Art & Identity in New Orleans

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy is interestingly named as the novel itself has less to do with an avid film enthusiast and more to do with a man who is fixated on finding the meaning of life.  Jack “Binx” Bolling, also known as the moviegoer, is a stock and bond broker in 1950s New Orleans […]

Read Full Post »

When we are introduced to the main character Binx at the beginning of The Moviegoer, Binx’s character is a complex one but passive as well. From the beginning, Binx has a passive nature of observing things in the world around him. Binx is directionless and his treatment of women is less stan stellar. “Linda becomes […]

Read Full Post »

The book The Moviegoer follows the story of Binx who is unhappy and bored with his life. Binx is a young man who is going on a “search” to find some way to escape the feeling of “everydayness” of life. He doesn’t quite know how to start this search or what exactly he is searching for […]

Read Full Post »

The Moviegoer has a narrator that is passive. He only observes the things going on around him and reflecting on those things. To me, I think this passivity and apathy towards the everyday shows that he only floats about the world never fully interacting or communicating with it. “Lonnie grins at me with the liveliest […]

Read Full Post »

When it came to reading The Moviegoer, I can safely say that I struggled.  I had initially read it once, but then went back and skimmed through it again when we spent more time on A Streetcar Named Desire than originally planned.  Both times, I really struggled reading through this book, and after Tuesday’s class, […]

Read Full Post »

While I think an opinion on a book or piece of art can change with time spent thinking on it, I definitely think that first impressions really have an effect on how people view something or someone for a long time. That being said, our discussion in class about the differences between The Awakening, A Streetcar Named […]

Read Full Post »

A comment often echoed around the subject of the Ursulines and their prominence in New Orleans is that they “have been there as long as the city has.” Arriving just seven years after the city was founded, this sentiment is nearly correct. For most of New Orleans’ history, the Ursuline Sisters have been there. When […]

Read Full Post »

Congo Square is a popular place of interest in New Orleans. Today, it is a part of Louis Armstrong Park, where it is often a venue for many events. However, the earth that the Square was built upon has witnessed centuries worth of history. From the joyful celebrations of life to the darkest tragedies and […]

Read Full Post »

For me, the most interesting thing about voodoo is now the misconceptions of the craft.  There were so many different aspects of voodoo that were completely different than what I had originally thought before starting my research, but at the same time, certain ideas stayed the same.  However, to an even further extent, I was somewhat […]

Read Full Post »

[posted on behalf of a student] Fried dough is a treat that has been enjoyed since ancient times. Our first known instance was in Ancient Rome with Scrublita, which is made of moist dough that was dipped into boiling animal fat. The fried dough known as beignets comes from the French. Beignet is a French […]

Read Full Post »

The celebration of the Mardi Gras tradition has an interesting beginning as it originated from the French settlers of New Orleans.  African Americans were banned from partaking in the French settlers’ Mardi Gras Krewes to which they responded by making their own celebration for Fat Tuesday called “The Carnival”.  From the start of the celebration […]

Read Full Post »

I found this movie very intriguing. It explored jazz in the context of funerals and death in New Orleans. What I thought was one of the most interesting parts of the movie was when the older generations of jazz were commenting on the younger generations playing jazz. They lamented the loss of traditions and dirges […]

Read Full Post »

New Orleans is known for being a melting pot of cultures from all across the world. The group that this particular project focused on was the immigrants from Latin America. Unlike a lot of cities and states where the Latinx demographic is dominated by a single group or two, New Orleans’s Latinx population is ENORMOUSLY […]

Read Full Post »

If an individual wanted to indulge oneself with a countess in New Orleans they would reference the Blue Book. It was a circulated directory that advertised a diverse selection of madames and their workers. During the Storyville period in New Orleans, Louisiana, Lulu White, the self-proclaimed Queen of Demi-Monde, was described as: “Nowhere in this […]

Read Full Post »

During the years of 1918 to 1919 the city of New Orleans was terrorized by a serial killer called the Axeman. The Axeman was known for breaking into houses late at night and attacking people while they slept often using weapons that were already in the house, this weapon was more often than not an […]

Read Full Post »

The “Cities of the Dead” or otherwise known as, New Orleans Cemeteries. The cemeteries became nicknamed “The cities of the dead” because they resemble small villages of the dead. It is said that this keeps the dead alive. The cemeteries have mausoleums and tombs, but no actual graves. Part of what New Orleans is known […]

Read Full Post »

St. Louis Cathedral, perhaps one of the most recognizable landmarks in the French Quarter and in New Orleans itself. One of the oldest churches in Louisiana, first established in 1727. Before that date, many other churches were built on the site. 1727 was the first time an official and semi-permanent building was built on the […]

Read Full Post »

The story went that Charlie and his brother Harry, originally named Abraham and Isadore Sapio, moved to New Orleans from New York and opened up the 101 Ranch Cabaret. They ended up selling 101 to a man named Billy Phillips who changed the name to 102 Ranch. The Parkers then proceeded to open up a […]

Read Full Post »

Throughout the play, Blanche uses ideas of sexuality and beauty to try to escape the inevitability of death and in trying to escape it, the themes haunt her throughout. It appears that she believes loss of beauty through age is directly correlated to her desirability especially that of men younger than her. Yet she attributes […]

Read Full Post »

Despite their initial sucess, Jewish people faced social isolation throughout the time of New Orleans. However, despite their banning from social settings and general isolation, Many Jews focused on putting their funds back into the community. Multiple wealthy New Orleans Jews have founded many important things in the city. Felix Dreyfous created City Park, Isaac Delgado […]

Read Full Post »