A friend insisted that I write a blog post about my new home in New Orleans so I feel the need to finally oblige him. To call it home is still a bit strange, because how can one be at home in such a magical place like New Orleans? Vines have swallowed up many a crumbling shotgun house and when I step out into my backyard in the evening I hear someone practicing their trombone on Music St. (yes, I live one block from Music St.)
I arrived at a great time for this city. Within 3 weeks the Saints had won their first Super Bowl ever and despite being a newcomer I participated in the celebration. Riding my bike to the French Quarter after the final second of the game passed, I was immediately swept into a second line parade that had thousand second liners. We took over the street and stopped traffic but no one cared, pedestrians or cars, because the beloved Saints had finally won.
Of course, the Saints win was just at the beginning of Carnival season and Mardi Gras was only a week away. There is no way to relay how unreal Mardi Gras was other than to say that it felt as if there was no other place in the world except New Orleans. My favorite parade was the Krewe of Eris, which was a participatory, DIY parade that ran through the Marigny (my neighborhood) through the French Quarter and back to the Marigny. While most parades are permitted and sanctioned, Eris was not. This is in holding true to the namesake; Eris is the goddess of chaos and discord. We marched through the streets with a twenty piece brass band and no particular route. It was glorious and empowering. The night ended with a tropical downpour and me returning home with a box of wine I somehow came across along the way.
Thankfully, I made it out of Mardi Gras alive and am getting deep into the semester at school. Class is a little bit dry and I am thinking of switching to the Masters of Urban Studies program, which is more theoretical and research based. Meanwhile, I’m interning at the Creative Alliance of New Orleans where I am working with my colleague Katherine to develop programming for an arts incubator. I get to visit artist work studios and entrepreneur incubators and do research for community development through the arts. I also just got a job at Metromix, a nightlife guide based out of Chicago that’s opening a new site in New Orleans. I’ll be writing reviews and building the community down here to get more people participating.
As for the magic of New Orleans? Well, I step out my front door in the morning and can smell the Mississippi River. I take long walks on Saturday and stop in Jackson Square to hear gypsy music. Last Sunday night I went to a speakeasy party at a house that looked as if Boo Radley’s skeleton lived there. I ride my bike around late at night through the Bywater and French Quarter and sometimes it’s so foggy you can’t see the end of the street. I try and frequent the Candlelight Lounge where the Treme Brass Band plays for tips on Wednesday nights. The Candlelight is on a dark residential street in the Treme, a few blocks from where jazz itself was born.
My house has imperfections and I am the middle room in a 3 bedroom shotgun. I have two yellow walls and soon will be building a bamboo canopy for my bed. My roommates are architects, community developers, and a swing dancer. I meet a new person almost everyday. My neighborhood borders on dangerous and I love it for that; cities are unpredictable and chaotic and New Orleans is no different. I’m still getting used to it all but in truth, I want it to continue to be enigmatic. Secrets are alluring and not knowing is sometimes the best remedy for this modern world.
Yeah… That’s the flavor…