(Following is a dispatch from Paul Greeley, who spent several years in New Orleans in the 1980s and ’90s as a promotions director at WDSU-TV. Paul has remained in touch with his New Orleans friends over the years, and he filed this report after his first visit to Galveston post-Ike.)

Saturday, Sept. 20

Last night, just as my wife and I are headed to dinner, my phone rings. It’s Paula Pendarvis, a former news executive that I worked with at WDSU in New Orleans, calling me from Galveston Island, Texas, where Hurricane Ike has roared ashore just a week ago. Pendarvis now owns a media consulting company and she’s on the island working for a disaster management company, DRC Emergency Services of Mobile, Alabama as their press liaison. Can I come down to Galveston right away?

I catch the first flight out this morning from Dallas to Houston’s Hobby Airport, where a helicopter picks me up to whisk me down to the island. Driving to the island isn’t an option as no one gets on the island without a special vendor pass, and there’s major gridlock just before the bridge to the island where police have a road-block to check passes.

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To Do Productions brings Gertrude Stein and a Companion to the Marigny Theatre beginning with a special preview on Thursday, June 26. Win Wells’ play is a touching and poingnant portrait of Gertrude Stein, the Lost Generation writer, and her companion Alice B. Toklas. Stein was an American who spent most of her life in France and counted Ernest Hemingway as well as avant garde artists like Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse among her circle of friends. Her Saturday night salons gained acclaim as a meeting place for intellectuals and artists. The play begins at the time of Stein’s death and tells her story through a series of flashbacks and flash forwards, looking at the development of her relationship with Toklas and the Parisian expatriate community of the 1920s. The opening performance is a fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, an appropriate choice since Stein died from cancer in 1946. The Crescent City Outlaws sponsors the fundraiser. Mention the group when reserving tickets for subsequent shows and a donation will be made to the foundation. Glenn Meche directs Karen Shields as Gertrude and Lisa Davis as Toklas. The production runs at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays through July 13. Tickets are $25 general admission, $15 seniors/students. Call 948-9608 for more information and for reservations. — Allison Good

Two local high schools commemorate Homer Plessy Day on Saturday, June 7. The celebration marks the anniversary of Plessy’s arrest in 1892, leading to the landmark Plessy vs. Ferguson Supreme Court decision that established “separate but equal” laws. In the end, Plessy lost his case when the Supreme Court upheld Louisiana’s ruling. After losing at the local, state and national levels between 1892 and 1896, a legal foundation for segregating schools and other facilities had been established and would be maintained in the United States for more than 50 years. The decision was reversed in 1954 by the Brown vs. Board of Education case.

The Plessy celebration is scheduled to begin at Frederick Douglass High School at 10 a.m. There will be a tour of the facilities led by some of its students and a presentation of two plaques on the school’s campus one of which commemorates the Plessy vs. Ferguson case, the other, the Citizens’ Committee formed in 1891 in response to the Louisiana Separate Car Act. Afterward, the group of participants and guests will walk to the corner of Press St. & Royal St., which is a reserved memorial space that was included in a recent land purchase by NOCCA Institute. It is at this location that students will present workshop creations they made with the assistance of students from the Los Angeles’ MFA Public program at Otis College of Art & Design and an open discussion. Read the rest of this entry »

DeLaune Michel’s upcoming book-tour stop in New Orleans is a sort of dual homecoming. The New Yorker was born and raised in south Louisiana, but her new novel, The Safety of Secrets, set in Lake Charles, proves that she has never truly left her Southern roots. The novel tells the story of Fiona and Patricia, whose childhood friendship grows strong in the shadows of their family hardships, and who share the same dream of becoming actresses. When they both move to LA, however, Patricia skyrockets to fame while Fiona struggles. Both Hollywood and difficult marriages test the true nature of their relationship, but a secret from the past ultimately threatens its survival as well as their careers. Says Michel of her inspiration, “I wanted to explore deep-rooted loyalty between women, and how sometimes it can be a sword that cuts both ways, opening up whole worlds of safety within the friendship while exacting a price, as well.”

Michel’s family has the sort of legendary and colorful history that anchors this author’s strong connection to the region and to New Orleans. The ten published writers in only two generations of Michel’s family is a notable and incredible statistic, and her relative Helene DeLauné’s activity in Marie Antoinette’s court and her escape to Louisiana earned the family a place in the history books. Michel’s personal journey is just as illustrious, including a modeling stint in Europe and acting in Los Angeles before she began her literary career. Reviews so far label her as a promising contemporary author.

DeLauné Michel also is the author of Aftermath of Dreaming. She reads from The Safety of Secrets and signs books at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Garden District Book Shop (2727 Prytania St.). — Allison Good

The New Orleans Museum of Art goes to the dog — the Blue Dog — to close its retrospective show of George Rodrigue’s work. The 31-hour final spree — from opening at 10 a.m. Saturday to close on Sunday at 5 p.m. — will have everything from Cajun dance lessons to special appearances to drink and food specials. Dance lessons will be on Saturday along with live music that will incorporate Cajun music by the band Lafourche, DJ Beverly Skillz and other performers. Sunday’s festivities begin with complimentary coffee and donuts and there will be a George Rodrigue book signing. Other events include meet and greets with mascots Boudreaux (New Orleans Zephyrs), Gumbo (New Orleans Saints), and Mojo and Bones (New Orleans Voodoo). Longtime Rodrigue friend and fellow Cajun country native Paul Prudhomme will do cooking demonstrations, and there will be Blue Dog Daiquiris and free Blue Dog Snowballs all afternoon. The Rodrigue show includes nearly 200 paintings, sculptures, and prints from his 40-year career. For a full schedule of events see NOMA’s Web site. Louisiana residents will be admitted at $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and free admission for children under 18 years of age. For more information on Rodrigue click here. — Shantrell A. Cook

By Philip Cartelli

“God gave us a beautiful day. Maybe it’ll rain on Bush tomorrow.” That was local housing advocate Tracy Washington speaking on Sunday at a rally held in the Ashé Cultural Center’s parking lot to mark the visit of Presidents Bush and Felipe Calderon of Mexico and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the Crescent City this week for talks as part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Washington continued to address the 40 assembled Latino immigrant members of Congress of Day Laborers/Congreso de Jornaleros and about as many local citizens. “You have a right to housing. You have a right to have your children educated in whatever language you choose. You have a right to healthcare, to be treated when you are sick.”

These exhortations prefaced the main activity of the rally put on by New Orleans’ Critical Resistance and the New Orleans People’s Summit. Members of the Congreso de Jornaleros had prepared a piece of street theater, which they enacted in front of the colorful mural on the Ashé Center’s eastern wall. Read the rest of this entry »