Month: January 2026

On my return from New Orleans, friends asked, “Did you stay in the French Quarter and party on Bourbon Street?” These days, Netflix thrillers fill my nights, with a bowl of popcorn and a glass of Merlot. On a pre-Katrina trip, I heard jazz at Preservation Hall, shopped in Jackson Square, and took a cemetery…

Trailblazer Lena Richard defied Jim Crow-era barriers to become the first Black woman to host a televised cooking show, more than 10 years before Julia Child. In the 1930s and 1940s, Richard also authored a cookbook. Today, her legacy continues in Chef Dee Lavigne, who has opened the first Black-owned cooking school in New Orleans…