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MC Truth Universal

Posted on December 18, 2011 by caharris

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MC Truth Universal is proud.
He’s proud because of his music, he’s proud of where he comes from and he’s proud of his message.
The Trinidad-born New Orleanin began making music 11 years ago in New Orleans at a time when life was not easy for a black musician.
“ In the 90’s there were a whole collective of artists doing underground hip-hop. We looked up to those who made it in Source Magazine. I remember wanting to be like them.” Truth said.
The scene may not have been supportive but it was still made for DJ’S.
Truth participated in many DJ and mc battles while discovering his identity here in New Orleans.
“I’ve come to the realization that I’m not going to be played on commercial radio.” Truth Said. “ I look to noncommercial and college radio for spin.”
Truth was on a label for a little while but that did not last.
“It was basically a lot of waiting and empty promises. The label was Guerilla Funk, and for me, an artists whose music embodies social awareness, this was where I needed to be.” Truth said.
While waiting to release an album with Guerilla Funk, Truth recorded an album on his own and released that. He eventually parted ways with Guerilla funk.
Truth’s music is influenced by the actual realities of New Orleans, but his sound does not necessarily reflect that.
“ I like to think that what I do is good, I have strong fan base. Just being from New Orleans people give you some sympathy and admiration for all that you weathered. And gone through. If you like good hip-hop music people are usually receptive.” Truth said.
Truth has performed in the Canada and in Mexico. He’s looking to do more shows outside of the United States .
“I’ve found that outside of the United States, the people are extremely receptive, beyond the language barrier, they could really feel the music and what they could understand, I cant say I’ve seen that in the United States.“ Truth said.
Truth has been working in the New Orleans Music scene for years and has no plans of stopping anytime soon.

Bunny Matthews

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Mr Mauricio Owens

Illustrator Bunny Matthews developed his style during grunt work in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, his time in Jamaica, and through an obsession with the French Quarter, his “world of bohemian enchantment.” Matthews has contributed writing and artwork to The Times Picayune, Offbeat Magazine, and the sides of many Leidenheimer Baking Co. delivery trucks. The self-proclaimed world’s leading anthropologist on Yat culture, he has focused his work on capturing and enlarging personalities of New Orleans, such as his typical Yat-head characters, Vic and Nat’ly. Of his many exhibitions (“Chihuahua: King of New Orleans Dogs” (Scheurich Gallery), “The Art of Bunny Matthews” (Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans), “Bunny Matthews: Art For Heterosexuals” (Space Gallery), “Da Eve O’Destruction” (Vega Tapas Cafe), “Too Many Bunnies” (Arthur Roger 434)), his most recent, ”Black and White” (Arthur Roger Gallery), focused on the lingering racial divides in the city and also played with the oily cloud that hangs over the region following the BP offshore rig spill. Matthews also worked as a music journalist, primarily with Offbeat Magazine.

His “monumental painting,” “Nint’Wardica”, hangs in the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

Nint'Wardica, Bunny Matthews

Sources:

Harkin’s Florist, Matthews’ Gallery

Wiki Bunny

Bunny Ma tthews official site

Vera Warren-Williams

Posted on November 15, 2011 by editors

Veera Warren-Williams, The Community Book Center

Vera Warren-Williams, the Belle of Bayou Road, is the quintessential educator and consummate activist for small businesses and change in the local New Orleans community. She strives to bring solidarity and knowledge to the people of New Orleans through her business, the Community Book Center. The name of her business is not a misnomer; as her website touts, “The Community Book Center is more than a book store.” It is a place for locals to come and share fellowship with neighbors. It provides books on everything from children’s bedtime stories to politics, and it serves as a meeting place for locals to come and share ideas and knowledge, business plans and political action for the advancement of the neighborhood. Her tireless activism led her to be chosen as the first winner of the Toni Cade Bambara Award for Cultural Leadership, which is given by the New Orléans Afrikan Film and Arts Festival Project.

Mrs. Warren-Williams, a native New Orleanian, grew up in a family of educators. Her godmother, who was the principal of an elementary school, filled Warren-Williams’s life with books and instilled in her the love of reading. This love, coupled with her knowledge about her people, helped her to recognize the lack of adequate materials, for and about African Americans, in the New Orleans Public School system where she was a “long-term substitute teacher.” She started bringing books from her personal collection for the children. When the other teachers saw the positive reaction from the children, they wanted to borrow the books to use in their classes. Mrs. Warren-Williams remembered sage advice from her mother—“never a borrower or a lender be,” so instead of loaning the books to the teachers, she started a small book service that provided books to the teachers and ultimately the African American community; thus a business was born. She started this business with $300 from her personal savings.

She visited local book fairs with her books, put a rack up in local bookstores, and sold books from her parent’s living room in the Lower 9th ward before setting up shop on Ursulines Avenue in Treme. She would move once more before settling on Bayou Road in Esplanade Ridge. From its humble beginnings to its final destination, Community Book Center was run more like a community service center than a money-making venture. The bottom line was not necessarily profits, but providing a service.

Mrs. Vera Warren-Williams tries to get people in the community to open businesses in the area to help spur the economy and make African Americans a viable force that can effect change in the community. She also encourages Black-on-Black profit sharing by extolling the benefits to the community when New Orleanians buy local and buy from black retailers. If The small businesses in the community can unite, they will effect a positive change that can span generations. “When spider webs unite,” Warren-Williams says, “they can tie up a lion.” Many small, African-American owned businesses banding together can effect a positive change in the community. It breeds pride and unity which extends outward and touches everyone. Warren-Williams does not mind if this starts with her This drive to spur local business ventures, to bring African-Americans together, and to encourage community service led Warren-Williams to be nominated for the Toni Cade Bambara Award.
She extends her love of helping others and building pride through community service by being the Board Chair of the Hope for Haitian Children Foundation (HFHCF). She collects supplies and donations for the children and people of Haiti. She is making a difference not just in New Orleans but in Haiti as well.

A world traveler, Warren-Williams believes that learning about our own culture as well as other cultures destroys ignorance. Knowledge breeds respect, and self-respect is necessary for any advancement in the community. A tireless activist, Mrs. Warren-Williams also enjoys spending time with her son, Ali, and her husband Dr. Garry Williams.

Though her goal is for her store to be self-sufficient, having its success measured not in dollars and cents but by lives touched is pretty good—for now.

http://download.agefotostock.com/fotos/bajaage/cached/2777/BIS-BLM006951.jpg

http://www.myneworleans.com/FMvera.gif

http://blog.nola.com/books_impact/2009/06/medium_VERAWILLIAMS.JPG

http://www.myneworleans.com/New-Orleans-Magazine/July-2010/Top-Female-Achievers/index.php?cparticle=2&siarticle=1

http://www.nola.com/books/index.ssf/2009/07/shelf_life_vera_warren_william.html

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/mar/29/nation/na-mba29

http://www.allbusiness.com/retail/retailers-book-music-hobby-storesstores/11464286-1.html

http://blackentrepreneurshalloffame.blogspot.com/2005/09/vera-warren-williams-owner-of.html

http://www.hopeforhaitianchildrenfoundation.org/whoweare.htm

http://neworleansafrikanfilmfest.org/toni-cade.php

http://www.cornerstonesproject.org/cornerstones_registry_cbc.html

http://docs.newsbank.com/s/InfoWeb/aggdocs/NewsBank/11AB77B136D70060/0E0867F69DD4264B2A

Trixie Minx

Posted on October 25, 2011 by sat

With a twenty-two inch waist and a D-cup that was meant to shake, Miss Trixie Minx was born to do burlesque, but this wasn’t always what she thought her destiny would be. Before she was known as Trixie Minx, Alexis Garber was a ballet dancer with a Jewish background from Miami. “As a little girl, I had a very clear path in my head. Go to school, graduate and become a ballerina. That’s all I wanted to do. But then I broke my foot and I had an eating disorder, so it was a big mess.” She was on the way to becoming a professional dancer in New York City when her accident happened, and that put a halt to her career as a ballet dancer.

Life had other things in store for Trixie. While she and her husband stayed in New Orleans to decide what to do next, Trixie became involved with the vibrant performing art scene that the city thrives on. She went in a different direction than ballet, however, focusing more on ethnic folk dance. This opened her up to alternative dance forms. “During that time, my husband had met a burlesque dancer and I had worked with burlesque dancers on other projects. He kept telling me that I needed to get into this, but I kept resisting…one of the girls I was working with at that time, who had also come from a professional dance background, told me that the problem was that I had only seen bad burlesque. She told me how fun and liberating it was.” This piqued Trixie’s curiosity, but before she could perform, Hurricane Katrina hit the city before she did, and Trixie had to re-evaluate her situation yet again.

“Katrina really lit a fire under my butt and I decided to stop putting it off and to go for it. Once I got back to the city after the hurricane, I tried burlesque again with a group called Bustout Burlesque and I was resistant all the way up to going on stage at Tipitina’s. But once I put that right foot out there, that was it for me.” Trixie was hooked. Working briefly with another troupe as well, the Storyville Starlets, Trixie realized just how much this profession resonated with herself. In a bold move, Trixie decided to form her own troupe, the now infamous Fleur De Tease, a troupe known for their variety show which features fire-eaters, magicians, contortionists, and actors as well as the burlesque beauties who writhe and dance on stage. Trixie Minx with her Fleur De Tease Troupe

But this isn’t the only show the Minx produces; Trixie entertains audiences every Friday night at the Royal Sonesta hotel on Bourbon Street with a more traditional burlesque show. In a collaboration with Irvin Mayfield, Trixie’s Burlesque Ballroom at his Jazz Playhouse came about in an attempt to bring class back to Bourbon. Hearkening back to the days when burlesque reigned supreme and Bourbon was full of glamorous clubs instead of seedy strip-joints and daiquiri bars, the Burlesque Ballroom is a welcome homage to that golden age.

Trixie performs with the New Orleans Bingo! Show as well, an interactive theatrical cabaret that has forged a tie with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, touring with them throughout the country. This partnership is an odd one, for the two could not be more dissimilar. Blurring the boundaries between comedy and horror, the New Orleans Bingo! Show is a unique, multimedia experience that is a blend of the beautiful and the macabre, “…who remind you that every stage door opens into a dark alley.”

Trixie has also performed around the world, awing audiences in such faraway places as Switzerland and Australia. Her shows are infamous for their sassy humor, and having toured with Comic Relief it comes as no surprise that she has been awarded HEEB top 100 for outstanding comedy. She is also a proud member of the Krewe du Jieux.

A recent resurgence in burlesque that began in the mid 1990’s has proven opportune for Trixie’s profession. To the question of whether burlesque is art, the Minx replies, “Yes. We’re there to create something, to create a feeling in the audience, whether it be comedy or passion or just something cute.” And indeed, anyone who has witnessed any of the shows that Trixie performs in can assert to the validity of her statement. When asked when she will quit, Trixie has said, “I’m not sure. I think in my heart I will always be involved in some way, but I think I’ll give a graceful exit when it’s time.” Let’s hope that time is for many years to come.

Sources:

http://blog.nola.com/chrisrose/2007/12/60_second_interview_trixie_min.html

http://www.intheknowla.com/localism/local-artists/1282-artist-spotlight-trixie-minx-of-fleur-de-tease.html

http://offbeat.com/2011/07/01/the-gravy-in-the-kitchen-with-trixie-minx/

http://www.trixieminx.com/TrixieMinx/Home.html

http://www.jazzascona.ch/index.php/Interviste-11/double-interview-with-trixie-minx-and-bernice-harley.html

http://heebmagazine.com/gratuitous-jewess-trixie-minx/4933

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Ben Jaffe

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Justen Cheney

Ben Jaffe of Preservation Hall photo by: Clint Maedgen

Expectations can be high when you’re born into something; Ben Jaffe, of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, should know this about as good as any. Born in 1971 to Sandra and Allan Jaffe, co-founders of Preservation Hall, Ben has lived a life submerged in the tradition of New Orleans jazz.

Being constantly surrounded by musicians since birth makes an arbitrary task out of dating Jaffe’s first intimate experience with an instrument, but his first formal endeavor as a musician came at age 7, when Jaffe joined the McDonogh 15 school band as a bass player. Much of Jaffe’s lasting inspiration for playing music developed during this period of his life with the help of his band director, the late sousaphonist, bassist, and educator Walter Payton. Shortly after the passing of Mr. Payton in 2010, Jaffe alluded to the immense influence that the legendary bassist had in his life, admitting that “he had a lasting impact on me. He instilled in me a respect for music.” [1]

The seeds planted by Ben’s parents, Walter Payton, and the surrounding members of the Preservation Hall Jazz band soon flourished as Jaffe continued his education as a musician. Jaffe spent his high school years at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), where he would later become a teacher, and then went onto Oberlin Conservatory College to achieve his undergraduate degree. Jaffe anxiously cemented his career as a musician the day after graduating from Oberlin when he stepped onto a plane bound for Paris, where he joined the rest of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, currently on a world tour, as their primary bassist.

The ensuing ten years of Jaffe’s life served as an intermediate period; these were the careless glory days (if there ever were any) of his musical career. During this time Jaffe maintained the position of the Preservation Hall’s primary bassist. Gradually however, Jaffe began to address the power vacuum left at the Preservation Hall since his father’s death in 1987. The survival of the Preservation Hall as a legendary music institution became an unavoidable issue when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August of 2005.

At this point, Jaffe ironically surrendered his position as Preservation Hall’s touring bassist to his longtime mentor Walter Payton, and assumed a position as the Hall’s primary preservationist, working tirelessly to see the Hall thrive once again after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Jaffe’s efforts to do just this were spearheaded by the New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund (NOMRF), an organization that seeks to help New Orleans musicians in need of help.

The work done by Ben Jaffe for Preservation Hall has undoubtedly surpassed even the high expectations inadvertently set before him at a young age. Now Jaffe, currently 40 years young, is doing more than ever to make sure that this legendary music hall, which seeks to preserve the tradition of New Orleans jazz music, receives some of the preserving necessary for its survival.

Today, Jaffe assumes the position of Creative Director at Preservation Hall, where he still plays the tuba, banjo, and upright bass. Jaffe has collaborated with countless world class musicians, the latest being with the Louisville, Kentucky band My Morning Jacket. In a documentary directed by Danny Clinch, entitled Louisiana Fairytale, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band shares a spotlight with Jim James and My Morning Jacket.

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2010/10/walter_payton_longtime_new_orl.html

http://newvinegrowing.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/preservation-hall-ben-jaffe/

http://www.preservationhall.com/band/roster/ben_jaffe.aspx

http://thethread.dukeperformances.duke.edu/2010/10/interview-preservation-hall-jazz-bands-ben-jaffe/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1833872/

http://offbeat.com/2010/10/29/ben-jaffe-remembers-walter-payton/

Wild Cherry

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Madeline

Burlesque legend Cherry Labrech was born and raised in a carnival, she began working at an early age, making change and working the concessions. Her family lived on the carnival circuit, her grandfather working as the head electrician and her grandmother and mother worked the concessions. By seventeen, she became a performer in a side show portraying the Wild Woman from Borneo. By the age of eighteen, after her mother and grandfather had both passed away, she married for a brief stint. From there she transferred to the girlie shows and began performing at nightclubs in Tampa. Having been educated on the carnival circuit and with no formal schooling, she started working as a dancer. Having tried her hand at waitressing, she was often let go for not smiling enough. Dancing was the best option for her to earn a living. She later moved to New Orleans, enticed by the thrill of the Big Easy. She would later remark, “being young, that was what I wanted. I wanted something that was action all the time, going on all the time.”

She started performing under the name “Torchy” on Bourbon street in 1958, at the Mardi Gras Lounge owned by Sid Davilla. She loved jazz, often dancing freestyle jazz dance rountines, but she skipped the cute, bouncy dances of her fellow dancers and developed an exotic look and oriental dance, bordering on an afro-cuban influence. From “Torchy,” she became “Wild Cherry” due to her aggressive perchance for fighting with customers she was forced to interact with as a method of B-drinking. This attitude—which one club owner told her meant she “wasn’t hungry enough for the money”—had her bouncing from one club to the next. She performed at such venues as Pete Herman’s, the Blue Angel, the Gunga Den, the 500 Club, Poodle’s Patio, the Sho Bar, and the Old French Opera House.

Known for her argumentative wild streak, she was often causing fights and stirring up trouble after hours, but she stayed out of trouble with the girls she worked with. Her feisty attitude also kept her out trouble with abuse from managers. She joined the Variety Guild of American Artists early in her career as a way of maintaining proper wages. Although she lived in New Orleans and considered it her home, she traveled around the United States constantly, even working in Mexico at one point. She quit dancing at the age of forty-five and retired to the suburbs with her family. She is an active performer with Bustout Burlesque, making special appearance at shows and even performing. At her 2011 performance, she was anything but modest, even though she did not strip, delivering a comedy routine about how a French girl drives a car.

Her video interview at Bustout Burlesque with Lola Van Ella:

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhuMHVyufTA']

She can also be seen briefly in a video documenting herself, Kitty West (Evangeline the Oyster Queen), and Linda Brigette at Tease-O-Rama in 2001:

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a98BpZa9KKg']

Sources:

http://www.eccentricneworleans.com/cherry.htm

http://pincurlmag.com/wild-cherry

http://www.nola.com/nolavie/index.ssf/2011/09/time_traveling_with_the_art_of.html

Alex McMurray

Posted on October 22, 2011 by kellerfisher

New Jersey born, Alex McMurray, came to New Orleans to attend Tulane University and shop his musical talents around the city. His decision to come to New Orleans was his rebirth and his undoing. By coming to the “Big Easy” he solidified his place amongst the other struggling musical artists of the city. This forever changed his career, sending him down a path that he will continue to walk to this day. His musical style and lyrics, along with his guttural tone, comparable to Tom Waits, embodies the atmosphere of the cracked streets, dark bars, and decrepit houses of New Orleans.

Living in the 9th Ward, Alex plays shows around the city and can be found frequenting his favorite bars. There have been many deterrents from this path such as: dish washing, record deals, moving to New York or Japan, and even a mysterious lung aliment. Yet none of these could keep him away from doing what he loved. Amazingly, what he loves is playing music in New Orleans, which Alex says, “is the only music town of its kind,” and “suffering the slings and arrows but endeavoring to come up smiling on Monday” is the philosophy that he maintains, keeping his head above the “flood water.” This is an attitude that any artist must have in order to maintain a joyful existence in any local market, nonetheless the city of New Orleans, which has a huge local music scene. The fact that Alex not only does this everyday, but writes about it and expresses it in his music, shows his deep connection to the musical roots of New Orleans along with the fan base and artists who make it up.

He has been with many bands including: Vince Behrman Trio, Joyful Gospel Singers, Tin Men, 007, the Happy Talk Band, Schatzy, the Geraniums, and the most well known Royal Fingerbowl. After a less than lustrous few years with the band, and a tenure for six months in 2001 playing sea-chanties at Disney World in Japan. Alex went solo, producing his first album Banjaxed in 2003. In 2004 he moved with his wife to New York where he played all over the Northeast, but occasionally returned to New Orleans to play for his adopted hometown. In 2006, he returned to the city for good after hurricane Katrina in order to join the effort to rebuild by contributing with his music. Contributing to the cultural economy of New Orleans is nothing new for Alex McMurray as he has played in the New Orleans Jazz Fest every year since 1996. His latest album, titled How To Be a Cannonball, was released in 2009 and features tracks like “Youve Got to be Crazy to Live in this Town” centered around life in New Orleans and my favorite “The Ballad of Capn Sandy“. He recently appeared in the the HBO series filmed in and about New Orleans, Treme. For a list of all of Alex’s works created throughout his career, click here.

External Links:

http://www.alexmcmurray.com

http://www.facebook.com/alexmcmurrayinfo?sk=info

http://www.threadheadrecords.com/2008/10/01/alex-mcmurray-cannonball-project/

http://artsneworleans.org/events_framed/for_artist/2054

http://blog.nola.com/keithspera/2008/11/royal_fingerbowl_reunites_for.html

http://www.myspace.com/007rocksteady

http://www.gonola.com/2011/01/31/celebrity-crushworthy-alex-mcmurray.html

John O’Neal

Posted on October 21, 2011 by mosands

John O’Neal’s career bloomed during the civil rights era, when he and his theater group, the Free Southern Theater, were on the cutting edge of a controversial movement that today seems inconceivable it is so engrained in our daily lives. After nearly 50 years, he reached the end of his trail when he retired from his post as the artistic director of Junebug Productions.

O’Neal was born on September 25^th, 1940 in Mound City Illinois. His career as an activist and an actor began upon his graduation from Southern Illinois University in 1962 which led right into a position as the Field Secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating committee in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1963 he and Gilbert Moses began a drama workshop at Tougaloo College in hopes of addressing the artistic needs of the African American community of the South. This movement quickly developed into the Free Southern Theater, a “theater for those who have no theater.”

With the Free Southern Theater, O’Neal traveled throughout rural Mississippi and Louisiana performing plays that supported and spread the message of the civil rights movement, to those who had previously had little exposure to theater or equal rights movements. In exchange, the civil rights movement provided support in the form of donations and audiences. According to O’Neal, the first donation they received was a $15 check from Langston Hughes. In pursuit of a more consistent audience, the group moved to New Orleans in 1965, a bigger town with a bigger black middle class.

The troupe continued to perform plays which promoted black nationalism and community engagement, sometimes adapting well known plays for their own purposes, sometimes performing plays written by well known black playwrights, and sometimes putting on plays written by John O’Neal. Among the plays he has written are Hurricane Season; Where is the Blood of Your Fathers; When the Opportunity Scratches, Itch It; and a cycle of plays featuring Junebug Jabbo Jones. Junebug Jabbo Jones was featured in the final work of the Free Southern Theater, in a one man play performed by John O’Neal. Jones is an old storyteller and witness to the inequalities of the old and new South, his voice spoke to those whose story was still largely untold. Junebug Jabbo Jones followed the civil rights theater movement and John O’Neal through the end of the Free Southern Theater in 1980 and its evolution into Junebug Productions that same year. His was the last story told by the Free Southern Theater, and the first by Junebug Productions.

John O’Neal founded Junebug Productions and became the artistic director continuing the mission of the Free Southern Theater, with a new name and new cast. John O’Neal was in charge of selection of the pieces performed by the company and continued to choose works that helped to support and encourage the development of performing arts among the Southern African American community. He also initiated the collaboration for the Color Line Project, which was meant to document and present the stories of the civil rights movement with the help of Junebug Productions. John O’Neal remained the artistic director of Junebug Productions until his retirement in 2011. His 48 year career as an activist and dramatist resulted in resulted in numerous awards and recognitions including the Louisiana Artist’s Fellowship in Theater, a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation, and an award and grant from the Ford Foundation. His career also yielded two major production companies that play crucial roles in the past and present of the African American theater movement.

Sources:

http://academics.hamilton.edu/organizations/kirkland/oneal.html

http://www.crmvet.org/info/fst1.htm

http://junebugproductions.blogspot.com/

http://www.knowla.org/entry.php?rec=664

http://www.leadershipforchange.org/awardees/awardee.php3?ID=52

http://www.thepeoplesayproject.org/john-oneals-junebug-productions/

http://www.thepeoplesayproject.org/the-people-say-1-3-theatre-andrew-vaught-john-oneal/

http://vimeo.com/10272265

Ayo Y. Scott

Posted on October 21, 2011 by AmandaJ25

A 30-year old New Orleans native, Ayo Y. Scott is an artist who allows his work to speak for itself. Not driven by fame or fortune, Scott provides an outlook on the world which creates a window of opportunity not just for himself, but for others. “I think my success will be measured by the number of people I can inspire to do what they want to do” Scott said. Creativity and spontaneity have allowed Scott to expand his talent from visual art work to wearable art work.

Being the son of a brilliant artist, the late John T. Scott, helped Scott develop and understand the importance of dedication and a strong work ethic. “Whenever my father, artist John T. Scott, was told thank you, he never said, ‘You’re welcome’. He would say, ‘Pass it on.’ Pay it forward is the principle idea. If you want to pay me back, then do something for someone else” Scott said. This same idea provided Scott the opportunity to begin screen printing t-shirts later expanding to a internationally known clothing line.

Scott graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana in ’03 where his father also graduated and returned later as a professor of art. While attending the university as a student, Scott asked his father to teach him the skill of screen printing, the late John T. Scott taught his son how to make his own screen printing equipment. Scott made a small investment of $140 dollars with three other classmates with the intention of printing and selling their own t-shirts. After one semester of sales on campus the investment grew to a profit of $1500 dollars. This gave Scott the faith to launch his own clothing line.

UNEO, Unlike Any Other, was a term coined by Scott and his fellow classmates, in 2000 Scott developed UNEO into his first clothing line. UNEO stemmed from the groups realization of their uniqueness, this unique dynamic reached beyond the realm of Xavier’s campus. They recognized they wanted to be a part of something bigger than themselves. UNEO was the beginning of Scott’s dream, a dream to create and to inspire wearable art. Scott applied the skill of screen printing to UNEO later applying the skill to the beginning stages of Scott’s most recent endeavor and clothing line, NOYO designs.

In 2006 the year following Katrina, Scott resigned from his graduate program in Chicago to return home. He believed his return home was necessary to assist in the rebuilding of New Orleans. “I love the way beauty happens [naturally] at times and I try to include that into my art work” Scott said. The beauty of New Orleans that seemingly washed away in Katrina was the same beauty Scott was able to recreate through establishing NOYO designs. The idea and principle behind NOYO designs was to encourage self realization, to know one’s roots. The clothing line has since expanded from the home grown screen printing process to small scale mass production. NOYO designs has captured the attention and admiration of fans and media domestically and abroad. The beauty Scott finds in everyday life is expressed not only through his visual art work but also through his wearable art work.

Scott’s most recent visual art exhibit, Hue Orleans, was showcased at the McKenna Museum of African American Art located in New Orleans. Through the lens of afrofuturism this exhibit featured classic New Orleans sites and happenings with a psychedelic twist. Scott’s previous exhibit, In Light Of Shadows, was also showcased in 2008 at the McKenna Museum of African American Art. Scott is currently living in New Orleans working on the expansion of the NOYO designs brand. NOYO is currently being sold online at NOYODesigns.com and also in stores at Feet First Shoes located on Magazine St. “I believe in my talents, I believe in my faith in God that I’m going to be ok and that I’m doing what im supposed to do” Scott said. The success Scott has gained he attributes to the support and love from family and friends while his popularity and notoriety continue to grow nationally. The passion to inspire others is what continues to fuel the artistic genius inside Scott.

www.noyodesigns.com
www.ayoscott.com
www.uneo4ever.com

http://www.intheknowla.com/events/festivals-a-events/2125-624-hue-orleans-a-scotts-eye-view.html

http://www.thepeoplesayproject.org/review-of-the-people-say-project-event-2-ayo-scott-and-bunny-matthews/

http://newswirehouston.com/2011/06/15/ayo-scott-to-present-hue-orleans-at-mckenna-museum/

http://neworleansartexpo.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=29

Anne Gisleson

Posted on October 21, 2011 by speedblink

Anne Gisleson is a native Louisianan writer, editor, poet, and teacher. Receiving her BA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and her MFA from Louisiana State University, Gisleson has been published in such places as The Believer, The New Orleans Review, and Oxford American in addition to having her work included in such anthologies as Best American Non-Required Reading. She has also participated in residencies at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and the New York Institute for Writers, and been the recipient of Louisiana Division of the Arts grants and a Surdna Arts Teacher’s Fellowship. She currently serves as chair of the creative writing program at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), where she teaches.

In the summer of 2005, along with her husband, Brad Benischek, sister, Susan Gisleson, and other creative talents, Gisleson first envisioned the book project that would come to be known as Intersection/New Orleans. The book featured a pairing of 25 writers and artists in blind collaboration about 25 different street intersections throughout the city. However, it evolved into a project of greater importance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina because of its unintentional before-and-after comparison. Intersection saw completion in 2006 as the first publication of the newly-formed non-profit organization Press Street, of which Gisleson is the board president and co-founder.

Since its inception, the mission of Press Street has been to promote visual and literary arts within the community. In 2008, Press Street acquired the Antenna gallery space through which it hosts community events such as the annual 24 hour Draw-A-Thon and regular art house film screenings. Since Intersection, Press Street has gone on to publish five additional works, including Gisleson’s collaboration in 2010 with Tristian Thompson and Catherine Burke entitled How to Rebuild a City: a Field Guide from a Work in Progress.

Gisleson worked with Loyola University’s Walker Percy Center to teach a course on the personal essay in the fall season of 2010. More recently, she collaborated with Michel Varisco and Bradley Sumrall to create a collection of photographs and essays about the endangered Louisiana wetlands entitled Shifting, which is set to be published in 2012. Currently, she is working on a novel about two couples facing the disaster of Hurricane Betsy.

Links:

http://press-street.com/about/

http://www.nocca.com/index.php/directory/profile/anne_gisleson/

http://pelicanbomb.com/home/post/116

http://noladefender.com/content/intersection-five-years-later

http://www.maxliterary.org/clients.htm#Gisleson1

http://believermag.com/issues/201009/?read=article_gisleson

Brandan Odums

Posted on October 18, 2011 by krphillp

Brandan Odums, the 24 year old New Orleans native, has dedicated himself to improving the lives of his community by taking on issues such as teen pregnancy, high school dropouts, and unemployment. (dosomething.org) “Odums is the founder and director of 2-Cent Entertainment LLC, a mentor, award-winning filmmaker, artist and innovator. His work is built on the idea of change and using visual art forms to do so.” (linkedin.com) Odums, also known as BMike, “started 2-Cent in early 2005 as a medium for young people to express their opinions on a variety of topics, including violence, racial profiling and politics.” (bestofneworleans.com) In 2005, Odums was working at a local television station and was “struck by the one-dimensional nature of community driven programming.” (huffingtonpost.com) So with the backing of local musicians and artists, Odums started a socially conscious group of his peers to make documentary-styled skits to bring light to relevant issues in New Orleans. (bestofneworleans.com) “Using his video camera as a weapon for positive change, Odums and his 2-Cent crew have made their presence known throughout the city, giving presentations at various schools, organizing antiviolence initiatives and, most recently, hosting a “Change We Can Create” summer camp.” (bestofneworleans.com) Brandan Odums says that 2-Cent is “Sesame Street for grown-ups.” (huffingtonpost.com) “Equipped with social consciousness, music as the backdrop, and the cold hard facts, they [the 2-Cent crew] have gained a loyal following, and won coveted awards, including an FYI 2008 NAACP award, and FYI Silverdocs: AFI Discovery Channel Documentary Film Festival Award for documentary filmmaking excellence.” (2-cent.com)

Along with being President of 2-Cent, Odums is also currently Senior Editor for NOATV/FOX8. (linkedin.com) Then in May 2010, he was recognized by Louisiana Congressman Joseph Cao for outstanding community service and leadership. Odums was also a winner for the Patois Film Fest in April 2009.

Below is a list of links to Brandan Odums’s work and related material:

http://2-cent.com/create_change/

http://www.youtube.com/bmodums

http://www.linkedin.com/in/brandanodums

https://www.facebook.com/brandan.odums?sk=info

http://twitter.com/#!/2cent_bmike

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Sources:

http://2-cent.com/create_change/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/brandanodums

http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/meet-do-something-awards-finalist-brandan-odums

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/40-under-40/Content?oid=1256485

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/17/huffposts-greatest-person_18_n_809861.html

Glen Pitre “Father of the Cajun Film”

Posted on October 18, 2011 by margaretlise

Glen Pitre , born November 10, 1955, is a film director and screen writer from Cut Off, Louisiana. Pitre attended Harvard and worked as a shrimper each summer to pay for his schooling. He has written nine films over the last twenty-six years. His first film titled Belizaire the Cajun was first shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986.

At the young age of twenty five Pitre gained the nickname “father of the Cajun film” by American film magazine. This was due to his low-budget and local dialect costume dramas breaking house records in bayou country cinemas. Belizaire the Cajun became Pitre’s first English-language production with the help of the Sundance Institute.

Since this accomplishment, ”Pitre’s works in a variety of media, frequently in collaboration with wife Michelle Benoit, have earned him numerous awards, grants and honors, including a knighthood from France. In 2003, film critic Roger Ebert acclaimed Pitre a legendary American regional director.” (imdb.com) To this day Pitre continues to produce movies with his wife. Together they run Cote Blanche Productions. The company centers it productions on documentaries and films concentrated in the Lousiana area.

Trailer for Belizaire the Cajun:

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT GLEN PITRE:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0685789/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Pitre

http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20091106/ENTERTAINMENT/911069927?Title=Cajun-filmmaker-carves-out-career-on-the-bayou

http://coteblanche.com/glen-pitre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belizaire_the_Cajun

http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/910/year/1986.html

George Porter Jr.

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Dominic Traina

Porter on stage with the Runnin' Pardners

A local legend in his own right, not to mention the legendary bands and musician with whom he has performed, George Porter Jr gives a new meaning to the term working artist. Since the 60′s, Porter has been gracing the city of New Orleans with his bass guitar to the tune of favorites like Looka Py-Py and Hey Pocky Way, but it’s his collaborations and countless project bands that over a four-decades long career have given him a reputation as one of the elite performers within the jazz universe. Porter shows no time of letting up off the gas anytime soon; he still tours with the world renown Funky Meter of which Art Neville and himself are founding members and is leading his own band, a project known as the Runnin’ Pardners, which released its most recent album at the beginning of October this year.

Beginnings

Porter was born the day after Christmas 1947 in New Orleans, LA and continues to call this city his home; although he finds himself away from his native town touring with various groups such as the Funky Meters, 7 Walkers, or Runnin’ Pardners to name a few, his musical roots began in the Big Easy. He first hit the scene as a teenager performing in the French Quarter; shortly after he joined Allen Toussaint’s studio band providing background for many of the studio’s recordings. Later, the band evolved into The Meters, world renown for its influences on the American funk musical genre; the group has played special performances for John McCartney and has even opened for the Rolling Stones’ tours in 1975 and ’76. After the group disbanded in the late 70′s, Porter continued to collaborate with artist from around the world such as Jimmy Buffett, David Byrne, Patti LaBelle, Dr. John, Bill Kreutzmann, and Warren Haynes gaining a reputation as a well sought session musician.

Continuing the Career

Most recently, The Meters performed at the annual Voodoo Festival, the first since their last appearence at the 2006 Voodoo Festival; needless to say, Porter shows no sign of retiring from his fabled career. In addition to The Meter’s performance, Porter is scheduled to play with the Runnin’ Pardners throughout the remainder of the year in locations all over the country from Colorado to New York City. For a man of his age, he still possesses the same spirit and vivacious attitude of his youth when he first began playing for clubs in the Quarter. In a way he has the ability to inspire the young, up-and-coming musicians with whom he performs as well as those in the crowd looking for their shot on stage. It’s been said time and time again, “you’re only as old as you feel;” in the case of George Porter Jr, age is nothing but a number seemingly moving in the oppisite direction.

Click here for George Porter Jr. official website.

Click here for an article from nola.com discussing recent and upcoming events.

Follow this link for an interview featured on talkbass.com

An interview conducted in 2008 from badassbassplayers.com.

Link to 7 Walkers homepage.

Funky Meter’s Homepage.

Click here for various George Porter Jr. recordings.

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