events

Actor Indya Moore talks liberation at Audre Lorde Days event at Tulane

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By Jesse Baum, Uptown Messenger

Actor and model Indya Moore spoke at Tulane University on Monday (Feb. 17). Moore is best known for the role of Angel Evangelista in the FX drama Pose. They are also openly transgender and non-binary (hence the use of the plural non-gendered pronoun to refer to one person). The event, part of Audre Lorde Days at Tulane, was hosted by the office for Gender and Sexual Diversity at Tulane, the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Carolyn Barber Pierre Center for Intercultural Life.

arts, books and music

Sarah Broom on ‘The Yellow House,’ marginalized communities and climate change

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By Emily Carmichael, Uptown Messenger

Writer Sarah Broom is from New Orleans, but not the part of New Orleans where she spoke on Tuesday (Feb. 4), the famed, oak-lined streets of Uptown. She’s from a yellow house on Wilson Avenue in New Orleans East. Her experience in that house — and what it says about New Orleans, the United States, and our relationship to our environment — is the subject of her debut book “The Yellow House: A Memoir.” It won the 2019 National Book Award for nonfiction. Broom was interviewed in Woldenberg Art Center on Tulane University’s Uptown campus by Atlantic staff writer Van Newkirk, another potent investigator of place and environment.

arts, books and music

Tulane acquires Anne Rice’s archives

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By Roger Dunaway, Tulane University

Tulane University’s Howard-Tilton Memorial Library has acquired the complete archives of famed best-selling New Orleans author Anne Rice, thanks to a gift from Stuart Rose and the Stuart Rose Family Foundation. Born and raised in New Orleans — the setting of her most famous books — Rice is the author of 30 novels with more than 100 million copies sold, placing her among the most popular authors in recent American history. Rice’s work has included gothic and erotic fiction, as well as Christian literature, but she is best known for her novels in vampire and supernatural fiction. “That Tulane has provided a home for my papers is exciting and comforting,” said Rice, a former Garden District resident who grew up on St. Charles Avenue.

arts, books and music

2019 National Book Award winner Sarah Broom to speak at Tulane

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By Barri Bronston, Tulane University

Sarah M. Broom, a New Orleans native and winner of the 2019 National Book Award, will speak Tuesday, Feb. 4, at Tulane University as part of the “American Water and Actual Air” speaker series, which focuses on interpreting the environment across academic disciplines. Sponsored by the Tulane School of Liberal Arts’ Environmental Studies Program, the event will be in conversation format with Vann Newkirk II, a staff writer at The Atlantic. It will take place at 6 p.m. at Stone Auditorium at Woldenberg Art Center, beginning with a reception sponsored by the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South. It is free and open to the public.

city government

City approves Tulane police substation at the former site of a notorious frat house

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By Emily Carmichael, Uptown Messenger

Tulane University has won city approval to build a Tulane University Police Department substation on the previous site of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity building across from The Boot Bar and Grill. The now vacant lot at 1036 Broadway is zoned as residential and required a conditional use approval to be used in a public works and safety capacity. As Uptown Messenger previously reported, the station will be a single story, 3,600-square-foot building to serve as a 24/7 command center for TUPD’s off-campus patrols. The City Council approved the conditional use by a unanimous vote on Thursday, Jan. 16, following an earlier City Planning Commission recommendation.

arts, books and music

Muralist BMike to exhibit solo show at Newcomb Art Museum

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New Orleans artist and international muralist Brandan “BMike” Odums will celebrate the opening of his latest exhibition, N̶O̶T̶ Supposed 2-Be Here, at Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane this Saturday, Jan. 18. This will be his first ever solo exhibition in a museum setting. Odums is most known for his large-scale artwork; he is the artist behind the murals on the Lafitte Greenway, Buddy Bolden on Rampart Street and parts of the Toledano Wall Mural. Much of his activist art lives inside Studio BE near his alma mater, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

crime

Employee of popular university-area bar fired at early Sunday, Tulane police report

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Gunfire was reported early Sunday morning near The Boot on Zimpel Street and Broadway, the Tulane University Police Department reported. At about 2 a.m. on Jan. 12, Tulane officers responded to a report of shots fired in the 7100 block of Zimpel. While conducting the preliminary investigation, officers reviewed video cameras in the area and determined that a Boot employee was involved in a physical altercation with an unknown man, who was armed. The gunman fired at the Boot employee, who was not injured, police said.

arts, books and music

The significance of Newcomb pottery and where to find it on the Tulane campus

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In New Orleans during the late 19th and early 20th century, a form of artistic expression emerged. It emphasized improvisation and individual expression, and it gave voice to talented individuals whose voices had traditionally been repressed. It’s not what you may think. As well as jazz music, that description can apply to Newcomb pottery. A permanent display of Newcomb products in the new Commons building on Tulane’s Uptown campus now makes them more accessible to the general public as well as students.

colleges

Tampon Tax Protest Tour makes stop at Tulane

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To combat the taxing of menstrual products, the national Tampon Tax Protest Tour for menstrual equity will make its New Orleans stop on Tulane University’s campus today (Nov. 22). “Recognizing that taxes on menstrual products are discriminatory and illegal,” organizers said, “New Orleans will be part of a collective action against taxing these products, which, along with diapers, are currently taxed by the State of Louisiana.” The protest is part of a national effort called Tax Free. Period, organized by LOLA, a “lifelong brand for a woman’s body,” and Period Equity, a law and policy organization fighting for menstrual equity.

coastal preservation

Tulane researchers partner with United Houma Nation on climate and health resilience study

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From Tulane University

The United Houma Nation is a Louisiana state-recognized tribe trying to maintain its unique culture during dramatic climatic, environmental and socioeconomic change. A new project awarded to Tulane University researchers from the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine aims to enable the United Houma Nation to determine how to support its citizens to adapt to climate-related and other short- and long-term stressors while maintaining the integrity of its community and culture. The three-year, $2.1 million research project was awarded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Gulf Research Program’s Thriving Communities Grants 5 funding opportunity. Tribal citizens have sustained livelihoods and communities in southeast Louisiana’s shifting landscape for generations. Today, however, ongoing coastal land loss combined with the cumulative impacts of health, social, and economic disparities pose new challenges for the tribe.