JEANERETTE, La.
-- As part of the local
Water/Ways Smithsonian exhibit project, the Jeanerette Museum Board and Bayou Teche Museum have partnered to present an evening with Gwen Roland, the author of
Atchafalaya Houseboat, at 6 p.m. on Thurs., March 14 at the Sliman Theater in New Iberia.
Gwen Roland is the author of
Atchafalaya Houseboat and
Postmark Bayou Chene. Growing up in rural Louisiana, self-sufficiency was a given, so during the back-to-earth movement of the early 70s, Roland moved to the Atchafalaya Swamp where her ancestors had settled before the Civil War. She shared her adventures through magazine and newspaper articles. LSU Press reprinted those essays in the memoir
Atchafalaya Houseboat. The book inspired the popular PBS documentary by the same name.
Roland brings an insight into living on a houseboat she and her friend built that few others can. She lived peacefully off of the land for nearly a decade in the swamp. She later moved away from her beloved swamp and held many jobs until becoming the communications specialist for the Southern Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program at the University of Georgia. She retired after 20 years of writing about Ag research in the country.
During her talk, Roland will be showing personal photos from her collection during the time of her living in the swamp.
This program is suitable for an adult audience and is being held free of charge, however, seating is limited. This program is a part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities made possible through funding from the Walton Family Foundation.
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