Bruce Sunpie Barnes is a bandleader and naturalist from New Orleans, merging music and conservation. Leading Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots, he plays Afro-Louisiana music while also promoting wetland preservation. His work includes cultural initiatives like the Northside Skull and Bone Gang, emphasizing community and survival beyond material wealth. Continue reading Bruce Sunpie Barnes
Caitlin Carney, co-owner of Porgy’s Seafood Market in New Orleans, promotes Gulf seafood by reintroducing local fishermen’s bycatch to consumers. She emphasizes education and community engagement, encouraging locals to try lesser-known fish species. Caitlin works with suppliers for wild-caught seafood, aiming to strengthen connections between fishermen and the community while redefining perceptions of “trash fish.” Continue reading Caitlin Carney
Rosina Philippe, an elder from the Atakapa-Ishak/Chawasha Tribe, resides in Grand Bayou Indian Village, an Indigenous community facing environmental challenges. As traditional food sources diminish and storms increase, she emphasizes the importance of policy inclusion for community input and inspires others to advocate for their heritage and future. Continue reading Rosina Philippe
Coastal scientist, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium During the Covid-19 lockdown, while others baked sourdough bread, Alex Kolker was studying satellite images of the Mississippi River Delta. As an oceanographer, geologist, and climate scientist, he is interested in how the Louisiana coastline loses land, and also how it builds that land back. As he examined the images, Alex noticed a channel connecting the Mississippi River to … Continue reading Alex Kolker
For this series, we are partnering with longtime friend and journalist Barry Yeoman. Based in Durham, North Carolina, Barry has lived and worked in Louisiana and has written extensively about the complexities of culture, environment, and economy along the state’s coastline. You can learn more about Barry’s work here. Together, we crafted the arc of the series and identified the specific people to interview. Barry … Continue reading Still Here: Stories from a fragile coastline
Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar is chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. She has spent decades helping her community fight for federal recognition of their tribe and finding resilient solutions to the political and environmental challenges that have seen their traditional lands literally wash away into the Gulf of Mexico. We did this interview on the front porch, on a windy … Continue reading Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar
“So I carry all these things for my family. And now I’m the top of my family. I have my mother on her side, but on my father’s side, that’s it. My grandpa’s gone, my father’s gone. There’s nobody else. So I gotta carry it all for my sons. Gotta be strong, you know.” Continue reading Harvey Goodsky, Jr.
Sandy Gokee is Anishinaabe—Bear Clan—and lives in Ashland, Wisconsin. For the interview, we sat outside at a park overlooking Lake Superior as a storm skirted around us, so you might hear a little wind and maybe even thunder in the recording. Sandy introduces herself in her native language, Ojibwemowin. Her Ojibwe name, Wenipashtaabe, means “She Carries a Light Load. She shares her concerns about the … Continue reading Wenipashtaabe – Sandy Gokee
Mary Dougherty lives in Bayfield, Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Superior. As she says, just about as far north as you can go in the state without getting wet. She is the author of “Life in a Northern Town: Cooking, Eating, and Other Adventures along Lake Superior.” We talked about preserving the watershed of the world’s largest fresh water lake and how we need … Continue reading Mary Dougherty
Mike Radtke is the operations manager for the Madeline Island Ferry Line in Bayfield, Wisconsin. He started there as a captain and over the past 32 years, he has made the 20-minute, 2.5 mile journey between the mainland and the island thousands of times. We talked about his observations of how Lake Superior has changed through the years, his family’s long-time habit of hosting international exchange students … Continue reading Mike Radtke
