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OUR PREVIOUS EPISODE:
Julius E. Kimbrough, Jr. and Monique Verdin
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Jeanne's Take |May 14, 2021 |
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Dear Crosstowners,
There are not too many more ways to mourn the death of the Republican party as we once knew it; conservative. Yes. principled. Yes. Now....whatever it takes to wrestle back power no matter how many voters are suppressed, no matter how many lies are perpetrated, no matter what the Psychotic in Chief demands of the cynical and the duped.
I leave it to Peter Wehner to sum up just how despicable this political age we are living through is. It will be interesting to see how the tables turn when the inevitable and inescapable demographic waves come through.
OK. Enough. Meanwhile, the resilient, creative citizens of New Orleans are helping us understand how to live with our changing climate and rising water. Mondo Bizarro and the Land Memory Bank and Seed Exchange have created an ingenious installation based on the Houma Nation traditional pontoon boat to present exhibitions, performances, education and inviting folks from all over the region to join. Bless the Boat Sunday at 2 at Crevasse 22 | River House. See new art inside and out from 12 noon - 5pm. Enjoy Nick Slie's maque choux, white beans and sausage, spiked and unspiked lemonade and more. Creative partners Monique Verdin and Jeff Becker will be there to share the stage and visit with our communities. See Monique's exhibition in Robert Tannen's Modgun. Bad Andy entertains with his own interpretation of flamenco guitar.
That great Nick Slie voice tells us more on our show this Friday at noon on WBOK 1230 AM.
Schuyler Williams, the new General Manager of WBOK, together with new owners Troy Henry, Jeff Thomas, Wendel Pierce and Cleveland Spears, are rejuvenating the beloved station sharing the true stories of New Orleans in all its glory and reality. Schuyler, (pronounced Skylar), shares their thinking about the future of the station as it gets comfortable in its new digs, a studio in the heart of Xavier University. Later this week they are "warming their house" by opening a new exhibition of work by artists of color enlivening the walls of the new studio.
Thank goodness we live in New Orleans, a city that celebrates culture while the nation mourns. That's what we do.
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Jeanne Nathan
Host and Executive Producer
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In Liz Cheney vs. Donald Trump,
Guess Who Won
Mr. Wehner, who served in various roles in the three Republican administrations before the Trump administration, is a contributing Opinion writer.
I asked a Republican who spent time with Representative Liz Cheney last week what her thinking was in speaking out so forcefully, so unyieldingly, against Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, despite knowing that this might cost the three-term congresswoman her political career.
“It’s pretty simple,” this person, who requested anonymity in order to speak openly, told me. “She decided she’s going to stay on the right side of her conscience.”
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Newsletter Sections
In Depth - Friday's Guests - The Pivot - In Other News
Art Works - Crosstown Classifieds - Coming Attractions
Gimme Creative Shelter - Crosstown Scenes
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Nick Slie
Nick Slie is a New Orleans-born performer, producer and cultural organizer. He is the Co-Artistic Director of Mondo Bizarro. and an Associate Professor of Theater at Nunez Community College. Since 2002, Nick has toured a wide array of imaginative projects to art centers, universities and outdoor locations in 38 states across the country and abroad. However, he is most proud of the work he does at home, where the land kisses the water. Nick’s creative endeavors range from interdisciplinary solo performances to large-scale community festivals, from innovative digital storytelling projects to site-responsive productions.
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Schuyler Williams
Schuyler Williams is a talented marketing communications professional with more than 15 years of experience. Her keen business instincts, creativity and clear vision have rapidly moved her into executive level positions in the broadcast media industry.
Williams’ experience is diverse, ranging from business development, marketing strategy, public relations, crisis communication, issue management, media planning and placement, event planning and operations management. She began her career with Louisiana Department of Economic Development, where she crafted messaging to communicate the state’s recovery process and progress after hurricanes Katrina and Rita to local, national and international stakeholders. She is presently the General Manager of WBOK 1230 am, a black owned and operated News Talk radio station based in New Orleans. Williams has been instrumental in restructuring and reprogramming the radio station in 2020. Under Williams’ leadership, WBOK has become the fastest growing radio station in the American Gulf South. Helping minority businesses increase revenue and clientele while crafting a positive public image has been a core focus for her team.
“I’m passionate about everything I do, but especially supporting small businesses. They are the backbone of the American economy. Supporting minority owned businesses specifically is key to creating cash flow and sustainability in our communities. Every day I strive to educate myself and others about resources and best practices to ensure future sustainability of minority owned small businesses,” Williams said.
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The Philharmonic Grows in a Shipping Container in Brooklyn
By Zachary Woolfe, NYTimes Critic's Notebook
With a focus on community partnerships, the orchestra’s Bandwagon 2 is traveling around New York City this month.
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From the Myrtle Banks Building in Central City, to the 9th Ward and
Crevasse 22 | River House downriver in Poydras, Louisiana, CANO's Creative Spaces support the work of artists in New Orleans' underserved communities.
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CANO is now Booking Unique Insider Cultural Tours of New Orleans' Artist Spaces, Private Collections, and Art Venues |
New Artists every Friday.
Click HERE to visit CANO's ongoing Artists in View video project,
or
for more information
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'Oddball supernova' reveals star's death throes before exploding
Stars experience very violent lives that usually end in dazzling explosions, and scientists have tried for years to determine what happens to massive stars just before this bombastic finale.
Now, an unusual supernova is helping researchers piece more of that stellar puzzle together.
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My husband thought this was funny. But when I am in the middle of a mini profane rant with a robo caller...it ain't funny. Jeanne Nathan
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The NOCCA Institute hosts
CREATIVE CLASS
A summer series of arts classes for grown-ups
June, July, and August 2021
Join The NOCCA Institute for another amazing summer of arts classes for grown-ups. Our Creative Class series lets you explore dance, drawing, screenwriting, directing, and more, while working with professional artists--including plenty of NOCCA alumni!
Whether you’re an absolute beginner or an experienced pro, there’s a Creative Class for you. And with weekend, weekday, and nighttime offerings, we can match every schedule and budget. Classes begin in June 2021 and continue through August.
Some of the classes currently on the books include…
(click on the class title to learn more)
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The funds are designated for operational expenses and are available to nonprofit cultural organizations in Louisiana with a strong humanities focus, including but not limited to museums, historic sites, and archives. Information about eligibility can be found here.
We encourage you to use this next week to review the criteria required for applying and gather all necessary documentation, as we expect demand to exceed available funding. A sample application can be found here.
We especially encourage applications from minority-serving institutions and organizations as well as from rural and underserved areas of the state, but applications are welcome regardless of an organization’s size, audience, or location.
Sincerely,
Miranda Restovic
President & Executive Director
Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities
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Volunteers Still Needed for Disaster
Recovery in Louisiana
In the wake of a disaster, the people of Louisiana have always come together with compassion and courage to ask how they can help survivors.
However, people often don't realize there is still a great need weeks or months after a disaster.
How to Help
If anyone would like to volunteer to help Louisiana disaster survivors, the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) suggests working through a local voluntary organization. Debris removal and rebuilding are among ways that volunteers can help.
Those interested in volunteering can contact Volunteer Louisiana online at www.volunteerlouisiana.gov and be put in touch with a voluntary group in need. Volunteer Louisiana is a state-run organization.
If you are unable to volunteer your time or skills, recovery officials suggest donating to an organization involved in disaster recovery as an effective and efficient way of contributing. Cash contributions to voluntary organizations make good sense for a number of reasons:
▪ Financial contributions help ensure a steady flow of important services to survivors.
▪ Local organizations spend the money in the local affected community, accelerating its economic recovery.
▪ Cash donations, rather than unsolicited donated goods, avoid the complicated, costly and time-consuming
process of collecting, transporting and distributing these goods.
▪ Cash donations to recognized relief organizations are tax-deductible.
Volunteering and donating through existing channels are the best way to be of service.
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Please Note: With storm warnings on May 2nd, the Crevasse 22 | River House Reopening celebrations were rescheduled for May 16. Despite the threat of bad weather, we went ahead with a preview instead which was attended by many art lovers, friends and a brave group of the general public.
The delayed reopening festivities, confirmed for May 16, will include the Launch of the Float Lab for Invisible Rivers as well as food and refreshments.
CELEBRATING THE "RESCHEDULED" REOPENING OF CREVASSE 22 | RIVER HOUSE WITH
“INVISIBLE RIVERS” FEATURING THE “FLOAT LAB,”
A COLLABORATION OF
MONDO BIZARRO AND THE
LAND MEMORY BANK & SEED EXCHANGE
Sunday, May 16, 2021, 12 Noon - 5:00 PM Crevasse 22 | River House, at 8122 Saro Lane in Poydras, LA
The Collection includes New Sculpture works in the Garden and New Ceramic Sculptures in the “Earth-Works” exhibition in the River House
The Creative Alliance of New Orleans is pleased to announce this season’s rescheduled reopening festivities of Crevasse 22 | River House with "Invisible Rivers" featuring the "Float Lab," a collaboration of Mondo Bizarro and The Land Memory Bank & Seed Exchange.
“Invisible Rivers”, featuring the Float Lab, is a series comprised of exhibitions with educational performances. It employs the artistic practices of music, theater and boat-building to respond to our region’s interconnected struggles against coastal land loss, environmental racism and displacement. Mondo Bizarro is building boats in rapidly disappearing areas of our coast and hosting dialogues and performances on them. “Invisible Rivers” physically models ideas about how we can live with fluctuation, uncertainty, and symbiosis in our increasingly watery world.
On May 16th, Mondo Bizarro begins their residency at Crevasse 22 | River House with the installation featuring the Float Lab, collaborating with artist Monique Verdin and her family of indigenous Houma Nation boat builders. They designed and developed the Float Lab that will travel by land and water to various locations that will host the Invisible Rivers activities.
Float Lab is a 15’ by 8 1⁄2’ pontoon platform/boat outfitted with a display area for exhibitions and a seine net to harvest seafood. “It is designed and built as a blank canvas to allow for various types of experimentation related to how we can live on water. Part field station for community engagement, part performance venue, part art exhibition space, it will provide an activation site to bring our ancestral, cultural, and physical knowledge of the wild, free-flowing past into the present” says Nick Slie. The Grand Opening of “Invisible Rivers'' includes art, music, local cuisine, and refreshments.
THE ART EXHIBITIONS
Works on view in the River House include contemporary and historic paintings, installations, carved wildfowl, photography, ceramic sculptures and a model for the Robert Tannen and Frank Gehry “ModGun,” a modular house design intended as a post disaster housing alternative to trailers. The “ModGun” can easily be expanded with additional rooms like adding cars to a train.
Also included is an exhibition of ceramic sculptures called “Earth-Works,” with works by Susan Bergman, MaPo Kinnord, Christina Larson, Kevin O’Keefe, Sandra Pulitzer, Robert Tannen and now Lucia Aquino. The carved wildfowl are by regional artists that reflect their love and commitment to the environment and the lifestyle it supports of hunting, fishing, and living in a coastal zone. Robert Smith has added new carved wildfowl works. Other artists currently included in the River House are: John James Audubon, Walter Anderson, and Pippin Frisbee Calder.
CANO is also presenting new, large-scale sculptures in the Crevasse 22 Sculpture Garden. Current artists in the sculpture garden include Rayne Bedsole, Luis Colmenares, Clifton Faust, Mitchell Gaudet, Gene Koss, Christopher Saucedo, and Robert Tannen. New additions in the garden include works by Hannah Chalew, Jennifer Odem, Anastasia Pelias, and Robin Tanner.
Crevasse 22 | River House, which opened as a pop-up arts venue for Prospect.3 in 2014-1015 is now permanent and continues to present exhibitions related to the “beauty and risks of nature”, addressing the threats to this region demonstrated by Hurricane Katrina, other storms and climate change driven ocean rise that is drowning marshes throughout Louisiana’s gulf coast.
THE SITE
“The site is located in a classic Louisiana landscape, next to a small lake carved into Bayou Terre aux Boeufs. Families are welcome and can also enjoy the trails in the woods just behind the River House,” said Creative Alliance of New Orleans Executive Director, Jeanne Nathan.
“The Torres | Burns Trust is happy to welcome the public and is enjoying the visitors who have discovered a part of St. Bernard they didn’t know was here, including the landscape, the art, and the people,” said Sidney Torres, owner with Roberta Burns of the extensive site.
Torres and Burns have treasured the bucolic Louisiana site of the crevasse, or breach in the river that in 1922 created a small lake out of the bayou surrounded by live oaks dripping with Spanish Moss, and home to many permanent and migrating bird species. Torres and Burns, further “hope that the presentations at Crevasse 22 | River House will reinforce the cultural legacy of the Parish and help draw former and new residents and businesses to the Parish to realize its potential for rejuvenation and growth”. Sidney Torres is a descendant of Los Islenos, or Canary Islanders who migrated to the region in the 18th century, to help the Spanish prevent British colonization of the region.
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Directions: Take St. Claude Avenue to the bridge, keep going as St. Claude veers left and becomes St. Bernard Highway. Travel down St. Bernard Highway for about 12 miles, passing two port sites and then through a canopy of live oak trees. After the second port, go to the next stop light, with Guillory’s grocery on the left, turn right. Without coming out of the turn, see the Saro Lane sign, proceed through a small suburban area. Continue almost to the levee where a gate opening on the left welcomes you to the Crevasse 22 site.
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Float Lab In Presentation at Crevasse 22 Sculpture Garden |
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Confession To The Sky by Robin Tanner |
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Andy Neubauer Acoustic Guitar |
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As seen on inside cover page in The Advocate - May 13, 2021 |
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Uniform 300: Rahm Carrington
June 5 – 26, 2021
Opening reception:
Saturday, June 5, 10 am - 6 pm
Octavia Art Gallery
400 Magazine Street
Octavia Art Gallery is pleased to present Uniform 300, featuring the works of photographer Rahm Carrington in collaboration with curator and producer Alice Carrington Foultz.
In this rapidly growing world of free-flowing information, we are seeing a homogenization of culture. One can travel across the world and see the same fashions, trends and iconography. The “flattening” of the world has had many benefits, but it is contributing to this homogenization. Today, we see people turning back to their roots to find their own unique identity. We wear our “uniform” with pride, as a way to let others know who we are, where we came from, what we do, who we love and what we stand for. In this melting pot of culture it is a way to identify oneself.
In Uniform 300, Rahm and Alice explore the idea of a personal uniform. In some cases, this may be a Catholic Brother, Soldier or Escaramuza wearing a prescribed uniform. In other cases we may photograph a Spurs super- fan, or a restaurant owner, whereby their uniform is the clothes they wear and the image they portray.
Furthermore, there is uniformity in the format of each one of these portraits, so that when the collection of photographs are gathered together, there is a distinct diversity in each of the subjects, but a uniformity in the collection and depiction.
Rahm Carrington’s photographs merge street, travel & lifestyle photography. In the age of digital photography and computerized manipulation, Carrington’s methods remain pure, staying true to the time-honored traditions of photography. Carrington’s work is part of numerous private collections across the country as well as the Kleberg Bank and King Ranch collections. He was selected to be an official partner of San Antonio’s Tricentennial in 2018 with the photographic portrait project Uniform 300 (where all 300 photographs were exhibited).
Alice Carrington Foultz has over thirty years experience in the art world. Having served on local, state and national art boards, including the Texas Commission for the Arts, The President’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities, The Public Art Board of San Antonio and the White House Historical Association. Alice’s range of work has included curatorial work, art education, a radio talk show and the assembly of numerous private and public art collections, including Jackson Walker, Akin Gump and The Kronkosky Foundation. Recent projects comprise of serving as curator for San Antonio Spurs Sports and Entertainment from 2001 to 2017 where she helped assemble a “vision statement” for the organization and curated a 200 piece site specific collection. Alice also served as curator of the art collection in the Cellars apartment complex at the iconic Cellars at Pearl in San Antonio.
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11 Secrets from People Who Always Have Amazing-Smelling Homes
by ASHLEY ABRAMSON, Apartment Therapy
A few years ago, my best friend bought a new house and had me over to check it out. Right away, I noticed how amazing it smelled — like she’d been simmering citrus rinds and cinnamon on the stovetop all day (she hadn’t). After I got home, I couldn’t help but fixate on one thing about my own space: It didn’t smell good. My house didn’t stink, but it also didn’t smell memorably good like my friend’s — a problem I wanted to solve with haste. Sure, I’m not having any people over these days, but that’s no reason not to search for my home’s signature scent. I’ll probably be here for the indefinite future, so I may as well enjoy sniffing it.
Curious how folks like my friend keep their homes smelling amazing? Here are some of those people’s best tips.
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Porch visit with Vivian Cahn and son David |
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Tout le monde was at Cafe Degas this delightful evening, including this couple , dressed for perfectly for a French Cafe |
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Is this Walking Iris or what? |
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First Gardenias of the season on Esplanade, and new growth on Tannen's 30 year old cactus |
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N.E.W.S. From Crosstown Conversations
Executive Editor: Jeanne Nathan
Editor: Judi Gerhardt
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2326 Esplanade Ave,
New Orleans, LA 70119
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