First Draft - Arts and Entertainment

April 28, 2021
By Sarah Duggan, DAGS coordinator and research curator

Since 2011, graduate students and other emerging museum professionals have spent their summers traveling throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama cataloging historic objects made or used in the region before 1865. These are some of the highlights.




April 23, 2021
By Fatima Shaik, author of "Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood"

Untold thousands have gathered under the Economy Hall tent at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to hear traditional local music, but how many have known the history behind the name? 




April 19, 2021
By Dhani Adomaitis, Libby Neidenbach, and Douane Waples

In four videos, we chart the evolution if New Orleans brass bands from their Civil War–era origins up to the modern day.




April 6, 2021
By Margit Longbrake, senior editor

In a series of new videos, New Orleans poets craft 21st-century responses to 19th-century poems.




February 24, 2021
By Eric Seiferth, curator/historian

After the Civil War, benevolent associations flourished in New Orleans's Black community, and so did their impact on life in the city.




February 9, 2021
By Melissa Carrier, Eli A. Haddow, and Keely Merritt

COVID-19 may have canceled parades for 2021, but it couldn't erase Mardi Gras entirely. Creativity flourished around the Crescent City in the form of a new tradition: house floats.




December 11, 2020
By Dave Walker, communication specialist

We spoke with Lance Nichols, whose role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, launched his acting career in major Hollywood films.




October 14, 2020
Margit Longbrake, senior editor

Amid the American Civil War, a new civil rights movement was forming in New Orleans—in French.




September 18, 2020
By Dhani Adomaitis, Madeline Drace, Michelle Harrison, and Cecilia Hock

For years, cinephiles have lamented a lack of originality coming out of Hollywood studios. However, there’s no shortage of stories waiting to be told onscreen, and that’s where we can be of use to studio bosses.




September 18, 2020
By Dave Walker, communication specialist

To help us celebrate one of the triumphs of recent Hollywood South creativity, Benh Zeitlin—who directed, co-wrote, and co-scored Beasts of the Southern Wild—answered a few of our questions.






 

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