New Orleans Yawps

yawp (yôp) [Middle English yolpen, possibly variant of yelpen. See yelp.]
intr.v. yawped, yawp·ing, yawps 1. To utter a sharp cry; yelp. 2. To talk loudly, raucously, or coarsely.
n. 1. A bark; a yelp. 2. Loud or coarse talk or utterance: “I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world” (Walt Whitman).

In places like Bywater, Marigny, and the Gold Mine Saloon in the French Quarter, you can't toss a beignet or spill a cup of chicory coffee without hitting an artist. The place leaks and reeks cultcha. The HearingVoices Travelling Soul Capturing Show stopped in New Orleans in early 2005 (pre-Katrina); here's some of the voices we heard...

Eluard Burt playing flute

soundfilesNew Orleans- Feeling (5:28) an audio-tour with Eluard Burt

More than any city in the world, New Orleans, Louisiana is known for its distinct music and food. It's also known for the Christian holiday Fat Tuesday, in French: Mardi Gras. Musician Eluard Burt is intimately familiar with the flavors, feelings, spices and sounds of this Mississippi River city; and with the live music, heard day and night in Jackson Square, on Bourbon Street, and everywhere around the French Quarter.

A shorter version of this audio-tour was broadcast on the American Public Media radio series Weekend America.

painting of woman with flowers

© Paintings by Tasha Robbins

painting of a bottle     painting of a spiral staircase
Tasha Robbins standing by her painting of Dave Bronks
Tasha & her portrait of Dave
Lee Grue reading a poem on her couch

soundfilesBillie Pierce's Jazz Funeral (2:14) © poem by Lee Meitzen Grue
soundfilesMonument to Pork Chop (2:30) © poem by Lee Meitzen Grue

Lee Grue, poet and short-story writer: "My poems about music all have to do with live performance. It is a performance I have been to. They can't do it exactly the same way again. Different things are going on in the lives of the musicians; different things are going on in my life. So performance is a one-thing."

On jazz funerals: "There a real thing. They have jazz funeral for tourists, where there's no body. But for real life, we have jazz funerals, for musicians and esteemed artists. The music is always very sad when you're going, then they bring it back happy. And if you have to leave, you get left with the sadness sometimes."

On the 'secondline': "The secondline is the people that come behind the funeral and dance -- they're wonderful dancers. But anybody in the group behind the coffin and behind the musicians, that's the secondline. And I always considered my poems to be secondlines. It's a tribute. I've known them personally. So when I write about somebody who's dead, I'm writing about somebody I've known. And it is a one-time performance."

painting of jazz musicians at Last Supper-type dinner table
The Last Session (detail)

© Paintings by Joshua Walsh

"For nearly two decades, I have been seduced by New Orleans in all her splendor. The New Orleans music scene thrives on our streets, in our clubs and in our backyards. From Brass Band to Zydeco, I paint history as it unfolds."


Self-portrait

painting of a flambeau carrying a torch
Flambeaux Series
painting of a drumset on stage with Preservation Hall Jazz Band written on Bass drum
"Drumset" from Preservation Hall
Dave Brinks

soundfilesSleeping the Piano excerpt (0:59) © poem by Dave Brinks
Eluard Burt, flute; recorded at 17 Poets!

Dave Brinks is an arts instigator and impresario. YAWP* is his new journal of poets and painters. Many of them show up at Dave's bar, the Gold Mine Saloon, which every Thursday night turns into a 17 Poets! performance and art gallery.

*From Whitman (see definition at top), or stands for: You Assholes Write Poetry.

(Eluard, Lee, Tasha and Dave photos © Hildie Golding.)

E-SOURCES:

URL linkDave Brinks book- The Snow Poems: First Snow
URL linkDave Brinks poems- Exquisite Corpse
URL link17 Poets!- New Orleans School for the Imagination
URL linkLee Grue book- In the Sweet Balance of the Flesh
URL linkLee Grue story- After the Olney, Texas One-Armed Dove Shoot
URL linkLee Grue story- Beloved Stormy, Beloved Torchy
URL linkLee Grue- Authors Guild
URL linkLee Grue w/ Eluard Burt cd - On Frenchmen Street
URL linkEluard & Co. cd - Gumbolia
URL linkEluard & Co. w/ poet Sonia Sanchez- Shake Loose Our Skin (MP3s)
URL linkEluard Burt videos- Tipitina's music club
URL linkJoshua Walsh gallery - New Orleans Street Studies
URL linkWalt Whitman in New Orleans- Stephen Ambrose article
URL linkWWOZ FM- New Orleans and Louisiana Music Radio