The Atchafalaya, Louisiana’s best-loved swamp Like most outdoors adventures in Louisiana, wetlands explorations are best done when temperatures are perfect and barometer readings are tolerable. That means spring or fall. The tiebreaker for the Great Atchafalaya Swamp is that fall’s…
As the old clubs close, Louisiana’s traditional music looks for a new home About 1,000 people, black and white, turned out in Lafayette on Sunday, June 19, to pay their final respects at the passing of a cultural legend. No,…
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John Darling Haynes and the Southern landscape by John R. Kemp Like alchemists, artists use canvas and palette to create imagined or real images of the world, its beauty, drama or the play of light upon the land. Others paint…
Distinguished author John Barry compares Louisiana’s two greatest natural disasters and what we have learned from each John Barry’s book Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and how it Changed America spent six weeks on The New York…
In New York, they still talk about Willis Reed and that night and that game with the same head-bowing reverence as when they speak of Casey Stengel’s Amazin’ Mets and Joe Namath’s “guaranteed” Super Bowl III win in 1969. It…
Biker saloon pulls ’em in Over the roar of motorcycle engines, word is spreading about a new Louisiana business that caters to an increasing population of weekend bikers. Cy Dodge’s Bike Barn Saloon, located off Interstate 49 between Lafayette and…
Bull Moose and the Daisy I read with much interest the article on “Building Barriers” concerning Breton National Wildlife Refuge, which appeared in the Winter 2004/05 edition. The article was excellent and addressed an important part of our state’s pioneer…
Suitable meals for summer by STANLEY DRY My favorite summer meal is grilled food, a salad and a cold bottle of dry rosé. If there’s any meal more welcome than that on a hot day, I don’t know what it…
A brief history of coastal smuggling by JEREMY J. ALFORD The hurricane-charged winds and rain stopped almost as suddenly as they attacked. All that could be heard now were cypress planks creaking under the strain of the surviving sails and…
Eunice's former first couple's trophy house by BONNIE WARREN Just six blocks from the famous Liberty Theatre in Eunice lives the man who is credited with being the father of an effort to preserve Cajun music, the French language in…
Searching for Louisiana's good grapes by PAUL F. STAHLS JR. For a road trip that’s perfect for summer – “cool” enough, in fact, to repeat in any and every season – let’s blaze a trail through the southeastern parishes seeking…
The music thrives at Lafayette's Festivals Acadiens by ROBERT BUCKMAN It is a huge, outdoor, Louisiana-style party that not only welcomes crashers but beckons them. For the 29th consecutive September, Lafayette’s Girard Park will be burgeoning with the sights, sounds,…
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…
by BRIAN HUDGINS As a teenager in the late 1980s, Oklahoma native Scot Jones was mainly a weekend warrior when it came to the sport of water-skiing. What served as a May-to-August hobby soon introduced Jones to Louisiana, a new…
Edited by HILLARY GOLDEN Northern LOUISIANA April 1-7. Art Competition, Bry Art Gallery, Monroe, (318) 342-1382. April 1-30. St. Francisville Artists Exhibit, Schepis Museum, Columbia, (318) 649-9931. April 2. Bead Workshop, Poverty Point State Historic Park, Epps, (888) 926-5492. April…
by ADAM TRACEY It only 14 years old, Amanda Shaw has achieved more than most adults twice her age. She has studied violin under a world-renowned Russian violinist. She has released three albums. She has performed for thousands of cheering…
by JOHN R. KEMP Photography is about light, imagination and shared memories. Joyce Linde’s black-and-white photographs resonate with the rhythms of life and light in south Louisiana. Linde’s dark, brooding, reflected images are like shadowy memories that flash through the…
by PAUL F. STAHLS JR. When it comes to luring tourists, the St. Landry Parish village of Grand Coteau prints no brochures, runs no ads, concocts no slogans or sales strategies. One reason is that it has not a single…
For two years, the city of Baton Rouge has awaited the completion of the Shaw Center for the Arts. Now the interactive community art school, museum and theater – which extends over one block in the city’s arts district and…
As a founder of the Friends of the Mansfield Battlefield, I want to thank you for drawing attention to the mining that threatens the sacred ground on this historic Louisiana site. Dr. White’s well-written article offers readers a clearer understanding…
As early as grade-school history, we were told about the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the valley they created, known as the “cradle of civilization.” Legend even links this fertile land, where oranges, olives and dates grow easily, to the…
by SCOTT DYER A few hours after the LSU Tigers wrapped up their last home win, a 27-24 victory over Ole Miss on Nov. 20, work crews began to demolish the western upper deck of Tiger Stadium. The Tiger Athletic…
by BONNIE WARREN Hays Town, the “dean” of Louisiana architecture, produced buildings that have been revered for generations. On the banks of Cane River Lake in Natchitoches is one of his gems, a house that he designed in 1981 for…
