So... last weekend I went to New Orleans to hang out with a couple of friends on a mini-vacay! Now, personally I would have preferred to stay longer but I couldn't... Even though I like my job... jobs suck...
Anyway, the night/early morning I got to New Orleans our first stop was, and had to be, the world famous Cafe du Monde for some beignets and coffee!
And those motherfuckers were tasty!!! (But on a side note, I'd barely eaten that day and the sugar overload upset the hell out of my stomach AND kept me up until like 6am the next morning!)Then, all hyped up on sugar, we went to Bourbon St.! I only have three words to say about that:
HOT.ASS.MESS. I was 100% sober that first night and I was not happy. If you know me then you know that physical contact is completely unnecessary. I mean really unnecessary. There's no real reason to try and hug me. Please don't. Sorry tangent... Anyway, all those drunk people, especially the scantily clad women in unfortunate/ill-fitting outfits and uncomfortable shoes, crammed together wandering from cheap-looking establishments (but not actually cheap booze prices) just about did it for me. I was mad uncomfortable.
But we learned our lesson. The next night we went to Bourbon tipsy and continued to drink once we got there. And in that environment, Bourbon was... Well it was still a HOT.ASS.MESS, but it was hilarious. The clothing was still unfortunate, I think we saw some people having sex outside of a club, and there were a lot of women in panties and t-shirts as the official uniforms for their jobs (sigh) but at least I could laugh. As awkward as that was if I'd expected anything more from Bourbon I would have been a damn fool... So I'll just chalk that up to experience....
Here are some interesting things about going on a trip with a bunch of historians. First, most of the stuff they want to see and do center around historical buildings/places/people. So on Saturday we went around the French quarter in search of Marie Laveau's tomb without a map
and only my hilarious friend Noel's (damn good) memory to guide us. While heading there we stumbled upon this building that Tony liked. And when we read the plaque that marked this structure as Madame Laveau's former family home, we were ecstatic (seriously) with our find. STFU... Look I said we were historians... not great historians (whatever).While there we met some really nice white folk who asked if we'd been to Congo Square. We all looked at them like.... (blank stare)... "Damn! We almost forgot Congo Square!" Like I said, we're not that great at our jobs, but in my defense... forget it... there's no defense.
So of course we immediately walked the 2-3 blocks (!) to Congo Square and basked for a second in all of the history contained in that place. Well my friends did, I however kept my eyes on the homeless people scattered around and the obvious crackheads who looked like they were up to... well you know what crackheads do...
From there we made our way to Saint Louis Cemetery #1 to see her grave and... it was closed! Damn... But we did run into those white people again. So we just went back the next morning and spent about an hour wandering through one of the coolest cemeteries I've ever seen.
Look, I know I'm not the most sane person in the whole world, but this cemetery was crazy/beautiful. There were just strange things everywhere. Really new gleaming white tombs next to crumbling, falling down ones. The statues were insane. Anyway, I definitely want to go back and spend some more time there. Um... (cough)... because someone told us later that... um (cough) Homer Plessy is buried in that cemetery and...um... we didn't know... OK look we might be, in this situation, bad historians but I try not to study anything before 1900, so sue me!!!
The second thing about traveling with historians is: tour guides beware! HA! We eavesdropped on a couple of groups at the cemetery and this one guy was talking about voodoo. Well look, whatever, most people don't quite understand voodoo or it's connection to other syncretic, African-derived religions in the Americas and throughout the world so I'm not going to completely hold it against that guy. But voodoo is not praticed by millions of people in the world. Rather millions of people practice religions that are, like voodoo, derived from some West African religions blended with some form of Christianity, especially Catholocism. (It's a lot more complex that this I realize and this dude said some other inaccurate stuff but this one irked me the most!) But what makes this story hilarious is that my friends and I, who weren't on his tour, stood to the side of this guy whispering to each other every thing he said that was wrong like complete and utter douchebags!!!! hahahaha But, in our defense this guy did say that voodoo led to the Civil War... (blank stare)... talk about simplying history... We gotta do better!
But one tour that we so totally didn't have a problem with was the Haunted History Vampire tour of the French quarter.
I forget this dude's name, but he was fucking fantastic. He was funny, intense, and did accents. And he looked like a pirate!!!! A-MAZ-ING. We went around the quarter looking at sites where supicious deaths had occurred that seemed as if vampires could have been involved (suspicious blood loss, creepy people who never ate and had no food in the cupboards etc). It was super interesting (my mouth dropped open plenty of times) AND we stopped at a bar in the middle. Hells yea!
But on another note, one of the things I wondered was what New Orleans was like so many years post-Katrina. Honestly, we were only there for a couple of days and only left the Quarter twice. The first was to get breakfast and the second was to have dinner with our good friend Erin. But here are some things that we heard. First, rebuilding isn't even anywhere near being complete. Someone told us that most of the money used to rebuild New Orleans initially went to the Quarter. This, even though it was barely underwater (compared to other areas because it's on a slight hill). So why did they make this decision when people, real people who'd lived in the city, were homeless or displaced? MONEY. The Quarter is a huge cash cow and built for tourists, so like asshole capitalists will do, they eschewed caring for the city's residents (largely black people) and took care of the tourist area, which caters to largely white people (who are, not coincidentally, being catered by... black and brown folk). Seriously disgusting... There are also a lot of homes just outside the quarter a ways that still bear the scars of the tragedy, like the markings made by FEMA (about bodies found in the home etc.) and on some buildings you can still see water lines. It's very disturbing.
But disturbing is good. At least it can be. I would love to know what's being done to rebuild the city and what I can do help. I would also love to know what's being done for the people who have suffered and are still suffering (because make no mistake about it, that sort of trauma does not go away and African Americans are the most underdiagnosed population for mentall illness). So these are the things that I wonder, please let me know what you know...
But I don't want to leave you on a sour note. So, because I love you all I'm sharing a playlist of songs that I had on rotation on my way down south. Enjoy bitches!
*oh and btw... all the pics are mind EXCEPT the girl on the bull (ugh) and the exterior shot of cafe du monde...
3 comments:
Hey Nicole, glad you had a good time in NOLA. I'm by no means even close to an expert on all the socio-political issues involved in the extremely slow rebuilding of NOLA but having had the privilege of being part of the 2007 JanTerm class and spring break group from St. Mary's led by Prof. Shawny Anderson to go there and do relief work, I guess I can say I've been exposed to a lot of those issues. We worked primarily in the Upper Ninth Ward. The corner of Bartholomew and N. Claiborne is where many of us have left a piece of our hearts, where much blood, sweat and tears have been shed while healing the scars that Katrina and government failures have left. Mention St. Mary's College around that corner and you'll likely get some warm smiles (especially at the tennis-ball green house and a home or two down the N. Claiborne side of the block).
To learn more about three years' worth of St. Mary's JanTerm and spring break relief efforts check out their blog at: http://smcnola.blogspot.com/
Anyways, my reminiscing aside, to answer your question about what's being done to rebuild the city, from what I've seen Habitat for Humanity has been the most effective organization for creating housing for displaced families. Their Musicians' Village project in the Upper Ninth Ward is almost complete with 69 of the 72 single family homes done and moved into by worthy residents that have contributed their own sweat equity, including many local musicians that keep the Crescent City's music scene vibrant. They have many other on-going projects around the city, SMC's worked with them on a number of occasions, as have many college groups, churches, corporations, etc. I'm sure they're always in need of both donations to fund the purchase of vacant lots to build on, materials, and administrative costs; and volunteers to work under the supervision of their Americorps staff.
For more on Habitat for Humanity's NOLA chapter check out: http://www.habitat-nola.org/index.php
Musicians' Village has its own website: http://www.nolamusiciansvillage.com/
I'm not exactly sure of the status of government aid to homeowners of existing housing that is severely damaged at this point. When I was there in 2007 the statistics were staggering as far as how slow Louisiana's dispersal of relief was in comparison with other states'. Given the state's history of corruption and mis-use of funds (levee committees come to mind) some caution is understandable, but what we saw, heard and read (even on FEMA's own website!) was astonishing. I can't think of the exact figures off the top of my head, but as part of the class a partner and I made a video on the topic. If you're interested I might be able to post it on Youtube or something (it's on a DVD so I'd have to figure out how to convert it.) Hopefully things have improved as far as getting funds where they need to go.
Another controversial housing issue was the (state/city, can't remember which) government decision to close many low-income housing buildings (the "projects") after the hurricane. Officials said that these places had become breeding grounds for crime of all sorts and sub-standard living so they were talking about either renovating or completely demolishing them in favor of "single-family homes" or something like that. Some community activists decried this action as an under-handed way of trying to keep the Section 8 housing population (primarily African-Americans) from coming back to the city. These activists cried out that any housing was better than no housing. Now, clearly both sides have valid points. Government may genuinely be trying to address the systemic problems that "the projects" housing concept has. Activists obviously are worrying about low-income people being left hanging. There may not be an easy answer to this one. Again, I don't know the current status of all this, as I haven't followed NOLA rebuilding struggles as much as I probably should. (cont’d in next comment)
(continued) Your question about mental health services in NOLA is definitely an overlooked one. Certainly worth looking into. Under-reporting is clearly an issues amongst practically populations of color (Random aside: I'm somewhat anxious to hear what the report is on the mental health records of the Virginia Tech shooter that were just discovered. Some people made a big deal about him being Asian American, but I wonder about what kind of counseling services he may have gotten, or lack thereof). If you hear/find anything please share.
Another somewhat overlooked issue concerning post-Katrina New Orleans is the state of their education system. About 50% of all NOLA students are in charter schools, while the rest are in regular public schools or private school. We (SMC group) visited a charter school there and met some district administrators and found it to be a lively, well-run educational environment. The jury's still out on the charter school experiment as far as student performance based on test scores (racial, ethnic and cultural factors in test-taking ability and test construction being a WHOLE other topic).
Here's another thing you can do to support NOLA in a slightly more indirect way via your alma mater. Professor Shawny Anderson, assisted by a few students (mostly Erik, who Jean knows, and a little help from me too) has been working this summer on getting several books published, one for each of the three years St. Mary's groups have gone to NOLA. The vision includes possibly combining the three books into one big one as well for wider release. The books consist of hundreds of photos taken by the students in New Orleans accompanied by quotes from their journals, chronicling their experiences. It's meant not only as a memory book for participants, and promotional material for St. Mary's, but also to raise awareness of what it's like to do relief work in NOLA and the need to do more, even four years later. We're hoping that proceeds would go to the St. Mary's JanTerm travel course service scholarship fund. This would enable financially needy students to participate in service-learning travel courses during JanTerm like the NOLA relief courses. Not only does that add man-power to these service courses but it also contributes to the inspiration of these students to hopefully come back after JanTerm to share what they've learned and do even more for the greater community. So, once the books come out I'll be sure to let you know, and if you could give it a plug on this blog (perhaps consider buying one?) it would be greatly appreciated.
Whew! This stuff is addictive, keep up the good work! Couldn’t even fit it all into one comment. I'm gonna have to start limiting my intake of this blog so that I can get my homework done (oh student life...though I'm guessing full-time work life is similar). Take care!
P.S. Have either of you shared this blog with any of your old professors/staff friends back at SMC? I'm sure some of them would be thrilled to read this stuff.
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