LEJ's Louisiana
My blogs
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Industry | Communications or Media |
| Occupation | Sailor Man Scribe |
| Location | New Orleans, Louisiana, United States |
| Introduction | Leonard Earl Johnson (photo credit Frank Parsley) covered Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (2005), and the 2010 British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico for ConsumerAffairs.com. He is a contributor to Gambit Weekly, New Orleans Magazine, SCAT, Baton Rouge Advocate, Advocate Magazine, The Times-Picayune, Country Roads Magazine, Palm Springs Newswire and the anthologies: FRENCH QUARTER FICTION (Light of New Orleans Publishing), LOUISIANA IN WORDS (Pelican Publishing), LIFE IN THE WAKE (NOLAfuges.com), and more. Johnson is a former Merchant Seaman, and columnist at Les Amis de Marigny, New Orleans; and African-American Village. Attended Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship at Piney Point, Maryland. Winner of the Press Club of New Orleans Award for Excellence, 1991, and given the Key to The City and a Certificate of Appreciation from the New Orleans City Council for a Gambit Weekly story on murder in the French Quarter. |
| Interests | "Life and Death." Mostly mine. So far only Life has come up. More as things develop (maybe). |
| Favorite Movies | LEJ taught creative writing at the Acadiana Centre for the Arts in Lafayette, Louisiana, the first year following Hurricane Katrina. Some years before Katrina he taught photography at Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) in a group project funded by the New Orleans Percent For Art Project. With other New Orleans writers and visual artist this group, under the direction of conceptual artist Dawn DeDeaux created the PRISON ART BOOK, a limited edition iron-cell-door covered over-sized book published by the Arts Council of New Orleans. It may be viewed at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's Hilliard Art Museum; New Orleans Main Library; New Orleans Museum of Art; the N. O. Arts Council, and OPP. * * * After the storms of 2005 LEJ decamped to Lafayette, but maintained "Squalor Heights, " his Faubourg Marigny garret with hopes for "Traction on the slippery road home." Recently LEJ donated his personal copy of the PRISON ART BOOK to the Hilliard Art Museum at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette in gratitude for their kindness after The Storm. He now divides his time between New Orleans and Lafayette where he lives in a converted railroad hotel where Elvis Presley once stayed. He regularly rides and writes about Amtrak’s Sunset Limited, and grows his beard with hopes of someday finding a sponsor for the World Beard and Mustache Championships. More as time goes by... |
| Favorite Music | dreamy blues |
| Favorite Books | well written ones |