Posts tagged ‘Louisiana’
Basile Mardi Gras Association 2014
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Basile Mardi Gras Association
Mardi Gras Season ~ 2014
The Saturday evening immediately prior to Mardi Gras in the town of Eunice in St Landry Parish out on the Cajun Prairie of southwestern Louisiana the Jambalaya Cajun Band and the Basile Mardi Gras Association descend on the Liberty Theater for some music, dancing, history and Mardi Gras shenanigans.
Mardi Gras in the small towns of Acadiana is still a traditional family affair deeply rooted in one’s Catholic religion and heritage, the Cajun music, and the history of one’s Cajun community .
The final celebration of friends, community, music & dance and food prior to the start of Lent.
The Cajun communities of Acadiana introduce their children and youth to the history, culture and ways of Mardi Gras at a young age. The Cajun culture: language, food, music & dance and history are passed down and along by word.Laissez les bons temps rouler!
Crawfishin’ With Michael Brown
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Around the perimeter of 14 acres of low-lying-flooded southwestern Louisiana farmland moves the weekend crawfishermen pushes his floating harvesting rig.
Seeing the guy with the camera he hollers questioningly: “Reporter?”
The negative reply and he responds knowingly: (unvoiced but implicit: HA!) “Tourist!”
This met with voiced laughter from the guy with the camera.
Michael Brown of Eunice, Louisiana in St Landry Parish ‘schools’ the ‘guy with the camera’ in a gentle fashion on crawfishin’, crawfish, Lent and Mardi Gras.
Lineage and bonafides are established: Brown of original German settler descent.
Thoughts and views are shared on Louisiana public education & parental responsibilities.
Stories are told of Louisiana politics and the politically adept uncle.
Crawfish slides under the Catholic Lenten prohibition on eating meat so the Cajuns chow down and a seasonal market exists.
The crawfish harvest season so far has been challenging: unsettled, cold. Like all farming crawfishing turns on the weather.
This season the per pound cost for crawfish is high – over $3.00.
Savoy Music Center ~ Saturday AM Jam
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Savoy Music Center ~ Saturday Morning Jam
Saturdays at 9 AM for the paset 46 years.
Our third year through Eunice, Lousiana and the Acadiana region.
Marc Savoy’s and Family (Ann, Joel ( of the Red Stick Ramblers ), & Wilson Savoy ( of the Pine Leaf Boys )) Savoy Music Center five miles or so east of the Acadiana town of Eunice, Louisiana has hosted a Cajun Music Jam every Saturday morning for the past 46 years.
This particular Saturday morning’s cast of characters was characterized by the give-and-take of youth and experience :
Youthful Exuberance and Energy Rubs Up Against the Constancy of Experience and Mastery ~ Everyone Benefits
Prominently on display:
This jam session is not intended as a showcase for talent or the lack thereof.
It is intended to be led by the older generation of master musicians offering beginners an opportunity to listen, learn and play in the background.
It has been like this for 46 years and will continue as such.
As such, living Cajun music history is present in the moment.
Miss Esther Lejeune
Mr Harry Lafleur
Mr Freddie Hanks
Mr Robert Leblanc
Mr Milton Vanicor
“Listen, Lean and Play”
Links To Other Cajun Music Posts Of Note
Cajun Campground Jam (2014)
Milton Vanicor & Zachery Fuselier Gallery
Saturday Morning Jam ~ Savoy Music Center (2012)
Savoys’ Music Center ~ Saturday Jam (2011)
Los Islenos – St Bernard Parish, Louisiana
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A proud and distinct people still live south and east of New Orleans.
St Bernard Parish
Los Islenos
Not the French, not the Cajun but to quote, “Today, the Isleño communities of St. Bernard Parish survive as the last living vestige of Spanish Colonial Louisiana.“
Living history.
One of four Canary Islander settlement communities around the periphery of colonial New Orleans settled by ‘volunteer’ settlers from the Spanish Canary Islands. The La Concepcion / San Bernado (St Bernard) Isleno community has best managed to maintain and preserve its culture and identity.
The Los Islenos Heritage and Cultural Society’s Museum, web site and active and supporting membership have survived Katrina’s devastation to continue to maintain and project the community’s culture and identity.
Direction from St Bernard State Park staff for photo ops in the vicinity had us off one day to Delacroix Island. In the process dead-ending due to unresolved Katrina roadway damage and end-of-the-roading twice in Delacroix and then again at Shell Beach. We saw a couple of references to an Isleno past, present and community. Riding the bikes along the Mississippi River levee down past English Turn (Plaquemines Parish) to the ferry we passed a restored and relocated Canary Islander’s homestead just beyond the park entrance. Intrigued I went and found the Islenos internet presence and headed out late one morning to the Bayou Road site. As luck, my luck, would have it, Bertin Bernard Esteves Jr was my docent of the day. My simple request that he talk to me about his people and heritage grew into lunch and most of the day.
Bertin Bernard Esteves, Jr : An interesting and knowledgeable man, free spirit, Marine, artist, and traveler.
Seek out Bertin or Dot Benge for your dose of interpretive history and culture, well and truly served up by enjoyable, expansive and friendly folk.
The Canary Island descendants, Los Islenos, in and around St Bernard Parish manage and maintain a beautiful museum complex on Bayou Road. The organization presents an annual heritage festival, their 37th this March 17 – 18, 2012. The connection between Los Islenos here and the Canary Islanders is strong. Everyone that I met over a marvelous lunch at the Museum Complex was eager to relate to me their visits to and connections with the land and people of the Canary Islands. The Canary Islands send folk representatives and citizens to the annual Isleno Fiesta here. Those limited slots are an honor that is vied for throughout the year.
The Museum Complex features a wonderfully inviting post-Katrina restored and rebuilt home that houses displays and office space. Beyond the initial building is another new post-Katrina structure that serves as a community center, a place of and for gathering. Outside and across is a food court if you will: an area of covered tables for food serving and gathering of peoples.
Beyond this one finds the restored Isleno homes, a trapper’s marsh abode, and a community tavern.
Bertin with great pride showed me his grandfather’s home which has been lovingly relocated, restored and updated with the intention of serving as a bed and breakfast facility.
(Sugar cane boiling iron pot for the sugar crystallization process and a water cistern)
The Los Islenos Heritage and Cultural Society’s Museum Complex on Bayou Road beyond the traffic light at Guilroy’s in Poydras is worth the time and effort to find.
Much historical knowledge and insight awaits the traveler who explores off the beaten path. This is time and effort well spent. A quality experience provided by quality people.
Would that I could attend this year’s annual Fiesta, … next year!