For some reason Thanksgiving in New Orleans tends to center around the Fairgrounds Racetrack. All morning, folks dressed in costume, moth-eaten jackets and crushed big hats, suspenders, and wacky headpieces wander through my neighborhood, from backyard brunch to buffets, clutching large mimosas or Bloody Marys. They filter through the neighborhood in singles, pairs, and groups, […]

Last evening I attended a forum that was part art show, part info session, part history lesson, and a final part eye-opening. Beneath the Womb, hosted by the oldest pharmacy in North America, now a French Quarter museum, is the first event in a month long series of events exploring the history of female practitioners, […]

Altarpieces inspire awe, reverence, wonder, and depending on your religious convictions- either fear, or serenity. Taylor Lee Shepherd’s P3+ installation entitled Space Rites makes excellent use of the St. Maurice’s Church in the Lower 9th by inspiring all of the above. The church, gutted and bare of most ornamentation, pews, pulpit, and other trappings of […]

Minnesota-native Lindsay Rhyner usually spends several months in New Orleans sifting through Criagslist free piles, trash cans, and abandoned buildings for discarded Mardi Gras costumes, fabrics, clothing, and other objects that she quilts into intricate large scale tapestries. I first saw Lindsay’s work at a cafe in Minneapolis, and two of those older pieces were […]