155. We interview Trey Ourso about Gumbo PAC and its role in the 2016 Louisiana Governor's race.  Trey was awarded the AAPC Pollie Excellence Award as the 2015 
Campaign Strategist of the Year for his work with Gumbo PAC during the 
Louisiana governor’s race. Trey is the former Executive Director of the 
Louisiana Democratic Party and former National President of the 
Association of State Democratic Executive Directors where he became the 
first state party executive director to address a national convention at
 the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California. 
Under his leadership in 1999, Louisiana Democrats maintained control of 
both chambers of the Louisiana Legislature and won many races up and 
down the ballot. In February 2010, Trey was named by Politics Magazine 
as one of the Top 10 Democratic Influencers in Louisiana, and in 2013, 
he was named by Campaigns & Elections Magazine as one of the top 
Democratic Influencers in Kansas as part of their national Top 500 
Influencers list. He has consulted on hundreds of campaigns in dozens of
 states over the past 15 years.  
- This week in Louisiana history. May 7, 1862. The Union Army
          captures Baton Rouge during the Civil War. 
- This week in New Orleans history.  May 7, 1998. 
          Blue Lu Barker dies.  Jazz and Blues singer Louise "Blue
          Lu" Dupont Barker, famous for  "Don't You Feel My Leg"
          and "Look What Baby's Got For You" "A Little Bird Told Me" was
          born in New Orleans on November 13, 1913. She often sang and
          performed with her husband Danny Barker.  Blue Lu was
          inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame in 1997, one
          year before she died in her home town on May 7, 1998 at the
          age of 84. 
 
- This week in Louisiana.
 Poke Salad Festival
 May 9th, 2016 - May 14th, 2016
 Darby Ave. and Pinehill Rd., off Hwy. 1 in Blanchard
 Pinehill Road, Blanchard, LA 71107
 318-309-2647
 Darby Ave. and Pinehill Rd., off Hwy. 1 in Blanchard
 The festival kicks off with a cash prize treasure hunt, pet
          parade, carnival, food, children's activities, live
          entertainment and loads of fun for the entire family.
Listen in iTunes.
Like us on Facebook.
 
 
 
            
        
          
        
          
        
154. Our interview with Pete Melman, Part 2. His novel
Landsman has been called, "a stirring, evocative, and unforgettable epic novel of the Civil War in
          the tradition of Cold Mountain and Widow of the
            South. In the summer of 1853, in Lafayette City,
          Louisiana, eleven-year-old Elias Abrams loses his mother to
          yellow fever. Grief-stricken and alone, he becomes embroiled
          in the street life of New Orleans. After Elias is falsely
          accused of a crime and in order to escape arrest a decade
          later, he enlists as a private in the Third Louisiana
          Regiment, where three thousand other Jews will ultimately
          fight for the Confederacy.  
- This week in Louisiana history. April 30, 1803. Louisiana
          Treaty Purchase Treaty signed. 
- This week in New Orleans history. April 30, 1812. 
          Louisiana becomes a state. Nine years after the Louisiana
          Territory was purchased from France, Louisiana became the 18th
          American state on April 30, 1812. It was not contiguous to any
          other U.S. state (Mississippi was not admitted until 1817,
          Arkansas until 1836, and Texas in 1845). 
- This week in Louisiana. 
 Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival Association
 May 6th, 2016 - May 8th, 2016
 Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival
 1300 Rees St., 520 Parkway Dr, Breaux Bridge, LA 70517
 337-332-6655 | 337-332-5917
 Website
 Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival
 Famous Cajun, Zydeco and Swamp Pop musicians and plays host to
          over 30 bands on three stages during the three-day festival.
Listen in iTunes.
Like us on Facebook.
 
 
 
            
        
          
        
          
        
153. Our interview with Pete Melman, Part 1. His novel
Landsman has been called, "a stirring, evocative, and unforgettable epic novel of the Civil War in
          the tradition of Cold Mountain and Widow of the
            South. In the summer of 1853, in Lafayette City,
          Louisiana, eleven-year-old Elias Abrams loses his mother to
          yellow fever. Grief-stricken and alone, he becomes embroiled
          in the street life of New Orleans. After Elias is falsely
          accused of a crime and in order to escape arrest a decade
          later, he enlists as a private in the Third Louisiana
          Regiment, where three thousand other Jews will ultimately
          fight for the Confederacy.  
- This week in Louisiana history. April 23, 1831. Ponchartrain
          Railroad opened, first west of Alleghenies. 
- This week in New Orleans history. April 23, 1939, the Zephyr
          first whisked New Orleanians into the sky along its winding
          path around the Pontchartrain Beach.  Harry Jr.
          remembered, when he was a twelve year-old, "It was fantastic
          to get on top of the Zephyr and see nothing but cow pasture as
          far as you could see in Gentilly".
 
- This week in Louisiana. 
 Slidell Spring Antique Street Fair
 April 23rd, 2016 - April 24th, 2016
 Slidell Antique Street Fair
 Erlanger, First & Second Sts., Slidell, LA 70458
 985-641-6316
 Website
 Slidell Antique Street Fair
 Family fun at Slidell's Antique Street Fairs, April 23 &
          24 and October 29 & 30, 2016. Erlanger, First & Second
          Sts. Olde Towne Slidell. Antiques, collectibles, furniture,
          jewelry, crystal, food & drink, live music.
Listen in iTunes.
Like us on Facebook.
 
 
 
            
        
          
        
          
        
152. Part 2 of our interview with Janet Bordelon about Jewish
        people in Louisiana. Janet teaches Jewish
        history at Kehillah Jewish high school. She brings with her over
        10 years of teaching experience at the secondary and
        undergraduate level. In 2014, Janet completed her PhD at NYU in
        2014. Her research focused on church state issues in American
        history. Because of her connection to central Louisiana, she is
        especially interested in Jewish history regarding central and
        north Louisiana. 
 
 
 
 
            
        
          
        
          
        
151. Part 1 of our interview with Janet Bordelon about
        Jewish history in Louisiana. Janet Bordelon teaches Jewish
        history at Kehillah Jewish high school. She brings with her over
        10 years of teaching experience at the secondary and
        undergraduate level. In 2014, Janet completed her PhD at NYU in
        2014. Her research focused on church state issues in American
        history. Because of her connection to central Louisiana, she is
        especially interested in Jewish history regarding central and
        north Louisiana. 
 
- This week in Louisiana history. April 9, 1682. Louisiana
          Territory is so named by the Sieur de La Salle who reaches the
          mouth of the Mississippi April 9 with a party of 50 men after
          descending from the Illinois River. 
- This week in New Orleans history. April 9, 1904. 
          Sharkey Bonano was born.  Born in Milneburg in 1898,
          trumpeter Gustave Joseph (Sharkey) Bonano entered the world as
          Jazz was beginning to brew in his hometown. Sometimes compared
          to Louis Prima, he was known as a charismatic personality and
          a fine musician. 
 
- This week in Louisiana. 
 Natchitoches Jazz/R&B Festival
 April 15th, 2016 - April 16th, 2016
 Downtown Riverbank Stage
 Downtown Natchitoches, Natchitoches, LA 71457
 800-259-1714
 Website
 Downtown Riverbank Stage
 Two-day musical event with a variety of music from rock to
          soul; food vendors on the riverbank of Cane River Lake in
          Downtown Natchitoches, Louisiana. For more information visit www.NatchJazzFest.com
          or www.Natchitoches.com.
Listen in iTunes.
Like us on Facebook.
 
 
 
            
        
          
        
          
        
150. This week we interview Bryan Wagner about Bras Coupe and the history of policing in New Orleans.  Bryan is an associate professor in the
        English Department and affiliated faculty in the American
        Studies Program at UC Berkeley. He received a BA from Carleton
        College and a PhD in English from the University of Virginia
        before coming to Berkeley in 2002. His primary research focuses
        on African American expression in the context of slavery and its
        aftermath, and he has secondary interests in legal history,
        cultural theory, and popular music. His first book, Disturbing          the Peace: Black Culture and the Police Power after Slavery,
        a study of black vernacular expression and its entanglement with
        the law, was published by Harvard University Press in 2009.  
- This week in Louisiana history. April 1, 1718. Approx. date
          land began being cleared for city of New Orleans. 
- This week in New Orleans history. April 2, 1842. 
          Daniel Henry Holmes Establishes D.H. Holmes Department Store.
          The Canal Street store was a landmark for 140 years, until
          Dillard's Department Store chain bought Holmes' stores &
          closed or renamed them in 1989. 
 
- This week in Louisiana.
 2016 Louisiana Samboree
 April 3rd, 2016 - April 10th, 2016
 State Fair of Louisiana-"Dare to Dream"
 3701 Hudson Ave, Shreveport, LA 71109
 318-655-0414
 Website
 State Fair of Louisiana: "Dare to Dream"
 Each year Louisiana Good Sam host a rally called Samboree
          which is held in April. The Good Sams are RV clubs.  The
          Louisiana Spring Samboree is rotated among the south regions
          (Texas, Arkansas). They are three day events and bring
          together hundreds of families from surrounding states. You
          will make many friends who you will run into from time to time
          at other functions. You can play games, both indoor and
          outdoor; attend seminars; enjoy good entertainment; and many
          other special activities.  Any member of the Good Sam
          Club is authorized to attend a Samboree. Membership in a local
          Good Sam Chapter is not a prerequisite; however joining a
          local Chapter is encouraged.
Listen in iTunes.
Like us on Facebook.
|  | 
| Bryan Wagner | 
|  | 
| Bras Coupe | 
 
 
 
            
        
          
        
          
        
149. LaKisha Simmons interview, Part 2.  Author
        of Crescent City Girls. “What was it like to grow up black and female in the segregated South? To
 answer this question, LaKisha Simmons blends social history and 
cultural studies, recreating children's streets and neighborhoods within
 Jim Crow New Orleans and offering a rare look into black girls’ 
personal lives. Simmons argues that these children faced the difficult 
task of adhering to middle-class expectations of purity and 
respectability even as they encountered the daily realities of Jim Crow 
violence, which included interracial sexual aggression, street 
harassment, and presumptions of black girls’ impurity.” LaKisha Michelle Simmons
        is assistant professor of global gender studies at the
        University at Buffalo, SUNY.
        She specializes in Black gender history, history of sexuality,
        childhood, and cultural geography.  
- This week in Louisiana history. March 26, 1804. The
          Louisiana Purchase was divided at the 33rd parallel into two
          parts, the District of Louisiana and the Territory of Orleans.
        
- This week in New Orleans history. March 26, 1912.
          Mistrial for Annie Crawford. The 28-year-old woman was on
          trial for the poisoning of her 24 year-old sister Elise. Elise
          had been ill for quite some time before her death.  The
          Crawford family had lost three family members within the past
          15 months. On June 25, 1910, another sister, Mary Agnes
          Crawford died suddenly -- the cause of death was attributed to
          Acute Meningitis.  Three weeks later on July 15 her
          father, Walter C. Crawford passed away -- the cause of death
          was allegedly Uremic Poisoning.  Two weeks after that, on
          July 29 her mother died -- it was thought that she also
          succumbed to Uremic Poisoning.  Upon the death of Elise
          suspicions were raised that the family might have been victims
          of murder.
 
- This week in Louisiana. 
 Louisiana Crawfish Festival
 March 31st, 2016 - April 3rd, 2016
 Sigur Center grounds
 8245 West Judge Perez Drive, Chalmette, LA 70043
 504-329-6411
 Website
 Sigur Center grounds
 Sample your way through more than 30,000 pounds of crawfish,
          served boiled, fried, baked, over pasta, and more! Live music,
          rides and crafts.
 $5.00 entry fee
Listen in iTunes.
Like us on Facebook.