Rotary Club of Alexandria guest speaker Jay Dardenne – “Why Louisiana Ain’t Mississippi… Or Any Place Else”
The Alexandria Rotary Club met for their monthly meeting today. The Louisiana Commissioner of Administration was the guest speaker, promoting a new documentary based on Louisiana’s history.
Commissioner Jay Dardenne spearheaded and hosts a new LPB documentary that is an adaptation of his longtime lecture series, “Why Louisiana Ain’t Mississippi… or Any Place Else”
Commissioner Jay Dardenne – Rotary Club of Alexandria Guest Speaker
“It’s not a put down of Mississippi at all, I could have called it, why Louisiana ain’t Missouri or why Louisiana ain’t North Carolina. We are really unique among the 50 states and this documentary is a way of explaining why no place is like Louisiana.”
Robert Taylor – President/ Rotary Club of Alexandria
“You know, I moved to Louisiana when Jay said it’s about the food first. I moved here forty pounds ago. And uh I can tell you this. I’m Mississippi born and raised, moved here in 2003, but when I go back to Mississippi and am introduced as being from Louisiana, they treat me a whole lot nicer and so there is game in this book that’s been told.”
The four-hour documentary debuted in December of 2022 on LPB, but it is available online streaming https://whylouisiana.lpb.org/ and there is also a companion book that features beautiful photographs from photographer Carol Highsmith. Snippets from 60 Louisiana songs are featured and LPB producers think teachers will find the documentary helpful as well.
Commissioner Jay Dardenne – Rotary Club of Alexandria Guest Speaker
“We’re working on a curriculum to be used in 7th through 12th grade for Louisiana history course classes and for civics classes.”
This educational component is earmarked to rollout next fall.
