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Hear the latest from the WWNO/WRKF Newsroom.

Investigation into lead at NOLA playgrounds; what’s on deck at 2026 Tulane Book Fest; history of Black Theatre in New Orleans

Anthony Bean Community Theater & Acting School founder and artistic director, Anthony Bean with students at a youth performance
Courtesy of Anthony Bean
Anthony Bean Community Theater & Acting School founder and artistic director, Anthony Bean with students at a youth performance

Walk by any neighborhood park, and you’ll usually see some kids running around and playing. It’s supposed to be a place where they’re safe, but that’s not always true. At some parks, there’s a poison lurking in the soil: lead.

Verite News, a partner news outlet of WWNO and WRKF, tested sites across New Orleans. As health reporter Halle Parker explains, most playgrounds in the city had unsafe levels of lead.

The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane returns to The Crescent City March 12-15. The annual event will feature bestselling authors, filmmakers, politicians, musicians, TV personalities and more. Cheryl Landrieu is a lawyer, author and founder of the book festival. She joins us for more on this year’s event.

February — Black History Month — is the shortest month of the calendar year. But it is rich in African American cultural contributions and celebrations. Anthony Bean, Founder & Artistic Director of the Anthony Bean Community Theater & Acting School, is celebrating more than 50 years of Black Theatre rooted in New Orleans.

Bean joins us to look back on the legacy he and his late Monroe began with the Ethiopian Theater in the 7th Ward to center Black artists and storytellers.

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Diane Mack. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our assistant producer is Aubry Procell. Our engineer is Garrett Pittman.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at noon and 7 p.m. It’s available on Spotify, the NPR App, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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"This is NPR's Morning Edition, at 89.9 WWNO. Good Morning, I'm Diane Mack."
Alana Schreiber is the managing producer for the live daily news program, Louisiana Considered. She comes to WWNO from KUNC in Northern Colorado, where she worked as a radio producer for the daily news magazine, Colorado Edition. She has previously interned for Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul.