Mr. Okra's Birthday w/Morning 40s

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Published on: June 4th, 2015

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Mr Okra at Jazz Fest 2015. Photo by Marc PoKempner.
Mr Okra at Jazz Fest 2015. Photo by Marc PoKempner.

Arthur Robinson (more commonly known as Mr. Okra) is celebrating another trip around the sun this weekend at BJ's Lounge. The man behind the voice so familiar to citizens throughout New Orleans ("I have mangoes... I have tomatoes... I have.. good cucumbers... oranges and bananas...") is being honored with a performance from his longtime friends The Morning 40 Federation and a night full of good food. Festivities get under way at 6pm on Saturday, June 6 at BJ's (4301 Burgundy).

Mr. Okra is one of the last New Orleans vegetable peddlers and in recent years his career has gone beyond simply food. His voice is sampled on a Dave Matthews album, he's appeared in a Morning 40s video, he's parked his truck inside the gates at Jazz Fest for the last six years, and a short documentary about him won the Audience Choice Award at the New York City Food Film Festival in 2009. You can still find him in his truck most days, though, covering a large part of the city and helping us all get our vitamins.

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