Screening, arts series finale set for Visitor Information Center

    Queen of the Sun: What the Bees are Telling Us, an award-winning documentary on the global honeybee crisis, will be shown at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17 at the new St. Landry Parish Visitor Information Center. The center is located at exit 23 on I-49, just north of Opelousas.

    Queen of the Sun follows colorful, alternative and inspiring beekeepers from all around the globe as they keep bees in natural and holistic ways. The film also examines Colony Collapse Disorder, which has been causing bees to disappear in mass numbers from their hives with no clear, single explanation.

    Famed movie critic Roger Ebert called the movie, “A remarkable documentary that’s also one of the most beautiful nature films I’ve seen.” Christine Champ of Film.com described the movie as “Stunning... as soulful as it is scientific, as uplifting as it is alarming.”

    Admission is free to the documentary screening, which is sponsored by St. Landry Homestead and a partnership with the LSUE Foundation, Friends of the LeDoux Library and LSUE Continuing Education.

    The documentary screening follows the final edition of the art series First Fridays with a Little Lagniappe, set for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 16 at the center. The finale features Darrell Bourque, former Louisiana Poet Laureate, and writer Patrice Melnick in “A Piece of Art is Worth a Thousand Words.”

    A nationally-acclaimed poet, scholar and teacher, Bourque won the UL Lafayette Outstanding Teacher Award in 1996 and the UL Lafayette Distinguished Professor Award in 1997. He is the author of four books of poetry.

    Melnick taught for 13 years at Xavier University in New Orleans, where she founded one of the first creative writing programs at a historically-black university. Following Hurricane Katrina, Melnick opened a gift shop in Grand Coteau and started a literary reading and open mic series. She’s the founder of the annual Festival of Words, which highlights established and emerging artists.

    For more information on these events, call the St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission at (337) 948-8004 or visit www.cajuntravel.com. Follow the center on Twitter @StLandryParish or on Facebook at St. Landry Parish – It’s Gumbo for Your Soul.

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