Banners History – 1994-2005 Seasons

Banners History – 1994-2005 Seasons

Our History

Banners was established in 1992 under the direction of Dr. Robert Hebert, former president of McNeese State University.

 

Because many events coordinated by the School of Liberal Arts were occurring at the same time, Dr. Hebert’s idea was to organize these events into a cohesive unit and give the community access to each show. A committee was formed, consisting of one representative from each Liberal Arts department, served with the task of forming an organization to oversee the series – thus Banners at McNeese was born.

 

By the program’s second year, the Cultural Season was formally constructed as a full-fledged series, featuring artists such as Ellis Marsalis, an American jazz pianist and educator. During the third year, Banners hired its first full-time director, Mary Richardson.

 

Today, Banners has expanded to include a three person staff, a student-driven outreach program, a widely popular annual fundraiser and more!

Cultural Season Archive

1994-2005
2005 SEASON
  • February 12 – Trio Voronezh (Russian folk music)
  • February 14 – The Love Songs of Lori Laitman
  • February 15 – Poetry reading: Dana Gioia
  • February 17 – Reading: Tim Gauthreaux
  • February 18 – Christine Lavin (singer/songwriter)
  • February 20 – Moscow Circus & Russian Folk Fair
  • February 25 – Bobby Sanabria & Quarteto Ache (Afro-Cuban jazz)
  • February 26 – Reading: Robert Olen Butler
  • February 28 – Lecture: Douglas Brinkley, “The Legacy of Vietnam”
  • March 3 – McLeod Lecture Series: “Louisiana’s Governor: Leadership-Legacy-Lessons Learned”
  • March 4 – Boston Brass
  • March 8 – Lecture: Charles Robinson, “What’s Sex Got to Do With It?” (culturally-mixed relationships)
  • March 11 – Marcus Roberts Trio (jazz pianist)
  • March 12 – Reading: Leslie Norris
  • March 18 – Lecture: David Hufford, “Folk Medicine Comes of Age”
  • March 19 – The Cottars (Celtic folk)
  • April 1 – Mark Nizer (juggling)
  • April 3 – Imani Winds (classical wind quintet)
  • April 8 – Wayfaring Strangers (bluegrass)
  • April 12, 14, 15 – Banners Film Festival
  • April 16 – Lecture: Dr. Linda Brannon, “Before Movies Talked: The Sounds of Silents”
  • April 17 – Paragon Ragtime Orchestra (silent movie scores played live on vintage instruments, with screenings)
2004 SEASON
  • February 28 – Massenkoff Russian Folk Festival
  • March 2 – Lecture: Frank Pruitt, “Remembering America’s ‘Forgotten War’: Korean War Veterans’ Experiences”
  • March 5 – Sion e Companhia (Brazilian jazz)
  • March 6 – Poetry reading: William Trowbridge, “The Book of Kong”
  • March 9 – Richard Heard (art songs, spirituals)
  • March 12 – Zuill Bailey (cellist)
  • March 13 – Reading: Robert Olen Butler
  • March 16 – Lecture: Dr. Muhsin Jassim Al-Musawi, “Feminism and Arab Culture in Fact and Fiction”
  • March 18 – McLeod Lecture Series: “The ‘Young Turks’ Reunion: A Panel Discussion”
  • March 20 – Hot Club of San Francisco (gypsy jazz)
  • March 21 – A Tribute to Lewis Grizzard by Bill Oberst
  • April 2 – Reading: ZZ Packer
  • April 3 – Juggernaut Jug Band
  • April 16 – Cantus (men’s chorus)
  • April 22 – Lecture: Dr. John Michael Vlach, “Portrayals of Louisiana Plantations”
  • April 23 – “Live from New York” (Edie Carey, Teddy Goldstein, Anne Heaton, Andrew Kerr)
  • April 24 – Fiddlers 4 (Michael Doucet, Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky, Rushad Eggleston)
  • April 25 – Lecture/film screening: “Louisiana Story”, with Elemore Morgan Jr.
  • April 26 – Lecture: Dr. Charles Kimball, “When Religion Becomes Evil”
  • May 1 – Guy Davis (blues)
  • May 14 – Johnette Downing (children’s music)
2003 SEASON
  • March 8 – Bill Bell & Loni Williams’ Mass Choir (jazz/gospel choir)
  • March 9 – Vance Gilbert (singer/songwriter)
  • March 10-21 – Art exhibit: “The Art of Byzantine Icons” residency
  • March 15 – Moody, Penner & Swain  (old time string music, country, Celtic)
  • March 18 – Lecture: Suraya Sadeed
  • March 21 – Carol Wood: The Lyric, The Lyre, and the Harp
  • March 22 – Flamenco Vivo! Carlota Santana
  • March 24 – Lecture: Jon Kukla, “A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America”
  • March 27 – Ethos Percussion Group and the Masters of Indian Music
  • March 28 – Reading: Michael Knight
  • April 1 – Lecture: Beverly Guy-Sheftall, “The Development of African American Feminism from Slavery to the Present”
  • April 3 – Pastiche Quartet (Jan Fillmore Scott, David Scott, Dr. Fred Sahlmann, Dr. Dave Walton)
  • April 4-5 – Lewis & Clark: A New Musical
  • April 8 – Ahn Trio (piano, violin, cello)
  • April 9 – Red Priest (classical music)
  • April 10 – Exhibit: Nature Photography of John & Karen Hollingsworth
  • April 11 – Reading: Robert Olen Butler
  • April 23 – Reading: Neil Connelly
  • April 25 – Gregory Popovich Comedy & Pet Theatre
  • April 29 – Exhibit: Keagan LeJeune, traditional Mardi Gras photography
  • May 2 – The Flaming Idiots (variety)

 

2002 SEASON
  • February 17 – The Peking Acrobats
  • February 23 – Harmonia (eastern European folk musics)
  • February 26 – Poetry reading: Morri Creech
  • March 1 – Stars, Stripes, and Sousa (Keith Brion and McNeese Wind Ensemble)
  • March 2 – Vance Gilbert (singer/songwriter)
  • March 4 – Cavani String Quartet (chamber music)
  • March 5 – Photography Exhibit: Krewe of Mystique Traditions
  • March 6 – Free Flight Jazz Duo
  • March 9 – Andes Manta (Andean flute, pan pipes)
  • March 12 – Lecture: Juan Jose Valdes, “Afghanistan: From a Cartographer’s View”
  • March 15 – Jens Lindemann (jazz, classical trumpet music)
  • March 16 – Sacred Music of Tibet, Drepung Loseling Monastery
  • March 18 – Lecture: Dr. Vincent J. Cornell, “Islam and the West: Clash of Civilizations or Dialogue Within Civilization”
  • March 22 – Arrogant Worms (satire, comedy, music)
  • April 2 – Julee Bahngsil An (piano)
  • April 5 – Reading: Leslie Norris
  • April 6 – Photography Exhibit: Retrospective of the Lake Charles Little Theatre’s “The Great Big Door Step”
  • April 10 – Lecture: Dr. Keagan LeJeune, “Louisiana’s No Man’s Land and Its Outlaws”
  • April 12 – Hackberry Ramblers (cajun, western swing)
  • April 13 – Film screening: Hackberry Ramblers documentary premiere
  • April 15 – Lecture: Wen Zhao, “Women in China”
2001 SEASON
  • March 3 – Alvin Ailey II Repertory Company (dance ensemble)
  • March 4 – Quartetto Gelato (classical, traditionals, multi-instrumental)
  • March 6 – Lecture: Susan Brownmiller, “The Women’s Liberation Movement: Activism and Social Change”
  • March 8 – Art exhibit: Bill Iles
  • March 10 – Bill Miller (Native American singer/songwriter)
  • March 13 – Nnenna Freelon (jazz singer/songwriter)
  • March 15 – Keith Gates & Judy Hand (classical)
  • March 17 – Scruj Macduhk (Celtic folk revivalist band)
  • March 20 – Lecture: Phyllis Kornfeld, “Prison Art in America”
  • March 23 – Poetry reading: Rodney Jones
  • March 24 – Trailer Park Troubadours (comedy)
  • March 27 – Lecture/reading: Dr. Geary Hobson & Dr. Janet McAdams, Native American Literature
  • March 30 – Beachfront Property (jazz, pop, 60s rock, vocal harmony)
  • April 3 – Film screening: Carrie Chrisco’s “The Garifuna People”
  • April 5 – Art exhibit: Malaika Favorite
  • April 6-7 – New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra
  • April 20 – Lecture: John Dominic Crossan, “The Historical Jesus”
  • April 23 – Lecture: Dr. Gaines Foster, “Ghosts of the Confederacy”
  • April 27 – Reading: Robert Olen Butler
2000 SEASON
  • March 11 – Reading: Dr. John Wood, “Selected Poems: 1968-1998”
  • March 13 – Gerri Gribi, “A Musical Romp Through Women’s History”
  • March 14 – “The Middle Passage: Then, Now, and Always”, written and performed by Dr. Nancy B. Shepherd
  • March 16 – Art exhibit: Gerry Wubben
  • March 17 – John Adams Jazz Quartet
  • March 18 – Bamboula 2000 (West African rhythms, reggae, jazz)
  • March 19 – Tozai Wadaiko Taiko Drummers
  • March 20 – Reading: Paul Zimmer
  • March 21 – Joseph Smith (pianist)
  • March 23 – The Jerusalem Trio
  • March 25 – Sonos Handbell Ensemble
  • March 28 – Lecture: Dr. Michal McMahon, “The City and the River: Industry and People on the Calcasieu”
  • March 30 – Lecture: Dr. Philip Clayton, “The Battle Between Evolution and Creationism: Prospects for a Peacy Treaty”
  • March 31 – The King’s Singers
  • April 4 – Lecture: Dr. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, “Africans in Colonial Louisiana”
  • April 6 – A Night of Native American Storytelling with Bertney Langley, GrayHawk Perkins, and Armando Rodriguez
  • April 7 – Rory Block (blues)
  • April 11 – Lecture: Dr. Gay Gomez, “Beholding Beauty: The Challenge of Wetlands”
  • April 13 – Lecture/poetry reading: Louise Bernice Halfe, “Sky Dancer”
  • April 15 – The New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra
  • April 28 – Reading: Robert Olen Butler
  • May 14 – Trinity Irish Dance Company
1999 SEASON
  • February 25 – “In Celebration of James Joyce”, David Norris (theatre/art exhibit)
  • February 27 – Western Wind Vocal Ensemble (a cappella folk)
  • March 1 – Reading: Leo Luke Marcello
  • March 4 – A Night of Native American Storytelling
  • March 5 – Reading: Leslie Norris
  • March 6 – Bimbetta (baroque ensemble)
  • March 8 – Lecture/slideshow: “Haunter of Ruins: Photography of Clarence John Laughlin”
  • March 9 – Lauren Pelon Musique Company
  • March 12 – Lecture: Alvin C. Plantinga
  • March 13 – Nighthawk Jazz Ensemble (U.S. Air Force Band, WWII-era)
  • March 15 – Lecture: Dr. Cecilia Ryan, “A Brief History of Illumination”
  • March 16 – Tribute to Paul Robeson, performed by the Houston Ebony Opera Guild
  • March 17 – Patrick Street (Irish music)
  • March 19 – Rhythm & Brass (folk, funk, madrigals)
  • March 20 – Smitty Dee’s Brass Band (New Orleans jazz)
  • March 22 – Condit-Wolfe Jazz Duo
  • March 23 – Lecture: Dr. Carl Brasseaux, “The French in Louisiana”
  • March 25 – Reading: Robert Olen Butler
1998 SEASON
  • March 6 – Kandinsky Trio with storyteller Connie Regan-Blake (chamber music)
  • March 9 – Lecture/photo exhibit: Dr. Margaret Connell-Szasz, “Learning the White Man’s Road: Education and the American Indian”
  • March 11-15 – “A Dream Play” by August Strindberg
  • March 13 – The Charmaine Neville Band
  • March 13 – A Night of Native American Storytelling
  • March 14-15 – 3rd McNeese Powwow (Native American dancers)
  • March 14 – Reading: Oscar Hijuelos
  • March 17 – Corey Harris (blues)
  • March 18 – Lecture: Dr. Adam Fairclough, “The Struggle for Civil Rights in Louisiana”
  • March 19 – “The Glory of Tsarist Music”, Barbara and Gerhardt Suhrstedt (Russian music, art, poetry)
  • March 24 – Paramount Brass
  • March 26 – The National Theatre of the Deaf
  • March 27 – The Verdehr Trio
  • March 31 – Georgia Sea Island Singers (chants, work songs, spirituals of the Gullah-speaking islands off the coast of Georgia)
  • April 2 – Reading: Robert Olen Butler
1997 SEASON
  • February 14 – AMAN (international dance/music)
  • February 18 – Jamie Wax in “Going to Jackson” (one-man play)
  • February 21 – Lecture: Keith Davis, “The Photographs of Dorothea Lange”
  • February 25 – Amernet String Quartet
  • February 27 – Lecture: Dr. Cheryl Ware, “The Kindness of Strangers: Tennessee Williams on Stage and Screen”
  • February 28 – Poetry reading: Paul Zimmer
  • March 1 – Screening/”Film Censorship” panel discussion: Kim Hunter & “A Streetcar Named Desire”
  • March 6 – Lecture: Dr. Ray Miles, “Native American Games”
  • March 8 – Nuclear Whales: A Saxophone Orchestra
  • March 13 – A Night of Native American Storytelling
  • March 14 – Lecture: Tim Giago, “Sovereignty and Gaming: Native American Issues”
  • March 15-16 – 2nd McNeese Powwow
  • March 18 – Poetry reading: Dr. John Wood
  • March 21 – The Fred Hersch Trio (pianist/composer)
  • March 22 – Lecture: Dr. Heinz Henisch, “The Painted Photograph: Origins and Aspirations”
  • March 23 – Lecture: Dr. Heinz Henisch, “Shalom, Pardner: Jews of the Wild West”
  • March 24 – Lecture: Bridget A. Henisch, “In Due Season: Farm Work in the Medieval Calendar Tradition”
  • March 25 – Reading: Robert Olen Butler
1996 SEASON
  • February 29-March 3 – “Evangeline” by Keith Gates (opera)
  • March 1 – The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
  • March 4 – Lecture: Dr. Jamie Whelan, “Louisiana Indians and their Pre-Columbian/Early Historic Cultural Heritage)
  • March 5 – “Madame Kaia” by Karen-kaia Livers (one-woman drama)
  • March 7 – Art exhibit: Heather Ryan Kelley’s “Images from the Wake”
  • March 8 – Lecture: Weston Naef, “The Art of Stieglitz and its Relationship to American Painting”
  • March 12 – Lecture: Dr. Ray Miles, “Lakota Photographs”
  • March 14 – Storytelling Powwow
  • March 15 – Bill Miller (Native American singer)
  • March 16-17 – McNeese Powwow and Parade
  • March 19 – Lecture: Dr. John Wood, “Secrets of the Dark Chamber: the Art of the American Daguerreotype”
  • March 21 – Debate: “Frontiers of Freedom of Expression: Framing the 1st Amendment for the 21st Century”, with Joanne Sanford, Paul Barefield, and Dr. Raymond Rodgers
  • March 26 – Lecture: Dr. Stella Nesanovich, “The Celestial Railroad: Hawthorne, Emerson, and the Transcendental Express”
  • March 28 – Dr. Donna Coleman, performance of “The Concord Sonata” by Charles Ives
  • March 29 – Allen Vizzutti, with the McNeese Jazz Ensemble
  • April 1- Reading: Robert Olen Butler
1995 SEASON
  • March 7 – A Festival of Strings, with Emanuil Shaynkman, Guillermo Rios, Richard Petterson, Marc Teicholz (European music)
  • March 9 – Exhibit: Danny Harries, Illustrator (Native American art)
  • March 10 – Andy Narrell (jazz, Afro-Caribbean, symphonic steel pan music)
  • March 11 – Storytelling: Sheila Kay Adams & Lynnette Braxton
  • March 13 – Lecture: Dr. Mark Wygoda, “Surviving the Holocaust”
  • March 16 – Debate: “Symbols, Gender, Power – and the 1st Amendment”, with Nadine Strossen and Richard Arnold
  • March 17 – Jerry “Boogie” McCain (blues)
  • March 20 – Michael Kallstrom’s “Electric Opera” (multi-media theatre)
  • March 24 – James Thompson (trumpet)
  • March 27 – The New Coon Creek Girls (bluegrass, string-band)
  • March 28 – Lecture: Stephen E. Ambrose, “D-Day”
  • April 4 – Reading: Robert Olen Butler
  • April 5 – “Volpone”, a play by Ben Jonson (comedic theatre)
1994 SEASON
  • March 3 – Lecture/art exhibition: Elemore Morgan, Jr
  • March 4 – Reading: Robert Olen Butler
  • March 11 – Ellis Marsalis Jazz Quartet
  • March 15 – Film screening/lecture: “The Louisiana Story”
  • March 16-20 – “Lucky Stiff – A Musical”
  • March 21 – Valcour String Quartet
  • March 22 – Lecture: Dr. Deborah G. White, “Public vs. Private Lives: Black Women in American History”
  • March 24 – Lecture: John Frohnmayer, Dr. Steven Smith, and Dr. Steve Dick, “From Magna Carta to the Macintosh” (1st Amendment issues)
  • March 25 – U.S. Marine Band
  • March 29 – Lecture: Dr. John Wood, “Art of the Autochrome”

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