2018 Spring SAGE Series Set

“Louisiana – A Mélange” is the theme of the spring 2018 SAGE Series at McNeese State University. SAGE offers a series of short lectures and discussions at 3 p.m. on Mondays in the McNeese SEED Center centered on a specific theme each fall and spring.

This spring’s series will kick off on Monday, Jan. 8, with a presentation titled “Dixie Bohemia: A French Quarter Circle in the 1920s” by John Shelton Reed, Professor Emeritus of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and author or editor of 20 books, most of them about the American South.

Following World War I, the French Quarter attracted artists and writers with its low rents, faded charm and colorful street life. By the 1920s, Jackson Square had become the center of a vibrant if short-lived bohemia. A charming and insightful glimpse into an era, “Dixie Bohemia” describes the writers, artists, poseurs and hangers-on in the New Orleans art scene of the 1920s and illuminates how this dazzling world faded as quickly as it began.

According to Reed, the positive developments from this French Quarter renaissance, however, attracted attention and visitors, inspiring the historic preservation and commercial revitalization that turned the area into a tourist destination. Reed introduces William Faulkner’s circle of friends—ranging from the distinguished Sherwood Anderson to a gender-bending Mardi Gras costume designer—and brings to life the people and places of New Orleans in the Jazz Age.

Other presentations this semester will feature:

• Jan. 29 – “The Secret Side of Mardi Gras: New Orleans Carnival Balls, 1870-1920” – Jennifer Atkins
• Feb. 5 – “History on the Move” – Robert “Dr. Boudin” Carriker
• Feb. 26 – “A Haunted History of Louisiana Plantations” – Cheryl H. White
• March 12 – “The Fonville Winans Cookbook: Recipes and Photographs from a Louisiana Artist”- Melinda Risch Winans and Cynthia LeJeune Nobles
• April 9 – “Henry Howard, Louisiana’s Architect” – Jessica Dorman

Lectures are open to the public and cost is $59 for the series. For more information or to register, call 337-475-5616 or visit www.mcneese.edu/leisure.

Persons needing accommodations as provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act should contact the ADA Coordinator at 337-475-5428, voice; 337-475-5960, fax; 337-562-4227, TDD/TTY, hearing impaired; or by email at cdo@mcneese.edu.