The ”birder of orchids,” Roger Hammer displays a photograph at his home in Homestead of him and Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Roger was awarded the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award from the Dade Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society in 1982. This work is licensed under CC BY–NC–ND with minor edits for style. – Editor

It was September 1975. Roger Hammer packed his camera, six canteens of water, two compasses, an Army jungle hammock, dried fruit, beef jerky, and other light rations before he headed to the Everglades in his Volkswagen van.

He drove 90 miles from his home in Homestead to Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, home to 50 native orchid species. That’s about half of Florida’s orchid diversity and a fourth of the species in the U.S. and Canada.

But Roger, then 32, was looking for just one: Lepanthopsis melanantha, the tiny orchid.

”There it is!”

He had read about it, but few if any botanists had seen firsthand the flower’s delicate purple-red blooms. They are extremely rare, found primarily in hard-to-access recesses of the swamp, he recalls reading.

He parked his van, stepped outside, and proceeded to hike for five days. Along the way, he stumbled across 30 orchid species. Trudging through a swamp is tiring, it turns out, so Roger took a seat on a pop ash tree stump to rest and enjoy a granola bar. As he munched, he looked over his shoulder, and like a ghost, there it was: a tiny orchid with tiny burgundy petals.

“I went, ‘Oh my god. There it is,’” he remembers.

Chasing Orchids

Roger, now 79, has continued to spend much of his time chasing down and photographing the state’s most elusive flora. Florida alone boasts the greatest diversity of orchids in the continental U.S., but today, three-fourths of its orchids are listed as endangered or threatened. Humans and their insatiable poaching appetite for the rare flowers are putting Florida’s last remaining species at unprecedented risk, and climate change is only making matters worse, as are sea-level rise, saltwater intrusion, heat waves, and urban sprawl.

But Roger has done much more for the orchids than take their beauty shots and publish them across more than eight guidebooks.

The post Stalking the Elusive Orchid: Florida Boasts the Flower’s Greatest – yet Endangered – Diversity appeared first on Go Gulf States.

Our pals at ‘Deep South’ are known for reliably covering the Southern book beat. A few times each year, the online magazine publishes great reading recos, not to mention some terrific reviews. A solid half of this particular list of 28 tomes features settings in, or authors from, Gulf states. The entire list offers titles that reflect the dark drama, the charm, and the emotional humidity of the American South. While the list first appeared in May, many of the titles are still due for release late into summer. – Editor

The post ‘Deep South’ Curates the Latest Beach Reads, New Fiction, and Even a Rogue Shark Memoir appeared first on Go Gulf States.

This past week, the county superstar opened his hotly anticipated store in the coastal Alabama town. The second Shore Thing cigar store will have a very similar feel and vibe to its flagship, located on scenic highway 30A, in Watersound, Florida.

Bryan, the five-time Entertainer of the Year and American Idol celebrity judge owns the store along with business partner and co-owner, Tobacconist of the Year and three-time Davidoff Golden Band Award-winner Paul Copeland. Luke and Paul chose The Wharf in Orange Beach because of its deeply rooted ties to live music and championship sport fishing. The Wharf also has a 10,000 seat, open air amphitheater that hosts some of the biggest names in music, including Luke himself.

In fact, guests who attended the store’s grand opening on June 15 had the opportunity to be regaled at that evening’s concert by none other than Thomas Luther Bryan, himself.

The post Huntin’, Fishin’, Lovin’… and Smokin’ at Luke Bryan’s New ‘Shore Thing’ Cigar Store appeared first on Go Gulf States.

There is a game I play with friends in which I challenge them to name the “seasons” in Florida without using official calendar designations. It is always good fun. There’s Love Bug Season in May and September when cars may be blackened by amorous insects. Leaf Fall in February when the oaks seemingly drop their leaves overnight to make way for new growth. Everyone is familiar with Snowbird Season when roads and beaches are jammed with people fleeing cold climes, many proudly displaying what must be agonizing sunburns. Orange Blossom Season brings wafts of almost overpowering sweetness…and another irritant during the year-round Allergy Season.

And then there’s Hurricane Season

Officially lasting from June 1 to November 30, Hurricane Season is the time of year when television announcers repeatedly advise everyone to buy bottled water, canned food, and batteries, leaving me suspiciously wondering if they have grocery store stockholdings. The nightly weather reporter eagerly sizes up storms crossing the Atlantic Ocean and the likelihood of them forming into something dangerous. I attentively watch as they depict swirling systems coded by number for wind strength.

The state has a long history of havoc-wreaking storms. The 1928 storm killed more than two thousand people when it caused Lake Okeechobee to overflow. Zora Neale Hurston writes of this tragedy in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Then there was the 1935 Labor Day storm that killed highway workers in the Keys. And more recently, Hurricane Andrew tore through Homestead in 1992. However, most longtime Florida residents don’t start panicking until late August and September when the worst storms are most likely to hit. Changing climate conditions are making me more wary every year as hurricanes get larger and move more slowly, increasing their capacity for damage.

Today we are blessed to have electronic gadgetry that charts potential storms long before they reach our coasts. State residents have plenty of time to stock up, buy ice, and get the heck out of a storm’s path. But just imagine how old backwoods pioneers dealt with the storms that thundered ashore seemingly – and literally – out of the blue. And since I’m a fourth-generation Floridian, I’m talking about my people.

Two of Florida’s most beloved authors – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and Patrick D. Smith – penned memorable descriptions of hurricanes, offering glimpses into what these rural folks endured.

Rawlings, writing from her home in the north-central Florida village of Cross Creek, described hurricanes in three of my favorite pieces. The short story “Jacob’s Ladder” begins and ends with such storms, framing the hardships endured by Florry and Mart. “The yellow-grayness of the sky was tinged with green in the west,” Rawlings wrote. “The roar of the wind was a train thundering nearer and nearer.”

The post Lessons From the Marjories: Watching Hurricane Season from the Front Porch appeared first on Go Gulf States.

Wendy Rodrigue (L), widow of Louisiana painter George Rodrigue, shares some insight with Karen LeBlanc (R) at the West Baton Rouge Museum     ©2023 The Design Tourist

Why is the Blue Dog Blue?

This question, not just a title of George Rodrigue’s famous book, but also a gateway into the world of his Blue Dog paintings, has intrigued art enthusiasts and cultural historians alike. These paintings, a blend of haunting beauty and hypnotic charm, have become a symbol of Louisiana’s rich heritage and Rodrigue’s artistic genius.

As a child growing up in South Louisiana, I was mesmerized by the Blue Dog paintings of George Rodrigue. Haunting and hypnotic, the Blue Dog appeared in various Louisiana landscapes as if bearing witness to our heritage, history, and culture. Yellow eyes and a cobalt blue fur coat, the Blue Dog sat perched in the same position, at eye level, not to be looked down upon but instead faced front on.

Unraveling the Mystery of the Blue Dog’s Origin

Over the years, I followed Rodrigue’s work as his Blue Dog paintings gained international fame, and the Blue Dog became a Louisiana icon. I never met the beloved Louisiana painter, and I’ve never owned a Blue Dog painting, although I’ve wanted one for years. He died in 2013 of cancer.

I was excited to have the opportunity to tour George’s art with his widow, Wendy Rodrigue, who travels the nation, bringing his Blue Dog paintings to school children to inspire future artists and foster art literacy.

Wendy shared that George painted his first Blue Dog in 1984 after years of painting Cajun folklore and Louisiana landscapes. I asked her if George had an “aha” moment when he decided to start painting the Blue Dog, which, surprisingly, didn’t start blue…. .

The post Musings, Clues, and the Rougarou: Why Is the Blue Dog Blue? appeared first on Go Gulf States.

With a moniker reflecting the honor of sharing a name with an Allen Toussaint classic, DJ Soul Sister is a New Orleans icon, known for her deep crate digging and disc spinning artistry. Be sure to keep up with her website: It carries listings of all her upcoming events. In April – 4/20 in fact – she spins the 20th Anniversary of HUSTLE! dance party at Hi-Ho Lounge and on April 28, she’s Interviewing Patrice Rushen at New Orleans Jazz Fest!   – Editor

It’s no surprise Soul Sister has anchored her life in the craft of mixing and blending music. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine any other way it could have gone.  Music called her powerfully from an early age. Throughout her childhood, music moved her and animated her imagination. She began collecting records at six years old. She recalls, fondly, a doll she owned with a radio inside. She clung to the doll every night, listening to the radio all night long.

“A lot of people assume that I inherited music from my parents […] that my parents passed down their love of music to me. And that actually is not so.” Her father’s small vinyl collection may have gotten her started, but her enthusiasm for music far exceeded what she found in her early environment. It seemed to tug on her throughout her life, drawing her more and more closely in.

Despite this early call to music, Soul Sister insists that she never set out to be a DJ. Throughout her story, DJing just kept calling out to her.

The post She’s the Baddest in the World: New Orleans’ DJ Soul Sister Doesn’t Need to Spin the Hits appeared first on Go Gulf States.

When you hear the name Sarah Jessica Parker, movies and TV shows probably come to mind. Parker is a household name thanks to pop-culture standards like Sex and the City, Hocus Pocus, and Footloose. The popular actress’s newest project, however, is a different kind of venture – an imprint of Molly Stern’s publishing house Zando.

In 2022, Parker launched SJP Lit, which will publish between four and six books over three years. An avid reader since childhood, Parker has stated that some of her earliest memories were of reading and that her go-to activity between takes on film and TV sets is to pick up a book.

This September, SJP Lit published Kim Coleman Foote‘s Coleman Hill. The novel is a poignant reflection across several generations of the intertwined Coleman and Grimes families during the Northern Migration from Alabama and Florida to New Jersey, detailing grief, love and cultural shifts over decades. By using the narration of characters across decades, Foote perfectly illustrates the unraveling of abuse and connection between parents, children, and siblings, while providing a history lesson on the contrast between the remnants of Southern slavery and the price of starting over in the North.

In 1916, during the early days of the Great Migration, Celia Coleman and Lucy Grimes flee the racism and poverty of their homes in the post–Civil War South for the “Promised Land” of Vauxhall, New Jersey. But the North possesses its own challenges and bigotries that will shape the fates of the women and their families over the next 70 years.

Told through the voices of nine family members, Coleman Hill is a multigenerational debut that draws from Foote’s own family legend. As Foote told The Provincetown Independent, “When you forget parts of history, patterns repeat themselves. This goes for the great human tragedies as much as for intergenerational trauma within families.”

The book is, “At once intimate and panoramic,” according to SJP.

The post Panoramic, Intimate ‘Coleman Hill’ Captivates Readers and SJP appeared first on Go Gulf States.

This article sure brought back some vivid memories. We can clearly “see” ourselves and our pals bopping down our grade school hallways, singing along to Jim Croce’s catchy hits. The songs were so ingrained in our formative era, their influence contributed to our own musical learning and loving the guitar. Later in adulthood, we had the pleasure of seeing A.J. in concert at SXSW. The man is a master. For fans of father Jim, this son’s tribute tour will not only strum the heartstrings, it will – if you’ll forgive the 70s parlance – blow your mind.  – Editor

Is your road trip soundtrack full of your favorite Adult Contemporary hits from the early 70s? Is Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle” near the top of your playlist? Then mark your calendar for March 24 and start planning your next Gulf Coast road trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. It’s there at the Joy Theater that A.J. Croce takes the stage for Croce Plays Croce. The tour is a 50th-anniversary celebration of the music and legacy of Jim Croce, A.J.’s father.

I Got a Name

After years of being a jack-of-all-trades, Jim Croce dreamed of finally becoming a full-time singer-songwriter. The dream started coming true in 1972. That was the year things turned around for the struggling musician who had worked several jobs to pay the bills. Now, however, all of that was changing.

In 1972, Croce released his third album, You Don’t Mess Around with Jim. Two tracks received significant airplay – the title track and the hit, “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels).” He quickly followed up with another album, Life and Times, in January 1973 featuring the #1 hit “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.”

To support Life and Times, Jim went on a 45-date U.S. tour, chartering a Beechcraft E18S to fly him from venue to venue. On the night of Thursday, September 20, 1973, Croce performed a concert at Prather Coliseum in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Once he finished, he hopped on the plane headed for Sherman, Texas, and a concert at Austin College. Sadly, the plane crashed into a tree on takeoff from Natchitoches killing everyone on board. Croce was just 30 years old. Along with a string of hits, he also left behind his wife, Ingrid, and son Adrian James.

Photographs and Memories

Adrian James “A.J.” Croce was just eight days shy of his second birthday the day his father died. As one can imagine, except for a few photographs and his mother’s memories he doesn’t remember much about his dad. What he does remember, however, there always being music around. And its music that helped him not only cope with his father’s death but also with other tragedies in his life. Physical abuse by his mother’s boyfriend caused him to go blind at four years old. (At the age of 10, he did regain his eyesight in one eye.) However, he turned to music to get him through, becoming a piano prodigy and a songwriter, like his father.

Still, for most of his life, he was hesitant to play his father’s songs. Besides not wanting to hear the same old “like father, like son” clichés, A.J. wanted to carve his own path. As a result, barely in his 20s, he began his music career. Eventually, A.J. would find himself touring with the likes of B.B. King, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and New Orleans’ own Allen Toussaint.

Ooh Child

The young Croce began to make a name for himself, touring across the country and gathering his own fan base. A mix of his father’s admirers and new and curious fans began to fall in love with his charm, piano virtuosity, and special treatment of classic cover tunes, like Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” and the Five Stairsteps’ “Ooh Child.”

So what made A.J. finally want to cover some of his father’s songs? Well, a few years ago, he found an old tape his father had made. On it were old blues, country, and folk songs Jim had recorded. They were songs by Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, and Pink Anderson. Though A.J. had been playing the same songs since he was a child, he never before heard his father play them. As a result of discovering this tape, he felt a deeper spiritual connection and realized that there was more than just DNA he and his dad shared.

On the Croce Plays Croce tour, you’ll hear A.J. sing some of these songs as part of his setlist. And of course, he’ll be singing some of his dad’s songs too. However, don’t think it’s a night celebrating only the legacy of the elder Croce. The concert is actually a celebration of two generations of musicians, and A.J. will be playing his own songs, too.

Indeed, Croce plays Croce is than a catalog of songs of father and son. Audiences will be treated to little vignettes of the two musicians’ lives that share more than just the kindred of blood but also their love of music.

Croce Plays Croce makes one last Gulf Coast appearance at New Orleans’s Joy Theater. Tickets are available online or at the Joy Theater.                                                                                                                   🌊

Wherever you’re traveling along the Gulf Coast, be sure to bring plenty of Stuckey’s along with you.

After all, is it really a road trip without a Stuckey’s Pecan Log Roll? Order yours and all of your favorite Stuckey’s souvenirs, snacks, and treats from Stuckey’s online today.

The post Time Out of a Bottle: Croce Plays Croce in New Orleans appeared first on Go Gulf States.

Attendees can expect an exhilarating lineup of events. The festival will showcase intriguing indie shorts, stimulating documentaries, and body-rocking music videos. This media celebrates Black artists and filmmakers’ rich diversity and creativity. The festival will also feature highly educational workshops. These sessions are designed to inspire and empower emerging talents and instantly connect networking parties. They will offer unique opportunities for rising artists to engage with top indie professionals in a lively and inclusive atmosphere.

“This event is a celebration of diversity, innovation, and the power of storytelling. We are excited to bring together artists, filmmakers, and industry professionals to showcase their work and connect with a community of like-minded individuals,” said the festival director, Cranstan Cumberbatch. “We are proud to present the Black Art & Film Festival as a platform where creative minds come to intertwine.”

Click through to learn more about the festival and for the full schedule.

The post Black Art & Film Festival Lights Up St. Pete with Creativity, Diversity, and Emerging Talent appeared first on Go Gulf States.

If you live in Texas, it can be tough to imagine a “lighthearted take” on our state’s politics. But somehow Lawrence Wright has pulled it off with his latest, ‘Mr. Texas.’ The vaunted author has penned 11 books, including ‘Going Clear: Scientology,’ ‘Hollywood,’ ‘The Plague Year,’ and the one which earned for him a Pulitzer: ‘The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.’ Check out Brittany LeJeune’s (Deep South) interview with Wright about this book, which, by the way, makes a lovely holiday gift. – Editor

An unexpected meeting between Austin lobbyist L.D. Sparks and cattle rancher Sonny Lamb is the beginning of author and New Yorker magazine writer Lawrence Wright‘s entertaining story about Texas politics. Inexperienced Texas cowboy Sonny must learn how to navigate the legislature in Texas, and the lovable character wins the hearts of everyone at the capitol.

Mr. Texas ties together issues that the citizens of the state currently face, such as drought and border control, as the officeholders fight partisan divides and jostle for position. The amusing and ironic events that take place as Sonny runs for election and wins with a narrow victory are written in a humorous context.

In addition to his success as an author, Wright is a screenwriter, playwright, and staff writer for The New Yorker magazine. Brittany LeJeune interviewed him over Zoom about the rollercoaster ride of getting Mr. Texas to book form, his hope for his home state, and the future of his novel.

The post ‘Mr. Texas’ Rides off into the Sunset: A Lawrence Wright Interview appeared first on Go Gulf States.