It's Wednesday night at Vaughn's and the place is packed, but tonight the smoky Bywater bar is filled with an unfamiliar crowd.

Dozens of law students from Maryland are drinking cold beer and eating barbeque before the show starts. But it is not Kermit Ruffins or Shamar Allen who will take the stage. It is Eppy Lopez, a former drug smuggler from a small border town in Texas.

The students are volunteers who came to give free legal aid to the citizens of New Orleans and tonight they will hear Eppy tell stories about his 13 years in Louisiana state and federal prison.

Eppy strolls up to the stage and makes the microphone look like a toothpick as he adjusts it to his massive frame. But he is all smiles as recalls the artwork he created while incarcerated in Louisiana.