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Playlist: Louisiana

Compiled By: Eva Breneman

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Wilma Subra: Chemistry of the Aftermath

From American Public Media | Part of the The Promised Land series | 54:00

Chemist Wilma Subra has spent her career defending local communities against Louisiana’s powerful oil and gas industry. Since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, her phone hasn’t stopped ringing. At first, the calls were from people who knew men on the rig; later, from coastal residents complaining of nausea and breathing problems. Majora Carter spends a day with Subra as she takes water and sediment samples and meets with community members whose concerns are now the focus of her investigation.

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Wilma Subra is a chemist who has spent her career defending local communities against Louisiana’s powerful oil and gas industry. She received a MacArthur Fellowship for helping “ordinary citizens understand, cope with and combat environmental issues.” When the Deepwater Horizon oil spill happened in the Gulf of Mexico, Wilma’s phone started ringing and hasn’t stopped. At first, they were calls about people who knew men on the rig — and then later, more calls and e-mails from people on the coast complaining of nausea and breathing problems.

Majora Carter spends a day with Wilma Subra as she travels from her office in New Iberia — past town after town she’s helped with environmental concerns during the last 30 years. Their trip culminates in the coastal communities of Grand Isle and Venice, Louisiana, where she’ll be taking water and sediment samples and meeting with community members whose concerns are now the focus of her investigation.

The Decline of Oyster Fishing in Louisiana

From David Weinberg | 04:52

A month after the BP rig exploded I took a trip into the Gulf with some Oyster Fishermen and then attended the first annual Oysterfest in New Orleans

Rip_oyster_small A lot of factors have contributed to the decline of Oyster fishing in Louisianaa and with the BP oil spill no one knows for sure what this means for the furure of the Gulf Coast oyster industry.

Aunt Sue or the salvation of a dying Cajun culture in Mamou Louisiana

From Anton Foek | 34:48

Every Saturday cajun music is played in Freds lounge in Mamou

P1000248_small Aunt Sue was almost emotional when asked about the future of Cajun culture in general terms and its music more specifically. After all she has been it in her whole long and fruitful life and now she is afraid the younger generation might not appreciate the culture as she and her generation is. Every Saturday morning aq Cajun band plays in Freds Lounge in downtown Mamou a three hours ride from New Orleans. They start at 8 am and go on until 2 pm. Once a week. But the Lounge thrives like never before. Visitors from all over the world, as far as from China and Japan, come visit, dance an admire. Yet fear that this is a dying culture is real. Visiting Freds lounge is the center of gravity where performers try hard and may succeed. Listen to the story of the bandleaders, performers, the owner of Freds Lounge and Tante Sue, the icon of Mamou in a moving story about love for a culture in a fast changing world.

Cornerstone Bus Project Keeps Families Connected to Angola Inmates

From Nina Feldman | 04:53

Every October, over 30 cyclists from the New Orleans area embark on a three-day bike ride to the Louisiana State Penitentiary. The “NOLA to Angola” ride raises money for the Cornerstone Bus Project, a faith-based initiative that offers free transportation for families visiting their loved ones in prison.

To find out more about the cause that this bike trip supports, WWNO’s Nina Feldman rode along on a recent bus trip to Angola.

Img_1006_small Every October, over 30 cyclists from the New Orleans area embark on a three-day bike ride to the Louisiana State Penitentiary. The “NOLA to Angola” ride raises money for the Cornerstone Bus Project, a faith-based initiative that offers free transportation for families visiting their loved ones in prison. To find out more about the cause that this bike trip supports, WWNO’s Nina Feldman rode along on a recent bus trip to Angola.

Charter Boat Captain to GCCF: I’m Not Settling

From Richard Ziglar | Part of the GulfWatch: Stories about the ongoing effects of the BP Oil Spill from KRVS series | 06:44

(NOTE: This piece is non-narrated.)

The Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) has predicted that most businesses will recover from the BP oil spill by the end of 2012. Like many others, Bryce Michel isn’t so sure. Business at his company, Topwater Charters in Cocodrie, Louisiana, is down 50 percent this year. Michel worries it may never fully recuperate.

Brycemichel_small (NOTE: This piece is non-narrated.) The Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) has predicted that most businesses will recover from the BP oil spill by the end of 2012. Like many others, Bryce Michel isn’t so sure. Business at his company, Topwater Charters in Cocodrie, Louisiana, is down 50 percent this year. Michel worries it may never fully recuperate.

Kyshun Webster: Reaching for Greatness

From American Public Media | Part of the The Promised Land series | 54:00

Dr. Kyshun Webster is a man who gets things done. And before that, he was a kid who got things done. Now the founder and executive director of Operation Reach, an extensive family of programs for kids throughout the Gulf South, Kyshun has been working to improve his community since he was a kid himself. Majora joins Kyshun as he returns to his childhood roots to explain the inspiration for his 20 years of inspiring youth to greatness.

1_small Kyshun grew up in the St. Bernard Projects in New Orleans where, at the age of six, he saw his uncle murdered. He started struggling in school and was held back in the first grade. Thus began a lifelong makeover for Kyshun, who now holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. At the age of 12, he started a lending library out of his parents' garage, which grew into a "home for homework" after-school tutoring program. 

He fought back to transform his own life and now inspires the lives of other disadvantaged youth. And because of the endless need among neighborhood kids and Kyshun’s sheer determination, he now oversees what he calls a “cradle to career” program for youth that extends to three states in the Gulf South. Kyshun's Operation Reach runs (to name a few) a full-time child development center; the Gulfsouth Youth Biodiesel Project, where kids recycle cooking oil for use as environmentally friendly fuel; and the Gulfsouth Youth Action Corps, with camps that teach young people philanthropic skills. The kids annually award $50,000 in grants to other youth-lead projects.

A Conversation with Carol Fran

From National Endowment for the Arts | Part of the Art Works series | 29:29

Louisiana Swamp blues singer, composer and pianist Carol Fran looks back at her sixty year career.

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Carol Fran's distinctive voice and piano-playing style has kept her in the limelight for more than six decades. She's known as a swamp blues singer.  Swamp blues   is characterized by slow laid back vocals combined with elements of Cajun and Zydeco . But as we just heard in "Emmitt Lee", she can belt out an r and b song with the best of them.

Carol Fran was born in Lafayette Louisiana in 1933 and she knew she was put on this earth to perform.  She was on the road as a teenager, eventually making her way to New Orleans where she became notable presence on Bourbon Street singing and composing  both in English and in Creole.

During the 1960s, she recorded and toured extensively until she decided to limit her career to singing on the Gulf Coast nightclub circuit.

She reconnected with the great blues guitarist Clarence Holliman, and the two formed a partnership on and off stage, marrying and relocating to his native Texas.  His guitar and her voice were perfect complements to each other and together they  toured throughout the US and Europe and recorded three outstanding discs.   Carol returned to Louisiana after Holliman's death, and in 2001 released a solo album, Fran-tastic,. In 2007, Fran suffered a stroke but just seven months later, she was back on stage at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. 

Carol Fran  has received many awards including the Slim Harpo Blues Award for Female Legend of the Year and just last year, she was named a National Heritage Fellow.

I spoke to Carol Fran in her dressing room backstage before her performance at the National Heritage Concert.  As you'll hear, it was an emotional time for her.

A Musician's Life: C.J. Chenier ( the prince of Zydeco music)

From WXPN | Part of the A Musician's Life series | 05:00

As a young sax player, C.J. Chenier planned to pursue a career in jazz. Then his father Zydeco great Clifton Chenier, recruited his son to play in his Red Hot Louisiana Band. Today, C.J. Chenier carries his dad's torch and leads that band.

C While Clifton Chenier was out touring, making records and solidifying his reputation as the king of zydeco, his young son C.J. was living with his mom in the projects of Port Athur Texas. Zydeco music was irrelevent. Instead C.J. was raised on Earth, Wind and Fire, George Clinton and the Commodores. He had his sights set on a career as a jazz saxaphonist until his father recruited him to play with his Red Hot Louisiana band. That was over a quarter century ago. Now C.J. leads that band. And though he hasn?t exactly inherited his father?s crown, CJ is regarded as Zydeco?s reigning prince. (REPRINTED FROM SEGMENT BILLBOARD).

Broncos & Boudin: The Angola Prison Rodeo

From The Kitchen Sisters | Part of the Hidden Kitchens series | 07:26

Hidden Kitchens travels to the Louisiana State Penitentiary and the world of unexpected, below-the-radar, down-home convict cooking at the Angola Prison Rodeo. The event, which draws thousands of spectators, features traditional dishes prepared and sold by inmates at the prison farm.

Angolaposter_small The Angola Prison Rodeo, held in April and October, draws some seventy thousand people annually to this agricultural prison in a remote corner of the state.  Alongside the rodeo, some 43 inmate organizations set up food concessions and sell their delights to the hungry public. Dozens of traditional dishes are prepared and sold by men doing mostly life inside this fertile prison farm.  Nearly all the ingredients are grown on the grounds. The Kitchen Sistsrs and Roman Mars take us inside Angola, amidst the men and the mayhem for a glimpse of these prison hidden kitchens. 

Johnsonville

From Pauline Bartolone | 05:17

A Portrait of a Cajun Trailer Community Post-Hurricane Rita

Default-piece-image-0 Many communities in Southwest Lousiana are still piecing together their lives after Hurricana Rita ripped through in September 2005. But the aftermath of the storms has brought many communities closer together. A small makeshift trailer park in Cameron Parish in southwest Louisiana is a good example. Residents there lost nearly everything, and they've banded together in their trailers, waiting for the slow rebuilding process to unfold. Independent producer Pauline Bartolone has the story.

Treme: The Tastes of New Orleans

From AARP Radio | Part of the Prime Time Radio series | 59:54

First, chef Lolis Eric Elie, inspired by the award-winning television series Treme, created a collection of the best and most famous recipes from the Crescent City. Elie celebrates the culinary spirit of New Orleans and features recipes that highlight the character of the colorful city. Then, hospice care can offer relief for both the patient and loved ones by providing a medically trained caregiver. Eric Lindner discusses the all advantages to providing hospice care to a dying loved one or family member. Lolis Eric Elie and Eric Lindner, this week on Prime Time Radio.

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First, chef Lolis Eric Elie, inspired by the award-winning television series Treme, created a collection of the best and most famous recipes from the Crescent City. Elie celebrates the culinary spirit of New Orleans and features recipes that highlight the character of the colorful city. As rich as the series itself, the book, alos titled Treme, includes 100 heritage and contemporary recipes from the city's heralded and original recipes from renowned chefs and other Treme guest stars.

Then, terminal patients and their families face many hard decisions, especially when it comes to long term care. However, hospice care can offer emotional and physical relief for both the patient and loved ones by providing a medically trained caregiver. Eric Linder explains how a hospice caregiver can help preserve a dying patient’s sense of dignity by creating a supportive environment for all involved. Linder also tells the stories of those living the ends of their lives and celebrates the dignity with which they choose to exit this life.

Lolis Eric Elie and Eric Linder, this week on Prime Time Radio.