Adore A-List 2021

C. MORGAN BABST GARDEN DISTRICT WRITER

Favorite restaurant Casamento's on an ordinary Friday and Galatoire's on an extraordinary one Favorite art gallery I could sit on the little velvet settee at Frank Relle Photography all day Favorite simple indulgence Locally grown flowers from Pistil & Stamen Favorite place to listen to music The Maple Leaf A song that defines your coming of age Cry in the Sun by Better than Ezra Favorite drink or cocktail A brandy milk punch before noon or a mezcal margarita after five Favorite new business Baldwin & Co.

Describe what you love about what you do.

Writing, at its best, can renew our relationship with the world, helping us to imagine ourselves and our neighbors, our past, present, and future more fully. I hope my work helps keep us awake to our common and infinitely complex humanity. What about New Orleans inspires you? New Orleans is an existential conundrum. Everything about this place — from the potholes to the weather — has a little story to tell about destruction, and yet no other city in the world is more alive. Something about New Orleans that can always put you in a good mood. I spend most weekday mornings walking with my dog on the abandoned golf course in City Park. Watching the wild things — the goldenrod and rabbits, the cattle egrets and alligators, the ospreys, and eccentrics — reclaim that scrap of former cypress swamp is a lesson in resilience and change. What advice would you give your twenty- year-old self? Maybe don't drink all that Russian absinthe. Describe your charitable work or favorite causes. I'm on the board of the Tennessee Williams Festival where, over the past year, we have been working hard to create a culture that celebrates and includes all New Orleanians. I'm also committed to restoring our natural environment. There's no better way to spend a fall Saturday than planting baby cypress trees with the Pontchartrain Conservancy, up to your knees in muck.

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ADORE • A-LIST 2021