In 2000 I had the good fortune to shoot pictures of a UNESCO conference called, “Breaking the Silence: Teaching the Transatlantic Slave Trade,” hosted by Tulane’s Deep South Regional Humanities Center. One of the featured events of the conference was a tour led by Walter Johnson, author of the 1999 book Soul by Soul*. He took us to major sites of the slave trade in New Orleans, as well as a tour of Evergreen Plantation. I recently came across those negatives and decided to finally read his book. Here are a few excerpts:
(source: New Orleans Public Library) Louis Armstrong from Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans: That neighborhood [Back ‘O Town] certainly had a lot to offer. Of course, we kids were not allowed to go into the Funky Butt, but we could hear the orchestra from…
We caught the Uptown Swingers Social Aid & Pleasure Club (love those pink suits!) featuring the To Be Continued Brass Band on 2nd and Dryades. Yes, damn hot. I suspect this might be the last secondline parade we see for a couple months.
I don’t watch much baseball anymore (okay, hardly/if any), but even I know this is embarrassing in the extreme: LSU had scored a run and had the bases loaded but UC Irvine second baseman Casey Stevenson snuffed the rally by pulling the hidden ball trick…
I’ll provide more impressions tomorrow, but here’s video of me asking McCain if he would debate in New Orleans: … and here’s his whole speech: … meanwhile, I appear briefly tonight as Mister at the G Bitch Spot.
My father is in town for the Louisiana Watercolor Society’s 38th Annual Exhibition where his painting Guard Duty is on display: © David M. Bridges The opening reception will be held today from 3-5 p.m. at Place St. Charles, 201 St. Charles Avenue. Come meet…
The South African architect Vaughan Burns is known for designing “humane low cost housing.” We’re not talking Katrina cottages or FEMA trailers, y’all.
(photo credit: code poet) Kid drops out of school at the age of 14. Hangs out with unsavory characters and learns how to be a thug. He turns 18 and moves out of the family house on the West Bank–parents, six brothers and two sisters–to…
An excerpt about 3 minutes long from the 1989 Canadian documentary Liberty Street Blues featuring the great Danny Barker riffing about the differences between day and night people. Also featured are Dr. Michael White and Gregg Stafford.
Even Michael Homan acknowledges Chris Owens is apparently a friendly and likable person. She is a New Orleans institution to be honored. Long live Chris Owens! We can all drink to that. So Homan started a lively debate about Owens’ unique appeal. One of the…
There’s a battle raging over Michael Homan’s comments regarding Chris Owens. First he wrote an open letter to her, starting with: I saw you perform at the French Quarter Festival. Please stop. It makes me want to stop being a heterosexual. Adrastos called Homan an…
The river is running high. I’ve looked at it before and after the Bonnet Carre Spillway diverted water and I can’t really tell the difference–even when I look at the graph. Still, great days for serious river gazing.