Disasters
2016 Floods
A rainy weekend in August 2016 unexpectedly left behind more than three times the amount of rain dropped by Hurricane Katrina, damaging 146,000 homes in fifty-six of Louisiana’s sixty-four parishes.
Lafayette
Lafayette Index
Music
BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet
Formed during the Cajun revival of the 1970s, BeauSoleil and its founder, fiddler Michael Doucet, are among Louisiana's most prominent ambassadors of Cajun music and culture.
Foodways
Boudin
Boudin is a Cajun sausage made of meat and rice typically consumed with the filling removed from the casing and often squeezed directly into the mouth.
Music
Buckwheat Zydeco
Accordionist Stanley Dural, Jr., was zydeco's most commercially successful performer and an unofficial ambassador of the musical genre and Creole culture. Better known as "Buckwheat Zydeco," Dural helped introduce traditional Creole music to the mainstream.
Government, Politics & Law
Calvin J. Roach v. Dresser Industrial Valve and Instrument Division
A lawsuit filed by a man against his employer resulted in a ruling establishing Cajuns as a federally recognized ethnic group.
Music
Carol Fran
Singer and pianist Carol Fran was a blues, swamp pop, R&B, and jazz musician whose work reflects the influence of southwest Louisiana's culture.
Music
Clifton Chenier
Clifton Chenier, self-proclaimed “King of the Bayou,” pioneered the modern sound of zydeco music starting in the 1950s.
Foodways
Crawfish Étouffée
One of Louisiana’s renowned dishes, crawfish étouffée is typically comprised of crawfish cooked in its own juices with other seasonings and served over rice.
Folklife
Creole Folktales
Many Louisiana Creole folktales represent a convergence of African and European culture.
Literature
Darrell Bourque
Dr. Darrell Bourque was appointed poet laureate of Louisiana by Governor Kathleen Blanco in 2007.
Art
Debbie Fleming Caffery
Contemporary Louisiana photographer Debbie Fleming Caffery documents the people others often overlook: sugarcane workers, Mexican prostitutes, and the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Music
Dewey Balfa
Dewey Balfa was a Cajun musician and cultural activist who emerged in the 1970s as an effective spokesman for the grassroots Cajun identity movement.
01/02
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