Why do Plessy School students take weekly walking field trips?
⚜️Because instead of reading about the Louisiana Purchase from a book, we can walk to the room (Cabildo) where it happened.
⚜️Because the science behind why yeast, flour, and water rise is easier to understand if you are eating beignets (Cafe du Monde).
⚜️Because learning to spell M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I is memorable if you are sitting in front of it (Mississippi River).
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On Thursday, February 1, 2018, Woodlands Conservancy will host a celebration of 17 years of the nonprofit land trust organization’s work to Save Our Sponge, the 800 plus acres of bottomland hardwood forest serving as a protective stormwater and wind barrier for the Greater New Orleans area.
The Patron Party begins at 6 p.m. with gourmet appetizers and spirits while listening to music by Harry Hardin’s Jazz Quartet and perusing an array of Silent Auction items. Patron Party admission includes VIP seating at the Save Our Sponge Concert and complimentary cocktails throughout the evening.
Doors open at 7 p.m. for guests arriving for the Save Our Sponge Concert. The SOS Concert begins at 7:30 p.m. with Tom McDermott on the Steinway Grand Piano in the Concert Hall followed by Lost Bayou Ramblers.
Proceeds benefit Woodlands Conservancy, a nonprofit, 501 (c) (3) land trust organization
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Plessy teachers in the lower grades need our help to instill a love of reading in students and to improve their literacy skills.
Classes: First and Second Grades
Days: M Tu W Th
Between 8-8:45 for reading with 1 or 2 children using the green bags to build a love of reading (volunteers for this time would need to go through a short training on their first day on how to use the bags)
Between 8:45-10:15 to support with the independent reading center during literacy block. Volunteers will support by being available for children to read to them and support them with building strong reading habits (i.e. point with finger, sounding out words, etc.)
PLEASE CONSIDER A REGULAR DAY AND TIME FOR A RECURRING VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY. The program works best if students develop a relationship with the person reading with them. That being said, of course, any help is appreciated!
–YOU WILL NEED TO COMPLETE A BACKGROUND CHECK TO PARTICIPATE, which can be done at 715 S. Broad Avenue–
For more information, contact Christina Kiel (christina.kiel@gmail.com).
Location: Plessy School, 721 St. Philip Street
To sign up:
While it is true that Carnival always begins on January 6th aka Three Kings Day, aka The Epiphany (as befits its Catholic underpinnings) always kicked off by a citywide king cake frenzy and the Phunny Phorty Phellows‘ streetcar ride, the real Carnival spirit in the city begins once there are parades every weekend which for 2018, means today.
There are parades in the ‘burbs today but more importantly, it also marks the most elaborate walking parade held during Carnival, known as Krewe du Vieux. This parade is important for more than its mostly French Quarter route, it is also the most anticipated because of its skill in skewering the pompous, the inept, and the famous fallen alike.
The theme this year is Bienville’s Wet Dream which is a nod to the 300th anniversary of the city but also to the floods of the summer of 2017 which uncovered the fact that the city had never bothered to repair most of its generators that ran the Sewerage and Water’s pumps, and inexplicably had working generators and pumps offline during the tropical summer, swamping the city on 2 separate occasions. If outsiders want to know why we view our government with such cynicism here, it may be best explained by the fact that some of the pumps were not activated during those rain events because as the SWB later blithely explained those sites (near the lake!) required on site operators to turn them and – and those operators could not get there in the flood.
I swear.
We should expect the recent downfall of Chef John Besh to be a major theme, and the new mayor who had a bit of a government credit card issue, as well as the departing mayor who seems to have lost interest in repairing current infrastructure and instead wants to spend his final months in office spending millions for a security state with cameras everywhere and a new Disneyfied Bourbon Street.
I swear.
2018 route
This parade grew out of the Krewe of Clones which paraded in the 1970s and 1980s. Like many krewes, there was a disagreement as to the style and tone that members wanted and so Krewe du Vieux was formed when some decided that success lay with the most debased, most ridiculous, and the most profane version.
It is also known for the profusion of brass bands that they hire:
They became truly de rigueur in 2006 with their parade less than 6 months after Katrina and its C’est Levee theme that was impressively hilarious and pointedly mocking of the government that had failed us so completely. I still have throws from that year as do many of my friends and neighbors. From their 2006 release:
Lifes a breach, and sometimes you just gotta go with the contraflow. So pop a cold one (pop a looter too if you have to), torch the nearest mound of trash and roast some weenies, and pretend that convoy of National Guard hummers rolling by is just another parade.
For 2018, its king is Rich Campanella, Tulane geographer, historian and obsessive researcher of the accurate history of our 300 years. His list of books is extensive, his articles are constant and on top of that, he is a nice guy always interested in hearing an opinion or a factoid on the physical space of our colony. Here is King Rich’s piece on the history of the route that he will lord over this evening.
Come out on his appropriately wet parade evening to honor him and the motley who take over our streets at 6:30 p.m. tonight.
…when they move from the 500 block of St. Philip to the 500 block of Bienville next week.
I am so glad they are moving to the Bienville location and not closing or moving out of our neighborhood… I’ll miss that smell of garlic on St. Phil and I think the museum should be shamed at their eviction of one of the best neighbors in the lower Quarter but Irene and son will do great in the new location too.
I’ll see you there. Story here.
Tomorrow the Maid of Orleans celebrates her 606th birthday. In the old quarter, a group of dedicated volunteers will stage one of the most beautiful parades of the year in her honor for the 10th year in a row. And directly after, fireworks will celebrate the 300th year since our city’s founding.
There may be no better way to understand the deep determination of people here to remain – and to not just to remain but to live with ease together and to honor the history we safeguard – than the Carnival season. This one, held during our tricentennial, should be especially exciting.
In many ways, the best and worst of what we represent is on display during these weeks every year: the DIY creativity, the peaceful takeover of public space (described best by writer CW Cannon in his New Orleans Manifesto), the informal conviviality among all groups gathered on a parade route. But also note the divide between rich and poor and people of color and white people: gauge the city’s interest in litter control or infrastructure repair between the worlds of St. Charles versus Claiborne, or check out the cordoned off areas for the politically connected on the grandstands in front of Gallier Hall for the big parades. Cannon points out “the social purpose of the Uptown route parading tradition was to standardize, control and express who the bosses of the city were in a striking visual spectacle.” If you doubt it, note where the Rex, Proteus or Comus flags on homes are all located, the debutante photos (and same names) on the news sites, the pic of the middle-aged man who will be Rex in 2018 and his 20-something “Queen.”
(And don’t forget the groups of mostly young white men who illegally camp out days before a few unnamed parades in order to to be upfront and able to push others aside to get plastic beads and children’s toys and get pukey-drunk on the neutral ground.)
Even so, the season offers something good for every New Orleanian old and new, permanent or temporary. For most, it is a season of deep sociability and a slew of political or cultural indicators of the current mood sent by the people to their elected officials.
As a Quarterite, I tend to stay here to celebrate the season, venturing more often downtown than Uptown. One reason is that the city stopped allowing float parades in the Quarter in the 1970s and after some years of inactivity, the walking parade has taken over on our streets with a great deal of style. Joan of Arc’s parade- although not directly a Carnival parade as it would roll on her day no matter when it was-is the perfect way to begin the downtown season. With its handmade costumes and candlelight, it offers a humorous, educational, moving set of tableaus dedicated to one of the saints that New Orleans considers theirs.
I remember the first one in 2008 where I met it in the Square and then again at “Joanie on a Pony,” the golden statue now found on Decatur , where the parade ends and a few dozen bystanders shared king cake with the cold and wet but jubilant masquers who had pulled off their first parade.
What is significant about that date is that it was in the depths of the rebuilding of our city after the federal levee breaks and was about the time that the initial joy at returning had worn off and the long slog ahead to recover became quite evident. I was living in a FEMA trailer in MidCity and upon returning back to it and my still-empty street after the parade, found myself smiling at the memory of what I had just witnessed and enjoying the slice of king cake shared by its krewe.
Because it honors our connection with France, celebrates a plucky teenager who heard voices and decided to follow them and resist, uses a route that shows off the Quarter beautifully, is generous with its throws, truly offers tableaus, and is made up of diehard and joyous New Orleanians, the January 6th Joan or Arc parade is royalty among parades in my book.
French Quarter block by block 
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