555. Randy Gonzales. "St. Malo."

555. This week we talk to Randy Gonzales about his poetry book Settling St. Malo. "I am excited about the launch of a book I spent more than a decade writing. My research into Filipino Louisiana started as a way to understand my family’s Filipino story. I learned that without the fishermen at St. Malo, the shrimpers at Manila Village, and the seamen who settled in New Orleans, my Filipino ancestors may not have moved to Louisiana. Poetry — attention to sound, rhythm, and the emotional register of words — helped me organize and make sense of research and make it meaningful to me" (Gonzales). "I am a native New Orleanian of Filipino descent; a poet, writer, and community historian who researches and shares the stories of Filipino Louisiana; a scholar and educator, an associate professor of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who holds the Dr. James Wilson/BORSF Eminent Scholar Endowed Professorship in Southern Studies; a father who wants his children to be proud of their heritage" (Gonzales).

1. This week in Louisiana history. January 8 1815. The Battle of New Orleans took place.
2. This week in New Orleans history. On January 7, 1944, the Liberty ship Leon Godchaux was launched by Delta Shipbuilding Company.
   
3. This week in Louisiana. The Feast of Epiphany is a Christian feast day commemorating the visit of the Magi, the baptism of Jesus, and the wedding at Cana. It's also the beginning of Carnival. Less than two weeks after Christmas, New Orleans begins the reveling anew with its celebration of Twelfth Night. Jan. 6th marks the Feast of the Epiphany, when the Three Wise Men visited the Christ child. In New Orleans it also means the launch of Carnival season. And New Orleans observes it with the Joan of Arc parade that marches through the Quarter. Société Des Champs Elysée rolls down the Rampart - St. Claude Avenue streetcar line nearby. Meanwhile Uptown, the Phunny Phorty Phellows board the St. Charles streetcar for a parade all their own. This is followed by the Funky Uptown Krewe.
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Bubbles Brown at the Apple Barrel on Frenchmen.

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