"New Orleans is as much a city as it is a conduit linking the past and the present. It is also a passageway traversed by people from all around the globe, some of whom come to see and leave and others who escape here well aware that in the spotlight that is New Orleans, one can still disappear."
"New Orleans is a city of Creoles and cultural creolizations over time. Sometimes overlooked are the relationships of Sicilians, African Americans, and Afro Creoles. The late Creole tinsmith and jazz trumpeter Lionel Ferbos' family made cannoli molds for neighbor Angelo Brocato's French Quarter sweetshop. Bandleader Louis Prima drew on jazz and R&B, and played the "Chitlin' Circuit." Some jazz bands were ‘mixed,’ with Sicilians and Creoles passing in both directions. Leo Nocentelli is the Afro-Sicilian funk guitar maestro of the Meters. On March 19, Sicilian and black Catholics alike ritually present St. Joseph altars, and black Mardi Gras Indians parade that evening as a mid-Lenten festivity."
"Ever since Bienville set up a French outpost among the Chitimacha Indians, New Orleans has been enriched by waves of new arrivals: Americans and Creoles of varying hues, enslaved individuals and gens de couleur libres, Spaniards and Hispanics, Irish and Italians, Haitians and Vietnamese. This vibrant mix helped to create New Orleans’ unique music, food, architecture, and festivals. Sometimes people pay lip service to the importance of diversity. I would love people to realize that New Orleans shows how profoundly true that is."
"Take the bus! Believe it or not, there are other routes besides the streetcar that go to the Quarter. The version of New Orleans that is sold to the tourists is valuable and true enough but it is just that, a limited, easy-to-consume version of a much more complex society. The bus is a movable sidewalk where you can hear strangers talk and pass by the houses that do not appear in the postcards, even though they are equally beautiful. It is efficient; sometimes it’s messy, but if you don’t like messy go somewhere else."