Features

Located in the southern corner of Louis Armstrong Park, just outside the perimeter of the French Quarter, lies Congo Square—a sacred open space that served as the cultural and spiritual beating heart for enslaved and free Black people in antebellum America. Beginning in the eighteenth century under Code Noir regulations, Sunday was designated as a […]

The Voodoo Spiritual Temple in the heart of New Orleans is less a destination and more a confrontation. When I stepped inside, the air was heavy with the weight of accumulation—cluttered surfaces piled with offerings of money, cigarettes, and spirits left by those who had come before me. In the back, sitting at a table […]

Nana Sula, a veteran priestess and vice president of the Congo Square board, rejects the modern tendency to broadcast ancient rituals, viewing the public display of spirituality as a betrayal of the ancestors who fought to preserve these traditions in secret. She argues that the commercialization of the craft has stripped it of its inherent […]

For Laurita Marie, the journey from a strict Catholic upbringing to becoming a high priestess in both the Ifa tradition—as Iyanifa Ifashade—and Haitian Vodou—as Mambo Aqua Wiwa—represents a profound reclamation of self. A New Orleans native and granddaughter of a Baptist minister, Marie turned to the Orishas at age 19 after navigating personal trauma and […]

In the heart of the French Quarter, the Island of Salvation Botanica serves as both a sanctuary and a focal point for the city’s complex spiritual landscape. For Sallie Ann Glassman, Mambo Osagway, the work of African-derived spirituality is an ongoing battle against a centuries-old effort to cast the practice as something to be feared. […]

It is a little after 3:45 p.m. at The Page, a gay bar in the French Quarter, and the afternoon light is just beginning to settle into the corners of the room. The only sound is the rhythmic sounds of a knife against a cutting board as a coworker quietly prepares limes for the 4 […]

Brandon. That was the name of the host whose birthday celebration I attended 12 days before Christmas 2025. The party occupied a penthouse within a haunted landmark in Walker’s Point—a neighborhood of industrial bones and artistic nerves, currently caught in the sweeping tide of gentrification east of I-43. As I climbed the creaky stairs, my […]

During a speech in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum in January, President Donald Trump ruled out using military force to acquire Greenland; however, Dr. Ole Wæver said people in Denmark and Greenland have concluded, “nothing can be ruled out.” “Trump is sufficiently unpredictable, irrational, doesn’t really care for what is in the U.S. […]

Rare earth elements (REE) are a silent but integral piece of everyday, modern technologies. The world’s dominant supplier of these important elements is China, but the United States has increasingly focused on leveling the playing field. President Donald Trump’s recent interest in acquiring mineral-rich Greenland could create a new market for these precious elements. Dr. […]

On the icy steps of the Greenland Parliament building, at 4:30 p.m. Greenland time, which is four hours ahead of Central Time, and hour 10 of the 16 hours of light in Greenland at the end of April, Greenlandic politician Justus Hansen says that although his party, the Demokraatit Party, does not support independence right […]

As the United States’ interest in Greenland looms, critical mineral strategic advisory firm GreenMet is preparing to unleash new industries and opportunities for both the Arctic island and at home, Sabrina Katz said. Their focus is making the U.S. a competitor with China in critical mineral supply and building what would become the world’s largest […]

Dr. Troy J. Bouffard said that hypersonic cruise missiles are the “threat of our future decades,” adding that the fight to protect against hypersonic cruise missiles will involve all of the North American Arctic. While Bouffard said the hypersonic cruise missiles are a threat of the future, he said there is “no evidence” of a […]