Episode 44: The New Orleans Sessions: Lolis Elie and Treme

On this week’s installment of U Look Hungry: The New Orleans sessions, Helen Hollyman is in the Tremé neighborhood of...

On this week’s installment of U Look Hungry: The New Orleans sessions, Helen Hollyman is in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans talking with Lolis Elie. Lolis is a writer for the HBO series Tremé, writer for the documentary Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans, and a writer for the Times-Picayune. Naturally, Helen and Lolis are talking about Tremé – the neighborhood, the documentary, the television series, and the history. Tune in to hear Lolis recount some of his memories of Willie Mae of the famous Willie Mae’s Scotch House, as well as his opinions of barbecue and culture. Hear about New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and how its reconstruction did not include the former local populations. Finally, Lolis discusses the growing food scene in New Orleans, and some of his favorite new restaurants. This episode has been brought to you by Whole Foods.

“In New Orleans, you always have options with pronunciations – it could be French, it could be American, it could be Creole, and it could be New Orleanian.”

“People had not realized the extent to which the struggle for democracy in this nation began not after the Civil War, or not with Martin Luther King, but in the 1820s and 1830s with these people. They were fighting until the 1890s when they brought Plessy vs. Ferguson into the courts.” — Lolis Elie on U Look Hungry