Yeah, You Write!

Posted on September 20, 2011 by tadbartlett

A year ago, the Peauxdunquians had a vision, a collective vision of a city with vast cultural resources — artists and musicians and writers and chefs, all striving for funky and ultimate soulful expression, celebrated not just by their peers but by ecstatic audiences, too. And then we realized that vision was the place where we live, right here in New Orleans. We flock to restaurants to share the creations of our artistic chefs; we jam our clubs to listen to bands who play our music. And now it’s time to step it up for another group of our artists, the nationally acclaimed writers of our city and our region.

New Orleans and the South have always been a city and a region of incredible writers. They can be as much our rock stars as our musicians are, and now they are coming together in one of our grand temples: Tipitina’s uptown, the altar of ‘Fess himself, will be hosting the first Yeah, You Write event, on October 13, 2011, from 7:00 until the celebration ends. Six great writers, emcee’d by local poet Nick Fox, and followed by the dance visions of D.J. Sep. All for only a $5 cover.

Come hear Mat Johnson (author of “Pym,” winner of the Dos Passos Prize for Literature), Kelly Harris-DeBerry (local poet and literary activist, and founder of the Literary Lab), Amanda Boyden (author most recently of “Babylon Rolling”), Bill Loehfelm (past Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award winner, author most recently of “The Devil She Knows”), Gian Smith (spoken word artist, author of “O Beautiful Storm,” featured in Treme Season 2 trailer), and Terri Stoor (PWA member and winner of the 2011 William Faulkner-William Wisdom short story competition). These are the words of our time, our city, our region, and our Peauxdunque.

Peauxdunque at Petit Jean …

Posted on August 26, 2011 by tadbartlett

Before the summer gets away, a brief word about and some pictures from the fantastic experiences of several Peauxdunque members at the first annual Oxford American Summit for Ambitious Writers. Put on by the fabulous folks at the Oxford American, the Summit selected a group of around 75 writers from across the country for a week of intensive workshopping and insightful lectures. Among the inaugural class were a few Peauxdunquians – Maurice Ruffin, Terri Stoor, J.Ed. Marston, Tad Bartlett, and Emily Choate.

The experience was all words, all the time, even during times of whiskey and wine. It was, to put it bluntly, Earth-shifting. And beautiful. And inspiring. Here are some great photos by the OA‘s Nicholas Pippins and Carol Ann Fitzgerald. Here are some more by Carol Ann.

Here are some by us:

: Maurice, Tad, and Terri, at the final Summit dinner

: Tad and J.Ed. on the edge of the mountain

: Tom Franklin’s workshop group: Mary, Tom Franklin, J.Ed., Starr Crow, David Meischen, Susan Vallee, Terri, Emily Choate, Tad, and Anene Tressler-Hauschultz

: Back in New Orleans from the Summit: Kasimu, Tad, Terri, Jamey, and Maurice

: J.Ed., new friends Susan Vallee and Emily Choate, Tad, and Maurice, on the edge of the mountain

The first Peauxdunque post, four years later.

Posted on August 25, 2011 by tadbartlett

Here we are with our first post on our spanking new website/blog/thing, a mere almost-four years after we started this great experiment. So I guess we’re official now. The About page will tell you a few things that you might expect to find in a first post. Here are a few pictures of some of the folks in the group: