Louisiana's Bicentennial Continues

Southwest Louisiana is steeped in folklore, pirate myths, Cajun and Creole cultures, history, and heritage, and the Arts Council and the Imperial Calcasieu Museum are working to preserve this legendary past within the verse of our Louisiana Poet Laureate, Julie Kane, in honor of the state's bicentennial. The Lake Charles Convention & Visitors Bureau is coordinating with the Museum to commission Kane to write a series of poems specifically about our own identity and its relationship to the state's expansive history.

Kane's acclaimed poetry spans across seven collections, and her work has become the voice of Louisiana through its celebratory imagery of both the raw and rapturous, the beautiful and the obscene within Louisiana herself. Her work, which appears in several prominent poetry anthologies, examines the contrast between her childhood spent up north (she was born in Massachusetts) and her later years in the South. Kane's poetry reflects an influence of the Confessional Poets as she was a student of Anne Sexton at Boston University during the time of Sexton's suicide. With her poems existing at the intersection of landscape and identity, Kane's understanding and perspective of the Louisiana heritage resides at the core of her work, and Lake Charles is proud to become the inspiration for this new series of poems.

On Saturday, May 12th, at 4 p.m., Julie Kane will give a reading of her work, including the commissioned poetry series, underneath the arms of the 375 year-old historic Sallier Oak, which was the site of the winter home of Charles Sallier -- the city's namesake. For details, visit www.artsandhumanitiesswla.org or www.visitlakecharles.org.

Poetry Out Loud!

For four years now, the Arts Council has partnered with the Louisiana Division of the Arts to present Poetry Out Loud in Southwest Louisiana. This innovative program began in 2005 when the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation came together to yield a program that has revolutionized the role of poetry in high schools. Poetry Out Loud challenges high school students to study and memorize poetry in a competitive setting while building public speaking skills, confidence, and character. Last year, the Louisiana State Champion, David Douglas, came from Washington-Marion High School in Lake Charles, and he will serve as a special guest judge at Regionals.

On Friday, February 17th, at 6 p.m., high school students representing several schools in the Lake Area will compete at the Central School Theater as part of Poetry Out Loud’s Southwest Louisiana Regional Competition. The students who compete at the Regional level have already made it through the first round of competition at their schools or local library. Poetry Out Loud challenges high school students to memorize and recite poetry on stage in a competitive setting.

From left: Justine Chiappetta of the Poetry Foundation;
David Douglas, State Champion; Dana LaFonta of
Louisiana Division of the Arts

Our judges include: Sherry Perkins, president of the Bayou Writers Group; J. Bruce Fuller, widely published poet; Jason Martinez of IberiaBank; Mindy Schwarzauer of O'Carroll Group; and David Douglas, Poetry Out Loud's 2011 Louisiana State Champion.

During this difficult budgetary time for the arts and education in Louisiana, it is important to continue supporting innovative programs such as Poetry Out Loud that produce concrete and beneficial results for both students and education. Matt Young, Executive Director of the Arts Council, stated, “The Arts Council’s camaraderie with the Louisiana Division of the Arts elevates the goals of education by giving students a solid foundation with regional and state organizations that strive to provide area residents with a strong climate for creative thinking.”

The top three students at the Regional Competition will not only win prizes but will also go on to compete with students from across Louisiana at the State Competition in Baton Rouge, and the state winner will receive a cash prize and a stipend for his or her school for the purchase of poetry books. The National Competition will be held in Washington D.C. and will award over $50,000 in prizes and stipends, including a $20,000 cash prize for the National Champion.

A Weekend of Readings

Throughout Louisiana there are pockets of literary communities that act as gravitational forces for poets and writers from across the country -- Grand Coteau, New Orleans, and Lake Charles to name a few. Our literary community isn't anything new; McNeese boasts one of the top fifty creative writing MFA programs in the country which draws great literary talent and has produced a constant stream of skilled poets and writers since 1981.

This past year, Lake Charles became home to at least four reading series all running simultaneously with one another and each covering a specific reading platform. McNeese holds readings year round that invite widely published poets and writers from across the nation to come hold individual conferences with MFA students as well as public readings. Stellar Beans also holds a regular open mic night that incorporates slam and performance poetry into the mix.

Back in January 2011, the Arts Council partnered with the Porch Coffee House & Cafe to co-sponsor a monthly reading series that focuses on both unpublished and published writers in the area, and the First Friday Reading Series has become one of our favorite events to look forward to each month. In the past year we've featured both poetry and fiction readings by MFA students, PhD candidates at ULL, Darrell Bourque, our previous Louisiana Poet Laureate, the Bayou Writers Group, and local writers.

Tonight our First Friday Reading Series continues with a fiction reading by J.D. Hibbitts and Scott Thomason at the Porch. The reading is free and begins at 7 pm. Both Hibbitts and Thomason are in their final semester at McNeese's MFA program. Also this weekend, McNeese is hosting a poetry reading by Arkansas poet Greg Brownderville on Saturday at 7:30 pm in the LaJeunesse Room in the Old Ranch on campus. In order to create a supply of readings, the community must show a demand, so get out this weekend to support your literary scene!

Louisiana's Bicentennial!

Our Louisiana heritage and identity is over 200 years in the making, and 2012 marks our statehood's bicentennial birthday! The Arts Council and the Imperial Calcasieu Museum are working closely with the Lake Charles Convention & Visitors Bureau to give Southwest Louisiana a series of bicentennial events and programs throughout the year. In the next few weeks, you'll see a plethora of events that help promote our bicentennial, and we are coordinating our own to headline our Southwest Louisiana connection. Over the next few days, we'll spotlight each of our bicentennial events as well as our Lake Charles centennial celebrations.

Fred Stark

We're thrilled to announced that downtown Lake Charles will see the addition of a new public art project this spring! On the south side of the locally-operated dessert shop Sweets & Treats, local artist Fred Stark will paint a large scale bicentennial and centennial themed mural that will illustrate our own connection to Louisiana's long history. 


You may have heard that four Lake Charles landmarks will also have a reason to celebrate. After the Great Fire of 1910, which destroyed over a hundred buildings in only four hours, Lake Charles development boomed as residents came together to rebuild many of the structures that were leveled in the fire. Composed in three layers and timelines, Stark's mural will show the visual history of Louisiana from 1812 to 2012 and will include our local ties to our centennial anniversaries of Central School Arts & Humanities Center, the historic Calcasieu Parish Courthouse, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and Margaret Place Historic District.

Stark is the owner of Fred Stark Design & Illustrations, and his work, which is perhaps best known locally through the scenic designs of the Lake Charles Civic Ballet, spans across over sixteen states. The mural is set to be completed during the spring of 2012. For more information, call the Arts Council office at 439-ARTS.

Poetry Out Loud!

Poetry Out Loud is back! The Arts Council is working with the Louisiana Division of the Arts to present the 2012 round of this innovative arts education program. Poetry Out Loud was initiated in 2005 by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, and it's designed to challenge high school students to memorize and recite poetry in a competitive setting.

From left: Justine Chiappetta of the Poetry Foundation, David Douglas, and Dana LaFonta of the Louisiana Division of the Arts

Last year, our Louisiana State Champion came from Lake Charles's Washington-Marion High School. David Douglas competed at the national tier of the competition in Washington, D.C. for the chance to win over $50,000 in awards and scholarships, including a $20,000 prize for the National Champion.

Schools and libraries across Southwest Louisiana have been tasked with hosting the first tier of the competition, and this year six schools and libraries will send their top contestants to our Southwest Louisiana Regional Competition on Friday, February 17th. Students will compete at 6 p.m. in the Central School theatre, and the top three competitors will go on to compete at the State Competition in March. Prizes will be awarded at Regionals, and a reception will be held afterwards. For details, contact us at 439-ARTS.

Live @ the Lakefront Logo Revealed!

We're thrilled to reveal our official Live @ the Lakefront logo! We can't wait to give Lake Charles this brand new music festival that will celebrate the new Lakefront Promenade and the downtown identity! We are booking bands this week, so stay tuned for a complete list of performances! We will also have live art demonstrations, artist booths, and great food! Call us at 439-ARTS for details.

Arts Council Sponsors Folklore Society Film Screening

LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana (February 2012)—.  The new documentary T-Galop: a Louisiana Horse Story will premier on Thursday, March 15th at 7:00 pm at the Central School Arts and Humanities Center in Lake Charles as part of the Louisiana Folklore Society’s Annual Meeting being hosted by McNeese State University.

T-Galop is the recent creation by Conni Castille who made I Always Do My Collars First (2007), and Raised on Rice and Gravy (2009), and King Crawfish (2010). The film screening is co-sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Council of Southwest Louisiana.

Nick Spitzer, Amercian Routes, consulted with Castille on the film (Spitzer is also the invited Keynote Speaker for the Annual Meeting and will address the public on Friday, March 16, 7:00 p.m. at Stokes Auditorium). “T-Galop takes the audience deep into the horse play and work of French Louisiana,” says Spitzer, adding that “Cajun and Creole cowboy and cattle traditions are revealed from colonial times to present day swimming herds, bush tracks, zydeco cowboys, mounted Mardi Gras revelers, knightly “tournois”, workaday ranchers and famed jockeys. It’s all there.”

Indeed, in T-Galop, Creole cowboys, Cajun jockeys, Cotton Knights and Mardi Gras revelers reveal the long history and blend between Creoles and Cajuns and the horses they love. “This equine love affair began more than 250 years ago on the first ranches of South Louisiana where Creoles became some of American’s first cowboys,” explains Castille, the film’s writer and director. Not only essential to hard ranch work, horses were often the focus of French Louisiana’s renowned joie de vivre. “The Creole and Cajun idea of `passing a good time’ of course made its way into their horse culture, like the old bush track racing that birthed so many great jockeys, or the Mardi Gras horseback riders, or the leisurely Creole trail rides,” says Castille. T-Galop romps playfully across South Louisiana through professional sports to community rituals bearing witness to a modern horse culture that was born many centuries ago.

T-Galop: a Louisiana Horse Story will in Lake Charles at the Central School, 809 Kirby Street on Thursday, March 15th, at 7:00 pm. Admission is free. Donations will be accepted to benefit the Louisiana Folklore Society. For more information on the screening or the Folklore Society’s Annual Meeting, call (337) 277-5292, or e-mail connicastille@gmail.com. T-Galop was supported in part by grants from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, Louisiana Entertainment, Louisiana Economic Development Association, and the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism.