Brenda Quant was a commentator on New Orleans life par excellence. Through firsthand participation in civil rights work, Quant’s vision of New Orleans is among the most true of a city whose image precedes it. Growing up in the Ninth Ward, Quant lived through the last gasps of Jim Crow and participated in its demise both as an activist and chronicler. These essays, which traverse this time and beyond, are her contemplations on the power of pathways, whether those as momentous as diasporic seaways, as quotidian as neighborhood sidewalks, or as intimate as the roundabouts and byways of memory. With humor, candor, and a diligent curiosity about the world, From the Back of a Bus Named Desire is a keen crosshatching of observation and insight.