A Bayou Classic
The Big Easy, The Crescent City, Nawlins, NOLA - New Orleans, Louisiana. From its French founding, to Spanish control, to the acquisition by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, New Orleans is known for its rich culture. The electric food, carnival traditions and vibrant history, as well as its social construct and the catastrophic event that was Hurricane Katrina, helped radically transform this city named after the Duke of Orleans into the city we know today.
Having been fascinated by this city from afar due to my family's roots, love of its cuisine (yes, a bowl of gumbo would be my last meal if I had a choice) and extensive music catalogue from the likes of No Limit, Cash Money and Louisiana's own, Lil Boosie. For years, I've had to experience all this city has to offer from a distance, a virtual tour one might say. I've lived vicariously through my grandmother's tales of growing up in the 9th ward, my cousin's stories of "bounce music" fueling the streets of uptown, and Soulja Slim's profession of "...having the Magnolia Projects on isolation." I wanted it; I needed the experience. I yearned for the confirmation that everything once told to me about this historical city was true.
I chose to forego the traditional hotel stay to truly experience the city as best I could. A shotgun house (a narrow, rectangular residence, with rooms arranged one behind the other and doors at each end of the house) in the Marigny is where I would call home for the next few days. The Marigny provided the perfect combination of old-time New Orleans and hip urban renewal, making for a unique harmony one can only attribute to New Orleans.
Over the course of the next five days I set out on foot and journeyed through Frenchmen St., taking in live jazz and gator dogs; the French Quarter where I visited the famous Café Du Monde and various eateries to get my gumbo, po boy and pralines fix; and lastly, the barrage of "coconuts," toys and festive beads thrown out by the Krewe of Zulu during Mardi Gras.
The food was orgasmic, pumping memories of my family and me gathered around the table for Sunday dinners. The jazz also spoke to my soul, reminding me of long car rides as a child in the passenger seat of my grandmother's all-white two-door Cadillac, with the cassette player blasting the tunes of Bobby "Blue" Bland and Duke Ellington, which unknowingly at the time, ignited my passion for Jazz and Blues at the tender age of seven.
New Orleans, you gave me all one could ask for: joy, adventure, love and kindness - you welcomed me with open arms and made all I envisioned as a child, tangible. Thank you.
