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Danny Heitman AT RANDOM
Autumn a great time to show up for La.’s arts community
T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
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W e d n e s d ay, O c t o b e r 15, 2025
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FILE PHOTO BY MINH KIET
In an earlier life as a film critic, I’d often find myself screening movies alone at the afternoon matinees each autumn. That’s when vacation season ended and school resumed, leaving the local theaters largely empty. What a kingly indulgence to sit by myself in a huge space while a new movie played, a spectacle unfolding just for me. But over time, being surrounded by empty seats made me feel empty, too. If I wanted to get the best insights about a film, it was ideal to screen it with other people. I might not agree about what others found funny, sad or inspiring, but seeing their reactions helped me better understand myself. I gleaned new insights from fellow moviegoers that I wouldn’t have gotten if I’d watched a new film as a solo viewer. When I watched a movie alone, it was a thing; within an audience, it was an event. I’ve been thinking about all of this as another cultural season unfolds across Louisiana, giving those of us who live here lots of opportunities for this kind of collective experience. My mail these days includes brochures from area museums, symphonies and theater companies, and I’ve come to treasure them as much as the garden catalogs that land in my mailbox, too. They all point me to the promise of something larger than myself, which is one of the abiding wonders of enjoying a painting, a play or a musical performance with our neighbors. The world has changed a great deal since I worked as a film critic more than three decades ago. Thanks to the digital revolution, we can savor hundreds of TV channels and an infinitude of online programming at home. All of us can be what I once was in that empty theater: lone consumers of culture, single diners at the banquet of beauty we call the creative arts. Like many of us, I welcome quiet evenings at home with Netflix or a good book, cloistered on the couch with my wife in a world that seems comfortably self-sufficient. But that kind of inwardness, embraced too routinely, can be isolating, which isn’t good for me or the community and country I live in. The headlines tell us of a broken world, and there are so many cracks that more than one thing is needed to mend them. But being within an audience or art gallery with other people is one way that we can share what’s good, which can help build sharing and goodness into a habit. I was moved this week by a quote from the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry that speaks to what I’m trying to say: “Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.” Local arts institutions give us that shared horizon. I’m going to do my best this autumn to show up for them.
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A Louisiana cooking instructor who has taught for 25 years takes her lessons international BY MARGARET DELANEY Staff writer
Lili Courtney isn’t a traditional chef. Known as the “Queen of Condiments,” Courtney has been cooking, teaching and serving up dishes in Louisiana for 25 years. She considers herself a culinary instructor. “My passion for cooking started with my daddy,” Courtney said. “There were eight children in our family, and that was a lot of mouths to feed.” After Sunday morning mass, Courtney’s parents would gather in their small home kitchen in Alexandria and fill a 12-inch skillet with enough water to poach eggs for 10 people. They would make eggs Benedict and stir up a pitcher of milk punch made with ice cream. As a stay-at-home mom in Baton Rouge, Courtney did not stay idle; she took every cooking class she
STAFF FILE PHOTO BY TRAVIS SPRADLING
Lili Courtney shows off her Delightful Palate line of marinades and salad dressings. She works with the LSU AgCenter Food Incubator program.
could get her hands on. In her 20s, Courtney took cooking classes in New Orleans from Lee Barnes, who studied in France at Le Cordon Bleu, one of the world’s most distinguished centers of culinary education. Opportunities to teach began to come up in 2017, when chef Anne Milneck, the owner of Red Stick Spice Company, started to offer cooking classes and approached Courtney about leading lessons. About the same time, Melissa Marley, owner of Simplee Gourmet in Covington, opened a specialty kitchen store in New Orleans and asked Courtney to teach a series of classes there. Courtney also leads a small group class at her home, which she calls “In the Neighborhood.” She builds her own recipes, writes her own menus and schedules her
ä See COURTNEY, page 2G
Email Danny Heitman at danny@dannyheitman.com.
Did the 1920s’ most popular daredevil bring feats to La.? Alvin ‘Shipwreck’ Kelly was one of the country’s most popular daredevils in the 1920s and ’30s. He was known for climbing tall buildings and sitting atop rooftop flagpoles. In 1928, he brought his daredevil show to New Orleans’ Jung Hotel. FILE PHOTO FROM THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION
BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer
Sharon Coldiron is the kind of reader who is interested in a variety of subjects, so when she came across the name of 1920s entertainer Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly in an old newspaper article, her curiosity got the best of her. “I know the 1920s are known for early jazz and Vaudeville, but people were really into daredevil stunts at that time, too,”
Coldiron said. “From what I’ve read, Shipwreck Kelly was probably the most famous daredevil, and he climbed skyscrapers around the country. Did he ever bring his show to any Louisiana cities?” Louisiana definitely had its share of tall buildings, and though they may not always be as tall as some in New York or Chicago, they still met Kelly’s criteria.
He brought his antics to the Bayou State, specifically to New Orleans, Opelousas and Alexandria, which should pique Coldiron’s interest even more. She lives in the central Louisiana community of Deville, meaning Kelly’s Alexandria show took place only a few miles from her home. So, what, exactly, was Kelly’s schtick?
ä See CURIOUS, page 2G