Lunchtime Lecture: Boats of the Basin

West Baton Rouge Museum's ongoing Lunchtime Lecture series continues with Tuesday's lecture from Charles Richard, titled Boats of the Basin: Design, Function, and Form for the Life Aquatic. C.E. Richard—filmmaker, author, Professor of Creative Writing and Film Studies at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and one-time editor at this magazine—takes the audience on a journey with the people who made homes in the inhospitable wilds of the Atchafalaya Basin. Louisianans had to design and build a variety of boats especially suited to that environment and thus found only in Louisiana. The presentation offers a brief consideration of some of the boats that evolved in the Basin for living, working, and playing.

 C.E. Richard is the Writer & Director for "In the Mind of the Maker," a lyrical short documentary about the role of memory and imagination in the creative life an 86-year-old master boat builder, clinging to the remnants of a nearly forgotten way of life in the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp of French Louisiana. The presentation will include a screening and discussion of the short film, which documents the construction of a rare Creole Rowing Skiff. 

Visitors are welcome to bring a bag lunch. 845 North Jefferson Avenue in Port Allen. 12 pm; free. westbatonrougemuseum.com or (225) 336-2422.