BUTTERMILK DROP BAKERY

A TREME FIXTURE 
THAT SEEMS LIKE IT'S BEEN AROUND MUCH LONGER THAN 8 YEARS

Did you know, that the idea for Buttermilk Drop Bakery existed long before they opened their doors? 

The seed was planted with the opening of Canal Street Bakery and Deli in 2001, but development was shortly put on hold with the impact of hurricane Katrina in 2005.

A few years later, the owners of the original bakery came together in collaboration with a local baker to bring a new twist to an old favorite pastry, the buttermilk drop. 

After the recipe was perfected they opened the doors of the Buttermilk Drop Bakery located in the historical neighborhood of Treme in 2008.

Since then, the Buttermilk Drop Bakery has received many accolades for its perfected renditions of classic baked goods including their award winning king cakes, melt in your mouth donuts, and of course the timeless buttermilk drop.

--text courtesy of Buttermilk Drop Barkey (which sadly experienced a major fire at its relatively new store in Gentilly recently)

LIVING WITH HURRICANES: KATRINA AND BEYOND -4

A POIGNANT EXHIBIT AT THE PRESBYTERE ON JACKSON SQUARE IN NEW ORLEANS

Katrina and Beyond is largely uncensored.

Its visitors experience death, destruction, total loss.

One man’s daily diary, written on what’s left of his home,  drops the F-bomb and other uncomely words.

Thank goodness the exhibit didn’t censor his raw emotions.

Let’s be honest, 10 year old kids hear the most vulgar of words on the school playground.

So certainly, their eyes and ears can take some unsavory words in the context of hurricane survivors who do not know where their loved ones, pets and cherished belongings are.

Denial is a terrible roadblock to true physical, mental and spiritual healing.

Katrina and Beyond does not deny any of the unimaginable waves of suffering that its victims and survivors endured.

With all its vivid imagery, unvarnished truths and xxx, Katrina and beyond is one of the most triumphant museum displays created.

It is powerful  and, ultimately, transcendent.

http://www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-museum/exhibits/living-with-hurricanes-katrina-and-beyond/index

 

LIVING WITH HURRICANES: KATRINA AND BEYOND -3

A POIGNANT EXHIBIT AT THE PRESBYTERE ON JACKSON SQUARE IN NEW ORLEANS

The exhibit is raw, emotional, ugly, beautiful.

It is almost impossible to look at some of the displays and not be reduced to tears.

There are stories on unimaginable suffering.

There are times when one thinks if they were placed in the aftermath of Katrina, unreached for 7 days and counting, would one pray for the roar of helicopter blades and boat engines – or would one pray for going to sleep one time and escaping the misery in the quietude of death?

Throughout the displays, the visitor has to remind himself that Katrina took place in the 2ast century.

With the loss of safe water, food, communications, hospitals, first responders, all basic needs – the aftermath looks like it took place a century ago.

It is almost impossible to conceive that 21^st century America was so slow to help the people of New Orleans.

The sluggishness of supplies, manpower, communication lines was so woeful that you’d think the rest of the nation surely was at war and unable to rush help to historic New Orleans.

Looking at the multimedia displays, you feel the pain, the anguish, the feeling of abandonment.

TOMORROW -- PART3

Hours: The Presbytere is open Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Closed Mondays and major holidays.

LIVING WITH HURRICANES: KATRINA AND BEYOND -2

A POIGNANT EXHIBIT AT THE PRESBYTERE ON JACKSON SQUARE IN NEW ORLEANS

Hurricane was as politically polarizing as it was humanly devastating.

There will always be lingering, haunting questions:

·         Why was government so ill prepared?

·         Why did government fail to respond quickly?

·         Were lives lost because of divides between haves/have nots, black/white?

·         How corruption was the rebuilding process?

·         Why did decades of people in power ignoring long-needed levy upgrades?

·         Was New Orleans left to drown and suffer because it’s a place so different from the rest of America?

·         Was the TV show Treme uplifting, or some kind of cheap voyeurism benefiting from 6 o’clock news images of so many African American neighborhoods reduced to foundations and rubble?

With so many open wounds, no matter how an exhibit on Katrina is presented, someone is going to say it pulled too many punches, or was biased against some group, etc.

In spite of all those challenges, Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond, is a triumph.

TOMORROW -- PART 3


Admissions: Adults, $6; seniors and active military, $5; children 12 years old and younger, free