Help Make The Gravy

OffBeat Art Director Elsa Hahne has started a Kickstarter campaign to fund a book version of her column, "The Gravy."

One of the best things about my last few years at OffBeat was working with its art director, Elsa Hahne. During that time, she started her project, "The Gravy," in which she interviewed New Orleans musicians about their history with food and cooking. The pieces took the method that she used for her first book, You Are Where You Eat, and applied it to New Orleans musical community, editing the interviews conducted in the musicians' kitchens into revealing monologues. In them, they talk about New Orleans, music, family, improvisation and growing up, and say as much about who they are as about food and their recipes. Editing them was always entertaining, and two - Monk Boudreaux and Mystikal - were so interesting that we rearranged the rundown to make room for a longer piece than we usually ran.

Hahne has collected and expanded the material for a book titled The Gravy: In the Kitchen with New Orleans Musicians, and she has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to publish it. Here's a link and a video in which she explains the project further.