Through the generosity of Wendy Rodrigue and her husband the artist George Rodrigue, this portrait of Walker Percy graces the poster of the inaugural Walker Percy Weekend, set for here in St. Francisville on June 6-8. Months before he died, George not only agreed to let us use this image to promote the festival and Louisiana art and literature, but he also signed a high-definition print of it for us to raffle off as a fundraiser (the Walker Percy Weekend is a fundraiser for the Julius Freyhan Foundation, an arts and culture philanthropy in our parish).

Tickets for the raffle went on sale yesterday; this weekend is our town’s Audubon Pilgrimage, a history and heritage festival (Audubon lived here and tutored at a plantation house for a short time). The town is full of visitors today. If you’re in town, stop by the Historical Society museum to buy a chance at the Rodrigue poster, already framed. Tickets are $5 each. We’ll be selling them through the last day of the Walker Percy Weekend, so if you’re planning on being here, don’t worry, you’ll have a chance to buy a ticket.

I stopped by the Historical Society just now to buy a ticket, and was so knocked out by the beauty of this print, and by the chance to own one of the last things George Rodrigue signed before he succumbed to cancer late last year, that I ended up buying 15 tickets.

I found out yesterday that here we are still two and a half months from the festival, and we’ve already sold 20 percent of the all-inclusive tickets for the Walker Percy Weekend. Let me encourage you again to go ahead and buy your tickets now. We need to know how many people are coming to the crawfish boil on Friday night, the cochon de lait/oyster roast on Saturday night, and the Front Porch Progressive Bourbon Tour, so we can lay in supplies. Please do your best not to wait till you get to town to get your tickets. We don’t want to discover at the last minute that people want to come eat and drink, but we didn’t have enough food and drink. You can buy tickets online here. You’ll have to wait till you get to town to buy your raffle ticket, though. I strongly encourage you to make hotel reservations now. There’s a link at the bottom of the tickets page that will give contact info for local B&Bs and hotels.

Last night I was walking past the courthouse, just around the corner from my place. A couple of the Walker Percy panel discussions will be held there. The building looked so beautiful last night. I also took a shot of the Grace Episcopal church grounds across the street, through the wrought iron fence. That, my friends, is the Old South — but there’s also a lot of the New South here too. That means, of course, that this is Percy Country. Both photographs are below. I can’t wait to show my town off to you. And by the way, the cover shot of my book The Little Way Of Ruthie Leming is my own front porch. It’s on the Progressive Bourbon Tour. Come over and let me mix a drink for you. You’ve got friends here.