319. Bryan Wagner. The Tar Baby.

319. We interview Bryan Wagner about his recent book, The Tar Baby: A Global History. Louisianans may be familiar with Compair Lapin, the tricky rabbit of Louisiana Creole folk tales. Perhaps the best-known version of the tar baby story was published in 1880 by Joel Chandler Harris in Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings, and popularized in Song of the South, the 1946 Disney movie. Other versions of the story, however, have surfaced in many other places throughout the world, including Nigeria, Brazil, Corsica, Jamaica, India, and the Philippines. The Tar Baby offers a fresh analysis of this deceptively simple story about a fox, a rabbit, and a doll made of tar and turpentine, tracing its history and its connections to slavery, colonialism, and global trade. Bryan Wagner explores how the tar baby story, thought to have originated in Africa, came to exist in hundreds of forms on five continents. Examining its variation, reception, and dispersal over time, he argues that the story is best understood not merely as a folktale but as a collective work in political philosophy. Circulating at the same time and in the same places as new ideas about property and politics developed in colonial law and political economy, the tar baby comes to embody an understanding of the interlocking processes by which custom was criminalized, slaves were captured, and labor was bought and sold.

1. This week in Louisiana history. June 30, 1870. Robert E. Lee and the Natchez began their famous riverboat race.
2. This week in New Orleans history. June 29, 1967. Jane Mansfield Dies in Auto Crash on Chef Hwy. Along the Chef Menteur Highway/Hwy 90 near the Rigolets pass, at approximately 2:25 a.m., the car plowed into the back of a tractor-trailer truck which had reduced its speed from 50 to 35 miles-per-hour upon sighting a mosquito fogging truck. Husband Harrison, Jayne, and their son Brady were killed.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   July 4-7, 2019
   Essence Festival 25
   Superdome and other locations
   New Orleans, LA
   The Essence Festival, known as "the party with a purpose", is an annual music festival which started in 1995 as a one-time event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Essence, a magazine aimed primarily towards African-American women. It is the largest event celebrating African-American culture and music in the United States. Locally referred to as the Essence Fest, it has been held in New Orleans, Louisiana since 1994 except for 2006, when it was held in Houston, Texas due to Hurricane Katrina's effect on New Orleans. It was also held in Durban, South Africa in 2016. It features artists simultaneously performing on a main stage as well as four standing-room only superlounge stages.
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Hillary and the Boys play on Decatur St.

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