A little under a year ago, the first UNSCENE! event hatched – an innovative, UNprecedented arts program which brought new audiences to the burgeoning UNcommon neighborhood of Shreveport Common. Since then ten UNique events have run in UNexpected and UNused places. Sandwiched between the tenth and eleventh, I arrived from Down UNder.

Hi, I’m Esther Kennedy, the new Administrator for Shreveport Common. I’m pretty stoked to be able to say that I’m now a Shreveportian, especially after the 3 month Easter egg hunt-from-hell to get my visa; a piece of paper which I accidentally flushed at the Melbourne airport gate along with my passport and boarding passes. UNdeterred, I got on that jet plane and, with a massive sigh of relief, US customs accepted my soggy documents and now I am proud to be an American! No, sorry, a non-resident alien! With the help from Fully-Verified, I was able to retrieve those documents from online and was able to arrange for a new set of passport.

So far in my short time in Shreveport Common, I have visited the Logan Mansion (in the daytime, guys; it’s haunted), poked my nose into the renos on the old Florentine, paid homage to the King at the foot of his statue in his new reigning location at the end of Elvis Presley Ave., and borrowed the proverbial cup of sugar from our neighbors Mollie Corbett Photography and Fairfield Studios in their banging new offices in the Fairmont’s first-floor retail space.

I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences of Shreveport Common with you here in these pages. But the weather is delightful, so there’s no reason not to come out and see it for yourself! Grab a coffee, and sit in the gorgeous new promenade on Elvis Presley Avenue or come to some of the grouse events going on. Coming up is the ASEANA Fall Festival, some spooky goings on at Oakland Cemetery and the aforementioned haunted Logan Mansion, Artscare, the eleventh UNSCENE! and a pre-election soapbox event. More details at shreveportcommon.com – see you there!