114. Katie Bickham interview, part 2

114.  Part 2 of our interview with Katie Bickham.  Katie Bickham is an award-winning poet and teacher from Shreveport, Louisiana.  She is proud to announce her forthcoming first book of poetry, The Belle Mar, winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize. Katie grew up believing she wanted to write novels, but somewhere along the way, brevity took hold, and she decided it was poetry or bust.  Katie earned her BA in English Literature and MA in Liberal Arts from LSU Shreveport.  Then, knowing that one cannot write about a place until one leaves it, she enrolled in the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine, where she met the people who would pull the truly good work out of her.

1. This week in Louisiana history. July 26, 1810. Rebellion of West Florida Parishes.
2. This week in New Orleans history. Born in New Orleans on July 25, 1899, musician Johnny Wiggs (Born John Wigginton Hyman) started his music career on the violin, then the cornet.  In the late 1920s he took a job as a teacher, adopted the stage name "Johnny Wiggs"), and moonlighted in New Orleans jazz clubs at night. He made his first recordings as "John Hyman's Bayou Stompers" in the late 1920s.  In the 1940s he quit teaching (after having trained a young Pete Fountain), led several bands, made some recordings, and became an an important figure in the revival and preservation of the local music by founding the New Orleans Jazz Club.  Hyman remained active until the 1970s.  He passed away on in New Orleans on October 10, 1977.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Satchmo SummerFest
   July 31st, 2015 - August 2nd, 2015
   Old U.S. Mint & Historic French Quarter
   400 Esplanade Ave., New Orleans, LA 70116
   504-522-5730
   Website
   Old U.S. Mint & Historic French Quarter
   Each year, this weekend-long festival celebrates his life, legacy and music. The festivities include a seminar series, jazz exhibits, a jazz mass and second-line parade, fantastic food and a host of star-studded performers.

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113. Interview with poet Katie Bickham, part 1

113.  Part 1 of our interview with Katie Bickham.  Katie Bickham is an award-winning poet and teacher from Shreveport, Louisiana.  She is proud to announce her forthcoming first book of poetry, The Belle Mar, winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize. Katie grew up believing she wanted to write novels, but somewhere along the way, brevity took hold, and she decided it was poetry or bust.  Katie earned her BA in English Literature and MA in Liberal Arts from LSU Shreveport.  Then, knowing that one cannot write about a place until one leaves it, she enrolled in the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine, where she met the people who would pull the truly good work out of her.

1. This week in Louisiana history. July 17, 1795. First bishop of New Orleans, Don Luis Cardenas, arrives in Louisiana.
2. This week in New Orleans history. NBC News television journalist William Blanc "Bill" Monroe Jr. was born in New Orleans on July 17, 1920.  He graduated from Tulane in 1942 and during World War II, served in the Air Forces in Europe. Early in his career, Monroe served as the first news director for WDSU-TV, an NBC affiliate. In 1959, Monroe’s team at WDSU-TV won a George Foster Peabody Award. His news reporting on NBC's Today show, won a Peabody in 1973.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   SugaSheaux
   July 18th, 2015 - July 19th, 2015
   SugArena @ Acadiana Fairgrounds
   713 NW Bypass (Hwy 3212), New Iberia, LA 70560
   337-365-7539 | 337-365-4795
   Website
   Rodeo Competition Series & Show, Concessions

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112. Rain Prud’homme-Cranford Goméz, Part 2.

112.  Part 2 of our interview with Rain Prud’homme-Cranford Goméz.  Rain's research focuses on issues of Louisiana Indian (Choctaw, Houma, Tunica-Biloxi, Caddo, and other Louisiana Mvskogean and Siouan groups) diaspora and their relationships with Louisiana Creole (mestiza) Indigeneity as manifested in material culture ways, oral histories, and literature, specifically tied to geographic space, gender, and memory/culture. Her research seeks to make Native communities unavoidably visible showcasing Indigenous acts of reinscription (in response to assumed absences, ha untings, mythos, and exotification) and decolonization in material and literary culture (beadwork, basketry, poetry, prose, and music), while highlighting Louisiana Creoles as an Indigenous diasporic people within conversations around Indigenous literature/narratives in the American South.

1. This week in Louisiana history. July 11, 1804. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton is mortally wounded. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton is mortally wounded July 11 at age 49 in a duel at Weehawken, N.J. with Vice President Aaron Burr, now 48, who has heard of insults directed at him by Hamilton and demanded satisfaction . Indicted in New York and New Jersey, Burr flees to Philadelphia and proceeds to the South where he will conspire in the next 3 years with Gen. James Wilkinson, 44, who is secretly in the pay of Spain but will soon be governor of the Louisiana Territory.
2. This week in New Orleans history.
   Now over 100 years old, the City Park Casino opened on July 11, 1913, is now one of the park's few surviving Spanish Mission-style era structures. This photo was shot on March 26, 1939 after WPA repairs and renovations of the Casino as a part of the general improvement program in the park. For a time, the Swan boat docked nearby on Bayou Metairie. Renovated in 1999, and re-named the Timken Center, its second floor is used for meetings and parties. It is now used as a Morning Call coffee shop.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Native American Exhibit
   July 6th, 2015 - July 17th, 2015
   Tangipahoa Parish Convention & Visitor's Bureau
   13143 Wardline Rd., Hammond, LA 70401
   985-542-7520 | 800-542-7520 | 985-542-7521
   Website
   dana@tangitourism.com
   Tangipahoa Parish Convention & Visitor's Bureau
   This free event will share the untold stories of cultures that had significant impact on our community. Native American artifacts including life size teepee, pottery, baskets, skins, tools and weapons will be on display. We hope to see you at our event.
   For more details or group reservations, contact Dana Short at the Tangipahoa Parish Convention and Visitors Bureau. 

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111. Rain Prud'homme-Cranford Goméz, Part 1.

111.  We interview scholar, poet, and activist Rain Prud'homme-Cranford Goméz.  Rain's research focuses on issues of Louisiana Indian (Choctaw, Houma, Tunica-Biloxi, Caddo, and other Louisiana Mvskogean and Siouan groups) diaspora and their relationships with Louisiana Creole (mestiza) Indigeneity as manifested in material culture ways, oral histories, and literature, specifically tied to geographic space, gender, and memory/culture. Her research seeks to make Native communities unavoidably visible showcasing Indigenous acts of reinscription (in response to assumed absences, hauntings, mythos, and exotification) and decolonization in material and literary culture (beadwork, basketry, poetry, prose, and music), while highlighting Louisiana Creoles as an Indigenous diasporic people within conversations around Indigenous literature/narratives in the American South.

1. This week in Louisiana history. July 4, 1900. Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, trumpet king, born.
2. This week in New Orleans history.  The Classical Greek-styled Popp Bandstand was dedicated in City Park on July 4, 1917. Designed by Emile Weil at a cost of $75,000 it was dedicated on July 4th. Its twelve granite ionic columns are topped with a bronze dome. Named for its benefactor John F. Popp, who had made his fortune in a lumber business which was headquartered on the New Basin Canal. The bandstand is a replica of Temple of Love in Versailles and the memorial plaque to Alexis Ribet is embedded into it. Many New Orleanians enjoyed their first glimpses of moving pictures here on summer evenings. Generations of musicians have played here including John Philip Sousa who performed in 1928. The bandstand still stands for our enjoyment if we wish to spend a 4th of July there near the Casino. The Popp family also funded the park's Popp Fountain.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   San Fermin In Nueva Orleans
   July 9th, 2015 - July 12th, 2015
   New Orleans Hotel Collection Luxury Hotel
   1380 Port of New Orleans Place, New Orleans, LA 70130
   504-571-9334
   Website
   New Orleans Hotel Collection Luxury Hotel
   New Orleans becomes Pamplona for a day at this Running of the Bulls-inspired celebration, where the Big Easy Rollergirls - wielding plastic bats and wearing helmets outfitted with fake bullhorns, naturally - charge after runners through the streets of Downtown.  The 9th Annual Running of the Bulls at San Fermin in Nueva Orleans (SFNO) is the city's most incredible Summer Spectacle! Join thousands of runners as they roam the streets of New Orleans and party with hundreds of Rollerbulls (roller derby skaters with horns on their helmets and plastic bats in their hands) from around the globe during the Encierro.

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110. Zack Kopplin interview, part 2

110.  Part 2 of our interview with Zack Kopplin, an Louisiana political activist, journalist, and television personality from Louisiana. Kopplin has campaigned to keep creationism out of public school science classrooms and been involved with other separation of church and state causes. He has opposed school vouchers because they provide public money to schools which may teach creationism. As a high school student, he organized seventy-eight Nobel laureate scientists in a campaign against the Louisiana Science Education Act, a creationism law. He is also involved with science funding policy and curriculum and textbook policy.

1. This week in Louisiana history. June 28, 1861. First Civil War battle engagement for Louisiana Tigers, at Seneca Dam on Potomac River.
   
2. This week in New Orleans history. On June 27th, 1957, Hurrican Audrey, the most destructive hurricane to strike Southwest Louisiana until that time, moved ashore near the Texas/Louisiana border causing a disastrous storm surge.  Storm surges of 6 feet of more extended from Galveston, TX along the coast to Cocodrie, LA.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Essence Music Festival
   July 2nd, 2015 - July 5th, 2015
   Mercedes-Benz Superdome
   1500 Sugar Bowl Dr., New Orleans, LA 70112
   504-587-3663
   Website 
   Mercedes-Benz Superdome
   "Party with a purpose" at this star-studded celebration of African American music and culture in the Superdome. Jazz up your July with performances by the world's biggest hip-hop, R&B and soul artists.

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Zack Kopplin and Bill Nye

109. Zack Kopplin Interview, Part 1

109.  Part 1 of our interview with Zack Kopplin, an Louisiana political activist, journalist, and television personality from Louisiana. Kopplin has campaigned to keep creationism out of public school science classrooms and been involved with other separation of church and state causes. He has opposed school vouchers because they provide public money to schools which may teach creationism. As a high school student, he organized seventy-eight Nobel laureate scientists in a campaign against the Louisiana Science Education Act, a creationism law. He is also involved with science funding policy and curriculum and textbook policy.

1. This week in Louisiana history. June 20, 1968. Presidential candidate George Wallace speaks in Baton Rouge raising $60,000.
2. This week in New Orleans history. Al "Carnival Time" Johnson (born June 20, 1939, in New Orleans,) is an American singer and piano player best known for the Mardi Gras song "Carnival Time."
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Louisiana Peach Festival
   West Park Ave.
   Ruston, LA 71270
   Tel: 318-255-2031
   Website
   Description:
   The 65th Louisiana Peach Festival will be held June 26 & 27, 2015 in Downtown Ruston. The festival is in its 65th year, one of the longest running agricultural events in Louisiana. It's held the 4th weekend in June when the peaches are ripe and delicious!  In beautiful downtown Ruston you can enjoy the parade, concerts, kid's rides, art & crafts show, peach eating contest, peach cookery contest and more. Throughout Lincoln Parish there's also a rodeo, golf tournament, bass tournament, Kid's fishing tournament, 5K, tennis tournament, quilting contest, baby photo contest, diaper derby and antique car show. Something for everyone!
   Admission is charged for ages 7 and over. Friday $10, Saturday $10, Weekend Pass $15.

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Zack and the Science Guy

108. Sheryl St. Germain, Part 2

108.  Part 2 of our interview with poet Sheryl St. Germain.  A native of New Orleans, Sheryl has taught creative writing at The University of Texas at Dallas, The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Knox College and Iowa State University. She directs the MFA program in Creative Writing at Chatham University where she also teaches poetry and creative nonfiction.  The author of many books, her work has received several awards. 

1. This week in Louisiana history. June 15, 1910. Evangeline Parish created.
2. This week in New Orleans history. Melvin Lloyd ("Mel") Parnell, born in New Orleans on June 13, 1922, was a Major League Baseball left-handed starting pitcher. He graduated from S.J. Peters High School where he starred with future major leaguers George Strickland, Howie Pollett, Raymond Campo, Ray Yochim and Lou Klein. Parnell spent his entire ten-year career with the Boston Red Sox (1947–1956), compiling a 123-75 record with 732 strikeouts, a 3.50 earned run average, 113 complete games, 20 shutouts, and 1752.2 innings pitched in 289 games (232 as a starter) After his playing career, Parnell managed the New Orleans Pelicans of the Class AA Southern Association in 1959 and a series of Red Sox farm clubs from 1961 to 1963.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   GospelFest2015 "A Celebration of Gospel Music"
   June 19th, 2015
   Downtown Shreveport's Festival Plaza
   101 Crockett St., Shreveport, LA 71101
   318-459-8211
   Website
   Downtown Shreveport's Festival Plaza
   This Festival will be in its second year of existence beginning in June 2015.  It boasts to have some of the biggest names in Gospel Music from all over the Northwest Louisiana, East Texas, Southwest Arkansas Areas- collectively known as the (ARK-LA-TEX), this event takes place in conjunction with the Let the Good Times Roll Festival hosted by the Rho Omega and Friends Omega Psi Phi Fraternity which is a festival that has taken place for the last 20 years plus; which draws thousands of people over the course of one weekend celebrating (Juneteenth) and the history, heritage, roots, and spirit of African-American Music! GospelFest II; which is what this event will be called, features "gospel" talent from all over, and all are welcomed to come and participate in this Gospel Music Showcase!

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Sheryl St. Germain