University administrators took an unusual and comedic tour of Louisiana from their seats in the Tiger Stadium Lawton Room on Friday afternoon.
Sen. Jay Dardenne, R-Baton Rouge, was their guide.
The Louisiana tour was actually Dardenne’s presentation titled “Why Louisiana Ain’t Mississippi.”
It examined all the elements that set Louisiana apart from the rest of the country-its people, languages, geography, music and history.
Dardenne and his close friend developed the idea for the presentation a few years ago to explain why Louisiana stands out among the 50 states.
“Virtually every state in the union has a majority white Anglo-Saxon population and a black minority,” Dardenne said.
Louisiana has no ethnic majority, he said answering the presentation’s title.
“Louisiana is an ethnic gumbo,” Dardenne said
The state is 40 percent white, 33 percent black and 27 percent everything else, he said. It is the “everything else” that makes Louisiana unique.
In two hours time, Dardenne, who represents state senate district 16, was a one-man show.
Not only did he tell a brief history of Louisiana, but Dardenne also took on the personality and voices of the state and its people.
Dardenne became a Jewish mother, an elixir-peddling salesman, You Bet Your Life host Groucho Marx and a Cajun priest.
Dardenne’s presentation did not begin with Louisiana’s people.
It began with the Mississippi River, its alluvial plain, the Atchafalaya River and other waterways running through Louisiana.
“Any discussion about Louisiana must begin with water,” he said.
Bayou Teche and Bayou Lafouche were the first river valley to create fertile land that is key to the geography of Louisiana, Dardenne said as a large geographic map of Louisiana projected behind him.
Dardenne’s presentation moved from the state’s rivers and bayous to the piney lands of northern Louisiana.
The audience also visited Louisiana’s eroding coast.
Dardenne said the state is losing 25 square miles of coast per year.
“A football field is lost every 30 minutes, and it’s gonna get worse after the storm [hurricanes],” he said.
Dardenne used music from musicians such as Harry Connick Jr. and Mick Jagger to introduce and relate his geographic topics to the audience.
He also used them to introduce Louisiana’s people.
Dardenne’s presentation touched on every group that lived and migrated to the state.
He spoke of Native Americans, the French, African slaves, Italians, the Spanish, Lebanese, Irish, Vietnamese and other groups that contributed to the flavors of Louisiana.
Influences from each group can be found throughout Louisiana’s culture, food, language, music and history, he said.
“Louisiana has the oldest settlements of Native Americans,” he said.
Native American influence can be seen everywhere in Louisiana, especially in familiar names of places around the state, he said.
Dardenne said Whiskey Bay gets its name from Native American word “uski” meaning cane break.
Native Americans are not the only group to have influence on the state.
The French, most famously, gave Louisiana New Orleans, Natchitoches and its Creole population-which Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger recounts in his song “Brown Sugar,” Dardenne said.
“Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields. Sold in a market down in New Orleans. Scarred old slaver know he’s doin’ alright Hear him whip the women just around midnight,” Jagger sings. “Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, Brown sugar, just like a young girl should.”
He said the Spanish also had a major influence in Louisiana.
“The Spanish were the builders,” Dardenne said of their legacy.
Despite touching on a series of historical subjects, Dardenne still managed to keep the presentation light and funny.
Administrators continuously laughed as they sat listening to Dardenne recount centuries of Louisiana’s history.
Chancellor Sean O’Keefe and Provost Risa Palm said they enjoyed Dardenne’s presentation.
“It was entertaining, but it was also moving,” Palm said beaming with a smile.
Palm said she learned more about Louisiana than she previously knew.
O’Keefe, who hails from New Orleans, said he enjoyed how Sen. Dardenne connected the elements.
“It was a great presentation to give, in a short span, an idea-a great understanding of Louisiana,” he said. “I’ve got several generations of Louisiana in my family background. It was most wonderful.”
 
Contact Chris Day at [email protected]