Two mid-March book events examine Louisiana culture.

Two mid-March book events examine Louisiana culture.

March 13

John Laudun discusses his book "The Amazing Crawfish Boat" at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 13, the downtown branch of the Lafayette Public Library, 301 W. Congress, Lafayette. The event is part of the Bayou State Book Talks, a monthly discussion series led by Louisiana authors and co-sponsored by the Center for Louisiana Studies, UL Lafayette and the Lafayette Public Library System.

In any given year, the Louisiana crawfish harvest tops 50,000 tons. Laudun chronicles the development of an amphibious boat that transformed the Louisiana prairies into a powerhouse of aquaculture alongside agriculture. In seeking to understand how such a machine came into being, the author describes the ideas and traditions that have long been a part of the landscape and how they converged at a particular time to create a new economic opportunity for both the rice farmers who used them and the fabricators who made them.

Laudun is the Doris H. Meriwether/BORSF Endowed Professor of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His work has appeared in African American Review, Journal of American Folklore, and other scholarly journals, and his expertise has been cited in the New York Times and many other national outlets.

The author will have books available for purchase and signing.

March 14

University of Chicago doctoral candidate William Buckingham will speak on “Remembering Isleno Decimas: Louisiana’s Lost Tradition of Spanish Ballad Singing” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 14, at the Acadian Cultural Center, 501 Fisher Road, Lafayette. The event is being sponsored by the Center for Louisiana Studies, in partnership with the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve.

Buckingham’s research centers on the Isleno decima, a unique genre of Spanish folk song from St. Bernard Parish in southeast Louisiana. Louisiana's Hispanic heritage is a significant, if often forgotten, facet of the state’s cultural mixture. An introductory overview of this heritage will provide context for close listening and analysis of some examples of recorded decimas. This rich and diverse repertory attests to both ancient origins in medieval Spanish romances, brought by colonists from the Canary Islands in the 18th century, as well as more recent influences from both a regional circum-Gulf Hispanic culture and a rich local multicultural milieu. Today, the decima is no longer vital as a musical practice, resulting from the decline of the unique dialect of Isleno Spanish, decades of land loss, hurricanes, and the decline of the communities that once sustained the tradition. In closing, Buckingham will consider the significance of these recent developments within the broader context of Louisiana's diverse cultural heritage and unfolding ecological crisis.

Doors open at 6 pm and the presentation will begin at 6:30 pm.

Louisiana Book News is written by award-winning author Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes romances and mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Her first book in each series is FREE to download as an ebook, including "A Ghost of a Chance," the first Viola Valentine mystery.