Saturday’s show the “All the City’s a Stage Episode” to help celebrate so many impressive stage works opening and closing across the Crescent City, which included the openings of:
* “Jelly’s Last Jam” at Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carré. (Read the glowing review by Ted Mahne.)
* “A Few Good Men” at Delgado Community College. (Read my feature preview.)
* “Niagara Falls” at The Theatre at St. Claude
* “On an Average Day” at the Happyland Theater
… as well as the concluding performances of …
* “Billy Elliot” at Rivertown Theaters, including an added Sunday show
* “Disney’s The Lion King,” which I caught Thursday, at the Saenger Theatre
* “Gomela” which we discussed last week, at Ashé Powerhouse Theater
* “White Rabbit, Red Rabbit” at St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church
* … and ArtSpot Productions’ “Sea of Common Catastrophe” at UNO
On “PopSmart NOLA,” we welcomed:
Michael Aaron Santos, who stars as Col. Jessup, speaker of the infamous “You can’t handle the truth” speech in “A Few Good Men,” which is being staged at Delgado Community College’s Timothy Baker Theater and runs through Feb. 11. For more information, visit www.nolaproject.com.
Kathy Randels and Sean LaRocca of ArtSpot Productions, and “Sea of Common Catastrophe“ — which Gambit’s Will Coviello described as “an abstract, figurative work about New Orleans and some of its inhabitants, who are drawn to the sea and affected by it.” While the show closed Saturday, we had Kathy and Sean discuss the production for a final push, and they favored us with a song from the show.
Damien Moses, cast member of “Jelly’s Last Jam,” the Tony Award-winning musical about the life of legendary New Orleans pianist, bandleader and composer Jelly Roll Morton. This is, amazingly, the New Orleans premiere of this work, which, among other things, delivered star Gregory Hines his lone Tony Award. Damien A. Moses is a New Orleans native. His portrayal of Hedley in “Seven Guitars”, directed by Tommye Myricke, afforded him the privilege to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. as an Irene Ryan recipient. His most notable performance as Mister in “The Color Purple The Musical” at Anthony Bean Community Theater, earned him a Big Easy Award nomination. The show runs at Le Petit Theatre through Feb. 12. For more information visit http://www.lepetittheatre.com/.
Alex Rawls of My Spilt Milk paid us a return visit to to help break down the recently announced lineups for the French Quarter Festival and of course the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. My Spilt Milk covers the music and culture in New Orleans. Alex has written for almost every New Orleans-based publication (including our years together at Gambit-then-Weekly), as well as Rolling Stone, Spin and USA Today — AND he guest-edited The Oxford American’s Louisiana music issue. He’s also done some really fascinating work examining the booking choices at Jazz Fest, is here to discuss their recently announced lineup as well as that of the French Quarter Festival, which precedes Jazz Fest this spring.
CLOSING That’s “PopSmart NOLA” for this week. I want to again thank our guests — Michael Aaron Santos from “A Few Good Men,” Kathy Randels from ArtSpot Productions and “Sea of Common Catastrophe,” Damien Moses from “Jelly’s Last Jam” and Alex Rawls of My Spilt Milk.
Stay tuned for next week’s episode, which include a focus on the upcoming James Baldwin documentary “I Am Not Your Negro,” which hits New Orleans, and this show will include some really exciting guests. Stay tuned on that.
Want to remind everyone that if you like what you hear on “PopSmart NOLA,” we’re here every Saturday from 3-4 p.m. on WHIV (102.3 FM). You can listen to the archived, podcast version of the show on my SoundCloud account, “dlsnola.” Also, you can visit the website at popsmartnola.com, and like our Facebook page. You can also follow us on Instagram at “@popsmartnola” and I’m yammering away on Twitter at @dlsnola504.
Also, if you like our show, we’d love your support in the form of underwriting; email me at dlsnola@gmail.com for more info.
Thanks again for joining us, y’all. For “PopSmart NOLA,” I’m David Lee Simmons, reminding everyone to keep the intelligent discussion going.
In response to Friday’s (Jan. 20) inauguration, we wanted to take a look at artistic and creative instruction as a response to political and cultural change. Throughout New Orleans and the rest of the country, we’ve seen creative people finding their own voice in terms of protest and action. There’s the New Orleans version of the Women’s March on Washington and the March for Revolution over in Faubourg Marigny. There was Friday’s J20Nola: Anti Trump Inauguration Rally & March. And plenty of other shows that definitely will infuse the night with plenty of protest themes.
So I welcomed a range of guests to this, our “Arts as Action Episode,” to discuss their works — sometimes directly related to the topic, or just because their current work served as a nice jumping-off point.
To that end, we welcomed as our guests:
Director Stephanie V. McKee and poet Sunni Patterson, two of the creative forces behind Junebug Productions’ current show, “Gomela/to return: Movement of Our Mother Tongue,” which opened this weekend over at the Ashé Cultural Arts Center. (Sunni’s work, “Black Back,” opens the show, and I’ve got a video of the entire poem in this post.
Dana Marie Embree, longtime New Orleans-based costume designer for stage and screen and inspirational figure in the very popular, very creative, very artistic and often politically satirical Krewe of ‘tit Rex — which rolls, by the way, on Saturday, Feb. 18. (You can see it if you can crouch low enough.) I pre-recorded our interview so Dana could participate in today’s Women’s March New Orleans.
Paul Oswell and Benjamin Hoffman, co-producers of the weekly “Local Uproar” comedy show at the AllWays Lounge. On Saturday they welcomed Andrew Healan, host of “WHAT A JOKE,” a national comedy festival taking place in 30-plus cities on inauguration weekend to benefit the American Civil Liberties Union — as part of Local Uproar’s weekly show.
SEGMENT ONE: Dana Marie Embree
Dana Marie Embree has parlayed her love of history and dress up into a career, having over 30 years of experience in styling and design for New Orleans, film and television — including costume design credit on several independent films. Embree also studied draping, pattern-making, design techniques at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NY. She reproduces historic costume and fantasy fashion for film and personal clientele. She’s also familiar to many in New Orleans’ cultural community through her work with the Krewe of ’tit Rex, which marches this Carnival season on Saturday, Feb. 18, at 5 p.m. from the St. Roch neighborhood into Faubourg Marigny. Learn more about her work at http://www.danamarieembree.com.
I met with Dana in her Mid-City home, and I asked her to place the election of Donald Trump into her own personal historical context.
SEGMENT TWO: STEPHANIE V. MCKEE AND SUNNI PATTERSON Our next guests are two of the principals behind a very cool new performance by Junebug Productions — director Stephanie V. McKee and poet Sunni Patterson. They opened their new production, “Gomela/to return: Movement of Our Mother Tongue” over at the Ashé Cultural Arts Center on Thursday and it runs through Jan. 29. It’s an amazing combination of dance, spoken word and music.
Stephanie V. McKee is the executive artistic director of Junebug Productions. She’s a performer, choreographer, educator, facilitator and cultural organizer born in Picayune, Mississippi and raised in New Orleans. She is the founder of Moving Stories Dance Project, an organization committed to dance education that provides opportunities for dancers and choreographers to showcase their talents. In 2007, she was awarded The Academy of Educational Development/New Voices Fellowship, an award for emerging leaders. For the past 20 years Ms. McKee has been involved with Junebug Productions as an artist and educator. Most recently she served as Associate Artistic Director of the first annual Homecoming Project 2011, a place-based performance project that addresses the Right of Return and what home means to communities in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Sunni Patterson hails from New Orleans, and draws upon her local origins, as well as her holistic view on life, to shape her art. She has appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, performed at major spoken word venues throughout the country, and is a certified instructor of Tai Chi and Qi Gong. Please, please, please watch the video I shot of her reciting her poem, “Black Back” in the preview post I did for PopSmartNOLA.com
Now, I already posted a podcast interview with them on PopSmartNOLA.com that focused more heavily on the show itself, and that post also includes that video of Sunni Patterson and her poem. But for this show, I wanted to focus the conversation more specifically about how artists like McKee (who speaks first here) and Patterson respond creatively under political circumstances like these.
SEGMENT THREE: PAUL OSWELL AND BENJAMIN HOFFMAN For our final segment for this, I wanted to hopefully end things with a chuckle. And so I welcomed:
Paul Oswell, a New Orleans-based writer, journalist and comedian. He writes for The Guardian US and co-produces two weekly comedy showcases in New Orleans: “Local Uproar” at the AllWays Lounge and “Night Church” at Sidney’s Saloon.
Benjamin Hoffman, a comedian in New Orleans who co-hosts and produces two weekly showcases, Night Church and Local Uproar. Most consider him a sex symbol.
Together they welcomed Andrew Healan and the touring “What a Joke” comedy festival Saturday the AllWays Lounge, benefiting the American Civil Liberties Union.
MUSIC
We also got a chance to feature Margie Perez and her new CD, “Love Is All,” which she will feature at her show tonight (Sunday, Jan. 22) at d.b.a. Check it out at the end of the show, and thanks, Margie!
RELEVANT LINK Last week, I introduced a new segment on “PopSmart NOLA,” and I call it “Relevant Link,” in which I share an interesting story I’ve come across over the past week. I know it’s only a week old, but this week I’d like to divert a little in the interpretation of the title segment and direct you to a link to take action:
Quoting here from an email I received Thursday from the Arts Council of New Orleans: “On the eve of Donald Trump’s Inauguration, The Hill newspaper reported that Trump Transition Team staff intend to recommend that the President-elect eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as privatize the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This decades-old proposal from the politically conservative Heritage Foundation and House Republican Study Committee is expected to be included in this year’s Congressional House Budget Resolution, as it has in previous years. However, it would be much more serious if it were also proposed by the Trump Administration. Legislative and executive branch action will start moving very quickly now. We need everyone to be prepared, organized, and educated about what’s at stake. Please help us recruit more free Arts Action Fund members, spread the word, and raise some money to support our grassroots activities. The Arts Action Fund will continue sending important updates to you.”
You can take the following four steps, which include links! (Yea, links.)
Share this pagewith your personal network. Ask at least five of your friends to join the Arts Action Fund for FREE.
Post onFacebook and Twitter to help rally national support to save the NEA. There is strength in numbers and your social media friends can help.
OK, I lied. I did have a relevant link. For those intrigued by the Shen Yun performance at the Mahalia Jackson Theater this weekend, I offer this in-depth look at the politics (and seemingly cult-like background) of the New York-based performance troupe — courtesy the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, with this excerpt:
Falun Dafa, often used interchangeably with the term Falun Gong, is the organizational structure behind the practice. Practitioners bristle at being called a cult. But some of their communication strategies carry a strong whiff of cult-like control issues, including avoidance of media requests to explain their side (attempts to reach Shen Yun for this story were unanswered), stringent policing of images that forced the use of a five-year-old Associated Press photo to accompany this story, vague platitudes in lieu of specific descriptions and the assertion that their made-in-America show is a more authentic ambassador of “5,000 years of Chinese culture” than cultural-entertainment exports actually based in China. “The thing that irritates Chinese people everywhere is the specious claim that they’re representing traditional culture,” Ownby said. “They don’t, but they don’t do any harm. I grew up among seven Baptists, and they had strange beliefs, too.”
CLOSING I want to remind everyone that if you like what you hear on “PopSmart NOLA,” we’re here every Saturday from 3-4 p.m. on WHIV (102.3 FM). You can listen to the archived, podcast version of the show on my SoundCloud account, “dlsnola.” Also, you can visit the website at popsmartnola.com, and like our Facebook page. You can also follow us on Instagram at “@popsmartnola” and I’m yammering away on Twitter at @dlsnola504.
Also, if you like our show, we’d love your support in the form of underwriting; email me at dlsnola@gmail.com for more info.
Thanks again for joining us, y’all. For “PopSmart NOLA,” I’m David Lee Simmons, reminding everyone to keep the intelligent discussion going.
BONUS: Check out Stephanie V. McKee and Sunni Patterson discussing “Gomela” above, and Sunni reciting “Back Black” below!)
For this week’s episode of “PopSmart NOLA” we continued our look at Carnival with two new guests and the return of another:
Christy Hackenberg, director of public relations and information technology for the Pussyfooters marching group — which helped spark a massive wave of marching groups in Carnival parades that continues to grow in 2017, but might be facing a turning point.
Rebecca Snedeker, director of “By Invitation Only,” landmark documentary about an insider’s look at the old-line Carnival scene that has defined her family, and why she left it.
And a return visit with Wayne Phillips, curator at the Louisiana State Museum, this time offering us an update on the gay Carnival culture that once featured a dozen krewes but has shrunken to a few, proud group of me also facing their own turning point. And, a new book!
We also had a ticket giveaway for Sunday’s 5-year anniversary production of “You Don’t Know The Half of It.” Big thanks to Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carré and Cecile Monteyne for making this happen.
SEGMENT ONE: CHRISTY HACKENBERG I was happy to welcome our first guest, Christy Hackenberg, and not just because she’s a fellow Florida State University grad. (Go ‘Noles.) Christy moved to New Orleans in 1992 and adapted to the unique life led here. She became very involved with various graphic design organizations. After Katrina and the Federal Flood, her focus became more about New Orleans and she got involved with socially minded groups and the New Orleans blogging community. In 2008 she joined the Krewe of Muses. In 2009 she join Krewe du Vieux and currently serves as secretary of Krewe of Spank. In 2010 she joined the Pussyfooters and currently serves as the PR and IT chair. She is working to compile a comprehensive history and archive of the Pussyfooters. In this pre-recorded interview, we discussed the impact of the Pussyfooters on Carnival parade culture, and what she sees happening with the group marching forward.
The Pussyfooters Blush Ball 2017 will be held Saturday (Jan. 20) at Generations Hall, with proceeds to benefit the Metropolitan Center for Women and Children. Visit the Facebook event page for details.
RELEVANT LINK I introduced a new segment on “PopSmart NOLA” in which I share an interesting story I’ve come across over the past week. First up:
Kevin Alexander’s piece in Thrillist, titled, “There’s a massive restaurant industry bubble, and it’s about to burst.” This is a notion that was on my mind as soon as I returned to New Orleans in 2013 after being away for seven years, and I was constantly hoping for a localized version of this. Alexander cites “[r]ising labor costs, rent increases, a pandemic of similar restaurants, demanding customers unwilling to come to terms with higher prices” as root causes.
Alexander has several New Orleans connections in the piece, including an interview with chef James Cullen (previously of Treo and Press Street Station) who, as noted in the article, “talked at length about the glut of copycats: “If one guy opens a cool barbecue place and that’s successful, the next year we see five or six new cool barbecue places,” he told Alexander. “… We see it all the time here.”
You’ll also find references to Company Burger and St. Roch Market in the piece, which is very much worth the time. Highly recommended.
SEGMENT TWO: REBECCA SNEDEKER
Joining us in the studio Saturday was Rebecca Snedeker, the Clark Executive Director of the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University. Through her work as an independent documentary filmmaker, writer, and program curator, she has cultivated a body of work that supports human rights, creative expression, and care for place in her native city, New Orleans. Snedeker co-authored Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas (University of California Press, 2013), a book of 22 imaginative maps and essays, with Rebecca Solnit. She produced several documentaries that take place in the Gulf South, including Preservation Hall (commission, 2000), By Invitation Only (PBS, 2007), Witness: Katrina (National Geographic Channel, 2010), and Land of Opportunity (ARTE, 2010) and contributed to many others, including Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans (PBS, 2007) and A Village Called Versailles (PBS, 2008). Snedeker served on the Steering Committee of New Day Films, a filmmaker-owned educational distribution company, and the boards of the New Orleans Film Society and Patois: The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival. She is the recipient of an Emmy Award and director of projects funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“By Invitation Only” was a seminal work in the way it brought viewers into the secret world of old-line Carnival culture, one that, while blessed with incredible history, pageantry and beauty, had another side that included racism, sexism and classism. A decade later, we discussed how in her mind does the work still resonate with viewers, and New Orleanians? What has been the fallout since?
SEGMENT THREE: WAYNE PHILLIPS, LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM For our final segment for this, our second consecutive show dedicated to New Orleans’ Carnival culture, we once ago spoke with Wayne Phillips, who has served as the Curator of Costumes & Textiles and Curator of Carnival Collections at the Louisiana State Museum since 1998. Wayne is responsible for a collection of over 30,000 artifacts, including historic and contemporary clothing, accessories, and textiles of all kinds, as well as an encyclopedic collection of artifacts documenting all aspects of Louisiana Carnival celebrations statewide. Wayne has made strides in expanding the State Museum’s holdings documenting the LGBTQ community in Louisiana, with particular interest in gay Carnival krewes. In 2014, Wayne served on the Steering Committee that founded the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana, and he serves on the board of directors for the organization today. I spoke with Wayne about how the gay Carnival culture has evolved over the past few decades, and about its interesting future — which includes the release a book on the subject, hopefully later in 2017.
BEST BETS Before closing I offered suggestions on what’s going Saturday in the Crescent City if you were looking for something fun to do:
Something I did not write about for PopSmart NOLA (but wish I had) is tonight’s opening reception of New Orleans-born artist Rashaad Newsome’s interdisciplinary presentation, “Mélange,” figuring a series of films and works on paper in conversation with Newsome’s upcoming performance of FIVE. That’s at the Contemporary Arts Center from 7 to 9 p.m.
CLOSING Want to remind everyone that if you like what you hear on “PopSmart NOLA,” we’re here every Saturday from 3-4 p.m. on WHIV (102.3 FM). You can listen to the archived, podcast version of the show on my SoundCloud account, “dlsnola.” Also, you can visit the website at popsmartnola.com, and like our Facebook page. You can also follow us on Instagram at “@popsmartnola” and I’m yammering away on Twitter at @dlsnola504.
Also, if you like our show, we’d love your support in the form of underwriting; email me at dlsnola@gmail.com for more info.
Thanks again for joining us, y’all. For “PopSmart NOLA,” I’m David Lee Simmons, reminding everyone to keep the intelligent discussion going. Happy Carnival!
Carnival season is upon us, and I thought this was a good opportunity to discuss some of the more intriguing aspects of Carnival culture with some of its most notable figures. Because that’s a lot of ground to cover, I hope to dedicate the next two shows on this subject. That starts off with today’s guests. Joining us:
Dr. Kim Vaz-Deville, associate dean of the college of arts and sciences at Xavier University and author of the 2013 book, “The Baby Dolls: Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the Mardi Gras Tradition.”
Virginia Saussy, marketing consultant and charter member of the Krewe of Muses, whose landmark debut in the early 2000s helped spark a massive influx of women participating in Carnival on a more formalized structure.
Wayne Philips, Curator of Costumes & Textiles and Curator of Carnival Collections at the Louisiana State Museum. Wayne’s here to discuss an upcoming exhibit at the Presbytere celebrating women’s Carnival krewes (and that’s just this week!). So you can call today’s show our “Estrogen Fueled Carnival Episode.”
SEGMENT ONE: KIM VAZ DEVILLE, AUTHOR, “THE BABY DOLLS” I was really excited to welcome our first guest. Kim Vaz-Deville, Ph.D. is professor of education and the associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Xavier University of Louisiana. Her book, The Baby Dolls: Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition was published by Louisiana State University Press in 2013 and was the basis for a major installation, “They Call Baby Doll: A Mardi Gras Tradition” at the Louisiana State Museum’s Presbytere unit in 2013. It is the 2016 selection of the Young Leadership Council of New Orleans’ One Book One New Orleans. Vaz-Deville guest-curated with Ron Bechet, Department Head and Victor H. Labat Endowed Professor of Art Painting, Drawing, and Community Art at Xavier University of Louisiana, an art exhibit titled “Contemporary Artists Respond to the New Orleans Baby Dolls” which showed work about and inspired by the tradition in Spring, 2015 at the George and Leah McKenna Museum of African American Art in New Orleans. Normally photographed on the streets of New Orleans during the ritual times of Mardi Gras, St. Joseph’s night and Super Sunday, photographer Phillip Colwart invited maskers to take stage portraits. Vaz-Deville curated these in a photography exhibit, “Philip Colwart’s Studio Portraits of the Baby Dolls of New Orleans”, on view 2015-2016 at the Shreve Memorial Public Library, in Shreveport, LA.
SEGMENT TWO: VIRGINIA SAUSSY, KREWE OF MUSES Virginia Saussy has been a part of one of the most fascinating developments in Carnival culture in the past two decades. The emergence of the Krewe of Muses on the parade routes back in 2001 signaled the beginning of a massive influx of women into more formalized Carnival activity even though the first female Carnival krewe rolled 100 years ago. (More on that later in the show.) We now have Muses, and Nyx, and the predominantly African-American krewe Femme Fatale, and of course myriad marching and dancing troupes as we previously discussed. Virginia Saussy, a marketing consultant who’s an original member of the krewe, is here today to talk about how Muses helped alter the Carnival scene, and what we might expect from female krewes.
SEGMENT THREE: WAYNE PHILLIPS, LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM Finally, welcomed Wayne Phillips, who has served as the Curator of Costumes & Textiles and Curator of Carnival Collections at the Louisiana State Museum since 1998. Wayne is responsible for a collection of over 30,000 artifacts, including historic and contemporary clothing, accessories, and textiles of all kinds, as well as an encyclopedic collection of artifacts documenting all aspects of Louisiana Carnival celebrations statewide. Wayne has made strides in expanding the State Museum’s holdings documenting the LGBTQ community in Louisiana, with particular interest in gay Carnival krewes. In 2014, Wayne served on the Steering Committee that founded the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana, and he serves on the board of directors for the organization today. For this segment, Wayne discussed an upcoming exhibition at the Presbytere focusing on women and Carnival, tied to the 100th anniversary of the Krewe of Iris.
I want to remind everyone that if you like what you hear on “PopSmart NOLA,” we’re here every Saturday from 3-4 p.m. on WHIV (102.3 FM). You can listen to the archived, podcast version of the show on my SoundCloud account, “dlsnola.” Also, you can visit the website at popsmartnola.com, and like our Facebook page. You can also follow us on Instagram at “@popsmartnola” and I’m yammering away on Twitter at @dlsnola504.
Also, if you like our show, we’d love your support in the form of underwriting; email me at dlsnola@gmail.com for more info.
Thanks again for joining us. I want to remind everyone to keep the intelligent discussion going. Happy Carnival, y’all.
Baby, it’s not even close to cold outside, but there’s still plenty of Christmas cheer in the air as “PopSmart NOLA” — an intelligent discussion of New Orleans culture — presents a Super-Sized Holiday Episode on WHIV (102.3 FM) on Saturday (3 p.m. to 4 p.m.).
Joining us in the studio will be special guest co-host and DJ Alex Rawls of My Spilt Milk, and special guest vocalist Debbie Davis!
If there is a Father Christmas when it comes to holiday music in New Orleans, it’s Alex Rawls, whose obsession with and coverage of the seasonal genre includes a 2004 cover story for Gambit Weekly (my first clue into his twisted psyche). More recently he penned a holiday-music piece for NOLA.com | The Times Picayune. Back home at My Spilt Milk, Rawls noted that Big Freedia has released a Christmas EP, “A Very Big Freedia Christmazz,” and a track on the “Office Christmas Party” soundtrack. Earlier in the week, he ran news of her releases along with news of this Friday’s release of “Merry Christmas Mr. Fields” by Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos. He also reviewed the EP as well as Christmas albums by She & Him, Kissing Party, R. Kelly and David Bazan, among others.
For the angel atop the tree, Rawls assembled his own special free Christmas music mixtape for you to download. “We guarantee it’s 99 percent sentiment-free and snark-free,” Rawls told readers, “as indie rock and electronic artists commit to their own songs and covers with the same passion and intelligence they bring to their music the other 11 months of the year.” Rawls will discuss his obsessions and play from his stash.
Our special guest vocalist, Debbie Davis, has become a New Orleans music treasure. Whether performing with her husband, the great sousaphonist Matt Perrine, the Mesmerizers or the Pfister Sisters, Davis has been one of the most consistently wonderful voices of New Orleans. Her 2014 Mesmerizers album, “Linger ’til Dawn,” was a critical smash. And of course her holiday release with Matt, “Oh Crap, It’s Christmas!,” is a seasonal favorite. She’ll join Rawls and me to discuss her work and favor us with some of her work.
You can listen on the radio or follow along online at http://whivfm.org. Join us, and help us keep the intelligent discussion going!
Over the past few weeks as we’ve gotten “PopSmart NOLA” off the ground, we’ve focused almost every show on a certain topic, whether it’s challenges facing the transgender community, life for artists and the Affordable Care Act, or how the creative community deals with sexual harassment and assault. But as the holidays approach, we took a little break and had a little fun. On Saturday’s show we welcomed:
Boyfriend, the rap-cabaret artist who needs to hustle over to St. Claude Avenue herself for her “Bounce Around the Block” appearance at the AllWays Lounge.
Writer Michael Tisserand, author of “Krazy: George Herrimen, A Life in Black and White”
Givonna Joseph and Aria Mason of OperaCreole, the amazing opera troupe — dedicated to researching and performing lost or rarely performed music, and sharing with the community the contributions of our people to this musical art form, in New Orleans, and around the world.
The all-female comedy troupe Virginia’s Harem, which performs Dec. 17 at The New Movement on St. Claude Avenue
I was really excited to start off the show by welcoming Michael Tisserand, who’s been writing about New Orleans and Louisiana culture for some 25 years now, including a stint as the editor for Gambit Weekly (where I served under him as A&E Editor from 1998-2005). He literally wrote the book on one of America’s original music forms with “The Kingdom of Zydeco” and wrote the Katrina memoir, “Sugarcane Academy.” Now, after years in the woodshed, he’s come out with another definitive work, “Krazy: George Herriman, A Life in Black and White,” which captures the influence and complexities of the Krazy Kat cartoonist and New Orleans native.
We had Michael place Herriman’s life in perspective — especially as a New Orleans native who left the city as a young age, and his place in America’s pop-culture landscape in maybe the same way we think of such icons as Louis Armstrong.
We were really thrilled to welcome Boyfriend, whose rap cabaret features some fascinating influences — from her time behind the desk and on the stage at Rick’s Cabaret as well as burlesque performances with troupes such as Trixie Minx’s Fleur de Tease, but also rap music that eventually saw her open for New Orleans’ own Big Freedia.
One of the many cool things we discussed was the nature of art and identity and the ongoing debate about burlesque (and stripping) as empowerment.
As noted in their biography, “Opera and classical music in New Orleans and around the world have always included the contributions of persons of color. Since the 19th Century, Creoles of New Orleans have made contributions to the music and culture of New Orleans. It is their participation in opera, as well as the music of Africa, Spain, and Haiti that contributed to the birth of jazz. OperaCreole is a non-profit company that’s dedicated to researching and performing lost or rarely performed music, and sharing with the community the contributions of our people to this musical art form, in New Orleans, and around the world.”
We were honored to welcome the dynamic mother-daughter duo of Givonna Joseph and Aria Mason to discuss how their work makes them something akin to culture detectives, given how much African-American culture has been lost over the years.
I also asked Givonna if there was a particular obscure work they found that they’re hoping to present soon, and loved her answer. (Hint: May!)
SEGMENT NO. 4: VIRGINIA’S HAREM
Our final guests were from the all-female sketch group, Virginia’s Harem, which was formed in early 2015 and is comprised of Erica Goostrey, Alicia Hawkes, Kirsten Macaulay, Lianna Patch, Maggie Ritchie, and Emily Slazer. They met through taking classes at The New Movement-New Orleans, and that is their home base. Their shows are a blend of high-energy sketch comedy and short, low tech videos. Their aesthetic is accidentally 1090s-ish as it is shaped by their lack of technological expertise and an exuberant lack of concern about that lack of expertise. Their collective group personality is kind of like a weird, drunk aunt or Miss Havisham on one of her good days.
We asked the performers present — Erica Goostrey, Alicia Hawkes, Lianna Patch and Emily Slazer — to discuss their upcoming performance on Saturday, Dec. 17, at The New Movement for a “post-apocalyptic holiday romp.” Set in the very near future, “Season’s Greetings From the Bunker” is the holiday special no one asked for but everyone is living: manic, terrifying, and distinctly Trump-laced. Eggnog. Christmas carols. Nuclear fallout. Billy Joel. Santa Claus. Fascism. All of the holiday hits you know and love. Check out their Facebook event page for more info.
Please join us next week for another edition of “PopSmart NOLA” — our special super-sized holiday edition, with special guest co-host and DJ Alex Rawls of My Spilt Milk and an appearance by the one and only Debbie Davis with “Oh Crap, it’s Christmas!” It’s all on WHIV (102.3 FM) — radio dedicated to human rights and social justice. END ALL WARS. You can also listen online at whivfm.org.
Thanks again for listening to “PopSmart NOLA,” and please remember to keep the intelligent conversation going.
For Episode 6 of “PopSmart NOLA” we focused on transgender issues in New Orleans.
Our lineup included:
Wesley Ware,co-founder and and co-director of BreakOUT!, which builds the power of LGBTQ youth most impacted by the criminal justice system to affect concrete policy change to fight the criminalization of LGBTQ youth in New Orleans.
Katy Reckdahl, New Orleans-based journalist who profiled BreakOUT! for the New Orleans Advocate.
New Orleans stage performer Brooklyn Shaffer, who recently transitioned from male to female and returned to the stage after a nearly two-year hiatus to co-star in “Steel Poinsettias” at Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts.
AJay Strong, co-producer of Bella Blue Entertainment, which presents an average of 20 burlesque shows a month around New Orleans, including “The Blue Book Cabaret” at Bourbon Pub and the “Dirty Dime Peepshow” at the AllWays Lounge.
I profiled Shaffer and Strong earlier in the week with my “Trans, Planted” feature.
I also want to remind you that if you like what you’re hearing on this, the radio show version of “PopSmart NOLA” you can “like” us on Facebook. We’re also on Instagram at @popsmartnola, and I’m on Twitter as @dlsnola504.
Please join us next week for another edition of “PopSmart NOLA” on WHIV (102.3 FM) — radio dedicated to human rights and social justice, and the end of all wars. You can also listen online at whivfm.org.
For Episode 4 of “PopSmart NOLA” on WHIV (102.3 FM), which airs Saturday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., we addressed the Affordable Care Act and New Orleans. The nation experienced a seismic political shift a couple weeks ago with the election of businessman Donald Trump, who said, among many, many other things, that he would oversee the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Since his election, on “60 Minutes,” he offered a different take on his position, saying that some parts of the law — requiring insurers to cover people with preexisting medical conditions, allowing children to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26 — might remain intact. But Trump could still eliminate key parts of the ACA, which gave health insurance to 20 million Americans. Supporters are faced with a battle regardless, and their biggest argument might well be that the rising cost of premiums is a fixable problem and not the disaster critics say it is.
The ACA affects New Orleans in at least two distinct and often overlapping ways — the city and state have more than their fare share of residents living at or below the poverty level, as well as many, many culture bearers and creative artists who contribute so much to the community and get paid very little. Health care coverage is everything. Remember, the ACA had been in effect for only a couple years when Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, in January, reversed the Jindal administrations stance and agreed to accept the federal government’s offer to expand Medicaid coverage and thereby helping hundreds of thousands of residents.
So on the show we heard from several people, some in pre-recorded interviews, to offer a diversity of perspectives on how this new world might affect them:
Susan Todd, executive director of 504HealthNet, a collaboration of 22 non-profit and governmental organizations in the Greater New Orleans area that form the primary care and behavioral health safety net. Don Vappie, a beloved figure in the New Orleans jazz community as a musician and educator. Lydia Treats, a circus sideshow performer who also is the mother two children – a teenage girl and pre-teen boy — and who also produces “Covington Cabaret” which returns tonight to the Northshore. Comedians Katie East and Caitlin Broadnick, whose comedy show “Victory for T&A!” tonight at The Theatre St. Claude takes a humorous and revealing look at their respect battles with cancer.
SUSAN TODD To get a brief overview of what’s been happening with the Affordable Care Act, we turn to Susan Todd, executive director of 504HealthNet. She brings a unique blend of expertise in the area of primary care access and strengthening health systems in addition to a passion for community involvement. She has worked with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE). While there, she worked on Medicaid, CHIP, and Marketplace enrollment. I asked Susan Todd to take us from the implementation of the Affordable Care Act back in 2014 and how it has evolved under the John Bel Edwards administration, and where she thinks it might be headed.
Don Vappie
DON VAPPIE Don Vappie is a world-renowned jazz musician and presenter from New Orleans. He leads the Creole Jazz Serenaders, a classic New Orleans jazz orchestra, as well as his various jazz and R&B combos. He has produced and recorded numerous CDs and film sound tracks and is star of the PBS documentary “American Creole: New Orleans Reunion.” Known for his virtuosic banjo skills, Don is a stellar bassist, guitarist and vocalist. Add to that his commitment to the cultural creole music of New Orleans he calls “creole jazz”. As an educator, he has participated, presented and/or performed for programs at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Tulane University, Historic New Orleans Collection, NPR, Smithsonian, Appalachian State University and many more. He currently serves as jazz guitar instructor at Loyola University and is a member of the Loyola Jazz Faculty Combo.CUE: Queen/David Bowie, “Under Pressure”
Lydia Treats
LYDIA TREATS I wanted to get an impression of what it’s like for local performing artists, and so I contacted circus sideshow producer and performer Lydia Treats, who literally ran away with the circus for several months this past year. Among her many talents, Lydia Treats is a sword swallower – perhaps the most popular in the city, and she’s gaining larger audiences with her “Covington Cabaret” show that returns tonight to the Green Room in Covington. I asked her to give me a sense of what it’s like to deal with health care coverage, especially while raising two children as a single mother, and here’s what she had to say.
Katie East & Caitlin Brodnick
KATIE EAST AND CAITLIN BRODNICK We also welcomed a decidedly defiant dynamic duo, New Orleans’ Katie East and New York City’s Caitlin Brodnick. They have decided not to take their respective battles with cancer sitting down. In fact, they have no problem name-checking the sources of their illness in their comedy show “Victory for T&A” tonight at The Theatre at St. Claude. Faced with a history in her family of breast cancer, Brodnick boldly decided to opt for a preventative double mastectomy in her 20s — and even had Glamour document the experience on a web series, “Screw You Cancer.” East has been beset by a range of illnesses and more hardship, including bad surgical experiences and the discovery of cancer in her buttocks — hence the “T&A” of the title. And so she has turned her experiences into what she’s calling a “Coney Island-style freak show.”
Alex Rawls
BONUS CONTENT: ALEX RAWLS I wanted a journalist’s perspective, and spoke with Alex Rawls. Alex Rawls has covered music, art, books and food in New Orleans since 1990. His work has appeared in NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune, The New Orleans Advocate, Gambit and OffBeat, and multiple national outlets. He’s also the creator of the music and culture website My Spilt Milk, so I asked him for his take on the scene as it relates to health care.
BONUS CONTENT: TRIXIE MINX I also interviewed New Orleans burlesque producer and performer Trixie Minx earlier in 2016 to discuss her work with the New Orleans Musicians Clinic. Here’s the podcast.
PLAYLIST: Chris Rock, “Robitussin”
Deluxx Folk Implosion, “I’m Just a Bill”
Don Vappie, “Please Come Home for Christmas”
The Ramones, “I Wanna Be Sedated”
B-52s, “Follow Your Bliss”
Tune in for our next show, next Saturday, Nov. 26, 3-4 p.m. for another edition of “PopSmart NOLA.” We will be discussing, among other topics, sexual harassment and sexual assault issues for local performers.
Also want to remind everyone if you like what you’re hearing you can “like” PopSmart NOLA on Facebook and follow me on Instagram at @popsmartnola and on Twitter at @dlsnola504.
Remember: Keep the intelligent discussion of New Orleans culture going.
The premiere episode of “PopSmart NOLA” on Saturday (Oct. 29) on WHIV (102.3 FM) was a tremendous success as we shared our time with the workers performing excellent renovations on the kitchen!
We welcomed guests James Bartelle and Beau Bratcher — the star and director of The NOLA Project’s “4000 Miles” — and Quinn McCourt from The New Movement’s “Broadcast Delay” and “The Megaphone Show.” You also can listen online at whivfm.org.
My favorite part of the show: Bartelle and Batcher discussing the notions of color-blind and color-conscious casting in theatrical productions as well as the progress New Orleans theater has made in casting for performers of color.
This episode’s playlist:
“Hot Tamale Baby” — Buckwheat Zydeco (RIP)
“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” — Gill Scott-Heron
“Custom Concern” — Modest Mouse
“Creature from the Black Lagoon” — Dave Edmunds
“Cranes in the Sky” — Solange Knowles
“Don’t Go” — Yaz
“Halloween” — Siouxsie & the Banshees
“Halloween” — Dead Kennedys
Please forgive the truncated recording of this show, due to technical difficulties, which lopped off the Dead Kennedys song and these closing thoughts.
That’s our show for this week. Tune in for our next show, next Saturday, Nov. 5, 3-4 p.m. for another edition of “PopSmart NOLA.” We’ll have in, among others, Gary Rucker and A.J. Allegra of Rivertown Theaters’ timely production of the musical, “1776.”
Also want to remind everyone if you like what you’re hearing you can “like” PopSmart NOLA on Facebook and follow me on Instagram at @popsmartnola and on Twitter at @dlsnola504. Keep the smart conversation going.
Please continue tuning into 102.3 WHIV LPFM, New Orleans. We are: community radio dedicated to human rights and social justice, end all wars. Stream us online (if you aren’t already) at whivfm.org.
About a year ago, I launched PopSmart NOLA as a website dedicated to intelligent coverage of New Orleans culture. It might have sounded like a pretentious line at the time but over the past year I at least hope the site has added to the conversation about the arts, culture and entertainment of the Crescent City. The first post was an impression of my first experience with the New Orleans Volunteer Orchestra, the second a review of Cecile Monteyne’s excellent “You Don’t Know the Half of It,” followed by a kooky preview of The NOLA Project’s “Clown Bar,” and then an open question about how to talk to my son about racism in movies.
The feedback has been great, and from time to time it even appears to have started a discussion.
Now, with WHIV’s help, I’d like to make that discussion more literal. On Saturday, I will premiere the radio version of “PopSmart NOLA” as way to bring in and engage the cultural figures of our city to talk about the work they do and help place it in a more focused context with the rest of what’s happening around us. Many of these people will be familiar to lots of listeners, and many will come from my years as an arts journalist at Gambit Weekly (back when it was called Gambit Weekly, my too-brief tenure at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, and subsequent work as a freelance journalist (the New Orleans Advocate, Biz New Orleans and New Orleans magazine, to name a few) – and of course, good old PopSmart NOLA.
To be fair, there’s a lot of good arts journalism being done around New Orleans; it’s just become a bit spread out and around. And it’s a constantly shifting landscape — I found that out the hard way last fall, but even more recently we’ve seen the hiatus of the NOLA Defender, or even the tragic loss of NOLA Vie’s Sharon Litwin. On the positive side, we’ve witnessed the emergence of WWNO’s “Inside the Arts” coverage with Diane Mack, who’s been kind enough to accept my pleas to discuss my work on her show, and both newspapers seem to have adjusted to life after the shakeup of last year. And then there’s NOLA Vie, Alex Rawls’ excellent music site “My Spilt Milk,” and the continued good work being done at OffBeat and Gambit, to name a few.
But yet, there’s still more to cover, and even more to talk about. We’ll start the discussion on Saturday (Oct. 29), from 3 p.m. to p.m. on WHIV-FM (102.3) — community radio dedicated to human rights, social justice, and the end of all wars. Our guests: James Bartelle and Beau Bratcher — the star and director of The NOLA Project’s “4000 Miles” — Jim Fitzmorris (with his latest show, “Things That Go Trump in the Night”) and comedy from The New Movement’s “The Megaphone Show.” You also can listen online at whivfm.org.
The inspiration for “PopSmart NOLA” the radio show are many, and not just the website. There’s also my favorite culture podcast, “The Dinner Party Download,” which structures amazing entertainment coverage around the concept of a party (complete with music, small talk, plenty of food, and a crafty cocktail). I’m also inspired by NPR’s “Pop Culture Happy Hour,” as well as Slate’s “Culture Gabfest” and (perhaps a bit tangentially, Slate’s excellent sports podcast “Hang Up and Listen.” If you see resemblances of these shows in “PopSmart NOLA,” I hope will be in the form of imitation being the sincerest form of flattery.
We’ll have lots of guests, occasional co-hosts, look back at the week in culture, and look ahead to what’s on the horizon. And we’ll have lots of music (live and recorded) — hopefully timed to the performances of the week — and plenty of active engagement with our listeners (especially on social media). On that note, you can like PopSmart NOLA on Facebook, and follow me on Instagram (@popsmartnola) and Twitter (@dlsnola). If you’d like to make a comment or ask questions while the show’s going on, I’ll do my best to answer in real time, but definitely ASAP. I want this to be much, much more than a one-sided conversation. As with all things New Orleans, we know that everyone’s got a story to tell.
I hope to apply some of the lessons learned from previous experiences in radio, which include serving as an arts contributor to WABE, the NPR affiliate in Atlanta, as well as appearances on New Orleans television shows including John McConnell’s “The Spudcast.”
If you’d like to suggest an idea for a show, or come on as a guest, or would like to serve as an underwriter for the show, please email me at dlsnola@gmail.com, and I’ll response in as timely a fashion as possible.
Until then, please listen in, and join us in the discussion.
The premiere episode of “
popsmartnola.com 