Category Archives: festivals

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TWLF tip #4-


For those know-it-all locals, you might have noticed that #3 and #4 of my TWLF picks are two panels moderated by the fabulous Diana Pinckley and John Pope, respectively. The couple is the coolest literary couple in the city and although I don’t necessarily associate moderation with either of them, I know they can host the heck out of any get together. Check these panels out just because they don’t handle boring very well so will do their best to achieve the opposite effect.

10:00 AM-11:15 AM
The Right to Write: Blacklisting and Its Repercussions

The blacklist ruined dozens of careers during its heyday from the late 1940s until the early 1960s. Panelists will put blacklisting in a historic context, discuss the impact on its victims, and identify some of its lingering effects.

Panelists: Michael Bernstein, Lou Dubose, and Victor Navasky
Moderator: John Pope

Location: Hotel Monteleone, Queen Anne Ballroom
Ticket Code(s): AllAccessPass, LitPanelPass, StudentPanPass, Sr/TeachPanPass, DayPanelPassSat
Ticket Type(s): All Access Pass, Literary Panel Pass, Student Panel Pass, Teacher/Senior Citizen Literary Panel Pass, One Day Festival Panel Pass, Single Panel Ticket (only available on site)
Price: $10 (Single Ticket Event: only available on site), or included in All Access Pass ($500), Festival Panel Pass ($75), or Day Panel Pass ($30)

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TWLF tip #3

Bet You Can’t Read Just One: Mysteries for Fun

There are so many mystery novels, so little time. These four writers, all from very different genres, give us a privileged glimpse into their craft. Ace Atkins’ prime territory has been the South in his hard-boiled novels, though now he is also taking on Robert Parker’s Spenser franchise. Barbara Hambly has created the evocative world of the Free People of Color in her Benjamin January series. Greg Herren’s novels are exuberant portraits of gay life in New Orleans, and C.S. Harris brings her historian’s training to bear on exquisitely crafted mysteries set in Regency England.

Panelists: Ace Atkins, Barbara Hambly, C.S Harris, and Greg Herren.
Moderator: Diana Pinckley.

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TWLF tip #2

For a few dollars, you can enter for many chances to win their 2012 Festival library (worth over $2,000).
There are also some great runner-up prizes.
The Grand Prize includes:
Over 50 prize-winning books by Festival authors including signed copies by the likes of Ace Atkins, NPR’s Amy Dickinson, Zachary Lazar, John Mariani, National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward, and many others!
A subscription to Louisiana Cultural Vistas
DVDs of New Orleans Food Memories and Win Riley’s Walker Percy
CDs of American Routes with Nick Spitzer: Songs and Stories from the Road and Our New Orleans 2005: A Benefit Album

For a chance to win these prizes, buy a raffle ticket ($5) or three ($10).

During the Festival: at the Info Desk onsite at the Hotel Monteleone.

If you can’t make it to the Festival, buy your tickets ONLINE. You don’t have to be present to win but be sure to buy your raffle tickets online before the end of Sunday March 25, 2012.
Price: 3 tickets for $10 ($8 plus $2 ticketing fee). You must purchase a minimum of 3 tickets online.
Ticket code: 3RaffleTickets
Buy Tickets

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Time for Tennessee

As I wait for the heat and humidity to return (yes I do like them), I also wait for the return at least one fair and two festivals: The New Orleans Bookfair, the French Quarter Festival (sorry JazzFest, you’ve lost my complete loyalty when you went past 50 bucks a day and invited Bon Jovi) and The Tennessee Williams Festival. Interestingly, the festivals fall within a few weeks of each other (TWLF at the end of March, and FQF in mid April) and both are held in the Quarter. (Well whaddya know?)
TWLF is a glorious few days of panels, plays and tours (and mint juleps, don’t forget the mint juleps) all held within the French Quarter of course. The date coincides with the birth date of TW, and the entire event ends on Sunday with a round of happy birthday to Tom. The schedule is usually packed with Southern authors, playwrights, editors and publishers, Tennessee Williams scholars and yes, even a few pompous, idle seersucker-wearin’ Southerners who truly believe they make the event when they arrive and pointedly stand in the lobby or at the front of the room in full sight and earshot of everyone. They do throw some historical perspective on class in New Orleans, so even they are a welcome sight. Sure.
It’s not all about TW, but it remains rooted in the context of his New Orleans and the Southern literary sensibility, which, in my mind, makes it very special and dynamic.
The TWLF event that most people know is the Stella contest, held on Jackson Square on Sunday afternoon with that year’s chosen Stella on the balcony auditioning her Stanleys shouting for her below. So make a point to listen in to Stanley and Stella especially cuz its free, but as literary festivals go this one is world-class and deserves more of your attention. Check out the schedule and I’ll save you a seat:

TWLF

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Tennessee On Sale


Since the New Orleans heat isn’t ending anytime soon, we’re extending our Summer Ticket Special.

Book your VIP All-Access Pass by September 16 to enjoy our special rate of $395. That’s a savings of more than $100 off the regular price of $500! The All-Access Pass is your VIP ticket to all the weekend’s panels, master classes, and theatrical events. Plus, you’ll be invited to exclusive non-ticketed soirees, where you’ll mingle with the Festival’s literati over cocktails.

While we’re on the subject of future planning, we recommend booking your Festival accommodation now. Special rate rooms at our host hotel, the Hotel Monteleone, are filling up fast. Book now to receive the discounted room rate of $179 a night available for March 21 through March 25, 2012.

TWLF

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Southern Decadence is here.

The Labor Day weekend is the time to escape from most cities, heading to crowded beaches or gnat-filled cabins. In New Orleans, we will instead have costumes and parading with all of the attached pageantry, courtesy of our rainbow people. Since the early 1970s, this event has been on calendars of the chosen fey, and since the explosion of the gay rights movement in the 1980s, it has become one of the most anticipated gay community series of events for any New Orleanian. From the history page:

And so it was, on a sultry August afternoon in 1972, that this band of friends decided to plan an amusement. According to author James T. Spears, writing in Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones: Queering Space in the Stonewall South, this “motley crew of outcasts” began Southern Decadence as a going away party for a friend named Michael Evers, and to shut up a new “Belle Reve” tenant (from New York) who kept complaining about the New Orleans heat. As a riff on the “Belle Reve” theme, the group named the event a “Southern Decadence Party: Come As Your Favorite Southern Decadent,” requiring all participants to dress in costume as their favorite “decadent Southern” character. According to Spears, “The party began late that Sunday afternoon, with the expectation that the next day (Labor Day) would allow for recovery. Forty or fifty people drank, smoked, and carried on near the big fig tree … even though Maureen (the New Yorker) still complained about the heat.”

Schedule

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Traffic warnings over weekend

The following traffic restrictions are associated with this year’s Essence Music Festival and Fourth of July celebration. The Essence Music Festival is scheduled for July 1, 2011 through July 3, 2011.

Beginning on July 1st, there will be an increased police presence in the Downtown area, French Quarter, Central Business District, and other areas where large crowds gather. Officers will be patrolling on foot, on scooters, on segways and the Mounted Unit will also patrol during this holiday weekend.

Beginning Friday, July 1, 2011 through Sunday, July 3, 2011, from 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., vehicular traffic will be restricted in the following areas:
North Rampart Street
to Decatur/North Peters Street to Dumaine Street to Canal Street.
In the event of heavy pedestrian and/or vehicular traffic,
Canal Street may be partially restricted. Additionally, vehicular traffic will not be allowed to cross Bourbon Street from Canal Street to Dumaine Street.
Persons with specific destinations such as residents, hotel guests and employees will be afforded to opportunity to pass through the check points to their destinations, but there will be no traffic allowed to cross
Bourbon Street once it is closed.
On July 4th, a fireworks display is scheduled for 9:00 p.m., on the Mississippi River . There will be an increased police presence along
North Peters Street/Decatur Street from Canal Street to. Esplanade Avenue. Once the flow of pedestrian traffic becomes too heavy, vehicular traffic will be curtailed in that area.
It is strongly suggested that individuals planning on traveling to the Downtown and French Quarter area consider utilizing carpools, taxicabs or public transportation. Motorists should also pay very close attention to parking signage as illegally parked vehicles will be ticketed and towed. As a reminder, it is illegal in New Orleans to ignite fireworks or discharge firearms. Violators will be subject to arrest. Citizens should also utilize a designated driver if consuming alcohol.