MAMOU

by Chris Warner 

with Brad Lee Patterson

Hardcover Autographed Editions $24.99

A washed up architect and denizen of Perdido Key, Florida spends a reveling pre-Mardi Gras weekend with an old friend at the world-famous Flora-Bama, where they concoct a plan to acquire accomplices in Mobile and New Orleans, on successive nights, and to rob the Mamou State Bank in Mamou, Louisiana during the drunken early morning hours of Ash Wednesday. The architect and old friend draw up more fun than money, and in the end, each cohort finds himself and new friends in this colorful romp across the hypnotic, haunted carnival jewels of the Dirty South.

A delightfully suspenseful and entertaining read by New Iberia author Chris Warner, this novel is a great way to welcome in the 2023 Mardi Gras season.

Review presented by Books Along the Teche 

337-367-7621  |  106 E. Main Street, New Iberia

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MARCIE D. MELANCON

Work: Journal/Scrapbook 

Medium: Mixed

Available at: A&E Gallery

Price: $45

New Iberian Marcie Melancon is always looking for ways to incorporate found items into her artwork. The Houma native, who relocated to Acadiana with her husband and children in 1990, was a pediatric nurse and rediscovered her passion for creativity when she retired in the early 2000s. She dipped her toe into watercolors, acrylics and other mediums, and has made a name for herself in collage work and other mixed media techniques. One such technique involves sewing swatches of fabrics, ribbons and lace together in interesting patterns, then thread-stitching the entire piece and using it as the cover for a journal or scrapbook. Inside these delightful books are pages affixed to paper scraps, cutouts and other materials to be used in whatever creative way the journal’s new owner can dream.

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NABIL LOLI

Work: <unnamed> 

Medium: Acrylic

Available at: Lafayette Art Association & Gallery

Price: $400

Nabil Loli arrived in Lafayette as a creative, artistic teenager with a will to succeed. After fleeing his native Syria to join his eldest brother in Italy, he then set his sights on Acadiana, where his brother was teaching at then-USL. For decades, he worked hard – sidelining his artistic endeavors for the sake of providing for his family – and made a name for himself as the successful owner/operator of Cedar Deli in Lafayette. It wasn’t until he was 60 years old that he made the decision to concentrate more on his art and began to show his work to others. Today, Loli’s unique style of Mediterranean and Cajun influences can be seen on canvases in homes and businesses throughout the world. Most recently, Loli was commissioned by Lucky’s Fire & Smoke in Lafayette, and his work now hangs on the popular restaurant’s walls.

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BARRY JEAN ANCELET

Work: From Behind the Mask: Essays on South Louisiana Mardi Gras Runs  

Medium: non-fiction

Available at: ULpress.org

Price: $30

The experiences and musings of Barry Jean Ancelet over the last 40-plus years weave together in this tight collection of essays on aspects of the Cajun and Creole South Louisiana Mardi Gras run. Among the topics included in his collection are traditions, music, songs, begging, masks and costumes, evolution of the courir, historical backdrop, and roots of the Mardi Gras run in European and Afto-Caribbean festivals. Ancelet, a professor emeritus of Francophone Studies and Center for Louisiana Studies Research Fellow at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, pays particular homage to the cooperative nature of the runs, where communities show solidarity as they travel together across the countryside.