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.
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.
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.