NOLA's Queen of Courts, Queen of Creole -"America's Heart and Soul" - Novelist Antil

NEW YORK, Jan. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- For the truth about Creole culture Antil turned to honest, reliable sources, one was non-other than Leah Chase, who he calls the Soul of America. Leah Chase made herself available on several occasions. For his court scenes, Antil turned to Louisiana's Criminal District Court for help and heard from the best of them thanks to openly outspoken Judge Laurie A. White who the author says is the very Heart of every danged thing America's backbone should be.

Since writing his novels One More Last Dance and Mamma's Moon, of a culture he's blood kin to, there's been no love lost for what Antil pokes at as one reason for the Pelican state's literacy blues. "It's the Mississippi River," says Antil. "Why she turns in and splits Louisiana clear down near the middle, don't ya see? Baton Rouge is what a body might call the crotch of America. The smelly part is up around North 4th and Spanish Town Road. An author is not recognized by Louisiana just for writing a book – even if it's about Louisiana. Oh, hell no. I wrote two and got throwed out twice. Why you ain't never going to be an author in Louisiana lest you've been registered, approved and properly butt-stamped at the state."

As much as for the table she sets, New Orleans icon, Leah Chase, is noted for ignoring Jim Crow laws from the very day she first lifted a gumbo ladle back in 1946. Blacks couldn't, by law, get a hotel room or eat with whites in New Orleans' restaurants at the time. Well, by God and Lady Justice, that was just not so at the Dooky Chase restaurant. Leah and her husband risked life and liberty and turned a blind eye to the law and fed all who came. Civil rights activists like Martin Luther King, homerun king, Hank Aaron, negro jazz greats like Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Pearl Bailey and so many others all seated at tables and noshing under the same roof with whites - presidents, supreme court justices, governors, mayors, policemen and local business leaders.

Judge Laurie A. White, another of Louisiana's treasured icons, stepped up for Antil, as well, to get answer to his questions about area law for his novel's tense trial scenes by asking attorneys for volunteers to help a novelist research relative court procedure so it could be portrayed accurately. Criminal attorney Lindsay Jay Jeffrey stepped up to the bar. Judge White also invited Antil to sit and witness courtroom and chamber in action.

"Leah Chase embodies the very soul of America, in every sense. Judge Laurie A. White, forthright and 'give-a-damn' caring for New Orleans, a good example for America's heart. We could all learn from them both, Antil said. "I certainly have."

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hvc6xevratg6t61/MammasMoon.mp4?dl=0

SOURCE Little York Books