Tagged: arts & culture

Banu Gibson is a much-in-demand jazz singer. She has performed all over the world from the Netherlands to Norway, Austria to Australia specializing in songs from the 1920s, 30s and 40s.

While Banu and her band spend a large part of every year on the road, this summer she is staying home. Sharon Litwin talks with Banu about her new gig.

This week on Inside the Arts we'll travel the world with the Komenka Ethnic Dance and Music Ensemble of New Orleans. Then, we'll check out the similarities between the Senegalese of St. Louis [San Luis] and the Big Easy. And we'll celebrate a milestone in the Arts District as Lemieux Galleries turns 30! 

Airs Tuesdays at 1:00 p.m. and Thursdays at 7:35 a.m.

New Orleanians are well-schooled in the concept of lagniappe — a little something extra or unexpected. And thanks to artist and prop maker Luis Colmenares, that notion now extends into the local film industry.

On one of the first films he worked on, Colmenares noticed how hard everyone was working, particularly the crew. “The actors are great and everything else, but you see the Best Boy and the makeup girl and the lighting guy and all these different people, and you get to meet them and they’re real,” he said. 

What happens when a classically trained pianist meets a closed-up church in the Marigny? Why he turns it into an opera house. This week on Notes from New Orleans, Sharon Litwin talks with Dave Hurlbert, the man behind that mission.