SFA Gardens to host Fall Plant Sale October 12
SFA Gardens will host its annual Fabulous Fall Festival Plant Sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 5 at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center in historic Nacogdoches.
The sale will feature an array of hard-to-find, “Texas-tough” plants, like east Texas native plants, and pollinator-friendly selections. Expect to find great trees, including Japanese maples, red buds, bald cypress and more. A list of all available plants will be posted on the SFA Gardens website two weeks before the sale.
This very popular event helps to fund the staff salaries and the daily operations of SFA Gardens. The sales make possible public events, garden education, and the maintenance of the areas under the SFA Gardens umbrella, including Mast Arboretum, Pineywoods Native Plant Center, Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden, Gayla Mize Garden and Kingham Children’s Garden.
Parking for the Fabulous Fall Festival will be available at SFA’s Janice A. Pattillo Early Childhood Research Center, located at 2428 Raguet St. Visitors are encouraged to arrive early and bring a wagon for their plants.
For more information and a list of available plants, call (936) 468-4404 or visit Visit and Events | SFA Gardens | SFA (sfasu.edu)

Secretary of State Nancy Landry invites the public to view “Shreveport Art Club, Celebrating 103 Years,” the annual juried show of the Shreveport Art Club on display at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum. The exhibit will open with a reception and awards ceremony on Sunday, Aug. 4 from 2 to 4 p.m. hosted by Friends of the LSEM. “Shreveport Art Club, Celebrating 103 Years” will be on display through Aug. 30. The exhibit can be seen during regular museum hours: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Acrylic, oil, watercolor, mixed media collage, and photographic works will be on display. All works included in the show must be original in concept, completed within the last two years, and must not have won awards in Shreveport or Bossier art shows. They also must not have been exhibited in a previous Shreveport Art Club show or shown at the LSEM.

Admission is free and tours are available by appointment. For more information about the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, visit www.laexhibitmuseum.org or call 318-632-2020. For the Secretary of State’s Museums Division, please visit www.sos.la.gov/museums.

In honor of this year’s theme, The Old Songs Live Forever, the festival will feature three stages of music, with performances by Johnny Earthquake and the Moondogs, Sonny Gullage and the Blues Groovers, Dikki Du and the Zydeco Krewe, the Forest Huval Cajun Band, Brandon Degeyter and The Mire Playboys, the Armadillo Jackal Band, Fire of Tierra Caliente, The Rick Adams Band, The Thistle Dancers and Pipers, the Zion Harmonizers, and traditional songs and dances by the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe. The Festival will also include a performance by Grupo de Danza Folklórica Mexicana Ketzaly, and a musical patriotic tribute by the Victory Belles performing World War II-era songs in three-part harmony. The festival will also include numerous food vendors offering traditional Louisiana cuisine. Outdoor activities include demonstrations of traditional blacksmithing and Dutch oven cooking. A child-friendly hands-on demonstration of a 19th century wash day will also be presented.

The Festival will include a Jambalaya Cookoff, in which professionals and hobbyists alike can compete in one of multiple categories and demonstrate their cooking skills. Registration and the Cooks’ Meeting will take place at 8:00 AM. Tasting and judging will begin at 12:30 PM, with winners be announced at 3:30 PM. There is no fee to compete in the Cookoff. Jambalaya must be cooked on-site outside of Prather Coliseum.

The Annual Louisiana State Fiddle Championship will be held at 1 PM in the Magale Recital Hall. There will be a non-championship class and a championship class. A twin fiddle category will also be held. Registration is at noon in the first-floor foyer outside Magale Recital Hall. The Fiddle Championship winner will perform on the main stage in Prather Coliseum at 5:00 PM.

The festival includes several opportunities for patrons to engage directly with Louisiana folk culture. Fiddler Clancey Stewart will lead free square dance lessons accompanied by live music from the Willie Stewart Bluegrass Band. Festival patrons can also take advantage of free Cajun and zydeco dance lessons taught by the Cajun French Music Association Dance Troupe. “The festival bridges the distance between artists and the festival patrons, thus breaking the artificial barriers between artists and audience,” said Dr. Shane Rasmussen, director of the festival and NSU’s Louisiana Folklife Center. “Rather than watching from the sidelines, everyone who takes part in these activities will share and engage in Louisiana’s rich culture.”

More than 80 crafts vendors have been invited to display and discuss their traditional work with festival patrons. Craftspeople are expected to display beadwork, baskets, cowhide chair covers, alligator jewelry, Pysanky eggs, Native American crafts, and pottery. Other expected craftspeople will display needlework, wood carvings, handmade toys and dolls, paintings, sculpture, homemade soap, spinning & weaving, handcrafted knives, handmade brooms, walking sticks, folk art quilts, and more.

KidFest will be available from 9 AM to 4 PM. Kidfest is an area dedicated to child-friendly activities and is a fun way for children to examine their own cultural and family traditions as well as those from around the state.

Narrative sessions will be held in the festival N-Club Room from 10 AM to 6 PM and
feature presentations on Delta music, Day of the Dead celebrations, music preservation, Native American traditional songs and dances, and Louisiana French narratives, with music informances on the blues with Sonny Gullage and the Blues Groovers and gospel music with The Zion Harmonizers. ASL interpretation, assistive listening devices, and audio description for these cultural discussions will be made available upon prior request. For a full schedule of events, as well as registration forms to participate in the Louisiana State Fiddle Championship and the Jambalaya Cookoff go to louisianafolklife.nsula.edu, or contact the Louisiana Folklife Center at (318) 357-4332 or email folklife@nsula.edu.

Four Old Broads
by Leslie Kimbell


July 25 – Aug 4


Retired burlesque queen Beatrice Shelton desperately needs a vacation – and a Sassy Seniors Cruise through the Caribbean may be just the ticket . . . if she can just convince her best friend, Eaddy Mae Clayton, to stop praying and go with her.

Unfortunately, things have not been very pleasant at Magnolia Place Assisted Living since Nurse Pat Jones began working there. The newest resident, Imogene Fletcher, is suddenly losing her memory. Maude Jenkins is obsessed with her favorite soap opera and planning her own funeral. Sam Smith, retired Elvis impersonator, keeps trying to bed every woman in the building. A mystery unfolds with laughter as the gals try to outsmart the evil Nurse Pat Jones and figure out why so many residents have been moved to “the dark side,” what exactly IS that mysterious pill, and what happened to Doctor Head?

Hilarity ensues as Imogene goes undercover and Maude enters the Miss Magnolia Senior Citizen Pageant to throw Pat off their trail. If they can solve the mystery, they may make it to the cruise ship after all.

“If The Golden Girls was rebooted today, it would look much like Four Old Broads” – Carolina Curtain Call

Presented by City Park Players - tickets at cpptheatre.com