NolaVie adds new voices to WWNO-FM

This week, NolaVie expands its content-sharing partnership with WWNO-FM with new, weekly, only-in-New Orleans short cultural features by NolaVie writers.

Brett Will Taylor (photo by Jason Kruppa)

First up is Brett Will Taylor, whose Love: NOLA column has drawn a sizable following in the two years since he moved from Boston to the Big Easy and began chronicling the quirkiness of his adopted city for NolaVie. (His take on “10 things you learn living in New Orleans” had been reposted on Facebook 4,329 times, at last count).

Taylor’s New Orleans-centric commentaries will air every other Monday at 8:35 a.m. on WWNO, 89.9 FM; he debuts today with an essay on life as viewed from the stoop, where birth, death, second-lines and preachers all eventually pass you by. Tune into the broadcast here.

Brian Friedman

Local journalist and producer Brian Friedman (his feature film debut, “King of New Orleans,” will be out this spring) will turn his personable and penetrating NolaVie articles into once-a-month short features during the same Monday time slot.

Friedman’s on-air beat will be Hollywood South — not the Branjolinas, but those New Orleanians both in front of and behind the cameras who are integral to the city’s emergence as a moviemaking capital. Tune in next Monday, Jan. 21, for Friedman’s WWNO interview with Katie Williams, director of Film New Orleans, about what the mayor’s office has to do with the Hollywood set.

Sharon Litwin

NolaVie president Sharon Litwin will continue her weekly “Notes from New Orleans,” short features about the cultural life of the city that air every Thursday on WWNO.

This week, Jan. 17, she finds out what goes on behind the scenes when Loyola University Opera Theater tackles its first-ever performance of Candide — with a full orchestra.

The new on-air features are the result of a grant from the John L. and James. S. Knight Foundation, on behalf of WWNO, to increase content offerings to the NPR affiliate from partners including NolaVie, The Lens and The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center.

The Lens has weighed in with pre-election interviews on WWNO, and The Data Center recently completed an on-air feature on adult literacy in the city.

In the coming year, NolaVie will continue to produce weekly segments on the cultural life of New Orleans.

Renee Peck is editor of Nolavie.