The Return and Disappearance of Football Star Jackie Wallace
Fans called football cornerback Jackie Wallace The Headhunter. He played for the Vikings, Colts, and Rams. He played in two Super Bowls. But drug addiction undid the life his talent had built, and he...
View ArticleRemembering Dr. John
The first Dr. John died in August 1885. He was known by many names, as New Orleans chronicler Lafcadio Hearn noted in his obituary. “Jean Montanet, or Jean La Ficelle, or Jean Latanié, or Jean Racine,...
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‘People Can Become Houses’
Danielle A. Jackson | Longreads | September 2019 | 18 minutes (4,289 words) The Yellow House, Sarah M. Broom’s debut memoir, tells the story of the light-green shotgun house in New Orleans East her...
View ArticleEarl King Deserves His Due
You might not know of Earl King, a singer-songwriter guitarist from New Orleans, Louisiana, though you’ve likely heard songs he wrote if you know the music of Fats Domino, Dr. John, the Neville...
View ArticleSent Home to Die
In New Orleans, hospitals sent infected COVID patients into hospice facilities or back home to die — to family members untrained and unprepared to care for them — and in some cases discontinuing...
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‘Can You Imagine How That Felt?’: Blake Bailey’s Predations, As Told By His...
Blake Bailey’s 900-page biography of Philip Roth had been on shelves a matter of days when women began stepping forward to accuse Bailey of sexual assault, harassment, and grooming. Bailey, who has...
View ArticleWeighing Big Tech’s Promise to Black America
“Floyd’s killing sparked widespread protests in the streets and calls for racial justice in Fortune 500 boardrooms. But while corporate America’s official responses often felt like crisis PR disguised...
View ArticleAcid Church
An essay by Courtney Desiree Morris on Louisiana, her grandmother, drugs, feeling alive, and finding one’s queer tribe. I roll my hips like the Mississippi, joints loose and easy, feeling light and...
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Fast Times on America’s Slowest Train
This story was funded by our members. Join Longreads and help us to support more writers. Harrison Scott Key| Longreads | October 3, 2023 | 14 minutes (4,055 words) In 2014, the National Rail...
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The Most Infamous Cop in New Orleans History
Brian Fairbanks | The Atavist Magazine | April 2024 | 1,395 words (5 minutes) This is an excerpt from issue no. 150, “The Last Shall Be First.” A few weeks before Hurricane Katrina devastated New...
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