New Orleanians
The Virtua Mall video game is a neon temple dedicated to community, complete with the cornerstone businesses that brought in stragglers and strollers during the real-world mall boom. There’s a movie theater that plays local music videos. There’s the arcade where you can drop a few quarters and blast aliens. There’s a club that hosts hologram performances. In the game, it seems like a perfect place for cyberpunk mallrats of a cleaner, brighter future to come together.
Zac Maras lovingly paints the animals that surround and inspire him in the Louisiana countryside. His vibrant murals, spreading their way across the walls of New Orleans, heavily feature blue herons, egrets, and roseate spoonbills. Goats, gators, pigs, chickens, frogs, foxes, butterflies, and crawfish leap out in front of geometric backgrounds.
There are no neon lights in the window to catch the attention of passersby, as there are at the neighboring shops. Like something from the Wizarding World, it’s as if a person might only notice the shadowy doorway and peeling gold and silver letters on the glass if they’ve specifically come looking for them.
For close to 20 years, the New Orleans native has been making a name for himself in the comedy world. Now, during the pandemic, he’s still making stand up work and even launched his own clothing line, Now or Never apparel.
Voodoo Queen Kalindah Laveaux, left, and Monogram Hunters 2nd Chief Jeremy Stevenson, center, celebrate the life of Sylvester “Hawk” Francis at the Backstreet Cultural Museum in the Treme Neighborhood of New Orleans, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020, after Francis passed from a long illness. He was 73 years old.
He was wrongly convicted. Instead of choosing to be hateful, the life and legacy of Chief Joe Jenkins is about choosing to love and guarding the flame.
While Hurricane Katrina may have taken many of our childhood photos, 7th Ward Santa was something that was here well before Katrina, and lasted beyond the storm. Unlike second lines or Super Sunday’s, which have become more mainstream (for lack of a better word) since the storm, 7th Ward Santa was something that was always ours.
If you live in New Orleans, you’ve seen Lionel Milton’s work. His moving and powerful art graces many a wall and canvas around the city. He is a man with clarity and purpose.
Since the threat of COVID-19, there won’t be a celebration at the museum for Brooks’ birthday. Instead, the museum is asking people to send birthday cards that’ll be delivered to Mr. Brooks.
Members of the Black Masking Indians community, also known as Carnival or Mardi Gras Indians, remember Big Queen Kim “Cutie” Boutte of the Spirit of the Fi Yi Yi and Mandingo Warriors tribe at Hunter’s Field in the 7th Ward and the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans August 12, 2020.