Join Joie de Vivre for our 1st annual Louisiana Arts & Culture Festival!

This two-day gathering focused on “South Louisiana & Literature” will bring together local and national novelists, short story writers, poets, and artists with our wider community to celebrate the feast that is our Catholic faith and the literary and visual arts.

Gather with us on the grounds of St. Joseph Abbey, burial place of Walker Percy, where beneath majestic oaks and soaring pines the liturgical and artistic treasures of the Church continue to nourish each other. In this storied literary setting, minutes from Covington and only an hour from New Orleans, we’ll delve into the rich relationship of world and word, considering, through voices past and present, how South Louisiana continues to inspire its own literary tradition and how that tradition interacts with the wider literary world.

Together, we’ll enjoy:

  • keynote presentations by Tim Gautreaux & Katy Carl

  • concurrent sessions & workshops

  • poetry reading with James Matthew Wilson

  • live reading of Jane Scharl’s Mardi Gras murder mystery verse play, Sonnez Les Matines

  • Liturgy of the Hours and Mass with the Benedictine monks

  • bourbon stroll on the Abbey grounds

  • life-giving community and socials

  • optional housing accommodations at the Abbey

Featured Speakers

Concurrent Sessions

Schedule

Friday

Registration/Happy Hour/Gallery - 4:00-6:00pm
Vespers - 5:30-6:00pm (Abbey Church)
Welcome/Opening Prayer/Introductory Remarks - 6:05pm (Benet)
Dinner - 6:15-7:15pm (Refectory)
Keynote #1 (Katy Carl, "Regional Writing in a Global Age") - 7:20-8:15pm (Benet)
Social - 8:30-10:00pm (Wharf)

Saturday

Lauds - 7:00 AM (Abbey Church)
Breakfast - 7:40-8:15am (Refectory)
Remarks, dismiss to breakouts - 8:15-8:25am (Refectory)
Concurrent #1 - 8:40-9:40am (TBD)
Break - 9:40-10:00am
Concurrent #2 - 10:00-11:00am (TBD)
Mass – 11:15 AM (Abbey Church)
Lunch - 12:00-1:15pm (Refectory)
Concurrent #3 - 1:25-2:25pm (TBD)
Bourbon stroll/free time - 2:30-4:00pm (Abbey grounds)
Poetry reading (James Matthew Wilson) - 4:15-5:15pm (Benet)
Vespers – 5:30 PM (Abbey Church)
Dinner - 6:00-6:50pm (Refectory)
Keynote #2 (Tim Gautreaux, “Fiction and the Informed Imagination”) - 7:00-8:00pm (Benet)
Live reading of Sonnez les Matines - 8:10-8:55pm (Benet)
Closing remarks - 8:55-9:05pm (Benet)
Social - 9:00-10:30pm (Wharf)

Sunday

Mass - 7:30-8:20am (Abbey Church)
Breakfast - 8:20-9:00am (Refectory)

Concurrent #1
1.A
Dr. Christopher Baglow - “Walker Percy’s South Louisiana in Fact and Fiction”
Dr. Joshua & Ashley Brumfield, Katy Carl - "Bad Catholics at a Time Near the End of the World: A Panel Discussion on Sacramentality in Percy's Thought"
1.B
Delaney Campo - "The Miracle of Southern Hospitality: Where New Orleans Culture Meets the Charism of Communion and Liberation"
Jeff Young - "The Art of Hospitality"
1.C
Dr. Jennifer Heil et al - Roundtable Discussion of Southern Louisianian Andre Dubus' "A Father's Story"

  • NOTE: If you plan on attending this concurrent session, we encourage you to read “A Father’s Story” by clicking the link above or here.

1.D
Christina Baker - “Psalms of the South”: Poetry Workshop
1.E
Br. Lazarus Gordy - Abbey Church & Refectory Tour

Concurrent Session #2
2.A
Rev. Brad Doyle et al - "Transcendence & Immanence: The Universality of Sacred Music & Its Sense of Place at St. Ben’s"
2.B
Michael Strecker - The Knights of Wade & the Comic Louisiana Novel Reading and Discussion
Karen Ullo - To Crown With Liberty: Colonial Louisiana and the French Revolution
2.C
Justin Lacour et al - Louisiana Poets Showcase
2.D
Blair Gordy Piras - "Envisioning Poems of Place: A Block Print Workshop", pt. 1

Concurrent Session #3
3.A
Grace Fitzpatrick - "Grace and the Enchanted World": A Fairy Tale Reading and Discussion
Danny Fitzpatrick - "Faith, Fiction, and the Enchanted Word"
3.B
Lyn Hill Taylor - "Painting Walker Percy: Multiple Ekphrases from Artist Studio to Esquire Magazine and Beyond"
Avery Collins - "Intertwined: A Musical Performance and Discussion"
3.C
Dr. Christopher Ragusa - "J.R.R. Tolkien as Model Christian Artist: Questions for Artists in South Louisiana"
Dr. Hannah Ragusa - "Creative Intuition, Virtue, and the Possibility of Christian Art"
3.D
Blair Gordy Piras - "Envisioning Poems of Place: A Block Print Workshop", pt.2
3.E
Br. Lazarus Gordy - Abbey Church & Refectory Tour

Saint Joseph Abbey & Seminary College
Saint Benedict, Louisiana

Saint Joseph Abbey is a Benedictine community of monks located on 1,100 acres of beautiful pine forests in Saint Benedict, Louisiana. Over the past century, the Abbey has been an abiding spiritual presence in the Gulf South and has left an indelible mark on local and regional history. The Abbey has educated many of the region's civic and religious leaders, and it has founded and staffed numerous parishes in the New Orleans and Northshore areas. It has also had a significant impact on area culture by sponsoring and promoting programs in both liturgical and secular arts. And finally, Saint Joseph Abbey’s monks have remained faithful to prayer, work, and the monastic way of life.

Saint Joseph Abbey is a member of the Swiss-American Congregation of the Order of Saint Benedict, a network of autonomous, Roman Catholic monasteries in the United States, Canada, and Central America. Currently, the Right Reverend Justin Brown, O.S.B., former abbot of Saint Joseph Abbey, is the congregation’s Abbot President.

Thanks to the generous support of Saint Joseph Abbey, the 1st annual Joie de Vivre Louisiana Arts and Culture Festival will be hosted on these beautiful grounds, and we will be able to enjoy Liturgy of the Hours and Mass with the monks, in addition to walking the Abbey grounds.

Presenting Sponsors

Patrick F. Taylor Foundation

&

Matthew & Julie Ungarino

Scott & Jill Cabes

Natalie Miller Wood

The Moviegoer Sponsors

Ad majorem Dei gloriam

Reiling Family Foundation

Lost in the Cosmos Sponsors

Sponsor the Fest!

Are you a local entrepreneur and business leader that would like to support this one-of-a-kind cultural event for the Catholic Church in South Louisiana? If so, we would like to invite you to sponsor the Fest! To receive more information, fill out the form below: