Author: Photos by Romero & Romero

Swing Set

A short stroll from the oak- and magnolia-studded canopy of Baton Rouge’s Highland Road Park curves a quiet street with a curious structure standing out both literally and figuratively. It’s…

Hormone Therapy Myths and Misconceptions

If you are a woman or man of a certain age, it is likely that hormone therapy is on your radar. Perhaps you’ve watched the documentary “The M Factor: Shredding the Silence on Menopause” released on PBS at the end…

Carencro Retiree Gerard Guidoni’s Bayou Cigar Box Guitars

Cajuns and Francophiles in Acadiana might see “BCBG” and take it as short-hand for the French catchphrase “bon chic bon genre” (“Good style, good class”). Anyone with a Ramones shirt or Blondie bob might read it quick and see an…

Colby Hebert Uses Custom Hats to Tell a Story in Lafayette

Big city trends, like water draining down the Mighty Mississippi, can take their time reaching Louisiana, but like a shard of driftwood turned over countless times by the river currents, those trends are uniquely changed during their journey down South.…

A Community Built Through Creativity in Baton Rouge

Nothing inspires optimism like making a genuine connection through community, feeling the therapy of creative expression or seeing the impact of purposeful work in action. In each of these, runs a common thread: Hope needs hands. Over homemade sweet cornbread…

Lynn Jenkins’s Pressed Flower Art

At a Glance Age 34 Hometown Lafayette, Louisiana Online magnoliafloralpreservation.com, @magnoliastudiosla on Instagram There was plenty of seafood, too, but for Lynn Jenkins, the real harvest of her family’s trek to go crabbing at the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge in remote…

Levain of Acadiana is Baking a Community

She calls it soap bombing. The batches of fresh, chemical-free soaps Marissa McBride cooks herself and stuffs into friend Rosalie Moyer’s mailbox are less of an exchange, and more of a joy offering for her genuine friendship with the Lafayette-based…

Ironclad

Josh Guillory is a man of few words. Actions? Absolutely. One look at his masterful spiral stairwells, classic driveway gates, or sinewy, modern art-inspired floor lamps proves that. But the veteran iron craftsman’s dialogue is often choice and contemplative these…

Joi to the Girl

At a Glance Age: 31 Hometown: New Iberia, LA Web: joijohnston.com Tracing her fingertips down the side of the leather, a polished slice of deep, summer evening blue, it is obvious that Joi Johnston has a not-so-secret crush. “See, this…

Living on the Edge

From sprinting after his friends through the woods of his native River Ridge, a big plastic Rambo knife in hand, to multiple deployments as an Army Ranger to Iraq and Afghanistan, to cooking in fast-paced New Orleans’ kitchens and sampling…

Pop Art

Alexis Korman is Zooming from Miami, but unless she’s immersed in some soda-splashed Art Basel installation—entirely possible as the international celebration of boundary-pushing creativity has colored every corner of the sunny south Florida destination—it’s impossible to tell. Floating above the…

Callin’ Baton Rouge

The only thing in the back was a car seat and boxes of dreams. This is how Meredith Waguespack took to the road at age 31 to drive from Lafayette to New Orleans, trying to kickstart her clothing line by…

Board Games

At a Glance Hometown Ponchatoula Age 28 Occupation Founder/lead designer, Therapy Skateboards Web therapyskateboards.com                     Clocking out after eight hours of sanding and painting cabinetry, most evenings Brent Coker can be…

Shelf life

Select Photos by Randy Krause Schmidt   At A Glance Age 32 Location New Orleans, LA Occupation Co-owner/Co-founder, GoodWood Nola Web goodwoodnola.com   Fast currents, rocky obstacles and significant drops are likely. Sudden maneuvers required. Such hazards of entrepreneurship…

Spirit Filled

Hometown Lakeland, Louisiana Age 32 Occupation President/CEO, Oxbow Rum Distillery Web oxbowrumdistillery.com   Wheeling through the fields, the pickup bumps and bounds past walls of tall golden stalks. Windows rolled down, a small hand hanging out of the truck…

Louisianians of the Year

Each year, we comb the state in search of Louisianians who stand out in their professions, give back and represent what’s best about the Pelican State. From teachers and artists to culinary pros and conservationists, these are the individuals enhancing…

Skin in the game

At a Glance HOMETOWN Mt. Vernon, Illinois AGE 38 OCCUPATION Skincare creator, founder, Oxalis Apothecary WEB Oxalisapothecary.com Through the wild woods around her home in rural southern Illinois, Erin Wexstten used to run as a child, and that adventurous…

Cymbal-ism

At A Glance Hometown Dallas, Texas (Collin), and Broussard, Louisiana (Roz) Age Collin is 46, Roz is 44 Occupation Jewelry designers Web secondlinejewels.com @secondlinejewels   When Phil Collins and his band Genesis need another batch of designer dominoes for…

Candle with Care

At A Glance Hometown | Charenton, Louisiana Age | 49 Occupation | Candlemaker, shop owner, Fifolet Candle Makers Web | fifoletcandles.com   Blink and you’ll miss the small, knee-high roadside “Candle Shop” sign out front. But off the main…

Freedom of the Press

With one bare foot steering the large silver press wheel, and two hands secure around the climbing boy’s bottom, his rainboots dangling over her ash-colored shop apron, this tangle of limbs and kinetic energy somehow stands in perfect poise,…

Relief, Found

There are so many activities that are a big part of daily life that people take for granted. That is, they take them for granted until one day those activities become painful and difficult to do. Then seemingly simple tasks…

Covering Lots of Ground

At A Glace Hometown London Age 27 Occupation Illustrator, product designer Website Wemightbeonfire.net Instagram @wemightbeonfire   It’s not all that common to find a New Orleanian slowly roaming the French Quarter, camera in hand and enthralled with every curve…

About Face

At A Glance Hometown Greenwood, South Carolina Age 36 Instagram @basqo_     It’s an epic, bejeweled beast of folkloric proportions. Or else it’s a mischievous, spinning sun prop escaped from the set of a children’s TV show and…

Louisianians of the Year

Louisianians are a diverse bunch, but we have a few common traits. For example, many Louisianians, no matter how close we are to our family, have an independent streak. Strength and persistence also come to mind when you consider people…

Annie Barahona

Growing up in Houma, Annie Barahona dreamed of working in the medical field. When it came time to decide on a career path, Barahona chose nursing. Sixteen years after starting her nursing journey, the Louisiana State Nurses Association named Barahona…

Malcolm Vidrine

Retired biology professor Malcolm F. Vidrine enjoyed a career ripe with accomplishments: author or coauthor of 20 books and numerous scientific articles, the discovery of leprosy in wild armadillos, and important work with mussels at the Watson Brake archaeological site…

James Clesi

James Clesi’s restaurant career began as a teenager at the Copeland’s on Veterans Boulevard in New Orleans. He bused tables, then moved to dishwashing. Clesi fell in love with the atmosphere in the kitchen ­— the smells, the sounds, the…

Annelise Cassar Tedesco

The word Chalmette native Annelise Cassar Tedesco, the 2022 Louisiana Teacher of the Year, most frequently mentioned in her interview was “community.” She strongly believes in the importance of forming a community at Chalmette High School with both her students…

Vitus Shell

Monroe artist Vitus Shell is a remarkable artist who explores the African-American experience through strong, compelling and often unsettling images of Black contemporary life in America. It is art driven by irony, activism and his notion of Black “coolness.” Monroe…

Paper Trail

At a Glance Name Frank Hamrick Location Ruston Business Printmaker and book craftsman Website frankhamrick.com   He’s no fortune teller. He makes paper. That’s how Frank Hamrick knows the exact future of the T-shirt he’s wearing, and it’s not…

Sticker Shock

  Unfortunately, swinging the fridge door wide revealed only a cavernous abundance of empty space surrounding one edible item: a lonely bag of shredded cheese. Tired, stressed and real meal-deprived from days of last-minute arts market prep, Daneisha Davis…

Pelican Briefs: Market Marvels

Chef Cory Bahr is bringing together growers and artisans from surrounding parishes to offer their produce, meat and hand-crafted products on Thursdays for “Grow the Roe Farmers Market,” situated on a lot beside his Parish Restaurant in downtown Monroe. “We’re…

Surface Safari

  Connecting her bedroom to her sister’s and to the den, the triangular fireplace in the middle of the old 1910s home designer Hope Johnson grew up in provided not only ample opportunity for post-bedtime whispers — “mostly, I…

Booming Business

Flipped cars, towering fires, powerful explosions — the kind that send bits of dust and metal sailing through the air — all constitute a regular day at work for New Orleans-area resident Matt Kutcher. The 53-year-old founder of Slidell-based Spectrum…

Booming Business

Flipped cars, towering fires, powerful explosions — the kind that send bits of dust and metal sailing through the air — all constitute a regular day at work for New Orleans-area resident Matt Kutcher. The 53-year-old founder of Slidell-based Spectrum…

Louisianians of the Year

music  PJ Morton Grammy-winning recording artist, keyboardist for Maroon 5 and New Orleans native PJ Morton released his new album, “Gospel According to PJ,” in August. He said people often asked him if he would do a gospel album, in…

Adventurous Classics

Lake Charles’ Andrew Green of 1910 blends traditional techniques with innovative concepts.

Adventurous Classics

Lake Charles’ Andrew Green of 1910 blends traditional techniques with innovative concepts.

Local Professionals Answer Your Wedding Music Questions

Think of your wedding music as the soundtrack to your most romantic occasion. You’ll want to personalize it to your taste, of course, but also provide some crowd-pleasing hits for your guests after the ceremony is over and everyone is…

Health Beat

Maria Blanco, Assistant Professor at the Human Development Center in the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Allied Health Professions, now serves as an Act Early Ambassador for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) “Learn the…