ragtime” and “Sueno.”

While there are contributions by

On top of the ‘Crazy World’

actors voicing Sapien and online and phone callers, “Wake-Up Call” is basically a solo show, similar to Ware’s preferred performing style, cabaret.

“The Wake-Up Call” combines drama and dance, directed and choreographed by Polanco Jones Jr. InFringe, like its predecessor fringe festivals, focuses on less traditional approaches to theater, experimental projects and genre mashups. With its different styles of dance and pointed use of music in transitions, “The Wake-Up Call” may be the most visually expressive entry in the festival.

Candace Robertson’s “A God Called Bitch” follows Amaya through a series of vignettes. Amaya is a young Black woman who is pregnant and struggles over whether she wants to have a child. Her mother died in childbirth, and she grew up without contact with her parents.

Though Amaya doesn’t have a good relationship with her aunt Vivian, she tries to learn more about her mother and her past. She also negotiates the politics of reproductive rights and images and stereotypes about Black women. The cast of six includes Ariel Lucius as Amaya and Nita Cherise as Vivian.

Robertson grew up in Kenner and has written several short plays for local theater companies. She’s also a veteran of a local sketch comedy group.

Obediya Jones-Darrell is the musical composer for Cleveland Public Theatre in Ohio. His drama “Speak Easy” was supposed to debut at the

P H OTO P R OV I D E D B Y C A M E R O N M I TC H E L L WA R E

Cameron-Mitchell Ware performs his show ‘The Wake-up Call.’

theater in spring, but that was canceled due to the pandemic.

It’s set in current times, and partially inspired by Cleveland’s underground bar scene. In the play, Bernard, who’s out of work, heads to a speak easy tucked behind a barber shop to drink away his last few dollars. There he meets Jenny, who as an undocumented immigrant has to work in an illicit joint, and Ricky, a carefree and eccentric patron. With a few drinks in their secluded spot, their conversation gets candid as they talk about work, choosing their own paths and the meaning of success.

“The speak easy as a secret place worked as a metaphor for looking within yourself,” Jones-Darrell says.

Jones-Darrell has written radio plays. He also worked on the music for this piece, which features songs and is grounded in jazz and Broadway styles.

All three works were filmed at the AllWays Lounge & Theatre in November. They’ve been edited for presentation online, but are filmed theater productions, not movies with different sets or heavy special effects.

The shows are available individually for $10 or as a package for $27.

They’re available online for a month beginning Dec. 20. Visit infringefest. com for details and viewing links.

A VETERAN OF BROADWAY AND LOCAL STAGES, Leslie Castay sings American songbook standards and contemporary songs in “Crazy World.”

She’s accompanied by pianist Jason Reeks in the virtual performance at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 17. Find the link on lepetittheatre.com.

P H OTO P R OV I D E D B Y C O R E Y H E N R Y

All the beans TROMBONIST AND BANDLEADER COREY HENRY records a live show for the Krewe of Red Beans’ Lundi Gras album project. Margie Perez and Muevelo also perform at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 20 at Broadside. Tickets are available on broadsidenola.com.

Who’s your daddy JEFFERSON PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY PRESENTS stand-up comedy by well-matched dad joke comics Jason Allen King and Sid Davis of Charlotte, North Carolina. Shows are at 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 18, and Saturday, Dec. 19, at Westwego Performing Arts Theatre.

Tickets are available at jpas.org.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

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OPENING GAMBIT N E W

O R L E A N S

N E W S

+

V I E W S

Last Call … last call for alcohol?

# The Count

Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down

39,000

Nia Weeks and City Councilmember Helena Moreno are working to ban

discrimination against natural hair styles for Black women in the workplace. Weeks, an attorney, is the founder of Citizen SHE United, an advocacy group promoting policies that address the needs of Black women. Moreno has introduced a city ordinance modeled on federal legislation If passed — which is almost certain — New Orleans could become one of a growing number of American cities to ban such discrimination.

Creative Capital a New Yorkbased philanthropic organization, awarded grants of $50,000 plus other legal and public relations services to two local projects. Shana M. Griffin’s “Displaced” project is a multi-media documentation of how race has historically affected land use such as housing, development and more. Joseph Cuillier III and Shani Peters received their grant for the Black Schoolhouse, which will create a community center in the 7th Ward.

The Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections has kept some

prisoners locked up for months, if not years, beyond their release dates due largely to clerical errors and mismanaged paperwork.

The U.S. Justice Department is now investigating the issue. But calculating the exact length of an inmate’s prison sentence may be tough: DOC uses a reporting program from the 70s, according to the Louisiana Illuminator.

The approximate number of Pfizer vaccine doses that are soon to arrive in Louisiana, following FDA approval for emergency use.

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

City officials have warned that bars could soon close their doors again amid a third surge of COVID-19.

NEW ORLEANS BARS COULD SEE CLOSURES AMID THIRD SURGE OF COVID-19 WITH THE STATE OF LOUISIANA WELL INTO A THIRD SURGE of COVID19, Orleans Parish officials have warned that bar closures could be on the horizon — possibly as early as Dec. 16.

Current pandemic restrictions have shuttered most Louisiana bars across under Gov. John Bel Edwards’ modified Phase 2 reopening guidelines. But a handful of parishes, including Orleans, were allowed in recent weeks to keep bars open due to having positive cases at 5% or below.

The numbers have increased in recent weeks, however. City health director Dr. Jennifer Avegno warned on Dec. 10 that if the city continues to see an uptick, City Hall will clamp down again, forcing local watering holes to close until the pandemic is under greater control.

Avegno and Edwards both warned that health care facilities are nearly at capacity and that in some regions, hospitals have started turning away visitors seeking elective procedures. There is also a nationwide staff shortage, Avegno said.

“There’s really no end in sight,” said Avegno... “Other states have reached hospital capacity. With winter holidays, the surge on top of a surge is quite real.”

Both Avegno and Edwards are encouraging Louisianans to stay home and avoid large holiday gatherings outside of immediate households. — SARAH RAVITS

Gov. John Bel Edwards said that within another week, the state could receive another batch of 40,000 doses. The long-awaited vaccine, which has so far proven to be 95% effective, will be prioritized for the more than 200,000 Louisianans who live or work in nursing homes, long-term care facilities and other health care settings. As many as 159,000 residents could receive the first of two shots by the end of December.

C’est What

?

How are you shopping for the holidays this year?

24.5%

20.6%

THIS IS WHY I HAVE AMAZON PRIME

EVERYONE IS GETTING GUM THIS YEAR

JEFFERSON DAVIS PARKWAY TO BE RENAMED FOR DR. NORMAN C. FRANCIS ON NEW YEAR’S DAY The new year will usher in a name change for Jefferson Davis Parkway, city officials said on Dec. 8.

As of Jan. 1, 2021, the busy thoroughfare will ditch its Confederate moniker and be renamed for Dr. Norman C. Francis, the longtime, now-retired first lay president of Xavier University, a historically Black, Catholic university.

Receiving a new name is part of the ongoing push to strip the city of tributes to white supremacists, Confederates and other figures with legacies of racism.

City Council vice president Helena Moreno authored the ordinance to rename the street over the summer amid a series of citywide Black Lives Matter protests. Moreno worked with activists including Mark

34.8%

BUYING LOCAL IF POSSIBLE BUT STICKING TO ONLINE ORDERING

20%

SHOPPING LOCAL AND MASKING UP TO GO IN PERSON

Vote on “C’est What?” at www.bestofneworleans.com

7

OPENING GAMBIT planners, writers, historians and residents who want to be part of the process.

Last month, the commission recommended renaming Robert E. Lee Boulevard to honor the late musician Allen Toussaint and renaming Tulane Avenue for Allison “Tootie” Montana, a famed Mardi Gras Indian chief.

More recommendations are coming, and council members will have the final say in the months to come.

— SARAH RAVITS

Danger zone Louisiana’s numerous chemical plants put nearby communities in the state’s coastal region at risk of a hurricane-induced toxic pollution event, Sara Sneath reported Dec. 7 for WWNO in partnership with Southerly. Stronger storms increase the chances of subsequent toxic spills or explosions, and chemical plants also emit more air pollution when they shut down before storms.

The media organizations identified 30 facilities on Louisiana’s coast that stored the most toxic chemicals. The most vulnerable areas, like Donaldsonville and Gonzales, have mostly Black residents. The analysis found that New Orleans and Baton

MASK NOW so we can

Rouge are also vulnerable to exposure to toxic chemicals from four facilities each.

After Hurricane Laura in August, a BioLab plant in Westlake, outside of Lake Charles, was on fire for three days, emitting chlorine gas. The analysis concluded that the emission of chlorine gas would be among the worst-case scenarios, causing those exposed to develop breathing conditions that include lung swelling, bronchitis and asthma.

Read more at WWNO.org.

Revelations of problems surrounding LSU athletics continue Several former women’s tennis players have come forward detailing what they call a toxic environment fostered by co-head coach Julia Sell, according to an investigation done

by LSU student journalists Reed Darcey and Katherine Manuel for The Reveille student newspaper.

The report comes after USA Today published last month its article detailing the university’s mishandling of sexual misconduct and domestic abuse complaints against students, including within its athletic department. The article mentioned Sell and

her husband Mike, who also heads the tennis team. Sources told USA Today that Sell was made aware in 2017 that former LSU wide receiver Drake Davis was abusing one of the members of the tennis team, at least a year before she told police she’d found out the allegations. USA Today found no evidence that Sell or her husband reported the abuse then, which failure would violate federal law.

The Reveille reporters talked to seven former team members and one parent of a former team member.

They described Sell compulsively lying to teammates to create drama and pit them against one another, drawing attention to some players’ weight and threatening to take away one player’s scholarship.

Three players who were on the 2012-2013 team told The Reveille Sell knew one of her players was being abused by her boyfriend in the fall of 2012. That’s when another player witnessed the abuse during a night out and called the police. Players said at a team meeting following the incident that Sell appeared angry at the player who called the police.

Read the full article at lsureveille.com.

‘Tis the season for parties and celebrations.

With the holidays upon us, let’s work together so we can get back to the life we love in Louisiana. Wear a mask now to protect yourself, your family and neighbors—so we can party later!

01MK7441 09/20

Learn more about ways to protect yourself at bcbsla.com/covid19

later!

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > D e c e mb e r 1 5 - 2 1 > 2 0 2 0

Raymond Jr., who in June circulated a petition and suggested renaming the street for Francis. The petition caught national attention — including from vice president elect Kamala Harris, who offered her support.

The ordinance passed unanimously among fellow council members in August, but officials said they wanted to wait until after the busy election season and completion of the 2020 Census to officially rename the street.

Officials have not yet said whether there will be an outdoor celebration, likely because of surging rates of COVID-19, but the neutral ground of the thoroughfare has long been an impromptu gathering spot and protest site.

A monument honoring Davis, the president of the Confederacy, was removed from the neutral ground in 2017 by then-mayor Mitch Landrieu.

Meanwhile, the Street Renaming Commission, overseen by Councilmembers Kristin Gisleson Palmer and Jay Banks, has met regularly to address other problematic street names, public parks and physical tributes to Confederates and white supremacists. So far more than 30 streets and parks are up for renaming, with input not just from the commission but also from city

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BRANDED CONTENT

“MY DAY NEVER STOPS”

FRANK DAGGS ON ACADEMICS, SPORTS, AND THE LEGENDARY COACH WAYNE REESE, SR. Photo by Shandrell Briscoe

When I graduated from college, I went straight into the education field. I’ve never done anything else. My mom and dad were both educators for over forty years. My mother taught in Jefferson Parish, and my father here in Orleans Parish. My sister is in education, too.

I am the Head Coach of both football and girls’ track at McDonogh 35, and really and truly, my job is about academics first.

Everything is about academics. Our athletes are going to school and so we make sure they are learning, and that they have all the academic help they need.

Sports foster that type of growth and teach discipline. They also help you take your mind off things. Right now, that is important.

With everything going on, sports let our children’s minds be free.

At 35, our children, and our staff, and our alumni are also coping with the loss of Coach Wayne Reese, who was the head football coach here for seventeen years. Coach Reese was known and respected all over the city. He was about to be in his fiftieth year as a coach in New Orleans.

Photo by Kirk Thomas

I’ve been teaching at McDonogh 35 since 2003. And I can’t pinpoint one single moment where I knew, “this is the right job for me.” But getting to know students when they first arrive at 35 and then watching them become men and women, get scholarships to go to college for free, and earn their college degrees? That is a thrill. And I keep up with all of them.

So my day never stops. I get to school at six forty-five in the morning and I don’t leave until just about eight at night. I’ve learned not to take phone calls once I walk out of the building– but if it’s an emergency, I’m going to answer it. I am grateful for the chance to be a part of educating and expanding opportunity for my students.

Frank Daggs

Frank Daggs is the Head Football Coach and Head Track Coach at the historic McDonogh 35 Senior High School.

Athletics can really open up those opportunities for my student athletes. I’ve seen kids that had never gotten a chance to go anywhere, who maybe didn’t always have heat or lights in their house, grow up and go to college for free and travel the United States. I’ve seen them get master’s degrees and work in big companies. I’ve seen their careers and families grow.

Photo by Kirk Thomas

Orleans. It was opened in 1917 as McDonogh Senior High School, the only public high school for Black students in the segregated school system. It was also one of the first high schools to re-open after InspireNOLA Charter Schools network, led by Jamar McNeely. Mr. Lee Green, a veteran New Orleans edu-

Coach Daggs has been a part of this legacy since 2003. Here, he writes about his work, his vision, and his students. He also reflects on his late friend and colleague, Mr. Wayne Reese, the legendary New Orleans football coach who passed away of COVID-19 this spring.

There are not enough words to describe Coach Reese. He gave his last to every child. He made everybody feel like they were important. I can’t wrap one word around him. He had so many years in the education system, and I remember the stories he could tell about people across the state and city and country.

Now, as the Head Coach, when I’m faced with something, I think, “what would Coach do in this situation?” We’d sit down and talk about certain things, and I remember those conversations—a lot of things we used to say and used to do, I think back on.

Hurricane Katrina. In 2018 35 became part of the

35 Senior High School.

So many people miss him. I had the pleasure of working with him since 2003. It was many years of doing almost the same thing together every day—all season, we would be together. We would go to trips and conventions and camps. Whatever we did, we would do it together.

To be perfectly honest, the kids that are currently in college, they cherished him so much over the last few years, and it hurt them more than anything. They knew everything he did for them. Same goes for the kids that graduated 15 years ago, because Coach Reese’s son played with them, so it was a family issue for them.

McDonogh 35 has a long and powerful history in New

cator, is the principal of the school, now McDonogh

McDonogh 35’s team, the Roneagles, on the field

Coach Frank Daggs, a senior student-athlete, and Principal Lee Green.

As a coach, you see students develop over the course of the season, too. Kids can change a lot in that short time. You might start off seeing a student that’s kind of shy or not too focused. You might think, “I don’t know about this guy.” And then three weeks later or six weeks later? He’s a starter now. Because he gains that experience, he does his reps, and he came out of his little shell.

Or she really pushed at practice and she has this confidence now.

I can remember the two of us going and talking to the families over the years, telling them that we were going to take care of their children, help them get college degrees. I will keep doing that.

And Coach Reese gave so much. He was so dedicated to his students and he offered up so much of his time and himself.

We would always say, “we can’t keep doing it like this.” It’s true that it can be exhausting. But for half a century in this work, he never did stop giving and he never did lose that dedication. And I won’t, either.

9

COMMENTARY

A note to our readers

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fortable, but necessarily so, position of having to start this week’s Commentary with an apology. In late November, Gambit endorsed Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s millage proposals, most notably her controversial library millage plan. This was the wrong decision, and in making it we failed you, our readers, and the broader community.

In the days following our endorsement, Antigravity, The Lens, Bayou Brief, the Bureau of Governmental Research and others laid bare the disingenuous nature of City Hall’s arguments for the library budget cuts.

They exposed Cantrell’s claims for what they were — not mere inaccuracies or spin, but purposeful distortions designed to convince the public to swallow a pill it had neither desire nor reason to take.

This is no simple matter of hindsight being 20/20. Ours was a very difficult decision. We were persuaded by Cantrell’s arguments, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions — and sometimes also with falsehoods. As journalists, it is our job to know better. We sincerely apologize, and we promise to do better going forward. In doing so, we hope to regain the trust of our readers in making future endorsements, particularly with an eye toward making them reflect our community’s values.

Thankfully, the voters of New Orleans knew better. You sent a resounding, powerful message to City Hall: We Don’t Believe You. And for good reason. The mayor and her team misled the public.

Among Cantrell’s most egregious affronts: In the campaign’s final days she threatened massive layoffs and even deeper library cuts if voters rejected the millage. That kind of cynical, full court press is not what

voters expect — or deserve — from someone who started her political career as a grassroots, neighborhood leader in Broadmoor. It was profoundly disrespectful of the people who put her in office — and a lie. The existing library millage remains in effect through Dec. 31, 2021. Cantrell has lots of time to get this right — and earn back voters’ trust.

To say the mayor faces a crisis of confidence is a gross understatement. To someone who’ll face voters in less than a year, the Dec. 5 election results should have been a sobering wake-up call. Yet, just two days after the vote, rather than accept the will of voters and announce plans to renew the library millage more fully next year, Cantrell re-upped her threat to let it expire — and trigger layoffs as well as service reductions. Such petulance is beneath the office of mayor and an insult to all New Orleanians.

Despite her tantrum — and fortunately for the libraries — there’s time to reverse course and regain voters’ trust. Cantrell should step back from the brink on this issue and start over by listening to voters in the “bottom-up” fashion that launched her career, not lecturing them with top-down scolds and threats. She also should seek input from business, religious and neighborhood leaders as well as library users and members of the broader community before proposing another round of millage renewals — and ensure those plans actually reflect that input. Above all, any proposed renewal should ensure funding for the library system.

Anything less could doom Cantrell’s relationship with the people who put her in office — and who are counting on her to do better.

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I HAVE OFTEN QUOTED ONE OF MY LATE MENTORS, JIM CARVIN, who

taught me that every election is a unique event. So much so that even the few weeks between primaries and runoffs can produce profoundly different outcomes. This election season provided a glaring example of Carvin’s wisdom.

Which leads me to this December edition of my decades-long electoral recap, “Da Winnas & Da Loozas.” Even casual readers of this column will note the dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of some of November’s victors and vanquished, most notably Mayor LaToya Cantrell. We begin with …

DA WINNAS 1. Criminal Justice Reformers They elected Jason Williams as New Orleans’ new district attorney in a stunning triumph over establishment candidate Keva Landrum. In truth, the vote for Williams was as much a rebuke of the “law and order” crowd and the city’s political establishment — including Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who supported Landrum — as it was a vote for the councilman, who still has to get past an 11-count federal indictment alleging tax fraud. Williams only high-profile support among public officials came from fellow Council member Helena Moreno and state Rep. Royce Duplessis.

2. Library Backers Anyone who has tangled with Disney knows the old adage, “Don’t f- — with the mouse.” Well, henceforth the New Orleans version of that maxim will be, “Don’t f- — with the library.”

The mayor, the council, even some of the library brass and, I’m sorry to say, Gambit (see Commentary, p. 9) backed the administration’s ballot proposition that would significantly reduce the library’s share of a renewed property tax millage. A late groundswell of opposition from library supporters in all corners of town rallied voters against not only the library proposition but also two others pushed by the mayor.

3. Charter School Supporters Local supporters of public charter schools swept the school board elections after five of the seven seats up for grabs had to go to runoffs.

4. The LGBTQ Community & Friends Incumbent school board member Leslie Ellison, an outspoken homophobe who got 49.9% of the vote in the Nov. 3 primary, ultimately lost to newcomer Dr. J.C. Romero, an

P H OTO B Y DAV I D G R U N F E L D , N O L A . C O M | T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E | T H E N E W O R L E A N S A DVO C AT E

Jason Williams celebrates winning the Orleans Parish district attorney’s runoff.

openly gay educator. Equally stunning (appalling would be a better word choice) was the level of establishment support that Ellison had garnered.

Romero’s backers included a large coalition of people and neighborhood groups within the board’s 4th District (Algiers, the Quarter, Marigny and Bywater) as well as folks citywide, notably the Forum for Equality.

5. The French Quarter Management District The FQMD provides additional police protection in the Vieux Carre and thought it had a deal with Cantrell over how to divvy proceeds of a quarter-penny sales tax in the Quarter that was up for renewal. At the eleventh hour, FQMD members felt the administration reneged on the deal.

There are only eight precincts in the Quarter, and it didn’t take long for residents and biz owners to get word out against Cantrell’s proposition.

They crushed it.

6. West Jefferson Black Voters Black citizens comprise a near-majority of Jefferson Parish’s West Bank electorate, and they finally elected a Black candidate to a position representing the entire West Bank.

Attorney Sharlayne Jackson-Prevost trounced Republican Nelson Cantrelle in the runoff for judge of Second Parish Court. This is a milestone in Jefferson politics, and it brings us to …

DA LOOZAS 1. Mayor LaToya Cantrell She rode high in the Nov. 3 primary, but voters flushed all three of her proposed millage renewals as well as her

French Quarter sales tax proposition on Dec. 5. For good measure, they also elected Jason Williams as DA over her candidate, Keva Landrum.

Worst of all, the coalition that did all this is largely the one that put Cantrell in office. With less than a year before she faces re-election, we’ll know soon enough if Herroner got the message.

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2. Guardians of the Status Quo From Landrum’s defeat to Ellison’s dramatic fall from her near-win in the school board primary, the political establishment — including Cantrell, most council members and political groups as well as “law and order” advocates — took it on the chin on Dec. 5.

3. Local Charter School Opponents The teachers union and a group called Erase the Board supported separate slates of candidates in the school board elections, but candidates backed by charter supporters swept all seven board seats.

4. National Charter Supporters Jim Walton, one of the heirs to the Walmart fortune, and the political funding arm of Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), a national group that advocates for charter schools, each poured $150,000 into the Black Alliance for Civic Empowerment (BACE) Action Fund, which in turn put thousands behind Ellison’s losing runoff campaign in school board District 4. People who give that kind of money should make sure it goes to candidates who reflect their publicly espoused values, not just their short-term politics.

That’s a wrap for 2020, folks. Like you, I’m glad it’s almost over.

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Da Winnas & Da Loozas redux: a dramatic turnaround

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BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN™

Hey Blake, In front of the Copper Vine Wine Pub near Poydras and O’Keefe are sidewalk tiles reading “Maylie and Esparbe” and “Table D’Hote.” What can you tell me about them?

Dear reader,

The Poydras Street buildings that are now home to Copper Vine and Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The block holds an important spot in local culinary history as the home of Maylie’s restaurant. The tiles refer to the French Creole restaurant’s founders and the table d’hôte menu they offered.

Bernard Maylie and Hippolyte Esparbe, Frenchmen who immigrated to New Orleans in the 1860s, first went in business together to open a coffee stall in the Poydras Market, one of many 19th century public markets in the city.

In 1876, they opened a restaurant at 1001 Poydras St. Many of their customers were market vendors who lunched there after their early

G A M B I T S TA F F P H OTO

Tiles in front of the Copper Vine Wine Pub near Poydras Street and O’Keefe Avenue

morning shift. In 1894, Maylie and Esparbe added a second building at 1009 Poydras. They lived with their families on the second floor.

The original restaurant at 1001 Poydras was demolished in 1959.

Descendants of the Maylie family (including third generation members Willie and Anna May Maylie) continued to operate the restaurant, known just as Maylie’s — and live upstairs — for more than 100 years.

Well into the 1980s, Maylie’s still served many of the same items its founders did, including boiled beef brisket, turtle soup and deviled eggs in spicy remoulade sauce.

Maylie’s closed in 1986. After a multimillion-dollar renovation, a branch of the Smith and Wollensky steak house chain opened in its place in 1998. Its chef was Robert Bruce, the grandson of Willie and Anna May Maylie.

Copper Vine, which features Maylie’s original wooden bar, opened at the spot in 2018.

BLAKEVIEW THIS WEEK MARKS THE 85TH ANNIVERSARY of the opening of the Huey P.

Long Bridge, one of America’s highest and longest steel bridges and the first bridge to cross the Mississippi River in New Orleans. It provided a vital transportation route for the railroad and port while opening the east and west banks of Jefferson Parish to new development.

Before the bridge, railcars and trucks had to be ferried across the river. Planning for an alternative began as early as 1916 but was delayed by the Great Depression.

Built at a cost of $13.5 million (more than $250 million in today’s money), the bridge was named for former governor and U.S. Senator Huey P. Long, who championed its construction. He was assassinated four months before the project was completed.

The 4.4-mile-long bridge, which towers 135 feet above the river, was designed by the firm of Modjeski, Masters and Case. The New Orleans Public Belt Railroad owns the bridge and maintains the railroad, while the state Department of Transportation and Development supervises the roadway portion.

At one time, it was the world’s longest railroad bridge. Since it was designed more for railcars than automobiles, with two shoulder-less, 9-footwide traffic lanes in each direction, the bridge was notorious for what The Times-Picayune once called its “teeth-clenching, knuckle-whitening crossings.” In 2013, a $1.2 billion, seven-year project to widen the bridge was completed, adding three 11-foot-wide lanes and shoulders in each direction.

In 2012, the bridge was designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as an engineering landmark, alongside such iconic structures as the Eiffel Tower and Hoover Dam.

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COVER STORY

VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE Suburban parishes struggle to protect students and teachers from COVID-19

BY K AY L E E P O C HE

THE WEEK BEFORE THANKSGIVING BREAK, a Jefferson Parish science

teacher noticed several students in one of her classes had textbook symptoms of COVID-19: fever, fatigue and sore throats. So, she did what has now become routine for teachers across the state: she reported the cases to school officials and sent seven of them home.

Those steps weren’t enough, and by the time classes resumed after the holiday break, nearly all of the 27 students in the class were home thanks to the outbreak. That came as a surprise to their teacher — who said she’d heard nothing about the severity of the outbreak from administration officials.

“Apparently someone was positive in that room, but nobody told the teachers anything,” the teacher said.

(Like most of the teachers working in Jefferson and St. Bernard Parish with whom Gambit spoke, she would only speak on the condition of anonymity, citing concerns of reprisals from school officials.)

Within a few days, she went into quarantine. The process had almost become routine at this point. “The first month I had to do it, the second month I had to do it. And now we’re here,” this teacher told Gambit.

But what was different was how long she was out of the classroom.

Despite recommendations from public health officials that potentially exposed persons quarantine for 10 days to two weeks — or seven days with a negative test — she was back to work three days later, without ever being tested.

“Apparently exposure to a positive case only warrants three days out now. Nobody is getting the full quarantine anymore,” she explained.

It’s a familiar story for students and teachers across the region, particularly in the suburban parishes where

officials have gone to great lengths to maintain an appearance of normalcy during the pandemic, even as cases and death counts have continued to climb.

But particularly in these public schools, that mirage is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up. For instance, in the science teacher’s case, when she was sent home, all of the kindergarten and third grade teachers and half the teachers in her grade were out. In fact, so many teachers in Jefferson Parish are quarantining that at some schools, there aren’t enough of them left to watch the students still on campus.

“We literally have janitors now who are having to watch classes because the teacher is out,” the teacher said.

“It’s insane.”

By the end of the first week in December, at least 1,638 Jefferson Parish public school staff and students were quarantining, an uptick of 400 more people than were quarantined just two weeks earlier on Nov. 18, according to The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate. As of Dec. 9, the district reported 169 confirmed total cases since schools reopened in September.

Likewise, in St. Bernard Parish public schools, 22 of the 106 adults and students who have reported testing positive so far this year reported their cases that same week, according to Alexandra Schneider, a spokesperson for the district. Of those cases, 26 were active as of Dec. 4. Unlike in Jefferson Parish, Schneider said the school district does not keep school-related quarantine data.

State and parish officials have put in place a patchwork of rules ostensibly designed to help protect teachers, students and the broader community from COVID-19. But there is little to

17

COVER STORY

functioning within an appropriately spaced and controlled kind of an environment,” Hassig said.

And social distancing is only getting harder, as more students are deciding to switch from virtual to in-person instruction. One Jefferson Parish teacher reported desks in her classroom are between 8 inches and a foot apart.

At a Jefferson Parish School Board meeting on Dec. 2, teacher union president Kesler CamiseJones said many classrooms in the district are overcrowded as students return to campus. She said some are “over the legal limit for students in the classroom.”

According to minimum standards the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) adopted in July, each student and adult must have their temperatures checked “upon arriving at the school facility.” However, temperature checks may be taken before a student enters the school building or once they get to their homeroom classroom.

Teachers at some Jefferson Parish schools like Adams Middle, Grace King High and West Jefferson High said their schools are diligent in taking their temperatures as soon as they arrive on campus and before they enter the school building.

However, even at these schools, many students ride the bus before getting their temperatures taken.

But at other schools in Jefferson Parish and St. Bernard, teachers said students don’t get their temperatures taken until it’s time to enter their homeroom class — meaning a student with a fever could theoretically ride the bus, enter the school building and talk with friends in the hall, pick up their breakfast and walk to class all before they find out they have a fever.

I’m walking around with a weight on my chest constantly and huge anxiety,” a Jefferson Parish teacher said. “I cannot handle this situation much longer.

Another teacher in Jefferson Parish working virtually reported that in the three times she did go to campus, nobody checked her temperature at the front office.

In both parishes, teachers said temperature readings are consistently off, often giving low readings between 93 and 95 degrees. In Jefferson Parish, only staff and students with a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher are sent home.

“The thermometers are so faulty that they’re like, ‘OK, well, anything from a 95 to 100 is still acceptable,’ ” the Jefferson Parish science teacher said. “It’s pretty insane because you don’t know if it’s running hot or running cold — these thermometers don’t work.”

Teachers in both parishes said they routinely witness individual compliance issues, like students pulling down their masks and staff and students not social distancing.

Those sorts of behaviors are hard to police, they said. “[The students will] be polite about it, but they really don’t care because they’ll just drop the mask down again a minute later when you turn your back,” the Chalmette High teacher said.

“Half the kids don’t wear their masks correctly,” the Jefferson Parish science teacher said. “The other half are like, ‘My daddy says this is all a joke.’ ” “I have students taking off masks.

They’re hugging each other. I reprimand them, I call parents,” said Linda Monacelli, a Grace King High teacher, at the Jefferson Parish School Board meeting. “They joke that they’re going to die … and I tell them that’s not a joke. I don’t know how else to convince them that this is serious.”

Teachers also said they feel the school districts have dealt their school administrators a bad hand in the first place. By not taking the virus seriously enough to impose mandatory rules with explicit requirements, these teachers said, it is sending a clear signal to students: This isn’t that big of a deal.

“We teach our students to be proactive, teach them to think critically, teach them all of these skills, and I feel like it’s for nothing,” Monacelli said. “If they’re seeing our leadership not take this pandemic seriously, they’re not going to take it seriously.”

And it’s not just the parish education officials that are setting a bad example: unlike in Orleans Parish where residents have taken the coronavirus much more seriously, conservative propaganda has led some in the suburban parishes to believe the pandemic is a lie.

Gov. John Bel Edwards moved the state back to modified Phase 2 restrictions beginning Nov. 25, following a surge in cases in Louisiana that mirrored a national trend. But PAGE 19

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no standardization to those rules or mandatory requirements, and even fully putting them into place leaves huge gaps in the safety coverage.

Indeed, many schools have been following the minimum requirements under the Strong Start Plan, developed by the state’s education and health departments. Those rules rely heavily on teachers and students on campus socially distancing “to the maximum extent possible” — putting essentially no real limit on how close together people can be in schools.

On the Strong Start FAQ list, the phrase “extent possible” appears 10 times. Students can sit at tables or on rugs if they are physically distanced — to the maximum extent possible. Staff and students in third grade and older must wear masks on campus and on buses — again, to the maximum extent possible.

The plan does say desks should be spaced six feet apart in classrooms — but to the maximum extent possible. In many local classrooms, though, it’s physically impossible to come anywhere close to that. One Jefferson Parish teacher said when she came in before the school year to arrange her classroom, she could only get desks between 14 inches and two feet apart — and that’s what some classrooms currently look like.

“If 14 inches is the greatest extent possible, then that’s what you’ve got to go with,” one Jefferson Parish teacher said. “I think the Strong Start Plan has some deliberate loopholes in it.”

Susan Hassig, an epidemiologist at Tulane University, said that she’s “not happy” with that language from a public health standpoint, even though it’s similar to language used in CDC guidelines for various group settings.

“The bottom line is no ... you should be finding spaces to allow the children and the teachers to be

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At school board meetings, on social media and in interviews, teachers in both parishes repeatedly said they don’t feel their school districts are being transparent with them. While some reported regular notifications, others said they aren’t always notified when colleagues or students test positive for the virus. They notice students absent from their class but won’t know if that student tested positive, if they are quarantining due to possible exposure or if it’s for an unrelated reason.

The Jefferson Parish science teacher said the only reason she knew a student in her homeroom class had tested positive is because the student’s mother personally told a teacher’s aide with whom she was friends. The teacher’s aide told another teacher and it eventually got back to the science teacher.

The teacher also said Dec. 9 was the first time she received an official notification letter stating a staff member at her school had tested positive, even though she’d heard of teachers testing positive previously. The notification came three days after The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate published an op-ed from Jefferson Parish teacher Victoria Baur describing a major staffing shortage at her school due to so many staff out quarantining, and the same day the parish sent Gambit a statement for this story.

“We find out through the grapevine who tested positive,”

Monacelli said at the Dec. 2 school board meeting.

According to the Jefferson Parish school district, once principals are made aware of a positive case, they work with the school nurse to begin contact tracing. After, the district said it notifies the school community of potential exposure and makes close contacts — defined as anyone determined to be within six feet of the infected person for a total of at least 15 minutes during a 24-hour period — quarantine.

Schneider said in St. Bernard Parish, nursing staff investigates each confirmed case of COVID19 and “closely examine seating charts, talk directly with teachers and watch video when appropriate to determine close contacts.” She said the district sends out generic notification letters to families and emails to staff when someone tests positive, and that teachers are notified of any of their students who are quarantined so they can give them assignments to work on at home.

But teachers with whom Gambit spoke painted a different picture and said the notification process is so opaque they have more questions than answers about how it works.

“Half the kids don’t wear their masks correctly,” a Jefferson Parish science teacher said. “The other half are like, ‘My daddy says this is all a joke.’”

A teacher in Jefferson Parish said her coworker found a beat-up letter at the bottom of her own child’s backpack that said someone at the school had tested positive. She had no idea when the letter had been sent out and didn’t recall being informed otherwise.

“One of the frustrating things about Jefferson Parish throughout

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PAGE 17

he left BESE with the option to let school districts continue operating under Phase 3 restrictions, which it immediately did — a move that disappointed many local teachers.

At the federal level, President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced his support of schools holding in-person classes during the pandemic, and he and his administration have threatened to withhold federal funds from schools who didn’t do so — against the advice of his own health experts.

“The rush to reopen the schools when this all started was right in line with what the Trump administration and what Betsy DeVos was pushing on the country,” said John Guzda, a West Jefferson High history teacher. “When seven out of our nine board members are Republicans of that stripe, it didn’t surprise a lot of us that oh, of course, they’re following these people ... There’s a lot of money that’s at risk if everybody stays home.”

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this entire process is that there is not any real level of transparency that exists,” Guzda said.

“Something that a lot of us have been pushing is, ‘Hey, Jefferson Parish, like on the regular ... give us up-to-date numbers at the individual schools.’

“It would be helpful to know, hey, at this school there’s six people. At this school, there’s eight people,” he added.

A spokesperson for the district told Gambit in a statement it reports district-wide COVID-19 positive cases and quarantine numbers at each regular school board meeting.

In St. Bernard, teachers said robocalls informing teachers and parents of positive cases have been spotty throughout the semester.

One Chalmette High teacher reports not receiving robocalls for large swaths of the semester, noticing a few calls only right after they asked about it at meetings.

“This isn’t something that should be left to gossip,” the teacher said.

“We’re just playing the telephone game here, which is essentially what I teach my students not to do.”

After articles from local outlets reported the increased number of students and staff testing positive in New Orleans area schools, the Jefferson Parish school district sent out an email on Dec. 7 “to correct recent misinformation about Jefferson Parish Schools health and safety protocols.”

The email said the district “disseminates all information that is eligible for us to distribute” but that privacy laws prevent them from sharing any identifying information about anyone who has tested positive or who is quarantining.

The district said it’s in frequent communication with the state health department and local health officials and “will continue to utilize their guidance to make determinations about closures when necessary.”

One problem, Hassig said, could be a lack of resources. Tulane, a private university, has been able to invest substantially in COVID-19 mitigation measures. It installed temporary tent classrooms outside buildings to allow students to better distance themselves, and they began testing students and staff on a regular basis, which she said didn’t prevent outbreaks but helped control them.

But a public high school in Jefferson or St. Bernard doesn’t have nearly the same resources, Hassig said, even though Jefferson Parish has more than triple the number of students as Tulane. Congress passed the CARES Act in March, which provided $13.5 billion of emergency funding to K-12 schools. Jefferson Parish, Louisiana’s largest school district, has received $45.4 million and St. Bernard Parish has received almost $6 million.

Hassig said she suspects this wasn’t enough for the district to take measures such as regularly testing staff and students or converting gyms and cafeterias into teaching spaces to better distance students, when they also needed to prioritize paying for supplies like masks and hand sanitizer. And Congress has failed to pass another major relief package since.

“It’s just this whole cascade of things that all need to be coordinated and paid for,” she said.

Teachers acknowledge virtual schooling is not as effective as in-person education, but they say their districts should prioritize the health and safety of school staff and students above all else.

“We find out through the grapevine who tested positive,” said Linda Monacelli, a Grace King High teacher.

In classes where the teacher is at home — either quarantining or due to an accommodation — and virtually teaching students who are on campus, other staff are having to sit in and monitor them while they’re on their computers.

21

COVER STORY

In the meantime, teachers in both parishes said their mental health is declining. They’re having to plan multiple lessons per class period for virtual students and in-person students, and some are missing planning periods to cover for other teachers. Two teachers in Jefferson Parish reported working more than 80 hours a week this semester, as compared to their usual 50 to 60 in past years.

“A lot of our employees are really, really overworked,” Jones said at the Dec. 2 Jefferson Parish School Board meeting.

“They’re drowning.”

On top of this, teachers in both parishes are having to deal with longer school days. In November, Jefferson Parish added 30 minutes to the end of the school day to make up for time lost from delaying the start of the semester and due to Hurricane Zeta. In St. Bernard, teachers are required to report to school 20 minutes early so their students can eat breakfast in their classrooms instead of the cafeteria and stay 20 minutes later to accommodate for the divided bus schedule, according to the Chalmette High teacher.

Guzda said he’s been teaching in Jefferson Parish for eight years and this is the hardest he’s ever worked in his life. “We start our days early, we end late, we go home, we work some more, and then it’s time to start all over again,” he said.

“We are being so overworked that if we’re to be successful at our jobs, which is what we all want, then something in our personal life inevitably has to suffer,” he added. “I have practically zero time to spend with my wife … I can’t imagine what it would be like to have kids.”

Jefferson Parish noted it offers an emotional support hotline for school employees, and St. Bernard said each of its schools have counselors and mental health professionals available.

At the beginning of the year, the Chalmette High teacher said teachers were breaking down and crying. The teacher said the added workload on top of stress about their health and safety is causing many to experience panic attacks, anxiety and depression.

“There’s a lot of talk about, ‘See this therapist. This depression medication didn’t work for me, this one didn’t work. I take this anxiety medication,’ ” the teacher said.

“That’s something that’s totally behind the scenes on this.”

And as the height of the pandemic and seasonal depression collide, the teacher said the toll is back again in full force.

“I’m walking around with a weight on my chest constantly and huge anxiety,” one Jefferson Parish teacher said. “I’m actively looking for another job. I don’t know what I can do at [my age] that will pay my mortgage, but I cannot handle this situation much longer.”

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A Jefferson Parish teacher who is working from home said while she can’t see and hear everything going on in the physical classroom, she hears a lot of commotion in the background when a student unmutes themselves to ask a question.

“Sometimes I wonder: Is there even an adult in the room?” she said. “It’s chaos. They’re playing, they’re passing notes, they’re eating food, they’re up out of their seats … They’re like [children] you’d expect to be on a playground.”

Teachers in Jefferson Parish middle and high schools have to teach classes where some students are in-person and some are logging in virtually from home. These classes are largely unpopular with teachers because they’re having to try to teach two different groups at the same time.

“Honestly, no one wins. No one gets the full attention,” the Jefferson Parish science teacher said. “Meanwhile, you’re trying to get kids to not say bad words in the chat, meanwhile the one in the back is about to like rip someone else’s head off. It’s just a nightmare.”

But even in classes where both the teachers and students are in-person, teachers said the level of learning isn’t the same this semester. Instead of conducting experiments themselves, the science teacher’s students have to watch videos of the experiments. “I can already see the level of learning (is) much different than their peers from last year in the same grade,” she said.

But even so, some teachers in Jefferson Parish believe the district — or at least its middle and high schools — should be entirely virtual.

“I’m not saying that that is how I want to teach,” Guzda said, “I know our job as teachers is to teach our kids … but our job is [also] to love our kids and to take care of our kids as well, and to me, health and safety always comes first.”

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Chef Michael Stoltzfus runs the kitchen at the revamped Columns

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

Chef Michael Stolzfus serves a burger with pepper marmalade and ricotta at Columns.

BY B E T H D ’A D D O N O WHEN JAYSON SEIDMAN BOUGHT THE VENERABLE COLUMNS HOTEL on St.

WHAT

Columns

WHERE

3811 St. Charles Ave., (504) 899-9308; thecolumns.com

Email dining@gambitweekly.com

Brewing in Bywater

Refreshed

Charles Avenue in December 2019, his vision wasn’t to create something new. It was to leave much that was familiar but restore some of the spot’s luster to its original sheen.

Chef Michael Stoltzfus is approaching the Columns’ culinary program in much the same way.

“I see the menu and service as paying homage to old-school New Orleans,” says the chef, who also owns the restaurants Coquette and Thalia.

Built as an Italianate-style mansion for a wealthy tobacco merchant in 1883-1884, the Columns’ last owners, Jacques and Claire Creppel, turned it into a New Orleans institution during their 40-year stewardship. Historically, the Columns was a restaurant before it was a hotel, and that’s what opened first under new ownership. The property has been reconfigured from 20 rooms to 18, which are expected to open sometime this month.

There’s no designated restaurant space, instead the menu and an impressive array of craft cocktails and spirits are served on the hotel’s patio, porch and ground-floor rooms.

The grassy front yard is now a lovely landscaped permeable brick patio, ideal for physical distancing outside in pandemic times. A new sundeck is in the works for the third floor.

“This place has touched everyone in the city in some way,” Stoltzfus says. “From weddings to graduation parties and Mardi Gras celebrations, the Columns is a true local icon. My idea is to honor what this is and just give the food an upgrade.”

When Seidman first approached him with the idea of running a hotel restaurant, Stoltzfus, 39, wasn’t interested — until he found out it was the storied Columns.

FORK CENTER

“I saw so much potential,” the chef says. “I’d been wanting to do a new project for a long time. Thalia was all Kristen (Essig, his former business partner). This excited me.”

Stoltzfus, who worked at August restaurant before opening Coquette in 2008, brings his fine dining chops and signature attention to detail to Columns’ new menu. With chef Paul Terrebonne, a native of Cut Off, as chef de cuisine, the emphasis is on shareable plates and lighter options.

“I wanted more vegetables, including vegan options,” Stoltzfus says.

“The older I get, the healthier I want to eat.”

There currently are a compact nine dishes under the menu’s savory section, the emphasis squarely on seasonal and mostly locally sourced ingredients, with prices ranging from $8-$16.

At first read, the dishes are straightforward. When they arrive at the table, each one is artfully composed and white tablecloth worthy.

Imagine a cabbage rose — not the real flower, but a deconstructed slowpoached cabbage reassembled to look like a flower, adorned with dill fronds, a slathering of fennel aioli and glossy orange beads of smoked trout roe.

“I’m a huge fan of cabbage,” Stoltzfus says. He comes by his love

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of cabbage and all things pickled honestly, reared in a Mennonite household on a Maryland Eastern Shore farm until his parents went in a more progressive direction when he was 7.

The menu’s Broadbent Farm plate of smoked Kentucky ham includes a swirl of thinly sliced, lean ham, a house pickled vegetable of the day (most recently it was cauliflower) and a scoop of stellar pimiento cheese, with house-made shrimp chips, crunchy from tapioca flour, on the side. The house-ground wagyu burger includes some andouille for added smokiness. The old-school, thicker burger is topped with pepper marmalade and a schmear of ricotta.

Flash-fried speckled trout is moist and flaky, served with cauliflower and turnip tartar sauce on the side.

French fries are cooked to order and served hot with ketchup and a Dijonnaise dipping sauce on the side.

Stoltzfus is building the operation slowly, not bringing a full staff on board until he sees how business goes.

“It’s COVID, just a weird time,” he says. “I’m surrounded by a great management team, which makes all the difference.”

Stoltzfus divides his time between Columns and Coquette, which reopened for dine-in service in September. Thalia is being used as a commissary kitchen for now, leased to Lucy Boone Ice Cream and Viola’s Heritage Breads.

“We’re definitely not reopening as Thalia,” he says. “It’s just not a big enough space to make it sustainable at less than full capacity. We’ll see what we do with that after the first of the year.”

HOW

Dine-in and outdoor seating available

CHECK IT OUT

Chef Michael Stolzfus serves creative small plates

BYWATER BREW PUB opened Nov. 30 and serves a menu combining Vietnamese and Cajun cuisines.

The brewery occupies a renovated warehouse space that formerly was home to a glass blowing studio and a sandwich shop at 3000 Royal St. Chef Anh Luu grew up in New Orleans, and she made a name for herself in Portland, Oregon, at her restaurant, Tapalaya. It was known for dishes like her “phoritto,” and the version at Bywater Brew Pub combines braised beef, rice noodles,

P H OTO B Y DA L E H E A D R I C K

Anh Luu is the chef at Bywater Brew Pub.

onions, Thai basil, bean sprouts and Sriracha and hoisin sauces in a tortilla.

Other dishes bridging cuisines include Cajun fried rice with chicken, shrimp and spicy sausage and Vietnamese crawfish nachos, with Cotija and cheddar cheeses and crawfish over fried wonton chips. There also are spring rolls, yakamein, lemon grass pork lettuce wraps, fried chicken, and a couple of burgers, as well as a tofu option. Bar snacks also include a combo of house-made pickles and char siu pork cracklings.

Sonny Day, who formerly worked at Urban South Brewery, is overseeing the brewing program. The brewery has five brewing tanks, but while it is completing its first round of house beers, the taps are filled with brews from other local breweries, including Urban South, Zony Mash Beer Project, NOLA Brewing Company and Parleaux Beer Lab. The microbrewery is open 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, noon to 11 p.m. Saturday and noon to 10 p.m.

Sunday. Visit bywaterbrewpub.com for details. — WILL COVIELLO PAGE 26

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Charlie’s returns again THE DOORS AT CHARLIE’S STEAK HOUSE have been closed since

the death of proprietor Matthew Dwyer last summer. But his family left the lights on as a symbol that the low-key Uptown institution would return.

“We wanted everyone to know we wouldn’t turn the lights off on Charlie’s,” says Owl Dwyer, the late restaurateur’s brother. “We wanted people to know Charlie’s would be back.”

Charlie’s Steak House is poised to make that comeback through a new partnership that includes local chef Aaron Burgau and his wife Kim, Sadie and Brian Stewart, Jamie and John Cangelosi and members of the Dwyer family — Owl and his wife Heady. A sales deal between the new partners and the family closed Dec. 9, Aaron Burgau says.

He’s confident they will reopen Charlie’s by the end of the month.

The three families joining the Dwyers here are all longtime friends. They say they’re investing in the business together to bring back a New Orleans classic.

“Everyone else who looked at buying the place wanted to make it condos or turn it into something else,” Aaron Burgau says. “We wanted to keep it the same.”

The restaurant at 4510 Dryades St. goes back to 1932 and it looks the part.

A steakhouse with the soul of a New Orleans neighborhood joint, Charlie’s was known for an unfussy attitude and large T-bone steaks sizzling on metal platters. The menu wasn’t printed but recited tableside.

Matthew Dwyer bought the restaurant after Hurricane Katrina and ran it for a dozen years. He died at his Algiers home on June 26 at age 49.

Owl Dwyer says the family was determined to keep Charlie’s going because his brother’s own efforts to bring the restaurant back after Katrina had meant so much to him.

Brian Stewart is an owner of the Bayou State Automotive Group car dealerships. He and Sadie live near Charlie’s and had struck up a friendship with Matthew Dwyer at the restaurant. Jamie and John Cangelosi are local attorneys.

Burgau is co-owner of the upscale bistro Patois and the casual Central City BBQ. Many of the former Charlie’s staff will return, including Glenn Bove, manager here for the past decade.

There will be some changes when the restaurant reopens. Neil McClure, who formerly ran his own restaurant McClure’s BBQ at the NOLA Brewing Company taproom, will lead Charlie’s kitchen. Burgau says he wants to expand the wine

list and bump up the quality of the steaks the restaurant buys. — IAN McNULTY/THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

Fresh bread NEW ORLEANS BAKER KATE HELLER

started Leo’s Bread by selling her handmade loaves from the back of her station wagon. Soon, she’ll be opening the doors to a new storefront location for Leo’s Bread, right across the street from where those early pop-ups were held.

The Leo’s Bread bakery cafe is taking shape at 2438 Bell St., a corner spot adjacent to Bayou Road.

Heller expects to open this winter.

The location is a former sheet metal shop with big garage doors where she can wheel in ovens and new baking equipment. The cafe will have a counter filled with bagels, croissants, semolina and sourdough loaves, focaccia, sandwiches, fresh juices and coffee.

“I always wanted a neighborhood bakery, especially in the neighborhood I live in,” Heller says. “This industry is so much work, you have to like what you do. To me, a lot of that has to do with the people you meet and interact with, and that’s what a neighborhood bakery brings.”

Today, Leo’s Bread is best known as a vendor at the Crescent City Farmers Market. At the Uptown market on Tuesdays, Heller offers baked goods and bagels with cream cheese. She says she’ll continue to do the Tuesday markets after Leo’s Bread opens across town.

The new location is across the street from Pagoda Cafe, which hosted early pop-ups for Leo’s Bread. Pagoda Cafe has been closed since March, because of the pandemic.

From its start in 2014, Leo’s Bread began supplying neighborhood restaurants, including the nearby 1000 Figs. Soon, Heller partnered with 1000 Figs proprietors Theresa Galli and Gavin Cady to open Echo’s, a wood-oven pizzeria in Mid-City. Last year, they closed and sold the business, which became a second location of Pizza Domenica.

Heller had been planning this new storefront for Leo’s Bread before the pandemic. After postponing its development through the intervening months, she decided it was time to move forward. Leo’s Bread has reached the point where it needs its own dedicated space, she says.

“We’ll be able to expand everything we’re doing now,” Heller says.

“More types of croissants, different types of bagels, more sandwiches.

It’s exciting.” — IAN McNULTY/ THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

EAT+DRINK

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3-COURSE InTeRVIeW

Kim Lewis Founder Ole Orleans KIM LEWIS IS A CAREER SCHOOLTEACHER who opened a micro

winery in new Orleans. She created the Ole’ Orleans in 2018 and recently opened its tasting room at 1232 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.

Her wines are available online, at local restaurants and stores including Total Wine & More, Acquistapace’s, Sidney’s Wine Cellar, Breaux Mart, 35 Walmarts and more.

How did you get interested in starting a winery?

KIM LEWIS: I have loved wine since I was 22 or 23. Having three kids, I always had a glass of wine in my hand, watching my kids play, being a park mom at Carrollton.

Whatever the occasion, we had wine on the table. [The winery] started as a joke. everybody laughed, but it came up again, and before you know it, I started looking into it. I worked hard studying wines, looking into creating wines. My first two wines were not created by me, but every one I create now has every bit of my input in it.

Originally it was just going to be online [sales]. I didn’t expect for this to blow up. It just sort of happened — being an AfricanAmerican woman with a wine company in new Orleans, which has never had a winery or a microwinery. It’s the first micro winery in the state.

What wines do you make?

L: I have a Rhone [style] white blend that’s not out yet called Wards. It’s a tribute to the late 1800s to early 1900s and how new Orleans was separated by wards.

It’s a Rhone white blend with marsanne, roussane and viognier grapes and a little grenache blanc.

The grapes are from Texas.

I just introduced a rose called Vieux Carre made with the tempranillo red grape. My top sellers are Tchoupitoulas made with blanc du bois and dry, and Old Carrollton is blanc du bois and is semisweet.

I have a portfolio of 17 wines that I will have out. Right now I am at 10, with four available in stores.

I have a merlot called Gumbeaux, my top selling red wine, and a riesling called Heritage. Heritage

P H OTO P R OV I D e D B Y K I M L e W I S

is a tribute to new Orleans’ Black history. The label stays the same, but the picture will change every February to highlight a different moment in African-American history in new Orleans.

How has the tasting room opening gone?

L: This is not a bar, not a lounge, not a restaurant. This is where all the magic happens. People can see what we’re doing here. On the days that we’re not doing tastings, we’re working.

We’ve been booked every day since October. There has been demand because there’s nothing like this in the city. We do private tastings. Because of COVID, people can’t do drop ins. They can only do private reservations until we’re out of Phase 2.

We give people a time slot to come in, taste and shop. When you come in you get a flight of four wines. The first pour is a glass of red or white that isn’t in the flight.

We prepare the flight, and with it you get a charcuterie spread with cheese, meats and jams — we make wine preserves with our wines. I present the wines and tell people where they were made and give a little background about myself. We talk about tasting — sniffing the wine, looking at the legs, how to hold a glass. You have fun with whoever you came with.

There’s music. It’s a blast.

— WILL COVIeLLO Visit oleorleans.com for information.

4308 WAVERLY ST. METAIRIE, LA 70006 SHOP ONLINE WWW.GOTOGORDONS.COM

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EVENTS

Holiday drama EVEN DURING THE PANDEMIC

there are holiday shows and attractions. Here are some of the upcoming live and virtual productions.

‘AN R RATED CHRISTMAS CAROL’ The NOLA Project typically does a play reading of a holiday show, usually an irreverent one.

The theater company closes out its year and Podplay series with “A Rated R Christmas Carol.” It includes the familiar characters from Charles Dickens’ classic story, but it’s got more of a Mel Brooks comedy take that’s R-rated, not X, says author and company artistic director A.J. Allegra. The show is a radio play currently available as a podcast on nolaproject.com.

JAMNOLA

Through Jan. 3, 2021 New Orleans’ first experiential museum, a sort of art and culture fun house that opened in summer, is decorated for the season and there are some holiday extras. There’s a Santa in a giant snow globe, a tribute

BY WILL COVIELLO

to Fred Parker, also known as the 7th Ward Santa, and a float from the Krewe of Krampus.

George Porter Jr. created a holiday playlist as well. Find tickets and info on jamnola.com.

‘MANDATORY MERRIMENT: THIS TIME IT’S VIRTUAL’ Through Dec. 26 Leslie Castay and Ian Hoch present a sequel to their musical comedy about a group of strangers stuck together in a French Quarter bar. In this version, Benny the bartender, tourists from Iowa and Quarter residents reunite via Zoom during the pandemic. The show is not a recorded Zoom reading. The production used green screens and multiple cameras to enhance the concept. The show is available online during the run dates, from Eventbrite or Southern Rep, where the original show premiered.

LUNA FETE

Dec. 18-20 The Arts Council New Orleans’ annual December festival of

visual and interactive light and art installations is spread around the city this year.

New exhibits for the second weekend (Dec. 18-20) include lasers at Lee Circle and a projection mapping video project at Southern Rep. Exhibits continue in the CBD, outside the Warehouse District and Mid-City. Visit artsneworleans. org for locations and details.

P H OTO P R OV I D E D

BY JAM N O L A

JAMNOLA is decorated for the holidays.

run of the show. A young cast presents the Peanuts gang’s holiday classic with Charlie Brown, Lucy and Linus.

Tickets are available at rivertowntheaters.com.

ONGOING EVENTS

‘THE NUTCRACKER’

KITTEN N LOU’S LIVING NATIVITY Dec. 19 & 24 Burlesque and stage duo Kitten N’ Lou have two days left of “A Living Nativity: Miracles and Masked Merriment.” The tableau also features Lola Van Ella, Woody Shticks, drag performer Laveau Contraire, Jason Mejias, Candy Snatch and others. Tickets and info are at kittenandlou.com.

LAFITTE GREENWAY SUPERNOVA Through Dec. 20 The Lafitte Greenway and Arts Council of New Orleans present the light and art installations along the Lafitte Greenway at Bayou St. John.

The show is part of the Arts Council’s annual art and light

expo Luna Fete. Visit lafittegreenway.org/supernova.

‘NOLA NOEL’

Dec. 17-20 & 23-26 Le Petit Theatre presents its original musical holiday tale set against the diverse cultural influences and traditions of New Orleans. The outdoor show is at the Bucktown Marina on Dec. 17-20 and plays at The Broadside Dec. 23-26.

Tickets are available on lepetittheatre.com.

‘A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS’

Dec. 19 & 22 Rivertown Theaters for Performing Arts extended the

Dec. 19-20 The Jefferson Performing Arts Society presents its version of the classic ballet with Tchaikovsky’s score at Jefferson Performing Arts Center.

Visit jeffersonpac.com.

‘THE NUTCRACKER’ Dec. 19-20 Delta Festival Ballet presents the holiday classic with music by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. The production features Ballet Philippines principal dancer Denise Parungao as the Sugar Plum Fairy and a troupe of local dancers.

Seating is limited and physically distanced at the Northshore Harbor Center. Find tickets and information at deltafestivalballet.com.

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FILM

BY WILL COVIELLO ASKED WHICH OF HER SONGS most

represents her, Billie Holiday recites the lyrics of “Don’t Explain” in an interview excerpted in James Erskine’s documentary “Billie.” The song concludes: “Hush now, don’t explain/ You’re my joy and pain/ My life’s yours, love/ Don’t explain.”

Holiday is remembered for her vocal phrasing, the large gardenias she often wore over her ear while performing and a prolific recording career and performances across the U.S. and Europe.

The film includes ample evidence of her early success and the heights she reached. There’s footage of her and Louis Armstrong doing “The Blues Are Brewin’.” Holiday was a colorful figure in New York nightlife, including her early years when white Manhattanites went uptown to the Cotton Club and more risque clubs in Harlem to hear her and other notable Black performers.

Biographers often site the hardships in Holiday’s life, including growing up poor in Baltimore, engaging in prostitution as a teenager, coping with drug addiction and having several abusive partners. Even when she was

a famous singer, segregation kept her from eating in restaurants, staying in hotels or even accessing the restrooms patronized by members of an all-white orchestra on some tours. Late in her career, white law enforcement agents seemed to relish arresting a top jazz singer, the documentary says.

Those aspects of her biography have been well documented, but Erskine works from a unique framework. He made his film based on a previously little-used collection of 125 recordings and an unpublished manuscript of a book about Holiday by Linda Lipnack Keuhl, who died in 1978.

The tapes featured interviews with stars including Count Basie, Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett and many musicians who played in bands supporting Holiday, as well as her friends, lovers, surviving family members and others.

Erskine also located rare photos and had some archival footage colorized.

The film traces the outlines of Holiday’s life from her younger years in Baltimore, before she took the name Billie Holiday and was still Eleanora Fagan, to her rough, later years. She died in 1959 at age 44.

The tapes reveal differences in

P H OTO B Y U L L S T E I N B I L D/ U L L S T E I N B I L D V I A G E T T Y I M AG E S

how Holiday and her career were perceived. Keuhl interviewed John Hammond, a white record producer and talent scout who “discovered” Holiday and connected her to Basie and Benny Goodman. Keuhl also spoke to Holiday’s bandmate Jo Jones, who disputes Hammond’s accounts and says Hammond pushed Holiday to channel racial stereotypes.

The film works through a couple of refractions, as Erskine plums interviews and text from the 1970s about events and perspectives from decades earlier

— prior to the legal end to segregation and the rise of feminism.

Keuhl apparently wanted to reconsider biographical works that treated Holiday as a victim and get a better picture of the star’s personal life and her choices. It gets more complicated as a couple of interviewees question if Holiday was a masochist, which is a highly charged way to characterize some of the relationships in her life.

Holiday did challenge racism, and one of the few songs performed in their entirety in the documentary is “Strange Fruit,” her legendary song about lynchings in the South. Some white audience members walked out when she sang it, but she kept it in her performances.

“Billie” is not a rehash of her greatest hits. It is an intriguing attempt to understand some of the more enigmatic aspects of her life, and the archival material is well used. There also is time spent examining Keuhl’s work and relationships with sources such as Count Basie, and some of that also opens up a lot of questions for further inquiry.

“Billie” opens Dec. 18 at Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge.

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ZANZAR

NOTICES TWENTY FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT PARISH OF JEFFERSON STATE OF LOUISIANA NO.: 772-264

DIVISION “ A “

SUCCESSION OF: ANTHONY MICHEL, SR. a/k/a TONY MICHEL, SR. and NOELIE MARIE MICHEL a/k/a NOELIE VICKNAIR MICHEL FILED: _____________________________ ______________________________ DEPUTY CLERK NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO SELL IMMOVABLE PROPERTY AT PRIVATE SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, ANTOINETTE ROSALIE MICHEL PENNINO, the duly appointed Administrator of the above entitled successions has applied for an order granting her the authority to sell at private sale the following property, to-wit: ALL THE RIGHTS, TITLE AND INTEREST IN AND TO: A CERTAIN PIECE OR PORTION OF GROUND, together with all the buildings and improvements thereon, and all the rights, ways, privileges, servitudes, and advantages thereunto belonging or in anywise appertaining, situated in the Village of Marrero, Parish of Jefferson, State of Louisiana, in what is known as MICHEL SUBDIVISION, and according to a plan of said subdivision made

by F.G. Stewart, Civil Engineer and Surveyor, dated December 10, 1947, a copy of which is on file in the Office of the Clerk of Court for the Parish of Jefferson, Louisiana, said piece or portion of ground is designated as lot 7 and one-half of lot 6 nearest lot 7, of Square W15A of said Subdivision; which said square is bounded by Fourth Street Highway of Jefferson Highway, Carmadelle Street, Lot 1 of Square A of Michel Subdivision and the line of Nicholson Place; said Lot 7 Measures 50 feet front on Carmadelle Street by a depth of 79.16,feet between equal and parallel lines; said one-half of lot 6 adjoins lot 7 and measures 25 feet front on Carmadelle Street, the same width in the rear, by a depth of 79.16 feet, between equal and parallel lines.

This total sales price is for ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-FIVE THOUSAND AND NO/100 ($185,000.00) DOLLARS all cash to the selling estates, payable at the Act of Sale less sellers’ expenses pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure, Art. 3282 and the Agreement to Purchase dated October 4, 2020, accepted October 6, 2020 as extended by Extension dated November 19, 2020, of record herein; notice of this application of a succession representative to Sell Succession Property from a Successions needs to be published TWICE in the parish where the property and proceeding is pending and shall state that any opposition to the proposed sale must be filed within SEVEN (7) days of the date of the last publication.

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88 Pan coverer 89 Gave for a while 90 Sole servings 91 Buddhism branch 92 Just kills time 94 Two, in Spain 95 Occupied 96 End of the riddle

100 For the â&#x20AC;&#x201D; (temporarily) 102 Blow a horn 103 Stephen of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Blackthornâ&#x20AC;?

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ANSWERS FOR LAST ISSUEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S PUZZLE: P 2

PUZZLES

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