The main character in your story “Waiting” is simply referred to as the “old man.” He is incarcerated, and works as a gravedigger at the prison cemetery. He has come to hate just about everything ...

The Lens aims to engage and empower the residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We provide the information and analysis necessary to advocate for more accountable and just governance.

There’s a new boogeyman in town seeking to destroy jobs, shrink the economy, and push Louisiana into poverty. That boogeyman? Louisiana residents who are working day in and day out to protect ...

In April, after a new law mandated that 17-year-olds be treated as adults, some local jails struggled to keep youth separate from adults, as required by federal law. In East Baton Rouge, Sheriff Sid ...

Sophomore Yashawa Fluker, 16, who remembers falling asleep in his elementary-school classes. “I don’t want to think I was a hard-to-teach student,” he said. But in the end, many of his classes simply ...

Jordan Brown, 17, an award-winning debater and a senior at Delores T. Arthur School for Young Men, which closed on Friday after the charter school’s board surrendered its charter. For Jordan’s last ...

Jeff Poree, 74, a fifth-generation master plasterer, has tackled nearly every obstacle possible within his field. But last fall, in Square 3 of St. Louis No. 2 Cemetery, he faced a novel challenge: ...

This week on Behind The Lens, 2025 is fast approaching and as we turn the last page on the calendar of 2024, we will take a look back at the stories that our reporters at The Lens view as the most ...

The narrow Holy Cross Historic District sits on high ground, spanning the Mississippi River side of the Lower 9th Ward, an area of town that’s isolated from the rest of New Orleans by the Industrial ...

This week on Behind The Lens, the educational landscape in New Orleans has some advocates touting the all-charter system as a model for the nation. But the leader of a local non-profit Black Education ...

This week on Behind The Lens, decisions are in about schools after state test results were released and some families and teachers are now scrambling after the district announced two high schools ...