Beth DAddono

Palm Springs, California became famous for being a haven for the Hollywood glitterati, with stars from Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe to the Sinatra-led Rat Pack using the desert city for rambling and rejuvenation. It’s equally renowned for its desert modernism architecture inspiring the Modernism Week that celebrates its form and substance every year.
But Palm Springs is only one of nine desert cities that make up the golf course-studded oases flanked by the San Jacinto Mountains and Joshua ...

Despite a rough 2020 season, the cruise industry is sailing again.
In the pandemic’s earliest days, between February and mid-March 2020, three cruise ship voyages resulted in more than 800 confirmed COVID cases and 10 deaths, according to the CDC. All of a sudden, cruising – an industry that is rabidly adored by an estimated 30 million passengers every year – became dangerous to one’s health.
The CDC essentially closed cruising down on March 14, 2020 – the same time lockdowns reverberated aro...

Hangovers aren’t a rare malady in New Orleans, where drinks are ordered to go and self-restraint is an endangered species. Thank goodness that yaka mein, also known as yaka meat or Old Sober, is this town’s tried and true hangover cure, best slurped late at night or when you’re rolling out of bed the next morning looking for hefty chow.
A staple at second lines (sort of like a mobile musical party that you can join as it passes by) and city festivals, this crossbreed of Asian and African Amer...

Like many people who find success from hard work, Dwynesha “Chef Dee” Lavigne says yes first, then figures it out on the back end. It’s how she wound up with her own pastry business Deelightful Desserts; how she landed a regular cooking spot on WWL on Sunday mornings; and it’s why she’s the newly named education director of cooking classes at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum (SoFab) in New Orleans.
Lavigne’s baking comes in all kinds of forms, including Deelightful Bites, mini-cake desse...

Mardi Gras house floats saved the day for pandemic carnival lovers.

The video features Dee-1, flanked by Black Masking Indians, whose culture the phrase pulls from.
JD Carrere is hyper-aware that Black Masking Indians (also know as Mardi Gras Indians) are not a brand.
Carrere, a local son and senior content manager for the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans, was charged with coordinating the Pelicans promo video for the second season with the theme “Won’t Bow Down.” The organization introduced the phrase to its games last season, and this time they wanted to mak...

McCormick has written for Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Trisha Yearwood, Kelly Clarkson and more.
When Grammy-nominated multi-platinum country music songwriter Jim McCormick was growing up in Lower Aurora, not far from the Navy Base where his dad worked, the Mississippi levee was his backyard playground.
“I’d be horrified if my boys swam in the river and played on the batture, but we sure did,” he recalled.
High school music & New Orleans roots
Growing up in New Orleans exposed McCormick to much m...

With a $500 million goal, Change Can’t Wait will create transformative educational opportunities for students, advance research with impact, and build stronger communities locally, nationally, and globally. Why us? Changemaking is in our DNA. Why now? We know change can’t wait.
Campaign Pillars
We promote student thriving in a diverse, inclusive environment that supports innovative minds and the purposes they courageously pursue. To help prepare these changemakers, we strive to make an AU edu...

In Louisiana, Black people account for 33 percent of the state’s residents, but make up 52 percent of people in jail and 67 percent of people in prison, according to the Vera Institute of Justice. And the numbers are even worse in New Orleans. Although Black males between the ages of 15 and 84 represent only 26 percent of the city’s population, in 2017, they represented 81 percent of people in jail. These numbers tell the story — Black communities are disproportionately impacted by the many e...

The colors and flavors Choto pairs pop off her custom made boards.
Elizabeth Choto composes platters of charcuterie, fruit and veggies like an artist creates a still life. Combining an artful eye, attention to detail, and appreciation for color and texture, she’s conjured a new business for herself, Graze Dat.
Choto, 45, spent 20 years in education, including time in New Orleans implementing programs for middle and high schools for Johns Hopkins University. Born and raised in rural Zimbabwe, ...

Extending into a parklet and teaming up with a local restaurant have kept the drinks flowing at this dive bar, despite COVID-19.
Drive down Franklin Avenue from St. Claude towards the river, and by the time you cross Dauphine, it’s apparent that the street has gotten an upgrade. A few blighted houses have gotten a much needed sprucing. And then there’s Pepp’s, which took over Cutter’s bar at number 706 when bars opened back up in June.
A new parklet for a neighborhood spot
A gradated blue pai...

You can find favorites like vegan mac and cheese on the menu at Coalesce Goods
Ginger beef lettuce wraps with rice noodles, chicken and waffles, marinated tuna bowl with avocado and edamame, braised brisket with bacon mac and cheese. Sounds hearty, yes? What if we told you it was vegan? In fact, there’s no meat, fish, cheese or eggs in any of the food on the menu at Coalesce Goods, which opened in St. Roch Market on Feb. 12.
Chef Jas Rogers and Alex Davis are culinary alchemists, working magi...

New Orleans locals should check out Batture, the hotel bar offers drinks, small plates and brunch
There hasn’t been a hotel opening in the French Quarter for more than 50 years, but that was going to change if Wayne Ducote got his way.
Ducote, a local real estate developer in the parking lot business, isn’t the kind of guy who gives up easily. A competitive race car driver, Ducote spent his 70th birthday driving in the Indy Grand Prix NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale. That was five years ago...