Louisiana
Louisiana’s Cajun and Creole heritage will be showcased at 50th annual Festivals Acadiens et Creoles
NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana’s Cajun and Creole heritage takes center stage this weekend when the Festivals Acadiens et Creoles marks a half-century of honoring and celebrating the culture through music, arts, food and community.
What started as a one day concert in 1974 to entertain 150 French-speaking journalists gathered in Lafayette — considered the heart of Cajun country — has grown into a three-day event and possibly one of the largest Cajun and Zydeco festivals held globally, organizers said. And, they note, the entire event is free.
Barry Jean Ancelet, one of the event’s organizers, said when the idea formed 50 years ago, nobody knew if anyone would even come out to hear the music.
“Cajun music at that time was largely considered ‘old people’s music,’” he said. “You’ve got to remember, we were in the throes of Rock ‘n’ Roll at the time. The people here loved it when they encountered it in dance halls, but this concert was designed to call attention to the music in a different way, to point out its value. They had to sit — not dance — and pay attention. And they ended up hearing it in a different way. It was so successful. We ended up turning it into an annual event where we could call positive attention to this important asset and get people to consider it.”
The festival, now held annually in Lafayette’s Girard Park, brings together multi-generations of musicians and artists who annually fight to preserve a culture that continues to evolve.
“We’ve always been about celebrating the past and handing it off to the future,” Ancelet said. “If you value and respect evolution, the culture will produce things that will continue to surprise you. It all comes out in the wash. What’s good will last and what’s not, won’t.”
Festival co-founder Pat Mould said the festival is a “self-celebration of who we are, how we live, what we eat, the music and how we speak.”
“If you know nothing and want to learn about the culture, this one weekend out of the year allows you to find out everything. Everything you want to know is represented at the festival. It’s a quick study of Cajun and Creole living,” he said.
On tap musically for the Friday through Sunday event are performances by 60 musicians — all homegrown talent — including Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Wayne Toups, CJ Chenier, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas, Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band, The Revelers, Beausoleil avec Michael Doucet and The Lost Bayou Ramblers.
On Friday, contemporary artists will pay tribute to the 1974 concert house band that included Zydeco pioneer Clifton Chenier, Cajun accordion maker Marc Savoy, the Balfa Brothers, a Cajun music ensemble of five brothers, Cajun accordion players Nathan Abshire and Blackie Forrester, and Jimmy C. Newman, a country music and Cajun singer-songwriter and long-time star of the Grand Ole Opry.
“Get ready for Louisiana pure fun,” said Carrier, who’s scheduled to perform with his band on Sunday. “Get ready to eat some really good food and have the time of your life.”
“People all over the word have these dates circled on their calendar,” he continued. “It’s an event that helps the younger generations continue the traditions. I’m a third generation Zydeco musician. This is a family oriented festival that brings people together of all ages.”
Riley, who’s been performing at this festival since 1988, said he keeps returning for several reasons but especially because it helps preserve the culture.
“It’s important to see us on stage, singing and speaking in French. That has an effect on people who come to see us and helps them fall in love with the culture,” he said.
“There are a lot of events leading up to the weekend that focuses on the importance of the language, the culture, the food and, of course, the music. There’s none other that celebrates it like this one. I think it’s the biggest complete celebration of everything Cajun. It’s also inclusive of different generations, bands with lineage. That’s key,” he said.
Riley, now 55, said he’s very proud that his three children all play music.
“It’s a beautiful thing for my family and others like mine,” he said. “Having your kids play with you is awesome. Most kids don’t want to have anything to do with what their parents do. Mine, think what I do is fun and it is.”
Riley said when he first started there weren’t too many young bands playing Cajun music.
“There was real fear that the music would die off and dissipate like the language,” he recalled. “The opposite has happened. More young folks are preserving and playing this music than ever. The Zydeco scene down here is packed with young people. It’s super vibrant and alive. The same with the Cajun scene as well.”
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While planning a field trip to a student-athlete leadership conference in September, Kassie Binkley doubted that her high schoolers could make it through the day without their cellphones, as their school district now requires.
So she was stunned when the teens not only survived the phone-less trip — they seemed to love it.
“My kids played games while the rest of the kids picked up their phones during breaks,” the Caldwell Parish High School physical education teacher said. “They were just more engaged the whole time.”
Kassie Binkley (in white), a physical education teacher at Caldwell Parish High School, plays a game with students during class on Friday, October 4, 2024.
Other educators — and even some students — are reporting similar positive experiences since a new state law took effect this school year requiring students to stow their phones away during the school day. Louisiana joins several other states that have recently restricted students’ cellphone use, citing growing research on its negative impact on kids’ brain development and mental health.
When Louisiana’s law passed in May, some families and lawmakers were concerned the ban would make it harder for parents to reach their children during emergencies, and districts scrambled to figure out how to enforce the new restriction.
But a few months into the semester,
“Kids are paying attention in class,” said Nicki McCann, superintendent of Caldwell Parish Schools. “They’re talking to each other.”
Emerging research suggests that too much screen time can harm developing brains, making kids more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, shortening their attention spans and making them more impulsive.
Despite this, smartphone use among teens and tweens has skyrocketed in the last decade, with more than half of U.S. children getting the devices by age 11, according to a 2022 survey.
Now, educators say the phone restriction is helping some students flourish in the classroom.
“I’m seeing things that I have not seen in my 25 years teaching,” said Tristen Guillory, an Ascension Parish algebra teacher. “Just the level at which these kids are learning.”
An overall improvement
For many educators, getting rid of phones has made their jobs easier.
Under the previous state law, students could have cellphones in school, just not use them. Teachers had to try to catch kids furtively using their phones — which wasn’t easy.
Students were “taking them to the bathrooms, cheating in class, texting parents to come get them,” said McCann, the Caldwell superintendent. “It was just crazy.”
The new law says phones and other electronic devices must be “properly stowed away” or “prohibited from being turned on” during school. Districts must decide how to enact the law, including whether students can keep their turned-off phones in their backpacks or must turn them in to school staff.
In Caldwell, high schoolers now must keep their phones in their cars or hand them over to the front office before heading to class. The phones are stored in clear bags during the day and handed back before dismissal.
Binkley, the phys ed teacher, said the new policy has created consistency across classrooms and made it easier for staff to enforce.
“It used to be an argument,” she said. The new rule “gets rid of all the discrepancy.”
Students at Caldwell Parish High School pick their phones up at the end of the school day on Friday, October 4, 2024.
Ascension Parish requires kids to keep their phones off and in their bags during the day. Guillory, the algebra teacher, said she’s seen a marked change under the new policy — particularly in the lunchroom, where she had expected to catch the most infractions.
“I figured it was going to be a hot mess,” she said, but instead students are following the new rules and seem to have embraced the ban. “Although they were resistant at first to the idea, I think a lot of them are relieved now.”
In East Baton Rouge, one of the state’s largest school systems, spokesman Perry Robinson said the district initially experienced a spike in infractions under the new policy this fall, though the number of students suspended for breaking the rules multiple times has remained roughly the same.
Like Ascension, the district requires students to keep their phones off and in their bags for the duration of the school day.
“Once parents heard about the law, a lot of them had conversations about it with their kids,” Robinson said. Now, “everybody is complying.”
Members of the Teachers’ Advisory Council, a group of educators who advise the state education department on policy issues, also praised the ban at a recent meeting.
Students “no longer can text mom, ‘Hey, I forgot my gym clothes,’” said Regena Beard, a teacher at Copper Mill Elementary in Zachary, adding that the change will force students to “become more responsible.”
Allison McLellan, an English teacher at Belle Chasse High School, said getting rid of phones has helped kids’ social skills.
“They need to know how to be people,” she said. “They need to know how to make eye contact, how to have conversations.”
Students embrace going phone-less
Some students are also on board with the ban.
Sophomore Charlotte DeClouet, who has experienced multiple bomb threats at her Lafayette high school, was initially worried she wouldn’t be able to contact her parents during an emergency. But her fears were eased after the school allowed kids to keep their phones on them as long as they’re off and in their bags.
“At the beginning, it was kind of weird and everyone wanted their phones back,” she said, but now the ban is helping students stay on task. “It created a more productive learning environment.”
Anna Kate Shaw, a senior at Caldwell High School, said she’s finished three books since the start of the school year — something she didn’t think she would have done before phones were banned.
“A lot of my classmates and I were really upset” about the ban, she said. “But now, we’ve all noticed we’re a lot more focused in class.”
Still a work in progress
Still, there have been some hiccups as districts figure out what works.
Bernita Dunbar, an educator in Concordia Parish, said her district has struggled to enforce the ban, which she attributed to schools not adequately informing students about the new policy.
“In one class, I actually told the kids, ‘You all know this is Louisiana law, right?’” she said during the teacher council meeting. “And they were like, ‘No, we didn’t know.’”
Shaw said the front office at her school sometimes misplaces students’ phones, adding that some of her friends have had to wait a day or more before the school is able to locate their phones.
“I don’t really like how our school system executes” the ban, she said.
Kassie Binkley (in white), a physical education teacher at Caldwell Parish High School, stretches with students during class on Friday, October 4, 2024.
And, of course, not all students are thrilled about having to relinquish their phones.
“It’s always mixed reviews with kids,” said Guillory, the Ascension Parish teacher. “Some people will say, ‘Oh, it’s dumb.’”
But Binkley said the only complaint she’s heard is from students who relied on their phones to keep track of the time. Thankfully, she said, that problem was an easy fix.
“I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, we really don’t have a lot of functioning clocks,’” she said. “Most teachers have gotten clocks for their rooms now. But it was kind of funny.”
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Louisiana’s new Secretary of State Nancy Landry says her office is fully prepared for the upcoming presidential election, scheduled for November 5.
Speaking at media outlets on Tuesday (Oct. 8), Landry emphasized the importance of voter participation and assured the public that her office is working closely with local election officials to finalize preparations.
“We’re ready, we’re ready to go now. We’re traveling the state right now doing a listening tour and meeting with our local election partners, our registrars of voters, our clerks of court just to see if they have any last-minute,” she said.
The deadline for online voter registration is October 15. In-person registration ended Monday and all other registration must be done online.
Voting rights advocates like Rosalind Blanco Cook, President of the League of Women Voters of New Orleans, are urging residents to exercise their right to vote.
“Exercise your right to vote. It’s very important. Don’t just stay home,” said Cook.
Landry, who became secretary of state in January, says under Louisiana law early voting has been expanded.
“One change that we had in the law, but this was a couple of years ago but it takes effect now. We have additional early voting days for presidential elections, so we will have 10 days of early voting for the presidential election. It starts October 18 and runs through October 29th but not on Sundays,” she said.
Over 300,000 people have been removed from Louisiana’s active voter list.
“The number that’s on the inactive rolls right now is 318,000 and that’s a figure that is a rolling number because of our annual maintenance that we do,” said Landry.
The state does a canvass of registered voters annually.
“We follow the federal law that allows us to move people who we can’t verify, we can’t verify their address, they’re moved to the inactive voter rolls and then if they come in to vote we can verify their address. They’re moved right back to the active rolls,” and Landry.
She said once their names are returned to the rolls they can vote.
Residents can check their voter status and access a sample ballot using the Geaux Vote app, which provides a range of election-related information.
Cook, who has also worked at the polls, says election fraud is rare.
“It’s almost non-existent and it’s not a prevalent problem and it’s not a situation that people should worry about that: my vote, although I’m voting but they have all these people that shouldn’t be voting that are voting, it’s just not true,” she said.
It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote but recently Gov. Jeff Landry signed a related executive order and Nancy Landry was present for the signing.
“What we did with the executive order is we got access to some data from state agencies like OMV that can tell us more information about who may be in Louisiana and have a Louisiana driver’s license but is not a citizen and allows us to check that,” she said.
What they have found so far is not a significant number.
“We’re working to check to see if any of those people are registered to vote but we did identify 48 that were registered, that were removed in the past from not being the citizen,“ Landry stated.
Still, during election season there is misinformation, and voters are urged to be careful.
“We encourage all voters to only get their information from trusted sources and that would be the secretary of state’s office, the registrar of voters, or the clerk of court,” said Landry.
Cook agrees.
“Do your research as much as possible. Try to look at reliable sources. Of course, you know, we all use Facebook and all the other social media but realize that might not be true all the time,” she said.
Landry stresses that the state’s voting machines are secure.
“Our voting machines are never, ever connected to the internet despite what you may hear from rumors circulating. Our elections are very safe and secure,” she said.
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MTSU football coach Derek Mason on improving after loss to Duke
Middle Tennessee State football coach Derek Mason speaks following a 45-17 loss to Duke on homecoming.
Middle Tennessee State football, after a week off, will delve back into Conference USA play for the rest of the season beginning with a midweek contest.
The Blue Raiders (1-4, 0-1 CUSA) will try to snap a four-game losing streak and earn their first conference win when they play at Louisiana Tech Thursday (7 p.m., CBS Sports Networks).
MTSU is coming off a 24-7 loss at Memphis. Louisiana Tech (1-3, 0-1) has lost three in a row after a Week 1 victory over Nicholls. The Bulldogs dropped a 17-10 decision to Florida International during Week 5.
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Below is a scouting report on the matchup, including a score prediction by The Daily News Journal’s Cecil Joyce:
Louisiana Tech football has relied on its defense in 2024
Despite a 1-3 to start, Louisiana Tech has played good defense this season. The Bulldogs are allowing an average of less than 300 yards total offense per game.
The Bulldogs have been particularly tough against the pass, where they’ve allowed only 198 yards per game. That will test an MTSU offense whose strength has been its passing game — 265 yards per game — behind redshirt junior Nick Vattiato.
MTSU may also turn to its running game, though it’s averaging only 80 yards per game, a little more against the Bulldogs. With starter Frank Peasant out because of an injury, junior Jaiden Credle has carried a bulk of the load. He rushed 10 times for 39 yards in the loss to Memphis after gaining 125 yards and a touchdown in a homecoming loss to Duke.
Credle has 49 rushes for 233 yards and two TDs on the season.
Watch MTSU football vs. Louisiana Tech on Paramount+
MTSU passing duo clicking on all cylinders
One of the bright spots during the current losing streak has been the play of Vattiato and his top receiver, junior Auburn transfer Omari Kelly. The duo has heated up over recent games.
Kelly has a team-leading 24 receptions for 471 yards with three touchdowns, and most of that production has come over the past three games.
Wrapped around a four-catch, 12-yard performance against Duke, Kelly totaled 15 receptions, 413 yards and three TDs against Western Kentucky and Memphis.
Vattiato is 107 of 163 for 1,285 yards with five touchdowns and four interceptions.
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Louisiana Tech offense also likes to air it out
Like MTSU, Louisiana Tech has succeeded more with its passing game than running game, averaging just 100 yards rushing per contest. That comes despite a starting offensive line of all fourth-year players.
The team’s leading rusher is 6-foot-1, 210-pound senior Donerio Davenport. The McComb, Mississippi, product has 31 carries for 107 yards with one touchdown. The second-leading rusher has just 65 yards.
Unlike the Blue Raiders, the Bulldogs have rotated starting quarterbacks.
Redshirt junior Jack Turner, the team’s Week 1 starter, injured a knee injury in that game and missed Week 2 before coming back to throw for 314 yards and a TD (but also three interceptions) in a loss to North Carolina State. He was then pulled in the fourth quarter of Tech’s Week 4 loss to Tulsa after completing 7 of 14 passes for just 41 yards.
Redshirt freshman Evan Bullock got the start the next week against FIU, completing 26 of 37 passes for 218 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. Redshirt freshman Blake Baker replaced Turner in both Week 1 and Week 4. He is 18 of 34 passing for 314 yards with a TD and three interceptions.
MTSU score prediction vs. Louisiana Tech
MTSU 24, Louisiana Tech 17. The Blue Raiders get their first CUSA win in the Derek Mason era, snapping a losing streak along the way. An improving MTSU defense exploits the Bulldogs’ issues behind center.
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Cecil Joyce covers high school sports and MTSU athletics for The Daily News Journal. Contact him at cjoyce@dnj.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @Cecil_Joyce.
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