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OUR PREVIOUS EPISODE:
Clancy Dubos, Political Editor The Gambit; Karen Carvin Shachat, Political Strategist; Charles 'Chuck' Perkins, Poet, Activist
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Jeanne's Take |May 7, 2021 |
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Dear Crosstowners,
I've now seen several people on various news programs in the last few weeks defend their intention not to get vaccinated as protecting their "right to freedom".I just don't get why the freedom to be protected and protect others against a life threatening virus is less important than thumbing your nose at people of a different political persuasion. Of course it's no less difficult to understand how most members of a political party can defend what they know to be lies. I am literally bewildered. I hope I don't run into Steve Scalese or John Kennedy or Garret Graves anytime soon. I would have to ask them how they could possibly not be ashamed of themselves.
Now on to better news. I had a long conversation with Julius Kimbrough, Executive Director of the Crescent City Community Land Trust, who is doing good work developing new models for affordable housing. Our conversation to be aired this Friday at noon on WBOK 1230 AM is a deep dive, but if you listen carefully you will learn about very important initiatives that hold promise for relieving rampant displacement happening throughout our city.
Next up on the show is Monique Verdin, an inspiring artist who weaves her sensitivity about the future of our environment with historic threads of the region's Native American traditions. She is presenting photographic totems inside of Bob Tannen's Modgun prototype at the Crevasse 22 I River House sculpture garden and art center. Her exhibit, in association with a collaborative installation called "Invisible Rivers: Float Lab" with Mondo Bizzaro, Nick Slie and Jeff Becker invites visitors to better understand the human experience of our beautiful but threatened landscape.
Their creative work highlights the celebratory seasonal reopening of this unique art site, surrounded by a pastoral setting with moss hung live oak trees, sea and migrating birds, and a legendary 45' deep lake carved into a bayou just outside the levee on the Mississippi River. See the news release below for details, and plan a beautiful spring day in the country with vittels and refreshments.
I'll be there since the Creative Alliance of New Orleans and the Torres I Burns Trust sponsor and produce the exhibitions at this unique site.
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Jeanne Nathan
Host and Executive Producer
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What is the CCCLT?
Crescent City Community Land Trust creates affordable homes, apartments and commercial spaces that stay permanently affordable.
Concerned community members started CCCLT in 2011 when more and more low-income New Orleans residents--families that had lived here for many generations--were being priced out of the city, where institutional racism had already been practiced for multiple generations. CCCLT founders chose a community land trust (CLT) model because it would allow them to make homeownership permanently affordable.
Mission
We are a community land trust that ensures permanent affordability for generations through equitable residential and commercial development, community stewardship, and housing advocacy.
Vision
A resident-led city where every New Orleanian can afford to live, work, and thrive in a community of their choice for generations to come.
Core Values
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Undesigning the Red Line: We recognize the ongoing legacy of racism that has pervaded urban development and we are working intentionally to counter this multi-generational damage by fostering the creation of equitable and resilient communities.
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Practicing Stewardship: We provide for the physical, social and financial health of our residents and the land and buildings they occupy.
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Advancing Community Self-Determination: We seek to be community-controlled, which means we are focused on, and accountable to, the people who are most vulnerable to displacement that have lived in New Orleans for generations (as defined further below).
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Collaborating Strategically: We recognize our interdependence and work together with a wide range of partners, including public agencies, financial institutions, advocacy organizations, and private and nonprofit developers to accomplish our mission.
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Thinking Forward: We are open-minded and always seek to innovate. We think and act long- term to foster equitable and livable communities.
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Due to the strong 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 bymany 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.
CANO CELEBRATES 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, 12noon - 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
(Scroll down to Crosstown Scenes for photos from the
preview on May 2)
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 an installation that features the Float Lab, collaborating with artist Monique Verdin and her family of indigenous Houma Nation boat builders, they designed and developed a 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 Kinord, 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 is adding 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 Jennifer Odem, Anastasia Pelias, Hannah Chalew, 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. Parking will be available.
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Newsletter Sections
In Depth - Friday's Guests - The Pivot - Writings - In Other News
Art Works - Crosstown Classifieds - Coming Attractions
Gimme Creative Shelter - Crosstown Scenes
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Julius E. Kimbrough, Jr.
Crescent City Community Land Trust Executive Director Julius Kimbrough, Jr. is a native New Orleanian who has worked in community development and finance for many years, both locally and in cities across the country. Before joining CCCLT, he worked as a program officer, urban planner, economic research analyst and as an investment banker.
Julius earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Hampton University, and he holds master’s degrees in both business administration and public policy from the University of Chicago.
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Monique Verdin
Monique is an interdisciplinary storyteller who documents the complex relationship between environment, culture, and climate in southeast Louisiana. She is a citizen of the Houma Nation, director of The Land Memory Bank & Seed Exchange and a member of the Another Gulf Is Possible Collaborative, working to envision just economies, vibrant communities, and sustainable ecologies. She is co-producer of the documentary My Louisiana Love and her work has been included in a variety of environmentally inspired projects, including the multiplatform performance Cry You One, Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas, and the collaborative book Return to Yakni Chitto: Houma Migrations.
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A Wedding Planner With a Lot on Her Plate
Nathalie Cadet-James had to adjust her luxury wedding planning business during the pandemic. She shifted to reusable table settings in a box.
By Alix Strauss, NYTimes Style
Nathalie Cadet-James started Luxe Fete, an event planning and design studio, in 2009. Like many others in the industry, the pandemic forced her to shift her focus from over-the-top luxury weddings to producing shippable celebration boxes for intimate gatherings.
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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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NYTimes Podcast: “The Ezra Klein Show.”
Noam Chomsky on Anarchism, Human Nature and Joe Biden
The legendary leftist intellectual also discuss his theory of the good life and more.
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On Climate, Biden Takes On ‘Our Generation’s Moonshot’
To get a handle on how the president’s international climate commitments will need to jibe with his domestic policy agenda, we called Nathaniel Keohane, an economist, former Obama adviser and climate expert.
On Thursday, President Biden announced another Hail Mary — what Jennifer Granholm, the energy secretary, called “our generation’s moonshot.” This time, the focus is on finding a cure for the entire planet.
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Good Riddance, Donald Trump?
Ms. Swisher covers technology and is a contributing Opinion writer.
It never occurred to me that a Facebook-appointed panel could avoid a clear decision about Donald Trump’s heinous online behavior. But that is what it’s done.
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Times Event: We Need to Talk About Cancel Culture
Trevor Noah, Kara Swisher, Jane Coaston and Ezra Klein debate the merits and dangers of cancel culture, and share a sneak peek at upcoming episodes from Opinion Audio.
Join us on Wednesday, May 12, as Kara Swisher, host of NYT Opinion’s “Sway”; Jane Coaston, host of “The Argument”; Ezra Klein, host of “The Ezra Klein Show,” and Farhad Manjoo, Times Opinion columnist, team up to debate one of today’s thorniest topics — from the societal pros and cons of cancellation to what role (if any) big tech should play in this cultural phenomenon.
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A 7-Foot Bird Tests the Limits of Tolerance in New Orleans
Free-roaming peacock pecks at cars, leaves messes and ‘either honks like a goose or heehaws like a donkey when he’s upset’
By Rachel Wolfe, Wall Street Journal
READ HERE
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THE ART IN THE OVAL OFFICE TELLS A STORY. HERE’S HOW TO SEE IT.
By Larry Buchanan and Matt Stevens
This is a pretty standard White House photo, the sort of image you have probably noticed dozens of times since President Biden took office a little more than 100 days ago, from newspaper photographs to shots on cable news networks.
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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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How to Celebrate Mother’s Day 2021
in New Orleans
From drag brunch to turtles on parade to afternoon tea, there’s a celebration for every NOLA mom this year
By Carol Lorell, EATER New Orleans
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WELCOME TO THE 2021 SPRING VIRTUAL SEASON
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s spring 2021 virtual concert season is a joyous and unifying celebration of freedom. We look forward to presenting a shorter, curated spring concert season anchored by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.
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The Other Side of Languishing Is Flourishing. Here’s How to Get There.
Research shows that the pandemic took a toll on our overall well-being and left many of us drained. Here are seven simple steps to get you thriving again.
With vaccination rates on the rise, hope is in the air. But after a year of trauma, isolation and grief, how long will it take before life finally — finally — feels good?
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Forget NFTs. What about the HTF (Hard to Find)?
As Americans with disposable income start shopping again, an odd assortment of products like espresso equipment, sofas and natural deodorant have become sudden hot properties.
By Jacob Bernstein, NYTimes
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The Pandemic Shrank Our Social Circles. Let’s Keep It That Way.
You don’t need to rekindle your friendship with your kid’s soccer teammate’s father if you don’t want to.
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How to Pretend You’re in Paris Tonight
There are countless ways to invite Paris into your home. All you need is a little creativity. And perhaps a glass of Champagne.
While your travel plans may be on hold, you can pretend you’re somewhere new for the night. Around the World at Home invites you to channel the spirit of a new place each week with recommendations on how to explore the culture, all from the comfort of your home.
Paris is a collective fantasy, from the booksellers along the Seine to the gray zinc rooftops of its cream stone buildings. For ages, the city has been the place to turn for lessons in l’art de vivre, the art of living, influencing fashion, philosophy, culture, art and gastronomy around the world. Today, pop-up shops and hipster brunch spots are as much a part of Paris as street lamps and Gothic architecture. But the romance of the city is timeless.
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Photos from Preview of Crevasse 22 | River House May 2, 2021 |
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Photos top to bottom, left to right:
- Susan Bergman, Tea Time, Tempestuous Courtesan, Cedric In The Forest, Treacherous Dutchess, Bubonic Vizier
- MaPo Kinnord, untitled ceramic
- Robert C. Tannen, Swan'd
- Robert C. Tannen, Here, Lassie, Lassie, Lassie
- Walter Anderson, Duck
- Ron Storey, Property Manager and our hero who always helps
- Sidney Torres III with portrait of his recently deceased mother, Lena Torres, formerly a frequent visitor to Crevasse 22 \ River House
- Monique Verdin, Return to Yakni Chitto; Houma Migrations
- Monique Verdin, Return to Yakni Chitto; Houma Migrations
- Jennifer Odem, Source
- Anastasia Pelias, mama
- Robin Tanner, Confession To The Sky
- Hannah Chalew with Entropical Folly
- Charles and Kim Biennvenue with Sidney Torres III
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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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