Louisiana Life Magazine January-February 2024

DAMES DE PERLAGE MARDI GRAS ISSUE

FEATURES

34

DA M E S DE PE RL AG E

A community of women who bead with love

44

A M A RDI G R A S SA M PLE R

A primer, detailing Mardi Gras traditions

On The Cover Each year after the women’s Mardi Gras krewe Dames de Perlage selects its new theme, all sixty members spend hundreds of hours beading new costumes.

For the 2023 theme, “We Make Mardi Gras Happen,” Dame Meredith Stanfill paid homage to 1882 artwork for the Krewe of Proteus.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY VO LU M E 4 4 N U M BE R 1

10

E DITOR ' S NOTE

12

F ROM TH E E X ECUTI V E E DITOR’S DE SK

Carnival Perspectives

News and updates around the state

26

M A DE I N LOU ISI A N A

Manuel Ponce: Mardi Gras artist, extraordinaire

Who Gets The Baby?

18

22

28

PE LIC A N B RI E FS

A RT

Stephen Bateman forges bold and beautiful knives in River Ridge

HOM E

A New House in Lake Charles, designed to look rooted in the past

32

K ITCH E N GOU RM E T

54

N ATU R A L STATE

58

TR AV E LE R

58

62

20 LITE R A RY LOU ISI A N A

History, family and food

Improvising a cozy meal on a cold day

In Plaquemines Parish, Mark Cognevich maintains Fort Jackson

Krewe de Canailles: Lafayette’s fun, inclusive Mardi Gras krewe

FA RTH E R F LU NG

The history of Mississippi’s move toward equality

64 PHOTO CONTE ST

32

28

On Mardi Gras Day, La Société De Saint Anne parade revelers march on Royal Street in New Orleans

Louisiana Life (ISSN 1042-9980) is published bimonthly by Renaissance Publishing, LLC, 110 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005; (504) 828-1380. Subscription rate: One year $24; no foreign subscriptions. Periodicals postage paid at Metairie, LA, and additional mailing entry offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Louisiana Life, 110 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005. Copyright © 2024 Louisiana Life. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the consent of the publisher. The trademark Louisiana Life is registered. Louisiana Life is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos and artwork, even if accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. The opinions expressed in Louisiana Life are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the magazine or owner.

E D I TOR ’ S N OT E

Carnival Perspectives ONE OF THE THINGS I love most about Carnival is

how it changes over time. Not so much the holiday itself, but the way we come to it.

A lifelong Louisianian, I’ve been celebrating Carnival since I was a baby and though the festivities have remained essentially the same all of this time — people dressing in costume, parades with marching bands and floats and throws, king cakes, balls, parties and more parties — my perspective of it all has changed.

When I say perspective, I mean figurative and literal perspective. My earliest memories are of watching parades from a bird’s eye view — a kid, sporting a polka dot satin clown costume from the high perch of a ladder seat, with dad on the step behind me, catching beads and doubloons that would come our way. Years later, front and center, walking down the middle of St. Charles Avenue as a too-cool high school student, more interested in checking out the people than the parade, I saw another angle. Later still, as a new mom, navigating the obstacle course of traffic, tents and people, I wrangled a stroller, an ice chest and a toddler to get situated. I don’t even believe I saw a single float, so laser-focused was I on my son, who could dart after a bouncy ball faster than I could blink.

In more recent years, right in the thick of it, I bedazzled myself like a sequined pink mermaid and met friends for St. Anne’s parade, hardly able to move among so many costumed, happy people, buzzing with Mardi Gras vibes. Last year, I had a more casual approach, wandering between the route and the house — up close and personal for a bit and then back to my friend’s house to curl up on the sofa, the faint sounds of St. Aug’s marching band drifting in through the window. After a lifetime of Carnivals, I love that when February rolls, the experience feels old and new at the same time.

It’s like a choose your own adventure. You can partake a little and go to your favorite parade or two or go all in and start getting that costume together the year before, glitter it to high heaven, have parties at your house and hit every parade your body will stay upright for. You can even opt out completely — your only nod to the festivities being that piece of cream cheese king cake you have with your coffee before heading to the airport to go on a skiing trip. And that maybe is what I love most about Mardi Gras — you can make of it what you will.

Wherever you are, however you’re feeling, that’s how you’ll experience it.

Perspective is a wonderful thing. Whether it’s your first or 50th Carnival, NEVER it’s a time of joy, a celebration of culture and it captures the essence of the MISS AN ISSUE. best things of your community and your city. It’s also a time for kingcake SCAN AND — have I mentioned that part yet?

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Have a safe and happy Carnival season y’all!

Reine Dugas EDITOR REINE@LOUISIANALIFE.COM

10 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

EDITORIAL Editor Reine Dugas Associate Editor Ashley Mclellan Copy Editor Liz Clearman Web Editor Kelly Massicot Food Editor Stanley Dry Home Editor Lee Cutrone Executive Editor Errol Laborde

Art Director Sarah E.G. Majeste Lead Photographer Danley Romero Food Photographer Eugenia Uhl Home Photographers Sara Essex Bradley, Haylei Smith and Marc Gibson SALES Sales Manager Rebecca Taylor (337) 298-4424 / (337) 235-7919 Ext. 7230 Rebecca@LouisianaLife.com

Renaissance Publishing PRODUCTION Digital Director Rosa Balaguer Arostegui Production Designer Ashley Pemberton MARKETING Marketing Manager Greer Stewart CIRCULATION Distribution John Holzer ADMINISTRATION Office Manager Mallary Wolfe Chief Executive Officer Todd Matherne For Subscriptions Call 877-221-3512

110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123 Metairie, LA 70005 (504) 828-1380 128 Demanade, Suite 104 Lafayette, LA 70503 (337) 235-7919 xt 7230 LouisianaLife.com

F RO M T H E EX EC U T I V E E D I TOR ’ S D ESK

Who Gets The Baby?

The Evolution Of Louisiana’s Cake

Catch up on the latest podcast episodes

THERE WAS A TIME when king cakes were a mere side attraction to Carnival, served mostly in classroom parties and during office breaks.

A New Orleans’ baker had borrowed from the French tradition of Gallette des Roi and prepared what amounted to a cinnamon coffee cake, glazed with purple, green and gold icing and packed with a plastic baby hidden inside.

Since the Carnival season starts on January 6th, The Feast of the Epiphany, the baby represented Jesus, who was supposed to have been visited by three men, popularly described as either kings, magi or wise men, and who were out riding camels.

Moreso than the cake, the baby, or some other favor described by the French word fève, would become the source of interest in the king cake experience. Tradition had it that whoever got the slice with the favor would have to provide the next king cake. Thus, evolved perhaps the world’s first self-marketing confection.

There were those who received the loaded slice but did not play be the rules as they strategically coughed into a napkin to spare themselves of the responsibility.

Something happened, however, to the simple king cake ritual; the cakes would become more flavorful, more popular statewide and, by far, more daring in their contents. Hello boudin king cakes!

At first it was just injections of new flavors, sort of like making an oval jelly donut, only bigger and with more variety, like chocolate, cream cheese or blueberry, (a personal note here— yum!).

Originally, king cakes were described as being sweet; now there are “savory” alternatives.

When done right, boudin is one of Louisiana’s top foods, mixing ground meat with rice and seasonings and then stuffed it all into a case. (Note, I am talking about the so-called “white boudin” and not the more daring “red boudin” or blood sausage, which is a whole different food that I am not sure I want to include in a king cake).

Ah, but the standard white boudin! At first, I was taken aback by the idea, but why not? Combining the savory with the sweet and some sort of confection is not too different from what my Aunt Doris in Moreauville used to fix when she served boudin with biscuits on the side and a splash of Louisiana’s Steen’s syrup, which is made from homegrown sugar cane. That dish could not be more native.

Search the internet and be stunned by the number of recipes and bakery listings offering the cakes. There is also a hint about why there has been such a culinary revolution.

King cakes never travelled very far out of Louisiana, but now Amazon, Fed Ex and UPS have made them global. A king cake baked in Lafayette could conceivably be eaten in Paris a couple of days later.

Because of the internet, king cakes have become such a big business that some bakers are selling the confection year-round and linking it to other holidays. Fourth of July king cakes are probably not too far way, though they shouldn’t be “King’ but “President.”

And there is still room for more innovation. Whatever your favorite king cake flavor may be, albeit boudin or blueberry, don’t forget the Tabasco.

Errol Laborde EXECUTIVE EDITOR ERROL@LOUISIANALIFE.COM

12 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Louisiana Insider

EPISODE 159

The Artistry and History of Louisiana’s Capitol “A Tall Order: The Louisiana State Capitol,” a documentary produced by Louisiana Public Broadcasting, tells the story of the state capitol building’s history and architecture. Both are imposing. GUESTS Dorothy Kendrick, the documentary’s producer, and Steve Losavio, an architect with the Louisiana Division of Administration.

EPISODE 158

Food Writer Jessica Harris Links African and American Influences Jessica Harris has twice won James Beard Foundation awards, including one for Lifetime achievement. Rather than just being in the kitchen, she has proved herself to be especially skilled at blending sentences and paragraphs and then seasoning the mix with a generous heaping of knowledge to create fresh culinary history.

For one of her recent books, “High on the Hog” she went to Africa to discover some of the links between African cooking and classic American dishes.

Her Netflix series based on the book was so successful that a second season has been produced.

SA L ES

Rebecca Taylor SALES MANAGER (337) 298-4424 (337) 235-7919 EXT. 7230 REBECCA@LOUISIANALIFE.COM

Up Next What’s Coming in the March/April issue

NEW EPISODES EVERY THURSDAY CATCH UP AT LOUISIANALIFE.COM/ LOUISIANAINSIDER

WANT TO SPONSOR AN EPISODE? CONTACT REBECCA TAYLOR REBECCA@LOUISIANALIFE.COM

14 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Hotels and Lodges with a View

Louisiana Women Who Mean Business

CON T RI BU TORS

Stanley Dry Food Editor

What Is Your Favorite?

So that his wisdom continues, we asked Stanley Dry to leave us with answers about his favorites in a potpourri of Louisiana cuisine questions. What follows is gold.

Type of gumbo: Seafood Rice dish: Dirty rice Type of sausage: Andouille Boudin — red or white: White Coffee — plain or chicory: Plain dark roast — au lait with chicory Okra or filé: Okra Fish for eating: Speckled trout

Christopher Louis Romaguera is a Cuban-American writer who lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was born in Hialeah, Florida and graduated from Florida International University in Miami, Florida.

He has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans. Romaguera has been published in Passages North, Catapult, Islandia Journal, Louisiana Literature, Latino Book Review and other publications. He is a monthly columnist at The Ploughshares Blog and is the Poetry Editor at Peauxdunque Review.

Romaguera was an editorial intern at Electric Literature. He is a VONA alum. Romaguera is a 2023 Periplus Fellow.

Seasoning ingredient: Filé

We suggest that you clip out this column; laminate it if you can or at the very lease seal it in a storage bag and place it in a treasured cookbook.

Why? Stanley Dry, our long time food expert is, with this issue, retiring. On matters of Louisiana cuisine, there is nobody better.

Dry, a resident of New Iberia, has had a distinguished career writing about native food. We have been proud to have his byline in Louisiana Life for 21 years. Throughout his career, he has accumulated distinguished credentials for national publications including Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Diversion, Departures, Doctors Review, My Table, Acadiana Lifestyle and southernfoodways.org.

In 2014 this company, Renaissance Publishing, released a hardback book entitled “The Essential Louisiana Cookbook,” a chronicle of his words and recipes.

Dry has not only written about food; he takes part in the process. He grows bountiful vegetables in his back yard. (“The cherry tomatoes can be eaten off the vine like candy.”) He is also a skilled baker with specialties in breads.

He retires having made us wiser in the wonders of our native cuisines. And as we yearn for a serving of speckled trout with lump crabmeat, we thank him for all that he has contributed. We also remind him that for whatever food experiences lie ahead, to always leave room for the bread pudding. — Errol Laborde

16 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Way to use Steen’s syrup: As ingredient in sweet potato pie Baked bread or pastry item: French bread Way to prepare crawfish: Boiled Ingredients for boiling crawfish: Seasonings, corn on the cob, sausage, small potatoes and artichokes Way to prepare pecans: Pecan pie Louisiana themed dinner: Oysters on the half shell, seafood gumbo, speckled trout with lump crabmeat, bread pudding

Kevin Rabalais, an Avoyelles Parish native, writes and photographs the Natural State series for Louisiana Life. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Australian, the New Zealand Listener, and the Argentine magazine Revista Ñ. He teaches in the Department of English at Loyola University New Orleans.

P E L I CA N BRI E FS

BATON ROUGE

Mardi Gras Updates New rules, new parades and more police this year

BY LISA LEBLANC-BERRY

New Tourism Campaign

SLIDELL SHREVEPORT NEW ORLEANS LAKE CHARLES COVINGTON

Pets Playing Dress-Up

Due to a police shortage, New Orleans is spending millions of dollars to add law enforcement to keep Carnival safe in 2024. New rules: Only 34 parades are allowed in 2024, no more silly string or mylar confetti canons are permitted and the Krewe of Tucks’ famous toilet paper throws are kaput. Jefferson Parish has three new parades rolling in 2024: The Krewe de Caerus in Metairie (February 4) followed by two West Jefferson newcomers: The Mystic Krewe of Music (February 5) and the Krewe of Nandi (February 7). Unfortunately, the Krewe of Jefferson will no longer roll in Metairie after 51 years and the all-kids Krewe of Little Rascals has also been canceled. Lafayette’s Krewe de Wideload has opened its membership to the public for the first time, featuring an extravagant community Wideload Mardi Gras ball (January 19) in the Cajundome.

East Baton Rouge has the new all-male Krewe of Shenandoah featuring a “Songs of Survivors” theme honoring veterans (February 12), and Covington’s new Krewe of Bogue Falaya parade (February 13) is themed “Louisiana Feed Your Soul.”

18 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Costumed pets get to walk their devoted owners during Carnival parades throughout Louisiana including Slidell’s Krewe de Paws of Olde Towne (February 3; facebook.com/ KreweDePawsOfOldeTowne/), followed by Shreveport’s Krewe of Barkus and Meoux (February 4; barkusandmeoux.com) and New Orleans’ Mystic Krewe of Barkus (February 4; kreweofbarkus. org). Puppy love also abounds at the Krewe of Barkus in Lake Charles (February 10; visitlakecharles.org/event/ krewe-of-barkusparade/46274/) and during the musician-themed 30th annual Mardi Paws parade in Covington, known to surprise crowds with rubber poop throws bedazzled with glitter and gold (February 18; mardipaws.com).

A $10 million budget was recently approved by the Joint Legislative Committee for a large-scale marketing tourism campaign for 2024. Among the many diverse local, national and international campaigns, themed a “Year of Music” are billboards in New York’s Times Square and in airports (including New Orleans), $2 million allocated for campaigns abroad, a national zodiac-based visitors guide for trips based on star signs and $500,000 allocated for Las Vegas to promote the 2025 Super Bowl (when New Orleans hosts the event).

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Epic Extravaganza The 75th annual Washington Mardi Gras, held the week of January 27, brings the most powerful Louisiana delegation that D.C. has even seen to the multi-day plethora of posh parties including new House speaker Mike Johnson, House majority leader Steve Scalise, Louisiana’s newly elected governor and new legislators vying for political propinquity. Sen. John N. Kennedy (member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations) tapped former Saints quarterback, Drew Brees, to reign as king of the glitzy 2024 celebrity ball (mkofl.com).

NEW ORLEANS

Literary Fest Thousands of visitors have reserved hotel rooms and VIP tickets for the internationally renowned 38th annual Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival (March 20-24), held in the beautiful Hotel Monteleone. The histrionic Stella Shouting Contest (March 17) at Jackson Square kicks off the legendary literary gathering of award-winning writers, poets, actors, musicians and scholars from afar. (tennessewilliams.net).

Additional News Briefs Online at LouisianaLife.com

L I T E RA RY LOU I SI A N A

Past and Present History, family and food

BY CHRISTOPHER LOUIS ROMAGUERA

BURKE BISCHOFF

Po’Boy Burke Bischoff’s “Po’Boy” tackles the story of the humble yet iconic sandwich that has become synonymous with New Orleans itself. Bischoff, who is a native of New Orleans’ Westbank, gets into rich historical detail about the sandwich, from how it was created in order to feed streetcar employees to the different details about the common (and some not so common) fillings for the sandwich.

“Po’Boy” is for anyone who is a fan of the sandwich and New Orleans culture who wants to delve into deeper histories, or for someone curious to learn about New Orleans cuisine. “Po’Boy” is part of the Louisiana True book series that highlights different elements of Louisiana culture and traditions. Paperback, 120 Pages $21.95

CAROLYN HEMBREE

For Today

Carolyn Hembree’s poetry collection, “For Today,” tackles grief, trauma, anger, love and living in New Orleans in this beautiful collection of poems. The book follows a recent mother who grieves her father who died right before she gave birth to her child.

Throughout this collection, Hembree writes poems that talk to the speaker’s community, from their ancestors and neighbors to their poet community (both the living and the dead.) This collection is part of LSU Press’s Barataria Poetry Series. Hembree is a professor at the University of New Orleans and is the poetry editor of Bayou Magazine. Paperback, 105 Pages $19.95

20 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

MAURICE CARLOS RUFFIN

The American Daughters Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s newest book is a novel titled “The American Daughters,” that follows the protagonist, Ady, and her mother Sanite. The pair are enslaved, and then separated, when Ady runs into a free Black woman of color who introduces her to a group of spies called the “Daughters.”

Known for his prior two books that were also set in New Orleans, Ruffin has garnered the reputation of writing and creating stories about the city that gets read within the state, while also becoming popular throughout the world. While Ruffin wrote some historical pieces in his short story collection, “The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You,” this novel differs from his first, “We Cast a Shadow,” which was set in a not-so-distant future.

Ruffin was just given the Louisiana Writer Award at the Louisiana Book Festival for this year. Hardcover, 304 Pages $28

DANNY CHERRY JR.

The Pike Boys “The Pike Boys” is the first book by New Orleans author Danny Cherry Jr. The novel follows Jessie Pike, the owner of the most popular brothel in 1920 New Orleans. The novel blends genres of historical fiction, a family drama and of a character who tries to get out of a life of crime and poverty. The novel begs the question, can a person change, or do they just try to overcome or succumb to the obstacles between them and their goal.

With a large cast of characters and scenes with action, it also asks: Can Jessie achieve an end worth the violent means, or will the violence eat him, like it has his family before him? Paperback, 412 Pages $19.99

Additional Books Online at LouisianaLife.com

LOUISIANALIFE.COM

21

LOU I SI A N A M A D E

Living on the Edge Stephen Bateman forges bold and beautiful knives in River Ridge

BY JEFFREY ROEDEL PHOTOS BY ROMERO & ROMERO

22 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Additional Images Online at LouisianaLife.com

FR O M

S P RI N T I N G

A F TER

HI S

F R I EN DS

through the woods of his native River Ridge, a big plastic Rambo knife in hand, to multiple deployments as an Army Ranger to Iraq and Afghanistan, to cooking in fast-paced New Orleans’ kitchens and sampling exotic, savory finds from street food vendors in dozens of off-the-beaten-path countries, Stephen Bateman took 33 years to find his own artistic voice.

When he did, that voice required two things: railroad spikes and lawnmower blades.

“If I found my creativity this late in life, anyone can,” says Bateman, now the owner and creative behind Down the River Forge, his performance-focused designer knife company earning props from Gear Patrol and a new generation of Southern hunter-chefs alike. “Creativity opens up your life in so many ways. Making knives is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but the thing is, the harder something is, the more rewarding it is to accomplish that, and the joy it brings you is so much greater than if it had been easy.”

After the military, Bateman went back to college at 27 to study kinesiology, and then earned a graduate degree

in government and public policy. He traveled, mostly alone, Anthony Bourdain-style, tasting street food and wild cultures that don’t make most travel guides. He journeyed through 32 countries, exploring the world, and himself too, all while promising himself he’d one day leave the “rat race,” and start making knives.

That opportunity arrived in 2019, when he failed to get an internship in Washington, D.C., so he moved back home to Louisiana. While working in kitchens and machine shops, he met his wife Tasia, and they started a family.

“But I had no real skills, and no purpose,” Bateman recalls. “Until, I started messing around with grill forks, bottle openers and knives.”

Bateman’s Camp Chef knife, handmade with high carbon steel and Micarta composite handle.

LOUISIANALIFE.COM

23

LO U I S I A N A M A D E

Bateman bought a cheap anvil from a local freight company, borrowed his mother’s chiminea, salvaged some railroad spikes from an abandoned railyard and nabbed blades from a buddy’s broken-down lawnmower for material. When the pandemic hit, he bought a real forge, started ordering bar stock steel and began making knives full-time.

“I didn’t know what I was doing at all,” he recalls of those early attempts. “It’s a very process-oriented skill, sweating your ass off for a halfway decent shape at first.”

Now, Down the River Forge has a whole series of high-carbon steel blades for the kitchen and the field, from oyster shuckers and steak knives, to a giant cane cutter and a nifty little piece named the Prudhomme, after the iconic Cajun cook.

Tapping into his Army training and putting systems in place for learning, experimenting and producing high-quality knives, Bateman designs, cuts and sands the handles himself, often using walnut, maple or canvas micarta, accented with colorful metal pins. Some receive other creative flourishes such as bright turquoise inlays.

“I don’t look at anything the same way now, which is wild,” he says of his explorations. “I didn’t know I needed this creative outlet. But I needed this.”

Few places in the country boast a robust, world-renowned culinary culture as closely tied to the land, the water and the pastimes of its people like South Louisiana. For Bateman, the food in our pots and on our plates — and its journey getting there — lies at the sharpened heart of everything he does.

“Down the River Forge is a place, but it’s also a way of life, so the marketing side came natural and easy to me,” says the creative who goes on hunts and oyster boats to capture social media images. “I love this way of life, how our food and our culture is so connected with the outdoors.”

From a solid chunk of steel, some fire and a hammer, a functional piece of art is born. In the

24 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

same way, Bateman has worked through life’s challenges to turn his latent talent into a useful tool.

“Knives have been the medium for me to connect with that world that I love, to be involved more with chefs and hunters and adventure-seekers, and to find real community there,” Bateman says. “It’s all about connecting. And it’s all because of knife-making that I’m more connected to my passions and my purpose now than I’ve ever been before.” T

Q&A When not working, what do you and your family love to do? We love a good road trip, hanging out at the local farmer’s market and eating tacos at Barracuda in New Orleans.

What was the first knife you ever had? It was a Swiss Army knife I got for Christmas as a child.

Corkscrew, couple different blades, the toothpick and tweezers. That classic one, and I loved it, made me feel like MacGyver.

What was the most valuable thing you learned while in the Army that applies to you today? Self-discipline and leadership.

Creating something completely by hand with no help during the process requires a great amount of self-discipline. The leadership piece ties in with developing solid working relationships with clients and truly understanding what we can accomplish together.

You’ve had a lot of great foreign food experiences. Share one that stands out.

Traveling. I want to feel a little dangerous, a little unsure of what’s next. In Montenegro, there’s a small magical little village there called Njegusi. It’s one road, and people are outside of their homes on their porches — all raising pigs and making cheese there — and they welcome you in, and you see all their knives hanging on the wall, and they slice prosciutto right off the leg of the pig, and you buy it right then. Just amazing.

LOUISIANALIFE.COM

25

A RT

Manuel Ponce Mardi Gras artist, extraordinaire

BY JOHN R. KEMP

EX CEPT P E RH A P S F OR R I O DE JAN EI R O , there’s nothing like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. It’s a visual orgy of brightly-colored floats drawn through city streets in the fiery glow of flambeau torches or in bright revealing sunlight. Thousands of uninhibited revelers look on as Carnival “krewes” make their way along the avenues like some bacchanalian pageant from the ancient world. They might be surprised to learn, however, that much of what they see begins in a crowded little room in a ‘50s-era ranch house just across the river in the town of Gretna. That little room is artist Manuel Ponce’s studio, a space he shares with Kiwi, his loquacious blue-crowned parakeet.

With pen-and-ink, paper, color markers and computer, Ponce designs floats for many of the city’s prominent Mardi Gras parades, including Bacchus, Orpheus, Endymion, Iris, Cleopatra, Hermes and Alla. In years’ past, he also designed floats for Rex. Although Ponce conjures these mystical images at his home studio, he actually works for Kern Studios, the much-celebrated Mardi Gras float-building company in New Orleans since 1932.

Not that the 58-year-old Ponce, who was born in Harvey, Louisiana, has been there that long. He joined the organization in the early 1980s after graduating from the University of New Orleans, or UNO, with a degree in fine art, specializing in graphic design. While at UNO, Ponce had the good fortune to meet fellow student Blaine

26 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Above Leviathan Dragon float, Krewe of Orpheus Below Edgar Allan Poe, Krewe of Endymion, 2023 Right Avarice Hoards Itself Poor, Orpheus 2023

Kern Jr., the son of Blaine Kern, founder of Kern Studios.

Introductions were made and a career was born. He now designs all of Kern’s big parades.

“He saw my work and he said ‘You need to come work for me and my dad,’” Ponce recalls. “It was late 1983 and they were getting ready for the [1984 New Orleans] world’s fair. It was an exciting time. They were also getting started with Mardi Gras World on the West Bank. I didn’t illustrate at first. I worked in the prop shop, worked on figures and painted floats. Once I graduated, I started full time, and I’ve worked for them pretty much ever since.

This career kind of fell into my lap. It’s been great.”

Since falling into his lap four decades ago, Ponce has designed thousands of floats and throws, cups, and medallion beads. As one can imagine, reaching such staggering levels requires efficient communications between Ponce and Carnival krewes and, in some cases, their art directors. Here’s how it usually goes. Each year krewe captains, working with their art directors and members come up with a theme for the parade. The theme is then sent to Ponce who executes thumbnail sketches to show the captains what their floats will look like.

Once approved, he does the final black-and-white drawings in ink, scans them into his computer and adds color. Some krewes, he says, still prefer his hand-colored illustrations. The completed designs then go to the float builders. Before computers, he rendered each drawing in watercolor, a process that took about three days for

Additional Images Online at LouisianaLife.com

Exhibits CAJUN

Martin Payton: Legacy of Form Sculpture celebrating music and artistic improvisation, through Jan. 13.

Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette. acadianacenterforthearts.org

CENTRAL

each float. With the computer, he can do a full-color float design in one day, which is a big help to krewes.

“We’re working further in advance,” he says. “I’m now working on Mardi Gras 2025, which will be completed before the 2024 parades roll. It’s good for the krewes because a lot of throws and novelties come from overseas.

If they have the theme, they can get their costumes done and throws so much earlier.”

Thinking back over his long career, Ponce does have his favorites.

“I’ve been designing Orpheus since the beginning, about 1994,” says Ponce with the ever-present smile of a man who loves his work. “I guess my favorite design was the ‘Leviathan Dragon’ float because it raised the bar. It was in about 1999 or 2000. Before that, they weren’t doing any kind of fiber optics. It’s a huge float in several sections.

After that, other krewes had to have animation.”

Another favorite is Hermes in 2018. The theme was “New Orleans Arts and Letters.” Each float represented a New Orleans writer or artist such as John Kennedy Toole, author of “A Confederacy of Dunces,” famed but

eccentric potter George Ohr, 19th-century writer Lafcadio Hearn, and Swedish-born New Orleans artist Bror Anders Wikstrom, known in the 1880s and 1890s for his beautiful watercolor sketches of Mardi Gras floats and costumes.

“That was a fun parade for me,” says Ponce as he fingered through a stack of drawings.

The public will get its first crack at seeing this year’s floats in January when his designs are published as bulletins in New Orleans’ The Times-Picayune/The Advocate, much like the city’s newspapers did back in the late 19th century.

“I do all of the designs for the paper,” he says. “It’s like a big puzzle. I do it for Hermes, Bacchus, Endymion and Iris.”

Although Ponce has designed thousands of floats, the inevitable question arises — does he still go to the parades?

“Most of the time my wife Denise and I leave town,” he says. “When I do go to a parade, I look at the painting, the props. I’m a little critical, but I have to let that go. I just enjoy watching the people have fun.”

And that, of course, is what Mardi Gras is all about. T

Connected Visions: Louisiana’s Artistic Lineage Overview of Louisiana’s artistic heritage, ongoing. Alexandria Museum of Art. themuseum.org

PLANTATION

Art in Louisiana: Views into the Collection Overview of art in Louisiana, ongoing.

LSU Museum of Art. lsumoa.org

NEW ORLEANS

Debbie Fleming Caffery: In Light of Everything A career retrospective, through March 3. New Orleans Museum of Art. noma.org

NORTH

Sisters in Art: Women Artists from the Norton’s Permanent Collection Historical and contemporary women artists in museum’s collection, ongoing.

R.W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport. rwnaf.org

LOUISIANALIFE.COM

27

HOM E

Tradition at Home A New House in Lake Charles, designed to look rooted in the past

BY LEE CUTRONE PHOTOS BY HAYLEI SMITH

GENA A ND BOB POOL’S Lake Charles house looks

to the past. The residence is located within Lake Charles’ Walnut Grove community, a 21st century “traditional neighborhood development,” with time honored features: sidewalks, tree-lined streets, mixed use buildings (residential and commercial), parks and walkability. The architecture of the house takes its cues from 18th and 19th century precedents and the ways historic houses changed through the years.

Even the Pools’ lifestyle at home makes an “if it ain’t broke” statement.

“I don’t own paper plates,” said Gena, who prefers vintage and antique glasses for everything from day-to-day meals to gatherings of friends and family (the latter includes five grown children, their spouses

28 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Additional Images Online at LouisianaLife.com

Far left The powder room’s trompe l’oeil cheetah pattern wallpaper is by Thibaut. The Sconces are by Hudson Valley Lighting. Left Timeless materials including, the brick used for the floors and the subway tile for the backsplash, bring a sense of age to the kitchen.

“

and six grandchildren). “If a glass gets broken it won’t kill me.”

Empty nesters who divide their time between homes in Texas and Louisiana, the Pools came to the project with an appreciation for enduring architecture and had several previous house projects under their belts.

Working with architect Everett Schram of J.E. Schram Architect in Baltimore, Bob brought the directive for a traditional house and a particular style of pavilion roof he admired, while Gena knew she wanted a house that is rooted in Louisiana history and that had stately white columns. Schram, who is originally from Lake Charles and designed many of the high end homes that Walnut Grove sold on speculation, responded with a design that blends several architectural languages found in Louisiana

— specifically, elegant double gallery houses found in New Orleans’ Garden District and Creole cottages found in rural and urban areas.

“If you look at the houses in the Garden District, under all the fretwork and ornate woodworking is a very simple Creole house,” said Schram. “Most of the ornamentation shows up in elaborate porches. You also see this in plantation houses. They got changed over time and this house is meant to tell a similar story, almost like it evolved over time. I call it ‘vernacular progression’; it’s naturally evolved in its place.”

On the ground level, the exterior of the house has a formal design with Corinthian columns. The upper level transitions to the simpler parlance of the Creole cottage, with narrow turned posts and a pavilion roof

If you look at the houses in the Garden District, under all the fretwork and ornate woodworking is a very simple Creole house. Most of the ornamentation shows up in elaborate porches.

LOUISIANALIFE.COM

29

HOM E

Top left Gena and Bob Pool in their kitchen. Middle casement openings were designed to suggest that separate rooms were opened to flow together.

A foundation of alabaster paint ties the rooms together.

Bottom The ground floor exterior is formal, while the upper level takes its cues from a simpler Creole cottage.

30 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

that is modified to be more in the Creole style. The garage behind the house is intentionally clapboard instead of masonry like the main house to look as if it was added later. The interior’s casement openings between rooms suggest that once separated rooms were later opened up for a more contemporary flow. The attention to details, such as the porch lantern with scrolled bracket (designed

by Schram and fabricated by Bevolo) and the carved trim carpentry conveys the craftsmanship of other eras.

Gena, an avid collector and design enthusiast, handled the interior design. During the planning and construction phases, she collected and stored furniture, lighting,

mirrors and art and once the house was completed, pieced things together in a free-form manner. If something didn’t work initially, she removed it and tried again later as the house progressed.

“Whatever I love, I pull it together,” she said. “I think outside the box.”

The vibrant and eclectic design scheme began with a neutral foundation of alabaster. Layering of paint colors, patterned fabrics and wallcoverings followed.

“I wanted to add a different palette to every room,” said Gena.

She chose a green inspired by a bedroom in “Downton

Abbey” for the dining room, tomato red for the laundry room, turquoise for a guest bath vanity and pale peach for the secondary master suite on the first floor. She painted the secondary master bath’s acrylic tub chartreuse.

Wallpapers include an Asian egret pattern in the upstairs hall and a cheetah print in the powder room.

The Pools’ bullseye success in building a house that is evocative of the past is summed up in the positive reactions they regularly receive, especially from their children.

“Our kids love it,” said Gena. “They feel like they are in a historic house that’s new.” T

At a Glance Architect Everett Schram, while at Walnut Grove Design Group Interior Design Gena Pool Square Footage 3,250 Outstanding Features Subtle blending of architectural languages that looks evolved over time, detailed trim carpentry, secondary ground floor master suite for aging in place, primary suite dressing room, large front porch and primary suite balcony.

The green of the dining room was inspired by a bedroom in “Downton Abby” and is contrasted with a pearly gold ceiling. Several styles of dining chairs were combined for a collected look.

LOUISIANALIFE.COM

31

K I TC HE N G OU RM ET

Saffron Seafood Soup ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil 2 medium onions, chopped 8 cloves garlic, minced ½ cup dried shrimp 2 cups diced tomatoes in juice 5 cups chicken broth ½ cup dry white wine ¼ teaspoon saffron, crumbled 1 bay leaf 1 large strip orange peel 1 pound firm white fish cut into small chunks Freshly ground black pepper Cayenne pepper ¼ cup chopped parsley I N A M E D I U M P OT,

Impromptu Soups Improvising a cozy meal on a cold day

BY STANLEY DRY PHOTOS AND STYLING BY EUGENIA UHL

32 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

I

often listen to music when I cook. Lately, my choice has been “The Complete Million Dollar Quartet,” an impromptu jam session that took place at Sun Records in Memphis on December 4, 1956, with Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. That was the first and only time the four of them played together. What an amazing lineup and what a remarkable collection of improvisation, starts and stops, fragments of songs and banter, with music spanning gospel, blues, bluegrass, rock and country.

This is inspiring listening that encourages improvisation at the stove, which is the most satisfying cooking of all. And if you like to experiment when you cook, making

combine olive oil, onion and garlic, and cook over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a food processor, grind dried shrimp to a coarse powder. Add ground shrimp, tomatoes and juice, chicken broth, wine, saffron, bay leaf and orange peel to the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add fish, bring back to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until fish is cooked through, about 5 minutes.

Season to taste with peppers. (Dried shrimp are salty, so additional salt is unnecessary.)

Serve garnished with chopped parsley. Makes 4 servings.

Additional Recipes Online at LouisianaLife.com

soup is a great choice. You can emphasize a single flavor or blend it with other flavors to produce a distinct taste.

Flavors can be simple or complex, robust and aggressive or delicate and muted; ingredients and seasonings can be combined in novel and imaginative ways. Indeed, making soup may offer cooks the greatest opportunity for improvisation of any culinary endeavor.

When you’re making soup, you can cook without strict adherence to the measuring cup or the scale. Substitute another ingredient for one called for in a recipe, add something based on a fleeting inspiration, change the seasoning. This is the kind of cooking that both satisfies and sharpens your senses. Unless consistency is your goal, you have the option of never making the same soup twice.

I love to make soup, especially this time of year. I love the process of combining a variety of ingredients in a single pot, letting them simmer while their flavors meld, tasting, seasoning, tasting and seasoning again while the kitchen fills with a comforting aroma that helps dispel the bleakness of this cold season. At the end of the day, a thick, hearty soup with good bread and wine makes a perfect January dinner, a welcome antidote to all the excesses of the holidays.

Having endorsed the virtues of improvisation, I’m offering up five soup recipes this month and encourage you to use your imagination to improvise, alter and make them your own. T

Vegetable Soup

Sweet Potato Soup

8 cups chicken stock

4 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1 large onion, chopped

2 medium onions

6 cups chicken stock

1 pound carrots

2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced

1 pound parsnips 1 pound turnips 1 pound winter squash Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper Cayenne pepper Extra virgin olive oil to taste ¼ cup chopped parsley CO M B I N E stock and tomato paste in a large, heavy pot and bring to a boil. Chop onions and add to pot. Peel carrots, cut into chunks and add to pot. Peel parsnips, slice and add to pot.

Peel turnips, cut into chunks and add to pot. Peel winter squash, cut into chunks and add to pot.

Simmer until vegetables are tender. Season to taste with salt, black pepper and cayenne. When serving, add some of your best olive oil to each bowl of soup and garnish with chopped parsley.

Makes about 6 large servings.

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper 2 tablespoons minced chives M E LT butter in a large, heavy pot,

add onions and cook on low heat until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add chicken stock and sweet potatoes, bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

PU R E É soup with an immersion

blender or, working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Reheat and serve garnished with minced chives.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Lentil and Spinach Soup 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced

Leek and Potato Soup 2 leeks, white and light green parts only, chopped 1 medium onion, chopped 4 tablespoons butter 6 cups chicken stock 2 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg Croutons (optional) I N A H E AV Y P OT, simmer leeks

and onion in butter until softened, but not browned, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add chicken stock and potatoes and simmer until potatoes are softened. Season to taste with salt and black pepper and add nutmeg. Serve with optional croutons, if desired.

Makes 4 servings.

1 stalk celery, chopped 1 medium carrot, chopped 5 cups chicken stock ½ pound brown or green lentils 1 bay leaf 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves 2 cups baby spinach, packed Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper Extra virgin olive oil Four lemon wedges CO M B I N E olive oil, onion, garlic,

celery and carrot in a heavy pot and cook on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until onions are softened, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, sort and rinse lentils.

A D D chicken stock, lentils, bay leaf

and thyme to pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, until lentils are tender, about 20-25 minutes. Stir in spinach, season to taste with salt and pepper and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Serve with olive oil and lemon wedges. Makes 4 servings.

LOUISIANALIFE.COM

33

Story and photos by Kevin Rabalais

DAMES DE

E PERLAGE A COMMUNITY OF WOMEN WHO BEAD WITH LOVE

S

eated in a rocking chair on South Carrollton Avenue in New Orleans, Carrie Fisher ponders her corset.

In the past six months, she’s spent 100 hours beading the artwork she’ll eventually attach to it, and with 100 days until Mardi Gras, she has at least another 100 hours to go. Then she’ll turn to other matters: how to design her feathered headdress, the requisite annual patch and all the other accoutrements that comprise a costume for the women’s marching krewe Dames de Perlage.

As the streetcar rumbles past, Fisher — Dame Carrie, in krewe parlance — runs her needle through the green turf of Tiger Stadium.

Its purple-and-gold end zones contain hundreds of beads. Soon, she’ll resume work on the half-finished crowd. They cheer, tens of thousands, beneath an operatic sunset. Like the other fifty-nine Dames, Fisher’s latest costume celebrates one of the many ways Louisianians gather as community.

36 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Every April since the Dames de Perlage debuted in 2013, Julie Lodato and Christine Clouatre — founding members and, therefore, Grande Dames — announce the krewe’s new theme. Unlike previous years, when Fisher researched possibilities, she heard this year’s theme, “Southern Nights,” and knew right away what to do. “I’m an LSU fan, and I’m a Dames fan,” she says as she gauges her progress.

For nine months after that annual announcement, Fisher, Lodato, Clouatre and the other Dames prepare costumes they will wear during four Mardi Gras parades — Freret, King Arthur, Tucks and OAK — and on their season’s exclamation point, Dame Fine Second Line on Lundi Gras. They practice perlage, French for beading, and parade in “walking canvases” that they concoct and create in what averages to 250 hours of annual work per Dame.

Past themes have included “Fierce Women of Louisiana,” “They All Ask’d for You,” and “Patron Saints of New Orleans.” Lodato and Clouatre based this year’s theme on Allen Toussaint’s 1975 album, “Southern Nights.” Dame Seran Williams says, “It’s about all the things we do from dusk ‘til dawn.”

Each year after the announcement, the Dames devise plans and prepare to present their sketches for the Grande Dames’ approval.

Watch it unfold like an NFL Draft. Carnival season ends. For a few

weeks, the Dames recuperate. Then they receive the April announcement and await notification of their selection slot, based on the order in which they’ve paid annual dues. To pay early means to earn a higher slot, something each Dame wants since no two can march in similar costumes, so they must consider alternatives.

While waiting this year, Fisher contemplated the krewe’s goal “to preserve and respect the art of perlage.” At the back of her mind, she also considered an unwritten goal, namely that each Dame continually up the ante in design and artistry. “I was floundering,” Fisher says, smiling as she runs her needle through another patch of turf. “There’s a lot of anticipation and anxiety.” An LSU grad, she wanted Tiger Stadium. A Louisiana native, she needed to pay tribute to all it means to everyone who has ever congregated there on a Saturday night.

38 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Like many of her krewe members, Fisher carves out time for beading after working all day, an hour here and there, her goal always three square inches of progress. She beads, also, during required monthly meetings, like the one today, with fellow Dames offering support as they work side by side and keep the theme secret until its online unveiling on Twelfth Night. “We all help one another,” Lodato says. “And we’re often beading until the last minute.”

All the rules and rituals: It didn’t begin that way. “Not one of us knew how to bead when we started,” Lodato says. Twelve years ago, she found herself alone at home on the Northshore, an hour’s drive from her native New Orleans. Like many displaced New Orleanians, she drifted into New Orleans dreams. Across their surface floated the usual suspects — music and food, the pulse of a brass band that you hear long before you see it, all those aromas that plop you

40 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

down in your grandmother’s kitchen in some distant decade. But true places reveal themselves through what happens when people come together to celebrate amid all that music and food, so Lodato’s dreams whirled around sisterhood.

At the time, she had been marching in another women’s krewe.

Helping her fellow members prepare their costumes, she realized that she wanted to create something new, something her own. She started calling old friends. “If I pull people together for a krewe, would you be in?” she asked.

Clouatre received the first call. A week later, the two devised a plan. They would honor the city’s African American clubs whose titles — Social Aid and Pleasure — reveal their priority: Always support the community that you carouse among. Twenty women attended the first meeting. Lodato said, “We aren’t just going to glue Mardi Gras beads over our corsets. We’re going all in. And we’re not just throwing a party.” Word spread about a new krewe that would offer women a space to care for one another and give back to the place that had infused so many of them with those New Orleans dreams.

Lodato called several Mardi Gras Indians, asking if they would teach the Dames their beading tradition. Two gave workshops.

“From that, we ran with it,” Lodato says. “Our techniques are definitely different, but they inspired us.”

During their first Mardi Gras, the Dames marched without a theme in three parades. Afterward, Lodato revisited the master plan. “We needed a uniform, I realized. This would create consistency and allow the individual designs, beadwork, and feathers to stand out, and for the Dames to reveal their personalities. Since then, we all wear bustle belts, corsets and feathered headdresses.” Then the Dames accessorize.

“We show it off,” says Williams. “After spending nine months building your baby, you want people to see it.” A Chicago native, Williams developed a childhood passion for jazz. That’s prologue to the epiphany she had during her first Jazz Fest. “Of course,” she thought. After Hurricane Katrina, she bought a house in New Orleans. “I wanted to make a statement: I am not just using this city. I’m part of it.”

For many members, the mission to participate and give back provides entrée into a world they didn’t know they had been missing — until they saw it in the Dames. “The support we give each other, that’s where the sisterhood comes on strongest,” says Williams. Renée Russo made her Dames debut last year. “My friends all said, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so happy.’” Inside the house on Carrollton Avenue, she watches her fellow Dames sit together on the floor and bead. “It’s pure joy,” Clouatre says. “Anything can happen to me in my life, and one of these women will come to my rescue.”

42 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Kate Bartels first saw the Dames parade during Mardi Gras. “I fell in love with everything about them,” she says, “their spirit, the way they were trying to keep old traditions alive, the way they passed those traditions on, and being there for the community.” About her own first time seeing them, Owen Phyfer says, “I was transfixed.” She joined the next year. “You’re anonymous in the parade. You don’t have to be that extroverted. It’s a community of women, but once you’re on the route, you join a new community.”

The Dames’ existence stems from Lodato and Clouatre’s desire to build a place that supports both. Each year, the Dames promote a different nonprofit organization. They have also planned blood drive, held events for breast cancer awareness, hosted benefits for organizations that have included the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic Assistance Foundation, Second Harvest Food Bank, and Animal Rescue New Orleans. At the height of the pandemic when families couldn’t visit dying loved ones in the hospital, Dame Leah Henricks, a nurse at Ochsner, wanted to help. To do so, she asked the Dames to bead small

hearts. Henricks then gave them to dying patients. In the absence of loved ones, they embraced the Dames’ hearts.

Because they consistently steep themselves in new service projects, the Dames often forget such past deeds. Here’s another example. When Hurricane Harvey struck Houston in 2017, the krewe collected clothes and food. “My house ended up being like Goodwill,” Lodato says. From there, Dames delivered donated items and other supplies to Texas. They worked around the clock, but too much time went to sorting donations, so Lodato began thinking of ways to streamline the process. “I thought, ‘Why don’t we start using Amazon Wedding Registry?’ I immediately set one up for clothes and food. Our social media skyrocketed after that. People were asking, ‘Who are these women doing all this to help?’”

Four years later, the community found itself in need once again after Hurricane Ida. The Dames set up another registry. Many had lived through their own disasters — the deaths of loved ones, breast cancer, a lifetime of hurricanes. “Katrina did this to me,” says Fisher

as she inspects the beadwork for her corset. “The future is uncertain.

Let’s live in the moment. You don’t know. So I’m doing this for the day, for the marching, for the experience. I want to look as good as I can look on that day.”

Inside, a near-dozen Dames gather in the kitchen. “I go from zero to Parish in six seconds,” one says as coda to a tale, and laughter permeates the room. Beside them, Lauren Asche quietly paints faces for Dames who will soon leave for Halloween parties. As a non-member in the inaugural year, Asche painted faces on the bus before the Dames hit the streets. She had so much fun that she later told Lodato, “I’m never riding this bus again if I’m not a Dame.”

“Get on the bus with us,” said Lodato, who now steps into another room. Feathered headdresses sprout from tables, in-progress corsets perch on chairs and couches, and on the living room floor sit three Dames. They stop beading occasionally to examine one another’s work and offer encouragement. Lodato smiles. “I will know these women for life,” she says. T

A MARDI GRAS SAMPLER A PRIMER, DETAILING MARDI GRAS TRADITIONS

BY CHERÉ COEN

LOUISIANALIFE.COM

45

IN MARCH 1699, FRENCH CANADIAN PIERRE LE MOYNE TRAVELED DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER TO EXPLORE THE LOUISIANA COLONY. It was Mardi Gras, the celebratory Tuesday before Ash Wednesday when French residents have long “lived it up before giving it up.” He and his men paused near the mouth of the river and he marked the day in his journal.

“In tribute to the festival holiday being celebrated that day in France,” writes Arthur Hardy in “Mardi Gras in New Orleans,” “Iberville named the spot Pointe du Mardi Gras and the adjoining channel Bayou du Mardi Gras.”

And so began a 300-plus-year tradition in Louisiana.

The fun begins early in the year, on Twelfth Night, Jan. 6, otherwise known as the Feast of the Epiphany. This is the beginning of the Carnival Season that lasts until the blowout Tuesday, known as Mardi Gras. Carnival always begins on the same date, but Mardi Gras falls on different Tuesdays since it’s connected to Easter, which is tied to the lunar calendar.

Want to know more? We’ve assembled a Mardi Gras sampler to answer your questions and whet your appetite.

46 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Visitors to the state during Carnival often wonder if they’ve stumbled into ancient Greece because many krewes adapted their names from mythology.

“The colorful worlds of Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology are the sources of nearly half of the parading krewe names (in New Orleans),” writes Arthur Hardy in “Mardi Gras in New Orleans.” “Others are named after the neighborhoods through which they travel, while some are named after historical figures or places.”

The Krewe of Comus, New Orleans’ first krewe-based organization, is named for the Greek son Komus of gods Bacchus and Circe.

The spelling may be different but the recognition apropos for Komus was the god of festive mirth. In Shreveport, the Krewe of Centaur honors the mythical half-man, half-horse but also gives a nod to the horse racing industry of Northwest Louisiana.

Down the bayou in the Lafourche region, parades take their names for their roads

they travel: Krewe of Montegut, Krewe of Terreanians. The Krewe of Houmas in Houma reflects the Native Americans who called that region home.

And then there are those who enjoy parading to their interests, such as the Krewe of Chewbacchus, a sci-fi and fantasy Mardi Gras krewe.

A VIEW OF ROYALTY

With a few exceptions, you must be a krewe member to attend the krewe’s Mardi Gras ball and view their costumed royalty in an elegant and intimate setting. For those krewes who parade, their royalty may ride floats for all to view.

Lake Charles, however, presents its city’s royalty in one lavish event that’s open to the public at the Lake Charles Civic Center. Known as the Mardi Gras Royal Gala, kings and queens, dukes and duchesses and other royal members of each krewe parade in extravagant costumes through the center’s coliseum along with live music and dancing.

SWEET!

Also on Jan. 6, the onset of Carnival, the king cakes arrive. It’s a tradition in Louisiana to enjoy king cakes through Carnival until the grand day of Mardi Gras.

Don Tubbs, owner of Tubbs Hardware and Cajun Gifts in Bossier City saw an opportunity to create king cakes when parades began rolling in front of his business. He toyed with king cake This year’s event, presented by Southwest “By 1984, when I was king (between the car recipes until he hit upon a moist perfection in Louisiana Mardi Gras, will begin at 7 p.m. Feb. 12. dealer Price “Dahlin’” LeBlanc and blues legend 1989. He calls his concoctions “Extreme King Tabby Thomas) it had evolved into a good-sized Cakes” for the extreme amount of filling he uses.

It may appear odd to purchase a king cake parade with funny, irreverent floats, many of them making fun of the part-time residents of from a hardware store, but visitors will underCarnival begins on Jan. 6, otherwise known as the nearby State Capitol,” said Smiley Anders, stand once they spot the rows and rows of Twelfth Night, and every year on this evening the longtime columnist at The Advocate newspaper. Mardi Gras beads and apparel, not to mention Phunny Phorty Phellows rejoice the beginning “Governors, legislators, KKK leaders, famous hot sauces and other Louisiana food items. of festivities in their “Carnival Countdown” as madams and wayward preachers have all been There’s a reason it’s called Tubbs Hardware they ride the streetcar up and down St. Charles fair game. The unofficial motto has always been and Cajun Gifts.

Avenue in New Orleans. Pause along the route ‘Bad taste is better than no taste at all.’”

Obviously, the idea paid off. Tubbs sells to watch these Phunny Phellows in costume and Today the Spanish Town Parade attracts thousands of king cakes every year. perhaps catch the first beads of the season. thousands with those sarcastic floats, bands — But that’s just one of many unique and according to Anders, high school bands are not sometimes wild Carnival events that happen allowed due to the rowdy nature of the parade Carnival fun isn’t limited to the streets, and from the beginning of Carnival Season to the — and dancing groups. raucous Tuesday known as Mardi Gras. One tied “These days, crowds range in the neighborhood rightly so since much of Louisiana contains to Louisiana’s colorful politics is the Spanish of 100,000 or so, and the folks in the neigh- waterways, whether rivers, bayous or lakes.

Town Parade in Louisiana’s capital. borhood welcome them with tons of gumbo, On Jan. 27, the Krewe of Bilge Parade engages Baton Rouge doesn’t celebrate Carnival like jambalaya, various grilled meats and disturbing decorated boats to sail through the Eden Isles its southeastern neighbor but residents in the quantities of beer (Pabst Blue Ribbon is a and Clipper Estates subdivisions in Slidell, then on Feb. 3, the Krewe of Tchefuncte in early 1980s remedied that sad fact by creating a favorite) and Jell-O shots,” Anders said.

Madisonville cruises the Tchefuncte River. On neighborhood parade the Saturday before Mardi Feb. 8, there are three boat parades to choose Gras in Spanish Town.

WILD AND CRAZY

BOAT PARADES

AP PHOTO/GERALD HERBERT LOUISIANALIFE.COM

47

from: the Mardi Gras Lighted Boat Parade traveling adjacent to Lakeshore Drive in Lake Charles, the Krewe of Tickfaw sailing down the Tickfaw River and the Krewe of Diversion following the Amite River and its Diversion Canal.

SCREAMING FOR SHOES

In 2000, attorney Staci Rosenberg began the Krewe of Muses, an all-female krewe whose goal was diversity and the strength of womanhood. The parade rolls the Thursday night before Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The first year the krewe rolled, they threw a commemorative bead in the shape of high heel shoes.

“The idea was, it’s a women’s krewe. It (the high heel) is our greatest strength and our greatest weakness,” said one of Muses’ founders Virginia Saussy.

The krewe’s goal is to throw items with an artistic flare, so the following year some members decorated actual high heels and threw them to the screaming hoards along the parade route.

“By 2004, it spread organically throughout the krewe,” Saussy said. “We were gutting thrift stores. We were gutting our most uncomfortable shoes. It’s now the most coveted throw of the season.”

Saussy spends hours creating her shoes, sometimes with other members, in “glitter parties.”

48 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

“You can spend days making one shoe,” she said. “A lot of artistry goes into it. Having a Muses shoe is a big deal.”

But that’s not the only cool throw the Muses women unleash on Carnival-goers. Krewe members have thrown lunch boxes, tea towels, pocket mirrors, cotton tote bags and key rings, among other reusable items.

“We really try to throw things you can use again and again,” Saussy said. “We don’t want to end up in your attic.”

Just don’t expect to get a shoe easily. Each member may only decorate and throw up to 30 shoes each year.

CARS & CHEERS

When organizers thought to bring Mardi Gras events to Alexandria, they started thinking outside the box. In addition to Alexandria’s krewes with traditional parades, the Classic Cars & College

Cheerleaders Parade rolls through downtown made up of about 100 classic cars and three to four bands and cheerleaders from colleges, universities and high schools from Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi.

“We didn’t want to compete with everything down south,” said Daniel D. McGuffee, parade chairman and vice president of the Alexandria Mardi Gras Association. “We wanted family-friendly options for people. We wanted something different, and we wanted something no one else had.”

Organizers invite high schools and colleges to participate. Northwestern State University in Natchitoches and LSU have walked in past parades.

In addition, other Alexandria krewes donate five to six floats for their use. One is the international float and the others are filled with active military from Camp Beauregard, Camp Cook and Fort Polk.

The Classic Cars & College Cheerleaders Parade rolls at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9.

PHOTO BY AMY HARRIS/INVISION/AP

2024 CHILDREN’S PARADES FEB. 3 Krewe of Janus Children’s Parade, West Monroe to Monroe FEB. 4 Le Courir de Mardi Gras, Vermilionville FEB. 10 Children’s Parade, Lafayette Alexandria Mardi Gras Association Children’s Parade, Alexandria

The parade is sponsored by FAUNA, Friends United for Natchitoches Animals, with money raised to help build a shelter.

CHILDREN’S PARADES

Children’s parades have been a part of Carnival revelry for years and span the state. And it doesn’t stop at parades. Eunice hosts its Lil’ Mardi Gras Courir, a Cajun chicken run for children up to 14 years old.

The following are parades and Carnival events for the little ones. The Krewe of Little Rascals that paraded in Metairie since 1983 will not roll this year due to the death of co-founder, Jack Spittler Sr.

GO TO THE DOGS

COURIR COSTUMES

Most people think of Louisiana Carnival Mardi Gras isn’t relegated to humans. in terms of parades and balls, but in Cajun Throughout the state, folks dress up their Country, folks dance for a chicken. Called Le favorite pets — usually dogs since they tolerate Courir de Mardi Gras, the tradition of costumed costumes best — and parade them down the men and women on horseback and trucks street. Many of these parades dedicated to our traveling the countryside to beg residents for four-legged friends raise money for humane ingredients for a gumbo, usually with a musical societies and shelters. band and onlookers following behind, dates The Krewe of Wag’uns Children and Pets to medieval France. In the old days, disguised Parade rolls through downtown Natchitoches revelers dressed in mocking costumes of the the Saturday before Mardi Gras, a collection church and government, visited homes on of pets in costumes on decorated children’s Mardi Gras day, performing skits and songs wagons accompanied by their young owners. As while they begged. is tradition, a krewe king and queen are chosen In the Louisiana prairie, the masked group of along with a grand marshal and court. riders are accompanied by a capitaine who carries “It’s not political,” Parade Director Juanita a flag and leads the group in trying to catch Murphy said of the parade’s royalty. “It’s not chickens for a gumbo. The Louisiana courirs still the prettiest dog. And it’s absolutely anyone. dress in costumes that mock officials, such as the One year we had a rooster.” pointed hat known as the capuchon that once The court is presented at the Natchitoches poked fun at French royalty or mortarboards riverfront stage and awards given out for best that mock the educated. Festivities vary. Some costumes and wagon displays. include a parade, musical performances from “We have a toast in the true spirit of Mardi zydeco musicians, jam sessions, street dances Gras,” Murphy said. and yes, a community gumbo. T

Children’s Mardi Gras Stroll, Lake Charles FEB. 11 Mardi Gras Children’s Day Parade, Lake Charles Eunice Lil’ Mardi Gras Courir, Eunice

2024 PET PARADES JAN. 28 CAAWS Mystic Krewe of Mutts Parade, Baton Rouge FEB. 3 Krewe de Paws of Olde Towne, Slidell FEB 4 Krewe du Chien, Lafayette The Mystic Krewe of Barkus, New Orleans The Krewe of Barkus and Meoux, Shreveport FEB. 10 Krewe of Wag’uns Children and Pets Parade, Natchitoches FEB. 17 Krewe Du Pooch, Mandeville Lakefront FEB. 18 Krewe of Mardi Paws, Covington

LOUISIANALIFE.COM

49

Give your sweet a Valentine’s treat from Renaissance Publishing The Essential New Orleans Cookbook Creole or Cajun? Pompano or trout? Red sauce or brown gravy? Pasta or rice? This book helps by offering recipes from the kitchen of Dale Curry, the city’s senior culinary writer, who has served as food editor for The TimesPicayune and then New Orleans Magazine.

Adding spice to the mix is the splendid work of veteran photographer Eugenia Uhl, who captures the colors and textures of grand meals. Enjoy the experience with a book that is good for cookin’ and great for lookin’.

The Essential Louisiana Seafood Cookbook A collection of 50 traditional and contemporary recipes where top-notch ingredients are paired with fresh seafood. The easy-to-follow recipes emphasize Louisiana seafood and quality, local ingredients. Inspired, innovative and delicious, the seafood dishes in this collection are sure to become favorites in your kitchen.

Culinary Louisiana Calendar Savory stews, roasts and grilled dishes, fresh takes on garden harvests, and to-die-for desserts are just a taste of the delectable dishes you’ll find in the latest installment of Culinary Louisiana. From appetizers to the main course and dessert, this full-color, 15-month calendar — a Louisiana Life magazine publication — ensures that every month will kick off with a fresh, fabulous recipe.

Get yours today at myneworleans.com/shop

N AT U RA L STAT E

Holding Down the Fort

Historical Association, she’s found the reason that Fort Jackson remains open.

Cognevich leads her toward the Mississippi River.

Across the river on Plaquemines Parish’s east bank lies the location of Louisiana’s inaugural Mardi Gras. The site of that first ritual, in 1699, appeared on early maps as Bayou Mardi Gras. Today, it bears the name Plaquemines, the

In Plaquemines Parish Mark Cognevich maintains Fort Jackson STORY AND PHOTOS BY KEVIN RABALAIS

TEN MILES BEFORE LA HWY 23 halts in Venice, self-pro-

claimed “End of the World,” Mark Cognevich finds himself in his usual position doing double duty. He’s back for his weekly work as self-appointed groundskeeper at Fort Jackson, the masonry fort constructed between 1822 and 1832 to protect the lower Mississippi River. After mowing near the wood footbridge that crosses the fort’s moat, Cognevich pauses to answer questions from a Washington Post journalist working on an article about the salt wedge that since April 2023 has contaminated drinking water in the area. In Cognevich, a councilman born and bred in nearby Buras and president of the Plaquemines Parish

54 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Additional Images Online at LouisianaLife.com

parish that owns Fort Jackson, where on April 27, 1862, Confederate soldiers mutinied against their commanding officers. Days later, New Orleans fell to Union forces.

Cognevich holds the keys to Fort Jackson’s gates. He also keeps its stories. “Our mission is to preserve history,” he says after the journalist leaves and he returns inside the fort. He’s lapsed into his Historical Association role,

or maybe that role and this one — pulling weeds that choke a Civil War-era cannon — are interchangeable.

“This looked worse last week,” he says. “It will look the same next week when I come back, but the work needs to be done to keep this place alive.”

The gods condemned Sisyphus to roll his boulder uphill. Cognevich chose this duty. Aside from once each

Did You Know?

The first Mardi Gras in Louisiana took place across the Mississippi River from Fort Jackson.

Historical markers in Plaquemines Parish tell the story this way: On Tuesday, March 3, 1699, “Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur D’Iberville with his companions camped where the bayou — then 135 feet wide — entered the river.

The day being the pre-Lenten holiday called Mardi Gras, he gave that name to both bayou and adjoining point of land.”

Far left This plaque

on the grounds of Fort Jackson commemorates Louisiana’s first Mardi Gras. Across the Mississippi River from what later became Fort Jackson, Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville camped with his party on March 3, 1699, Mardi Gras day.

Left Constructed as a pentagon, Fort Jackson contains walls made of red brick that in some places are twenty feet thick.

LOUISIANALIFE.COM

55

N AT U RA L STAT E

year when the parish sends a crew or when he organizes volunteers, Cognevich has been the sole groundskeeper at Fort Jackson since 2019, when he assumed office. When he’s not here for his weekly work, visitors who cross the moat will find the fort locked.

“Every time I cut the grass, it’s open,” Cognevich says. In the past thirty minutes, half a dozen people have wandered in freely. If they had pulled up yesterday or tomorrow, they could have walked the property but not set foot inside the fort, now a National Historic Landmark. And yet they continue to come. At the Fort Jackson Museum, one mile upriver on LA 23, today’s guest log includes addresses from Louisiana, Illinois, and Minnesota. “I’ve seen China, France, Belgium, England, Canada,” Cognevich says. “It’s like that all the time.” But that’s only because Cognevich has made

56 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Top Left: When

heading south on LA Hwy 23, the Fort Jackson Museum and Welcome Center lies one mile before the fort itself. Bottom Left: The Fort Jackson Museum houses Civil War-era munitions from the fort and relays the history of Plaquemines Parish’s citrus and seafood industries. Right: Munitions carts and other artifacts remain on display inside Fort Jackson.

it so. “I was willing to do the work for free and try to keep it open,” he says.

Before extensive damage from Hurricane Katrina, when six feet of water flooded the fort, causing structural damage, Fort Jackson had been open to the public every day. After Katrina, the parish received federal funds to help with restoration. Gates eventually reopened. A full-time crew maintained the grounds. Then came more storms, and for more than a decade, Fort Jackson has been closed — except when Cognevich is working here or when the parish opens its gates for the annual Orange Festival.

After his election, Cognevich moved his secretary into the then-closed Fort Jackson Museum. Now, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, visitors can see artifacts and learn about Fort Jackson, along with other Plaquemines Parish history, including the Belle Chasse Plantation and its citrus and seafood industries.

“My daddy used to say that God put his hand on Plaquemines Parish,” says Cognevich, who first visited Fort Jackson at age five. “Down here, we have sulfur, natural gas, we have oil. We have every kind of seafood.

You can fish in salt water, fresh water, brackish water.

You can kill any kind of animal you want. Now, we’ve got all these storms. We’ve got saltwater intrusion. We’ve got the salt wedge. But still, there’s nowhere else in the world like it.” T

Buras native and Plaquemines Parish Councilman Mark Cognevich works year round to maintain the grounds at Fort Jackson.

LOUISIANALIFE.COM

57

T RAV E L E R

Krewe de Canailles

Lafayette’s 2024 Carnival Parades and Events

Lafayette’s fun, inclusive Mardi Gras krewe

BY CHERÉ COEN

J A N . 27

Carencro Mardi Gras Parade, Carencro FEB. 2

Krewe de Canailles Walking Parade FEB. 3

Krewe of Rio Parada Mardi Gras Parade Scott Mardi Gras Parade, Scott FEB. 4

Le Courir de Mardi Gras, Vermilionville La Dance de Mardi Gras with Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys and guests, Acadiana Center for the Arts F E B . 9 -1 3

Le Festival de Mardi Gras à Lafayette, Cajun Field FEB. 10

Children’s Parade Youngsville Mardi Gras Parade, Youngsville Krewe of Bonaparte Mardi Gras Parade FEB. 12

ACAD IA N A A RGU A B L Y HO STS the second-largest

Carnival celebration in Louisiana with the requisite balls, parades and special events akin to its massive cousin to the east. But a group of Lafayette residents thought something new was called for, something intimate, sustainable and inclusive.

They presented the idea of the Krewe de Canailles walking parade to the 24 Hour Citizen Project (24HCP), which awards entrepreneurs with seed money to realize their dreams. The krewe would be comprised of sub-krewes and individuals costumed and walking

58 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

through downtown as the first parade of the season.

“A few of our founding board members felt that Lafayette Mardi Gras had started to lose its muster and lose the true meaning of Mardi Gras,” said Luke Sonnier, Krewe de Canailles president. “It’s a different sort of fun than your typical Mardi Gras parade.”

The 24HCP agreed and awarded the founders $5000 in 2017. Project creator Rodney Hess wrote in that year’s project update, “We want to Make Mardi Gras Great Again.”

In February 2018, the Krewe de Canailles marched their inaugural foray through downtown Lafayette streets.

Queen Evangeline’s Parade FEB. 13

King Gabriel’s Parade Lafayette Mardi Gras Festival Parade Independent Parade

PHOTO COURTESY KREWE DE CANAILLES

LOUISIANALIFE.COM

59

T RAV E L E R

Note: In Cajun French “canaille” means mischievous, shrewd, cunning, a trickster.

The few parade rules Canailles maintains are simple: Sub-krewe members must dress to the parade’s theme, and costumes, throws and signs should be family friendly.

“No vulgarity,” Sonnier said. “Although it can be cheeky and we do push the envelope.”

Only sustainable throws, items mostly handmade and collectible, are allowed. Plastic beads and candy — basically anything that might be left lying in the street as trash — are off limits.

“Walking down Jefferson Street the next day and seeing it clear of litter was a clear sign that we achieved what we set out to do,” Hess wrote in the 2018 post-parade update.

“We’ve done everything to be more sustainable, to be more green,” Sonnier reiterated, adding that sub-krewes must provide battery packs for electricity and boom boxes for music. There are no motorized vehicles.

The route is confined to downtown because it’s pedestrian friendly, walkable and provides sustenance (i.e. food and drink) to the marchers and visitors, Sonnier added.

“Part of our mission is giving back to the community in that we bring a lot of people downtown,” Sonnier said.

The nonprofit’s year begins with an announcement party where the theme is presented. The 2024 theme of “Into the Shadowverse” mirrors Groundhog Day, since the parade rolls on Feb. 2.

60 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

“Shadowverse means alternate reality, the dark side of life,” Sonnier explained. “‘Twilight Zone’ would be a good example.”

It’s inexpensive to join, about $50 per person, although the price rises the closer participants get to Feb. 2.

Sub-krewes elect a captain to “wrangle” members and create costumes and develop throws. All must use some aspect of the overall theme. The 2023 theme was “There Must Be Something in the Water” and sub-krewes came as mermaids, sirens and gumbo.

For those who want to join as individuals, Canailles places them together so that they form their own group.

The parade attracts about 400 marchers each year, what organizers find ideal for managing­— just innovative people marching in costume while handing out unique throws and having fun.

“It’s a much more intimate experience for the marchers,” Sonnier said.

“It’s a very unique experience.”

This year’s parade will be led by the Soul Express brass band and the Southwest Mardi Gras Indians. The parade’s after-party with Rebirth Brass Band in the Grouse Room is open to the public and free to members, although non-members will have a $15 cover.

For information on the parade, visit the Krewe de Canailles Facebook and Instagram pages and krewedecanailles.com. T

A creative boat float goes by families out for a night of fun, all enjoying the sights and waiting for a throw. Each krewe has a theme and throws sustainable, often handmade, items to people on the route.

FA RT HE R F LU N G

Freedom Summer The history of Mississippi’s move toward equality

BY CHERÉ COEN

A Lucky Expansion

Coming Full Circle One of Hattiesburg’s Civil Rights leaders was Vernon F. Dahmer Sr., who ran a family-owned grocery store. He was twice elected president of the local NACCP chapter and led voter registration drives.

He was killed on Jan. 10, 1966, defending his home against members of the KKK.

S IX TY Y E A RS A GO T H I S MO N TH, hundreds of African Americans supported by pastors and the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) entered the Forrest County Courthouse in Hattiesburg to register to vote. Later that summer of 1964 the protest evolved into the Freedom Summer project aimed at both exposing Mississippi’s oppression of black people and pushing for their equal rights.

The COFO established “Freedom Schools,” where mostly 1,000 white Northern college students learned how to register Mississippi’s African American voters when visiting the state, as well as teaching them civics and “Negro history” not taught in the state’s segregated public schools. In Hattiesburg’s Freedom School, the summer saw 90 out-of-state residents visit with 3,000 local participants. It was the largest Freedom Summer site in Mississippi with Hattiesburg’s event labeled “the Mecca of the Freedom School World.”

When three civil rights workers went missing while visiting a burned African American church in Philadelphia, Mississippi, safety fears of the Freedom Summer’s volunteers intensified. But the event went ahead and approximately 17,000 black residents of Mississippi attempted to vote that summer, but only 1,600 were accepted by registrars.

Freedom Summer was one of the last major interracial efforts of the Civil Rights Movement, and the event may have fueled the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

62 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

His legacy, as well as the events of Freedom Summer, are memorialized in Hattiesburg’s Freedom Summer Trail, a driving and audio tour. Visitors may download the map from hburgfreedomtrail. org and click on each stop on the website for an audio history. Some of the stops on the trail include the Vernon F. Dahmer Sr. statue in front of the Forrest County Courthouse where locals waited in the rain in January 1964 to register to vote and continue to picket there for suffrage; the Mt. Zion Baptist Church, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke two weeks before his death; and St. Paul United Methodist Church that was once a Freedom School.

Visit The Lucky Rabbit in Hattiesburg if you love perusing antiques and collectibles, but as they say in those retro TV infomercials, “But wait, there’s more!”

Brandon and Abby Thaxton opened the two-story venue featuring dozens of vintage vendors selling eclectic finds in 2013, but they also recreate movie sets, such as the living room of “Stranger Things,” and offer items such as a 1970s McDonald’s Hamburger Jail and a Volkswagen Bus from the 1960s as popular backdrops for selfies.

This year, the business expanded by 24,000 extra square feet of retail space when the couple purchased the historic Hattiesburg Grocery building next door, so there’s even more fun to be had.

The Lucky Rabbit has become so popular, it’s been featured on HGTV’s “Hometown” and was recently noted as a 2023 top travel destination stop by Forbes. The store is open Saturdays and Sundays but every first Saturday features a street market with outdoor vendors, children’s activities and food.

Got Art? When the pandemic reared its ugly head, the Hattiesburg Alliance for Public Art, a program of Visit Hattiesburg, decided to offer art installations to visitors that didn’t require public contact or a mask. They started the Hattiesburg Public Art Trail, offering 100 murals, painted utility boxes and sculptures throughout town with signage, a brochure and website. The Trail includes the statue of Vernon F. Dahmer Sr. This year, after partnering with the Mississippi Rising Coalition, the Alliance for Public Art unveiled “The Family,” a mural celebrating the life of Oseola McCarty who achieved national recognition after donating her lifetime savings as a laundress to establish a scholarship at The University of Southern Mississippi. The mural, created by local artists Ricardo Moody, Willie L. Cooks III and Sidea Cooks may be seen at the Oseola McCarty Youth Development Center.

For a map of all public art stops in Hattiesburg, visit HAPA’s Facebook and Instagram pages or HBURGArt.com.

PHOTO COURTESY: HATTIESBURG ALLIANCE FOR PUBLIC ART

LOUISIANALIFE.COM

63

P HOTO CON T EST

Celebration in Color On Mardi Gras Day, La Société De Saint Anne parade revelers march on Royal Street in New Orleans making their way to the river to honor those who died the year prior.

BY MELANIE WARNER SPENCER, FORT MEYERS, FLORIDA

64 LOUISIANA LIFE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

To Submit Your Photos, Visit LouisianaLife.com