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Memories: PJ Morton of Maroon 5, who recently put out an autobiography titled Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, performs at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in Louisiana in May. Photo: Erika Goldring/Getty Images

PJ Morton: Listening to his authentic artist’s voice

Singer-songwriter and Maroon 5 band member PJ Morton has just published his autobiography. This is an edited extract

Outside a restaurant in New Orleans. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFP

Déjà blues in New Orleans

The Big Easy is much like small-town South Africa — charming, with poverty in the back streets

‘Cultural expansion’: Ernest Kelly of International Art Solutions says the company wants the local community to engage in the opportunity that the Soweto International Jazz Festival will bring. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

Jazz festival gives Soweto a boost

Soweto International Jazz Festival aims to facilitate encounters with the locals that extend beyond what existing tourism initiatives have achieved.

Don’t light up in New Orleans

The Big Easy has clamped down on smoking in the city’s bars — but you can still smoke on the streets.

The witch that refuses to be buried

The witch that refuses to be buried

A symbolic funeral held to give hurricane victims closure has highlighted the ongoing trauma faced by those who fled and those who have returned.

Obama hails New Orleans five years post-Katrina

United States President Barack Obama, marking the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on Sunday, praised the city’s resilience.

Gulf Coast warned oil may leak until August

US government and BP officials are warning that the blown-out oil well causing a disaster on the Gulf Coast may not be stopped until August.

Gulf oil spill hits day 40 with no end in sight

The oil spill hits its 40th day on Saturday with Gulf residents clinging to one hope: that BP’s complicated "top kill" operation will plug the well.

Big Easy back on celluloid map

Louisiana is the third-most popular state in which to shoot a film in the United States, thanks chiefly to huge tax incentives.

SA woman unveils guidebook for New Orleans crime survivors

A South African woman, whose husband and mother-in-law were murdered five years ago in New Orleans, has unveiled a handbook for other ”survivors”.

The show goes on

Three years after hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is mounting­ the United States’s biggest biennial of modern art. Teri Grenert reports.

No calm after the storm for Louisiana’s evacuees

Authorities on the US Gulf Coast were on Tuesday struggling to orchestrate the orderly return of nearly two million evacuees to New Orleans.

New Orleans levees hold as Hurricane Gustav weakens

Hurricane Gustav slammed ashore on the US Gulf Coast near New Orleans on Monday but rebuilt levees appeared to hold floodwaters out of the city.

Weakened Hurricane Gustav hits US Gulf Coast

Hurricane Gustav roared ashore on the US Gulf Coast on Monday, lashing New Orleans with winds and rain but sparing the city its full force.

Gustav overshadows McCain’s show

Republicans open their convention on Monday to nominate presidential candidate John McCain with no pomp and little politics.

New Orleans evacuates for ‘big, ugly storm’

Thousands of people in New Orleans and across the US Gulf Coast fled their homes on Sunday as Hurricane Gustav barreled through the Gulf of Mexico.

Gustav enters Gulf after slamming Cuba

Ferocious Hurricane Gustav moved into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico on Saturday where it was expected to strengthen and threaten New Orleans.

Gustav looms on Katrina anniversary

The solemn ceremonies for the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Friday for the most part were blown away by Tropical Storm Gustav.

Gustav turns toward Jamaica

Tropical Storm Gustav took a turn on Thursday, moving south as it crept toward Jamaica on a new track that could spare New Orleans.

New oyster-eating champion crowned

Patrick ”Deep Dish” Bertoletti looked down at the litter of empty oyster shells on the red plastic tray and savoured the sweet taste of victory. The Acme World Oyster-Eating…