{"id":84480,"date":"2025-02-12T19:41:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T19:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/february-12-2025-love-letters-to-the-big-easy-treme\/"},"modified":"2025-02-12T19:41:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T19:41:04","slug":"february-12-2025-love-letters-to-the-big-easy-treme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=84480","title":{"rendered":"February 12, 2025: Love Letters to the Big Easy: Treme"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[Last
\nmonth I got to return to my
\nfavorite American city<\/a> for the 2025 MLA Convention<\/a>.
\nSo for this year\u2019s Valentine\u2019s Day series I\u2019ll be offering some love letters to
\nwhat makes New Orleans so unique, leading up to a special tribute post this
\nweekend!]<\/p>\n

On five
\ncharacters through which the <\/span>wonderful
\nHBO show<\/span><\/a> charts Katrina\u2019s and New Orleans\u2019s stories. <\/span><\/p>\n

[NB. The
\nhyperlinked clips are just relatively random ones from YouTube, not summations
\nof everything about these deeply human and multi-layered characters.]<\/span><\/p>\n

[Also NB.
\nHere be SPOILERS, so if you haven\u2019t watched this great show yet, hie thee
\nhence!]<\/span><\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Creighton Bernette<\/span><\/a>: I wrote
\nabout John Goodman\u2019s Creighton and his righteous rants about New Orleans and
\nKatrina in this
\npost<\/a>, and those rants are what made Creighton famous, both on the show and
\nin the responses to the show. But while those rants were indeed righteous, they
\nwere also fueled by Creighton\u2019s inability to move on, his permanent state of
\nmourning for what had happened to his adopted, beloved city. In retrospect,
\neverything in this character (and in many ways in the show\u2019s first season)
\nbuilt inevitably to his suicide at the end of that season\u2019s penultimate
\nepisode, as a statement about Katrina\u2019s all too permanent effects for New
\nOrleans and many of its residents. <\/span><\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>LaDonna Batiste-Williams<\/span><\/a>: Khandi
\nAlexander\u2019s fiery bar owner LaDonna\u2019s first season arc embodies a different,
\neven more tragic lingering effect of Katrina: all those families who literally
\nlost loved ones in the storm and its aftermaths, and who never knew (or did not
\nlearn for months if not years) what had happened to them. But while the story
\nof LaDonna\u2019s brother Daymo wraps up by the end of season one, LaDonna\u2019s
\ncharacter endures, experiencing another decidedly different tragedy of her own
\nwhile fighting to maintain a foothold in a city that seems intent on pushing
\nher and her family out. New Orleans is still trying even in the series finale,
\nbut against LaDonna I don\u2019t like even an entire city\u2019s odds.<\/span><\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Janette Desautel<\/span><\/a>: Kim
\nDickens\u2019 chef and restauranteur Janette reflects a third, slower burning kind
\nof post-Katrina tragedy\u2014someone who tries her hardest to stay but finds the
\nstorm\u2019s lingering effects too much for her, and more exactly for her career and
\npassion. Like her on-again\/off-again boyfriend, Steve Zahn\u2019s DJ Davis McAlary,
\nNew Orleans post-Katrina seems as if it might be more destructive than
\nconstructive for Janette, a passionate but unsustainable relationship. But in
\ntruth, even what would seem to be a significant relationship upgrade (to the
\nNew York City culinary world) can\u2019t ultimately compete, and the show\u2019s end
\nfinds Janette back in New Orleans and back with Davis\u2014and despite ourselves we
\nfully understand and support her in those choices.<\/span><\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Albert Lambreaux<\/span><\/a>: My
\nfavorite character is Clarke Peters\u2019 Big Chief Albert, a handyman whose true
\ntalent and passion is in the world of <\/span>Mardi Gras Indians<\/span><\/a>. Albert\u2019s
\nreturn to New Orleans and his decimated house (and to masking Indian) seem for
\nmuch of his arc like the acts of sheer stubbornness that his children
\n(especially Rob Brown\u2019s jazz trumpeter Delmond) believe them to be. But the
\ntraditions and legacies that Albert embodies and carries on are too potent to
\nbe broken and, it turns out, too charismatic to be resisted, even by his
\nfrequently resisting son. Like New Orleans post-Katrina, Albert may be fighting
\na losing battle\u2014but he makes the fight so irresistibly appealing that we\u2019re
\nwith him every step of the way. <\/span><\/p>\n

5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Antoine Batiste<\/span><\/a>: And then
\nthere\u2019s the first character we meet, Wendell Pierce\u2019s jazz trombonist Antoine. While
\nAntoine is certainly affected by Katrina (particularly in the loss of his
\nhouse), in some ways he is the character who seems least by either the storm or
\nthe events of the show\u2019s multi-year arc, who feels the closest in the final
\nepisode to where he was in the opening one (down to his continued disagreements
\nwith cab drivers). But Antoine\u2019s difficulties finding steady gigs (which might
\nbe an effect of Katrina, but might be the challenge of a city jam-packed with
\njazz musicians) push him into a new profession, that of middle school music
\nteacher, and through that work Antoine becomes connected to the most crucial
\nquestion of all when it comes to post-Katrina New Orleans: what it will mean
\nfor the city\u2019s young people, and especially young people of color. That remains
\na painfully uncertain question at the show\u2019s conclusion, but with Antoine at
\nthe front of the classroom I feel better about the answer to be sure. <\/span><\/p>\n

Next love
\nletter tomorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. What
\ndo you think? Cities you\u2019d love on? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Last month I got to return to my favorite American city for the 2025 MLA Convention. So for this year\u2019s Valentine\u2019s Day series I\u2019ll be offering some love letters to what makes New Orleans so unique, leading up to a special tribute post this weekend!] On five characters through which the wonderful HBO show charts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12032],"tags":[1022,281,3843,9436,465,41804],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-84480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-history","tag-big","tag-easy","tag-february","tag-letters","tag-love","tag-treme"],"yoast_head":"\nFebruary 12, 2025: Love Letters to the Big Easy: Treme - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=84480\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"February 12, 2025: Love Letters to the Big Easy: Treme - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[Last month I got to return to my favorite American city for the 2025 MLA Convention. 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