Downtown at Sundown Looking for Vendors

Plans are set for the 14^th season of Downtown at Sundown, presented by the City of Lake Charles. The format includes free concerts, vendor booths and kids’ entertainment. Event organizers are calling for vendors with artwork, handcrafted items, and other high-quality items to be sold during the four consecutive Fridays. The concerts will take place in the 600 block of Ryan Street from 6-9 p.m. For more information call 337-491-9159 or dfasske@cityoflc.us.

Friends of the Library Book Sale

Artistically Speaking

Karen Wink over at the American Press has produced a new series of web videos that spotlight locals who are bettering our arts community. This endeavor, called Artistically Speaking, is on its third edition which stars local musician and song writer Paul Gonsoulin. If you haven't seen Paul perform, you're missing out on one of the top musical talents in the Lake Area. His hands are in several bands, including Bobcat, Lucy in Disguise, and Hot Damn! I Shot My Man, and he works constantly to develop our music scene.


Check out Karen's video of Paul, which was shot at Central School Arts & Humanities Center!

LA Poet Laureate to Give Bicentennial Reading

With every city and town across the state celebrating the Louisiana Bicentennial all year long, Lake Charles is offering its own series of events to showcase its role in the state's history. The Arts & Humanities Council of SWLA and the Imperial Calcasieu Museum have partnered with the Lake Charles/SWLA Convention & Visitors Bureau to facilitate these events as a way to honor and celebrate our rich history, heritage, and culture.

On Saturday, May 12th, the current Louisiana Poet Laureate, Julie Kane, will give a special poetry reading at the Imperial Calcasieu Museum at 4 p.m. As part of the bicentennial, Kane has been commissioned to compose an original series of poems which use the history of Lake Charles and the bicentennial as inspiration, and this series will be revealed during the May 12th reading which will be held under the arms of the Museum's history 375 year-old Sallier Oak. A reception will follow the reading.

Kane's series will examine the intersection between landscape and identity while united the familiar images and symbols of Southwest Louisiana. "We are honored to have Julie immortalize Lake Charles in this way, and we can't wait for the big reveal," said Susan Reed, executive director of the Museum. "Julie is a true Louisiana poet with a great, fresh perspective of our state's identity. We want to really show the rest of the state how unique Southwest Louisiana is and how we tie into the state's 200 year legacy.

In her approach to the Lake Charles series, Kane picked up local folklorist Keagan LeJeune's book Always for the Underdog: Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War, which details Southwest Louisiana figures that are closely tied to the region's history and identity. Kane also worked with the article "How Louisiana Became a State" by Ron Chapman which appeared in Louisiana Life. "In order to be inspired to write poems responding to the subject of Louisiana's statehood, I had to first feel a personal connection to the subject, and those two historians really brought the era and the politics to life for me," Kane commented.

Kane is also a non-fiction writer, editor, and translator and is the author of several books of poetry with many of her poems appearing widely in anthologies. Kane, who currently lives in Natchitoches, La., was appointed to the position of Louisiana Poet Laureate by Governor Bobby Jindal in 2011, and is a professor of English at Northwestern State University.

Also this month, the Arts Council and the Convention & Visitors Bureau will unveil downtown's newest public art display on Thursday, May 17th, at 2 p.m. Local artist Fred Stark was contracted by the Arts Council to create a bicentennial mural on the south side of locally-operated dessert shop Sweets & Treats. Stark's murals appear in sixteen states, and this large scale bicentennial-themed mural will illustrate our Southwest Louisiana connection to Louisiana's statehood. Composed in three different layers and timelines, the mural will show the visual history of Louisiana from 1812 to 2012.

That evening, Louisiana Public Broadcasting will host a free screening of the bicentennial documentary Louisiana: 200 Years of Statehood at the Benjamin W. Mount Auditorium at Central School at 7 p.m. The documentary is narrated by Harry Connick, Jr., and the public is invited to attend.

The season of bicentennial events in Lake Charles will continue in September with a unique George Rodrigue exhibit titled 200 Years: The Faces & Places of Louisiana. For more information on the reading, call the Museum at 439-3797. For more information on the bicentennial, contact the Convention & Visitors Bureau at 436-9588 or visit www.visitlakecharles.org/bicentennial.

1911 City Hall Presents Edward Woods Exhibition

The City of Lake Charles will present Poetry of Color, by Edward Woods at Historic City Hall Arts and Cultural Center. The exhibition will open with a reception hosted by Mr. Woods on Thursday, May 24 from 5:30-8pm.

Woods was drawn to art at an early age. In the 4th grade, he attended art classes for gifted children at a college in Michigan, where he was born. Later, his family moved to Iowa, Louisiana where he attended middle and high school. Although he had no further training, he surrounded himself with learning and researching art. After serving in the Navy, he returned home and his interest in art was reignited. Woods said, “I love to capture movement, motion, color, depth and atmosphere through the poetry of paint and art media. The excitement is in seeing the piece evolve as I push forward to create something that didn’t exist before.” Poetry of Color will hang through July 21. 

Historic City Hall is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  Admission is free, but donations are gladly accepted.  For more information, please call 491-9147 or visit www.cityoflakecharles.com.

Lake Charles Civic Ballet Presents Spring Performance

Lake Charles Civic Ballet presents its Spring 2012 performance, Sunday, May 20, 3:00 PM at the Rosa Hart Theatre. Admission is Free. The ballet company will present four works, including Stars and Stripes and Sheer Whimsy, both classics from the LCCB Repertoire and new works from Elizabeth Gates and Andrew Anderson, as well as pieces featuring students of Lady Leah Lafargue School of the Dance. 

Stars and Stripes
Photo by Danley Romero

In classic LCCB style, Stars and Stripes beautifully displays the athleticism of the organization's performing company members. This patriotic crowd pleaser is perfect in this bicentennial year for Louisiana! The dancers demonstrate lightening fast pointe work in one of the variations performed by Adelaide Saucier, Katelyn Chargois, Margaret Lie, and Ashley Eaves. In another section, Anne Veillon, Tristan Morgan, Annabelle Bang, and Julia Basone dance with force through petit and grand allegro jumping combinations. And no tribute would be complete without our military men, Andrew Anderson and Adrian Durham. With strength, confidence, and ease, they partner the lovely ladies and LCCB, giving the audience the illusion that these red, white & blue beauties are floating like the stars on Old Glory!

Room for Happiness is a new work choreographed for the Spring Performance by Andrew Anderson. Set to electronic compositions, Fortune Soul by Blackmill and Room for Happiness by Kaskade, the piece has a modern feel. "I wanted to play with the contradicting emotions in the two different pieces of music. Fortune Soul is an upbeat melody with strong beats, very positive and feeing, while Room for Happiness is broken-hearted and distant but still with an uplifting message. The theme would be the struggle of breaking down the barriers that you fight with on a day to day basis, whether it be spiritual, emotional, mental, or physical."

According to Elizabeth Gates, Psalm of Spring was inspired by Spring itself. Ms. Gates selected Handel's Water Music Allegro for this work, and choreographed it on Adelaid Saucier, Katelyn Chargois, and Ashley Eaves. The piece premiered at the November 2011 Sneak Preview and Behind the Scenes with LCCB event at Central School Theatre, hosted by Heather Ieyoub of KVHP/FOX29. Gates says, "This Handel piece, in particular, was so vibrant I just imagined dancers in the place of rushing water of a stream or brook. I imagined after all the ice has melted off the hills and rocks and the water rushes out, giving life to all that need it. I really just wanted to play with the musicality of the dancers in the space; the pure joy of Spring beauty, movement, and music were my inspirations."

Sheer Whimsy
Photo by Danley Romero

Sheer Whimsy, created by Lady Leah Lafargue Hathaway, debuted in 1983 and has been pulled out of the LCCB repertoire once again. It is the story of a sad, male mime (Anderson) who cannot be cheered by the five happy female mimes (Saucier, Chargois, Lie, Eaves, Veillon), despite their best efforts! They coax him with bouquets of flowers that spring open in concert with the choreography. Finally, one of the girls (Saucier) determines that the only way to change his mood is to re-paint his mouth into a smile! Sure enough, the male mime is delighted when he sees his reflection and he joins the girls in the joyous finale. This piece calls to mind the voiceless comedy of Chaplin and provides enthralling character work and expression to draw the audience into the story.

For more information like Lake Charles Civic Ballet on facebook, follow @LC_CivicBallet on Twitter, or visit www.lakecharlescivicballet.com. The Lake Charles Civic Ballet is a 501c3 non-profit organization supported by grants from the Louisiana State Arts Council through the Louisiana Division of the Arts, City of Lake Charles, Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, Southwest Louisiana Convention and Visitors Bureau as administered by the Arts and humanities Council of Southwest Louisiana. LCCB received the 2001 Mayor’s Arts Organization of the Year Award.

Central School Theatre Dedicated to Ben Mount

From left: Ann Knapp; Senator Willie Mount; Friends of Central School chairperson Laura Leach

This past Saturday, Friends of Central School and the City of Lake Charles dedicated Central School's theatre to the late Ben Mount. Without the vision and dedication of Ben, we simply would not have Central School today as a comprehensive arts and cultural center for the region. It is with great excitement that our theatre has been renamed the Benjamin W. Mount Auditorium. If you missed out on the day's events, you can still come by Central School to see Central School: A Visual History in the Black Heritage Gallery which exhibits photographs and artifacts from the center's past as a historic elementary school. You can also purchase Friends of Central School t-shirts and ornaments on the Arts Council's website.