It's only the fifty-fourth largest city in the United States-down from fifth largest two hundred years ago-but it occupies a much larger place in the national mind than, say, Arlington, Texas, or Mesa, Arizona, where more people live. There's the food, the neighborhoods, the music, the historic architecture, the Mississippi River, Mardi Gras. But the love for New Orleans stands in contrast to the story that cold, rational statistics tell.
A few months after Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana in August 2005, Jenna Jordan went on a search for other queer women. She was looking for camaraderie with people like herself who had returned to New Orleans after the storm. Some neighborhoods with sizable gay populations such as the French Quarter were largely spared from flooding, but areas with queer people of color and lesbians, such as Mid-City, weren't as fortunate.
"I was so against charter schools. I thought it was the pits," says Mary Haynes-Smith, the school's longtime principal. Haynes-Smith didn't like what she'd heard from parents that they felt shut out by the private organizations hired to run the charter schools. But as New Orleans crept closer to becoming the country's first all-charter system in the 2010s, the handful of traditional schools left, including Bethune Elementary, started feeling more pressure. "It was a forceful thing," she remembers.
The Roosevelt New Orleans, opened in 1893, is a luxury hotel with deep historical roots in New Orleans and has hosted legendary guests and U.S. presidents.
The five-bedroom, 5.5-bathroom abode has had many lives since it was built in 1856, starting with its original design by architect Louis E. Reynolds.
"I've been waiting my whole career to make this album," Big Freedia said in a statement. "The church always spoke to me: the drama, the choir, and the attire. We are in uncertain times. I'm hoping fans can get some faith and hope from this album."
New Orleans has a long history of drama, beauty, scandal, [and] resilience, how the color and the unique flavor the culture is imbued with has influenced the design scene beyond its city limits in a massive way.