283. Antoine Pierce, part 1.

283. Part 1 of our interview with Antoine Pierce, Baton Rouge activist. "I am a public servant who is passionate about the socioeconomic growth, development, and unity of my community. I believe in a beautiful city with...

• consistent economic development
• technologically advanced modes of transportation
• an infrastructure that accommodates growth and addresses traffic congestion
• smoke free indoor air and pollution free outdoor air
• crime free communities
• workplaces with hiring practices that do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.

"These things don’t just exist in an Utopian society. I believe that Baton Rouge can be that city! This can be our reality!"

1. This week in Louisiana history. October 20, 1795. Treaty of San Lorenzo gives Americans free navigation of the Mississippi River.
2. This week in New Orleans history. October 20, 1997 Eugene D. Cizek, Architect submitted plans for new construction at the home of Hollywood Director Francis Ford Coppola at 714 Governor Nicholls Street. For a time, Coppola used the building as a seven-room luxury hotel. As of October 2013 he uses it as his residence.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   45th Annual French Food Fest
   October 26-28, 2018
   Larose Civic Center
   Larose, LA
   Free Parking & No Gate Fee
   The best in Cajun food, music & dancing. Carnival mid-way & live auction. New this year: Zomibie Outbreak Lasertag, Troll Character Dinner & Movie, Hottest Things to Hit French Food Fest Bonfire. Art show, Cajun market and petting zoo. Contests of all kinds: Fun Walk/Race, cake decorating contest, art contest, 3-on-3 basketball tournament. Over 40 booths of fun. Overnight camping available with advanced reservations.
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Bruce listens to the Fat Catz Band on Bourbon St.
   

Listen in iTunes.
Listen in Stitcher.
Listen on Google Play.
The Louisiana Anthology Home Page.
Like us on Facebook.

282. Kelly Jackson, part 2

282. Part 2 of our interview with Kelly Jackson, founder of the Cane River Film Festival. Natchitoches has a long and intimate history with American cinema. The Cane River film festival represents the latest chapter in that history. We are as diverse as the community that we represent. Our mission is to showcase, nurture, and support the emerging creative student and independent filmmakers stories about and or filmed in Louisiana. We want to share their films with an audience, seek opportunities for distribution and celebrate their achievement in telling their story that they want to tell. The Cane River film festival is not just a film festival — it's an experience.

1. This week in Louisiana history. October 13, 1931. Lt. Gov. Cyr takes oath of office "since Huey Long is now a senator."
2. This week in New Orleans history. On October 14, 1975, the Dome hosted Muhammad Ali Appreciation Day. The Muhammad Temple of Islam 46 in New Orleans organized the activities, with Ali's appearance as the day's highlight. Speakers included Dr. Na'im Akbar, Wallace D. Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   International Rice Festival
   Crowley, LA
   October 18-21, 2018
    The International Rice Festival held annually in Crowley is one of Louisiana's largest and also it's oldest Agricultural Festival. Since it's first festival on October 5th, 1937, over 7 million people have attended the annual event. The celebration brings attention to the importance of rice as food and also emphasizes it's place in the world's economic picture. It is usually held on Friday and Saturday of the 3rd weekend in October. Location is Downtown Crowley. There are 2 parades, Friday (Children's Day), which is the Children's Parade, and Saturday, the Grand Parade. There are also Special Events including the Rice Cooking Contest, Rice Eating Contest, Farmers Banquet and also the Queens Ball. There is also entertainment continuously from early morning to midnight. Also in conjunction with the Festival, is an Arts and Crafts exhibit, which is held adjacent to the Festival Grounds and also on Main Street.
4. Postcards from Louisiana. The Funky 544 house band plays on Bourbon St.

Listen in iTunes.
Listen in Stitcher.
Listen on Google Play.
The Louisiana Anthology Home Page.
Like us on Facebook.

281. Kelly Jackson, part 1

281. We talk to Kelly Jackson, founder of the Cane River Film Festival. Natchitoches has a long and intimate history with American cinema. The Cane River film festival represents the latest chapter in that history. We are as diverse as the community that we represent. Our mission is to showcase, nurture, and support the emerging creative student and independent filmmakers stories about and or filmed in Louisiana. We want to share their films with an audience, seek opportunities for distribution and celebrate their achievement in telling their story that they want to tell. The Cane River film festival is not just a film festival — it's an experience.

1. This week in Louisiana history. October 6, 1860. John Slidell publishes his address to people of LA. "Let every man go to polls...we may soon be called under a common flag against a common enemy"
2. This week in New Orleans history. October 6 to November 10, 1857. New Orleans chess master Paul Morphy participated in the First American Chess Congress, held in New York.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Louisiana Cotton Festival
   Ville Platte, Louisiana
   704 N. Soileau Street
   Ville Platte, La 70586
   October 9-14, 2018
   Our festival is a fun-filled week for the entire family! All festival events are held at the North Side Civic Center. 
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Grandpa Elliott sings on Royal St. in New Orleans.

Listen in iTunes.
Listen in Stitcher.
Listen on Google Play.
The Louisiana Anthology Home Page.
Like us on Facebook.

280. Ed Branley, part 2

Part 2 of our interview with Edward Branley, the NOLA history guy. Ed is a writer, teacher, historian, and computer nerd who lives in New Orleans. He graduated from the real Brother Martin High School. Edward dated several girls who attended the real St. Mary's Dominican High School, eventually marrying one of them. While he's yet to have Hassan's Collectibles and Curiosities deliver a dragon egg to the house, he can attest that seventeen-year olds attending Catholic school do act like The Trio do. Edward has two grown sons who, in their own ways, inspired The Trio and their adventures.

1. This week in Louisiana history. September 28, 1868. The Opelousas Massacre occurred in Louisiana in which an estimated 200 to 300 black Americans were killed.
2. This week in New Orleans history.
   Truman Capote September 30, 1924 — August 25, 1984 was born in New Orleans. Named Truman Streckfus Persons, he was the son of Archulus Persons, a nonpracticing lawyer and of the former Lillie Mae Faulk of Monroeville, Alabama. Years later he adopted the name of his stepfather, Joe Capote, a Cuban-born New York businessman. As an adult, Capote lived briefly in a Royal Street apartment where he did some writing before producing his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948). He visited New Orleans sporadically over the last two decades of his life to lecture or to be interviewed in his "hometown." Capote claimed to have established a new literary form with the publication of In Cold Blood (1965). He died in Los Angeles on August 25, 1984.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Red River Revel 43
   September 29-October 3, 2018
   Festival Plaza
   Shreveport, LA
   The Red River Revel, winner of the 1988 President’s Volunteer Action Award, began in 1976 as the Junior League of Shreveport’s Bicentennial gift to the citizens of the region. The goal of the festival is to provide the general populace a celebration of the finest visual and performing arts experiences. The Revel has grown into an eight-day, annual celebration of the arts attracting nearly 100,000 people to the downtown/riverfront area of Shreveport each year.  The 501c3 non-profit organization strives to provide everyone an opportunity to experience and participate in the Arts in multiple formats.
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Bruce listens to a brass band play on Royal St.
5. Postcards from the stump. Jessee Fleenor, candidate for the 5th District seat in Congress, speaks to a gathering at the Grambling City Hall.

Listen in iTunes.
Listen in Stitcher.
Listen on Google Play.
The Louisiana Anthology Home Page.
Like us on Facebook.

279. Edward Branley, Part 1

279. Part 1 of our interview with Edward Branley, the NOLA history guy. Ed is a writer, teacher, historian, and computer nerd who lives in New Orleans. He graduated from the real Brother Martin High School. Edward dated several girls who attended the real St. Mary's Dominican High School, eventually marrying one of them. While he's yet to have Hassan's Collectibles and Curiosities deliver a dragon egg to the house, he can attest that seventeen-year olds attending Catholic school do act like The Trio do. Edward has two grown sons who, in their own ways, inspired The Trio and their adventures.

1. This week in Louisiana history. September 22, 1722. A hurricane hit just west of the Miss. River and swept through central Louisiana with 15 hours of hurricane force winds, eight foot storm surge, and three days of flooding.
2. This week in New Orleans history. Jazz musician Dorothy Sloop (also known as Dorothy Sloop Heflick) was born in Steubenville, Ohio on September 26, 1913. During her performing years, she was best known as a pianist with a number of all (or mostly) female jazz bands in the New Orleans area, primarily from the 1930s through the 1950s. Her name is now commonly associated with the song "Hang on Sloopy", performed by The McCoys and other artists during the 1960s, as it is alleged that Dorothy was the inspiration for the song. 
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   State Championship Jim Bowie BBQ Throwdown
   The State Championship Jim Bowie BBQ Throwdown is a great event held in Vidalia on September 23, 2018 to September 24, 2018.
   Contact Information:
   Ann Westmoreland
   Phone: 318-336-8223
   awestmoreland@cityofvidaliala.com
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Bruce listens to the Patti Rambin Band in Monroe, LA.

Listen in iTunes.
Listen in Stitcher.
Listen on Google Play.
The Louisiana Anthology Home Page.
Like us on Facebook.

278. Dedrick Handy

278. Our interview with Dedrick Handy. Dedrick, who started the Facebook group Black Lives Matter Baton Rouge. The Baton Rouge Black Lives Matter group started after the police shooting of Alton Sterling. Dedrick has started the Facebook group as a way of helping people communicate.

1. This week in Louisiana history. September 15, 1699. Bienville bluffs the English and keeps them from exploring the Mississippi River.
2. This week in New Orleans history. The Bensons Buy a Tower, September 15, 2009. Completed in 1989, the structure located at 1450 Poydras Street  is the  the 12th tallest building in New Orleans at 26-storys and a height of 406 feet. Developed by the DeBartolo Corporation as the New Orleans Centre (a mixed-use property of offices, retail shopping, and a 2,000-space parking garage), it is a component of a complex of connected buildings which includes the Superdome, 1250 Poydras Plaza, Entergy Tower, and the Hyatt Regency New Orleans hotel. It has been known as the CNG Tower, the Dominion Tower, and Benson Tower.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   42nd Annual Gueydan Duck Festival
   P.O. Box 179
   Gueydan, LA. 70542
   404 Dallas Guidry Rd
   Gueydan, LA. 70542
   Duck Festival Park
   Phone: 337-536-6456
   Fax: 337- 536-9997
   Email: info@duckfestival.org
   ​September 20th-23rd 2018
   The Duck Festival offers the public great entertainment with its Duck and Goose Calling Contest, Skeet Shooting, Dog Trials, Duck Dash, and Decoy Carving.
       This is in addition to great food, nightly bands, Junior and Senior Queens pageants, a Grand Parade, Outdoor and Indoor Cooking Contest, and to top it all off, a thriling Carnival.
       As with any event in Cajun Country, the Gueydan Duck Festival gives everyone an excuse to meet old friends and make new ones. This "joie de vivre" ensures that a great time is had by one and all! "Laissez les bon temps rouler... Let the good times roll!!"
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Bruce listens to a Apache Sax play on Royal St.
   

Listen in iTunes.
Listen in Stitcher.
Listen on Google Play.
The Louisiana Anthology Home Page.
Like us on Facebook.

277. Shirah Dedman, part 2

277. Part 2 of our interview with Shirah Dedman. Shirah made a documentary Uprooted, about the lynching of her great-grandfather Thomas William Miles, Sr. in Shreveport in 1912. Racist violence was so severe in Shreveport that the parish earned the nickname, "Bloody Caddo." Shirah is an activist, filmmaker, and attorney. From a high school dropout at 15-years-old to a licensed lawyer by the age of 23, she inexplicably found herself consistently un- and under-employed. So after her last layoff, she decided to relentlessly pursue her true passion: the intersection between media, economics, race and the environment.Last year, Shirah was featured the Equal Justice Initiative and Google produced short film Uprooted, documenting her family's return to the site of her great-grandfather's lynching. She also released You a Nomad, a short documentary about the displacement of Oakland's black population.

1. This week in Louisiana history. September 8, 1954. Ruby Bridges was born in Tylertown, Mississippi before moving with parents to New Orleans at the age of four.
2. This week in New Orleans history. On Thursday, September 8, 2005, President Bush issued an executive order suspending the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, allowing federal contractors rebuilding after Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   2018 Alligator Festival
   West Bank Bridge Park
   St. Charles Parish
   I-310 Exit 7
   13825 River Road
   Luling, LA 70070
   Please join us for the Annual Alligator Festival at the Westbank Bridge Park in St Charles Parish. The festival is our main fundraiser and helps us fund college scholarships for local youth. Play with baby alligators, shop the arts and crafts mall, enjoy cajun cuisine and exciting carnival rides, and listen to great live music all weekend long! Come join us and pass a good time!
4. Bruce listens to the Patti Rambin Band at Coney Island Riverside in Monroe, LA.

Listen in iTunes.
Listen in Stitcher.
Listen on Google Play.
The Louisiana Anthology Home Page.
Like us on Facebook.