If you find yourself in France on April 1, don’t be surprised if something seems fishy. Maybe someone gives you a chocolate or a pastry in the shape of a cod? Perhaps you find a paper haddock stuck to your back, and then everyone erupts into laughter and starts pointing and shouting “poisson d’avril”? Don’t be alarmed, you’ve simply immersed yourself in the centuries-long French tradition of April Fool’s Day, known as poisson d’avril or “April Fish.”

As a city known for its festivals and food, it’s no wonder New Orleans has a special gustatory way of celebrating the Christmas holidays. Although modern festivities no longer require celebrants to stay up all night, revelers can still indulge in the nearly 200 year old feast of Réveillon every December, as the Catholic French Creole inhabitants of the city did before them.

While beignets and Bourbon Street are quintessential parts of the New Orleans experience, savvy travelers can discover so much more. For instance, the beautiful balconies adorning the Spanish-style buildings in the French Quarter? Some tell the tale of skilled iron workers from West Africa who integrated their indigenous ideologies into the iron work using symbols.

Perched at the mouth of the Mississippi River, New Orleans has been a crossroads of cultures since its first indigenous inhabitants. Just over a century ago, the interplay of West African, European, and Caribbean influences in the Crescent City forged the signature sound of American jazz.

Strolling up to Parasol’s on an auspiciously autumn-like August evening, I’ll admit I was already inclined to enjoy the Irish Channel Pub Crawl hosted by New Orleans Crawling. I’ve been on my fair share of New Orleans history tours over the years, and this boozy spin on the classic French Quarter walkabout promised to enthrall our group with stories of battles, music, and pirates.

Salvatore “Sam” Caruso started making ice cream at home in 2018 with a two-quart Cuisinart machine, but he could never get the texture right. Despite his best efforts, it was always too icy, not smooth enough for his taste. Then, as the world shut down in March 2020, Caruso found himself with ample free time after being let go from his job. He used a serendipitous tax return check to buy a higher-quality ice cream machine for $1,300 and started experimenting.

Elizabeth Vega is an “artivist” – an artist and activist who understands that art is its own form of powerful resistance. She has dedicated her life to harnessing that power and teaching others how to do the same. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, she works constantly on projects that combine art and activism...

Within the swirling sea of weird experiments in making that is New Orleans theatre, Intramural Theater, founded in 2015, has managed to stake out its own particular brand of weird. While Intramural produces traditional plays and hosts community events, such as a twenty-five hour play festival, their signature work is reflected in their devised shows, which are collectively created according to a specific devising method developed by the company’s founding artistic director, Bennett Kirschner.

I met Eva Doumbia in New Orleans, Louisiana in March 2019 (as documented in my essay “New to New Orleans”), and over a glass of wine, she shared plans for her upcoming creation, , which would tell the story of various foods’ interconnected histories of dominance and oppression spanning back to colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.

The interruption of the COVID-19 pandemic gave way to a time of reckoning for theatre and theatremakers. As we collectively emerge from the pandemic’s crucible, let me present a beacon of hope for what theatre in the United States can be, at its best: “adaptable, emergent, sustainable, and well.” I am quoting Lauren E. Turner (she/her), the founder and producing artistic director of New Orleans-based theatre company No Dream Deferred and the We Will Dream: New Works Festival.

I first met Eva Doumbia while she was on a research trip to New Orleans. I was enthralled by her explanation of the show she was creating which used elements of documentary theater and religious ceremony to address food history, its connections to the transatlantic slave trade, and colonialism. I was honored when she asked me to translate the show from French into English and produce its United States tour.

Although the mark of countless successful theatrical performers is their passion, it takes a special combination of versatility and compassion to transition theatre skills into a healthcare setting. Tiffany Riley does precisely this work as a healthcare clown and a founder of the Laughter League and North American Federation of Healthcare Clown Organizations (NAFHCO).

Pursuing a life in theatre or medicine requires such dedication that it can be hard to imagine a career transition, and yet, as this year has viscerally reminded us, the only constant in life is change. Although the path between theatre and medicine may not be evident at first glance, the specific skill set that both professions require makes the transition more seamless than one might imagine.

I don’t remember consciously choosing to opt out of mainstream femininity, so much as never being interested in what it had to offer. It was always obvious my genetic gifts lay in my mind, not my looks, so it felt like a waste of time and energy to try to do anything about my appearance.

It was a weeknight in mid-December, and I was crouched on the top step of the stairs with my laptop, trying to work, when my brother called to discuss Christmas presents for my parents. I was in a mood and he could tell. He asked what was wrong.

I've moved a lot. Not for any of the usual reasons, like the military, or my parents getting divorced, or even specifically for work. My parents are still together, still living in the house I grew up in—well, technically the house I did most of my growing up in, from ages 8 through 18.