166, Peter J. Cooley

166. We interview poet Peter J. Cooley, Poet Laureate of Louisiana. Peter is an English professor at Tulane University, where he has taught for many years. Peter's nine books of poetry are The Company of Strangers, The Room Where Summer Ends, Nightseasons, The Van Gogh Notebook, The Astonished Hours, Sacred Conversations, A Place Made of Starlight, Divine Margins, and Night Bus to the Afterlife.  His poems have appeared in over seven hundred magazines including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, The Nation, The New Republic, and The Southern Review, and in more than one hundred anthologies.  His work is in three editions of The Best American Poetry.

1. This week in Louisiana history. July 24, 1704 The Pelican arrived bringing 23 girls to the Louisiana Colony (Mobile).
2. This week in New Orleans history.  July 23, 1930,  Maurice Edwin "Moon" Landrieu was born. He served as a Democratic Mayor (56th Mayor) of New Orleans from  May 2, 1970 – May 1, 1978, a judge. a representative on the New Orleans' Twelfth Ward in the Louisiana House of Representatives (1960 to 1966) and on the New Orleans City Council as a member at-large (1966 to 1970).  On September 24, 1979 he was appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Springhill Piggly Wiggly 8th Annual Steak Cook-Off
   July 30th, 2016
   Springhill, LA Piggly Wiggly Parking Lot
   501 S Main St,
   Springhill, LA 71075
   318-539-9116
   Website 
   Springhill, LA Piggly Wiggly Parking Lot
   Steak Cook-Off — Karoke Contest — Kids' Corner — Car & Bike Show — Crafts — Vendors — Plus More
   All proceeds from OUR 10th Annual Steak Cook-Off will donated to St. Jude Children's Hospital, with a MINIMUM of $1,000.00! All sponsors will be listed as donors to this worthy cause!
4. Postcard from New Orleans: Musician Meghan McDonald sings on Royal Street as she busks across America.

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Meghan McDonald

Peter J. Cooley

165. BLM Activist Joseph Coco

165. We interview Joseph Coco, who is a graduate student at LSU and a Black Lives Matter activist. We focus on the events of the last week following the police shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge. He is also the executive director of Deep South Justice. Deep South Justice (DSJ) is an community organizing forum intended to build connections between marginalized communities and our allies. DSJ exists to push for policy initiatives, fight discrimination, and to facilitate events and programming in response to injustice in the South of the United States.

1. This week in Louisiana history. July 16 1928 Gov. David Treen born in Baton Rouge.
2. This week in New Orleans history. July 16, 1956. Beginning in 1950, the annual Soap Box Derby, sponsored by NORD, the New Orleans Item, and Chevrolet, zoomed down various overpasses in the city. In 1956, the Derby moved from its former location on the Franklin Avenue overpass to the recently completed Wisner Boulevard overpass. The big race attracted 130 boys that year and drew a crowd of 10,000 fans. The winner was fifteen-year-old Otto Potier.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Purchased Lives: America’s Domestic Slave Trade
   June 4th, 2016 - August 20th, 2016
   Alexandria Museum of Art
   933 Second Street,
   Alexandria, LA 71301
   318-443-3458
   Website 
   Alexandria Museum of Art
   This exhibition, originally shown at the Historic New Orleans Collection, examines the individuals involved in the slave trade, considering New Orleans and Louisiana’s role in this era of US history. The exhibit includes period broadsides, paintings, and prints illustrating the domestic slave trade, ship manifests, and first-person accounts from slave narratives and oral histories.

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164. T. D. Antoine & Joey Kent

164. We interview T. D. Antoine & Joey Kent, who teamed up to create the documentary, Beyond Galilee, about the visit of Martin Luther King to the Galilee Baptist Church in Shreveport, August 1958. They were able to interview members of the church who were there at the time as well as find archival TV footage that had not been seen since the 1950's.

1. This week in Louisiana history. July 2 1952 Construction begins on Ochsner Medical Foundation Hospital in Jefferson Parish.
2. This week in New Orleans history. July 9, 1982. Pan Am Flight 759 Crashes in Kenner.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Natchitoches/NSU Folk Festival
   July 15th, 2016 - July 16th, 2016
   Prather Coliseum
   Northwestern State University, 220 S. Jefferson Street, Natchitoches, LA 71457
   318-357-4332 | 800-259-1714
   Website 
   Prather Coliseum
   This two-day,  multi cultural celebration of heritage and folk art features authetic food from different cultures, Cajun music and dancing, demonstrations, unique folk art exhibits inside A/C Prather Coliseum. Both days is full of musical entertainment featuring Zydeco, Rhythm and Blues, Rock, Country and Soul. The festival is host the State Fiddle Championship on Northwestern State University Campus.
4. Postcard from New Orleans. Bruce attends a 2nd line parade with his son Jeff, Sim Shattuck, and Laura Janelle McKnight. He checks in with Sim and Laura to find out what they've been doing since our last interview.

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Beyond Galilee

Laura Janelle McKnight, Sim Shattuck, and Jeffrey

Second Line Parade

163. David Armand, Part 2

163. Part 2 of our interview with David Armand. David was born and raised in Louisiana. He has worked as a drywall hanger, a draftsman, and as a press operator in a flag printing factory. He now teaches at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he also serves as associate editor for Louisiana Literature Press. In 2010, he won the George Garrett Fiction Prize for his first novel, The Pugilist's Wife, which was published by Texas Review Press. His second novel, Harlow, was published by Texas Review Press in 2013. David's third novel, The Gorge, was published on October 1, 2015, by Southeast Missouri State University Press, and his chapbook, The Deep Woods, was published in September by Blue Horse Press. David's memoir, My Mother's House, was published in March 2016 by Texas Review Press. 

1. This week in Louisiana history. July 2 1952. Construction begins on Ochsner Medical Foundation Hospital in Jefferson Parish.
2. This week in New Orleans history. July 2, 1980. Amos White died. White (November 6, 1889 – July 2, 1980) was an American jazz trumpeter.  He grew up an orphan in Charleston, South Carolina, where he played in the Jenkins Orphanage band in his teens.  During World War I White played in the 816th Pioneer Infantry Band in France, and settled in New Orleans after the war. Working as a typesetter, he played jazz in his spare time, working with Papa Celestin and Fate Marable among others.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Celebration on the Cane - Independence Day
   July 4th, 2016
   Downtown Riverbank
   781 Front Street, Natchitoches, LA 71457
   318-352-2746 | 318-352-2746
   Website
   The day begins around 10 a.m. with children's activities and live musical entertainment at 6 p.m. with spectacular firework show over Cane River Lake at 9 p.m. over the Cane River Lake in historic Downtown Natchitoches, Louisiana. Event is FREE and open to the public. Bring blankets or lawn chairs. No ice chests allowed.

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162. David Armand, part 1

162. Part 1 of our interview with David Armand. David was born and raised in Louisiana. He has worked as a drywall hanger, a draftsman, and as a press operator in a flag printing factory. He now teaches at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he also serves as associate editor for Louisiana Literature Press. In 2010, he won the George Garrett Fiction Prize for his first novel, The Pugilist's Wife, which was published by Texas Review Press. His second novel, Harlow, was published by Texas Review Press in 2013. David's third novel, The Gorge, was published on October 1, 2015, by Southeast Missouri State University Press, and his chapbook, The Deep Woods, was published in September by Blue Horse Press. David's memoir, My Mother's House, was published in March 2016 by Texas Review Press.

1. This week in Louisiana history. June 26, 1805. Former V.P. Aaron Burr arrives in New Orleans.
2. This week in New Orleans history. June 25, 1978.  Rev. A. L. Davis died. Abraham Lincoln (A.L.) Davis, born on November 2, 1914, was a founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the first African American city councilman in New Orleans. He was born in Bayou Goula, Louisiana and moved to New Orleans in 1930.  He served as pastor of New Zion for forty-three years.  In 1957, Rev. Davis and a group of civil rights activists met at New Zion to organize the SCLC. The group chose as its first president Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Davis became its first vice president.  In 1975, he became the first African-American to serve on the New Orleans City Council.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   25th Annual Lebeau Zydeco Festival
   July 2nd, 2016
   Immaculate Conception Catholic Church Grounds
   103 Lebeau Church Road,
   Lebeau, LA 71345
   337-351-3902
   877-948-8004
   Website
   Immaculate Conception Catholic Church Grounds
   Enjoy live zydeco music, food and games for the entire family at this annual festival on the grounds of the church. This festival is famous for their pork backbone dinners. Rain or shine this festival will happen. Bring your tents and lawn chairs. No refunds, bbq pits, ATVs, glass containers or ice chests/coolers allowed. This festival is held the first Saturday every year in July.
4. Bruce reviews "Dark Angel Pass Me" by friend of the show Sim Shattuck.

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161. Kathleen DuVal, part 2.

161. We talk to Kathleen DuVal, author of Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution, about the critical role played by Louisiana during the Revolutionary War. Governor Galvez lead his forces against the British forces, winning every battle and taking all the territory from Baton Rouge to Pensacola. As a result, the British lost all their territory along the Gulf of Mexico, and the Americans were able to keep open their critical supply lines up the Mississippi. Kathleen is a history professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on early America, particularly cross-cultural relations on North American borderlands. She researches and writes about how various American Indian, European, and African men and women interacted from the sixteenth through early nineteenth centuries. 

1. This week in Louisiana history. June 17, 1868. The first town election was held in Lake Charles.
2. This week in New Orleans history. June 18, 1860.  Gerard Stith finishes his term as Mayor of New Orleans.  Gerard Stith was elected the Mayor of New Orleans on June 7, 1858, being the candidate of the American or “Know Nothing” party.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Sunflower Trail and Festival
   June 18th, 2016
   Highway 3049
   12797 Main St., Highway 3049, Gilliam, LA 71029
   318-296-4303
   Highway 3049
   The Sunflower Festival is a family oriented event located under the trees in Gilliam. Featuring local crafts, entertainment, art displays, and food. The attraction for many visitors is the drive on Highway 3049 north from Shreveport to Gilliam to enjoy the sunflowers, the beautiful the countryside, and the small towns.

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160. Kathleen DuVal, part 1

160. We talk to Kathleen DuVal, author of Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution, about the critical role played by Louisiana during the Revolutionary War. Governor Galvez lead his forces against the British forces, winning every battle and taking all the territory from Baton Rouge to Pensacola. As a result, the British lost all their territory along the Gulf of Mexico, and the Americans were able to keep open their critical supply lines up the Mississippi. Kathleen is a history professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on early America, particularly cross-cultural relations on North American borderlands. She researches and writes about how various American Indian, European, and African men and women interacted from the sixteenth through early nineteenth centuries.

1. This week in Louisiana history. June 11, 1744. Louis J. de St. Denis dies in Natchitoches.
2. This week in New Orleans history. On June 11, 1974, Jefferson Parish acquired the balance of the Jefferson Downs property which was used to create Lafreniere Park.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Let the Good Times Roll Festival
   June 17th, 2016 - June 19th, 2016
   Festival Plaza
   101 Crockett St., Shreveport, LA 71101
   318-470-3890
   Website
   Festival Plaza
   The good time just keep coming at this annual festival highlighting African American Culture with music,crafts and great food.
4. Poem of the week.
   "Grand Staircase" by Katie Bickham. This poem is from her book, The Belle Mar, and it set in that fictional house on Dec 7, 1970, as family and friends gathered to watch the comeback of Muhammad Ali on TV. We asked Katie to read and discuss her poem because of the death of Muhammad Ali a few days ago.

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