358. Mary Gehman, part 2

358. Part 2 of our interview with Mary Gehman about her book, Women in New Orleans.  Mary Gehman has actively participated in the New Orleans writing community since the 1970s. She was greatly involved in developing Margaret Media, Inc., which was established in 1981 in New Orleans as the publisher of Distaff, a women's monthly newspaper first published in 1972.
Although the newspaper, the only one of its kind in the Deep South, ceased publication in 1982, the company president and one of Distaff's founders, Mary Gehman, continued to operate Margaret Media, Inc. to conduct women's history tours of the French Quarter and eventually to publish the book Women and New Orleans in 1988. Her second book, The Free People of Color of New Orleans, was published in 1994, and the third, Louisiana's Great River Road: The Mississippi from Angola North to Venice South in 2003.

1. This week in Louisiana history.  March 28 1973. Lindy Boggs becomes first LA. women elected to US House of Representative.
2. This week in New Orleans history. Delta's 727 flight 357 from New Orleans to Dallas was hijacked to Cuba on March 28, 1984.  Approximately 20 minutes after departure from New Orleans, a male passenger stood up holding a whiskey bottle with brown liquid and demanded to be flown to Cuba. He threatened to pour the liquid on a flight attendant and ignite it if his demand was not met. The pilot diverted the aircraft to Cuba where the flight landed without further incident.  Cuban authorities boarded the aircraft in Havana and took the hijacker into custody.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   4th Annual World Championship Crawfish Etouffee Cook-off
   March 29th, 2020
   10:00 am - 4:00 pm
   Northwest Community Center Pavilion
   651 Samuel Drive,
   Eunice, LA 70535
   337-457-2565 | 887-948-8004
   Website | Email
        This event features professional and amateur cooks vying for the title of "World Champion." One of the best ways to taste some of the best crawfish in Louisiana. Teams compete to see who can cook the best crawfish etouffee in three categories: Amateur, Professional and Club/Organization. Once the judges have their samples from the booths, the public can buy the crawfish etouffee directly from the participants. Vote for the People's Choice Award!
        Great live Cajun and zydeco music (starting at 10am), plenty of dancing and, of course, tons of etouffee. There will also be a poker run, arts and crafts, a petting zoo, pony rides, fun jumps, and more fun activities for the whole family! World Championship Crawfish Etouffee Cookoff is held the last Sunday in March every year, except when it conflicts with Easter.
        Trophies given after 2pm. Buy Etouffee from the booths starting at 11 am. Arts & Crafts and additional food and desserts. No admission fee.
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana.  Famous Door Bar.

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357. Mary Gehman, Part 1

357. Part 1 of our interview with Mary Gehman, author of Women in New Orleans. Mary has actively participated in the New Orleans writing community since the 1970s. She was greatly involved in developing Margaret Media, Inc., which was established in 1981 in New Orleans as the publisher of Distaff, a women's monthly newspaper first published in 1972. Although the newspaper, the only one of its kind in the Deep South, ceased publication in 1982, the company president and one of Distaff's founders, Mary Gehman, continued to operate Margaret Media, Inc. to conduct women's history tours of the French Quarter and eventually to publish the book Women and New Orleans in 1988. Her second book, The Free People of Color of New Orleans, was published in 1994, and the third, Louisiana's Great River Road: The Mississippi from Angola North to Venice South in 2003.

1. This week in Louisiana history. March 21, 1804. French Emperor Napolean Bonaparte enacts a new legal framework, the "Napoleonic Code", which gives France its first coherent set of civil and creminal laws. It will later become the basis of Louisiana civil law.
2. This week in New Orleans history. The Good Friday Fire. March 21, 1788. The Great New Orleans Fire (1788) was a fire that destroyed 856 of the 1,100 structures in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 21, 1788, spanning the south central French Quarter from Burgundy to Chartres Street, almost to the riverfront buildings. An additional 212 buildings were destroyed in a later city-wide fire, on December 8, 1794.
   
3. This week in Louisiana. The Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival
   March 25th, 2020 - March 29th, 2020
   Hotel Monteleone
   214 Royal St,
   New Orleans, LA 70130
   504-581-1144
   Website | Email
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Steamboat Willie Band.

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356. Katie Burlison

356. Katie Burlison is the curator of the Hermann-Grima + Gallier Historic Houses, a museum in the French Quarter (820 St. Louis Street & 818 St. Louis Street). We discuss the history of the Protestant charity, the Christian Woman's Exchange (once a tenant of the Hermann-Grima House) in New Orleans. The Exchange published the Creole Cookery Book in 1885, one of the earliest New Orleans cookbooks. "The Christian Woman’s Exchange was the first New Orleans women’s organization established by women for women. Organized in April 1881 and chartered in May of the same year, the Christian Woman’s Exchange was structured much like the original woman’s exchange groups located in the northeastern United States. Their buildings housed consignment shops, rooms for rent, and dining rooms for women of every social class. As the needs of women changed, the group modified its mission to promote public history education in and out of the classroom" (64Parishes).

1. This week in Louisiana history. March 14, 1780. Galvez captures Ft. Charlotte at Mobile.
2. This week in New Orleans history. Drew Brees signed with the New Orleans Saints on March 14, 2006.
   
3. This week in Louisiana. Irish Channel St. Patrick's Day Block Party & Parade
   March 14th, 2020 - March 17th, 2020
   Irish Channel Neighborhood
   Irish Channel,
   New Orleans, LA 70130
   504-799-5188
   Website
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana. The Wawa Band plays in New Orleans.

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355. Laura D. Kelley on Margaret Haughery

355. We interview Laura D. Kelley about Margaret Gaffney Haughery for Women's History Month. We talked to Laura in Episodes 156 and 157 about the history of the Irish in New Orleans. Today she comes back to discuss Margaret Gaffney Haughery, commonly called the Mother of Orphans. She immigrated to New Orleans in 1835, but soon lost her husband and child. The nuns took her in, and she began to work with orphans, donating much of her earnings to their support. She became a successful business woman, first in dairy and later in a bakery. As she became more financially successful, she expanded her support of orphans and led others in donating to them also.

1. This week in Louisiana history. March 7 1830. Gov. Jacques Villere died on his plantation south of N.O.
2. This week in New Orleans history. According to the New Orleans Public Service Riders' Digest, the Knights of Electra first used electricity, in a Carnival parade on March 7, 1889.
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   New Orleans Bourbon Festival.
   March 11-14, 2020
   10:00 am - 11:00 pm
   New Orleans Riverside Hilton & Contemporary Arts Center
   2 Poydras Avenue, New Orleans, 900 Camp St, New Orleans,
   New Orleans, LA 70119
   504-905-0726
   Website
   New Orleans Bourbon Festival’s mission is to provide our attendees with an opportunity to enjoy exceptional Bourbon and cuisine surrounded by the charm and culture of New Orleans.
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Steve Mignano Band

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354. John Dufresne

354. We talk to John Dufresne. John is the author of six novels: Louisiana Power & Light, Love Warps the Mind a Little, (both New York Times Notable Books of the Year) Deep in the Shade of Paradise, Requiem, Mass., No Regrets, Coyote, and I Don't Like Where This Is Going.  He also wrote two short story collections: The Way That Water Enters Stone and Johnny Too Bad, as well as three chapbooks: Lethe, Cupid, Time and Love; Well Enough Alone; and I Will Eat a Piece of the Roof and You Can Eat the Window. He has two books on writing and creativity: The Lie That Tells a Truth: a Guide to Writing Fiction and Is Life Like This?: a Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months.

1. This week in Louisiana history. February 29, 1904. Study reported that 50 automobiles were owned and operated in N.O.
2. This week in New Orleans history. February 29, 1824. OUDOUSQUIE, Charles, impresario.  Born, New Orleans, February 29, 1814 [sic]; son of Norbert Boudousquié and Marie Thérèse Héloïse de Chouriac. Succeeded Pierre Davis as director of the Théâtre d'Orléans (ca. 1853). Instrumental in construction of the new French Opera House, which opened December 1, 1859, and which he managed until the outbreak of the Civil War. 
   
3. This week in Louisiana.
   New Orleans French Film Festival 2020.
   
   February 27th, 2020 - March 4th, 2020

   10:00 am - 11:00 pm
   Prytania Theatre

   5339 Prytania St.,

   New Orleans, LA 70115
   504-309-6633
   Website
   This year, right after Mardi Gras, Laissez les bons temps rouler watching French-language films at the Prytania Theatre! The 23rd New Orleans French Film Festival, one of the longest running foreign language festivals in the country, showcases excellence in contemporary and classic francophone Cinema for audiences of about 4,000 at the Prytania Theatre, the oldest single-screen movie house operating in Louisiana. All films will be screened with English subtitles.
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Accordion player on Royal Street.

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353. Bruce A. Craft, part 2

353. Part 2 of our interview with Bruce A. Craft (English, Foreign Languages, and Cultural Studies). We talk about his presentation on “Redbone Rhetoric—Then and Now: An Exploration of the Literary and Historical Narrative of the Louisiana Redbones.” Bruce explores the history and culture of this tri-racial group living in western Louisiana.

1. This week in Louisiana history. February 22, 1819. In the Adams-Onís Treaty - Spain acknowledges the Sabine River as Louisiana's western boundary.
2. This week in New Orleans history. Happy Birthday Ernie K-Doe, "Emperor of the Universe," born on February 22, 1936 at Charity Hospital. “I’m not positive, but I think all music came from New Orleans.”
3. This week in Louisiana.
   Krewe of Bonne Terre
   February 25, 2020
   
   Montegut Parade Route

   Hwy. 55,

   Montegut, LA 70377
   985-868-2732
   Website
        Mardi Gras in Houma, Louisiana is a true Cajun celebration. With over a dozen parades full of colorfully themed floats, scores of marching bands and tons of great throws, Houma has one of the largest Mardi Gras celebrations in Louisiana. You’ll find that a Houma Mardi Gras is full of Cajun hospitality along with safe, economical, family-friendly events. So, plan to catch some throws, stuff yourself full of King Cake, and above all else, let the good times roll!
        The Mardi Gras celebration in Houma starts with the Krewe of Hercules and runs nearly non-stop until the Krewe of Kajuns.
   
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Band at the Funky 544.

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352. Bruce A. Craft, part 1

352. Part 1 of our interview with Bruce A. Craft (English, Foreign Languages, and Cultural Studies). “Redbone Rhetoric—Then and Now: An Exploration of the Literary and Historical Narrative of the Louisiana Redbones.” Bruce explores the history and culture of this tri-racial group living in western Louisiana.

1. This week in Louisiana history. February 15 1956 Fed. Judge S. Wright orders desegregation of N.O. schools with "all deliberate speed."
2. This week in New Orleans history. Patent #2,341,866 was awarded to Andrew J. Higgins on February 15, 1944. Higgin's boats, built by New Orleanians and used during World War II, and particularly in the D-Day Invasion of Normandy, prompted Dwight D. Eisenhower to say, "Andrew Higgins...is the man who won the war for us...If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different." Hitler called Higgins "the "New Noah". 
   
3. Cajun Country Courir de Mardi Gras
   February 21-25, 2020
   
   Various Locations in Eunice, LA

   Downtown Eunice, 300 S. Second St.,

   Eunice, LA 70535
   337-457-7389
   Website
        This unique five day celebration is not your typical idea of Mardi Gras with beads and doubloons. In fact you won't find these trinkets in sight, but instead, men and women on horseback donned in hand crafted wire masks, tall hats called capuchons, and very distinctive costumes. This one of a kind celebration begins the Friday before Mardi Gras Day, but the main event is the Courir de Mardi Gras procession or "chicken run" which involves chasing a live chicken to collect for a community gumbo, and silliness by revelers all day. Don't wait till Fat Tuesday to join in the fun. Throughout the weeked, experience the town's rural traditions with jam sessions, street dances, cooking demos, Mardi Gras exhibits and a special Liberty Theater show. Les Jeunes and L'il Mardi Gras runs for children are on Sunday as well as an old time boucherie (hog butchering).
       The Eunice Courir de Mardi Gras dates back from when the town was first established in the late 19th century. The Courir was abandoned for a few years during World War II, but in 1946 a small band of riders revived the tradition. Today, the Eunice Courir de Mardi Gras has more than 2,000 participants on the run, and it continues to increase each year. 
4. Postcards from Louisiana. Craig plays on St. Peter St.

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