Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you.

A Louisiana law giving childhood sex abuse survivors more time to file civil suits is in legal limbo and the history of Louisiana's orphan trains.

Louisiana is famous fiddler Amanda Shaw chats about her career and shining the spotlight on the state's musical heritage.

And our next gen hero is a poet and a role model for her peers.

Let's get started.

Let's get started.

Hi everyone.

I'm Karen Sincere, and I'm Karen LeBlanc.

Much more on those top stories in a moment on this week's edition of Louisiana The State We're In.

But first, a story that is getting a lot of attention.

Some state lawmakers are trying to make it easier to block public records from the public.

A bill from Republican State Senator Heather cloud would exempt a wide range of official documents from public records laws.

That's right.

Supporters, including Governor Jeff Landry, claim the records have been, quote, weaponized.

Critics, including government watchdog groups and journalists, say the measure would shield officials from accountability and bought the public from seeing how taxpayer money is being used.

And now on to a sensitive story that deals with the legal battle over the lookback law.

The law, passed in 2021, extending the statue of limitations for civil claims in childhood sexual abuse cases.

But now the state Supreme Court has ruled the lookback law unconstitutional, a decision that raises a host of moral, legal and ethical questions with victims caught in the legal crossfire.

Here's the latest.

December 2018.

The man who raped me with child appeared on TV.

And?

I went into complete collapse.

But Stephen McEvoy was 54 when he stole the face of his alleged sexual abuser.

Catholic Deacon George Brignac, on televised news reports.

His teacher was this man, Deacon George Brignac.

Brignac had been arrested multiple times on molestation charges while working in New Orleans area churches and schools.

He died in 2019 before facing trial.

Stephen wrote a letter to the Catholic Church describing his alleged sexual abuse in graphic detail, and it started in 1976.

I was in fifth grade, an altar boy saint in Merrimack.

He says of that day in 2018, when he saw his alleged abuser on TV, quote, a box that had been stored and forgotten deep in my brain was opened.

Soon after, Stephen confessed to his wife Colleen that he had been sexually abused as a ten year old fifth grade altar boy.

I could tell no one.

So we were taught that clergy with the next closest thing to God.

As a victim of child sexual abuse, don't come forward until you're at a much older age.

And a lot of that comes through the, guilt.

The shame that you were at fault.

And you never want to have to live through that again.

Well, imagine telling your parents that.

Or imagine telling your wife that what you've been through.

We're not getting the opportunity to heal.

because the look back law is being covered up again.

Lawmakers passed the lookback law unanimously in 2021, extending the statute of limitations for Steven and other childhood sexual abuse survivors to file civil lawsuits.

What it does is it says all of the cases related to childhood sexual abuse that were expired or past their time limit prior to 2021.

It revives them.

So essentially what it does is give child sex abuse survivors a second chance at justice.

So almost as soon as the law was passed, we started receiving challenges from various Catholic entities saying that this law violates the Louisiana Constitution.

The Louisiana Supreme Court recently ruled that the lookback law is unconstitutional, and the Douglas Bienvenu at all versus the society of the Roman Catholic Church of the Dioceses of Lafayette and Saint Martin to Tours Catholic Church for state Supreme court justices, agreed to strike down the law, while three justices wanted the law upheld.

The Louisiana Supreme Court gave pedophiles an untouchable constitutional right to get away with child rape.

Stephen is one of many adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse caught in the crossfire of a legal battle over the constitutionality of the lookback law.

He wants the right to file a civil suit and get information and compensation.

If we don't protect our most vulnerable, shame on us.

State Senator Jay Luno authored a resolution seeking to clarify the legislature's intent.

When Louisiana lawmakers unanimously passed the lookback law.

The intent was for us to give the the these people that were abused, sexually abused as children to give them the opportunity to go back and to file a lawsuit in a civil court, because a lot of times they can't do anything in the criminal courts because somebody's dead or they're too old or whatever and what have you, but it gives them an opportunity to come back in and seek justice.

So the average age that a childhood sexual abuse survivor comes forward is around age 52.

And that's of the ones that actually even come forward.

Around 30% never come forward at all.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Mural is concerned that the state Supreme Court's lookback law ruling effectively erodes the separation of powers under the Louisiana Constitution.

One of the foundations of our civil law system is that law is a solemn expression of legislative will, not judicial will.

The state attorney general has filed an application for a rehearing of the case.

Her office released a public statement saying that the majority opinion is, quote, an open door for free wheeling judicial policymaking.

The nature of the analysis that was conducted by the Supreme Court, the way that they wrote the substantive due process analysis, in this opinion, means that, the legislature basically could set a statute of limitations and never be able to change it.

I mean, it just does have long term implications for, for lots of different laws.

It's not just going to be limited to the sexual abuse cases.

It would be it would be interpreted to apply to numerous other cases, and it would open up a floodgate of litigation.

In my opinion, apart from the rights of sexual abuse survivors, the state Supreme Court ruling could hamstring the legislature's ability to extend the statute of limitations and other scenarios, such as filing tort claims for compensation in times of natural disasters.

The society of the Roman Catholic Church of the Diocese of Lafayette and Saint Martin to Tours Catholic Church filed a motion in opposition to the Attorney General's rehearing request.

Lead attorney Gill Dozier has not responded to multiple requests for an interview to explain the defendant's position.

As for Steven, he can't pursue criminal charges, but he can take civil action if the lookback law stands.

He wants transparency to know what the Catholic Church knew about his alleged abuser.

It's up to the Archdiocese of New Orleans to literally tell us this is what happened, and we want to say we're sorry.

Here is the truth so that we can hear.

Hence the paperwork.

We know there's paperwork out there.

From hashtags to headlines, here's what's trending.

So the countdown is on to the 2024 Olympics in Paris, and celebrations are underway with the traditional torch lighting.

What?

Fanfare.

Right.

Yes.

And I'm excited to see what it's going to look like, especially this year.

But I wanted to give you some information about the torch.

So, they've been lighting the Olympic torch since 1936.

It's first.

You know, it's first time that it was out in public.

It was 1936.

It was in Berlin.

And now, you know, every single time it goes to a different city, they changed the design of the torch to where it looks kind of like the new place that it's in.

So I'm excited to see what it looks like in Paris.

Yeah.

We have.

Yeah.

I think it's an amazing that tradition has dated back to ancient Greece and endured all this time.

So quite a spectacle.

And thank you for that history lesson, by the way.

Yeah.

You're welcome.

I learned a lot.

All right.

So here's here's the deal.

Lights out tonight between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. and here is why.

It's the spring bird migration.

Yes, it's a things that you do not want to be responsible for distracting those birds along their route.

If you're if you're a late nighter, Lights out.

Yeah.

And it's supposed to be about 14 million birds.

That is a lot of different birds.

And I, you know, me being a wealth of information, I figured out some of the names of the birds, so I'm going to read it.

The yellow rumped warbler.

Oh, and the ruby crowned king gull.

It you shall be there.

Well, moving on to the Coachella music Festival and Louisiana is well represented.

Grammy Award winner John Bettis and rapper juvenile took the stage at the festival, so they performed a Louisiana classic.

I'm not going to say the name on the news, but it took over the 99 in the 2000.

So y'all know exactly what I'm talking about.

Coachella is on my bucket list.

I will get to that music festival at some point, but if you go, there's like an entire, you know, list of items that you have to bring.

You need to bring like a blanket, a book sack with like a bunch of water in it.

It's like it's not an easy feat to get there, but you're going to be in the desert.

And if you want to see John Fitz perform again, he'll be in New Orleans next weekend for Jazz Fest, among other Louisiana greats.

And speaking of music, it is perfect timing because 2024 is the year of the music in Louisiana, celebrating the Bayou State as the birthplace of jazz, Cajun and zydeco.

Louisiana has a long history of producing musical legends, including rising star Amanda Shaw, who hails from Hammond.

The artist is fostering the fiddles mainstream appeal on the world stage.

I met up with Amanda in New Orleans to chat about her career.

She is celebrating 20 years with the rerelease of her first album.

Don't you read My Young?

I'm joined by Louisiana music Hall of Famer and fiddler Amanda Shaw, who is a tireless ambassador for Louisiana on this busy weekend.

It's the weekend.

First Quarter festival, and you've been out there promoting and performing.

So thank you for coming in to talk to us.

Oh my gosh, I am so excited to be here with you to talk about all things Louisiana and music.

I just I love it, I love the opportunity to do that.

So thanks for having me.

I of course, I googled you and Google described you as an American fiddler and a singer, but I got to say, you are so much more than that.

I mean, you play Cajun zydeco, cover heads up pop.

I mean, how do you choose your music?

Because it's so wide ranging.

Thank you.

Well, you know, and I'm a songwriter as well, so, you know, I write a lot of my music too, so which is a really important piece of it.

I grew up playing Cajun music here in Louisiana, learning Cajun music from some of the greats.

So a lot of my songwriting is inspired by Louisiana culture, inspired by things here in Louisiana.

You know, we're just here living it, you know?

But to other people, it's a very interesting place.

And so how can I try to capture that in my music when I'm writing my music?

You pick up the fiddle at age four.

Yeah.

What drew you to the.

I love all the musical instruments.

I mean, most, most young children play the piano.

You pick the fiddle.

I was watching TV, I was probably I'm not hitting, was probably watching a PBS show.

If I, if I had to guess.

I'm not kidding.

And I just remember seeing the violin and I just was like, that looks so cool.

And, we lived in Hammond, Louisiana, right down the road from southeastern.

Eastern has a great music program.

community music school.

So my mom took me down there to start taking violin lessons from, one of the student teachers.

My mom tried putting me in guitar lessons.

My mom tried putting me in piano lessons, and none of that stuck the way.

Violin stock I really enjoyed practicing violin.

I enjoyed the instrument and just something about the instrument itself.

Like there was like a, you know, I don't know, like a challenge to it that I like.

So we use the term violin.

Yeah.

But they describe you as a fiddler.

So but your violin is a fiddler.

Like what is the difference?

Generally the it's really the same thing.

It's more how you treat it.

And I'm definitely, a little rough.

Growing up as a kid, playing fiddle was not seen as, like, cool at all.

But I didn't feel that way because in my head I was like, well, it's the same 12 notes.

So, you know, I feel like inside of me it's just more of how you it's an energy and it's a treatment that you give your, your instrument and how you put it, how you present it, how you put it out there.

You definitely have a signature look.

I like the short skirts and the sparkly top.

I love getting dressed up and to me that is a big part of what I do.

There's I love, you know, before I go play a big show.

Any show really is getting picking out my dress, picking out what I'm going to wear, how am I going to do my makeup and like taking that time to you know, put on some music and get pumped up and then go hit the stage, you know, and have fun as I watch you perform, you know, I'm, I'm so curious, like, what is going on in your soul and in your psyche when you're up there at one with the music, because it just comes across so connected with what you're doing.

It's about just being in that moment, really enjoying it, in being ready for anything.

And then, you know, being just proud of what you did whenever you get off and then, you know, going on to the next one, you know, and doing it again, 2024 and it is the year of the music.

Yes, is a celebration of all of our contributions to the musical arts.

Why would you say that makes Louisiana music so distinct?

And our our talent pool here?

Louisiana is not the world's biggest state.

You know, it's not that small, but it's not that big.

And the fact that we have everything, we have Grammy Award winners, we have, you know, the Cajun music, zydeco music, the birthplace of jazz, like we have birthed so much stuff.

What an incredible honor it is to just be able to say, hi, I'm Amanda Shaw, and I'm a musician from Louisiana is such that I feel so lucky that I get to say that, you know what's next for Amanda Shaw?

The last two years I've been commuting to Nashville, and I've been working with Kent Wells, who is the producer and musical director for Dolly Parton, which is so crazy because, you know, when I was a teenager, you know, I had CDs.

I grew up with CDs, I had my little CD booklet with all my little CDs in the booklet and choosing.

And now, two years later, I get to say that Kent is not just, you know, somebody I met, but he is now a friend.

He's a mentor.

And that I get to work on music with somebody that I've looked up to for so long is so awesome.

And again, I hope that my wildest dreams I still don't even know yet.

So hopefully the next thing is is is something even bigger and better and greater.

So.

Well, thank you, Amanda Shelton.

You keep on keeping us down.

Thank you, thank you.

Spreading the joy.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

Many people in Louisiana identify as French, but there's a chance that some in this group might actually be Irish, German, or even English.

In the mid 1800s, train loads of orphaned immigrant children from New York came to Louisiana to find adoptive parents.

These stories have been relatively hidden, at least until now.

Take a look.

Mid 1800s, New York was experiencing a population boom.

Immigrants, mainly from Ireland, Germany and England, were crossing the Atlantic in hopes of a better life.

But unfortunately, many families were met with the brutality of poverty, disease and homelessness that was rampant in the city at the time.

The most vulnerable group were immigrant children.

Historians hypothesize that anywhere between 10,000 to 30,000 children lived on the street by 1850.

In today's math, there'd be about 150,000 orphans.

So how did New York manage its swelling population and growing orphan problem?

It has to do with this guy, Charles Loring Brace.

He borrowed the place out method that would take orphaned children on trains to other parts of the U.S., where kids would be matched with adoptive parents.

The trains were nicknamed orphan trains in Louisiana is linked to them.

My father was a New York orphan.

He was born October 27th, 1904.

He came to Louisiana April 1907.

He came in the first trainload of orphans to Opelousas.

He was two and a half years old when he got here.

At that time, he was probably learning to speak English.

But his parents that adopted him spoke French, so they taught him how to speak French.

Martin Roy Jr is the embodiment of a history he was never taught.

His father, Martin Roy Senior, was an orphan trained writer who hid his past behind a lifetime of Cajun values and Louisiana traditions.

He acclimated to rural Louisiana well, even successfully running for mayor in 1942.

His campaign would emphasize that he was born in Opelousas.

A white lie revealed only after his death.

Why do you think he wouldn't want to acknowledge that he was an orphan?

I think that was, just a fact that they didn't want to acknowledge the fact that they were orphans.

There were several people that I was familiar with that I found out later they were orphans, but they never acknowledged the fact that they were orphans and also came from New York.

The Orphan Train discovery left Roy and his family with a web of unanswered questions.

Each crumb of information leading to another fork in the road.

My interest wasn't really in who the parents would have been, but maybe what country they would have come from to know what nationality we might have in us.

We haven't found too much.

So I guess the biggest roadblock was finding information out about him.

Keeping was, not done real good at the time.

And the records that were kept, they have kept private.

The Roy family is hardly a unique story.

The thousands of other Louisiana families are linked to orphan trains.

It's estimated that 2000 children were sent to Louisiana from New York between 1869 and 1929.

We know there are people out there who don't know.

It was an untold history.

There was a huge stigma placed during that time.

second generation to an orphan train rider.

And it was very hushed up.

They were very quiet about it.

Martha Albert is the board president of the Orphan Train Museum in Opelousas.

Her mission is to gather as many people with the shared history as possible, but it's hard to track.

There's a lot of sealed documents there.

And, you know, privacy acts, I'm sure you know.

And I do truly believe it was for the protection of the children.

Orphan train children were bullied for being different, making their identity something to be ashamed of and hidden.

Yet the Orphan Train Museum is collecting stories from families trying to put the pieces back together.

We have a list of 433 names.

We want to double that.

History is slowly unraveling itself.

For the Roys, the search is still ongoing, but it's definitely worth it.

This week's young hero finds comfort in poetry.

When she can't speak the words she writes them, and stanzas and complicated verses that reference feeling she may not quite understand yet.

She's used these literary tools to communicate pride, love, and even deep loss.

Tonight I'll tell you her story.

Nate Jaeger.

My first poem that I wrote was entitled Brown Skinned Girl.

It was about me.

I just wrote all of the things that brown skinned girls embody.

You know, we're powerful.

We're really intelligent.

We carry the weight of the world on our shoulders.

So I wrote all I wrote about that guy.

George uses poetry as an avenue for expression as life around her becomes more complicated.

I really got into poetry seriously.

After my brother died, her bonus brother, Tyron Henderson, was killed in 2022.

He was a mentor, a friend and an irreplaceable part of Gigi's life.

When her emotions became too difficult to acknowledge, pen to paper could relieve if not heal, what she was going through.

I was just writing poems about him still being here.

Every time I started to register that, you know, he'd gone.

But the poems that I wrote about him were how much I love him, how much he helped me, how much he grow me.

And I had a kind of like an a holidays for us, like Christmas and also on birthdays.

So that was a time where she didn't get to enjoy herself.

How did she handle that?

well, I made the best of it.

We made the best of it.

I showered her, we give.

She has a fun loving spirit.

So in a negative, she turns.

It's all positive.

Poetry and grief reshaped GG's perspective.

She promised herself she'd always turn a negative into a positive.

I just started doing anything I put my mind to because let me know that, you know, time is really of the essence.

Time is really short and she live out her days doing what's best for herself and her community.

So far, that's exactly what she's doing.

Right livelihood.

It'll be something.

Okay.

Gigi is an excellent student.

She's a member of the National Honor Society, and she served on the East Baton Rouge Mayor's Youth Advisory Council.

There, she got to work with community members and really express how people her age see the city of Baton Rouge.

But these are the years.

These are my peak year lead where my years or our life.

I was like, getting out of my shell.

So I ran for vice president of, Boys and Girls Club from there.

I want to say in ninth grade, I joined Mayor's Youth Council because I felt my hair was so amped up.

I feel like, yo, I'ma be vice president.

I got to take it all the way at school.

Her leadership skills carry over.

Teachers describe her as a pillar of her class, often taking the reins on large projects, especially those involving her history and heritage.

She is enthusiastic, a leader, compassionate, engaging.

she's one of those students where if she's not there, like the class goes, all you notice.

I notice like the class meals.

All because she brings, like, a light to the classroom.

She'll even pose questions back to me to get the conversation or the lesson going deeper than I even planned.

She challenges me.

This Black History Month, she helped organize a widespread effort to tell her community stories through food, poetry, and organizing.

The event was a huge success, and not only did she volunteer for every single event, but she got to showcase more of her talent and share it with the entire school.

She pulled off being a part of the planning committee and writing to wants that she executed during the poetry Slam and the program, and had a standing ovation at the at the program.

What was that like watching that?

I was very proud because she expressed her pride, her black pride in her poetry, and it brought black pride to the entire school because this wasn't just, you know, mass African Americans that students in this program, this was the entire school, 1200 students.

High school is almost over for Gigi.

This is her senior year.

She'll continue her philanthropy and volunteering into adulthood.

She plans to become a nurse.

And get this.

She'll be the first person in her immediate family to go to college.

She will become a nurse practitioner.

That is her goal.

That's what she's working towards.

And I do believe that that's what she will become.

This part of Gigi's life is just a verse and an epic waiting to be completed.

Well, I sense great things are in store for Gigi tours, and also it just shows the therapeutic power of words and writing and journaling and poetry.

Right?

Yes, and I can't wait to see the other poetry slams that she's going to participate in, because she really is a talented kid.

Now, Elvis Louisiana Young Heroes program is presented this year with the generous support of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, the Gail and Tom Benson Charitable Foundation, with additional support from Community Coffee, the U.S. Army Baton Rouge Recruiting Battalion, Demko, McDonald's and Origin Hotel, Baton Rouge.

Well, that's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything LPB anytime, wherever you are with our LPB app.

You can catch LPB news and public affairs shows, as well as other Louisiana programs you've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook and Instagram for everyone that Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

I'm Karen LeBlanc and I'm cursing fear.

Until next time.

That's the state we're in.

Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together, we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum.

Located in Jennings City Hall, the museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana.

And by Visit Baton Rouge and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.