"This collection brings together thirty-five essays published over the past ten years, mostly in local New Orleans outlets. Most are about New Orleans culture and the differing ways in which the city is perceived by locals, visitors, distant onlookers, media creators, and scholars. Particular attention is given to the subject of how New Orleans identity has been shaped in the years since Hurricane Katrina. Some of the essays are more broadly about the South or about American racial consciousness, but all have something to say about New Orleans in relation to the rest of the state, region, and country"--