events

Audubon Charter School revives its Fall Fête at Live Oak campus

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Audubon Charter School will hold its Fall Fête fundraiser and fair at its new Live Oak campus in the Irish Channel on Saturday (Nov. 5). After the festival’s two-year hiatus, Audubon PTO President Katie Pedroza expressed excitement, saying the festival is back bigger and better than ever with live music, activities, food and prizes. “We can’t wait to show off our new Live Oak campus. We will have bands, games, food, and spirits to be enjoyed in the backyard and under the oaks on Ninth Street.” Pedroza said. 

To kick off the event, artists such as Preservation Hall All-Stars, Sam Craft from Sweet Crude, the Miss Sophie Lee Band, Roland Cheramie and Friends, Coach O and His Band, and the NOCCA Jazz Ensemble will perform, a press release from Audubon Charter School said.

Festivals

New Orleans Film Festival 2022 to open at expanded Second Line Stages

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The New Orleans Film Society will open its 33rd annual, Oscar-qualifying New Orleans Film Festival with “The Inspection,” the narrative feature debut from multi-year New Orleans Film Festival alum Elegance Bratton, on Thursday, Nov. 3. The NOFF screening schedule and film guide are now available at neworleansfilmfestival.org. In-person screenings will take place between Nov. 3 and Nov.

Festivals

Broadmoor Fest offers full musical lineup at ‘neighborhood extravaganza’

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Broadmoor Fest will bring live music, local foods, children’s activities and more to the Broadmoor neighborhood on Saturday (Oct. 1). Broadmoor Community Church is presenting the free one-day festival. It will feature performances by T Marie & Bayou Ju Ju, Sharon Martin, Righteous Wrong, the Jackson Square Allstars and the Broadmoor Community Church Praise Team. The festival will be held on the church grounds at 2021 S. Dupre St.

Viewpoint: Don’t let the latest Covid variant ruin your Jazz Fest

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The thousands of tourists and locals who will attend the long-awaited New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will surely cause an increase in cases of Covid-19 and it newest sub-variant, BA.2. A friend coming in for the festival wants to wear his mask at the Fair Grounds. While a good idea, that’s probably not very practical considering the heat and the ongoing consumption of libations at Jazz Fest and the evening events. Ensuring each attendee takes the personal responsibility to avoid infection at this mostly outdoors event is a better solution. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, reported Tuesday that the coronavirus has infected nearly 60% of people in the U.S. at least once, including about 75% of children.

Festivals

Buku Music & Art Festival celebrates a decade at Mardi Gas World on Saturday and Sunday

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The 2022 Buku Music & Art Festival, a celebration of the progressive subculture of New Orleans, will take place at Mardi Gras World, 1380 Port of New Orleans Place, on Saturday (March 26) and Sunday (March 27) from 1 to 11 p.m.

Residents in the Lower Garden District and Irish Channel may feel the impact of traffic. Parking will be in the Convention Center parking lots. The festival attracts about 20,000 music fans. No street closures are anticipated; however, traffic congestion is expected along Tchoupitoulas Street. Buku organizers have contracted officers assigned to traffic and perimeter detail.

Festivals

Freret Street helps revive festival season on Saturday. Here’s the music lineup.

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On Saturday (March 26), the Freret Street Festival will take over the popular restaurant and entertainment corridor. The six-block street party features 18 bands music on three stages (see the lineup below). The headliners include Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band, Squirrel Queen, Erica Falls and Kermit Ruffins & the BBQ Swingers. Alongside the 46 brick-and-mortar restaurants, bars and shops on Freret, the free festival includes a food court featuring top local chefs and more than 200 arts and crafts vendors. Plus there’s a children’s area with inflatables, a petting zoo, alligator meet and greets, arts and crafts, clowns and stilt walkers.

Caravane Festival to celebrate all things French on Saturday

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Alliance Française de La Nouvelle-Orléans is presenting Caravane Festival — le jour de la francophonie — on Saturday (March 19) at the AFNO Garden District home. The French language and Francophone culture is celebrated on International Francophonie Day, officially March 20, throughout France and its former colonies. AFNO invites its neighbors to participate in the international Caravane des dix mots (Caravane of Ten Words) project to promote, in partnership with Nous Foundation, the voices of Louisiana in the French-speaking world. In the Caravane des dix mots, French speakers from all over the world give their definitions of 10 chosen words, definitions that depend on one’s experience, history or even the other languages one speaks. This project is shared with French speakers from Quebec, Benin, Burundi, Egypt, Togo, China and even Belgium and Romania, who will also give their definitions of divulgâcher, décalé, ébaubi, époustouflant, farcer, kaï, méduser, pince-moi, saperlipopette et tintamarre.

Super Sunday

The wild, wild creation: Mardi Gras Indians will take to the streets on Sunday

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Masking Indians will gather in Central City this weekend for Super Sunday, a procession and festival celebrating their heritage and culture in a magnificent display of hand-sewn suits, singing, dancing and chanting. Super Sunday is free and open to the public. The festival takes place in and around A.L. Davis Park with food and drink vendors, live music and cultural activities. The procession begins and ends at the park. The Hot 8 Brass Band, Young Pinstripe Brass Band, TBC Brass Band, Rechell Cook, 21st Century Brass Band, Regeneration Band, D.J. Captain Charles, D.J. Jubilee, Keedy Black and the BRW R&B Singing Group will be among the entertainers.

Book Fest: Local authors Fatima Shaik and Michael Tisserand talk New Orleans Creole history 

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Local writers Fatima Shaik and Michael Tisserand sat down Friday (March 11) to talk about “Hidden History: Black and Creole Influence and Culture in New Orleans” at the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University. 

Shaik’s book chronicles the history of Black New Orleans through a group of free men-of-color, the Société d’Economie et d’Assistance Mutuelle. “Hidden” is part of the title because this society and its activities were unknown even though the men of the Economic and Mutual Aid Association community were significant figures in the city from the Haitian Revolution in the 1790s to the creation of jazz in the early 20th century. The name “Economy Hall” refers to the Tremé building where the association met and held events. Tisserand is the author of “Krazy: George Herriman, A Life in Black and White,” the acclaimed biography of New Orleans-born illustrator, journalist and cartoonist George Herriman, the creator of “Krazy Kat,”  a newspaper comic strip that ran from 1913 to 1944. The book investigates his life navigating — or hiding from —  the color line in the early 20th century. 

Shaik relates that she and Tisserand discovered many affinities due to their deep research and dedication to unknown New Orleans stories.

books and literature

Book Fest: Local writers and photographers take it to the streets

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The streets of New Orleans were among the wide range of topics covered at the inaugural New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University. The sessions were not on the potholes or the perennial roadwork, though that was discussed, too. (“The problem with the streets is that we are sitting on top of an ever-changing river,” writer Jason Berry said.) They were on the spectacle of street life in New Orleans. Two Friday (March 11) sessions — a panel called “Visual New Orleans: A City of Neighborhoods” and a talk by Berry on his film and book “City of a Million Dreams” — covered recent works chronicling public rituals in the city’s Black communities that have become emblematic of New Orleans: the second-line parade and the jazz funeral. Judy Cooper’s “Dancing in the Streets” and Jason Berry’s “City of a Million Dreams” delve deeply into these traditions — deep enough to avoid cliches and appropriation.