A Certain Beauty

Cityscapes from the other side

by JOHN R. KEMP

New Orleans writer Andrei Codrescu describes the white-washed crypts and miniature temples of the city’s decaying above-ground cemeteries as “waiting rooms for the Day of Judgment” where the dead “rehearse the defense they...

Reflets et échos de la louisiane

Image from photographer Joyce Linde

Art has a prayer at this abbey near Covington

St. Joseph Abbey in St. Tammany Parish is home to Benedictine monks, but the religious community welcomes artists during its Abbey Art Works workshops.

As the sun set, a haunting, ancient melody drifted across the small wooded pond and settled among the dark oaks as a procession of black-robed monks performed evening vespers. The songs and chants are almost as old as recorded time, but time was irrelevant in the evening afterglow that burned along...