LAGNIAPPE

 

Always expect lagniappe (a little something extra) from your visit to New Orleans. Here we offer some glimpses of local life that are interesting to view through an STS lens.

 

Louisiana’s Disappearing Coast

The state loses a football field’s worth of land every hour and a half. Now engineers are in a race to prevent it from sinking By Elizabeth Kolbert. Pointer to the



Bulbancha is a Place

Bulbancha is much older than New Orleans. Before the first Europeans came here, it was a place where people from around 40 distinct Native groups crisscrossed, traded, followed game and



Five Places to Visit in New Orleans

Big Freedia’s rap music is a part of the ether of modern New Orleans. So what better authentic travel guide to the city that so many tourists love to visit?



Love-Politics and the Carceral Encounter

For community organizers in New Orleans, action to oppose the carceral state first requires the building of community. Keahnan Washington, January 25, 2019. Pointer to Anthropology News. (Baner photo: Voice of



Women of the Storm

Women of the Storm Final.mov from LiarsandMadmen on Vimeo. Are women better at civic activism than men? Women of the Storm provides an affirmative answer through the story of a



Rodents of Unusual Size

A documentary by Quinn Costello, Chris Metzler & Jeff Springer. May the best mammal win. See also this feature in the Guardian.



History of French Quarter

Today the French Quarter of New Orleans is among the most instantly recognizable half-square miles in the world and is synonymous with the city as a whole. It is also



Toxic tensions in the heart of ‘Cancer Alley’

The EPA says this town has the nation’s highest risk of developing cancer from air toxins. The plant emitting the toxins says otherwise. Locals are outraged. By Victor Blackwell, Wayne



Losing Ground

Southeast Louisiana Is Disappearing, Quickly. A football field–sized area of land is being washed away every hour, and lawsuits are being filed to hold oil and gas companies responsible for the



Life Below Sea Level: How Safe Is It?

New Orleans area levee system ‘high risk,’ and ‘minimally acceptable’, Corps says. Pointer to NOLA.com.



The Levees That Failed New Orleans

How mind-boggling to think that so much Hurricane Katrina history is contained in a ribbed fragment of concrete. By Douglas Brinkley. Pointer to Smithsonian Magazine.



Absinthe Culture in New Orleans

How Once-Illegal Absinthe Became a New Orleans Staple. By David Watsky. Pointer to Chowhound.