Last week the OA featured a piece from its archive, a 2013 essay about the abandoned Jazzland theme park in New Orleans. Interesting to see it return, given the recent speculation about redevelopment…

Delighted to say that at long last the New Orleans Poetry Festival is returning this year — free, online, open to the public, and taking place all month long in April. For months we’ve been working behind the scenes to transition the festival into a virtual format, and are excited to kick it off this Thursday, April 1, with a launch event for the anthology I Am New Orleans.

I’ll be hosting an event on poetry and travel in the age of Covid on April 20, but until then, more details about all events, including how to register and a full schedule, are available at nolapoetry.com.

I’m grateful to have been able to review the Louisiana Contemporary 2020 exhibition, in its last days at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art (closes Feb 7). If you’re in the area and you never got a chance to see it, consider this the perfect activity for a rainy weekend — the show is as provocative and inspiring as ever. Thanks to the editors at Burnaway for the opportunity.

The New Orleans Poetry Festival has announced that it will, in fact, take place this year, in a modified format. From the organizers:

• Throughout the month of April we will host virtual and hybrid events. All of you who had events accepted for NOPF 20 are welcome to recast (or entirely replace) those events in the virtual environment.
• Events will run throughout the month. None will be concurrent. One or two events per day.
• We will use the beloved zoom platform for broadcasting, however we want to encourage everyone to move beyond the mugshot views we normally see there. We’re happy to help with ideas in this regard.
• We will broadcast the zoom performances live and archive a video to the website.
• While we are still ironing out technical issues, we encourage everyone who submitted a proposal for ’20 to let us know if you will be participating this year.

The magazine of the Presbyterian Church in America has a brief meditation on a recent COVID casualty here in New Orleans; I’m grateful to the editors for the chance to reflect on its passing.

(content warning: mild ecumenical eschatology)