Founded 1963 Relaunched 2019. The Postmodern South.
fireworks
fireworks

While fireworks are generally a part of July 4 celebrations across America, New Orleans seems a uniquely-appropriate place to celebrate our great country. It is a city, founded by French explorers near a Native American village, later run by the Spanish and then the Americans, to which came Africans, Jews, the Irish, Italians, Haitians, Mexicans and Vietnamese. All of these diverse cultures have left their mark on New Orleans, making it paradoxically America’s most exotic city and at the same time the most American city of all. In New Orleans this year, the fireworks were preceded by a Navy band concert, and followed by the same All-Star Brass Band that had been playing on Bourbon Street earlier in the evening. 

While we had been at the fireworks show on Mud Island, a tragedy was unfolding at the Doubletree Hotel on Union at Third downtown, when a man shot his wife’s ex-husband and a police officer after a domestic disturbance. The police were still investigating as the Memphis Redbirds shot off their fireworks after their game, July 3, 2011

Fireworks at Mud Island, Memphis, July 3, 2011

Fireworks at Mud Island, Memphis, July 3, 2011