Archives
Search Archives
Joan of Arc Parade 2024
The Joan of Arc Project celebrates Joan’s January 6th birthday each year with a medieval procession marching merrily through the French Quarter. This year was the krewe’s own birthday - its Sweet Sixteenth. Happily, Joan’s birthday also coincides with Twelfth Night, the official beginning of the Mardi Gras season.
- photos by Ellis Anderson
Armstrong Park’s Unexpected Attraction: The Antique Rose Garden
This park adjacent to the French Quarter is home to the legendary Congo Square and statues of New Orleans’ jazz greats, but a rarely noticed antique rose garden provides an unexpected delight.
– by Ellis Anderson
Bridging Artistry and Advocacy: Julia Holt, Esquire
A lifelong musician, this New Orleans native turned her performance career toward advocacy in the arts by specializing in entertainment law.
– by Kim Ranjbar
Patio Planters Holiday Home Tour 2023
The venerable Patio Planters garden club uses proceeds from this annual home tour to help fund the beloved Jackson Square caroling event. This year, seven French Quarter houses, dating back to 1818, decked their halls to welcome visitors.
– photos by Melanie Cole
A Labor of Love: Caroling in Jackson Square
A mid-century gardening club’s seasonal gathering has become one of New Orleans’ favorite holiday traditions, now hosting thousands of carolers each year.
– by Dean M. Shapiro
Spring Fiesta Holiday Home Tour 2023
Five fabulous French Quarter and Marigny homes welcomed visitors on December 2nd as part of the annual Spring Fiesta Holiday Home and Patio tour.
- photos by Ellis Anderson
Improvisations Gala 2023
This annual fund-raiser for the New Orleans Jazz Museum is one of the city’s most spectacular, featuring Jason Neville Funky Soul Band & Special Guest "Mr. P Funk" George Clinton, New Orleans cuisine and craft cocktails, a Sound Collage lighting display, exhibits and special jazz-related arts installations.
- photos by Melanie Cole
Children’s Hospital Holiday Parade 2023
A downpour drenched parade-goers and marchers mid-way through the second annual Children’s Hospital Holiday Parade, but it couldn’t diminish the sheer delight.
- photos by Ellis Anderson
The Veiled Lady and the Bird Man
The controversial 19th-century naturalist John James Audubon is best known for his artwork in Birds of America - but few have heard of a portrait commissioned by a mysterious New Orleans woman in 1821, a painting that’s been lost to history.
– by Richard Goodman
The Ultimate Outsider: A 1995 Interview with Gypsy Lou Webb
In the 1960s, “Gypsy” Lou Webb and husband Jon Webb worked out of a tiny French Quarter apartment and published ground-breaking work by beat writers like Charles Bukowski, Henry Miller, Langston Hughes, and Jack Kerouac. Thirty years later, she looks back at her literary life in New Orleans.
-by Dennis Fomento
Passion Lilie x Beatrix Bell: A Chic Collective
Two visionary designers, Katie Schmidt and Beatrix Bell, offer handmade, sustainable, fair trade goods on an artful block of Chartres Street.
-By Hallet Graham
When the Courtroom Cheered: A Mid-Century Miscarriage of Justice
New Orleans’ acceptance of the LGBT+ community has radically changed since 1958 – as illustrated by the tragic murder of Fernando Rios.
– by Frank Perez
The Last Forgerons
In 1920, the last in a line of French Quarter forgerons put down their hammers, never again to create the wonderfully detailed wrought iron fences and balconies of New Orleans.
– by Michael Warner
New in the French Quarter: A Camera on Every Corner
While the new “public safety” cameras may lend a dismaying dystopian look to the city’s oldest neighborhood, Vieux Carré residents and businesses are hopeful they’ll help deter crime.
- by Frank Perez and Ellis Anderson
Drain the Swamp: The Definitive Account
A new book by Richard Campanella details the soggy saga of a city built on a deltaic plain, sandwiched between the continent’s largest river on one side and a 1.5 trillion-gallon lake on the other.
– by John S. Sledge
25th Anniversary VOODOOFEST on Dumaine
Temperature drops and a restrained midweek Halloween date didn’t deter throngs of people from gathering for the 25th annual VOODOOFEST, a free day-long event offering an educational entree into the Voodoo religion.
- photos by Ellis Anderson
Drum Roles: Glen Finister Andrews
Brought up with the traditions of his musical family, drummer Glen Finister Andrews is equally at home playing in the French Quarter streets and iconic venues like Preservation Hall.
– by Karen Lozinski
Giving the Dead Their Due: The Abandoned Tomb Initiative
Marie Laveau’s tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 was one of the first to be restored in a unique initiative that cares for New Orleans’ fabled Cities of the Dead.
– by Reda Wigle
Confessions of a Recalcitrant Declutterer
Stuff + lack of closet space = the French Quarter dilemma. But once you’ve committed to downsizing your wardrobe, what’s the best way to be rid of your cast-offs?
– by Bethany Ewald Bultman
Krewe of Boo Parade 2023
Krewe of Boo parade kicks off what’s become an actual season in New Orleans – Halloween. And when local imaginations lend themselves to the macabre, the result is spell-binding.
- photos by Melanie Cole