It's a Family Affair

Father and daughter Peter Cooley and Nicole Cooley, both poets, and cousins Ryan "Shaggadelic" Batiste and Michael Batiste, members of the musical Batiste family, discuss passing down artistic traditions from generation to generation in a conversation facilitated by Kayla Min Andrews.

Free and open to the public; donations gratefully accepted. Donations support One Book One New Orleans' year-round community literacy outreach.

The Andre Callioux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice is accessible to community members who require mobility-related ADA accommodations. Parking near the venue is free, though somewhat limited. The nearest RTA stop is at N. Broad and Columbus.

MEET THE PANELISTS

Kayla Min Andrews is an MFA candidate in fiction at Randolph, where she has studied with Julia Phillips, Jean Chen Ho, and Clare Beams. She has been published in Lit Hub, The Massachusetts Review, and elsewhere, and was nominated for a Best of the Net 2020. She assisted Putnam with the posthumous publication of her mother’s novel—The Fetishist, by Katherine Min (Jan 2024)—including editing the manuscript and writing the afterword. Kayla promoted The Fetishist in a multi-city book tour, with conversation partners including Susan Choi and Cathy Park Hong, and by speaking on podcasts such as Poured Over with Miwa Messer. The Fetishist and Kayla's work on it were profiled in The Washington Post and The LA Times. Kayla lives in New Orleans and is working on a novel.

Ryan Batiste is a versatile New Orleans musician with a global reach. As a seasoned touring and recording artist, he has graced stages worldwide, sharing his unique blend of musical styles. Beyond his performances, Ryan is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of musicians. He serves as a mentor and instructor, imparting his knowledge and passion for music production through his 501(c)(3) organization, **Project Revolution**. As a member of the Recording Academy, Ryan's influence extends to the broader music industry, where he contributes to shaping its future.

Nicole Cooley grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her most recent book is the collection of poetry Mother Water Ash (Louisiana University Press, July 2024) as well as the two poetry collections, Girl after Girl after Girl (Louisiana State University Press, 2017) and Of Marriage (Alice James Books, 2018). She has published four other collections of poems, Breach, Milk Dress, The Afflicted Girls and Resurrection, as well as a novel, Judy Garland, Ginger Love, two chapbooks, Frozen Charlottes, A Sequence, and Vanishing Point, and a collaborative artists’ book (with book artist Maureen Cummins), Salem Lessons. Her awards include The Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, a Discovery/The Nation Award, an NEA, a Creative Artists fellowship from The American Antiquarian Society, and the Emily Dickinson Award from the Poetry Society of America.
Currently, she is a professor in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation and the English Department at Queens College-City University of New York.

Peter Cooley is Professor Emeritus and Director of Creative Writing, Tulane University 1975-2018. Author of twelve books of poetry.

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