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How All Female Krewes Came About

Ladies have always had a starring role in Carnival in New Orleans. In the years past women were always behind the scenes but today females rule in several of the well known Krewes of Mardi Gras.

Mardi Gras in New Orleans started with all-male krewes. Women were just recognized as queens during the Mardi Gras courts and balls. In 1922 the first all female krewe, the Krewe of Iris, was formed and first paraded in 1959. Aminthe Nungesser formed the Krewe of Iris and also captained the Krewe of Venus which was the city’s first female parading club.

Today credit can be given to local attorney Staci Rosenburg for making women more prominent in Mardi Gras. Stacy founded the Krewe of Muses in 2000 which was hit with opposition claiming no female krewe could parade on a weeknight in downtown New Orleans. Ironically in 2002, the Krewe of Muses won Gambit’s best parade award.

Currently women hold a strong position in parading in New Orleans during Carnival with the “big three” women krewes. Krewe of Iris has 3,450 members, Krewe of Muses has 1,118, Krewe of Nyx is the Carnival’s second largest with 3,383 members.

There are many more all female krewes that should be noted. Krewe of Cleopatra which moved to the Uptown route in 2013 from the west bank, currently has 1,000 members. The Krewe of Isis in Metairie is the oldest parading club in Jefferson Parish. St. Tammany is the home to Krewe of Selene and Krewe of Eve.

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The West Bank Home to The New We Dat’s

January 21, 2019 marked the first day opened for the new We Dat’s on the West Bank. The new Marrero location is one of three We Dat’s New Orleans Chicken and Shrimp, one is located on Canal St., and another at Old Gentilly Rd. A New Orleans’ favorite, locals are glad to see the restaurant expand.

Gregoire Tillery started the popular food chain from the ground up. This local, who was raised in the 7th ward, knows the benefits of hard work. Coming from a single parent household his mom worked two jobs to keep food on the table. After college, Tillery began his career with a national food brand but soon had a “spiritual awakening.” The national food brand company he was working for started to lay off many employees. After prayer and reflection, Tillery decided to venture out on his own in the food industry.

“It really affected me,” he said. “It didn’t affect me financially because they didn’t lay me off, but it affected me mentally and spiritually.”

While watching “The Great Food Truck Race“, Tillery got the idea to open up a food truck. With prayer and ambition he opened a food truck on Tulane Avenue in 2013 and now his food truck is followed by 225,000 people on Instagram.

“I can’t depend on someone else to keep a roof over my head and keep food on my table, so that’s when the whole food truck thing came about,” Tillery said.

We Dat’s popularity opened up two more restaurants and if that isn’t enough, the restaurant on Canal Street was featured in a Netflix documentary.

“I just about went crazy,” he said of seeing his Canal Street shop on Netflix. “I said, ‘This can’t be real life.’”

When entering one of his restaurants, you sense the pride of his native New Orleans’ roots. Each restaurant is painted bright purple (Edna Karr High School colors) and murals are painted by a local artist depicting scenes from the New Orleans Community. Local favorites are served like shrimp, chicken, catfish and loaded fries. Local desserts made by his mom Lori Shepard are served at each location as well as a local beverage called Element Beverage.

“Greg was one of the first people to feature the product in his restaurant,” said Cleveland Spears III of the Spears Group in New Orleans. “Other beverage companies asked him not to carry it, but he said no, I’m supporting these young African American boys who started this business in high school.

As for the new West Bank location, it is already a local favorite. The counter-service restaurants has four TV’s and the murals in this restaurant focus on historically black colleges and universities.

“I have a lot of college logos on the wall, which is going to be a focus for me going forward,” he said. “We have so many of the youth that come into the restaurants and I want them to keep college in mind and keep education in mind.”

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New Housing For Veterans

New Orleans will see a new affordable housing project which is slated to open this fall off of Broad Street. The project, called the St. Peter, will offer housing to military veterans.

The $7.4 million dollar project is the second part of a four phase development plan. The SBP (St. Bernard Project) will build a three-story building that will house 50 apartments that include 29 affordable and 21 market rate apartments. There will be a mix of one-bedroom and two-bedroom units which will also include full accessibility apartments for veterans with disabilities.

The complex will also include amenities such as a community room, outdoor areas and a wellness center for yoga and meditation. Veterans will also have the conveniences of public transit (bus stops, Canal Street streetcar and the Lafitte Greenway) nearby.

The majority of the affordable units will be rented to families making 60% of the median income for the New Orleans area. There will be a handful of apartments that will be available to residents making 30% of the median income and residents who have Housing Authority of New Orleans vouchers. Rent for affordable units will range from $400 – $1,000 a month which is based on 2018 income estimates from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The market rate apartments will still be on the affordable end renting on average for about $1,100 a month.

The building will be energy efficient with rooftop solar panels and energy storing batteries. It will be a “net zero property that will generate all the electricity it uses through renewable means on site.”

“A big part of the vision was that we wanted this to be as energy efficient as possible,” said Liz McCartney, SBP’s chief operating officer, who is overseeing development.

The new development will be financed by low-income housing tax credits incurring 70% of the cost of construction. The remaining will be backed by a $1.1 million dollar donation by Entergy New Orleans. David Ellis, Entergy New Orleans CEO, says that 15% of the Entergy Corp. employees are veterans which hits home for the company.

The project’s general contractor is Broadmoor Construction, the architect is Eskew+Dumez+Ripple. Other partners for St. Peters include Boston Financial, Louisiana Housing Corp., Home Bank and Toyota.

“The city is not going to be whole until everyone has humane, decent housing,” Zack Rosenburg, SBP’s co-founder and CEO said.

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Jefferson Parish School Nationally Honored

Every year The National ESEA Distinguished Schools Program, formerly The National Title I Distinguished Schools Program, will award two schools from each state an honor recognizing high academic achievement in schools that fall at or below 35% poverty rate. L.W. Ruppel Academy for Advanced Studies in Gretna has been given the honor.

The National Association of ESEA State Program Administrators (NAESPA) has certain criteria when choosing the awarded schools.  The schools must exemplify team approaches to teaching and learning, focused professional development opportunities for staff, individualized programs for student success and strong partnerships between the school, parents, and the community.

The State Education Agency for each state will choose each school based on at least one of the following categories. Category 1 is based on exceptional student performance for two or more consecutive years, Category 2 is based on closing the achievement gap between student groups and Category 3 is based on the degree in which special populations of students (homeless, migrant, English Learners) are served in the school.

Louisiana Department of Education honored L.W. Ruppel Academy for Advanced Studies, December 10, 2018, as one of the two chosen.  The school was recognized for its exceptional student performance and earned an A two years in a row.

“This is great news for these two schools and for Louisiana as a whole,” said State Superintendent John White. “It is also indicative of how hard these schools are working to ensure academic achievement and growth among all students, including those who struggle most.”

The Jefferson Parish school has been invited to attend the National ESEA Distinguished Schools Conference in Kansas City, Mo. where they will be recognized for this distinguished honor.

 

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How to Enjoy A Wine Tasting

A good wine can make or break an event, dinner, or just a relaxing evening.  Tasting wine before a purchase can be important.  Learn how to taste wine and develop a palate for the savory drink.  You do not have to be a sommelier to know what is good or bad when it comes to wine.  Below are a few simple steps you can take when choosing a wine.

Simply look at the wine. The first step in a wine tasting starts with your eyes.  What to look for?  The color of wine can tell you about the quality. To do this simply hold out the glass of wine and slightly tilt the glass. To be able to really get a good read on the color, try holding the glass of wine over a white surface. Observe the depth of color from the rim of the glass to the center. The deeper and richer color means you have a concentrated wine.  Younger wines have little color and will be lighter and acidic in taste. Next swirl your wine in the wine glass to create tears or legs that remain on the side of the glass.  This will help determine the alcohol level and sweetness.  Thin legs give you a lighter less concentrated wine, and fatter lets that remain on the glass give you a rich, concentrated wine.

If you feel your eyes may deceive you, then maybe your nose can give you more certainty in your decision.  Understanding the smell, bouquet, and aromas of wine are a great benefit.  The smell is a key factor in determining what you would like.  It is reported that 85% of taste comes from your sense of smell. To do this, simply swirl the wine glass and sniff the wine. Swirling your glass of wine allows oxygen to enter the wine and the scents of the wine are then released into the air. What to smell for? In general, just make sure the wine smells good.  Just like food if it smells bad, then it probably is bad. A good wine taster will note the different levels and scents that make up the aromatic profile of the wine.  If you smell dark fruits such as blackberries the wine is made from a ripe berry, too much of a jam scent means the wine is over ripe or has too much alcohol content, a light oak smell is commonly found in young wines.  Common red wine scents are a smell of earth, truffle, tobacco, spice, cigar box or forest floor.  Common white wine smells are honey, flowers, spice, butter, popcorn, caramel and minerals. Stay away from a wine that smells like a wet dog or old, wet newspaper.

Once you are satisfied with the look and smell, next comes the taste. Everyone has their own taste but there are some tips on how to taste a wine. The sense of taste which is experienced on the top of the tongue through the taste-buds focuses on the sweet, salt, bitter or sour part of the wine.  Next you will need to discern the texture of the wine. Does it feel good, smooth, silky, velvet or lush in texture or was it rough, dusty or dry. Last will be the length of the taste. The longer the taste remains in your mouth the better the wine. Remember to always taste a wine at the correct temperature and use a decent wine glass.  Red wines are to be served between 60 to 65 degrees and white should be served between 55 to 60 degrees.

If you are ready to test your wine tasting ability, come to the New Orleans International Wine Awards, November 6-8, 2018.  Judges from around the world will come to judge wines from different wineries around the world.  The competition is directed by winejudging.com which also oversees the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition and the Sonoma County Harvest Fair.  For more information on the New Orleans International Wine Awards or to purchase tickets for the tasting, visit www.nolainternationalwine.com.

 

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