January 21, 2011. Diary of a Billsticker – New Orleans, USA

Who Dat?

I left New Zealand on Boxing Day and arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, on December 28th. It took fifteen hours. I went via Salt Lake City, Utah, which is a city that makes Invercargill look like Las Vegas. On the way to New Orleans, a snowstorm hit the Eastern Seaboard and I was delayed four hours in Salt Lake City. I killed some time there putting up poetry posters. Did I mention that I am insane?

Shortly before I left for the USA, a warehouse fire in New Orleans killed eight young people. They were 'railroad punks' and had been living in the warehouse. This fire was a terrible tragedy. I had these young kids on my mind for a while.

On arriving in New Orleans, the first thing that struck me was music. It was everywhere. There were musicians in the airport and on every street corner in the French Quarter and the Faubourg Marigny where I was staying. It was truly wonderful and uplifting and I never once felt anything but happy during my stay. People were open and warm and loving towards me.

I was carrying poem posters by Sam Hunt, Frankie McMillan, Janet Frame, Tusiata Avia, Mariana Isara and Brian Turner. I also had some Robert Creeley posters. These posters look great on the old wooden lamp-posts that New Orleans has in such abundance. The streets smell of music and beer and old wood and you can feel the history of the place in every step you take.

New Orleans is one of the most important cities in the history of American music. Congo Square is where the slaves were allowed to gather on Sundays and dance and this tradition directly fed into much of what became American music. Wilson Pickett and Louis Armstrong are among those who came from New Orleans. Louis Armstrong International Airport is named after the great man.

Truman Capote and Lee Harvey Oswald went to the same school in New Orleans. That's quite a combination.

I saw a wonderful band called the Pine Leaf Boys at a club in the Faubourg Marigny. They played a kind of Cajun music that just got into your blood immediately and had everyone dancing.

I loved New Orleans.

Keep the Faith,
Jim Wilson