French Quarter Journal Home

Everyday life in an extraordinary neighborhood.

Scroll down for our latest in-depth stories by our FQJ team of writers and photographers.

Our digital journal publishes new stories and features 46 weeks a year. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for alerts when new pieces are published.

Like to get in on the ground-floor and become a sponsor? Contact us. Have a story idea? We'd love to hear it. Email our editor, Rheta Grimsley Johnson.

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Quarter Notes
guest columnists

Harry Connick Jr. and James Carroll Booker III at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Photograph by Michael P. Smith ©The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2007.0103.4.714.

The Bay St. Louis Booker

On November 8, 1983 - 36 years ago this week - legendary New Orleans pianist James Booker passed on. While his legacy grows even stronger in the city, recent interviews with Bay St. Louis family members give details about Booker's early life on the Mississippi coast - and explain why "the Bay" became one of his touchstones.

- by Edward Gibson

St. Peter Street Sketchbook
creators to know

Craig Tracy's Body of Work

The French Quarter artist ushered body painting into the realm of fine art while maintaining his artistic freedom, but there's more to come.

- by Grace Wilson

Storyboard
photo essays

This Time They Won

The brainchild of performance artist Dread Scott, a two-day reenactment of the 1811 slave rebellion culminates in a march through the French Quarter - and a contemporary victory in Armstrong Park.

- by Rheta Grimsley Johnson
- photos by Ellis Anderson

Personalities
conversations

Voodoofest on Rue Dumaine and the spirited woman behind it

On Halloween in the Quarter, the original VOODOOFEST celebrates its 21st year with drumming, dancing and a ceremony to honor the Ancestors. Meet the Voodoo Priestess who started it all.

by Rheta Grimsley Johnson

The Eyes Have It
photographers loose in the Quarter

Kerry Maloney's French Quarter

Kerry Maloney:
I really want people to know the Quarter is a place where real people live. It's a place where misfits from all over come and find each other. We take care of each other, we are family. I wanted to show folks a very typical day in the quarter. Here's what I saw outside my door Monday, September 30.

Storyboard
photo essays

King Toffa IX Visits the Vieux Carré

West African monarch, His Majesty King Toffa IX, visits the French Quarter as part of a United States tour.

- by Ellis Anderson

Around the Block
longtime Quarterites

It's All Good for Hotel Al

After working fifty years at the French Quarter's famed Hotel Monteleone, Al Barras has become an institution - and the subject of an award-winning documentary.

- story by Kirsten Reneau

Libations
cocktail culture

Of the Libations and Love of Lady New Orleans

Meet our FQJ "Libations" columnist who believes that with the right amount of respect, humility and luck, Lady New Orleans will embrace a visitor as one of her own.

- by Adam Tusin

The Eyes Have It
photographers loose in the Quarter

The 67th Annual Red Mass

Photographer Kerry Maloney captures the pageantry of the 67th annual Red Mass on Monday, October 7. The centuries old tradition offers up prayers at opening of the judicial year for all those in the legal profession .

Full Plate
Quarter eateries

Café Cour: A Taste For History

Rooted in Cuban traditions, the fledgling neighborhood bar has garnered national recognition and won a loyal local following.

- by Reda Wigle

Domicile
neighborhood living

Four Courtyards and Mail-Order Tree Frogs

French Country living in the French Quarter: Every room inside this fanciful home is defined by the gardens without.

- by Rheta Grimsley Johnson

Darling...
French Quarter Social Scene with Margarita Bergen

Beth Arroyo Utterback, CEO of WWOZ with Grammy Award Winner Irma Thomas at the WWOZ Groove Gala in September.

New Orleans socialite and long-time French Quarter denizen Margarita Bergen doesn’t miss a beat - or a party - when it comes to the Quarter’s jazzy social scene.

There are three sections to each "Darling" column: Social Swirl (where Margarita's been), The On My Calendar (upcoming don't-miss FQ events) and Quarter Buzz.

Quarter Beats
music scene

Arséne DeLay: Engaged with Home and Adding a Verse

A member of the musical Boutté family, Arséne DeLay uses her true voice as a performer, a songwriter - and a community activist.

- by Christopher Romaguera

Passing a Good Time
with Nan Parati

Clint Maedgen at the 2019 Newport Folk Festival, photo by Douglas Mason

Preserving Preservation at the Hall

Even beloved traditions can benefit from an evolutionary kick in the pants - at least according to one long time Preservation Hall fan.

- by Nan Parati

What's in Store
neighborhood shopping

Alquimie New Orleans: More Studio Than Boutique

For 23 years, textile artist Kate Beck has shown her extraordinary clothing designs at Jazz Fest. Now she has a year-round showcase on Royal Street where she's conjuring up more luscious wearable art.

- by Grace Wilson

Quarter Notes
guest columnists

Author Richard Goodman, photo by William Widmer

Blood Type FQ

A New York writer finds that a year of French Quarter living has left him with an undiminished devotion for the neighborhood.

- by Richard Goodman

Lit Life
Writers & Books

Strong as the Currents

Meet the hardy folk who ply the waters of the country's "last frontier" in Melody Golding's new book "Life Between the Levees."

by Scott Naugle
photos by Melody Golding

Rainbow History

Go Your Own Way: the Life of Barbara Scott

Barbara Scott blazed her own trail as a politician, restaurateur, hôtelier, artist, preservationist, gerontologist, feminist - and social justice warrior.

- by Frank Perez

The Eyes Have It
photographers loose in the Quarter

Andrew Simoneaux's French Quarter

Photographer Andrew Simoneaux found himself visiting the French Quarter almost every day to seek out shots. Last year, he made life easier by becoming a neighborhood resident.

The images he selected to include in this photo essay were taken from the end of August into the first week of September, during the Southern Decadence festivities.

Balcony View
publisher's notes

Fiesty Forebearers and a Contemporary Challenge

Digging into the history of the French Quarter's indie newspapers, magazines and journals reveals an intriguing past and a few surprises.

-by Ellis Anderson

Boho Back Pages
offbeat history

Genevieve Hooper, AKA Kumi Maitreya. Photo courtesy Douglas Gordon.

The Sound of a Positive Vibration

Was the matronly New Orleans stenographer who founded a French Quarter temple the guru everyone in the 1960s was seeking? At least one follower still believes.

by Michael Warner

Boho Back Pages is sponsored by Hines Hall

It's a Living
unconventional entrepreneurs

On the Frontlines with Badass Uncle Sam

Providing "the neighborhood’s only explicitly political street entertainment," a former liberal named Michael DeBari draws both fans and fire at his outpost near the French Market.

-by Andrew Cominelli

It's a Living is sponsored by a Friend of FQJ

Quarter Notes
guest columnists

The Black Penny

This North Rampart Street bar offers all the elements needed for a great neighborhood hangout according to this month's guest columnist, Konrad Kantor.

Behind the Scenes
people who make it all work

The Sticky Business of Carlos Buesos

Long before first light, this eradicator of property defacement begins his hunt through the Quarter, determined to scour graffiti and stickers from public property.

- by Dar Wolnik