Labyrinths in New Orleans
Sally Asher Sally Asher

Labyrinths in New Orleans

Labyrinths are seen as sacred places for meditation. For thousands of years, people all over the world have been walking them. New Orleans has not only one labyrinth but three. And two of them have their own Hurricane Katrina story. I spoke with Marty and Debi Kermeen, the couple behind building New Orleans’ labyrinths. They share their special story and discuss how the ones in Audubon Park are different from the over 80 labyrinths they have built all over the world.

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Lecture at the Jazz Museum
Sally Asher Sally Asher

Lecture at the Jazz Museum

Before Storyville became synonymous with New Orleans’ vice and nightlife, the city experimented with an earlier—and largely forgotten—attempt to regulate prostitution. In 1892, the City Council passed an ordinance seeking to confine brothels to a designated district, require weekly medical examinations for prostitutes, and fund a new Charity Hospital wing for the “detainment and treatment” of women deemed diseased.

The proposal provoked fierce backlash and inspired an unlikely alliance between society women and sex workers, who joined forces to persuade the mayor to veto the measure. Though short-lived, this failed experiment—sometimes referred to as “Harnanville”—helped pave the way for the establishment of Storyville just five years later.

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Hatchets & Harlotry: When Carrie Nation Visited New Orleans’ Storyville
Sally Asher Sally Asher

Hatchets & Harlotry: When Carrie Nation Visited New Orleans’ Storyville

In this episode of my podcast Eat, Drink, and Be Buried, I take a deep dive into two very different women – controversial temperance advocate Carrie Nation and New Orleans madam Josie Arlington – and what happened when they met on a December night in 1907 in the city’s notorious red light district known as Storyville. 

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Interview with a Gravedigger
Sally Asher Sally Asher

Interview with a Gravedigger

“Interview with a Gravedigger.” A three-part series for the podcast Eat, Drink, and be Buried, a podcast about New Orleans’ customs, culture, customs, and curiosities hosted by award-winning writer Sally Asher and owner of Red Sash Tours.

In these episodes, Asher sits down with New Orleans native Nick Black, the contracted gravedigger for the city's cemeteries, the sexton of Greenwood and Cypress Grove Cemeteries, and the owner of NOLA Cemetery Renewal LLC. Black discusses, among other things, the often-distributing tradition of New Orleans’ burials, including the process of digging a grave, how New Orleans’ water table effects the body’s decomposition, and the challenges with moving a decomposed body.

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Preservation in Print
Sally Asher Sally Asher

Preservation in Print

Sally Asher, owner of Red Sash Tours, talks about her work with Save Our Cemeteries and the Preservation Resource Center in the latest edition of Preservation in Print.

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Greenwood Cemetery: Monuments to History
Sally Asher Sally Asher

Greenwood Cemetery: Monuments to History

An article about the history of Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans including some famous, unknown, and mysterious graves - including John Kennedy Toole’s grave and the “suicide grave.” It also contains a previously unknown story about Voodoo Priestess Marie Laveau.

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Metairie Cemetery: The Largest Cemetery in New Orleans
Sally Asher Sally Asher

Metairie Cemetery: The Largest Cemetery in New Orleans

Metairie Cemetery, at under 150 acres, is the largest cemetery in New Orleans – yes, New Orleans. Despite its name, the cemetery is actually located within city limits.

Founded in 1872, it is the only cemetery in the country that used to be a racetrack - it is still laid out like a racetrack. You are not imaging things – you are walking in circles!

It is also the only park-like cemetery in the city and is home to over 1,000 trees. Many locals use it as a park. It is not uncommon to see people jogging, walking their dogs, or pushing their babies in strollers past these magnificent mausoleums and tombs.

Metairie Cemetery is the permanent home to many famous New Orleanians. Among others, its residents include Author Anne Rice, Popeyes Chicken Founder Al Copeland, Storyville madam Josie Arlington, Trumpeter Louis Prima, Gangster Carlos Marcello, Inventor of the Gin Fizz Harry Ramos, JFK Investigator Jim Garrison, First Governor of Louisiana William Claiborne, Murdered Police Chief David Hennessy, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, Owner of the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans Tom Benson, Ruth’s Chris Steak House founder Ruth Fertel, and many many more.

There are more private mausoleums (some valued in the millions) in Metairie Cemetery than all of the cemeteries in New Orleans combined!

Frequently voted one of the top cemeteries in the WORLD, Metairie Cemetery has a wide variety of architectural styles including Egyptian Revival, Byzantine, Victorian Gothic, Greek Revival, Baroque, Islamic Revival, Neo-Classical and more.

You will find an array of exquisite stained-glass windows, unique statues and monuments, and abundance of symbolism on the tombs – including the inverted torch, four virtues, tilted cross, draped urn, the hourglass with wings and much more.

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