Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by.

Every day I go to work for Entergy.

I know customers are counting on me.

So Entergy is investing millions of dollars to keep the lights on and installing new technology to prevent outages before they happen.

Together, together, together.

We power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth Zeigler Foundation and the Zeigler 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.

And I wanted to integrate the city of New Orleans in every way possible.

Remembering a political patriarch.

The more we educate the people, the more they're going to know what to ask, what to see, how to recognize it.

The passionate fight against human trafficking.

We built it to be a creative hub for.

Growth in the Hollywood South.

It's the nature of what the art form is like.

You're capturing the likeness of this alligator.

A Louisiana artist meshes Cajun roots with a traditional art form.

We're nearing the peak of a very weird hurricane season and a very quiet one, too.

And we just joined exclusive company.

We sure have for the first time in 25 years, no name storm in the month of August, very rare.

It's only happened three times in the satellite era.

Right now, Hurricane Earl could threaten Bermuda, but no threat to the U.S. mainland.

Daniel is headed off to the North Atlantic.

So that leaves two tropical waves far out in the Atlantic.

Forecasters are watching them closely.

So get your hurricane gameplan ready just in case.

And now the news making headlines across the state.

Louisianans and people around the world are mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth.

The second.

The United Kingdom's longest serving monarch.

She died peacefully Thursday at her Scottish estate, Balmoral, and ended her reign of 70 years.

She was only 25 in 1952 when she ascended to the throne.

Her eldest son is now King Charles, the third.

He said the death of his beloved mother is a moment of great sadness for him, his family and the world.

Queen Elizabeth was 96.

The arrest of two Baton Rouge police officers is bringing further shame to a department under pressure because of crime and murder rates.

One officer is accused of leaking details to drug dealers about an investigation.

The other allegedly sexually assaulted a woman.

In Louisiana has lost yet another important political figure.

Moon Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, died Monday.

He was 92 years old.

Landrieu is remembered for desegregating both public and government facilities in the city.

He's also credited with building up New Orleans as a tourist attraction.

LPD takes a look back through its archives.

1970, New Orleans, like much of the country, was dealing with political and racial unrest.

It was a city trying its best to recover and function in a post.

Jim Crow society.

Will ensure them the right to vote.

A society where African-Americans could vote, they could sit where they wanted on a bus, in a restaurant, in a store.

It was a big change in the city, was working overtime to reconcile a not so distant legacy of segregation.

And now you'll have wholesale integration in the parish of all the is in the entire state of Louisiana.

It is up to the state to provide a freedom of choice and association for each and every child of this state.

But that April whispers of change turned to screams, turned to votes.

New Orleans voted in Moon Landrieu, who promised an overhaul of the status quo.

I knew that this city could not survive with 40% of its population underemployed, not taken a position of responsibility in the government, not having any sense that they belonged, that those days were gone forever.

And I wanted to integrate the city of New Orleans in every way possible.

Landrieu's political reputation was molded in the sixties when he was a state representative.

The country was deep in political turmoil.

As the conversation around desegregation was growing at the Capitol.

Landrieu stood in a small pro-integration minority that tried to keep the Jimmy Davis administration from passing segregationist measures.

He voted against every anti integration bill.

Turning critical attention his way.

Not all of it.

Good.

I didn't realize it, but I was standing immediately behind Judge Perez and Senator Senator Renacci.

And somehow, Senator, an act must have turned and saw me.

And when he did, he took a step toward me because we almost chest back to start with.

And he put his hand in my face and he said, I know you and we're going to get you.

He left the legislature and turned his attention back to his hometown, New Orleans.

He joined the city council, where he forged interracial connections with policy and agendas that would increase black presence and social and political New Orleans.

By the time he was voted into the mayor's office, he'd gained a large percentage of the black electorate and a moderate number of white voters.

He desegregated bars.

He created an answer desk so black residents could give formal complaints about barriers they were facing.

He also hired black administrators.

Some of these kids went on to become very successful businessman, very successful politicians.

They were great.

I will do this to stay committed.

Excited about what we were doing.

It was a great period to be serving.

Of course, this is only part of Langer's legacy.

He worked to promote New Orleans tourist industry.

He made the Superdome the tourist attraction it is today.

And he had it renovations in the French market in Jackson Square.

The Dome Stadium hit New Orleans when it was kind of looking like things weren't going to get any better.

And because we put the Dome Stadium downtown, it was an enormous investment in this city's future.

When his tenure in New Orleans came to an end, Landrieu worked as the secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

After that, he served as a judge for the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

He ended his career in 2000.

He retired, leaving behind a legacy of change and progress.

Landry's influences all over the city of New Orleans, the state and really the country.

He paved the way for politicians like Dutch Morial and of course, Mitch and Mary Landrieu.

I'm first lady Donna Edwards.

Almost 25 million people are trafficked every year, and one in four of those victims are children.

Almost half are forced into work.

The majority are exploited in the sex industry.

It's why Louisiana has launched a statewide public awareness and education campaign.

Join me.

The Louisiana Governor's Office of Human Trafficking Prevention and the State District Attorney's Association to Combat Human Trafficking and promote justice and healing.

Learn more at stop trafficking L.A. dot com.

That is First Lady Donna Edwards with a video message about human trafficking, raising awareness about human trafficking.

It's playing on some airports throughout the state, as a matter of fact, on video screens this year, and is why we have worked hard to bring attention to this horror, the myths, the facts, the numbers.

The first lady is here with us right now.

Donna Edwards, thank you so much.

You've become an ambassador nationwide in the fight against human trafficking, raising awareness, etc., and the national coalition.

Can you tell me about that?

Yes.

Well, thank you for having me, Andre.

So the National Coalition for the Prevention of Human Sex Trafficking came about during COVID.

We were all lockdown, as many of you were.

But we decided we had been having zooms.

I mean, I'm sorry, we've been having summits and the summits were in person.

And we had were forced to go to Zoom, like many of our other organizations.

And groups.

And so we realized that our reach could be even further and spreading awareness.

We reached out to all the first spouses across the entire country and said, Come, listen, learn and be a part of it.

And so we started off that initial zoom with about, I don't know, two or 300 people.

The last one we had on Zoom was over 600 are plus people.

And we had registrants from some Guam, from Australia, from the Vatican, and we had all these first spouses that were listening and learning.

And this is something that's I mean, it's right up.

What is important to you?

You have a big heart for helping people.

And the use of the word real is being used.

Very importantly with the governor's office of Human Trafficking Prevention, which, you know, I'm going to say you're sort of running.

I know that there are many people involved, but you're you're here talking about it and the face.

So we started the campaign called Stop Trafficking L.A. dot com.

Right.

And that was to bring awareness and that's when we had the of the group of four spouses that came in and April we purposely had the event around the NCAA Final Four because large sporting events all over the country, including our own state, bring in traffic victims.

And so we were able to start this campaign.

So we had billboards and and you probably saw some things, some messages on lots of messages on radio and TV, but really to bring awareness that we all need to understand and know this, you know, the mom at home, the teacher in the classroom, the person in the office, we all need to understand what trafficking is because it affects us all at all different levels.

Absolutely.

Let me play you a clip of a radio show about human trafficking that I did this year on Jamaica tour with Dr. Katie Fetzer.

We got this call from a listener.

I am actually a survivor of human trafficking.

I almost got killed getting away.

I got stabbed several times.

I'm very pleased that I'm calling in because I don't want guys thinking, Oh, she's a drug addict.

She's okay.

I absolutely used to be a drug addict.

She's kidnaped young.

She's drugged up, right?

A lot of women don't get away.

I was very lucky.

I want to let these women know if you can hear me and you are a female being human trafficking.

And your gut tells you now's the time.

Now's the time.

It is better to lose your fingers then to die for human trafficking.

And if you can get away, get away and you can survive and you can have a life once you have survived.

As you hear that, what goes through your mind?

Sadness.

The average age of a young girl in our own home state of Louisiana that's trafficked is 13 years old.

13 as we have a home there.

Not many of them in our state at all.

One that I know of.

There are others.

But this this home takes in these rescued victims where the state and the private and organizations all support the this home.

And to see the faces of these 12, 11, 13, 16 year old young girls and some boys.

Yeah, these happen to be only girls that I go visit.

But to know where, how simple it happened.

And a lot of it comes from family situations where.

They know.

People they.

Have in this case with this woman.

Have you been able to hear of other success stories you're mentioning?

Sure.

Sure.

There's there's there's lots of success stories because the more we know, the more we hear, the more we never learn.

The more we can share.

See something, say something.

The more we educate law enforcement, the more we educate hospitality industry.

In all of these emergency rooms, 90% of traffic victims end up in emergency rooms.

The more we educate the people, the more they're going to know what to ask, what to see, how to recognize it.

And the more prevention and the more saving of lives that we can offer and help.

Thank you so much for being here, because, as I said, you are continuing to stimulate the conversation about this, which can never stop being said.

No.

And I encourage all those who are listening to educate yourselves.

There's so much out there that you can learn through YouTube videos to social media, but beware, beware and learn so that you can be a part of the solution.

Tons of it at stop trafficking L.A. dot com.

We'll give you that side.

First Lady Donna Edwards.

Thank you so much.

And it was the Greek philosopher Plato who said art imitates life.

The observation that a creative work was inspired by true events based on a true story.

Life Events inspired a new feature film by Baton Rouge actress Jessie Hogan and her photographer husband Aaron.

They were collaborating on projects in their cinematic compound, including one that they didn't really see coming.

I sat down with Jessie and Eric Hogan at their home in Baton Rouge.

It's home, but also acting studio, photography studio and rental space to a hair salon.

It is unique.

We built it to be a creative hub for Baton Rouge.

And that was the dream, right?

It feels like it.

Yeah.

It's like we wanted to be like, you know, like paint, like pouring out of the windows down the street, like beautiful colors, just like immersing into the community.

People could come here and learn photography, they could learn acting, they could learn filmmaking.

It all began to develop after they met.

We met at Whole Foods and I married her six months later.

That was 11 years ago.

Three years before, GNC had returned from eight years trying to make it as an actress in L.A. She worked, but it wasn't her ideal.

In L.A., you know, you're small fish, big pond.

And I was getting better auditions here in Louisiana.

And so I decided to move home.

And Louisiana, as you know, has a strong film industry.

I started working pretty quickly after I got home from L.A.

I was like, Oh, my gosh, I auditioned for really big movies.

And my first audition was with Brad Pitt or something.

And I remember thinking, Oh, my gosh, why didn't I love him sooner?

Louisiana is awesome.

And I got home and immediately booked my first role or my bigger roles with, you know, Matthew McConaughey and Dallas Buyers Club.

And then I got to work with Bruce Dern for five weeks as his hit woman in a movie.

And when I met Aaron, I really couldn't believe there was someone who is.

So he's half entrepreneur, half creative.

And I was like, that's impressive.

You know, like, wow.

Because he was turning his photography into a way to actually make a living.

It was a cute operation where we would go everywhere, together, all the events, and I was always listening to her complain, though, about her movies that she was not getting and not getting impressive roles.

And I said, Why don't we start making our own films?

And I was beginning to become interested in cinematography at that time.

This is 2013.

And she loved period pieces, loved horse, right, horseback riding and wanted to make historical dramas that were loosely based on reality, not completely fact based.

We made several short films, and until we even considered the idea of making a feature, it was a huge jump.

A huge jump in life altering ways.

First, that movie Days of Daisy has already premiered in Hollywood at the Dances With Film Festival.

Jesse is actor, producer, part writer of the project.

It is interesting because I worked in L.A., but then to come back and have full circle moment of like now I'm presenting in L.A. the place I was trying to conquer for so long.

But there's in acting and.

All the things, you know.

Days of Daisy is about a single woman reaching 40 and wanting to have children.

Her boyfriend doesn't.

So you never want kids, since we're assuming things from our date.

Okay, can we slow down?

All right.

Because this is happening really fast.

I'd love to be with you for a year, but then I brought this up.

Then Dreamworld.

It's you and a kid.

Daisy.

Daisy is personal.

It's based on the idea that, you know, in order to be a parent, you don't necessarily have to have kids biologically, but you can parent in untraditional ways.

And that's something that you all have experienced experience yourself.

The personal side of the story is that when I met Jessie, I had one stipulation that we were never going to have kids.

And I said, essentially, choose me or choose kids.

And I was so determined I took care of it medically before we got married so that she knew that I was not joking around.

Over time, though, Jessie began wanting children.

Erin wouldn't budge.

The idea of the film was born right there.

A lot of the conflict comes between actual dialog that, you know, I've had in real life.

So it's loosely based on our story.

There is a lot of differences.

It's more comedic, it's there's a upbeat.

It's very upbeat.

But not so upbeat, at least for Erin, that when he watched it by himself and before anyone else, something didn't feel right about the character playing him.

Literally watching it in this living room right now.

I started feeling like it was no longer my story or something was shifting in me.

I feel like this guy was selfish.

The guy representing me I saw as a selfish human.

Not that all people that don't have kids are selfish, but I saw my own story in a way that I'd never seen before.

So I started having a hard change, and it eventually led to the current situation where we're actually actively trying to have a child, child.

After all.

That comes out of.

That.

So the art, you know, sometimes it can have a huge impact, you know, on girls worldview and how they see the world, how they experience life.

And that's why we make movies, right?

Yes.

Is to you know, first of all, we make them for entertainment.

So we sit back and relax and we enjoy that world that the filmmaker created as the filmmaker is created.

But we also, you know, we learn a lot of things.

Days of Daisy will premiere at the Louisiana Film Festival in December and then be out on iTunes.

Amazon and go from there.

Their advice to others is to dream big, and it's certainly paying off for them.

And now highlighting another Louisiana artist.

This one takes a different approach for the sake of authenticity.

Instead of painting an alligator scales from memory.

She catches them and she uses a Japanese art form to print their bodies onto a canvas.

I got to tag along with Lesley Charleville to that entire process and it was an interesting one to say the least.

I've done a lot of things in this career but hanging out on a boat seems to be a reporter's right of passage in Louisiana.

And today I'm embarking on that journey with Lesley Charleville.

Nice to meet you.

Thanks.

Lesley is an artist with a unique medium.

She documents marine life in their most authentic form.

She's painted fish, crabs, anything, really.

But her most difficult task is documenting these creatures.

Louisiana's unofficial mascot, the alligator.

To start, you have to go on a hunt.

We're out in Orleans Parish in the marsh where pieces of rotten chicken are hanging from a pole.

And that's just the beginning.

What were his hopes and dreams?

Okay, Roland.

I can grab work like this, but the.

Strength and part of.

It is a boy.

Oh, my goodness.

The first gator was pulled in pretty easily.

LESLIE Second, however, that was a horse of a totally different color.

Okay, well.

Okay.

So the thing is, if the front legs come over.

You got to move.

Yeah.

Okay.

You got to get the front legs over.

So I'm a grandma.

Head to the.

Back, so my feet grab a leg.

Yeah.

Oh.

Louisiana is extremely strict about who can hunt these creatures and how many they can take.

A hunter must be licensed, and they have to tag each alligator they harvest.

Plus, all of this is reported and monitored to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

It's kept the population steady for decades.

Now he's moving.

A lot and he's not moving yet.

But I'm sure whatever he does, he will scarcely.

After catching four alligators, it's back to the dock to start the art process.

People request a specific size when they're working people.

People request specific size and color combination.

So you'll see like behind you, we've got a white.

Those are things that are requested.

Okay.

A blue on a white canvas.

White on blue canvas.

White on.

Great.

So we've got some very specific requests.

What is this actually called what you're doing?

It's called Gail Taku.

And it was originated in Japan back in the 17th century as simply a means of documentation to record the size and species of a fisherman's catch.

Okay.

And so I think I think the first documented otaku print was a red snapper.

It was an emperor that went out fishing.

And he had his servants on the boat with rice paper and sumi ink.

And they made the print right there on the boat.

And it was just like I said, it was documentation.

And over the years, it's one of those art forms that was always around, but kind of not really faded, but it wasn't quite as popular.

And then in recent years, it's really revived and I guess I don't know what this would be called Japanese, because otaku literally means fish rubbing.

So whatever, whatever alligator it is, that's what this would be called.

But it's it's it's a rubbing, you know?

It's a nature rubbing.

Yeah.

See, that makes sense.

And how did you get into this?

Was this always the plan to sell these types of prints?

No, it was not.

My background is in painting and drawing.

And I come from a country fishing, hunting, outdoor loving family.

And so those two worlds collided.

You know, my background in art and then, you know, my upbringing.

And it just was really that's kind of all she wrote.

You know, it's the perfect storm of my passion and my upbringing and what comes natural to me.

This process is extremely precise.

You have to match up your roller just right.

Otherwise you'll end up with something Leslie calls the butterfly effect.

You're going to do the entire body, including the whole take.

Your body up again.

You just kind of follow where it would not create that butterfly effect, even on the heads.

If you go all the way down to the jaw, when you pull it up, it kind of it's not natural butterflies.

You don't want him to look unnatural, want to get the natural curves off his way.

It's the nature of what the art form is like.

You're capturing, you know, the likeness of this alligator.

I mean, without making a print, he would be harvested.

He would be gone.

Like not to be remembered.

And now he's going to live on forever and somebody's house or on their wall, from hunting to documentation.

And you can still clean them and eat them and, you know, save the meat.

So his do his DNA is on the canvas.

After Leslie is done with her art, she takes the alligators to a processor where every bit of its body goes to use.

The heid is given to licensed fur dealers.

The meat ends up in stores for consumers.

And the art ends up on someone's wall where they can see all the details of this animal up close.

It's definitely a lot of work itself, but it's a fun process.

And the way I view it is that it's something that not many people get to do.

Half of the crew here, it was their first not their first time.

I mean, seeing an alligator up close.

And so I consider myself really fortunate and blessed that this is very normal to me.

It's a normal part of life.

And I meet the coolest people, I have the best stories, and I don't take it for granted.

I'm not my interpreter of what an alligator looks like.

This is what it looks like.

To Leslie, this is a preservation of culture.

It's where Cajun roots meet an ancient tradition, one that won't be forgotten.

We're tarnished by an artist paint brush where it can be admired in its truest, most authentic form.

Kara That was.

And you were way out there.

Yeah, I've definitely never done that before.

But it was it was an experience, like you say, that.

You look like you fit right in and like you do it all the time.

Friends of El-P are proud to announce the 2023 Louisiana legends.

They are.

Gayle Benson, Saints Owner, Accomplished Business Professional.

And Philanthropist.

Warrick Dunn.

Walter Payton.

NFL Man of the Year.

And Humanitarian.

Gary Fields.

Pulitzer Prize award winning journalist.

Brigadier General Gary Jones, former commander of the United States Army Special Forces Command, Airborne and the Pennington Family, known for their long history of community giving.

Next year's gala and auction will be held April 27th at Louisiana's old state capital in Baton Rouge.

It is always a big, big deal.

And everyone.

That's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything LP Anytime, wherever you are with our LP, PBS app.

You can catch LP 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, Twitter, Instagram, and, of course, tik-tok.

For everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

I'm Andre Moore.

And I'm Care sings here.

Until next time.

That's the state we're in.

Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by every.

Day I go to work for Entergy.

I know customers.

Are counting.

On me.

So Entergy is investing millions of dollars to keep the lights on and installing new technology to prevent outages before they happen.

Together, together, together.

We power life.

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