2026 Lafcadio Hearn Festival in New Orleans
Category: Uncategorized Page 1 of 2
We get exactly one healthy dose of voodoo every year in New Orleans at 5am on Mardi Gras day when Voodoo Queen Kalindah Laveaux comes out of her Treme bungalow and leads a procession of priestesses through the streets of the 6th Ward.
It’s eerie, macabre and joyful.
This weekend, at events scattered across New Orleans, International Vodou Day will be celebrated in this northernmost outpost of the Caribbean. We are most excited to see Queen Nqwamary Janiqwa Nganga pour libations at the slave marker near the US Mint in the French Quarter.
During the dark days of US slavery, within a one-block radius of this marker, you would find roughly a dozen slave-trading firms operated out of bank-like offices, luxury showrooms, and private pens. Their business? Selling their fellow man into slavery.
Expect Queen Nqwamary Janiqwa Nganga to offer serious wisdom on these matters.
Luzianne Coffee and Tea advertisement. July 1911
And it’s due to the efforts of an 18th century French botanist and a Louisiana entrepreneur who built a beverage empire in the first half of the 20th century that ice tea is the common language of southerners across the United States.
Cowboy’s 5th Annual Treme Gumbo Pop Up
It’s a family bar and this is a family affair. If you bring Lil Ray Ray nobody’s gonna say one word.
It’s our annual daytime party. We start ladling out big hot bowls of Cajun gumbo at 1pm and finish up when we drain the kettle.
I hired DJ Seprock to spin a nice long set of vintage 45 vinyl. Old school, two turntables and fat slabs of New Orleans Mardi Gras wax.
Sunday February 15th, 2026
1pm
Little People’s Place
1226 Barracks St.
New Orleans
Add to your calendar right here
16th Anniversary Scrumptious Chef New Orleans Gumbo Party at Tamale House East in Austin
It’s hard to believe it’s been 16 years since we started throwing big gumbo parties in Austin. But here we are. What started as small backyard gatherings in the French Place neighborhood slowly turned into big affairs at Tamale House East on 6th st.
What a wonderful ride it’s been. Thanks for supporting us over the years.
Sunday January 18th 2026
16th Anniversary Scrumptious Chef New Orleans Gumbo Party
Tamale House East
1707 e. 6th st
Austin, Texas
78702
5:30pm cocktail party
6:30pm dinner
William Frantz Elementary. 3811 North Galvez Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, 70117
“Their words written down are dirty, carefully and selectedly filthy. But there was something far worse here than dirt, a kind of frightening witches’ Sabbath. Here was no spontaneous cry of anger, of insane rage.
Perhaps that is what made me sick with weary nausea. Here was no principle good or bad, no direction. These blowzy women, with their little hats and their clippings, hungered for attention. They wanted to be admired. They simpered in happy, almost innocent triumph when they were applauded. Theirs was the demented cruelty of egocentric children, and somehow this made their insensate beastliness much more heart-breaking. These were not mothers, or even women. They were crazy actors playing to a crazy audience.”
Swans Down Flour. May 31st, 1886.
When I tell the story of a brand with a history as long and vivid as Swans Down flour the tale must begin with the people behind it, and just as importantly the development of the marque.
Swans Down branding leans on imagery of softness and purity: swan down evokes feathers, lightness, delicacy—qualities desirable in cake baking.
2025 Krewe De Boo Halloween Parade
I had resigned myself to missing the 2025 edition of the Krewe de Boo Halloween parade as New Orleans was socked in with the first rain storm we’d had since August. Then, as life on the Gulf of Mexico often does, the clouds parted and the city was bathed in sweet sunshine. Time to motor up to the French Quarter for one of our town’s best parties of the years. This is what I saw
American Association of Meat Processors, American Cured Meat Championships
A total of 76 meat companies submitted 873 products across 30 different classes at the American Cured Meat Championships [est. 1949]
I’ve been in the cured and smoked meat game since the late ’80s. I am a charcutier but in no way on these gentlemen’s level. Give me another 20 years of practice.
This shootout is the Superbowl if you’re in the meat scene or meat adjacent.
Strick’s Specialty Meats in nearby Hattiesburg took home two Grand Championships. Otherwise the old south that we love was blanked out.
Here are the winners:
Mexican Green Spaghetti party at Tamale House East in Austin, Texas
2025 marks Tamale House restaurant’s 67th summer serving Tex Mex to friends and neighbors in Austin, Texas.
Saturday June 14th, 2025 at 7pm the East Austin mainstay rolls out their brand new menu item: Green Spaghetti aka Espagueti verde.
All of the regular menu items like Texas-sized tamales, “best in the the city” fish tacos, chile con queso and frozen margaritas will be on offer as well.
Look forward to seeing y’all.