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Father First

03-08-2013

International House and loa Present an Original Vision of the Classic Sicilian Ritual 
March 14-20, 2013

                    
 

International House, the premier boutique hotel in America's boutique city, New Orleans, offers its guests an experience manifest with the rites and rituals that heighten daily life in this most sepulchral destination.  On the evening of March 14, the hotel celebrates this classic Italian Feast Day for San Giuseppe with great artistic originality and local Sicilian flavor, including sidewalk chalk art, an accordionist, the altar maker, a master baker and the in-house Spirit Handler.  A stylized still life and reverential altar will remain on view through March 20, 2013.
 
Just as New Orleans' extensive Sicilian community does in their homes and churches, the lobby at International House honors St. Joseph with an extraordinary ALTAR.  The composition of this altar, with offerings that range from fish to figs to fava beans, is highly specific by tradition and is lovingly curated by local designer and stylist Linda Sampson.  Another essential contribution, bread, will be provided by the city's newest master baker, Graison Gill of Bellegarde Bakery.
 
Joining the altar ritual for the first time this year is a still life of sorts.  It is styled and produced by Loa's creative director, spirit handler, playwright and director, Alan Walter, and aims to depict Joseph as, quite simply, a father among fathers, an ordinary man who became extraordinary by his actions.  A starkTABLEAU features the collected belongings of the Holy Family just before they fled to Egypt ahead of Herod's search parties trying to nip the rumored "messiah" in the bud.  Joseph's courageous and defiant role as protector shines an image of upheaval and dislocation, highly familiar to the Sicilian people and to New Orleanians, in many ways the cause of their admirable, hard-earned spiritual acquisitions.

From late afternoon till dusk on March 14, the SIDEWALK entertainment in front of International House might well be taken for an Italian piazza on a Saturday afternoon, when an accordion-led duoplays for seated guests who can order Alan's Citrucino, a cocktail called the Bellucci [Brandy, Aperol, Citrucino, Cucumber, Satsuma, Kombucha], or Café Corretto [Espresso with Grappa].  A chalk artistwill be at work too, creating beautiful, temporal sidewalk art beside the hotel, a reminder that life is a gift though fleeting and that the best way to show appreciation for a gift is to enjoy it. 
 
The hotel's bar, Loa, distinguished by homemade and fresh ingredients, marvelous recipes employing proprietary syrups, pressed juices, and herbs, and select vintage stemware, will add its own touches to the feast.  Walter each year concocts a love letter to the beloved Sicilian Limoncello, which uses bothSorrento Lemons and local Meyer Lemons along with other native produce.  The resulting "Citrucino"has as its base a medley of White Spirits and a decidedly southern Louisiana twist.

 
 
International House | 221 Camp Street | New Orleans | ihhotel.com | 504.553.9550

 

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