Today, contributors to the collaborative project “Not Meant to Live Like This” will be discussing poverty in New Orleans from a personal perspective, Liberty Kitchen will host their benefit for underprivileged students seeking job training throughout the city and Milfs will party the night away for the Friends in Need Foundation.  If you’re seeking a family night check out the film screening of Disney’s “The Princess and the frog in NOMA's sculpture garden, or Loyola’s night of Sitar music in Nun maker Hall. Check out all the details of today's packed schedule.

Today, the Box of Wine parade kicks into High Tea, the Mountain Goats climb into Tipitina's, Pine Leaf Boys return to d.b.a. and Papa Mali slides into the Leaf. On this day in Louisiana history, former Gov. Edwin Edwards was indicted on federal racketeering charges (again), Human Jukebox Snoogs Eaglin was born (1931) and Champion Jack Dupree died in Germany (1992). Don't feel pinched tonight, and check out what's happening:

The neatly coiffed bayou-esque environs of Audubon Park may have started as a playground for the rich. But now the Park and zoo are open to all, so no one thinks twice about getting a little rough around the edges a few times a year. One such occassion is Swamp Fest, which imports talent from the Cajun heartland to the Audubon Zoo, and shows off the captive creatures you're likely to find there, without even having to board a fan boat and don a macho persona.

August 19th, when Google went public (2004), when ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ ended, and the last U.S. combat brigade crossed the border to Kuwait (2010), National Avation Day, International Humanitarian Day, Coco Chanel (1883), Bill Clinton (1946), Nate Dogg (1969, RIP), and Fat Joes' (1970) birthdays, and Groucho Marx’s death (1977).

Playing a rare form of music that originated in a culture that some say is dying, practitioners of traditional Cajun start with a long way to go to climb out of obscurity. But, as Michael Doucet and Beausoleil showed a generation ago, mixing a fluid presentation of the songs with a bit of preaching about saving the music (and, yes, taking more than a few photos in the swampss) can go a long way toward digging out of that initial hole. The Pine Leaf Boys, and especially leader Wilson Savoy, have taken up Doucet's mantle. With the Lafayette ensemble's relative youth, they may have even raised him one.