Beyond Bourbon St

New Orleans is so much more than the Bourbon Street scenes you may have seen––it’s a 300-year-old city made up of vibrant neighborhoods, diverse populations, and traditions layered upon each other. World class food is available not only in our famous restaurants, but in corner restaurants across the city. Mardi Gras is the party we throw for ourselves, but invite the world to take part in. If partying with 1,000,000 friends is not your style, there are festivals nearly every week of the year to suit your taste and interests. Join Mark Bologna, host of the popular Beyond Bourbon Street podcats and curator of the Instagram page of the same name, as he explores the people, places, music, history and culture that make New Orleans unique.

How does a couple survive when the one thing that brought them together threatens to tear them apart? In Beyond Bourbon Street, Nikesha Elise Williams weaves a story of home and family in New Orleans' still recovering lower ninth ward. Bombei and Graigh Halvert met in 2006 in the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Now fifteen years after the storm, the reluctant couple is married and on the verge of having their first child together. However, their childhood traumas wedge their way between them; festering and threatening to rot their relationship, and the family they're trying to build, from the inside out. This tale dissects the mystery and intrigue of first connections against the yoke of familial obligation and the ties that bind. Bombei and Graigh are forced to make choice between home and family and their own self-preservation? Set against the backdrop of one of America's greatest cities, Nikesha Elise Williams, takes us on a journey away from the glitz and glamour the Big Easy is known for, and into the bowels of the city where daily life is a lesson in resurrection, resilience, and redefining what it means to be home.

Days before the tumultuous presidential election of 1868, St. Bernard Parish descended into chaos. As African American men gained the right to vote, white Democrats of the parish feared losing their majority. Armed groups mobilized to suppress these recently emancipated voters in the hopes of regaining a way of life turned upside down by the Civil War and Reconstruction. Freedpeople were dragged from their homes and murdered in cold blood. Many fled to the cane fields to hide from their attackers. The reported number of those killed varies from 35 to 135. The tragedy was hidden, but implications reverberated throughout the South and lingered for generations. Author and historian Chris Dier reveals the horrifying true story behind the St. Bernard Parish Massacre.

Drummer Bobcat Bob leads a popular New Orleans band of multi-cultural musicians, but for months the music stops until a single drum beat on Bourbon Street begins to bring it back.

Situated deep in the Louisiana bayou is the formerly opulent Sorrow Estate. Once home to a magical family—the Sorrows—it now sits in ruins, ever since a series of murders in 1902 shocked the entire community. Now the ghosts of girls in white dresses shift in and out of view, stuck in time as they live out the past on repeat. When Frances Green Sorrow is born carrying the "signs" of the so-called chosen one, it is believed she will bring her family back from the brink of obscurity, finally resurrecting the glory of what it once was and setting the Sorrows ghosts free. But Frances is no savior. Fleeing from heartbreak, she seeks solace in the seductive chaos of New Orleans, only to end up married too young in an attempt to live an ordinary life. When her marriage falls apart shortly after having a son, she returns home again—alone—just out of reach from the prying eyes of her family. But when her son disappears, she is forced to rejoin the world she left behind, exposing her darkest secret in order to find him and discovering the truth of what really happened that fateful year in the process. Set amidst the colorful charm of The French Quarter and remote bayous of Tivoli Parish, Louisiana, Suzanne Palmieri's The Witch of Bourbon Street is a story of family, redemption, and forgiveness. Because sometimes, the most important person you have to forgive.... is yourself.

Against the backdrop of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century New Orleans, A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau disentangles the complex threads of the legend surrounding the famous Voudou priestess. According to mysterious, oft-told tales, Laveau was an extraordinary celebrity whose sorcery-fueled influence extended widely from slaves to upper-class whites. Some accounts claim that she led the "orgiastic" Voudou dances in Congo Square and on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, kept a gigantic snake named Zombi, and was the proprietress of an infamous house of assignation. Though legendary for an unusual combination of spiritual power, beauty, charisma, showmanship, intimidation, and shrewd business sense, she also was known for her kindness and charity, nursing yellow fever victims and ministering to condemned prisoners, and her devotion to the Roman Catholic Church. The true story of Marie Laveau, though considerably less flamboyant than the legend, is equally compelling. In separating verifiable fact from semi-truths and complete fabrication, Long explores the unique social, political, and legal setting in which the lives of Marie Laveau's African and European ancestors became intertwined. Changes in New Orleans engendered by French and Spanish rule, the Louisiana Purchase, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow segregation affected seven generations of Laveau's family, from enslaved great-grandparents of pure African blood to great-grandchildren who were legally classified as white. Simultaneously, Long examines the evolution of New Orleans Voudou, which until recently has been ignored by scholars.

Meet the Deacons of Bourbon Street, bad boy bikers who are hell on wheels and heaven between the sheets. Fans of Madeline Sheehan, Katie Ashley, Joanna Wylde and Kristen Ashley, buckle up - you're in for a wild ride. First stop: Make You Burn by Megan Crane. Sean 'Ajax' Harding's oaths are inked into his skin. Once second-in-command of the Deacons of Bourbon Street motorcycle club, he left New Orleans to protect his brotherhood. But the death of his beloved mentor, Priest Lombard, has lured him back. Heading straight to the club's hangout, he's welcomed by the delectable new owner. A wild ride with her is just what he needs - until he finds out she's Priest's daughter, all grown up and off limits. Sophie Lombard loved her father, but she's done with bikers. Then Ajax roars into town and changes everything. Sophie knows better than to get close to an outlaw but Ajax is impossible to resist. Their chemistry is steamier than the Louisiana bayou - and with heat like this, it might just be worth getting burned. For more badass bikers, don't miss the rest of the Deacons of Bourbon Street series: Fire Me Up by Rachael Johns, Hold Me Down by Jackie Ashenden, and Strip You Bare by Maisey Yates.

New Orleans is so much more than the Bourbon Street scenes you may have seen--it's a 300-year-old city made up of vibrant neighborhoods, diverse populations, and traditions layered upon each other. World class food is available not only in our famous restaurants, but in corner restaurants across the city. Mardi Gras is the party we throw for ourselves, but invite the world to take part in. If partying with 1,000,000 friends is not your style, there are festivals nearly every week of the year to suit your taste and interests. Join Mark Bologna, host of the popular Beyond Bourbon Street podcast and curator of the Instagram page of the same name, as he explores the people, places, music, history and culture that make New Orleans unique.