Her movie producer friend knows she’s never been to Baton Rouge, yet he keeps seeing her throughout the city. And so does anyone else who passes one of the city’s many digital billboards. “Audra McDonald,” they blare. And then there’s her photograph, followed by the why, where and when — the why being the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra’s Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation Great Performers in Concert Series. Continue reading →

As part of an upcoming exhibit at the LSU Museum of Art focusing on the photography of famed jazz photographer Herman Leonard and works by LSU professor emeritus and painter Ed Pramuk, Louisiana Public Broadcasting will screen a half-hour documentary on the life and work of Leonard. The filmmakers will discuss the film afterward. Continue reading →

The 5th annual Cruisin’ Cajun Country Cruise, featuring classic and muscle cars, will roll through Iberia Parish Thursday-Saturday, May 16-18. Participants can take in New Iberia’s Main Street historic district, food and live music, while spectators can enjoy free car shows and entertainment. Registration will open at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Super 8 Hotel … Continue reading →

One can’t help wondering if Nick LaRocca would have believed it if someone had told him exactly how much influence his song would have over a stadium of 90,000-plus. Make that more than 100,000 when the addition to Tiger Stadium is complete, when more voices are added to the crowd’s roar when the LSU Tiger Marching Band … Continue reading →

JERUSALEM — An ancient limestone tablet covered with a mysterious Hebrew text that features the archangel Gabriel is at the center of a new exhibit in Jerusalem, even as scholars continue to argue about what it means. The so-called Gabriel Stone, a meter-tall (about 39.5 inches) tablet said to have been found 13 years … Continue reading →

NEW YORK — When I was young, I learned a lot about travel from my mother. She taught me how and what to pack. She taught me to keep a travel diary to record my memories. And most importantly, she taught me how to power-sightsee. Continue reading →

It seems wrong to use a word like ordinary to describe any aspect of Jack Bedell’s poetry. His words are full of evocative metaphors that summon the smell of cane fields burning, the flash of a big redfish at the end of a fishing line, diamonds of light dappling a farm pond on a summer day. Continue reading →

ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW By Nathaniel Rich Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $26 Mitchell Zukor is a disaster waiting to happen — and waiting for disasters to happen to himself and the rest of us. The lonely neurotic at the center of … Continue reading →

Best-Sellers for May 12 Continue reading →

More than 20,000 students throughout the state voted to choose the winners of the 2013 Louisiana Young Readers’ Choice Award and Louisiana Teen Readers’ Choice Award. Young Zeus by G. Brian Karas was the top choice among third through fifth graders while Smile by Raina Telgemeier received the most votes among middle school students. The Louisiana Teen Readers’ Choice … Continue reading →

Tickets are on sale for the St. James Center for Spiritual Formation’s fourth annual Summer Sounds at St. James series of musical concerts. This year, programs are scheduled at 7 p.m. Wednesdays in July at St. James Episcopal Church, 205 N. Fourth St.. The series opens on July 3 with a performance by the National … Continue reading →

A compilation of arts events for the week ahead. SUNDAY IN THE PARK: noon-3 p.m., Galvez Plaza Stage, North Boulevard. Outdoor concert featuring Route 90. (225) 344-8558. MOVE OVER MRS. MARKHAM: 2 p.m., Theatre Baton Rouge, 7155 Florida Blvd. The final production in Theatre Baton Rouge’s 2012-13 Season of … Continue reading →

There was no police tape, no officers blocking onlookers from the crime scene. It was a different time, a time before DNA tests and digital technology. A time when veteran Chicago photojournalist and author Steve Schapiro could show up with his film-loaded camera in hand and no one would question his presence. Martin Luther King’s associate Hosea Williams simply let him into room 306, where the television was still blaring and cold coffee was stagnant in plastic foam cups. Continue reading →

Hot Art, Cool Nights, the Mid City Merchant’s spring art hop, is set for 6 p.m.-10 p.m. Friday, May 10, in the Mid City Art and Design District. This is the 10th year for the event, which features local artists and their work at many midcity locations. There also will be live music and refreshments along the way. Continue reading →

Summer camp isn’t just for kids anymore. At least not at Theatre Baton Rouge. “We have a summer camp for adults that is popular,” Jack Lampert said. “They take it seriously, but they have a lot of fun. And in the end, we do a production, and everyone really gets into it.” Lampert is … Continue reading →

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Striped balloons dot a bright blue sky. Red rocks silhouette a lone dead tree. A white ladder leans on a brown adobe dwelling. On a road trip around New Mexico, this mix of motifs and cultures seems to echo across the centuries and turn up at every stop, whether you’re visiting … Continue reading →

The lanky, charcoal-gray dog with a distinctive, wiry hairdo would stand out in most other animal shelters, but no one gave him a second look on Hawaii’s island of Kauai. But thanks to a tourist willing to take him across the Pacific, an Airedale Terrier-Irish Wolfhound mix named Grady now enjoys a spacious California loft with … Continue reading →

NEW YORK — Disney Cruise Line’s oldest ship, the Magic, is getting a makeover, including the addition of a children’s area themed on Marvel Comics superheroes and a three-story water slide, the company announced April 26. The Magic launched in 1998. Other updates when the ship goes into drydock in Spain for a month … Continue reading →

This is the story of the Sankofa child, whose Nia, or purpose, is to provide balance for the world of ImBalynce. Those who live in this world have heard the story, but many dismiss it as a myth. Stories of good and evil, a savior’s battle with a destructor, have been floating around since before The Shattering nearly 3,000 years ago. Continue reading →

There is a lot we don’t know about our nation’s literary tradition and a lot of 19th-century writers who defined their age but are read no longer. Professor Philip Gura of the University of North Carolina breathes new life into old and largely forgotten novels. Continue reading →

Southern Repertory Theatre in New Orleans has announced its new Mainstage season full of passion, politics, spirit, sex and satire. Four productions will investigate the voices and histories of an eclectic cast of characters as they grapple with universal issues of love, truth, salvation and self. The Mainstage season will feature a Broadway play, an unforgettable … Continue reading →

Best-Sellers for May 5 Continue reading →

Gregory Grandy, environmental manager, landscape architect and volunteer environmental educator, is passionate about Louisiana’s landscape, particularly preserving its coast. Grandy’s lifework is dedicated to preserving Louisiana’s coastline, a topic he will share at the Thursday, May 9, Foundation for Historical Louisiana’s monthly Heritage Lecture. The lecture will be held at 6 p.m. at FHL headquarters in the … Continue reading →

A compilation of arts events for the week ahead. SUNDAY IN THE PARK: noon-3 p.m., Galvez Plaza Stage, North Boulevard. Outdoor concert featuring Captain Green. (225) 344-8558. A PASTICHE OF GARDEN STYLES: 1 p.m.-5 p.m., LSU Hilltop Arboretum, 11855 Highland Road. Spring garden tour. $20. http://www.lsu.edu/hilltop or (225) 767-6916. FREE … Continue reading →

Alistair is Philip, Philip is Philips the Butler, Linda is Sylvie, Walter is the father-in-law and Mrs. Markham is, well, Mrs. Markham. And Mrs. Markham is not only the one who creates this scenario to fool Olive Harriet Smythe, she’s also the one who keeps up with who’s who. Otherwise, Miss Smythe might take her … Continue reading →

Each character has a story, and those stories play out in Jitney, August Wilson’s gypsy cab station that serves Pittsburgh’s Hill District when others won’t. The district was Wilson’s boyhood home, the setting of the 10 plays in his Pittsburgh Cycle. Jitney is number eight in that series and second in UpStage Theatre’s plan to perform … Continue reading →

Joe Moore wants people to know that his students can do more than bang on drums. The percussion doctoral candidate and director of the Louisiana Youth Orchestra’s Percussion Ensemble will showcase the range of the four member group at LYO’s upcoming concert Sunday, May 5. “I chose a melodic keyboard piece and then one with … Continue reading →

The Concert Choir will be there. The Wind Ensemble will, too. In fact, all of the Southern University Music Department’s concert ensembles will be performing on Friday, May 3, at Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church . Throw in a few solos by the department’s vocal and piano professors, and you have the music department’s Potpourri: The … Continue reading →

Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond will pay homage to jazz legend and alumnus Bill Evans with a festival in his honor. The 12th annual Bill Evans Jazz Festival honors the deceased seven-time Grammy Award winner and 1950 Southeastern graduate, considered the most influential jazz pianist of his generation. Sponsored by Southeastern’s Arts and Lectures … Continue reading →

Tickets are on sale for “Singo de Mayo,” a musical revue, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 2, in the LSU Union Theater, Raphael Semmes Drive on campus. A play on words makes this grand finale performance by the LSU musical theatre troupe. This year, “Singo de Mayo’s” program will comprise a medley of Broadway tunes, classics … Continue reading →

A compilation of arts events for the week ahead. SUNDAY, APRIL 28 SUNDAY IN THE PARK: noon-2 p.m., Galvez Plaza Stage, North Boulevard. Performance by the Phunky Monkeys. Free. ASCENSION COMMUNITY THEATRE AUDITIONS: noon-4 p.m., Pasqua Theatre, 823 N. Felicity Ave., Gonzales. General auditions for Damn Yankees. There will be a cold reading at the … Continue reading →

The Manship Student Advisory Board’s presentation of Singin’ in the Rain,” will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 30, at the Manship Theatre in the Shaw Center for the Arts, 100 Lafayette St. The board is made up of two students each from several local high schools chosen by their own schools’ administrations, which have been targeted … Continue reading →

LSU Theatre will present its annual Outworks Festival, an evening of six new, previously unproduced one-act plays with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer themes at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, April 30-May 5, in the LSU Music & Dramatic Arts Studio Theatre, Dalrymple Drive on campus. There will be an additional performance at 2 p.m. Sunday, … Continue reading →

There must not be a pothole in River Road (U.S. 61) between New Orleans and Baton Rouge that Mary Ann Sternberg hasn’t tested. Her venerated Along the River Road, Past and Present on Louisiana’s Historic Byway is in its 3rd edition (also just out from LSU Press). The scenic River Road is dotted with antebellum plantations, quaint towns, quirky attractions and out-of-the-way eateries. Continue reading →

James Salter’s first novel in more than 30 years is technically brilliant, filled with sharply etched characters and dialogue both natural and haunting — but soulless, those same characters repellently self-involved and emotionally bankrupt. Philip Bowman appears first as a junior naval officer at the battle of Okinawa repeating the mantra, “Do your duty fully and absolutely without unnecessary questions or excuses.” Continue reading →

The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC) and the LHA have chosen Lawrence N. Powell’s The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans (Harvard University Press, 2012) winner of the 2012 Kemper and Leila Williams Prize in Louisiana History. The award was announced in Alexandria March 22 at the annual meeting of the Louisiana Historical Association. Powell is … Continue reading →

Best-Sellers for April 28 Continue reading →

VERMILLION, S.D. — A 16th-century Amati violoncello displayed in the National Music Museum has long been nicknamed “The King,” but the ghost of a legendary rock ’n’ roller has arrived in South Dakota to reclaim his regal moniker. A slightly smashed acoustic guitar played by Elvis Presley on his final tour in 1977 now … Continue reading →

Baton Rouge is a finalist in multiple categories in AAA Southern Traveler Magazine’s Best of the South survey. The magazine’s May/June issue includes the ballot for voting for the Best of the South. The Baton Rouge area is listed as a finalist under the following questions: 1. What is the best place for … Continue reading →

BILLINGS, Mont. — A Yellowstone National Park bull elk featured in a BBC film has died after likely being killed by a wolf pack. Park officials confirmed Tuesday that elk No. 10 was found dead near the Wraith Falls trailhead Saturday. He was believed to be between 16 and 18, a ripe old age for … Continue reading →

WARSAW, Poland — Almost nothing remains of the old Warsaw Ghetto: just a half-dozen buildings, a synagogue, some fragments of a brick wall. The rest was blown up by the Germans in their onslaught against the Jews who took up arms against them. Now this Holocaust-era prison of misery and death is undergoing a … Continue reading →

This could be a Pygmalion moment. Forget about the legendary myth of how the Cypriot goldsmith fell in love with his sculpture of a beautiful woman and concentrate on how the goddess Venus magically zapped life into her. Not many sculptors — if any — can say they’ve witnessed this in their own work. Continue reading →

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. But the Baton Rouge Concert Band doesn’t stop there. Make a trip to BREC’s Independence Park Theatre on Sunday, April 21, and you’ll also find yourself mingling with wolves, turkeys, roosters, elephants and even an old sorehead. Musically speaking, of course. Continue reading →

The Techeland Arts Council’s production of its No Hitchin’ folk history series installment, Bayou Storm Rising, opens Friday, April 26, and runs through Wednesday, May 1, at the Teche Theatre for the Performing Arts, 501 Main St., Franklin. The Sunday matinee begins at 2 p.m. All other performances start at 7 p.m. Bayou Storm Rising, … Continue reading →

The Robert A. Bogan Fire Museum Board of Directors will host a Beer Tasting/Crawfish Boil fundraising event from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, April 27, at the Fire Museum in the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge building, 427 Laurel St. This is the second time for the event, which raises funds to restore and … Continue reading →