Birdfoot festival 2018. (Photo by: Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee)
Wednesday, May 29/Southern Food and Beverage Museum (1504 Oretha Castle Haley): If you are a women who is looking to start up your career in food or hospitality, then you will want to know about the Dames Connect – a casual bimonthly meetup aimed to inform and assist women in New Orleans who are interested in pursuing various fields in the culinary and hospitality industries. The first Dames Connect, “How to Break into Food Writing,” will take place on Wednesday from 5:30 PM until 7:00 PM at SoFAB. Local writers and Dames Beth D’Addono, Stephanie Carter and Rebecca Friedman will be offering advice and helpful hints to aspiring culinary writers. Be on the lookout for more events coming up.
Wednesday, May 29/Art Klub (1941 Arts Street): Art Klub is putting on “Heavy Metal – Sculpture Exhibit.” No only can your eyes gander at the metals that twinkle and gleam, but they also have weekly music performances every Wednesday in May. For this Wednesday, you will get to experience the work of Stoo Odom and Tristan Gianola on guitar and bass; Clyde Casey on percussion; and Shannon Stewart will have a special dance performance. The event begins at 6:00 PM, there is a $10 contribution requested for the performing artists and NOTA. You can find out full details on their event page.
Wednesday, May 29/Sidney’s Saloon (1200 St. Bernard Avenue): Do you find trivia horrifying? As in, would you like to show all your knowledge about horror movies through trivia? Even though that’s a specific request, we deal in specificities sometimes. Shotgun Cinema is hosting “Trashed Panda Trivia.” This is their way to get you ready for Overlook Film Festival–New Orleans’s 4-day celebration of all things horror–with questions about horror movies, horrible movies, and generally scary enough things to keep you up at night. This week’s prizes include tickets to Overlook events, goodies from Shotgun Cinema, and, of course, drinking money. For full information on the event, you can check out their event page.
Thursday, May 30-June 1/Bars and venues all around the city: It is time to take flight with some chamber music beneath your wings. We’re, of course, talking about the eighth annual Birdfoot Festival. During this year’s Birdfoot Festival, internationally recognized artists will perform a series of concerts and related events exploring a range of music, from the 1600s to the present. This will include Nothing but the Truth, a concert exploring the complex subjects of identity, experience, and truth; Let there by Night, which will be a concert where part of it is performed completely in the dark; and many more delicious treats for your ears. For a full rundown of the concerts, you can check out Birdfoot’s website.
Saturday, June 1/Lafitte Greenway (498 N. Dorgenois Street): You can join Getupnridenola, Broad Community Connections, and Dashing Bicycles for New Orleans’ biggest meet-up and bike ride of the year. The meet-up for this bike ride begins at 4:00 PM with free live music, food trucks, and local vendors along the Lafitte Greenway. The ride will begin at dusk (8:00 PM) and will be an easy, social paced 6 to 10 mile ride that begins and ends at the Lafitte Greenway. To find out more details on the ride, you can check out their even page here.
Saturday, June 1/The Historic New Orleans Collection (533 Royal Street): The Historic New Orleans Collection is reprising its popular Portage Bike Roll. As a component of the upcoming exhibition Art of the City: Postmodern to Post-Katrina, the Portage Roll is a bike tour that can be taken with or without a guide and will reach outside of the gallery walls to bring participants face to face with the art, architecture, and history of the city. Featuring stops at St. Augustine Church in Tremé, The Wave of the World sculpture in City Park, Bayou St. John, and more, the Portage Roll intertwines these landmarks of New Orleans’s diverse communities into a single, idiosyncratic urban landscape. The roll starts at 10:00 AM, and it runs throughout the month. For more details, you can check out their event page here.
Sunday, June 2/Le Petit Théâtre Du Vieux Carré (616 St. Peter Street): The Overlook Film Festival is coming to town, and you can join in a free community screening and panel discussion on a documentary that traces the history of Black Americans in Hollywood within the horror genre. Hear from Jordan Peele (Get Out), Tony Todd (Candyman), Rachel True (The Craft), Keith David (The Thing) and many more about representation in horror genre from the beginning of cinema to today. It all begins at 2:45 PM, and you can find out full details on their event page.
Upturn Arts: Fostering community through art in NOLA
Art can be a very empowering form of expression for youth through fostering confidence and creativity. In this article, authors Cassidy Brock, Delilah Lerner, and Liam Glenn dive into how Upturn Arts, an arts education organization, does just that for New Orleans youth. The authors interview Upturn program director Dr. Samuel Rosenstein to delve deeper into the impact of art and community.
Environmental initiatives in NOLA: The Green Project — Eliminating landfill through creative reuse
The Green Project is an environmental nonprofit promoting practices of creative reuse and sustainability. It encourages the creative minds of New Orleans to excel both as artists and as environmental advocates. Writers Jo Walsh, Taylor Golshan, and Maddie SanMarco explore the experiences of The Green Project's Program Coordinator and Environmental Outreach Leader, Erin Genrich, and the many ways individuals can participate with this inspiring organization.
