I didn’t think I could do it. I didn’t think I could read yet another book about Hurricane Katrina. There’s only so much pain a tender heart can take, and dipping back and back into the well of nightmare memories is enough to make even the toughest-hided reporter into a mass of quivering jelly.
With the anniversary of The Storm coming up on Saturday, Aug. 29, I knew we would be inundated, once again, with Katrina memorabilia. I thought I could just look the other way. But Josh Neufeld proved me wrong. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge graphically depicts the forboding before the storm, the exodus, devastation and agony afterward. But somehow, Neufeld makes it new. New, as in graphic novel.
Yes, a graphic novel is a comic book, but no, it’s not at the same time. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge is a serious work of non-fiction, following the stories of seven characters as they find their way through the tumultuous times after the flooding of the Crescent City. First published as an online project at Smith, the format allowed for audio and video interviews and a message board, allowing Neufeld to interact with readers as he was designing the book. Just out in print, it's a fascinating take on the flooding of New Orleans. The printed version, published by Pantheon, went on sale last week, and can be found at local bookstores or online.
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
At Thursday's State of the Economy luncheon, LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux said PXP has already quietly hired 180 people for its Broussard expansion.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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