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WRKF's News Team

Ashley Westerman

Host and Reporter

Elizabeth Eads

Host and Operations Director

Kelly Connelly

Government & Politics Reporter

Amy Jeffries

News Director

Culture

'Wait, Wait' Host Talks of Bombs and Laughter

Credit NPR

Peter Sagal

By Amy Jeffries

As the host of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!, Peter Sagal, makes jokes about the news every week.

Game show hosts are typically not supposed to be part of the news.

But Peter Sagal ran the Boston Marathon as a guide for a blind runner, and a strange thing happened on the way past the finish line...

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2:28 am

Mon April 29, 2013

A Grieving Brother Finds Solace In His Sister's 'Small Town'

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Credit Courtesy Rod Dreher

Brother and sister Rod Dreher and Ruthie Leming grew up in a small town in rural Louisiana. Dreher left the tightknit community to pursue a journalism career but returned home after Leming died of lung cancer in 2010.

Credit Debbie Elliot / NPR

"People waited for hours for her wake to come in and pay their respects," Dreher says of the United Methodist Church where his sister was buried. "It was a moment of intense grace."

Credit Debbie Elliott / NPR

Ruthie Leming's friends and Rod Dreher (right) gather for a crawfish boil at Ronnie Morgan's camp by the Starhill Riviera. "When I'm gone," Morgan says, "the only thing that's going to show up to say I was here is the people I left behind."

Credit Debbie Elliott / NPR

The Drehers — Lucas (from left), Rod, Matthew, Julie and Nora — sit on the side stoop at their new home in St. Francisville, La.

By Debbie Elliott

Originally published on Mon April 29, 2013 11:21 am

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When he was a teenager, journalist Rod Dreher couldn't wait to escape Louisiana. Now he has found his way home again in grief — after his sister's death from lung cancer. It was "in light" of that tragedy, Dreher says, that he discovered the value of community. It's the subject of his new book, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life.

1:00 am

Thu April 18, 2013

New Artists, New Sound, Still Authentically Louisiana

Credit The Oxford American

By Ashley Westerman

Festival season is upon us and there are plenty of opportunities to boogie down to Louisiana music - both old and new. Some new artists bringing a different sound to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this year are Luke Winslow-King, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and Alexis and the Samurai.

Alex Rawls, a New Orleans-based writer and editor who runs the music and culture website MySpiltMilk.com, was the guest editor of The Oxford American magazine’s 2012 Southern Music Issue, which was entirely dedicated to all things Louisiana music. He also helped put together its accompanying album.

And Rawls tells WRKF’s Ashley Westerman that even though this new music comes from a younger generation and may sound a little different - it is still authentically Louisiana.

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6:36 pm

Mon April 15, 2013

Postcard from Baton Rouge Blues Fest

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Credit Amy Jeffries / WRKF

Henry Gray, the blues pianist, at work, April 13, 2013.

Credit Amy Jeffries / WRKF

A boy digs Henry Gray's music at the Baton Rouge Blues Festival, April 13, 2013.

Credit Amy Jeffries / WRKF

Lavelle White croons on the Swamp Blues Stage, April 13, 2013.

By Claire Ohlsen

The Memphis Blues, the Chicago Blues, the Mississippi Delta Blues have all had their fair share of the spotlight. But what about the Baton Rouge Blues? -- the Swamp Blues?

This weekend the Baton Rouge Blues Foundation hosted its annual festival downtown to celebrate the music of our city.

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