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The Water Institute turns 10

By Gary Perilloux At the riverfront headquarters of the Water Institute, Justin Ehrenwerth discusses the future of water. He’s surrounded by it. Behind him, a workboat struggles up the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, while thousands of cars travel over the Mississippi River Bridge. The mission of The Institute, which Ehrenwerth leads, isn’t limited to […]

Plucky Gardere Initiative is transforming dangerous neighborhood

By Sara Bongiorni The Gardere Initiative runs summer and holiday camps and an after-school program from a homey Ned Avenue fourplex that serves as the neighborhood’s de facto community center. Murrelle Harrison makes sure the neighborhood kids learn and enjoy their lives. | Tim Mueller photo The grassroots organization has made an outsize impact in […]

Meet Chris Meyer, the new CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation

By Mukul Verma Imagine your first day of high school. Everyone is dressed to impress. You’ve shown up in gym shorts. It does not go unnoticed. It’s freshman year at Caddo Magnet— among the best schools in the state. The kids with driver’s licenses are rolling up in their luxury cars. But not you. Your […]

Home is a Lonely Place

Struck by hurricanes and endangered by higher seas, Cameron Parish has become sparsely populated. Is there a future for the largest parish in Louisiana? By C.E. Richard Riley Marks, 17, paused to get her bearings, trying to recall where exactly her tall lifeguard chair had stood overlooking the deep end of the public swimming pool. […]

Nathan Harris wins 15th Annual Ernest J Gaines Award for Literary Excellence

Seattle writer Nathan Harris’ debut novel, The Sweetness of Water, has won the 2021 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, presented annually by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to an emerging African American fiction writer. He will receive $15,000 to continue his craft. The 15th annual Gaines Award will be presented to Harris at […]

A master plan will guide the preservation of Southwest Louisiana

By Gary Perilloux What’s $17 billion? It’s Netflix’s entire content investment for 2021 and the cost of Samsung’s advanced semiconductor plant in Central Texas. For Southwest Louisiana, $17 billion is the cost of reclaiming home. That’s the estimated damages from a four-punch storm combination: Hurricane Laura in August 2020, Hurricane Delta in October 2020, a […]

The Art of Doctoring

By Sara Bongiorni Louisiana State University’s internal medicine residency in Baton Rouge has had two homes in its first half-century. It began at Earl K. Long Hospital in the summer of 1971. The program moved in 2013 to the newly built Medical Education and Innovation Center near Our Lady of the Lake, its teaching hospital […]

More than a gym: Under Christian Engle, the Y is going regional and adding services

By Sara Bongiorni The YMCA of the Capital Area will open an early childhood education program at its A.C. Lewis branch in early 2022—a first for the YMCA in Baton Rouge. Christian Engle | Photo by Tim mueller It’s a notable early step in a wide-ranging effort to expand the YMCA’s role in promoting community […]