Taste of Culture: The Multicultural Center of the South celebrated a cultural tapestry through the flavors, sights and sounds of India at an event July 18 at DiamondJacks casino. The organization presented Taste of Culture: A Passage to India. Entertainment included patriotic and traditional dances of India by Ashini and Morni Modi. Ethnic food included German, African, African-American, Haitian, Cajun, Creole, Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, Native American, Korean, Greek, Turkish, Iranian and Italian. Dishes included flammkuchen, peg salad, stew, kimchi, grape leaves and lasagna.

–Mary Ann Van Osdell

Cirque du Lake: The businesses of Lake Street hosted a first anniversary party July 24 in downtown Shreveport by shutting down Lake Street for a street fair. In addition to the permanent businesses on the block, there were dozens of artists and food vendors along with live entertainment by several local bands. An after-party for the street fair was hosted at Bears.

–Mark Crawford

Wedding: Caroline Boley wed Logan Calhoun on July 11 at St. Joseph Catholic Church. A reception was held at East Ridge Country Club. They exited the reception in a 1932 Dodge and then flew to St. Lucia, West Indies. They will reside in Shreveport, where Caroline will teach history at St. Joseph Catholic School and Logan will be an assistant underwriter at Interstate Insurance Underwriters. Caroline and Logan met as freshmen at Captain Shreve High School and graduated from LSU in Baton Rouge and the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, respectively.

–Mary Ann Van Osdell

40th birthday: A 40th birthday celebration for Clint Bartlett was held July 25 at Stonebridge Country Club. His wife, Jessica Bartlett, held the party in his honor to celebrate Clint receiving Small Business of the Year by the Bossier Chamber of Commerce and the adoption of the couple’s fourth child from China in August.

Nest Fest: Nest Fest 2015 was held Aug. 1 at the Bossier Civic Center. The event once again featured delicious food, quality entertainment and special celebrity judges – a great time for a wonderful cause. The Renesting Project, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 2009 by a group of individuals with big hearts for helping the less fortunate. Their mission is simply to reclaim gently used furniture and goods from the community, renew by repairing and cleaning the products, and then renest – helping provide for those coming out of homelessness by setting them up with household items needed for a functioning life.

–Mary Ann Van Osdell

Film Prize: The Top 20 finalists for the fourth annual Louisiana Film Prize were announced Aug. 11 at the Robinson Film Center. Each will compete at The Louisiana Film Prize Festival Weekend on Oct. 1-4. The winner will take home a $50,000 grand prize. Aside from the winner, the top Louisiana Film Prize films will receive distribution through Shorts International on iTunes and will also screen at various festivals across the country. On Festival Weekend, the winner will be chosen based on the votes of a panel of film industry judges and the festival audience.

–Mary Ann Van Osdell

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Or contact Mary Ann Van Osdell at mavo@softdisk.com or Mark Crawford at markcrawford1@aol.com for coverage.