Sweet Spots

<p><br />Contributions by Carrie Bernhard Scott Bernhard Marilyn R. Brown Richard Campanella John P. Clark Joel Dinerstein Pableaux Johnson John P. Klingman Angel Adams Parham Bruce Boyd Raeburn Ruth Salvaggio Christopher Schaberg Teresa A. Toulouse and Beth Willinger<br /><br />Much has been written about New Orleans's distinctive architecture and urban fabric as well as the city's art literature and music. There is however little discussion connecting these features. <em>Sweet Spots</em>--a title drawn from jazz musicians' name for the space "in-between" performers and dancers where music best resonates--provides multiple connections between the city's spaces its complex culture and its future.<br /><br />Drawing on the late Tulane architect Malcolm Heard's ideas about "interstitial" spaces this collection examines how a variety of literal and represented "in-between" spaces in New Orleans have addressed race class gender community and environment. As scholars of architecture art African American studies English history jazz philosophy and sociology the authors incorporate materials from architectural history and practice literary texts paintings drawings music dance and even statistical analyses. Interstitial space refers not only to functional elements inside and outside of many New Orleans houses--high ceilings hidden staircases galleries and courtyards--but also to compelling spatial relations between the city's houses streets and neighborhoods.<br /><br />Rich with visual materials <em>Sweet Spots</em> reveals the ways that diverse New Orleans spaces take on meanings and accrete stories that promote certain consequences both for those who live in them and for those who read such stories. The volume evokes preserves criticizes and amends understanding of a powerful and often-missed feature of New Orleans's elusive reality.</p>