Clare Martin to present 'Crone' dramatic reading

Clare Martin

WHAT: Crone: a Dramatic Reading

WHEN: Friday, Jan. 25, 2019 at 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Teche Center for the Arts, 210 E. Bridge Street, Breaux Bridge

ADMISSION: $5 to benefit Teche Center of the Arts

Teche Center for the Arts presents a dramatic reading of poet Clare L. Martin’s newly-published book, “Crone” at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan 25, in Breaux Bridge. The stage will be set to explore mystical womanhood and the supernatural and natural worlds. Crone visits the cycles of life in its narrative through the voice of the Crone and the voice of her maiden apprentice. Bessie Senette will embody the “Crone” and Clare L. Martin will appear as the “Maiden” who learns secrets of life, birth, the body, spirit, and death that only the Crone possesses. Copies of “Crone” will be available for purchase and a book-signing will follow the performance.

Bessie Senette

Light hors-d'oeuvres will be served. Beer, wine and sodas will be available for purchase at the no-host bar. Admission is $5, which supports TCA’s mission to educate and enliven through arts, educational programs and the preservation and promotion of Cajun and Creole culture. Tickets can be purchased at the door.

Praise for “Crone,” available from Nixes Mate Books:

“Clare Martin’s ‘Crone’ is a feast for eyes and ears, seductive in its use of both imagery and sound. Celebrating the sometimes terrifying, sometimes life-giving teachings of the wise woman, Crone evokes a woman’s coming-to-power, an epic “cronesong” of spells and potions in the form of poetry.”  —Sheryl St. Germain, author of The Small Door of Your Death.

“Clare Martin’s ‘Crone’ glows equal parts magic, music, and muscle. Her lines are laced with ambergris and jasmine, ghosts and wolfbreath. I would call Martin’s art a gorgeous dream, but that would ignore the blood, bone, and heart that drive this book at its core. Crone is the creation of a poet at the height of her powers, in full voice, and mesmerizing. Immerse yourselves in these lines, friends. You’ll rise from their waters cleansed and awed.”—Jack B. Bedell, author of No Brother, This Storm, Poet Laureate, State of Louisiana, 2017-2019

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“Clare L. Martin is a mysterious spellcaster. ‘Crone’ is a lush and dizzying monster of a poem. Coming through it made me see the world anew.”—Luis Alberto Urrea, author of House of Broken Angels

For more information, contact Sandra Sarr or Clare Martin at (337) 205-2279 or info@techecenterforthearts.com

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

'Making New Orleans' a gorgeous homage to products created in Crescent City

             I’m with Julia Reed. Although being a native of New Orleans and long knowing some of the products hailing from the Crescent City, I had no idea it was such a bastion of manufacturing. And like Reed, who writes the foreword to the impressive “Making New Orleans: Products Past and Present,” I’m indebted to Phillip Collier for producing such a valuable tome to my home town.

            The coffee table book published by Philbeau Pulbishing of New Orleans showcases the many products hailing from the city, with each chapter providing background information from several of the city’s historians, educators and journalists. Production values are superb, accented by gorgeous graphics and photographs from numerous city archives.

            Readers will definitely come away with a better appreciation of what New Orleans offered the world, some familiar like coffee and chicory and some surprising, such as Wesson Oil, Progresso Quality Foods (yes, the soup people) and major sugar and molasses distributors. There were numerous sodas produced here, including Barq’s and its dual life before being purchased by Coca Cola. Perhaps the first American dressmaker to label her clothes was Madame Olympe of New Orleans. And today’s Warehouse District was home to massive cotton mills — who knew?

            “Making New Orleans” is a gorgeous book and makes an excellent gift to those who love Louisiana history. Kudos to Collier and company for collecting such fascinating information within such a stunning book.

Creole World

            My father embodied New Orleans. He studied everything about the city’s nuances and culture and shared them with every tourist he could find. One thing I vividly remember of our trips to the French Quarter was my father insisting the old quarter wasn’t French, pointing out the Roman arches, courtyards and balconies built during the Spanish regime. Today, Vieux Carré streets contain markers detailing their Latin names during that time.

            We natives also love to say New Orleans is the uppermost quadrant of the Caribbean — which isn’t too far off if you read Richard Sexton’s gorgeous new photo exploration of New Orleans and its ties to all points south. “Creole World: Photographs of New Orleans and the Latin Caribbean Sphere,” published by the Historic New Orleans Collection examines the connections, particularly in architecture, between New Orleans and Latin America, based on Sexton’s years of living in one and traveling to another. He compares images from Haiti, Panama City, Cuba, Colombia, Argentina and Ecuador.

            Sexton argues that “New Orleans’s uniqueness is hardly uncommon,” that many cities of the world can claim its attributes. Just not in the United States, he writes: “New Orleans, I came to learn, is unique in that it is the United States’ sole outpost of the Creole world.”

            The book consists of 200 color images by Sexton accompanied by his text and includes essays by Creole architecture scholar Jay D. Edward and photography historian John H. Lawrence.

            An exhibit of Sexton’s photos are also on display at the Collection and the author will sign copies of his book and discuss the contents from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Laura Simon Nelson Galleries, 400 Chartres St. in New Orleans. Books will be sold at the event and are also available in the Collection’s gift shop.

            In addition, Sexton will discuss the book at the Fine Print Book Club June 20 and 21 at the Collection.

            For more information on these and other events, visit www.hnoc.org. The “Creole World” exhibit remains up until December.

Edsel visit

            Robert M. Edsel, author of “The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History,” on which a film was made last year, will visit Shreveport Saturday, April 26, for the Authors in April fundraiser to benefit the Pioneer Heritage Center on the campus of Louisiana State University-Shreveport. Edsel is the founder and president of the Monuments Men Foundation, an organization that honors the legacy of the men and women who served in the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section, known as the “Monuments Men,” and their work protecting and safeguarding artistic and cultural treasures from armed conflict during World War II. Edsel is also the author of “Rescuing Da Vinci,” and co-producer of the Emmy-nominated “The Rape of Europa,” a documentary based on the award-winning 2006 book. He will be speaking on the topic of his latest book, “Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis,” a follow-up account of two of the Monuments Men.

New releases

            Renae Friedly collects the history of Breaux Bridge in photos in “Breaux Bridge,” a new book from Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series. Highlights of the book include images from personal collections of local residents, photos from the first Crawfish Festival, history of the area and more. Friedley is a writer and photographer in Baton Rouge and publisher of The Gulf Coast Arts & Entertainment Review for nine years. Friedley recently presented the photograph exhibition, “Loving Louisiana — Celebrating the Cultures & Traditions of South Louisiana” at Le Musé in New Orleans. She will receive her Masters of Art in Museum Studies from Southern University at New Orleans in May.

            Ellen Gilchrist, once a resident of New Orleans, received the 1984 National Book Award for Fiction for her short story collection, “Victory Over Japan.” She returns with her first short story collection in eight years with “Acts of God” by Algonquin Press. She now lives in Fayetteville, Ark., where she teaches creative writing at the University of Arkansas, and shares her time in Ocean Springs, Miss.

            John Dufresne, author of “Louisiana Power and Light,” has published “No Regrets, Coyote,” in which forensic consultant Wylie “Coyote” Melville is summoned to a horrific crime scene on Christmas Eve in Eden, Florida. Five members of the Halliday family have been brutally killed. As Wylie begins his own investigation he discovers a web of corruption involving the police union, Ponzi-scheming lawyers, county politicians, and the Russian mob.

            Dr. Sara Ritchey, an associate professor in the University of Louiaiana-Lafayette History Department has just released her book, “Holy Matter: Changing Perceptions of the Material World in Late Medieval Christianity,” published by Cornell University Press.

Chapbook workshop

              Poet and author J. Bruce Fuller brings his Chapbook Workshop to NUNU Arts and Culture Collective's NUNU yoU program from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 3-4, in Arnaudville. Participants will construct and fill their own chapbook, and learn the means to publish. The cost is $80, $60 for NUNU members, for six hours of instruction; call (337) 484-9190. A chapbook is a small collection of poetry, generally no more than 30-35 pages, typically saddle-stitched (like a pamphlet or magazine) and well suited to smaller print-runs. Fuller, who teaches English at UL, has this year published three chapbooks of poetry and short stories. NUNU Arts and Culture Collective is located at 1510 Courtableau Road in Arnaudville. For more information visit: http://www.nunucollective.org.

Cheré Coen is the author of “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana,” both from The History Press, and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” She teaches writing at UL-Lafayette’s Continuing Education. Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.

Irwin pens history of crawfish in Louisiana

            I vividly remember the first time I visited the Crawfish Festival. I owned a tin box of a Datsun and piled a group of my friends inside for the ride from LSU to Breaux Bridge. In addition to the great music and dancing, we ate boiled crawfish from plastic tubular bags while sitting on a curb, the juice dripping down our arms. On the way home we stopped at Pat’s in Henderson for more crawfish and libations, ending one of the most enjoyable days I had in college.

            Sam Irwin brought back those fun memories in his new book which tackles the history of our state’s mudbugs, “Louisiana Crawfish: A Succulent History of the CajunCrustacean,” published by The History Press. The book details how our love affair with crawfish began and really took off with the advent of the industry, its trials and heydays and enjoying crawfish today. There’s also plenty on that now famous Crawfish Festival in Breaux Bridge, designated the “Crawfish Capital of the World” at the town’s 1959 centennial.

            The book is full of great photos and includes some wonderful recipes, some from historic places such as the original étouffée recipe of Mrs. Charles Hebert and Aline Guidry. It’s a great tribute to those who started it all, making the current crawfish fisheries a $210 million industry.

            Irwin is the product of a “mixed marriage,” his father being a north Louisiana native and his mother from Cajun Country. The Baton Rouge freelance journalist has worked for the Louisiana Market Bulletin and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

            Upcoming book events for “Louisiana Crawfish” include a talk and signing at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, at Octavia Books in New Orleans, 2 p.m. Saturday, March 22, at Barnes & Noble Baton Rouge, 7 p.m. March 27 at the Thensted Center in Grand Coteau, titled “Stories of Crawfish and The Way Things Used to Be” as part of the Festival of Words, and at noon March 28 at LSU-Eunice.

Heart Wide Open

            Shellie Rushing Tomlinson is known for her distinctive Southern-style humor in books such as “Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On” and “Sue Ellen’s GirlAin’t Fat, She Just Weighs Heavy!” She also pens the popular blog, “All Things Southern” and is the host of the weekly radio broadcast, “All Things Southern LIVE.”

            The latest book from the Lake Providence author comes after she questioned the depth of her relationship with God, discovering that she was a good church-going Christian but lacked the deep feeling that others were experiencing. The result is an interesting new book, “Heart Wide Open: Trading Mundane Faith for anExuberant Life with Jesus,” that not only encourages readers to find God but to develop an intimate experience. As with her other books, the style is friendly, engaging and all things Southern.

            For more information on Tomlinson’s books and to check out her blog, hear podcasts, watch videos and other fun offerings from this versatile woman, visit http://www.belleofallthingssouthern.com/

             Tomlinson signs “Heart Wide Open” from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, at Every Occasion, 703 Prairie St. in Winnsboro and on March 25 at the Barnes & Noble
in Shreveport.

New releases

            Clifton Taulbert, author of the bestseller “Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored,” has published a memoir, “The Invitation,” chronicling the transformative experience Taulbert had in accepting an invitation to supper in Allendale, South Carolina. At a former plantation house the author confronts his childhood memories and wrestles with legacies of slavery and segregation that return to haunt him. Seeing cotton fields and shotgun shacks that remind him of his growing up years in racially segregated Mississippi, Taulbert realizes that he is now asked to cross racial barriers that no “colored” man could previously have crossed without dire consequences. Taulbert is the author of five other books and president and CEO of Roots Java Coffee and the founder and president of the Building Community Institute.

            C.S. Harris of Baton Rouge has just published the ninth book in her Sebastian St. Cyr Regency mystery series, “Why Kings Confess.”

            New York Times-bestselling series author Nevada Barr has sold an untitled Anna Pigeon novel, which features a National Park Service Ranger who solves mysteries in her job. The book will be published in the winter of 2016, a sequel to her 2014 novel “Destroyer Angel.” Barr lives in New Orleans.

Gueydan Bookstore

            A couple of weeks ago we wrote about a new bookstore in Abbeville named Kjuntales. This week we got the following letter: “Were you aware that our little bookstore in Vermilion Parish has been open and at the same location for 12 years?” asked Sean Gayle, who owns Patti’s Book Nook in Gueydan with James Gayle. “We sell new, used, rare, signed and local author’s works. We also sell art, original and limited prints of local artists.” The bookstore has more than 10,000 books in stock and online from four different independent bookstores at the website www.pattisbooknook.net. “We also have a presence on Amazon at www.amazon.com/shops/pattisbooknook,” Gayle added. “We are hidden in Gueydan, but we have a large reach since we ship around the world.

Library Book Sale

            The Friends of the Lafayette Public Library Spring Book Sale is this week, with the members’ preview sale from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday and the public sale from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Heymann Convention Center Ballroom. Gently used hardcover and paperback books will be sold by the inch and proceeds benefit the library. For information, call 501-9209.

Book events

            Native Irishman Brian O’Nuanain will offer Irish humor, storytelling, folklore, songs and literature from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. today, March 16, at South Regional Library.

            The Lafayette libraries will host a “Divergent” pin craft for teens from March Tuesday, March 18 through Thursday, March 20, 
at the Jefferson Street, North Regional and South Regional
 branches.

            Riders on the Orphan Train Performance will be from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, at the
Opelousas Public Library, 212 E. Grolee St, Opelousas. The Riders will present a 60-minute show through original storytelling, songwriting and video montage performance followed by 30 minutes of audience discussion. For more information, call (337) 948-3693 or visit http://www.ridersontheorphantrain.org.

            The Center for Louisiana Studies is hosting a screening and roundtable discussion on documentary filmmaking at 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 19, in the Oliver Hall Auditorium, Room 112, on the UL campus in Lafayette. A second screening will be at 6 p.m. at the South Regional Library. The screenings will be of “McCrea 1971: The Story of Louisiana’s Forgotten Rock Festival” and “Louisiana During World War II” with filmmakers Jerry Sanson, Scott Caro and Bill Robison. Both events are free and open to the public.

            Judy Gentry, retired UL-Lafayette History Department faculty member will discuss “General Kirby-Smith's Leadership in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1863” at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 20, in the Gaines Center Hallway, third floor of UL Dupré Library in Lafayette. A Q and A will follow the talk.

            Angela Carll, author of “Where Writers Wrote in New Orleans” will talk about the book and sign copies from noon to 2 p.m. Friday, March 21, at Tulane University Bookstore in New Orleans.

            Ragin’ Cajun Boxing Club coach Deirdre Gogarty, the first Irishwoman to become a world champion, will speak about her book, “My Call to the Ring,” and talk about how she came to Acadiana to live out her dream at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 22 at North Regional Library in Lafayette. A book sale and signing will follow the discussion.

            Kjuntales, Etc. bookstore will feature its second “Meet the Artist” night with Bryant Benoit from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, March 22, at 309 Pere Megret St. in Abbeville. For information on monthly activities, email owners Sheila Hebert Friedland and Mark Friedland at kjuntale66@yahoo.com or call (337) 740-0889.

Cheré Coen is the author of “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana,” both from The History Press, and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” She teaches writing at UL-Lafayette’s Continuing Education. Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.