252. Melanie Oubre, part 1

252. Women's History Month. Part one of our interview with Melanie Oubre, who works with Emerge, Louisiana. Emerge Louisiana recruits and trains women to run for office. Emerge Louisiana launched in 2017 as the premier campaign-training program for Democratic women in the state. Emerge inspires women to run for public office, and hones their skills to win. Our goal is clear: to increase the number of Democratic women in all levels of public office throughout the state. Emerge Louisiana is one of 23 other state affiliates that are part of the national organization, Emerge America.

1. This week in Louisiana history. March 17, 1791. Baron de Carondelet de Noyelles is appointed governor-general of Louisiana.
2. This week in New Orleans history. According to Buddy Stall, on March 17, 1930, the first "coffee break" in the United States occured when the "managers of the Delta Steamship Company, then the Mississippi Steamship Company, summoned their 80 employees in the Hibernia Bank building and initiated a daily 3:30 p.m. coffee recess. Company scouts had found the custom to be very well-received in Brazil and adopted the idea for its New Orleans office. The tradition started by the shipping company spread like wildfire, and in a short time completely saturated the entire metropolitan area, which only goes to prove good news travels fast."
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Louisiana Crawfish Festival
   March 22 – 25, 2018 
   St. Bernard Parish Government Complex site
   Frederick J. Sigur Civic Center
   8200 West Judge Perez Dr.,
   Chalmette, Louisiana
   The Louisiana Crawfish Festival is located in Beautiful and Historical St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana which is rich with heritage, moss covered oak trees, creole tomatoes, Louisiana Bayous, shrimp boats, oyster luggers, oil refineries, and is a fisherman’s haven. St. Bernard Parish is the home of the Battle of New Orleans site over-looking the mighty Mississippi River
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Bruce meets the Tip Jar Junkies on Royal St. 

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251. Michelle Erenberg. Lift, LA

251. Women's History Month. Our interview with Michelle Erenberg. Michelle cofounded Lift Louisiana to advocate for reproductive rights. She has worked as a policy advocate, community organizer, and coalition coordinator for more than a decade. Her past work experience includes community organizing for Planned Parenthood in New Orleans, coordinating a diverse coalition of environmental, community and faith-based organizations across the Gulf Coast in response to the 2010 BP oil spill, and analyzing and educating the public about policies and public engagement opportunities related to ecological and community recovery and restoration. Since 2009, she has served on the board of the National Council of Jewish Women Greater New Orleans Section as NCJW’s Louisiana Policy Advocate, a nationally appointed position, as well as Vice President of Public Affairs and Education. Erenberg has a B.A. in Psychology from Loyola University New Orleans and an MPA in Nonprofit Management from the University of New Orleans.

1. This week in Louisiana history. March 10, 1864. Union Gen. Nathaniel Banks begins in Red River Campaign.
2. This week in New Orleans history. The New Orleans Lyceum and Library Society had its origins in the 1844 ordinance passed by the Second Municipality Council. The library opened on March 10, 1846 with 3,400 books in its collection; by 1858 it held over 10,000 volumes. Originally located in temporary quarters, the Lyceum Library moved into the new municipality hall (now Gallier Hall) when its rooms in that building were ready for occupancy.
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Steel Magnolias
   Saturday, March 10
   Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts
   325 Minor St.
   Kenner, LA 70062
   504.461.9475
   Website
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Bruce listens to a high school brass band in Jackson Square.

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250. Lisa Walker and Reilly Sullivan, part 2

250. Women's History Month. Part 2 of our interview with Lisa Walker and Reilly Sullivan, who join us to talk about Alice Dunbar Nelson. Poet, essayist, diarist, and activist Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to mixed-race parents. Her African American, Anglo, Native American, and Creole heritage contributed to her complex understandings of gender, race, and ethnicity, subjects she often addressed in her work. Her first book, Violets and Other Tales (1895), was published when she was just 20. A writer of short stories, essays, and poems, Dunbar-Nelson was comfortable in many genres but was best known for her prose. One of the few female African American diarists of the early 20th century, she portrays the complicated reality of African American women and intellectuals, addressing topics such as racism, oppression, family, work, and sexuality.  

1. This week in Louisiana history. February 3, 1820. Slavery outlawed within the Louisiana Purchase territory north of 36°30' latitude.
2. This week in New Orleans history. The Washington Post printed on March 3, 1909, "The news comes from Louisiana that large areas of that State heretofore devoted to the growing of cotton will be planted to cane, because the boll weevil has wrought such havoc on the former crop. If this pest shall be the occasion of a diversity of farm crops at the South his presence in the cotton field will not prove an unmixed evil."
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   New Orleans Bourbon Festival
   March 8th, 2018 - March 10th, 2018
   Contemporary Arts Center
   900 Camp St.,
   New Orleans, LA 70130
   504-525-9444
   Website
   Laissez les bon temps rouler. Let the good times roll. The motto of a city that knows how to host a party. Now couple that with a historic relationship to Bourbon, world-renowned food, music and culture. The result – the SECOND annual New OrleansBourbon Festival – March 8, 9, and 10, 2018!
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Bruce listens to the Big Dixie Swingers on Frenchman Street in New Orleans.

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249. Lisa Walker and Reilly Sullivan, Part 1

249. Black History Month. Part 1 of our interview with Lisa Walker and Reilly Sullivan, who join us to talk about Alice Dunbar Nelson. Poet, essayist, diarist, and activist Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to mixed-race parents. Her African American, Anglo, Native American, and Creole heritage contributed to her complex understandings of gender, race, and ethnicity, subjects she often addressed in her work. Her first book, Violets and Other Tales (1895), was published when she was just 20. A writer of short stories, essays, and poems, Dunbar-Nelson was comfortable in many genres but was best known for her prose. One of the few female African American diarists of the early 20th century, she portrays the complicated reality of African American women and intellectuals, addressing topics such as racism, oppression, family, work, and sexuality.  

1. This week in Louisiana history. February 24, 1843. Bossier Parish created out of Natchitoches District, named for Pierre E. Bossier.
2. This week in New Orleans history. February 24, 1857. The First Mardi Graw Krewe Parade: the Mystic Krewe of Comus. Comus, the god of revelry, became the first New Orleans Mardi Gras parade with a theme, floats bearing masked riders, parade route and a list of members who participated, on Feb. 24, 1857. The parade came about in a sense because of misfortune, or, better yet, misconduct.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Soul Fest is one of New Orleans biggest celebrations of African American history.
   March 3rd, 2018 - March 4th, 2018
   Audubon Zoo
   6500 Magazine St.,
   New Orleans, LA 70118
   800-774-7394
   Website
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Bruce meets the Gospel Soul Singers in the French Quarter.

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248. Jeremy Simien, part 2

248. Black History Month. Part 2 of our interview with Jeremy Simien. Jeremy studies the history of Louisiana's Free People of Color. He has also gathered a large collection of their personal possessions, especially pictures and portraits. Les gens de couleur libres were people of variant degrees of African descent who were either born free, liberated, or purchased their own freedom during the antebellum period. In their height, these people of African descent accounted for 1/5th of the population of New Orleans, owned ¹⁄₃ of the property in the Vieux Carré or “French Quarter” and had an 80% literacy rate. This important group consisted of planters, skilled tradesman, inventors and real-estate developers/speculators.

1. This week in Louisiana history. February 17, 1801. Thomas Jefferson elected 3rd president after tying Aaron Burr and winning the tie-breaking votes in the House of Representatives.
2. This week in New Orleans history. The New Orleans 1885 Mardi Gras [February 17] was extraordinary. On the streets were large numbers of international visitors connected with the [World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial] Exposition, several Central American Indian groups, and some fifty to sixty Plains Indians from the [Buffalo Bill] Wild West Show, including four chiefs, all of whom were likely on the street in native dress. For [locals of African descent, particularly groups who took to masking as Indians,] Mardi Gras translated nicely into a freedom celebration, a day to commemorate their own history and spirit, to be arrogant, to circumvent the hostile authorities, to overturn the established order, and now and then to seek revenge." From Mardi Gras Indians (Pelican Publishing Company, 1994), by 'Michael P. Smith.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Prospect 4 Exhibition "The Batture" by Jeff Whetstone
   February 17-25, 2018
   UNO St. Claude Gallery
   2429 St. Claude Ave.
   New Orleans, LA 70117
   Phone: 504.280.6493
   Website
   The UNO St. Claude Gallery is hosting "The Batture," an exhibit by photographer Jeff Whetstone that explores the economies and ecologies that exist along the banks of the Mississippi River near New Orleans. “The batture is the land the river owns. It is a thin strip of weeds, trees and mud between the edge of the Mississippi River and the tall, hardened levees that contain its floods,” said Whetstone. “The batture is ephemeral. It disappears with the river is high and reemerges when the tide falls, swept and changed. It is a cyclical land, untied to human time and unclaimed; a temporary alluvial wilderness.”
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Bruce listens to the Big Dixie Swingers on Frenchman Street in New Orleans.

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247. Jeremy K. Simien, part 1

247. Black History Month. Part 1 of our interview with Jeremy Simien. Jeremy studies the history of Louisiana's Free People of Color. He has also gathered a large collection of their personal possessions, especially pictures and portraits. Les gens de couleur libres were people of variant degrees of African descent who were either born free, liberated, or purchased their own freedom during the antebellum period. In their height, these people of African descent accounted for 1/5th of the population of New Orleans, owned ¹⁄₃ of the property in the Vieux Carré or “French Quarter” and had an 80% literacy rate. This important group consisted of planters, skilled tradesman, inventors and real-estate developers/speculators.

1. This week in Louisiana history. February 10, 1763. The Treaty of Paris gave Louisiana Colony to Spain.
2. This week in New Orleans history. The port of New Orleans and the Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi were ceded to Spain on February 10, 1763, by Article 7 of the Treaty of Paris.
3. This week in Louisiana. Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, will next be celebrated in Louisiana on Tuesday, February 13, 2018. Included here is a list of highlights of the extensive Mardi Gras carnival season scheduled in Louisiana during 2018, focusing on long-running Krewes and those with widespread appeal. Laissez le bon temps rouler!
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Bruce listens to the brass band Baby David and the Freeloaders in the Buckshot Bourbon St. Drinkery.

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246. David Cappello, part 2

246. Part 2 of our interview with David Cappello about his bookThe People's Grocer: John G. Schwegmann, New Orleans, and the Making of the Modern Retail World. The People’s Grocer is a business-based biography of John G. Schwegmann, founder of a legendary New Orleans’ supermarket chain and the most innovative and courageous retailer of the postwar era. Virtually unrecognized in retail history, visionary Schwegmann pioneered the modern big-box concept. Even more important, his 1951 Supreme Court victory over “fair trade” laws played a key role in legalizing discount pricing. A marketer extraordinaire, Schwegmann’s offbeat and controversial ads and shopping bags came to symbolize the Crescent City. As a fierce consumer crusader, his fiery passions ultimately drove him into politics.

1. This week in Louisiana history. February 3, 1753 Kerlerec arrives to take over Louisiana Colony
2. This week in New Orleans history. Mardi Gras/Carnival Day can fall on any Tuesday between February 3 and March 9 (depending on the date of Easter).
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   57th Annual Saddle Tramp Riders Club, Inc.
   Traditional Cajun Courir de Mardi Gras Run
   Come Celebrate this Cajun Tradition with us on Feb 10th & 11th, 2018 in Church Point, LA. 
   For up to the Minute Updates on our Event Visit us at:
   For More Info Call 337-227-8023   
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Bruce listens to the Big Dixie Swingers on Frenchman Street in New Orleans. 
5. Postcards from the Resistance. The Louisiana branch of the Poor People's Campaign is holding a news conference in Baton Rouge on Monday, February 5, 9:30-10:30 am at the Louisiana State Capitol Building.

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