New Orleans music has a whole breath of life in it. It’s music for the mind, body, and soul. — Donald Harrison, Jr.

Here is a remarkable collection of portraits by Christopher Porché West of New Orleanians who masquerade as Mardi Gras Indians.

Olivia’s post led me to this fascinating discussion of Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans’ painting Creole in A Red Headdress (c.1840). Amans travelled from his native France to New Orleans to find work as a portraiturist, and he was quite successful. As … Continue reading →

The Bayou Sauvage Wildlife Refuge is on the Eastern side of New Orleans. Not only is it home to many different types of wildlife, which I will talk about more below, but it is also home to many different habitats. … Continue reading →

  Screen Capture from How To Make Lemonade that depicts paintings of free women of color in tignons   Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas makes it a point very early on to highlight the unique ways in which the city and … Continue reading →

Many people have watched the popular TV series American Horror Story. Each season has a different theme and an abundance of characters based on real people. During the show’s third season, American Horror Story Coven, the story takes place in … Continue reading →

What many people don’t know about New Orleans, including myself, is that there is a Native American tribe (numerous actually) that are in the city right now, and they have been there for centuries. In an essay written by Monique … Continue reading →

The Irish Channel is deceptive. While its name suggests a majority Irish population, it is actually home to a large African American community. In its early days, however, this was not the case. Back then, the community living in the Irish … Continue reading →

As the trade and population in New Orleans began to increase, the need for healthcare in the city increased as well. The diversity of the population beginning to settle in the city made it so that practitioners of various backgrounds who … Continue reading →

There is a common myth told about 19th-century New Orleans. It goes something like this: Imagine you’re in an elegant dance hall in New Orleans in the early 1800s. Looking around, you see a large group of white men and free women of … Continue reading →

Congo Square, located in New Orleans within Louis Armstrong Park in Tremé, is a cultural landmark known for its deeply rooted significance to African- American and New Orleans culture. The square first came to be widely known during the 1800s … Continue reading →

Due to my strong interest in Wicca and eclectic witchcraft, I found the popularity of Voodoo in New Orleans fascinating. Voodoo queens such as Marie Laveau used skills such as clairvoyance and healing to do her spiritual work.  Something I … Continue reading →

There are 17 wards within New Orleans. Originally, these wards were created for political reasons. But while they have been replaced by council districts, the wards still hold a lot of meaning for neighborhood identity within the city.   When researching the wards in … Continue reading →

  One of the first things that comes to my mind when I think of New Orleans is Mardi Gras. I think of the purple, gold, and green that are shown everywhere. I think of the food and the parades. Mardi … Continue reading →

Different cultures have various means to honor the dead and lay their bodies to rest. In Bali, dead bodies are disposed of through fire burials; in Egypt, bodies are disposed of in tombs; and in many Western cultures, the deceased … Continue reading →

This is one of my favorite Degas paintings — a portrait of his brother Achille’s wife René, who was nearly blind, that Degas painted while visiting New Orleans. The work hangs in the National Gallery of Art. “Posture, gesture, accessories, and … Continue reading →

Edgar Degas is known for his dancers. His stark imagery of young ballerinas in motion and at rest made him famous. Because he was a native Frenchman, one might think that he would have no connection to the American city of … Continue reading →