Art & Identity in New Orleans

$uicideboy$ is hip hop/ horrorcore  duo group created by Aristos “Ruby da Cherry” Petrou and Scott “Slick Sloth” Arcenaux Jr. The group was created in 2014 and both members were born and raised New Orleans. Members $lick $loth and Ruby da Cherry are actually cousins and grew up  close with each other. Before the duo […]

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The National Leprosarium started in 1894 at the Indian Camp Plantation. The Plantation house had been left in disrepair after the end of the civil war, and the bank had repossessed the title in 1874. When the bank gave it to the state of Louisiana to be used as a Leprosarium, seven lepers within New […]

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One of the many unique cultural staples of New Orleans lies within the fundamentals of their funerals. A jazz funeral is a tradition originally reserved for the important people of a community but has since then become more inclusive. These funerals, unlike traditional American funerals, are full of colors and music. A band (traditionally brass) and […]

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Voodoo-catholicism is another unique part of New Orleans culture. Voodoo is a religion that finds its origins in West Africa and was part of the culture of black slaves that ended up in New Orleans. This religion was originally practiced in secret that served as a way for these people to cling to their culture, […]

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Kate as ‘The Sun’ and Binx as ‘Death’ are the first two I have inked. I took some creative license in both of their designs but Kate is coming along to be one of my favorite cards tied with Edna.

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For my project, I want to create poems about the Raleigh-Durham area and how they impacted my childhood. I would also like to explore themes of growing apart from one’s birthplace and how eventually, children are pushed to leave the nest. For the areas, I’m going to write about them as I remember them initially, […]

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For my final project, I will be writing a short story about a couple planning a dinner date at home. One character, Maria Tran, is a Vietnamese American who was born and raised in New Orleans. The other character, Sasha Scales, is an African American woman who grew up in Southwest Virginia. As they plan […]

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Watching the TV show Treme as a capstone to our studies of New Orleans is a perfect conclusion to our media consumption. The show begins in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and in the very first episode we are exposed to a family returning to their flooded home, the first Second Line parade since the storm, a […]

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After watching the first episode of Treme, it made me think about the actual set-up of the story itself. All of the other stories along with the documentary all follow an event unfolding. Edna falls in love and reconsiders her entire life along with her place in it. Binx has to go through his lady-troubles and […]

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The Television series Treme gives an idea of the types of emotions and events that occurred when residents returned to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  Although this is a fictional drama I think that this is not only an interesting way to view the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina but also an important way to view […]

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Treme casts a light on the lives of New Orleanians following Hurricane Katrina. The characters come off as everyday people who are simply trying to get by and rebuild their lives following the storm. There are even characters whose homes are left absolutely destroyed (such as the older Mardi Gras Indian man) and so they must […]

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My final project will be based upon De Pauger and imagined letters between him and French authorities. These letters will follow throughout his life and will show his projects through his eyes. As De Pauger spent many of his years envisioning New Orleans, I will primarily focus on this time frame. This letter is not […]

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The footage of Hurricane Katrina is particularly disturbing because it comes with a sense of powerlessness. Natural disasters cannot be prevented by brokering or negotiation, not by treaties or conventions. This type of helplessness leads to a particular kind of despair in the aftermath. A lot of the stories made people outside of New Orleans […]

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What started as a card game in 1400s Italy then 380ish years later to be used in divination; Tarot has solidified itself as part of the occult and witchcraft in the modern era. Though like voodoo it is often misportrayed by the modern-day media (I see you movies that make the Death Card out to […]

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Jacques St. Germain arrived in New Orleans in the early 1900s, well-traveled with tons of experience. His lavish lifestyle and extravagant parties were notorious throughout the city. It was said that he often threw fancy feasts, but never partook and preferred to observe his guests. Rumors started to circulate about his alleged relation to Comte […]

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Bellocq’s Ophelia by Natasha Trethewey is a powerful look into how women of the past (and possibly still today) were positioned in a man’s world.  Although these poems take place in the early 1900s and are built around the prostitutes that Bellocq has so carefully photographed, what is most prominent about them is the fact […]

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Identity was a clear theme throughout Bellocq’s Ophelia, within the first poem it paints a picture of the relationship between the Ophelia of Millais’s painting versus the photographed prostitutes of Storyville, New Orleans. The similarities between how they’re viewed, being trapped in a sense, and how they’re more so known for their final pictures. That moment […]

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This book was different from the rest of the works that we have covered in class. The foremost and most obvious trait of this book is that it is a collection of poems about a sex worker. A close second is the fact that this book focuses on a mixed woman of color as the […]

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This book is very different from the other 3 books we have read in many ways. Firstly, it is poems instead of a novel which right aways gives it a different vibe. Secondly, the “characters” are people of class and high status. This is a fact I actually enjoy because I feel we are able […]

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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 […]

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