If you’ve ever fancied yourself a basic kind of man driven by simple (violent) desires, you might like to enter the 2023 Stella Shouting contest, which takes place this weekend, ahead of next week’s Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival.

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It will entail, one assumes, a Bourbon Street packed with belligerant men in singlets and aging beauties who frustrate and tempt, as punters attempt to recreate the famous scene from A Streetcare Named Desire, in which Stanley, working-class husband and bad brother-in-law, cries out in remorse to his wife after punching her: Stellaaaaaaaaaaa. Catalyst and dreamer Blanche Du Bois looks on.

This year, the festival is partnering with the New Orleans Family Justice Center, a collective dedicated to ending domestic violence, and this year, as in all years, trams will not feature prominently.

The yelling will commence this Sunday, March 19! Torn shirts optional.

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Janet Manley

Janet Manley

Janet Manley is a contributing editor at Literary Hub, and a very serious mind indeed. Get her newsletter here.