Monica Stevens is a clinical psychologist at The New Orleans Therapeutic Day Program.

 Children with behavioral difficulties who are referred to Monica are expected to call her “Dr. Stevens.” However, some of the kids have other names for Monica, including “White Bitch.”

Alex Massa is a trumpet player from the Black Hills of South Dakota, and possibly the most intellectual trumpet player you’ve ever spoken to. Do you know any other trumpet players who have given a TED Talk? Not only do you get to hear what Alex’s TED talk is about in this conversation, you also get to hear what it’s not about. 

Jonathan Freilich got press-ganged into coming along with Alex to play a little guitar and found himself conducting a discourse on the nature of the age we’re living in, which he terms The Anti-Enlightenment.

Brett Will Taylor changed his name and his entire life at the ripe old age of 40. He was “Type A gay” living in Boston when he started drifting into other worlds. Literally. He’s ended up in a whole other world in just about every sense, from relationship to career, to New Orleans and existences on other planes.

Whatever you thought this Happy Hour was going to turn out to be all about at the outset: it’s not that. As Dr. Stevens says to sum it all up: “It could have been worse.”

Photos at Wayfare by Jill Lafleur.