Advertiser specials

Louisiana’s first Green House® Project community, to be unveiled at Poydras Home (sponsored)

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Poydras Home will soon become Louisiana’s first Green House® Project community. Our Oct. 27 speaker, Susan Ryan, Senior Director of The Green House Project, will unveil Poydras Home’s new care model to come in our newly renovated campus. With the completion of the Poydras Home Reimagined expansion in early 2023, we will become Louisiana’s first community to offer this revolutionary care approach. The Green House Project model represents the highest quality of life for residents, focusing on the fundamental principle that each resident should be the central decision maker in his or her daily life.

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InspireNOLA Charter Schools launches citywide youth initiative to combat gun violence Oct. 12 (sponsored)

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A student-led initiative that focuses on decreasing gun violence across the city. The city we all know and love is now the “Murder Capital for the U.S.,” and it’s time that we, as leaders across the city, act quickly to change this narrative. Recent reports suggest that youth in New Orleans are at the forefront of the current violent crime wave that has inflicted our city. InspireNOLA, a local charter school network in New Orleans, is refuting the new title with its latest initiative — NOLALove. A youth-driven and community-wide call-to-action, NOLALove is our response to the increased crime and lives lost to senseless gun violence ravaging the city of New Orleans.

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Second Line Arts Collective: Music Education from Recess to Record Deals (sponsored)

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In 2016, professional musicians Darrian Douglas and Gregory Agid were perplexed. New Orleans is a world renowned music city- Why were so many local musicians struggling to make ends meet? They soon discovered that many artists were lacking business skills and too often were depending on playing endless gigs to pay the bills. 88% of musicians they surveyed had zero music business exposure throughout high school or college. They decided to change the narrative by founding Second Line Arts Collective, a music education nonprofit for aspiring artists to grow their industry skills and knowledge base.

business

Employees at the Maple Street Starbucks will be first in Louisiana to unionize

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The polls closed for the Maple Street Starbucks union election at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday (June 4), and 15 minutes later, the count was announced. The workers at the 7700 Maple Street location had voted overwhelmingly to unionize. With the final count 11-1 in favor of forming a union, this Starbucks will be the first in Louisiana to unionize. A total of 14 votes were cast, but two were contested. 

The Maple Street coffeehouse joins more than 100 Starbucks stores nationwide that have unionized in the past seven months, since a Buffalo, New York, store became the first in December 2021. The Maple Street Starbucks workers will be a part of the national union known as Workers United. 

Reporters, supporters and off-the-clock baristas waited for the results outside the polling place across the street from the coffeehouse, as the temperature soared over 90 degrees.

Workers at the Starbucks on Maple voting on whether to form a union

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At the Maple Street Starbucks on Thursday morning (June 2), amid patrons with baby strollers and sleek laptops, union organizers and supporters held a “sip in” for the coffeehouse workers. Those workers are holding a union election this Friday and Saturday. If the vote passes, the store at 7700 Maple St. will be the first unionized Starbucks in Louisiana, part of a spate of newly unionized Starbucks across the country. At the sip-in, the organizers invited supporters to sit in the cafe and hold signs for the workers to boost morale in anticipation of the upcoming election.

schools

Lusher Charter School will be renamed The Willow School

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After decades of heated controversy that boiled over in recent years, the Lusher Charter School board has chosen a name to replace that of avowed White supremacist Robert Mills Lusher. The highly ranked public school educating kindergarteners through 12th-graders will become The Willow School. The name is a nod to the Willow Street building where the school began educating students in 1917 and where the elementary students are still educated. The Orleans Parish School Board renamed the building itself for Dr. Everett J. Williams Jr., the first Black superintendent of the city’s public school system. Robert Mills Lusher was a Reconstruction-era state school superintendent who promoted and instituted racial segregation in public schools.

schools

Lusher halts its renaming process after threat of Open Meetings Law litigation, The Lens reports

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The Lusher Charter School board suspended its renaming effort after an attorney for a group of Lusher parents, alumni and students warned of pending litigation over alleged violations of the state’s Open Meetings Law, The Lens has reported. The board had formed a study group that met privately to come up with names to replace that of Robert Mills Lusher, an avowed segregationist and Confederate official, but received public pushback on the recommended names at a recent board meeting, where board members voted to form another study group.

schools

Lusher board puts off name change, rejects naming school after Jeanne Marie Lusher 

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After years of controversy and debate, the board governing Lusher Charter School officially voted on Thursday to change the school’s name to … something to be decided. 

At an emotional meeting that lasted almost four hours with 90 public comments, the Lusher board voted against renaming the school after pediatric oncologist Jeanne Marie Lusher. The four board members who opposed keeping “Lusher” in the name were Alysia Loshbaugh, Rachel Wisdom, Kiki Huston and George Wilson, while the two members willing to consider it were Brenda Bourne and Gary Solomon.  

“We are not the name. We are the community. We are the students. We are the faculty,” Wisdom said.

opinion

Viewpoint: Charter school is perpetuating Robert Mills Lusher’s racist legacy

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By Corinne A. Williams, guest columnist

The pandemic along with the racial reckoning in our country and, most recently, Hurricane Ida have all put New Orleans’ kids in a position to experience a collective trauma — much like people my age experienced after Hurricane Katrina. In addition to traumas already thrust upon them, children attending Lusher Charter School are attuned to many internal school-related traumas. Their school leaders have put their best interests last for one of the simplest things that they have control over: the name of their school. Lusher Charter School is named for Robert Mills Lusher, a Confederate tax collector, segregationist and unabashed member of the Crescent City White League. By today’s standards and any anti-racist standard, Mr. Lusher would be someone who should be unequivocally rejected as a person to name anything after.

Advertiser specials

Registration is open for Grow Dat Youth Farm produce boxes (sponsored)

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Sign up to pick up a box of produce at the farm each week. 

The CSA program is Community Supported Agriculture, the Farm Share initiative is an opportunity for customers to enjoy chemical-free, fresh produce while investing in the Grow Dat farm and youth leadership program. This locally grown produce box runs for 29 weeks and allows flexibility for pick up at their farm located in City Park. SNAP registration is also available, reach out for more information. 

“We envision a vibrant New Orleans where youth and adults transform their communities, their environment, and themselves by engaging in the meaningful work of growing healthy food”

The Farm Share initiative is a way for the community to become “member-investors” who receive a portion of the farm’s harvest every week. For decades, CSAs have supported small-scale farmers and strengthened local food systems. Members experience the seasonal fluctuations of the farm’s produce, a process that teaches consumers more about the natural cycles of food production. 

Deep rooted values with a love for the City and the land that serves it. Making a commitment to New Orleans by championing sustainability, youth leadership, inclusion & multiculturalism, and food justice.