Arts & Culture
1:33 pm
Fri May 3, 2013

Music Impresario George Wein Dedicates Center for Jazz Education

Credit Zack Smith
George Wein, jazz musician and festival creator, at a ceremony to dedicate the George and Joyce Wein Jazz Heritage Center

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival continues its 44th year of music today at the Fair Grounds. This morning a new music education center was dedicated to one of the festival’s founders, George Wein, and his wife Joyce.

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Arts & Culture
12:48 pm
Fri May 3, 2013

What Would Your Map Of Jazz Fest Look Like?

Helen Regis is a cultural anthropologist who has been studying the Jazz and Heritage Festival for 10 years. In some ways, she says, you can think of the Jazz Fest as a city.

“The people who build the festival every year — the construction crew, the electricians — feel like they’re building a city. They do. It’s this physical infrastructure. It has lights. It has plumbing. Sort of.” Regis says, in some ways, it’s kind of a fantasy city. "In some ways it looks like New Orleans, but it’s not."

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Jazz Fest 2013
12:24 pm
Fri May 3, 2013

Keeping It Delicious With Jazz Fest Food Director Michelle Nugent

Credit Allyce Andrew / WWNO
It wouldn't be a spring festival in New Orleans without crawfish!

With nearly 70 food vendors and over 200 dishes, Jazz Fest isn’t simply a music destination, it’s a foodie paradise. But that makes vendor selection and organization an arduous task.

Fortunately, just the right woman is leading the process. Michelle Nugent has been the Jazz Fest Food Director since 1999 and has a culinary résumé befitting a world-class chef. She spent 17 years working with chef Susan Spicer, first as an apprentice, then as Bayona’s sous chef, and finally as the executive chef at Spice Inc.

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Jazz Fest Minutes
11:29 am
Fri May 3, 2013

Jazz Fest Minutes: 'One Mo’ Time' With Actor Vernel Bagneris

Credit pasionporelteatromusical.blogspot.com/
Vernel Bagneris

The Show “One Mo’ Time” went from humble beginnings as a homemade New Orleans labor of love with a single scheduled performance to a worldwide theatrical sensation that ran for years. Its creator, New Orleans actor Vernel Bagneris, has loved the idea of putting on a show from way back.

“Cousins of mine still laugh at the fact that they used to come over and I’d put on a show for them and play a little accordion and single a little bit with the few chords I knew on a piano and do plays and make them all do parts,” Bagneris remembers.

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Kat Chow is a journalist covering race, ethnicity, and culture for NPR's new Code Switch team. In this role, Chow is responsible for reporting and telling stories using social media, sparking conversations online, and blogging.

Prior to coming to NPR, Chow worked with WGBH in Boston and was a reporting fellow for The Cambodia Daily, an English-language newspaper in Phnom Penh.

While a student at the University of Washington in Seattle, Chow was a founding member of a newsmagazine television show and freelanced for the Seattle Weekly. She also interned with the Seattle Times and worked on NBC's Winter Olympics coverage in Vancouver, B.C. You can find her tweeting away for Code Switch at @NPRCodeSwitch, and sharing her thoughts at @katchow.

Jazz Fest 2013
9:39 am
Fri May 3, 2013

Jazz Fest Services For People With Disabilities

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is a seven-day music, food and crafts extravaganza that is one of the biggest draws in a city known for big events — but outdoor festivals can be difficult for anyone to navigate, let alone for people with disabilities.

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The Green Minute

The Green Minute with Christal White (of The Green Project) is a brief eco morsel focused on answering nagging environmental questions, explaining the hows and whys of finding the greener path and giving earth friendly advice on everyday topics — simply and sustainably.

Join us each Saturday during Radiolab for a glimpse of green as we highlight recycling events and resources in New Orleans, gain insights on environmental issues, showcase slices of the green life and foster in a more sustainable city.

Produced by Laine Kaplan-Levenson.

Connect with The Green Project on Facebook or Twitter.

Crescent City Connection
7:00 am
Fri May 3, 2013

Mayor Landrieu Predicts Voters Will Reject Crescent City Bridge Tolls

Credit GSPhotography / Shutterstock.com
The Crescent City Connection bridge.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has campaigned in favor of keeping the $1 tolls on the Crescent City Connection.

But he says now that he probably won’t win that fight, considering Jazz Fest and other events may prove more inviting than the polls.

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Latest News
7:00 am
Fri May 3, 2013

Forum Looks To New Orleans For Driving Cultural Economy

Credit Eileen Fleming / WWNO

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is hosting the fifth annual World Cultural Economic Forum this week. It’s part of the US Conference of Mayors' drive to harness the financial power of art and culture.

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Green Minute
6:25 pm
Thu May 2, 2013

Deet-Free Ways To Ward Off Bugs

Dr. Bronner's Castille soap.

Christal White Delivers the Green Minute.

The thunderstorms are rolling through, the humidity’s rising, and we all know what’s next… bugs. Ones that bite, ones that sting, ones that just gross you out. Nonetheless, they all have one thing in common: they will do whatever they can to get up in your home and all over you and your precious skin. But, as The Green Project reminded us this week, the simple solution isn't always the best solution.

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