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.
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.
Folklife
Creole Folktales
Many Louisiana Creole folktales represent a convergence of African and European culture.
History
Edith Garland Dupre
Edith Garland Dupre was a leading intellectual, civic, and religious leader in Lafayette in the early twentieth century.
Disasters
Grand 16 Theater Shooting
The Grand 16 Theater Shooting was a 2015 mass shooting in Lafayette that left three dead and injured nine, catapulting the city into a national discussion about gun control.
Government, Politics & Law
Kathleen Blanco
Kathleen Blanco, Louisiana's first woman governor, served during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Blanco faced extreme criticism of her handling of the disaster.
Music
Zachary Richard
Born in Scott, where he still maintains a home, Zachary Richard is a musician, poet, environmentalist, and cultural activist.
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