There was dancing and live music on Friday (Jan. 15) to unveil the third house float of the Krewe of Red Beans’ effort to put laid-off Mardi Gras artists to work. The theme for the Lower Garden District house float is “Acadiana Hayride,” and it features portraits of Cajun and zydeco musicians, dancing couples and of course a horse. The latter seems to block the entrance to the house. “We just squeeze in around it,” laughed homeowner Michael Burke.
When homeowner Stacey Burke donated to the Krewe of Red Beans’ “Hire A Mardi Gras Artist” crowdfunding site, she was doing it to support out-of-work Mardi Gras artists who lost their livelihoods with canceled parades.
Arts education nonprofit KID smART encourages you to “create your own Mardi Gras Krewe” with them this Carnival season. Each Tuesday from Jan. 12 to Feb. 9, they will host interactive virtual events on how to make throws, costumes, and more from real krewe experts. Fat Tuesday is Feb.
With masks creatively incorporated into costumes, 25 members of the Phunny Phorty Phellows boarded a streetcar Wednesday at the Willow Street Car Barn for their traditional Twelfth Night trip down St. Charles Avenue. Since 1981, the krewe has heralded the beginning of the New Orleans Carnival season. Following COVID-19 restrictions, the 25 participants represented about 25 percent of the group’s usual size, the public was not allowed inside the streetcar barn to send them off, and crowds along the route were asked to wear masks and keep to small socially distanced groups.
If you drive on St. Charles Avenue any evening between Thanksgiving and Twelfth Night, you are bound to see a small traffic jam in the 4500 block, across from Academy of the Sacred Heart. The reason? An extravagant light display on the majestic live oak trees and the fence at 4534 St. Charles Ave.
Ride by the yellow corner building at Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas these days, and you see a line of people spread out on the sidewalk to order coffee at a to-go window. Yes, coffee. Since 1977, this has been the location of the iconic New Orleans’ music club, Tipitina’s. Originally intended to showcase the life’s work of Professor “Fess” Longhair, born Henry Roeland Byrd in 1918, at the end of his career, it quickly grew into one of the most beloved music venues in the city. It has survived changing ownership and changing musical climates, as well as hurricanes, over the years, even briefly closing in 1984.
General Ogden, Palmer, Leonidas, and Calhoun are a few Uptown streets that may have new names soon. The City Council Street Renaming Commission — established to make recommendations for renaming streets, parks and places that honor members of the Confederacy and active proponents of segregation — will host a public meeting this Wednesday (Dec. 16) to discuss the findings and recommendations listed in its initial report. Here, the community can give additional feedback before the commission delivers its final report to the council in the coming weeks. The virtual public meeting will start around 4 p.m., immediately following the commission’s meeting that begins at 3 p.m. The meeting will be accessible via livestream on the council’s YouTube channel here and on the council’s website.
The Crescent City (LA) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated presents the first in a series of chapter-hosted webinars. The first webinar, What You Need To Know About Successions, takes place via Zoom this Wednesday, December 9, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Our presenter will be retired Judge Carolyn W. Gill-Jefferson, former Chief Judge for the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans. Media pro Camille Whitworth will moderate the webinar. We encourage you to join us for information that will include understanding the importance of successions:
This year — even more than ever — it’s important to shop local for the holidays. Just a 10% shift to local shopping injects millions of dollars into our local economy.
StayLocal, along with its member businesses — independent locally owned shops, restaurants, markets and more — will welcome holiday shoppers across the city and the Greater New Orleans area this Small Business Saturday on Nov. 28 from 7 a.m. – 11 p.m.
During this difficult year for small retailers and restaurants, the #ShopSmall message is essential. Holiday shoppers are encouraged to increase the amount of support they give local businesses by choosing to shop local online and by shopping early this November and December.
A visit to StayLocal’s online directory of certified locally owned businesses provides customers a way to connect to local business. The directory can also be sorted by Black-owned businesses.
Who doesn’t want to peek inside some of New Orleans’ historic and glamorous homes?
That’s where the Preservation Resource Center comes to the home-curiosity rescue with its annual Holiday Home Tour, now the 45th, on Dec. 12 and 13.
But with the coronavirus pandemic this year, the PRC was in a bind: How to continue the tradition, but make it safe?
By forgoing the walking tour and creating a virtual tour of six homes located throughout New Orleans – Uptown, Mid-City, French Quarter and Bywater — available to view with purchase of a ticket. “It was thrilling to get a sampling of styles and peek into the lives of homeowners,” said PRC Executive Director Danielle Del Sol in an email. In the past, the homes were centered mainly in the Lower Garden District and Garden District, making it easy for tour-goers to navigate.
Half of the featured homes this year are in Uptown neighborhoods. The 2020 Holiday Home Tour includes the homes of Uptown residents James Carville and Mary Matalin, Penny and Todd Francis, and Bryan Batt and Tom Cianfichi.
The other homes are in the French Quarter (Deb Shriver’s Greek Revival townhome), Mid-City (Alexa Pulitzer and Seth Levine’s Eastlake Center Hall) and Bywater (Pres Kabacoff and Sallie Ann Glassman’s camelback style home, newly built to be environmentally sensitive).
“With a video tour, it is still a huge ‘ask’ for homeowners, but a different kind,” said Del Sol. “This year, we asked them to decorate their homes early for the holidays, then star in a video.” Accompanying the homeowners on the tours, filmed and produced by Calm Dog Productions, are Del Sol and Susan Langenhennig, PRC’s director of communications and marketing and Preservation in Print editor.
The annual St. Catherine’s Day Hat Parade, held in the Garden District on the Sunday before Thanksgiving for the past decade, has been postponed due to concerns about the spreading COVID-19 virus. This year the walking parade and celebration would have been on Sunday, Nov. 22. In past years, the hat-wearing participants meet in the pocket park at St.
