Nikki Still came to New Orleans to do yoga. Four or five hours a day. And got paid to do it. Nikki was the vanguard of Lululemon in New Orleans, doing yoga then schmoozing with the mostly women and getting them to try Lululemon for their next vasana. 

Nikki also managed to date enough men to convince her mom she wasn’t gay but she couldn’t eat enough ice cream to convince Creole Creamery she was a champion. Oh, and she quit the lemonheads to open her own workout studio, Hour Blast Metairie. That was all pre-John.

Zack Smith is one of only three staff photographers who shoots Jazz Fest every year, and one of only a small group of people to assist photography legend Herman Leonard when he lived and worked in New Orleans. A fan of asking, or not asking, the question “Why are we here?” Zack has a bunch of better questions, like what is Yugen?

Yugen is a Japanese word that refers to a profound awareness of the universe which evokes feelings that are inexplicably deep and too mysterious for words.

In a weird twist of fate, Joao Amos is the MC of a band called Yugen. Yugen the band plays acoustic music that mysteriously sounds like electronic music. 

All the photos on this page were taken at wayfare by Alison Moon who also weighs in on human trafficking.