The Mother’s Day shootings, which injured 20, rattled residents of New Orleans and led some to question the security around second-line parades. For many, the prevailing tradition brought them out to yesterday’s Divine Ladies Parade, but for the professional musicians who participate in the parades it was also a matter of their livelihood.
“This is how I eat. This is how I feed my family. Without this, I have to go look for another job. I never worked a day in my life. I play music all the time,” says Chris Terro, a percussionist with the TBC Brass Band.
As the New Orleans Police Department continues to investigate the motives behind last week’s Mother’s Day parade shooting, the city’s Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs are sticking to their second-line schedules.
My, how we love our characters in New Orleans. Which is a good thing.
Locals still talk about Ruthie the Duck Girl, even though she died in 2008. In my neighborhood of Tremé, we have a tall man with a scraggly beard who pushes a grocery cart around, having random conversations with a street corner. Or an empty can.
We celebrate these characters. We tenderly laugh with them. But we don’t always see that, underneath the eccentricity that makes for a funny story, is often a mental illness that is anything but funny.
This weekend, Bayou St. John gets one more hit before it’s slower summer/fall/winter season with the B-o-o-g-a-l-o-o. Go to that, but go to these things, too:
If New Orleans was not specifically pining for a modern coastal Italian dining experience in a refurbished industrial space at the border of the Marigny and Bywater, well, you wouldn't know it by the scene at Mariza on any given night.
Credit David Grunfeld / The Times-Picayune /Landov
Wendell Pierce, the actor and co-owner of Sterling Farms grocery store, chats with Dwight Henry, who will be making doughnuts and buttermilk drops in the store.
Credit David Grunfeld / The Times-Picayune/Landov
Troy Henry (from left), Jim Hatchett and Wendell Pierce, co-owners of Sterling Farms grocery store, meet at the store's soft launch on March 21. Pierce, an actor, gained fame through his starring roles in David Simon's The Wire and Treme.
Plenty of celebrities leverage their star power to raise awareness of complicated food issues. Some of the biggest names include Michelle Obama, Jamie Oliver, Prince Charles and Paul McCartney.
On Friday, the Dalai Lama will be giving the first of two public talks at the New Orleans theatre in the Convention Center. For many, the Dalai Lama’s visit is reminiscent of the last major religious leader to pass through New Orleans 25 years ago.
When Pope John Paul II visited New Orleans in 1987 it was described as the Super Bowl of all Super Bowls.
25 years later, Archbishop Gregory Aymond remembers it well.
By the time it is finished on Friday morning, the mandala will fill up the entire table. Shortly thereafter, it will be swept away and ceremonially deposited into the Mississippi River.
One part of the Dalai Lama’s visit to New Orleans is the creation of a sand sculpture by Tibetan monks. The meticulous process is open to public view outside Hall G at the Convention Center.
Ronald Marks' involvement with the Louisiana Himalaya Association and Tulane University has established a strong connection with leaders in the Tibetan community.
Most New Orleanians have probably heard that the Dalai Lama is in town this week. But perhaps you do not know of the work it took to bring the spiritual leader of 6 million Tibetan Buddhists to this city.
On this week's Notes from New Orleans, Sharon Litwin talks with Ronald Marks, the Tulane scholar who organized the visit.
