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A Sunday Morning in New Orleans

CBS Sunday Morning / Jane Pauley
The Truth Network Radio
May 18, 2025 3:00 pm

A Sunday Morning in New Orleans

CBS Sunday Morning / Jane Pauley

00:00 / 00:00
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May 18, 2025 3:00 pm

New Orleans is a city of uncommon resilience, a hub of unique culture, and a place where people don't worry as much. The city's rich history, from its indigenous peoples to its French and Spanish influences, has shaped its architecture, music, and cuisine. The city's Creole cuisine is its soul, and its music, born from the fusion of African traditions with classical music, opera, and other influences, is the city's heartbeat. New Orleans is also a city of contrasts, where the irreverent holds hands with the sacred, and where people come to celebrate their traditions and their individuality.

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Donate at plannedparenthood.org slash defend. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistants assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today.

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See full terms at mintmobile.com. Good morning. I'm Jane Pauley, and this is a special edition of Sunday Morning. We're in New Orleans, known as the Crescent City, for the shape it forms around a bend in the lower Mississippi River, a place of uncommon resilience and a hub of unique culture. The magnificent estate we're calling home for much of the morning is Longview House and Gardens, eight acres of lush greenery and vibrant color.

Built as a private residence nearly 100 years ago, Longview and its gardens are now open to the public year round, with local designers taking particular pride in its heritage. But as Lee Cowan explains, that's just one part of the multifaceted legacy of New Orleans. It's been said New Orleans is as much a feeling as it is a place, feelings of joy, feelings of sadness, feelings of faith, but most of all you just feel welcome.

We'll take you through its neighborhoods, its parks, its restaurants, and on the river, coming up all throughout the morning. Gumbo, jambalaya, beignets, all traditional New Orleans fare. Morocco will introduce us to some chefs putting a new spin on the Crescent City's classic cuisine. New Orleans has always been a culinary crossroads. Chefs Serene Mbai and Nina Compton are bringing something new to the mix. So tender, more people need to go in their lives.

They do, I agree, I agree. Beyond Gumbo, later on Sunday morning. Actor Christian Bale is best known for the intensity of his performances, but as Tracy Smith will show us, Bale has an interest far closer to home. In the movies, actor Christian Bale won a race in the California desert. Now he's out here again building a real-life home for foster kids. How long have you been dreaming about this place?

17 years since my daughter was three years old. Oscar winner Christian Bale on the role of a lifetime, ahead on Sunday morning. And that's just for starters. Michelle Miller goes on the hunt for some of New Orleans' most distinctive designs. Jamie Wax shows why seersucker is the preferred fabric for New Orleans' hottest parties. Plus, a look at a classic shoe with soul in every sense of the word. We'll have those stories and more on this Sunday Morning by Design.

And we'll be back after this. In the heart of New Orleans, historic Jackson Square, named for future President Andrew Jackson, hero of the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. As Lee Cowan explains, it's just one of the colorful chapters in this beloved city's history. That voice of the Mississippi, it still sings here in New Orleans, old echoes in a city that is somehow always new. It's a place where umbrellas dance, where booze mingles with beignets, where the dead sleep among the living, and where the irreverent holds hands with the sacred. It's a city that enjoys life. It's a city that lives for the moment. It's a city that's not judgmental. It's a city where people don't worry as much. Like so many taken by New Orleans, Robert Florence came here to be a playwright and an author. There's an element of surprise to this city, and I've been here a long time, and I have no idea what's going to happen when you walk out there. Longtime New Orleans resident Tennessee Williams counted in among America's top three cities, and he's said to have remarked that everywhere else is clean.

Cradled in the crescent of the Mississippi's embrace, the area had been inhabited by indigenous peoples for centuries. Even though it later proved no easy place to inhabit, it survived fires, wars, disease, of course, the wrath of Katrina, a New Year's terrorist attack, and, this past week, a jailbreak that is still making headlines. But we're still here.

Those of us who are here want to be here because there's no place like it. Mona Lisa Soloy is a professor at Dillard University. I'm about how words work up a gumbo of culture. As Louisiana's former poet laureate, she can paint this town with words.

Sitting under gallery shades, sipping lemonade, wearing the afternoon like a new dress. People seem to think that it's just a party city, and Lord, we know how to party. But it's families that make the traditions. And those families have deep roots in a lot of places. The French claimed it in 1718. Later, it was controlled by Spain, then the French again, until Thomas Jefferson bought it as part of a Louisiana purchase. Among those first settlers were some pretty hearty folks. Criminals, counterfeiters, pirates, and prostitutes.

They weren't the Puritans. At the same time, it's been a very religious city and a very spiritual city. And maybe, in that duality, is the city's secret sauce. Has it always been a little naughty and a little nice, New Orleans? Always.

Yeah, it's always been that way. There's the good folks and the you know. Like many cities in the South, New Orleans was built on the backs of the enslaved. But unlike other places in the South, the enslaved and free people of color lived shoulder-to-shoulder and were allowed to celebrate their traditions, not hide them. On Sunday afternoon, after worship, Black people could unite and sell their wares and practice drumming and dancing and singing.

No other place in the country allowed that kind of public, free congregation of enslaved Africans and free. Those African traditions started to merge with the musical influences all around them. Like classical music, opera, the mamba, the tango.

There's my satchel, the one with the horn. And that fusion became jazz. Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?

And miss it each night and day? Birthed in the stew of cultures, locals like Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, that created a sound that was never heard before. And it is still evolving today. But if the music is the heartbeat of New Orleans, its Creole cuisine is the city's soul.

Excess as expected. Mark Twain, who grew up on Southern cooking, once said that New Orleans' food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin. And it's also just a feast for the eyes. From colorful Creole cottages to grand antebellum mansions. And then there's this.

It's people watching at its finest. Elegance, grit, acceptance, and defiance. They are all in the marrow of New Orleans. I think it's more than the buildings and the music and the food. I think it's the people that draws people here.

If you could sum up New Orleans in a word, what do you think that would be? Happy. We keep that. It's part of us. And we're not letting it go. What's up, Hoop fans? I'm Ashley Nicole Moss, and I'm bringing you Triple Threat, your weekly courtside pass to the most interesting moments and conversations in the NBA. From clutch performances to the stories shaping the game on and off the court, Triple Threat has you covered with it all. Culture, drama, and social media buzz, we're locked in just like you're locked in. Watch weekly on CBS Sports Network at 1 p.m. Eastern or on the CBS Sports YouTube channel as we break it all down fast and fresh.

This is Triple Threat, where basketball meets culture. It wasn't that long ago that our Michelle Miller was serving as First Lady of New Orleans. Her husband is former mayor Mark Morial. All through the morning, she helps us tour the town. First, all aboard. In his work, artist Terrence Osborn creates a magical version of New Orleans. Everybody's getting on the streetcar to continue the second line.

And they're uptown bound. And his painting Uptown Bound is a tribute to the city's most magical moving icon, the St. Charles Avenue streetcar. You could paint a modern car and it's going to be boring, right? It's just a car. The streetcar looks like something else, so it's much more interesting. They told me to take a streetcar I am desired.

It tells a story about the place that it exists in. Streetcars once existed in cities all over America. But when the automobile came along, most were sent to the scrap heap. Even New Orleans replaced nearly all its streetcars with buses. And yet, those iconic green cars just kept on humming, loudly. I think they're synonymous with the identity of New Orleans.

Lona Edwards-Hankins is the CEO of the city's transit authority. In the last two decades, the agency has reintroduced streetcars, modern streetcars, but not on the St. Charles Avenue line. These are the originals.

These are the OGs. I mean, why not just modernize them? So that is a challenge. Built by the Pearly A. Thomas Company in 1923, it takes an army of craftsmen to keep them rolling. We have electricians, metal workers, woodworkers, body men.

Like machinist Anthony Maggio, who's been at it for 44 years. Anything that needs to be made, we can make it. What does it say that New Orleans is so committed to that rich, century-old history? I think it says that we love our city, just simply.

If you love something, you preserve it. And, says Terrence Osborn, as long as that magical streetcar is moving, the city will never be standing still. You can't have New Orleans without a streetcar.

It won't make sense. New Orleans, of course, is a food town. Hot beignets, anyone? Still, Mo Rocca reminds us, there's a lot more on the menu. It's really my comfort food. Like curry, for me, like on a rainy day or like a cold day. It makes my soul very happy.

To eat in New Orleans is to taste the world. So tender. More people need a goat in their lives.

They do. I agree, I agree. In 2015, Nina Compton, whom some will recognize from Bravo's Top Chef, Bernard, you'll take two tuna, please. Opened compare le pan with her husband, Larry Miller.

The two had met years earlier in Miami. I tasted her food before I met her. I heard this great laugh coming out of the kitchen.

And when I figured out the same laugh was making that good food, I started pursuing her. What does compare le pan mean? It means brother rabbit. It's a folktale I grew up with in St. Lucia. Her father, Sir John Compton, led the Caribbean island of St. Lucia to independence in 1979, then served as its first prime minister. How much of this restaurant is St. Lucia? How much is New Orleans?

I would say 50% New Orleans and 50% of St. Lucia. So it becomes a very harmonious menu. The restaurant's signature curried goat is something Compton ate growing up in St. Lucia. It's the number one selling dish. People come for it, they ask for it. Did you grow up with goat?

No, not at all. The first time I had goat was with her. We're in New Orleans, so let's talk about the other G word. Gumbo. It's not on the menu here. It's not on the menu. People assume that I would have gumbo on the menu.

And when I moved here, it is such a personal thing. I just wanted to respect the people that came before me and just let them have the gumbo. The absence of gumbo hasn't seemed to hurt. Crispy rise to 25. In 2018, Nina Compton won the James Beard Foundation's award for Best Chef in the South. Sure, thank you for the shrimp. It looks beautiful. While Chef Compton has brought the Caribbean to New Orleans, Chef Serene Mbai is bringing West Africa to the Crescent City. I always get to share a story about how this plate came about. Sometimes give a deep history about what's happening here.

Can I say one thing? I really love the colors. Mbai opened Dakar Nola in 2022 after it started as a pop-up restaurant where he met his business partner Effie Richardson. It was the first time I actually saw a tasting menu of West African food.

And I just loved the concept. Mbai spent much of his youth in Senegal. Dakar is its capital. But he was born in Harlem where he watched his mother cook for relatives and neighbors. She was literally nurturing people's souls through food.

I realized that I wanted something that reminisce how my mom made everyone feel. But it was in Senegal where Mbai was inspired by the traditional one-pot cooking technique. A lot of dishes are composed by maybe six or seven different components that's made in a different pot.

Versus Senegal, everything happened within one pot. That spirit of unity is reflected in the restaurant's oval communal tables. I love the table. Why is it this shape?

It's a connector. I feel like it's a perfect table to connect people together. Allowing strangers to get to really know each other, especially when you eat with your hands. There's enough room on the table for the food, but then there's also closeness that allows you to really engage with everyone at the table. After biting into this cassava and trout roe starter, this correspondent understood why Dakar Nola won the Beard Award for best new restaurant in 2024.

It really has a kick also at the end, which I love. I'm a fan of yucca fries. It's like a very refined but delicious hash brown. While neither of these restaurants serves gumbo, both are bringing ingredients and traditions that have made New Orleans food scene an even richer stew. The food is not dainty or very frou-frou.

It's really about satisfying your soul and making you happy. Back to our home away from home. You'd be hard-pressed to find a house and gardens quite like Longview. Designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman, this masterpiece of 20th century home and landscape architecture, conjures the lush feeling of an English country estate. Longview was built for philanthropists Edgar and Edith Stern, who wanted their home to exist in harmony with its surrounding gardens. Shipman hired architects William and Jeffrey Platt to help make her vision come to life. The home was completed in 1942.

Among many distinctive quirks, each of its four facades features a different architectural style, and all might be considered to be the front of the house, each opening onto a variety of unique gardens. Inside, Longview was one of the first homes in the humid south to have the then unheard of luxury central air conditioning. The Sterns always intended to raise their family at Longview and then donate it, and they did just that, giving Ellen Biddle Shipman's dream to the public for all to explore and enjoy. Inside Longview, it's easy to imagine some southern gentleman looking resplendent in a seersucker suit.

Jamie Wax is a 38 short. It's springtime in New Orleans, and that means at Rubenstein's, the city's oldest men's clothing store, one item is selling like beignets, seersucker suits. Seersucker is not meant to be form-fitting. Andre Rubenstein is the second generation co-owner of the famed haberdashery, in the heart of a place that just loves to suit up. There's a lot of formal occasions where tuxedos are suited appropriate, and there are restaurants here that require a jacket. It's that sort of formal influence that is still in this city. And Rubenstein says there's another big reason why seersucker is so perfectly suited to New Orleans.

Well, because it's hot. There's not many other fabrics that are worth wearing other than a nice cotton seersucker. And now, it comes in all kinds of colors. All kinds of colors indeed. All right, this screams Easter, spring to me. The thing about a seersucker is it should be comfortable.

Wow, this is a statement piece. How many seersucker suits would you say move through this store per year? It's a couple hundred every season. The word seersucker comes from the Persian shira shukar, meaning milk and sugar. It's made by weaving alternating tight tension yarn with loose tension yarn, allowing the loose yarn to bunch up while the tight remains smooth, creating small waves. It's puckered, and what that does is it creates the pockets of ear, and so it's laid off of your skin so it's breathable.

And it's comfortable. Laurie Haspel is fourth generation owner and CEO of Haspel, the New Orleans-born company that has been synonymous with seersucker suits since her great-grandfather Joseph Haspel Sr. started making them in his New Orleans factory in the early 1900s. In those days, it was still only the wool, the flannel, the heavy suits that were made that were not breathable. So taking this seersucker fabric that was really very inexpensive at the time and turning it into a gentleman's suit, it became a status symbol. Those breathable Haspel suits have made some prominent appearances through the years, from presidents to authors and celebrities, and perhaps most famously, when Gregory Peck wore a custom-made three-piece Haspel as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.

All may now be created equal. What is special about the connection between New Orleans and the seersucker suit? We make clothing that is meant for a good time, and that's the culture of New Orleans.

To put that theory to the test, we invited a small group of New Orleanians to join us, wearing their own personal spins on seersucker at NOLA's International House Hotel. I think it's New Orleans' only contribution to fashion. You can dress it up, you can dress it down, and it fits like almost any occasion. It's casual, but it's also tailored, so it gives you that versatility. Seersucker used to be associated with, I think, old southern men and stuffy clubs, that kind of thing.

It's very different now. I mean, you see women in it constantly. I know, no, I think it's very hip. I think seersucker is very hip.

We have to keep the tradition going, so now I see kids with it on. I think New Orleans has figured out a way to be the coolest place on the planet while also being the hottest. And seersucker, too, is a lot like New Orleans, staying hot and cool era after era by being a little bit rough and a little smooth. Survivor 48 is here, and alongside it, we're bringing you a brand new season of On Fire, the only official Survivor podcast. If you're a Survivor superfan, you won't want to miss this deep dive into every episode where we break down how we designed the game, the biggest moves, your burning questions. It's the only podcast that gives you inside access to Survivor that nobody else can.

Listen to On Fire, the official Survivor podcast with me, Jeff Kropst, every Wednesday after the show, wherever you get your podcasts. My body has been in fight or flight every second. The Showtime original series Couples Therapy returns May 23rd on Paramount+. What are you avoiding? Watch four new couples as they face new crossroads. Why are you so scared of monogamy?

The fear of being committed to one person only. Can we talk about me for a little bit? It'll get to you.

With the help of Dr. Orna. You have so much inside. You could let it out. He's trying to.

Couples Therapy, new episodes streaming May 23rd on the Paramount Plus with Showtime plan. That sounds like fun. Obviously, murder's not fun.

A city known for its centuries-old iron work really needs someone who can keep it looking like new. I take something apart. It's like me having a conversation with the person that originally fabricated it. And what are you saying to that person? I'm not talking to them. He's talking to me.

They're talking to me. Hey, this is designed to go in the fire. Darryl Reeves is a restoration blacksmith, one of just a handful of these once ubiquitous craftsmen still working in New Orleans today. You could not have a town without a blacksmith and a doctor.

It wouldn't survive. And put the industrial age, the blacksmith faded away. But their work survives in the city's French Quarter, elegantly simple. This wrought iron was hand-forged by blacksmiths, including highly skilled enslaved and free African-Americans.

You can still find the African symbols they left hiding in plain sight. This is all wrought along here. This is all wrought.

But says Richard Campanella, a historical geographer with Tulane University's School of Architecture, by the 1820s, a new method for melting iron had emerged. And then you could pour it in molds. You can make it as ornate as you want. You could acorns, oak leaves, elegant filigree. A blacksmith would be there for, you know, years.

Exactly. In 1849, the French aristocrat Baroness Michaela Almonaster de Pontalba built two grand apartment buildings flanking Jackson Square. Their intricate iron-laced galleries kicked off a craze that would come to define New Orleans. I would describe it as keeping up with the Pontalbas. Now everyone wanted a beautiful cast iron gallery. Now 74, Daryl Reeves is training the next generation of New Orleans blacksmiths. He hopes the city's signature ironwork and the craft that made it possible can survive. I've restored a lot of pieces as 100, 200 years old. You're the link in the chain that will get it going for another 100 years. That's right. When people have to take and restore my work, they'll be looking at it like I look at it. You'll be talking to them? Yep. Not unlike a garden, children need nurturing to grow and thrive. A philosophy actor Christian Bale has taken to heart.

Tracy Smith explains. It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me. You can say this about Christian Bale. He really knows how to commit. The vice presidency is a mostly symbolic job.

Through the years, he's remade himself as a vice president. Yep, that's him. That's a good possibility.

A prize fighter, even a newsboy. Are we just going to take what they give us? No.

Or are we going to strike? Yeah. And now he's all in on a real life mission to help some kids who could really use a hero.

This little plot of land east of Los Angeles in the desert community of Palmdale is where he's trying to make magic happen. The Oscar-winning actor is helping to build a foster care home specially designed to keep orphan siblings together. How often do foster kids get separated from their brothers and sisters?

Approximately 75% of the time. And so you imagine the trauma of that, you know, being taken from your parents and then you lose your siblings. You know, that's just something that we shouldn't be doing. Bale was a child actor and not a foster kid himself. So you might wonder why he's getting involved in this.

He says he just had to. You moved around a lot as a kid. Do you think that had an effect on you? I think, I mean, I think it probably did, but I don't think you have to have any connection to foster care in your past. It's just about the basic understanding that as a society, how can we not take care of our children?

So I don't think it requires a connection. It just requires having a heart. He says his inspiration came 17 years ago when he looked at the young daughter he had with his wife, Sebe, and thought of other kids. Who weren't so lucky. He started looking into foster care and found Tim McCormick, who ran foster homes in Chicago for decades and made sure all of his kids got through high school. So a hundred percent high school graduation rate. Whereas the statistic for foster kids and graduation is... About 48 percent.

Only three percent of the 400,000 kids in foster care ever graduate college. And I think this is what this site is about. We create a place for authentic goodness to flourish. And it certainly impacts the child, but it impacts all of us. We create a different story of us as a society. They created Together California, a home for siblings.

And the name really says it all. Here, siblings will all stay together in individual houses around a central garden. And they'll be cared for by trained foster parents whose only job will be to look after them. The home is designed by the architects at A.C. Martin.

They usually do large-scale projects like skyscrapers. Still, A.C. Martin boss Tom Shea says this is one of their biggest priorities. You know, we take care of these kids. We show them how much we love them. Why was this so important to you? Why did you take this on? I think we're at a point in our society where we have to help. And for me, what's exciting is creating the next high-rise. We need to give back to society and community.

This is small, but I'm tremendously proud of this project. I'm going to out-brake you on the next turn, Bob. Bale shot the movie Ford vs Ferrari not far from here. So he's familiar with this part of Southern California.

Right now, the home is still a construction site. But Christian Bale says he can already see it all. When you look around, can you see it in your mind? Oh, absolutely, yeah. No, I love doing that. I love designing. I love architecture. And it's like, no, because I see that and I see the steps and I'm changing this around.

So I adore the whole design process. And so actually seeing it really coming to happen is just very, very exciting. And so after 17 years of slow progress and some financial help from friends like Leonardo DiCaprio, they're hoping to welcome the first kids early next year.

Course for Bale, it's not soon enough. You said you were a little bit naive. You thought it would take a couple of years to complete? Well, ignorance is bliss, you know. If I'd have known it had been 17 years, I still would have done it.

You still would have done it. There's a lot more work ahead, like fundraising and finding the right foster parents. But it's all finally starting to take shape. And to Christian Bale, it's truly the role of a lifetime. You know, you're known as an actor who's rather intense about his roles. Have you approached this with the same intensity?

More so. More so, because this is something that when, you know, I'm closing my eyes for the last time, I want to look and say, you know, obviously my family, I want to be thinking about them. I want to think about, did I do some good?

Did I make any changes in the world that were useful? And this will be one of the things that I'll be most proud of when I draw my last breath. Get ready to laugh until it hurts. You're gonna love this.

Novocaine is now streaming on Paramount+. I've got this condition. I don't feel pain. You're a superhero. No. Yeah. It's an adrenaline rush of fun.

Whoa. This is the best. And a bloody good time. Almost forgot the best part.

It's the first great action comedy of the year. Let the magic happen. That's good.

Looking forward to it. Novocaine. Rated R. Now streaming on Paramount+. The most original musical ever is now streaming on Paramount+. Just giving the people what they want. From the director of The Greatest Showman, Better Man absolutely sizzles from start to finish. What are you gonna say?

I want the world to see who I really am. It's wildly inventive and hilariously entertaining. No, stop it. It's nothing.

It's only the biggest event in history. Better Man now streaming on Paramount+. Rated R. From homes with style to sneakers with soul.

With Luke Burbank, we take flight. Just last week in Queens, New York, more than 200 people lined up to pay $200 for a shoe most of them already own. The Nike Air Jordan.

The most successful basketball shoe in history turns 40 this year. And yet it almost didn't happen. He did not want to be there. And he had told his agent, I'm not going. Howard White was in the room back in 1984 when Michael Jordan, then a rookie short on NBA experience but long on potential, was basically dragged to Oregon by his parents to meet with a relatively small sneaker company called Nike. This is bigger than anything that we've done. You know, typically a great player would get like $100,000, but this was so unique in terms of just doing it. The offer, $2.5 million to wear their shoes, triple what anyone else in the league was making. Air Jordan by Nike. Jordan took the deal and the rest is sneaker history. Nothing's hotter. When Nike launched the Air Jordans back in 1985, they hoped to sell $3 million worth of product.

Instead, they sold $126 million in one year. There's a kaboom. Look out. What a jam! There's Jordan down the middle, all the way! Much of that success was thanks to Jordan's incredible play on the court.

Kaboom! And that's what they came to see, didn't they? But there was also Nike's marketing approach, which was groundbreaking in its own right. Joining the cultural conversation in ways few commercials for basketball shoes ever had. It's gotta be the shoe. It's gotta be the shoe. And don't forget the shoe's design itself, a process that managed to blend sports technology with a set of aesthetic principles that would make Jordan's as much a fashion statement as a basketball shoe. As evidenced by the Christian Dior Jordans Howard White was wearing for our interview, which retail for up to $17,000. In order to translate what he did as a man into what we do as a brand, you have to start with a series of principles. We call them ethos.

40 years later, that design work falls to Jason Maiden, chief design officer for the Jordan brand, which these days is a standalone division within Nike that generates some $7 billion a year by itself. You first start with connectivity. Why this product has relevance and reverence. Then you put that into a very strict process that we call visioneering. And so what's interesting is we have a playbook. I can't show you what's in it, but you can show over the outside.

I can show you the cover. It's beautiful. If you could peek inside, you'd probably see one of the designs for their yearly Air Jordan release. That's right. Nike has been putting out a new pair of Jordans every year for the last 39 years. Does a lot of the stuff that your team designs, does Michael Jordan get eyes on it still a lot of it? Like how how central is he to the operation here in 2025, 40 years in? Oh, he's very integral. He's very integral to the operation. He he sees everything. He trusts us a lot. He has opinions on things that are near and dear to him.

It has given me my life's purpose. The legendary Sean Williams founded the Social Studies Community Academy in Brooklyn, a program dedicated to studying, promoting and collecting shoes. Sneakers are wearable art. You're giving the sneakers a level of depth and a storytelling that convinces the consumer that they're making the right purchase when they buy these sneakers. But for Howard White, who still works at Nike and still talks to Michael Jordan often, the Air Jordan success is because it's not actually the story of a shoe.

It's the story of something much bigger. That's totally transcended basketball at this point, right? There have been a lot of basketball shoes. It's not about basketball. And if this simple article of footwear can make people interpret themselves in a way that gives them just the power to believe more in themselves, that's what the Jordan brand is about. They call Demond Malassan the beadmaster of New Orleans. I saw with the smallest beads.

That's where you get the most detail. But on Mardi Gras, he's also known as the big chief of the young Seminole hunters, black masking tribe. Long barred from official parades, African Americans created their own way to celebrate.

Mardi Gras Indians wear massive colorful suits to honor the Native Americans who help black people escaping slavery. We're challenging each other. And a challenge is? The challenge is I'm going to sing against you.

I'm going to dance against you. I'm going to show you how I'm better than you in sewing. Malassan started masking when he was just 14. When he became a big chief, an elder noticed the beadwork on his suit.

And he told me, he says, your turn, bro. Looking at my work, he was saying, man, you more than just a black masking Indian. You're an artist. His work has been shown all over the world. A solo exhibition is currently on display at Philadelphia's African American Museum.

Dejay Duckett is the museum's curator. You look at what Seurat was doing in the 19th century with oil paint. And now Damond is doing this with beadwork, which is to me is even more amazing and captivating.

His main goal was just like mine is to preserve this culture. And he takes us in places where I'd have never thought we'd be. Once practiced in secret, black masking has gone mainstream in New Orleans.

The Backstreet Cultural Museum, where Horace X is a tour guide, attracts visitors from across the globe. It is a blessing to be able to tell our story. And earlier this year, the NFL hired a black masker, Queen Taj, to design the Super Bowl logo. All that attention is just fine for Big Chief Damond Melancon. Come Mardi Gras day, he says he'll still be right here. You are making a suit right now to mask this coming year. Yeah, black masking in my life changed my life and made my life what it is today. Thank you for listening.

Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. No offense, but your brain is a terrible place to keep your big idea. It belongs in the world, but you know that already.

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Wix supports every stage of the business journey, except one. Your decision to begin. Ready? Now streaming, when everything's on the line, real heroes rise to the occasion, TV's hottest show is Fire Country.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-05-18 16:19:12 / 2025-05-18 16:35:11 / 16

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