Fellow scholars will honor emeritus Tulane faculty member Larry Powell and discuss his latest book, The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans, at a tribute on Wednesday (Sept. 26) at 7 p.m. in the Freeman Auditorium on the Tulane uptown campus.

Powell retired this past summer as professor of history, and his acclaimed book on the founding of New Orleans was published in March.

“Larry Powell is a man who deeply loves his adopted city … but he is compelled to speak truth so that we better know ourselves," said Michael Sartisky, the president and executive director the Louisiana Endowment of Humanities, commenting on The Accidental City.

In an interview format during Wednesday’s event, Sartisky and Powell will discuss the book and the early political culture of New Orleans. In addition, Rich Campanella, geographer with the Tulane School of Architecture, will read selections from the book and display maps of New Orleans.

Powell held the James H. Clark Endowed Chair in American Civilization and was director of the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South. The center is sponsoring Wednesday’s event, which is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

After reading Powell’s book, Sartisky said, "Our view of the world will never be quite the same, nor will our appreciation of how New Orleans came to be perched so perilously on the margins of the American continent and culture."