The Trumpet Magazine March/April 2010

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Community Voices Orchestrating Change March/April 2010

Issue #2 Volume 4

IN THIS ISSUE: Crime: What are you doing about it?

Adult Literacy The French Quarter The Lens Spanish-New Orleanians

Neighborhoods Partnership Network’s (NPN) mission is to improve our quality of life by engaging New Orleanians in neighborhood revitalization and civic process.

4902 Canal Street, Room 301, New Orleans, LA 70119 • Office (504)940-2207, Fax (504)940-2208 • thetrumpet@npnnola.com

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Letter from the Executive Director: “The question is not whether we can afford to invest in every child; it is whether we can afford not to.” - Marian Wright Edelman

Photo of Timolynn Sams By: Gary Smith

Last year I posted a link on my Facebook page titled “Mentally

challenged or Environmentally Challenged… who really failed Michael Anderson?” The tragic story of the 23 year old, convicted of five counts of capital murder in the 2006 Central City massacre of five teenagers caught my attention not only as a concerned resident but also as a mother of a Black boy entering his teen years. Over 350 African American men aged between 17 and 24 years have been killed during the last 3 years, all in New Orleans.

All having lived short lives and dying tragic deaths, this just doesn’t seem natural to me, no matter how you shape it. Many times I find myself locked in conversations on who’s to blame for the lost of so many youth to these streets; schools, churches, government, parents, and the list continues to grow to the point that I find myself throwing up my hands as though there is no answer.

The day I learned I was blessed to have a son, I was filled with both joy and great fear. Fear to the point that I cried that entire day. Please know that I no doubt love my son.

Evan’s birth changed a multitude of relationships and brought a purpose greater than my own to my life, but I was, and continue to be, filled with fear because of all I have witnessed in the city of New Orleans. I’ve seen smart, talented and beautiful boys grow-up to be men that people in

their own neighborhoods feared.

Neighbors who had watched these same boys play street ball on summer days would later be afraid to sit on the front porches that was once the stadium bleachers for the neighborhood games. I’d taught in the public Jr. High schools and witnessed the bias treatment of boys to girls in the manner of how we educated and disciplined them.

According to 2010 public records obtained from the Office Juvenile Justice the total population of juveniles in OJJ custody is 554. Last year at this time, there were 440 youth in OJJ custody, a 26% increase.

80% of those juveniles are in secure care, 19% are pending secure, and 1% is in detention/jail. 78.7% of those in secure care identify as Black, 20.4% as White, and 0.9% as other.

In addition the majority of these youth, if not all are males. This is the same number that was reflected in the 1997 intake data when we had a more populated city. In fact on a given day in New Orleans as of late, there are around 30 boys in jail and only 2 girls, tops. Statewide, there are only 24 girls in Office of Juvenile Justice secure facilities – all held in one center in Coushatta. So now are you afraid? Can you relate to my fears?

The youth of this city will be our greatest investment; if we collectively nurture them we are guaranteed a return. Crime is a symptom for other missing components that we are not addressing: education, social services, economic development and recreation. We can no longer incarcerate our way out of crime.

It is the responsibility of everyone, not just the police, or the mayor, or parents, or the educators, or the business community to ensure that our neighborhoods are safe, but EVERYONE. I challenge us all to reflect on what you are doing not only to combat crime issues, but also to invest in the preventive measures to respond to those behavior’s that prevent criminal dealings from happening.

Timolynn Sams, Executive Director Neighborhoods Partnership Network

NPN provides an inclusive and collaborative city-wide framework to empower neighborhood groups in New Orleans.

Find out more at NPNnola.com

NPN board members: Julius Lee, Board Chair, River Timbers Victor Gordon, Vice Chair, Pontilly Neighborhood Association Tilman Hardy, Secretary, Leonidas/Pensiontown Neighborhood Association Angela Daliet, Treasurer, Parkview Neighborhood Association Leslie Ellison, Tunisburg Square Civic Homeowners Improvement Association Vaughn Fauria, Downtown Neighborhoods Improvement Association Davida Finger, Carrollton Riverbend Association Sylvia Scineaux-Richards, New Orleans East, ENONAC Benjamin Diggins, Melia Subdivision Sylvia McKenzie, Rosedale Subdivision Katherine Prevost, Upper Ninth Ward Bunny Friend Neighborhood Association Wendy Laker, Mid-City Neighborhood Organization Board Robert Sullivan, Central Carrollton Association

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March/April 2010

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Letter from the Executive Director of NPN Table of Contents/NPN Board Letter to the Editor Opinions about Crime Residents Can Reduce Crime Kids ReThink New Orleans Free Literacy Program in NOLA Literacy Education: An Americorps Story Her Crime? Sex Work in New Orleans Investing in our Youth Neighborhoods and their Politics Green Orleans: Take your bike to work The Lens: Asking tough questions Neighborhood Spotlight: The French Quarter NPN T-Shirt Design Contest The Trumpet Bilingual Immigrant Impact on New Orleans I am LatinNOLA Historical Highlights A Recipe for Weight Loss Success School Health Centers Reduce Risky Behaviors Neighborhood Meetings

*Cover Photos by Ray Nichols

The Trumpet Editorial Board:

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Crime is a prevalent issue in New Orleans, but there are numerous initiatives sprouting up across the city in an attempt to counteract it. This issue of The Trumpet Magazine will talk about some of these initiatives on a grass roots level as opposed to a law enforcement level. I’m not going to sit here wide eyed and inordinately optimistic telling you that these groups and organizations are going to completely wipe out crime in New Orleans and solve “the problem,” but I do think this is a sign of progress; a very important step in the right direction.

With that said, we’ve got tons of exciting new content - including a segment by The Lens, New Orleans’ newest investigative news source and a self-defense column written by Ann Bernard of New Orleans’ newest health initiative: BeFitNola. Going along with the theme of Crime Initiatives, we’ve also got a great piece by Brian Opert about what YOU can do to reduce crime in your neighborhood.

I’m also very excited and pleased that this issue of The Trumpet Magazine will feature our very first bi-lingual section. NPN’s communications intern, Kimberly, had a brainstorming meeting with Puentes and really took off with the idea. Our four page Spanish New Orleanians section was completely organized, edited and laid out

by Kimberly and I couldn’t be more proud of her! This is something we’d really like to keep going - but we need your help! (Bilingual submissions work exactly the same as other submissions - guidelines are posted throughout the magazine.)

Thanks to all the amazing contributors in this issue, and huge thanks to our amazing volunteer copy editor, Crystal Wade of The Social Project.

Remember: this is YOUR publication. The Trumpet Magazine is “community voices orchestrating change,” and we need your voice in order to follow through on that promise.

Write, Submit, Share.

Megan Hargroder Editor-in-Chief The Trumpet Magazine

Megan Hargroder, River Garden Neighborhood Editor-in-Chief, megan@npnnola.com Barbara Blackwell, Gentilly Sugar-Hill Neighborhood Ray Nichols, Carrollton Neighborhood Aretha Frison, Jefferson Parish John Koeferl, Holy Cross Neighborhood Jeff Kugler, American Red Cross Liaison Jermaine Smith, Uptown Neighborhood

Megan and Kimberly working on this issue of The Trumpet

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NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE

Write, Submit, Share YOUR Story!

Articles, Events, Poems, Neighborhood Updates, Opinions or Photos

Contact us with submissions or comments: Email: thetrumpet@npnnola.com Call: 504-940-2207 Snail Mail: The Trumpet Magazine 4902 Canal St., Room 301 New Orleans, La 70119

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Letter to the editor: WE DAT!

By: Michael Hecht

us “one of the best places in the country to ride out the recession.”

Growth of new companies like The Receivables Exchange, iSeatz, TurboSquid and Naked Pizza that are led by fearless entrepreneurs who have made our region their home-base for global expansion, and prompted FastCompany to name New Orleans one of the “fastest” regions in the USA. A documented influx of recent graduates who are flocking to New Orleans, giving our region a Top10 ranking for “Best Places to Live and Work for Young Professionals,” and stocking new hubs of innovation My response to each of them (every The honor of being named “Major like the “I.P.” building Corporate rhetorical question deserves a Market of the Year” by Southern expansions, like Monsanto in St. response) was, “We Dat.” If the Saints Business and Development, due Charles, assisted by local economic are a metaphor for a resurgent New to a series of local/state/federal development partners, that have Orleans, it is because they epitomize collaborations, including the created hundreds of new jobs; and, what has lifted our region over groundbreaking Federal City project, continued work on other projects, the past four years: a remarkably Tens of billions of new investment like Nucor in St. James, that promise broad and committed effort, where in our region, thanks to the tireless thousands more An intense focus on every day brings a different savior, a efforts of our citizens and elected economic development at the State different star. This game it was the officials. These funds have not only level, from the Governor on down, unheralded Hartley, last game it was rebuilt our region, but provided the leading to important recognition the famous Reggie Bush. jobs that have BusinessWeek calling like Louisiana being named #8 in The point is, the Saints are clearly It was the rhetorical question a team of “we;” it is their collective heard round the world. As Garrett talent and selflessness that has Hartley’s overtime kick flew through taken them from well-documented the uprights, the messages started lows to celebrated new heights. This flying, too. A call from my brother in is why everyone, from Presidents to Brooklyn: “Who Dat?!” A text from residents, loves the Saints. They are my in-law in Denmark: “Who Dat?!” a team of “we,” and so is our region.

An email from a friend in Australia: “Who Dat?!” Back at home, our Economic development is about three-year old was running in circles quality jobs and quality of life. And if yelling “Who Dat?!” (And, somewhat you look at our region’s wins in this less endearingly, “Stand up and get arena over the past few years, you crunk!”) will see an unmistakable team effort.

the country for growth prospects

by Forbes Fundamental policy wins, like the exclusion of capital gains on the sale of Louisiana businesses, that were pushed through by business, political and community interests tired of us exporting our best people and jobs. An educational reform movement, led by parents, teachers, and administrators, that has Mayor Bloomberg in NYC calling New Orleans the national incubator for educational reform. Innumerable community groups, faith-based leaders and individual heros, whose collective efforts have rebuilt neighborhoods and institutions from the ground up. All of these above team efforts have collectively led the editor of World Trade 100 magazine (the Sports Illustrated of economic development) to declare: “the transformation that’s taking place in New Orleans both socially and economically is stunning.”

Go Saints. Go New Orleans.

We dat.

March/April 2010

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OPINIONS ABOUT CRIME This month, The Trumpet Magazine asked what you thought about crime in your neighborhood. Here are your responses: Dear Editor, I represent the board of the Bouligny Improvement Association (BIA) as the Chairman of the Crime Committee. Our neighborhood is from Napoleon Street to Upperline Street, as well as from Saint Charles Avenue to Magazine Street.

We have many issues plaguing our neighborhood. Examples are drug dealing, blighted housing, robbery, burglary and simple theft. Our board has done a wonderful job of setting up committees to tackle these issues.

From a crime standpoint we have done a few things to make our neighborhood safer, the board has made and executed suggestions to lower the crime rate in New Orleans.

Suggestions include creating a neighborhood watch program, communicating with officers and the district commander of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) on a regular basis, invite councilwoman Stacy Head to attend and speak at neighborhood meetings, and encouraging vigilance on the part of our neighbors, as well as communicating any criminal activity in the area via e-mail.

We do all of these things, but there is always room for improvement. We would like to see Mayor Mitch Landrieu push for community policing and substations. We would like to see more communication between the NOPD and the neighborhood groups. We would like to have constant e-mail blasts from NOPD in our district letting us know what is happening.

Right now we get a few of e-mails, but we would like to know more. Knowledge is power and the more information NOPD gives us, the more we can help them do a better job.

Thank you, Hope Goldman Meyer

1. What do you think about crime in your neighborhood?

I live in a Senior Village and I don’t see or hear about crime in our complex. Now, in the surrounding area there are problems. It is very depressing when our young black males are killing each other.

2. What do you see being done about it?

There are several schools in the area and I see a lot of kids involved in the school activities.

3. What needs to be done?

The number one problem is at home. Parents need to take control and be a parent and not their children’s friends.

More programs geared at keeping them busy. More community center, playgrounds, and male mentors to be good role models The church taking a part in working with our youth.

“THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL IS PRAYERS” -Emelda Paul - President Lafitte Resident Council The main purpose of a neighborhood watch block captain is to encourage all the other neighbors on the block to report at 911 to the police if they “see or hear anything strange.”

A captain should attend meetings of the district crime watch program in order to get the news right there; to be able to ask questions and get immediate answers. This information can then be brought back to then neighbors.

On the evening of the “National Night Out Against Crime,” a block captain and/or some friends can set up a street party, if they want to.

What is my opinion of crime readiness out here?

Seldom do I have a chance to talk to any neighbors about situations unless something has happened “right around the corner.” Usually, a neighbor will approach me, first. Most of the people on my block don’t want to talk about anything with anyone, especially me; the south end of the block seems not to talk with the north end of the block, either.

The people on my block have up their security lights and cameras. They pay their $100.00 with their property taxes to support the Lakeview Crime Prevention District and its patrols. Because they live in Lakeview, they believe they are blessed by the gods and immune from attack by “people who don’t belong here.”

I stopped going to the district meetings because they lasted way late into the night, and I don’t like driving around in my neighborhood after dark.

In a way, I guess, I am a block captain in name only. But, if people will not communicate with you so you can talk them, what can you do?

-Judith Martin, Lakeview

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NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE

Residents Can Reduce Crime By: Brian Opert Mid City Neighborhood

Crime continues to be an enormous issue in New Orleans, particularly in light of the recent Superbowl, Mardi Gras, and new mayor election celebrations, which have raised our spirits to levels never enjoyed before. We have learned how much fun it is just to live here. US Attorney Jim Letten continues to do a “bang-up” job of locking up our corrupt leadership. If we could only get the crime under control, think of what an allaround delight our city would be.

In spite of knowing that arresting is not a way out of this, we still have to rely on the police to deal with perpetrators. But an equal share also falls on our shoulders as citizens. There are things we can do, at relatively low risk or low cost. Perhaps residents cannot stop crime, but can move it. As a general rule, criminals prefer to apply their trade where there is a lesser chance of being apprehended. Logical, is it not? Today, cars have built-in antitheft alarm systems. Car thieves, therefore, usually look for older vehicles that do not have alarms.

Stores have signs that read “Video Surveillance System.” Not because they like signs, but that thieves do not want to be videotaped.

most neighborhoods are quite dark at night. Few people turn on their porch lights. In fact, some residents darken their front windows and leave off porch lights, preferring to sit outside in the dark. Did it not occur to them that a dark alleyway will attract bad guys? Since it is unlikely they will be seen, due to the darkness, they have little to fear. Every porch light can be turned on. Turning them on, as well as convincing neighbors to do the same could deter bad guys from particular areas. This is a simple, quick, and most obvious fix.

but three or four neighbors on the front porch all at once are less likely to be in any danger. Don’t confront the guy, or even say anything. Just be there. No bad guy wants to be seen, and your eyes are your best crime prevention tool.

I often hear stories, “I peaked through my blinds and saw a guy I don’t know jump my fence and run down the street, so I called the police.” Using this “fearful hiding” technique, it is likely you saw nothing that can be reported to the police. If you and a few neighbors went out front, you would be better able to identify the trespasser by size, height, perhaps race and clothing, and the police would have some way to track down this perpetrator. And, you have to believe this: this guy and his cronies will quickly spread the word never to return to that same neighborhood.

Why should they? There are plenty of other areas where no one is watching for them!

into your home and from inside your home into the street area will move potential crime away from the front and rear of your house. This is easy, inexpensive, and will work. If your neighbors are elderly or disabled, ask them if you can help make their home safer and do the trimming for them. It will help you both, and the results are immediate!

Dispose of all debris, junk cars, abandoned appliances, and other large item’s that intruders can hide behind.

The impact of this is the same as overgrown plantings. In old Westerns, the shooters duck behind wagons and water buckets, behind benches and even horses! Remember? There is a reason! Don’t give bad guys the tools to make their unwanted work sign that reads, “rob me, no one easier! And don’t give them the home.” Rather, put an automatic idea that there is “no one home.” timer on a couple of inside lights, Be assured, they will use any and all front and rear. Turn on the porch locally provided resources at their lights and have deliveries stopped disposal to take advantage of you or picked up by a neighbor. This way, your house will look no different Trim your topiary. Overgrown and your family, of your neighbors from any other neighborhood house. trees and shrubs have created and of your neighborhood. This is your responsibility as a resident; this And that is a simple act of crime areas people can hide behind, is not the perpetrator’s fault! prevention!

When you plan to be away, never lower the shades, turn off all lighting, or let newspapers built up in the front of the house. This is the same as a huge

and areas where you can’t If you hear something that sets see through. Lack of visibility Think about the high schoolers off an alarm, investigate it. First, from inside your house, and who volunteer to clean up phone immediate neighbors. And also from the street, creates areas the banks of the local river then ALL of you look out the window, “safe” for intruders to operate. Isn’t on “Earth Day.” How about or even better, ALL go outside in this obvious? You are screening a “Safety Day” in your own front of your house. By all means, perpetrators from outside view. neighborhood?

Distribute also call the police. But your mere You are creating your very own presence, IN NUMBERS, will drive unsafe area, through simple lack of this article to every neighbor, away any bad guys quicker than to properly maintaining your plantings. and get everyone involved wait for the police to arrive. (No, There have been many human with cleaning, cutting and demonstrations that disposing, while sharing the don’t try to be a hero and do this behavior simple plantings both create areas alone.) Rather, meet and plan with Somethings can be done to make a your neighbors, make agreements of perceived safety, and also areas idea of turning ON the outside comparable impact. For example, and develop a phone call sheet, and of perceived danger. Simply cutting lights, so that your streetscape the concept “take back the night”. all go out onto the front porch. You back overgrown bushes and trees is clean, tidy and well lit.

Notwithstanding the streetlights, alone out there may be in danger –

to ensure you can see from outside

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March/April 2010

KIDS RETHINK N E W

O R L E A N S

In Rethink, we write six-word memoirs to tell stories about our lives and world. In just six words, we share simple but powerful ideas. This month, a group of us wrote about how to make school feel safer and more welcoming. To us, a safe school environment doesn’t mean more metal detectors and security guards. It means clean buildings, coed classes and tasty food.

No metal detectors, just smiley faces – Jermaine Scott Ready to learn, not army drills – Taurean Brown Fix the ceilings. Very, very hazardous! – DeJuan Washington We need boys in our class! – MarQuisha Classes with girls inside of them – Warren Bradford Shorter days equals students’ attitudes better – Nicholas Davis They need to fix the roof – Rynesha Williams Stop the broke ceiling from falling – Giovanni Perkins Better lunch, can’t wait to taste – Jermaine Scott The Rethinkers get ready for a drum circle

Youth REscue initiative It is the children of today that fulfill the promise of tomorrow. It is through involvement with educational projects and extracurricular programs from a young age that the next generation is able to develop the skills and attitudes necessary to succeed and contribute to a better society.

The Youth Rescue Initiative is determined to help today’s children overcome their struggle and integrate them into a world where any future is possible.

By identifying population centers with troubled youths and finding program gaps through domain mapping, the YRI will target projects in need of development and focus resources in that direction.

With the establishment of the Youth Rescue Initiative, we reintroduce hope as we work toward our goal: improving the quality of life for all citizens of New Orleans by empowering the youth of our city.

Learn More about the Youth Rescue Initiative: www.youthrescueinitiative.org

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NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE

St. Vincent de Paul Offers Free Literacy Programs for Adults in New Orleans Don’t Fall Victim to Poor Health and The Inability To Defend Yourself Ann Bernard French Quarter Neighborhood The crime rate in New Orleans is horrendous and as many of us know, it was a major item of discussion during the last Mayoral race and election of Mitch Landrieu. Another atrocious crime that doesn’t grab headlines or the attention of the aforementioned Mayoral candidate is the current obesity rate in New Orleans.

So what are the correlations? Well as it turns out, there are two: 1. People who appear to be vulnerable, out of shape, and weak are at greater risk of becoming targets of criminal acts.

2. Taking part in learning self-defense skills is good for your health, and an important way to increase your safety.

Please don’t read this and think it only affects women. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), men experienced higher victimization rates than females for all types of violent crime except rape/ sexual assault. But the most susceptible and affected groups are teens and young adults; they experience the highest rates of violent crime. Children obesity is also at an all time high in the United States.

Self defense is best described in terms of personal safety, where the individual has knowledge of a full range of safety strategies and physical techniques that can help him prevent, escape, resist, and survive a violent attack.

In order to get a better perspective on the health benefits of learning selfdefense, I spoke with David Erath, author of Hertao.com, teacher of selfdefense techniques since 1993; holder of two black belts, trained in boxing, Thai boxing, wing chun, pekiti tirsia, jeet kune do, wrestling, and Brazilian jiu jitsu David explained: “Good self-defense training provides the same benefits you would get from any exercise program, and more. When learning self defense, you learn to use every part of your body, i.e., your feet, knees, elbows, hands. All of the movements require dynamic motion in every direction. You’ll move forward, backward, left, right, diagonal, up and down when ducking. Some movements will be done slow, and some with explosive power. You’ll have another person resisting your every move, which provides a great method to develop functional strength. So good self-defense training will provide a whole body workout, improve your cardiovascular health, strength, and help with weight loss.”

In addition, David went on to say “Aside from learning to defend yourself, self-defense training should make you healthier, stronger, faster, improve your balance and coordination, reduce stress, increase self confidence, and provide you with a hobby you can pursue for the rest of your life.”

Another point of consideration is that crime is often a result of boredom and lack of engagement in other activities. People of all ages, but particularly youth and adolescents, are less likely to be involved with crime if they are involved in good health and fitness programs, physical activities, and sports.

Getting yourself and your family enrolled in a self-defense course is something that can benefit your entire family and become a fun, healthy, and extremely beneficial activity to partake in.

By: Adrian McGrath Lakeview Neighborhood St. Vincent de Paul is a Catholic organization that has provided various social services for the poor and disadvantaged, since the 1850s.

After Hurricane Katrina, however, it became clear that improving literacy was also a key factor in rebuilding New Orleans. In order to get good jobs, avoid poverty and the influences of crime, people needed to have good language and math skills.

of adult literacy is clear and pressing.

Literacy education helps reduce crime by giving adults the skills they need to fully function in society and become respected members of their community.

The Literacy Alliance GNO also sponsors a yearly GED Graduation ceremony held at Loyola University.

This gives GED students a chance to be publicly recognized for their important accomplishment obtaining a high school equivalency diploma. This boost to self esteem goes a long way in making literacy St. Vincent de Paul, in response, students feel a sense of value in their opened a learning center for adults community. At the GED Graduation with low levels of literacy in early typically are elected officials from 2007. Its first director was Sr. Lory the government, such as local Schaff of the Congregation of St. judges and sheriffs, and even noted Joseph. Later that year the St. Vincent celebrities such as Irma Thomas. de Paul - Adult Learning Center (Not sure what they are saying in this (SVDP-ALC) teamed up with Literacy sentence? CLW) AmeriCorps New Orleans. Literacy AmeriCorps and the Literacy Alliance Last year SVDP-ALC had its graduates of Greater New Orleans helped at this GED ceremony at Loyola SVDP-ALC provide free, educational University along with graduates from services to the public. SVDP-ALC many other adult education schools began its operations on Canal Street, in our region. Schools like SVDP-ALC, but is now in Gentilly. in addition to helping prevent crime, also help create an improved tax SVDP-ALC is but one of the many base, a better informed citizen base, learning centers for Adult Literacy and better educated voters.

Education in New Orleans which provide excellent educational To learn more about the Literacy opportunities free of charge to adult Alliance of Greater New Orleans, students. Most of these learning see www.literacygno.org. To learn centers are affiliated with the more about the Lindy Boggs National Literacy Alliance of Greater New Center for Community Literacy, Orleans which in turn are affiliated see http://www.boggslit.org/ . For with the Lindy Boggs National Center Literacy AmeriCorps New Orleans, for Community Literacy at Loyola see www.literacygno.org. To learn University under the direction of Dr. more about St. Vincent de Paul -Petrice Sams-Abiodun. The Literacy ALC, see www.svdpalc.blogspot.com.

Alliance GNO, under the direction of Rachel Nicolosi, networks the various schools for a common goal - to improve our city by improving literacy education in New Orleans. The focus is on four areas: GED skills, ABE (Adult Basic Education), ESL (English as a Second Language), and Family Literacy (where parents and children learn together).

With crime now a serious issue in New Orleans, the importance

Sr. Lory Schaff, CSJ and Sr. Kathleen Bahlinger, CSJ (Photo by Adrian McGrath

March/April 2010

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Literacy Education and Crime Prevention:

An Americorps Story By: Adrian McGrath Lakeview Neighborhood

So, how can we deal with this serious problem here in New Orleans? One answer is Literacy AmeriCorps of Although there are many ways New Orleans. This is a governmental to address the terrible issue of program from the Corporation for onal and Community Service crime in New Orleans, perhaps Nati which works with the Literacy the best way is to create an Alliance of Greater New Orleans atmosphere where crime does at the Lindy Boggs National Center not develop in the first place. for Community Literacy at Loyola By stopping crime before it University.

learn more about the Literacy Alliance GNO, contact the d i r e c t o r, R a c h e l Nicolosi, at www. literacygno. org.)

from the American Red Cross and Literacy AmeriCorps New Orleans is To get a quick overview of the many skills for dealing with students with part of a national organization which positive things Literacy AmeriCorps learning disabilities such as dyslexia. has offices in many cities in the does in New Orleans, see its Sadly, however, despite the USA including Pittsburgh, Seattle, magazine called AmeriWord Washington DC, Los Angeles, Dayton, at http://literacygno.org/ many positive things that adult literacy education provides for our community, funding for literacy “Statistically, we know that 70 percent of the people in jail programs is now in a state of crisis. in the United States do not have a high school diploma or As is stated on the website for the But how can we create such a positive GED, and 14 percent have no high school education at all.” Literacy Alliance of Greater New atmosphere? We can do so through Orleans: proper education.

Traditional and San Diego. In New Orleans, literacyamericorps/lac-publications. schools, elementary and high Literacy AmeriCorps each year sends html Literacy AmeriCorps also “In December 2009, Governor schools, are important, of course. But a group of about 20 AmeriCorps operates a student writing, literary Jindal announced his intention even more important today in New members as teachers/tutors to magazine called Read Beans and to file legislation that would Orleans is adult literacy education many service sites around greater Writes (same link as above) where move adult education from the which helps adults with low levels New Orleans to teach literacy skills students write essays, poems, and Department of Education to the of literacy pursue their GED (high to the public free of charge. Some other works. This helps improve Louisiana Community and Technical school equivalency diploma) or learn of these service sites (or schools) student literacy skills and serves College system. In January, 2010 Adult Basic Education (ABE). Adult include Delgado Community College, as a means of personal expression Superintendent Pastorek announced literacy education helps people get Jefferson Parish Adult Education, on important educational and a 66% mid-year cut in state funds to the basic English language and math YMCA Educational Services, Hope community issues. adult education.” skills they need to fully function in House, NOPLAY, Catholic Charities, modern society and pursue a career. and others. (For more information By improving the literacy skills of At present, the Adult Education contact Sarah Fischer, Program both adults and teens, Literacy Advocacy Taskforce is addressing Statistically, we know that 70 percent Coordinator of Literacy AmeriCorps AmeriCorps helps our recovering this problem. Read more about it at of the people in jail in the United New Orleans; see www.literacygno. city. When adult students are more www.literacygno.org States do not have a high school org.) Other learning centers are capable of functioning in society diploma or GED, and 14 percent affiliated with the Literacy Alliance with improved English language It is a shame that those now involved have no high school education at all. of Greater New Orleans such as the and math skills, their lives are in literacy education need to struggle (See “The Number of Functionally St. Vincent de Paul - Adult Learning improved financially, emotionally, simply to remain operational when Illiterate Adults in the US is Growing” Center, St. Bernard Parish Adult and even spiritually. Literacy leads they provide tremendous benefits

by Robert Wedgeworth, ProLiteracy Education, and more. to better jobs and a better way of not only to its recipients, but to our life. Literacy fights crime by turning entire community.

“Where there is poor education, there is Working with the at-risk individuals away from a life Our government and society should poverty, hopelessness, and crime. This is a Literacy Alliance of of despair and negativity, to a more support Adult Literacy Education New Orleans, productive and positive way of life. problem which seriously affects us here in Greater because it gives our citizens a chance LiteracyAmeriCorps New Orleans today” also participates in By training its Corps members on a for a better life and helps create the other service events regular basis with monthly training atmosphere for a more progressive which deal with sessions, retreats, a National community free from crime.

Worldwide.) More than half of prisoners are functionally illiterate e d u c a t i o n such as helping the Conference at Pittsburgh, and the Adrian McGrath is a graduate of Loyola or read below a 4th grade level. New Orleans Public Library and other LAPCAE conference in Louisiana Law School, Loyola University, and Jesuit The connection between poor community based organizations. (a Louisiana State educational High School in New Orleans. He taught educational levels and high crime Additionally, the Literacy Alliance conference for Adult Literacy literacy skills for two years at the St. is clear and obvious. Where there GNO and Literacy AmeriCorps work Education), Literacy AmeriCorps Vincent de Paul - Adult Learning Center is poor education, there is poverty, with the One Book One New Orleans prepares its members for their in Gentilly while serving in Literacy hopelessness, and crime. This is a program which encourages literacy teaching tasks. In these trainings AmeriCorps New Orleans, 2007 to 2009. problem which seriously affects us by having the entire city read one AmeriCorps members also learn book at a time. (See http://www. many other skills which help the here in New Orleans today. onebookoneneworleans.com/ To community, i.e., First Aid training

happens, we avoid the massive costs of crime to society, i.e., the direct physical harm to victims and property, and the indirect costs of providing more police, more jails, and other judicial expenses.

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NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE

Her Crime? Sex Work in New Orleans More than half of the people on Louisiana’s Sex Offender Registry - which was designed for rapists and child molesters - are indigent women convicted of sex work

By Jordan Flaherty for ColorLines Magazine Tabitha has been working as a prostitute in New Orleans since she was 13. Now 30 years old, she can often be found working on a corner just outside of the French Quarter. A small and slight white woman, she has battled both drug addiction and illness and struggles every day to find a meal or a place to stay for the night.

These days, Tabitha, who asked that her real name not be used in this story, has yet another burden: a stamp printed on her driver’s license labels her a sex offender. Her crime?

Offering sex for money.

New Orleans city police and the district attorney’s office are using a state law written for child molesters to charge hundreds of sex workers like Tabitha as sex offenders. The law, which dates back to 1805, declares it a crime against nature to engage in “unnatural copulation”—a term New Orleans cops and the district attorney’s office have interpreted to mean anal or oral sex. Sex workers convicted of breaking this law are charged with felonies, issued longer jail sentences, and forced to register as sex offenders.

Of the 861 sex offenders currently registered in New Orleans, 483 were convicted of a crime against nature, according to Doug Cain, a spokesperson with the Louisiana State Police. And of those convicted of a crime against nature, 78 percent are Black and almost all are women.

Impacts on Women’s Lives The law impacts sex workers in both small and large ways. Tabitha has to register an address in the sex offender database. Her driver’s license has the label “sex offender” printed on it. She also has to purchase and mail postcards with her picture to everyone in the neighborhood informing them of her conviction. If she needs to evacuate to a shelter during a hurricane, she must evacuate to a special shelter for sex offenders, and this shelter has no separate safe spaces for women.

She is even prohibited from ordinary

activities in New Orleans like wearing a costume at Mardi Gras.

high-risk tier of sex work.

They meet customers on the street and in bars. Most “This law completely disconnects are dealing with addiction our community members from what and homelessness, and remains of a social safety net,” said many cannot get food Deon Haywood, director of Women stamps or other public With A Vision, an organization that assistance because of felony promotes wellness and disease convictions on their record. prevention for women who live in poverty. Haywood’s group has “I’m hoping that the formed a new coalition of New situation will look different Orleans activists and health workers because of this coalition,” who are organizing to fight the way Haywood said. “I can’t tell police are abusing the 1805 law. you how overwhelmed we’ve been from the needs Activists like Haywood believe that of this population.” using the law in this way is part of an overall policy by the New Orleans Condemned Police Department to go after petty offenses. According to a report from Miss Jackie is one of those the Metropolitan Crime Commission, women. A Black woman in New Orleans police arrest more than her 50s, she was arrested 58,000 people every year. Of those for sex work in 1999 and arrested, nearly 50 percent are for charged as a sex offender. traffic and municipal offenses, and Her name was added to the registry only 5 percent are for violent crimes. for 10 years. When the registration period was almost over she was “What this is really about is over- arrested for possession of crack. incarcerating poor and of-color She says the arresting officer didn’t communities,” said Rosana Cruz find any drugs on her person, but of VOTE-NOLA, a prison reform the judge ruled that she needed to organization that is also a part of the continue to register as a sex offender new coalition. for another 15 years (the new federal requirement for sex offenders) Haywood, Cruz and other activists because her arrest was a violation of believe they have an opportunity her registration period. with the mayoral and city council elections next month to change the “Where is the justice?” she asked, system. With all of the candidates speaking through tears. “How do attempting to distance themselves they expect me to straighten out my from Mayor Nagin, who is prevented life?” Struggling with basic needs like

“Where is the justice?” she asked, speaking through tears. “How do they expect me to straighten out my life?” Struggling with basic needs like housing, Miss Jackie added: “I feel condemned.” by term limits from running again, the new mayor is likely to be open to making changes. This includes hiring a new police chief, as all the candidates have pledged to do.

Advocates are hoping this is an opportunity to shift the department’s focus. “When there’s a new police chief, we can educate them,” said Haywood.

Many of the women Haywood’s group works with are at the most

housing, Miss Jackie added: “I feel condemned.”

New Orleans Police Department spokesman Bob Young responded: “Persons are charged according to the crime they commit.”

Wendi Cooper’s story, however, paints a different picture.

In 1999, Cooper had recently come out as transgender. A Black transwoman, she tried prostitution a few times and quickly discovered it wasn’t for her. But before she quit, she was arrested. At the time, Cooper was happy to take a plea that allowed her to get out of jail and didn’t think much about what the “crime against nature” conviction would mean on her record. As she got older and began work as a healthcare professional, the weight of the sex offender label began to upset her more and more. “This is not me,” she said. “I’m not that person who the state labeled me as…it slanders me.”

Cooper appealed to the state to have her record expunged and talked to Advocates and former defendants lawyers about other options, but she claim that the decision over who is still must register for at least another charged under which penalty is made five years and potentially longer. arbitrarily, at the discretion of police “I feel like I was manipulated, you and the district attorney’s office, know, pleading guilty to this crime… and that the law disproportionately And it’s hard, knowing that you are affects Black people, as well as called something that you’re not,” transgender women. When asked she said. She is also afraid now that about the allegations of abusing the conviction will prevent her from the crime against nature statue, getting her license as a registered

11

March/April 2010 nurse or from being hired.

Although some women have tried to fight the sex offender charges in court, they’ve had little success. The penalties they face became even harsher in 2006 when Congress passed the Adam Walsh act, requiring tier-1 (the least serious) sex offenders to stay in the public registry for 15 years. There’s also an added danger to fighting the charges, according to Josh Perry, a former attorney with the Orleans Public Defenders office.

“The way Louisiana’s habitual offender law works, if you challenge your sentence in court and lose, and it’s a third offense, the mandatory minimum is 20 years. The maximum is life,” he explained.

Perry estimates that on an average day two or three people are arrested for prostitution in New Orleans, and about half of them are charged under the crime against nature statute. “Right now, there are 39 people being held at Orleans Parish Prison [for] crimes against nature,” Perry told a gathering of advocates.

“And another 15 to 20 people… charged with failure to register as a sex offender.”

Sex workers accused as sex offenders face discrimination in every aspect of the system. In most cases, they cannot get released on bond, because they are seen as a higher

activist groups like the New Orleans chapters of Critical Resistance and INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence.

“We’re trying to organize, but we’re also working on the human rights side of how it’s affecting their lives,” she said. “This is a population that works in crisis mode all the time.”

Jennifer, a 23-year-old white woman who asked that her real name not be used in this story, has been working as a prostitute since she was a teenager, and also works as a stripper at a club on Bourbon Street.

She recently broke free of an eightyear heroin addiction. Unless the law changes, she will have the words “sex offender” on her driver’s license until she is 48 years old.

Haywood said that stories like this show that the law has the effect of forcing women to continue with sex work. “When you charge young women with this—when you label them as a sex offender—this is what they are for the rest of their lives,” she said.

Jennifer said it’s affected her job options. “I’m not sure what they think, but a lot of places wont hire sex offenders,” she said.

Haywood said the women she sees have few options. Many of them are homeless. They are sleeping in abandoned houses or on the street,

For now, organizers want to put pressure on police and the district attorney’s office to stop charging sex workers under the crime against nature statute. risk of flight than people charged with violent crimes. “This is the level of stigma and dysfunction that we’re talking about here,” said Perry.

“Realistically, they’re not getting out.”

Organizing for Change Advocates have said the ideal solution would be to get state lawmakers to change the law, but they feel there’s little hope of positive reforms from the current legislature. For now, organizers want to put pressure on police and the district attorney’s office to stop charging sex workers under the crime against nature statute.

There is a great deal of work that needs to be done. Haywood is working with lawyers and national allies to develop a legal strategy, as well as a broad local coalition that includes criminal justice reform organizations like VOTE-NOLA and

Get Get Co Connected onnected

tto o the New New Orleans Ne Neighborhood Network Post news & events for your organization online Create a free profile at NPNnola.com

or they are trading sex for a place to stay. “The women we work with, they don’t call it sex work,” she said.

“They don’t know what that means.

They don’t even call it prostitution.

They call it survival.”

Jordan Flaherty is a journalist, an editor of Left Turn Magazine, and a staffer with the Louisiana Justice Institute. He was the first writer to bring the story of the Jena Six to a national audience and audiences around the world have seen the television reports he’s produced for Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, GritTV, and Democracy Now. His post-Katrina reporting for ColorLines shared an award from New America Media for best Katrina-related reporting in ethnic press. Haymarket Press will release his new book, FLOODLINES: Stories of Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six, in 2010.

He can be reached atneworleans@ leftturn.org.

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12

NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE

Investing in Our Youth - New Orleans Style By: Claire Murphy Mayberrry Youth is any city’s most important resource. The energy we put into development of our youth now will payback ten fold in the future.

Recently there has been public outcry for increased efforts to engage and support the youth of New Orleans, and for good reason. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, kids are most at-risk to commit or be victimized by crime between the hours of 3-6 pm, the hours between when school lets out and when most parents arrive home from work.

There is evidence to support that simply engaging a young person in some kind of positive supervised activity after school lets out will not only educate and inspire them but also help to keep them away from criminal activity. Should we demand increased funding of public programs by our local government, or could grass-roots local investments of time and resources into the development of our youth have an equal or even greater effect?

with the ultimate goal of getting guns off the street and getting kids out of gangs. They are addressing crime on a community level, approaching it not as an incurable symptom of greater social ills, but rather as a problem that effects the whole neighborhood and which can be and should be solved. This method takes responsibility off of the police and onto community members to pay attention the what is happening in their own neighborhoods. The City of New Orleans already has some programs running that resemble the Boston method, however could benefit from a more large scale strategic application.

enrolled in the Urban League College Track and. Christopher, being fluent only in Spanish, receives additional English tutoring via USALearns.org “This entrepreneurial initiative and occasionally they’ll both get aims to enhance monthly farmers to visit museums or other cultural markets, community investment centers as part of the Coop’s pilot fairs and marketplaces that were Apprenticeship Program. developed in direct response to critical needs in the community. Experiences like this can give young The aim of each event includes people an idea of their potential and providing entrepreneurship and the positive role they can play in mentoring opportunities for local their own community as well as the youth, bringing resources such as world at large. Sara Leikin, principal health, employment and social of the International High School service information, as well as “feels that he [Christopher] has a crime prevention resources and purpose outside of school and that legal assistance to a distressed he can support himself”. She added that the Program “opens up their eyes to the myriad of possibilities in New Orleans to use their linguistic talents.” They’re both bright young men, but like anyone their age, need this kind of structure and supervision to thrive and feel valuable within their community, Leikin added. for our youth” said Alonzo Knox, director of Grants and Community Development.

New Orleans is home to some very innovative and creative approaches to youth development, but could always use more. Community efforts Recent history has shown that as and investment in youth cannot be citizens we do have the ability to underestimated as a solution to youth empower our city’s youth. In an violence and criminal activity. It is by ideal scenario, an increased focus no means the end of the problem, of law enforcement on prevention this is a complex issue that we will of youth crime, including increased likely always have to struggle with. law enforcement as well as support However, we should not be daunted of educational programming, by the complexity or enormity of the coupled with strategic community problem. We all have the power to action, such as increased offerings make a difference in our community, of positive after school activities our young people deserve it. If you for youth, might be a viable way to are interested in learning more address crime while paving the way Students Christopher Ramirez and Miguel Alfaro attending the O.C. Haley Community Garden about resources currently available for a brighter future for young people for New Orleans youth, visit the in our city. Boston Massachusetts can neighborhood” Knox added. website ILivehere.com to view a be viewed as a prime example of how Latino Farmers Cooperative of increasing investment in youth and Louisiana strives to strengthen our Christopher Ramirez and Miguel comprehensive database of after providing them with the resources community by increasing food- Alfaro, both 15 and attending the school programs, activities, and they need can have a direct impact security for low-income families. International High school, show educational opportunities available on youth crime rates.

While youth development may not up at the Cooperative offices most in the area. be the primary goal, the Cooperative days after school. There they are Boston’s total homicide rate fell believes firmly in investing resources mentored and supervised while Claire Murphy Mayberrry is a junior 77% between 1990 and 1999, and into youth development for the they do their homework or work on of Bennington College in Vermont. youth homicide plummeted from benefit of the entire community. In urban agriculture projects for the She can be reached at cmmayberry@ The Latino Farmers 34 cases in 1990 to 3 in 1998. This the past few months the organization Cooperative. When the Coop sets gmail.com. monumental reduction in crime has begun to address the issue up their booth at the Broad Street Cooperative of Louisiana, Inc. is has partly been attributed to a through a new Youth Apprenticeship Flea, Christopher and Miguel are a nonprofit social enterprise of strategic effort by a united front of Program that reflects elements responsible for running the table emerging urban farmers, conscious and organizations federal, state and local governments of Boston‘s community driven and selling the eggs and produce. consumers alongside non-profit organizations, approach to youth development They also take charge at the Coop’s working together to provide access religious leaders, and other local and crime prevention. Thanks to a monthly Daily Bread Food Pantry, to farmland, agriculture resources stakeholders to increase investment grant from the New Orleans Police a partnership with Second Harvest and training so residents can grow, and resources for local youth in and Justice Foundation, the pilot Food Bank. There you’ll see them raise, produce, make and eat healthy order to reduce their participation program provides two New Orleans sorting out food and packing up boxes food, create entrepreneurship while in criminal activity and encourage teens with five months of work and full of non-perishables for the waiting addressing social and economic positive development.

Their mentorship aimed at inspiring and crowds. Along with this experience justice for all. For more information strategy of has been for community motivating them both in school and of hard work and community or donations please visit the website groups and leaders to work in close in their daily lives. “We are very service, the boys are also given many www.LatinoFarmersCoop.org or cal collaboration with law enforcement excited about the opportunity to opportunities that might otherwise 504-333-3611 to address issues of gang violence, support this innovative program not be available to them. Miguel is

13

March/April 2010

New Orleans Neighborhoods and Their Politics I dare say that there are few places in the world, where one may see in a locality of like extent, the human species so diversified in nations, races, and colors, as at New Orleans… It is really an original spectacle and one that seems to have been reserved for this little corner of the world.

— Pierre Louis Berquin-Duvallon, Vue de la colonie espagnole du Mississippi, 1802 By: Dorian Hastings Central City Neighborhood

D uring the fall and winter of 2009– 2010, heading into a crucial election

season, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH) hosted a series of panels on past New Orleans mayoral administrations, from Chep Morrison in 1946 to present-day Ray Nagin. Several panelists agreed that race relations today are as bad as they’ve ever seen them, arising in particular from concerns since Hurricane Katrina that the black power base has been reduced. While Mitch Landrieu received overwhelming support even among black voters in the Democratic primary in February, there is concern about election of a white mayor in a majority black city. That there is a conspiracy orchestrated by a powerful group of insiders has been fueled by remarks in the days after the storm such as those by Louisiana congressman Richard Baker that “We couldn’t [clean up public housing], but God did.”

Yet despite a racial climate characterized by some pundits as becoming “worse” since Katrina, neighborhood associations and the series of planning processes over the past five years have proven otherwise. And if anyone needs confirmation, let them look to the magnificent unifying celebrations of our team, the Saints, winning the Super Bowl! Polls such as one from April 2009 show that, while race is very much an issue that still needs to be addressed, all New Orleanians, of all colors, are more

concerned about the impact of issues such as crime, education, and economic development on all our people. And all are coming together at the neighborhood level to address them.

Over the years, neighborhoods and their leaders have played pivotal roles in democratizing the electorate— adding more folks to the voting rolls.

But also over the years, the city has swung between the politics of selfdetermination (one person, one free vote) versus the politics of patronage (you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours).

The implications, and often the outcome, of a patronage system is that it protects the needs of a political organization, rather than the needs of the people it represents. Sometimes these needs are one in the same, but people eventually lose out to such a system, resulting in poor services (education, streets, safety, and the like).

Educator and commentator Dr. Andre Perry, also on the panel of the LEH series, noted that while others may measure past mayoral administrations by bricks-and-mortar projects such as the Superdome or Convention Center, his measure of those in authority is the conditions of the least among us, in terms of health, education, jobs. The general consensus is that things are not very good.

Mayor Martin Behrman, at his desk in Gallier Hall receiving Councilman Harmeyer of the 16th Ward, Courtesy of the Louisiana Division, New Orleans Public Library

extraordinarily diverse history for examples of what to do—or not to do— as we move forward.

Politics in New Orleans has traditionally been a blood sport—literally, in the 19th century, when ward bosses hired thugs to shut down polling stations and reformers patrolled on election day with shotguns. Because of its diversity, the With the city still in a very precarious city has been the scene of many political state, we can look back over the battles: between the French and Spanish, nearly three hundred years of our the French and the Anglos arriving with the Louisiana Purchase, up through the Civil War, during Reconstruction between Unionists/Republicans and Confederates/Democrats, and in the 20th century, between machine politicians and reformers, between city and state politicians, and the black struggles for justice and equality during segregation.

These factions have often been geographically based—in neighborhoods or in wards, familiar to us today as the “7th Ward” or the “9th Ward,” for example. What do neighborhoods have to do with politics? We in New Orleans are familiar with structures of our city government today: a City Council composed of seven councilmembers— five for each of the council districts and two at large—and a mayor elected at large.

Besides being part of a political structure, though, strong place-based loyalties in neighborhoods have also been created through churches and social organizations—social aid and

pleasure clubs, marching bands, and carnival krewes, which provided places for people to meet, especially across the usual divisions in the city between Catholics and Protestant denominations, between professionals and working class laborers, and throughout the city’s history, between black and white residents.

But politics is more than disputes between powerful factions about who gets access to financial resources; it is also about the aspirations of the disenfranchised to greater self-determination. One of the most interesting groups—and what distinguishes New Orleans in the national story about Civil Rights—was the city’s gens de couleur libre, or free people of color.

Colonial Outpost French and Spanish colonial governments left a legacy in New Orleans very different from that of the Anglo settlements on the eastern seaboard. When the United States purchased Louisiana in 1803, William C. C. Claiborne found himself governor of a very foreign place: Catholic, Frenchspeaking, gambling and horse racing on Sundays, and perhaps most significant and remarkable of all, a sizeable free black community—armed and trained as a fighting force. This particular demographic would shape the city’s culture and politics for centuries, as described in Creole New Orleans: Race and Americanization (1992) by Arnold R.

14

NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE Ward Politics and Immigration Earliest ward structures date back to England in the 13th century, organized as policing districts as villages grew into towns and cities. Wards then became a way of organizing representative government as democracy took hold— people from a specific district, or ward, would elect a leader to represent them at the next government level.

Louisiana Purchase Treaty, April 30, 1803

Hirsch and Joseph Logsdon.

With the American, and then French Revolution exported to Haiti, freedom was in the air in the late 1700s. A children’s street fight in the French Quarter, in May 1795, illustrates the degree to which freedom tinged every aspect of life in the city. A squabble broke out among a group of children playing on a sidewalk in the French Quarter.

One boy, a light-skinned free black, or pardo, threw dirt in the face of a young daughter of a white regiment captain when he was ordered to leave the group by the other children. The boy’s mother, Maria Cofignie, confronted the girl and called her a “daughter of a prostitute.”

When sued for slander, Maria defended her son and her actions, stating that “just because they are white, [they] believe that we [libres, or free blacks] are made to be scorned, spurned, and slighted. I am free and I am as worthy as you are.” In this same period, Pierre Bailly, a first lieutenant in the black New Orleans company, reminded his superior officer that the French revolutionary government had extended equal citizenship to men such as himself.

Moreover, Bailly had obtained his freedom by fighting for the Americans in their Revolution.

The status of the free people of color was threatened by the U.S. purchase of Louisiana. William Claiborne, sent by President Thomas Jefferson to govern the new territory, was bewildered by the presence of this sizable class, who were tradesmen as well as wealthy landowners, and who were armed. As a group, they insisted on their status as U.S. citizens under the terms of the Louisiana Purchase, and they continued to voice the aspirations expressed by Maria Cofignie and Pierre Bailly. But in successive legislation over the next sixty years, the lives of enslaved people became more and more restricted, and the rights of free people of color—to move freely and own property, for example—were greatly eroded until the dam once again exploded in the fierce bloodletting of the Civil War.

According to a March 1961 Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) report, the first ward-based council in New Orleans was established in 1805, following the purchase of Louisiana by the United States. The Louisiana Purchase treaty stated that residents of the territory would become full citizens of the US with the “enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities,” as black residents such as Marie Cofignie and Pierre Bailly claimed. The original six wards were located between what is now Howard Avenue and Elysian Fields, the city limits at that time, and went no further back than Rampart Street. The mayor was appointed by the governor, and two aldermen (today they would be councilmembers) were elected from each ward. City hall was located in the Cabildo on Jackson Square. At that time, the population was 8,222, though most people (women and people of color) could not vote. So there were 14 aldermen representing something less than 3,000 people.

Today, we have 7 councilmembers representing 273,300 registered voters.

Over the years, wards were added as boundaries shifted. The last changes were made in 1880, giving us the 17 wards as they exist today. Wards and their precincts are still the basis for federal and state elective districts, but have not been the basis for choosing city councilmembers since the 1912 City Charter went into effect.

But over the decades, New Orleans wards have continued to play a part in New Orleans party politics. Wards in many US cities have been the welloiled gears of a political party structure called a “machine” because of the strict discipline it uses to control power, leverage, and money. Precinct leaders gather votes and dispense favors to their constituents, in return for votes that they deliver to the ward leaders and ultimately to those who run city government. Favors can consist of jobs, political appointments, scholarships, street repairs, and money (bribes).

In New Orleans and in other port cities such as New York and Boston, waves of immigrants unused to democratic principles, and often in great need of assistance, were happy to exchange a check mark on a piece of paper for a bucket of coal or a Christmas turkey. Beginning in the 1830s, tens of thousands of Irish immigrants arrived in New Orleans escaping starvation in the potato famines. From this time forward, the immigrant population, from Ireland and Germany, from Italy and Eastern Europe, from every continent, swelled

the city in waves, leaving the Frenchspeaking population—and culture— behind. In the 1830 census, the population of New Orleans jumped 63 percent, and another 110 percent in 1840, making New Orleans the third largest city in the US. The Civil War ended mass immigration into the city, but despite being in the Deep South, New Orleans had more Union supporters than any other Southern city, and became a Republican mecca after the war. The modern political city dates from the 1870s, when its boundaries and wards were set. Battle lines were once again drawn, this time between Republicans and Democrats. It was in this post-Civil War period that the Regular Democrat Organization (RDO) was born, which would virtually control the city until the election of deLesseps “Chep” Morrison in 1946.

Black New Orleans Meanwhile, black New Orleanians continued to purchase property and acquire wealth. By 1850, 60 percent of the total amount of property held by free people of color in the entire United States was located in New Orleans.

Traditionally, black New Orleanians, whether free or enslaved, lived in the Creole sector (defined as Catholic and French-speaking) of the city that later became the 7th Ward, though this designation wasn’t set until 1852.

This area behind Rampart, and later Claiborne Avenue, was part of a broad swathe of the city known as “back of town,” away from the highest ground along the Mississippi. Because it was more prone to flooding, wealthier people avoided building there, leaving it open to development by those of lesser (or no) means. Many free people of color built their homes and businesses here. They erected St. Augustine Church at St. Claude and Bayou Road (today Gov. Nicholls) in 1834; the church was consecrated in 1842, establishing the oldest AfricanAmerican parish in the U.S. Just what “Creole” comprises has come to be a point of contention among New Orleanians.

It stems from the Portuguese word “crioulo,” a term that designated an enslaved person of African descent born in the New World.

It later came to include Europeans born in the

Americas, thus at one point applying to both black and white people. Generally today, it is used to describe those who were or are descendants of black, French-speaking Catholics. Over the decades, it has created divisions in the New Orleans black community, between descendants of the original free people of color and enslaved peoples, and between those with lighter or darker skin.

However, the Creole men of the 7th Ward who formed the 19th century Citizens Committee, Le Comité des Citoyens, were very clear that they were black, and because of that fact, were treated as less than equal. As Committee member Rodolphe Desdunes clarified in his 1907 pamphlet “A Few Words to Dr. DuBois,” their struggles in the post–Civil War era were for the full equality of all, transcending racial identity or skin color.

The battles the Committee waged in the courts against segregation were lost with the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision of 1896, which legalized “separate but equal,” a story recounted

by Keith Weldon Medley in his book, We as Freemen. But leaders of that organization such as Paul Trévigne and Louis Charles Roudanez began to press for the vote as early as 1862, once New Orleans was under the control of Federal troops in the heat of the Civil War. They joined with white Republicans to create the radical 1868 state constitution, which mandated equal civil and political rights for all Louisianans, specifically required equal treatment in any public accommodations, whether public transportation or businesses requiring state licenses, and legalized interracial

Rodolphe Desdunes Courtesy of the Louisiana Division, New Orleans Public Library

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March/April 2010 Though the city lost some control in terms of the state, local politics still operated under the spoils system. In DeLesseps S. Morrison and the Image of Reform, Edward Haas notes an incident in which two 9th Ward firemen were taken to task for refusing to vote for the party ticket. As revealed in city correspondence (like emails today), the ward leader reported the two firefighters to both the head of the fire department and the president of a local loan company, and the “problem” was solved. Ward leaders in New Orleans delivered the votes of their precincts even into the 1970s - one famously delivered his low-income white ward for presidential candidates Strom Thurmond, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and George McGovern.

The White League, political cartoon from Harper’s Weekly, October 1874

marriage. In addition, it established the only interracial public school system in the South until the 1960s, a hundred years later.

This interracial movement of over 140 years ago had a basis in the ideals of equality and self-determination. It offers models and a legacy we can build on as we move forward in the post-Katrina world.

The Rise and Fall of the RDO Finally, though, Federal troops withdrew from New Orleans and the rest of the South in 1877. Without this presence, the Republican party crumbled. The Regular Democratic Organization (RDO) was an outgrowth of the Crescent City White League, which battled the integrated New Orleans Metropolitan police force in 1874—the Battle of Liberty Place in an attempt to oust the Republican governor of Louisiana. Through their strong patronage system, the RDO controlled most of the appointed and elective offices, especially in the police force. According to historian Joseph Parker, the RDO protected “gambling, prostitution, and other illicit businesses which in turn provided them with financial support.” Assessors exercised great power, rewarding loyalty to the party with lower assessments, and raising punishing assessments on those who were uncooperative. One striking example is that of George Washington Cable. In addition to his writing as a newsman and novelist, Cable was vocal proponent of civil rights for African Americans. Because of this position, by 1884 his property taxes had been raised so high that he relocated to Massachusetts.

Other Democrat factions eventually rallied under the banner of the Regular Democrats, and all were united in reversing civil rights gains for black citizens. However, many whites, especially of the business and

professional class, were opposed to the corruption and inefficiencies of the RDO political machine, and over the decades supported candidates and policies to correct the deficiencies as they saw them. Instituting civil service in 1896 was one way. Reformers were also successful in getting the 1912 city charter passed, which called for replacing the 21 councilmen, representing each of the wards and municipal districts, with four commissioners. The RDO, however, was at the height of its power under Mayor Martin Behrman, and was able to incorporate the reforms by getting former ward leaders into key departments, so that the machine ground on pretty much as usual.

The beginning of the end for the RDO was the rise of Huey P. Long, as governor and then senator. The city had long had great influence and control over state politics, generally carrying as much as 20 percent of the vote in statewide elections, and with a significant portion of votes in the state legislature. Huey Long was able to unite the north and south sections of the state to override the city’s influence. With these majorities, the city lost control over its own destiny. Sources of patronage, such as the Dock Board and other public utilities such as the Sewerage and Water Board came under state control. State boards even governed the police and fire departments.

Civil service was reinforced by legislation in 1942, but its reach was only to city workers, and did not extend to the many parish positions still in effect. Wards provided jobs for specific departments; the 5th Ward filled positions in the fire department. Traditionally, the 7th Ward supplied candidates for civil sheriff, and the 8th Ward supplied candidates for recorder of mortgages, regardless of ability or qualifications.

By 1946, the city was ready for reform.

The charismatic Chep Morrison, a former state representative and colonel decorated in World War II, won the election for mayor in 1946. Reform candidates had won the position before but only for one term. They did not have the skill or stomach to either dismantle the machine or make it work for them.

Morrison, a reform candidate, turned

the machine to his own purposes. His political organization, the Crescent City Democratic Association (CCDA), supplanted the RDO, and he maintained his position as mayor for 15 years. No mayor since Martin Behrman, one of the primary architects of the RDO, had served as long.

Morrison instituted a number of significant changes, most notably gaining Home Rule for the city , which allowed it once again to be in charge of its own fate and finances, and the new City Charter of 1954, which still directs city government today. (The charter is available for anyone’s review:http://www.cityofno. com/Portals/Intelliport/Resources/ HomeRuleCharterCNO2009_2.pdf ) Under this charter, the City Council comprises 5 councilmembers elected from each municipal district, and 2 elected at-large; the city council and the mayor are term-limited. The council acts as a legislative body; the mayor, as the chief executive officer, has charge of the departments and directs spending.

After three failed attempts at becoming governor, Morrison accepted a post as John Kennedy’s ambassador to the Organization of American States and resigned in 1961; he subsequently died in an airplane crash in 1964.

The times, of course, were a-changin’.

With the Civil Rights movement came enfranchisement of black voters in New Orleans. The machine that Morrison had reconstructed from the RDO did not survive his departure and then death, and the mass entry of a whole new set of players—between 1950 and 1960,

New Orleans rally in favor of home rule, 1952 Courtesy of the Louisiana Division, New Orleans Public Library

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NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE The Community Organization for Urban Politics (COUP) was focused in the 7th Ward and associated with Sidney Barthelemy, Henry Braden, and Robert Tucker. The Black Organization for Leadership Development (BOLD) formed a few years later, headquartered uptown in Central City, and was associated with James Singleton and Dorothy Mae Taylor.

In the Democratic stronghold of New Orleans, the Orleans Parish Democratic Committee is the parish arm of the state Democratic Party, and the largest of 64 parish committees.

Fourteen members are elected from each of the 5 council districts. Their by-laws and meeting calendar, as well as membership, can be found on the

website: http://www.opdec.org/ index.htm. The Regular Democratic Organization still exists and endorses candidates, along with the Alliance for Good Government, the New Orleans Coalition, and other political groups.

Dorian Hastings received her PhD from the University of New Orleans College of Urban and Public Affairs in 2004. She has worked in community development in city government with her neighborhood association and as a founding board member of Neighborhoods Partnership Network.

Dryades St. boycott, 1960 Courtesy of the Louisiana Division, New Orleans Public Library

black voter registration increased by nearly 40 percent.

And Today…

Though disenfranchised in New Orleans by the end of the 19th century, the city’s black leaders continued to wage the fight for equality and self-determination.

There were divisions between black Creoles and black Protestants, made clear by Dr. George Lucas, president of the NAACP chapter that fought and won against state legislation to segregate New Orleans neighborhoods in the 1920s. But ironically it was comments on the unusual nature of the unity of “downtown” Creoles and “uptown” African Americans that reveal their uneasy relations. In contrast to the downtown wealthier and often welleducated black professionals, Dr. Lucas was one who had “come up from obscurity, from humble homes, from lowly birth, and over seemingly insurmountable difficulties to places of genuine responsibility and distinction in community life,” according to Archie E. Perkins (Who’s Who in Colored Louisiana). But in a 1924 letter to NAACP field secretary Robert Bagnall, Dr. Lucas noted that though he had hoped to retire, “the groups that have never worked with us before, together with those who have always been with us would not stand for me to quit at this strategic point.”

Black activism continued through the Jim Crow era of segregation, though black people often had to depend on the patronage of either white people they knew personally or on white governance. The unions were still strong through much of this era. Union leaders such a Clarence “Chink” Henry, and black Baptist pastors such as Rev. A. L. Davis, were able to exert some influence. A Supreme Court decision in 1944, Smith v. Allwright, opened the Democratic primary polls to black voters, and in New Orleans, the black vote increased significantly, beginning with the first post-World War II election in 1946.

Though the black vote constituted only a

small percentage of the total electorate, it was large enough to make a difference, and beginning with deLesseps “Chep” Morrison, candidates began to bargain with black leaders.

Black political organizations came into being in postwar New Orleans as much due to the civil rights movement as to the Morrison administration—which in fact was only responding to the increasing numbers of black voters, and well-heeled white supporters of civil rights such as Edgar and Edith Stern, Lester Kabacoff, and others. Morrison’s three closest ties to the black voters were Rev. A. L. Davis, who helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and was also the president of the Orleans Parish Progressive Voters League; Rev. Avery Alexander, president of the Consumers League; and Clarence “Chink” Henry, a longshoreman union leader. Each black leader “received a budgeted allotment from the CCDA and operated autonomously within the framework of his own organization,” according to Haas.

In some respects, this brought black New Orleans into the ward system, where favors were extended, but there was no mistaking who held the power.

This did not satisfy leaders within the NAACP such as A. P. Tureaud and Ernest “Dutch” Morial, who joined forces with the youthful membership of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), including Oretha Castle Haley and Lolis Elie, as well as with Alexander’s Consumers League.

With the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and, more especially, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, black political organizations formed to capture the momentum.

While in 1950, black registered voters constituted only 12 percent of the total number of registered voters, by 1966, that number had more than doubled, to 25 percent. The Southern Organization for Unified Leadership, or SOUL, centered in the 9th Ward backed by leaders such as Sherman Copelin, Don Hubbard, and Edwin Lombard.

Call To Action: As we move forward in this precarious time, we don’t have to look back to past centuries for models of unity. We can continue to capture the spirit that has brought us through the worst of the Katrina aftermath.

One of the great charms of New Orleans are our relationships, large family clans, strong neighborhood and association ties, which have created the unique culture beloved by ourselves and much of the world. This has often fed our politics as well, and we may have to learn to separate our politics from governance. We have a new mayor and a new configuration in City Council, but we must not fall back on old ways of doing things.

Most of all, we must not sit back and let others run the city for us. In our neighborhoods and churches and other associations, we have created new alliances that can guide our leadership in the many issues that lie ahead.

We must stay active in the new Master Plan and comprehensive zoning ordinance processes. The new Master Plan calls for a Citizen Participation Process, and we must remain active in directing its development. With the 2010 Census, the state and federal districts will be redrawn. We must lead the drive in counting our citizens to ensure not only proper representation in Baton Rouge and Washington, but to ensure that New Orleans and Louisiana continue to receive their share of federal dollars.

In the end, as Dr. Perry suggests, we must measure our leaders by the “condition of the least of us.” What kind of education are our children receiving? Does it prepare them adequately for future jobs and as future leaders? Does our economy feed our neighborhoods, and vice versa? Is our development sustainable? Does it create jobs that give our people a living wage?

Sign up with your neighborhood association. Check in with the Neighborhoods Partnership Network and sign up for its weekly “Trumpet Tidbits.” Keep in touch with your city councilmember. Visit City Hall. If we practice the politics of self-determination, the job of governing is never done. But if the past five years are any indication, we will do it with triumph and with joy.

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March/April 2010

Green

Orleans

Live Healthy, Save Money, Reduce Pollution:

Take your bike to work By: Kelly Landrieu

New Orleans is eighth in the nation for percentage of residents who walk and bike to work, up from 13th in 2000, according to a report by the Alliance for Biking and Walking featuring data from American Community Survey.

By September, New Orleans will have 44 miles of bike lanes. There are lanes currently under construction on Carrollton Ave. between Claiborne Ave. and St. Charles Ave., and along St. Charles between Carrolton Ave. and Nashville Blvd. Some of the existing lanes in the city are along North Rampart and St. Claude Ave., Chartres St., and Jeff Davis from Broadmoor to Lake Ponchatrain. The future planned expansion of these lanes, plus the bike racks on RTA buses, allows New Orleanians an easier commute via bike. There are many benefits to biking for transportation and recreation:

Health

Bicycle safety tips 1) Protect your brain! Always wear a helmet.

2) Remember your visibility! Use lights on your bike in the evening, and remember to wear light colored and reflective clothing while riding after dusk.

3) Be mindful of vehicles. Use your senses of sight and hearing to make your ride a safe one.

4) The streets of New Orleans can be treacherous. Watch out for potholes.

First of all (depending on your height and weight), casual biking can burn upwards of 300 calories per hour. Cycling is less impact on joints than running, and as an aerobic exercise, minimizes the risk of coronary heart disease.

5) Maintenance is important. Learn how to maintain your bike, or bring Cost EďŹƒcient Communte it to a local bike shop to make sure it Bikes are simply cheaper to maintain than cars. Since they are human powered, there is no cost for fuel. is in good working order.

Additionally, factor in your car insurance costs and maintenance costs, and it is easy to see the savings.

6) Learn and follow the rules of the Green Transportation road.

Cycling is the most energy efficient forms of transportation. Since a bike doesn’t give off fumes that cars do, you can shrink your carbon footprint simply by using your bike for some of your short distance errands.

RESOURCES New Orleans Bicycle Club www.neworleansbicycleclub.org An organization that promotes bicycling with an emplasis on bicycle racing.

New Orleans Community Bike Project www.bikeproject.org If you need a bike and are willing to spend some time learning to build and maintain it, this is the place for you! For $35 to $75 fee, you can build a bike with the help of the Community Bike Project Volunteers.

The New Orleans Metro Bicycle Commission www.mbcnola.org

Photo By: Paul Hughbanks

The New Orleans Metro Bicycle Commission is dedicated to improving recreational and commuter cycling in New Orleans. Their website is a great resource that features maps of bike routes and bike racks around the city.

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NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE

New investigative news source is not afraid to ask the tough questions

By: Steve Beatty Lens managing editor

On all stories, The Lens welcomes comments, an effort to have a lively conversation with readers. And The Lens, a newsroom dedicated our ears are always open for good to public-interest investigative tips and areas you think we should journalism, began full-fledged investigate. Please drop us a line at operations in late January. Though thelensnola.gmail, or by the good ol’ primarily a Web-based venture, The Postal Service at 1100 Poydras St., Lens will be publishing excerpts each Suite 2620, New Orleans, LA 70113. month in The Trumpet.

We have an exclusive reporting The Lens plans to publish major new agreement with Fox8 WVUE-TV, stories every two weeks, with new and some of our cooperative stories stories appearing Tuesday evenings. have been aired on their 9 p.m.

Shorter items are posted daily, broadcasts. including opinion pieces from noted local blogger Eli Ackerman.

If you haven’t been to http:// thelensnola.org in the past month,

here’s what you’ve missed:

A scoop on Tom Arnold’s campaign Reporter Karen Gadbois’ curiosity got the best of her while reading the Web site of Tom Arnold, one of three candidates for City Council District C. She was surprised that his platform was so wide-reaching and articulate.

She had not heard some of these positions from him before. So she did some checking and found out that the language was identical, or nearly so, to that used by two New York City candidates. She found out that Arnold took the words right

out of their mouths. In follow-up coverage, The Times-Picayune cited The Lens as the source for breaking the news.

Another scoop, on a retreat by Nagin Though the City Council had told Mayor Ray Nagin that it did not want to spend $8 million in recovery money to buy the Chevron Building downtown and turn it into a new City Hall, the mayor was moving ahead anyway.

He was working on a maneuver that didn’t require council approval,

March/April 2010 though it did require a hearing by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which was supplying the money he wanted to use. Just days before the hearing, a source of Gadbois called to say that Nagin changed his mind and that he’d pulled his request from HUD. The call came in just minutes before WVUE-TV’s 5 p.m. news show. By 5:15, we had confirmed the move and our television partners were broadcasting the story as we posted our story, beating all other news sources to the punch.

center buildings and playgrounds.

Through his initial story, as well as a follow-up post online, he explained out a national environmental advocacy group found arsenic levels well above what the state says is acceptable – until the state officials said their rules don’t really mean what they say. Either way, the money isn’t close to reaching the people who will ultimate get the toxic materials away from day-care centers.

Setting the national media straight

City quietly shifting money

Mock is among the few reporters nationwide to point out that the Reporter Ariella Cohen got a good tip creator of the infamous Association and a great set of source documents of Community Organizations for that showed how the Nagin Reform Now (ACORN) videos never administration was moving money really dressed as a pimp when he did around. Budgetary shifts are nothing his hidden-camera schtick. unusual, but this was something different: The city was taking money That would-be gonzo journalist, from projects that citizens had James O’Keefe, was in the news identified as important and moving when he and a few buddies thought them to other uses. Cohen explained it would be funny to deceive how the City Council approved the federal security officials and get money for broad uses, but once that access to Sen. Mary Landrieu’s was done, the administration could office telephones in the Hale Boggs shift it from project to project, as building. All four were arrested, and long as it was still under the original federal charges are pending against broad heading. them.

The money came from $411 million that the federal government set aside for New Orleanians to implement their recovery efforts.

In the media frenzy that followed such an irresistible story, most reporters said O’Keefe posed as a pimp to infiltrate ACORN offices, asking advice on how to set up Among the shifts: a brothel with underage girls smuggled from Central America, * $2 million was taken from a project and how to hide proceeds from the to buy and redevelop blighted lots IRS. Mock reviewed the videos, and on South Claiborne Avenue. A similar while O’Keefe’s female partner did project in eastern New Orleans dress the part of a peddler of the doubled from $4.5 million to $8.9 flesh, O’Keefe referred to himself million. That work is taking place as a potential political candidate near Lake Forest Plaza, where one of and dressed in khakis and an Oxford Nagin’s friend is doing development button down. Not exactly Huggy work.

Bear. * $9 million was moved from the St. Roch Market redevelopment, dropping it from $14 million to $5 million. But $7 million more appeared in the budgets for the Gentilly Woods Shopping Center and a new riverfront park.

Says me, that’s who

Opinion writer Eli Ackerman contributed his take on the various political races decided amid the Carnival frenzy – and what we can all learn from the two. Namely, that it says a lot about a community when * $9.8 million was taken from a we would rather gather in the streets budget to help rebuild two schools, to party than head to the polls. one in the Central Business District Among his many other posts, and one in Algiers. But an allocation Ackerman took a swipe at the other of $4.5 million appeared to help feeding frenzy among the news the Children’s Museum move from media, our beloved Saints. Maybe downtown to a new site in City Park. Eli’s wit is a bit too subtle sometimes.

Not getting the lead out Reporter Brentin Mock revealed how a dense recovery bureaucracy has kept tied up for a year a $3.5 million grant to clean up lead in child-care

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NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE

Neighborhood Spotlight:

French Quarter

Home, In the Quarter Story by: Carol Allen French Quarter Neighborhood Photos by: Ray Nichols

“You have to be a little bit eccentric (or crazy?), to live in the French Quarter; to make it your home.”

Although the italics are mine, I recently overheard this statement from a prominent French Quarter resident and nodded my head in agreement.

How right she is!

Why else would you accept to live in a neighborhood where mule droppings dot the streets day-after-day; where oversized vehicles threaten fragile foundations and iron-clad balconies; where bicyclers, oblivious to anything except the shortest distance between two points, barrel down oneway streets in the wrong direction, paying little attention to stop signs, pedestrians, or oncoming traffic; where graffiti tackily degrades old grandes dames that have stood stately for centuries; where noise and barkers and panhandlers encroach any normal person’s space and sanity... Why indeed?

Because, it is eccentric and it is a neighborhood, and we love it. The sound of trumpets makes you dash to your doors and windows to see what is coming down the street. A neighbor across the street yells “Hi!” from his balcony and you yell “Hi!” back, and, “How’s your mom en ‘dem?,” and the people below look up and wave, too. You sit inside your home and hear the

carriage drivers say the same thing, day in and day out, when they get to your spot on the block, and you cringe, but you know the tourists are loving it. You run into your friends and neighbors at Rouse’s or Matassa’s and a ten minute shopping trip becomes an afternoon drink or morning coffee together. You say “ Hi dahlin!” to everybody you meet. Man, woman, white, black, Latin, straight, gay, resident, tourist. You eat well, very well, without ever having to get into your car. You walk down Royal Street and marvel that New Orleans has better musicians than most cities. You know all the delivery men by name and likewise.

You have to laugh if you live in the French Quarter. Where else would you see a grandmother in a pink tutu? Where else would you find yourself surrounded by neighbors who are writers, musicians, artists, chefs, journalists, “gutter punks,” and business people standing around waiting to get a letter stamped or pick up a package the neighborhood post office?

Yet, we are serious. To live in the French Quarter is to protect it like a lioness protects her cubs. We are eternally vigilant to whatever could negatively affect this great place. When the smell of danger comes in the air, we become crawfish; raring up on our hind legs, raising our claws, and fighting anything that would threaten this very eccentric, very wonderful, very important place.

The French Quarter has more than Bourbon Street. Over 4,000 people call this place home. A word to those who might want to chisel away at this grand, historical neighborhood...don’t get us riled up!

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March/April 2010

FrenchQuartered: Growing Up & Coming Out in Vieux Carre

By: Nicholas Jordan French Quarter Neighborhood

If that sounds harsh, it was. Yet I found in other homeless youth a family, as Throughout the years, I have admired well as in some of the residents such the freedoms that others of a more as many caring surrogate parents: traditional sexuality have enjoyed, the older drag queen to the painters but not too much. and musicians of the street. I was even allowed to crash a few gallery Sure, I cannot marry the man I love openings, gaining an education you nor file our taxes together; and if cannot pay for in any university, one of us dies, we have to make sure which as an artistic youth, I found we have iron-clad wills where our intoxicating. property is concerned.

Later, I would move away many All of these things were no worry times from the “Quarter”, but to me when I was a young gay man. always return, finding more within However, I discovered what my gay its boundaries than I found out. I community had in abundance, which cherished my times as a traveling is an absolutely fearless audacity to vagabond, and my experiences serve exist in a world that still does not well in our community’s love of fully welcome or understand us. sharing stories.

That is to say, with exception of the French Quarter, in our incredibly I learned that it takes a fierce heart unique city of New Orleans. to live here, as well as a brave Because here, we do fit in, for the one. Some would say that the risks most part, as much as any of its outweigh the benefits of life here, as denizens do. it can and has been taken away from us so callously and too often.

We stubbornly cling to our little world and each other, crossing the normal From recent murders, the devastation social lines between homosexual and of the AIDS virus in the past, and heterosexual, black and white, old even Hurricane Katrina, I still do not and young, on a regular basis, even feel foolish for loving and staying back when I was called a “chicken”, here. I feel needed, loved, and oddly meaning an underage gay person, by enough, safe within. Even when I to my own kind. fall victim, I would have no regrets.

Cheers.

By the way, I was very young when I discovered what I was all about, living on the corner of Bourbon and Barracks Street with my mom, her beau, and my younger brother.

I cannot explain in a short article all that I experienced at a young age, but none was too unfavourable, and it ultimately made me feel like I would always have a home here, with plenty of people like me to share it with. Though my mom still reminds me of how dangerous it can be and would rather have me safely elsewhere, I am sure.

APRIL 23 11:00 - 11:45 Am

FAMILY MATINEE AT THE JAZZ PARK Johnette Downing plays kids’ music with a Louisiana twist at the National Jazz Historic Park in Dutch Alley

APRIL 24 5:00 - 8:00 Pm

Fridays at tHe FrencH marKet Featuring Miss Sophie Lee at the performance pavilion in Dutch Alley

APRIL 28 6:00 - 8:30 Pm

talK & tapas lecture series Bruce Raeburn, Ph.D., Curator, Hogan Jazz Archives discusses “Jazz Secrets of the Lower Quarter” at Galvez Restaurant, Atrium Room

ter Check out the quieter corner of the French Quar s, urant resta 4 s, shop l retai 22 re, tectu archi ric Histo et mark flea a & et mark a renovated farmer’s

Riverside Streetcar Stops #1, #2 & #3 Riverfront Parking

Hip scene.

Historic setting.

m a p s & d i r ec t i o n s at w w w. Fr e n c H m a rKe t.o r g

Next Month’s Featured Neighborhood:

Faubourg st. john

I can say this about how I came to finally stay here and stopped looking for “home” anywhere else: My “School of Hard Knocks” had me as a drop-out, gay-bashed teen on the streets of the Vieux Carre. On these streets I learned to care for myself and others, unlike in the high schools I was beaten out of.

ongoing Free special events

Send your stories, opinions, letters and photos to: thetrumpet@npnnola.com or snail mail to: 4902 Canal St., Room 301. New Orleans, La 70119 “My Partner and I,” photo submitted by Nicholas Jordan

by April 25th for a chance to be featured in our May/June issue!

22

NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE

NPN T-Shirt Design Contest Use this template or your own to design the next T-shirt for Neighborhood’s Partnership Network. Some things you may want to include: 1. NPN’s Logo 2. NPN’s Tag Line: “Making all New Orleans Neighborhoods a Great Place to Live” 3. List of New Orleans Neighborhoods 4. Graphics or designs that represent all New Orleans neighborhoods

All designs must be submitted by April 15th to 4902 Canal St., Room 301, New Orleans, La 70119 or thetrumpet@npnnola.com The Winner will be announced in our May/June “Music and Art” issue

March/April 2010

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BILINGUAL The Latin-American Community of New Orleans La Comunidad Latinoamericana de Nueva Orleans By: Kimberly Fomby

At the beginning of the year, the Trumpet Magazine celebrated its three-year anniversary, covering all neighborhoods in the New Orleans area.

Now The Trumpet has extended its reach to include a bilingual section representing the voices of the Latin-American community. In this issue the richlycultured community of Latin-America will be well represented by members of the Latin-American community.

Our contributing writers have provided facts and insights on the culture, as well as what it means to be a part of the culture.

In addition, profiles on important historical figures have been included to offer further insight.

Al principios del año, la revista Trompeta celebró su tercer aniversario, que abarca todos los barrios en la zona de Nueva Orleans.

No hasta ahora la ha facilitado una sección bilingüe en representación de las voces de la comunidad Latinoamericana. En esta edición de la Trompeta, la comunidad con una cultura rica estará bien representada con artículos por los miembros de la comunidad Latinoamericana.

Ambos escritores han facilitado hechos y perspectivas sobre la cultura, así como lo que significa que ser un parte de la cultura.

Además, segmentos sobre personajes históricos se han añadido a la sección para para el conocimiento de los lectores.

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NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE

Immigrant Impact on New Orleans Story and photos by: Rafael Delgadillo Mid City Neighborhood New Orleans is often cited as an example of multi-culturalism. The city has a complicated history involving colonization, slavery, and immigration that contributed to its cultural heritage. Unfortunately, the image that is offered to explain our culture’s development is too often a caricature of our city. Seldom is there emphasis on the human experiences that produced New Orleans’ uniqueness among other American cities.

served two distinct purposes. It was desirable as a place to settle and a thriving port city which ensured opportunities for immigrants to find work. The city was also a temporary stop for people who were going to other parts of the United States.

Most of these immigrants were European. However, many also came from Latin America and the city was known to be a haven for Cuban exiles that fled the Spanish regime on their island.

As the city grew, many immigrants found work in developing the city’s infrastructure.

Irish immigrants Undeniably, New Orleans does have were heavily recruited to build the quite an exceptional colonial history city’s canals in the mid-nineteenth and its cultural ties to Africa are century. These immigrants were more evident here than in any other subjected to harsh conditions and city in the United States. However, many died of yellow fever. Many immigrants played a crucial role on others found work in the city’s labor New Orleans’ cultural development intensive shipping industry. and understanding their experiences are important in understanding the Immigrant communities, however, city’s history. Indeed an immigrant were not satisfied to serve only as that came to New Orleans in the a laboring underclass. As the city’s nineteenth century would have population grew, many immigrants found a place that was itself tried their hand at entrepreneurship struggling to assimilate with the rest in different fields. For example, the of America. city’s tobacco shops were known as a domain of the city’s Hispanic As a destination for immigrants in community. Many Latin-American the nineteenth century, New Orleans immigrants had ties to Cuba giving them access to Cuban tobacco.

New Orleans’ long-standing trade relationship with Latin America was an essential asset for the city’s Hispanic population.

group. Today’s modern Vietnamese community in New Orleans East is an example of how this works. The immigration waves of the nineteenth century led to varying settlement patterns for different groups. Some groups were known for inhabiting certain neighborhoods. The Irish Channel is a self-explanatory example; though not all of the city’s sectors were self-descriptive. By the end of the nineteenth century, the French Quarter had become more readily identified with Italians and Sicilians.

However, not all groups were so readily identifiable with a particular area. Latin-American immigrants who came to New Orleans were small in number and had a more scattered settlement throughout various parts of the city. At the end of the nineteenth century, they were so few and so widely dispersed that they were considered an invisible community. This is not unlike the city’s modern Hispanic population, which has grown in recent years but is still one of the least regarded.

However, this did not prevent the Latin-American immigrants from developing their own institutions.

They, like almost all other immigrant groups, were civically engaged and founded organizations to encourage cultural preservation.

Another form of community organization that immigrants undertook in nineteenth century New Orleans was the formation of militias. In 1829, New Orleans’ LatinAmerican residents created a militia unit designated the “Cazadores de Orleans.” In 1832, a second Spanish Once settled, militia, entitled the “Cazadores immigrants often Volantes del Estado” was organized. attract family Both companies were founded to members to their strengthen Latin national ties and new homes, as cultural preservation to go along well as others with military and defense duties. from their own Could you imagine the political h o m e l a n d . uproar today if a militia was formed R e s i d e n t i a l entirely of immigrants? proximity in their new The “Cazadores Volantes” lasted until homes becomes 1846, when they were reorganized essential to the into a mutual aid society named c o m m u n i t y ’ s “Sociedad Ibera.” The “Cazadores d e v e l o p m e n t . de Orleans” would remain intact for Soon, a pattern another five years as a military unit d e v e l o p s until disbanding and reorganizing and whole as a strictly social organization, the n e i g h b o r h o o d s “Sociedad Española de Beneficia take on the Mutua.”

These ethnocentric identity of the “benevolent societies” were found i m m i g r a n t throughout the Americas, not just

in New Orleans. They were usually formed to promote togetherness, security, and to celebrate cultural heritage, even if their origins were for entirely different purposes. It was also common for immigrant groups to form labor organizations to protect their members from exploitation.

The New Orleans of the nineteenth century had a multi-lingual flare like no other city in America except for New York. The various immigrant groups, no matter how small, spoke their own languages for generations before fully assimilating.

The presence of so many language groups in New Orleans made it an authentic polyglot society.

The best evidence for this is the history of newspapers published in New Orleans throughout the nineteenth century. Publications in New Orleans were printed in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German.

These newspapers not only kept immigrants informed on local day to day occurrences and developments, but they also kept the community up to date with information and news from overseas. New Orleans was the site of the first Spanish language newspaper ever printed in the United States, El Misisipi, which was published over 200 years ago in 1808. Since then, there has been a Spanish language newspaper printed in New Orleans in every decade until the present day, even though the Hispanics have been one of the smallest communities in the city.

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March/April 2010

El Impacto de Inmigrantes en Nueva Orleans Por: Rafael Delgadillo Mid City Barrio

dos propósitos distintos. Es deseable tan un lugar para establecerse y una próspera ciudad portuaria que garantice oportunidades para los inmigrantes para encontrar trabajo.

La ciudad fue t a m b i é n una parada temporal para las personas que iban a otras partes de los Estados Unidos.

La m a y o r í a de estos inmigrantes eran europeos.

Sin embargo, m u c h o s llegaron de América Latina y la ciudad era conocida por ser un refugio para los exiliados c u b a n o s que huían del régimen Nueva Orleans es a menudo citado como un ejemplo de multi- español en su isla. culturalismo. La ciudad tiene una historia complicada que incluye Como la ciudad creció, muchos la colonización, la esclavitud, y la inmigrantes encontraron trabajo en inmigración que contribuyeron el desarrollo de la infraestructura a su patrimonio cultural. de la ciudad. Los inmigrantes Lamentablemente, la imagen que Irlandeses fueron reclutados en se ofrece a explicar el desarrollo gran medida a construir canales de de nuestra cultura es demasiado a la ciudad a mediados del siglo XIX. menudo una caricatura de nuestra Estos inmigrantes fueron sometidos ciudad. Rara vez hay énfasis en las a duras condiciones y muchos experiencias humanas que produjo la murieron de fiebre amarilla. Muchos singularidad de Nueva Orleans entre otros encontraron trabajo en la mano de obra de la ciudad, industria otras ciudades estadounidenses. del transporte marítimo intenso.

Sin lugar a dudas, Nueva Orleáns tiene una historia colonial Las comunidades de inmigrantes, excepcional y sus vínculos culturales sin embargo, no estaban satisfechos con África son más evidentes que de servir sólo como una subclase en cualquier otra ciudad en Estados trabajadora. Como la población de la Unidos. Sin embargo, los inmigrantes ciudad creció, muchos inmigrantes desempeñan un papel fundamental intentado su mano en el espíritu en el desarrollo cultural de Nueva empresarial en diferentes campos.

Orleans y la comprensión de sus Por ejemplo, tiendas de tabaco experiencias son importantes para de la ciudad se conoce como un entender la historia de la ciudad. dominio de la comunidad hispana De hecho, un inmigrante que vino a de la ciudad. Muchos inmigrantes Nueva Orleans en el siglo XIX se han de Latino América tenía vínculos encontrado un lugar que era en sí con Cuba, dándoles acceso al tabaco Nueva Orleans’ larga misma lucha por asimilar con el resto cubano. relación comercial con América de América.

Latina fue esencial para la población Como un destino para los inmigrantes hispana de la ciudad. en el siglo XIX, Nueva Orleans sirve

Una vez instalados, los inmigrantes a menudo atrajo miembros de la familia a sus nuevos hogares, así como otros de su propia patria.

La proximidad de residencia en su nuevo hogar se convierte en esencial para el desarrollo de la comunidad.

Pronto, se desarrolla un patrón de barrios enteros y asumir la identidad del grupo de inmigrantes. Comunidad Vietnamita moderno de hoy en Nueva Orleans Este es un ejemplo de cómo funciona esto. Las olas de inmigración del siglo XIX dio lugar a distintos patrones de asentamiento para los diferentes grupos. Algunos grupos fueron conocidas por habitar en ciertos barrios. El Canal de Irlanda es un ejemplo de auto-explicativo, aunque no todos los sectores de la ciudad se auto-descriptivo. A finales del siglo XIX, el Barrio Francés se ha vuelto más fácil identificarse con los Italianos y Sicilianos.

inmigrantes?

El “Cazadores Volantes” duró hasta 1846, cuando se reorganizaron en una sociedad de ayuda mutua denominada “Sociedad del Iberá.” El “Cazadores de Orleans” permanecería intacta durante otros cinco años como una unidad militar hasta que la disolución y la reorganización como una organización estrictamente social, la “Sociedad Española de Beneficia Mutua.”

Estos etnocéntrica “sociedades de beneficencia” se encuentra en todo el continente americano, no sólo en Nueva Orleans. Por lo general eran formado para promover la convivencia, la seguridad, y para celebrar el patrimonio cultural, aunque sus orígenes eran para propósitos totalmente diferentes. También era común para los grupos de inmigrantes para formar organizaciones laborales Sin embargo, no todos los grupos para proteger a sus miembros de la eran tan fáciles de identificar con explotación. un área en particular. Inmigrantes Latinoamericanos que llegaron a Nueva Orleans del siglo XIX tuvo una Nueva Orleans eran pequeñas en bengala multi-cultural como ninguna número y había una solución más otra ciudad en Estados Unidos dispersos en diversas partes de la con excepción de Nueva York. Los ciudad. A finales del siglo XIX, que diversos grupos de inmigrantes, no eran tan pocos y tan dispersos que importa cuán pequeño, hablaba su eran considerados una comunidad propio idioma para las generaciones invisible. Esto no es diferente de antes de asimilar plenamente. La la población Hispana de la ciudad presencia de grupos de idiomas para moderna, que ha crecido en los muchos en Nueva Orleans hizo una últimos años, pero sigue siendo sociedad políglota auténticos. uno de los menos considerados.

Sin embargo, esto no impidió que La mejor prueba de esto es la los inmigrantes de América Latina- historia de los periódicos publicados desde el desarrollo de sus propias en Nueva Orleans durante el instituciones. Ellos, como casi todos siglo XIX. Publicaciones de Nueva los otros grupos de inmigrantes, se Orleans fueron impresos en cívicamente comprometidos y fundó Inglés, Francés, Español, Italiano y organizaciones para fomentar la Alemán. Estos periódicos no sólo preservación cultural. mantuvo informado en el día de los inmigrantes a los acontecimientos Otra forma de organización de la comunidad que los inmigrantes se comprometió en Nueva Orleans locales de día y de la evolución, pero del siglo XIX fue la formación de también se mantuvo a la comunidad las milicias. En 1829, los residentes al día con información y noticias Latinoamericanos de Nueva del extranjero. Nueva Orleans fue Orleans crearon una unidad de el sitio del periódico de la primera milicia denominado “Cazadores lengua Española que se imprimió de Orleans.” En 1832, una milicia en los Estados Unidos, El Misisipi, segundos en Latinoamericano, que se publicó hace 200 años en titulado “Cazadores Volantes del 1808. Desde entonces, ha habido Estado” fue organizado. Ambas un periódico de Espanol impreso compañías fueron fundadas a en Nueva Orleans en cada década, fortalecer los lazos nacionales de aunque los Latinoamericans han América y la preservación cultural sido una de las comunidades más para ir junto con los deberes militares pequeñas en la ciudad. y de defensa. ¿Podría usted imaginar el alboroto político de hoy si fue una milicia formada enteramente de los

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NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE

I am LatiNOLA

Soy LatiNola

By Anna Frachou

Por Anna Frachou

I never saw myself moving to New Orleans, nor did I think it would become home. My name is Anna Agustina Marie Frachou. With my name alone, I can come off as being from here. My green eyes, olive skin and dark hair also make it easy for me to blend in. However, I am not. The daughter of immigrant parents, I was born and raised in California.

Yo nunca vi a mí mismo de trasladarse a Nueva Orleáns ni se me ocurrió pensar que se convertiría en el hogar. Mi nombre es Ana María Agustina Frachou. Con mi nombre solo, puedo parecer como de aquí. Mis ojos verdes, piel aceitunada y cabello oscuro también hacen que sea fácil para mí en la mezcla. Sin embargo, no soy. La hija de padres inmigrantes, nació y creció en California. Yo he vivido mi vida en dos mundos, Inglés y Español, Estadounidense y Cubana, una historia de muchos de los aquí se pueden relacionar. Yo vine a esta ciudad con una beca para la Universidad de Tulane, donde me gradué con un master's en estudios Latinoamericanos.

Inmediatamente después, me contrataron en Puentes de Nueva Orleans, Inc. para desarrollar el programa de participación cívica, LatiNola. Yo no sabía que al aceptar esta posición, que me iba a enamorar de esta ciudad y que mi trabajo iba a ser mi vida.

I have lived my life in two worlds, English and Spanish, American and Cuban, a story many here can relate to. I came to this city with a scholarship to Tulane University where I graduated with a master’s in LatinAmerican studies. Directly after, I was hired at Puentes New Orleans Inc. to develop the civic engagement program, LatiNola. Little did I know that when accepting this position, I was going to fall in love with this city and that my job was going to become my life.

Puentes New Orleans, Inc. is a non-profit organization focused on strengthening the ties within the community through its various programs in housing, public safety, and civic engagement. Its mission is to build assets and create access for the Latino community in the Greater New Orleans Area.

The LatiNola program started with a group of volunteers who began coming together to propose and carry out their own projects. Their mission being to reach out to residents in our community and get them engaged all the while creating a space where they and others can develop and acquire new leadership skills. Through our volunteer efforts, collaboration with other community agencies and events held throughout this last year, the group has become quite visible in the region.

Puentes de Nueva Orleans, Inc. es una organización sin fines de lucro centrada en el fortalecimiento de los lazos dentro de la comunidad a través de sus diversos programas en materia de vivienda, la seguridad pública, y la participación cívica.

Su misión es la creación de bienes y crear un acceso para la comunidad latina en el Greater New Orleans Area. El programa LatiNola comenzó con un grupo de voluntarios que comenzaron a reunirse para proponer y llevar a cabo sus propios proyectos. Su misión es llegar a los residentes en nuestra comunidad y conseguir que participan al mismo tiempo crear un espacio donde ellos y otros pueden desarrollar y adquirir habilidades de liderazgo nuevas. A través de nuestros esfuerzos de voluntarios, la colaboración con otras agencias comunitarias y eventos que se celebran durante todo este año pasado, el grupo se ha hecho muy visible en la región.

Anna Frachou and other LatiNola members attending the LatiNola Complete Entonces, ¿qué es la significa de LatiNola?

Count meeting, a program working with the US Census to ensure that Latinos Los latinos en Nueva Orleans y yo soy uno are properly counted. de ellos. Aunque yo soy nuevo, los latinos en

So what does LatiNola mean? Latinos in New Orleans, and I am one of them. Although I am new, Latinos in New Orleans is not a post-Katrina phenomenon. Latinos have been here for quite some time, unseen and unheard. LatiNola was established for this reason by locals, Latinos who wanted to create a unified voice and an organized space within their community, that until now, lacked one.

Who is Latino? If you ask me, I would say we all are. The term I find to be all inclusive given the fact it encompasses all of Latin America. Many people tend to believe we all look the same and speak the same language.

Very similar to the diversity in New Orleans and the history that has made it what it is, we are all quite different. We are a multi-cultural group.

Latinos are Indigenous, Africans, Asians and Europeans. From slaves to Spanish and French colonies, we share more in common with the city of New Orleans then we acknowledge. It is for this reason, LatiNola is an inclusive program. In order to better our community and improve our life, we have come together to work with one another to provide opportunities where we all prosper with the same rights and access to resources as our neighbors.

My work with LatiNola has allowed me to get to know this community, its history and its people. The more I learn about it, the more I feel like I have found my home. Given who I am and where I come from, I could not see myself in any other place. LatiNola is my job and it has become my life. I see so much of myself and my family reflected in the city of New Orleans and its people. The history in New Orleans is the history of my ancestors.

Because of this, I have found myself calling New Orleans home. When I think about where I am from and who I am, I think about my surroundings and the only answer I find now is that I am LatiNola!

Nueva Orleans no es un fenómeno posterior a Katrina. Los latinos han estado aquí durante alguno tiempo, sin ser vistos ni oídos. LatiNola fue establecido por este motivo por los locales, los latinos que quería crear una voz unificada y un espacio organizado dentro de su comunidad, que hasta ahora, carecía de uno.

Entonces, ¿quién es latino? Si me preguntan, yo diría que somos todos.

Me parece que el término incluya todo dado el hecho de que abarca toda América Latina. Muchas personas tienden a creer que todos tienen el mismo aspecto y hablar el mismo lengua. Muy similar a la diversidad en Nueva Orleans y la historia que ha hecho de la que es, todos somos muy diferentes. Somos un grupo multi-cultural. Los latinos son Indígenas, Africanos, Asiáticos y Europeos. De esclavos a las colonias Españolas y Francés, compartimos más en común con la ciudad de Nueva Orleans que reconocemos. Es por esta razón, LatiNola es un programa inclusivo.

A mejorar nuestra comunidad y mejorar nuestra vida, nos hemos reunido para trabajar con otros para proporcionar oportunidades donde podemos prosperar con los mismos derechos y el mismo acceso a los recursos que nuestros vecinos.

Mi trabajo con LatiNola me ha permitido a conocer esta comunidad, su historia y su gente. El más aprendo sobre la historia y el gente, el más siento como que he encontrado mi casa. Dado de quien soy y de donde vengo, yo no veía a mí mismo en cualquier otro lugar. LatiNola es mi trabajo y se ha convertido en mi vida. Veo mucho de mí mismo y mi familia se refleja en la ciudad de Nueva Orleans y su gente. La historia aquí es la historia de mis antepasados. Debido a esto, he encontrado a mí mismo llamando a mi casa de Nueva Orleans. Cuando pienso de dónde soy y de lo que soy, pienso en mi entorno y la única respuesta que encuentro ahora es que estoy LatiNola!

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March/April 2010

Historical Highlights Simón Bolívar (1783-1830) Also known as Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios y Blanco, Simon Bolivar is known to be an important figure in Latin American history, serving as a strong political leader who fought for Latin America’s independence from Spanish rule. Nicknamed “El Libertador”, this Venezuelan, historical figure is very much credited for the independence of South American countries, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.

También conocido como Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios y Blanco, Simón Bolívar es conocida a ser una figura importante en la historia de América Latina, sirviendo como un líder político que luchó por la independencia de América Latina en español.

Apodado “El Libertador”, este Venezolano, figura histórica es acréditado por la independencia de los países de América del Sur, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú y Bolivia.

Benito Juarez (1806-1872) An important figure in Mexican history, Benito Pablo Juárez García, was the country’s first liberal president. As well as being a full-blooded Zapotec Native American, he was noted for his objection of European rule, primarily French rule. With progression in mind, Juarez brought liberal reform to the country and aided in the creation of Mexico as a constitutional democracy.

He is also known for his concern of equal rights for all, creating better health care and access to education, as well as improving living conditions of the country’s citizens.

Jose Martí statue located at Jefferson Davis Parkway and Banks Street

Una figura importante en la historia de México, Benito Pablo Juárez García, fue el primer presidente liberal. Así como de ser un pura sangre zapoteca indio americano, se destacó por su objeción de dominio europeo, específicamente el dominio francés. Con la progresión en la mente, Juárez trajo reforma liberal al país y ayudó en la creación de México como una democracia constitucional. También es conocido por su preocupación por la igualdad de derechos para todos. Juarez creó mejor atención sanitaria y el acceso a la educación, así como la mejora de las condiciones de vida de los ciudadanos del país.

Francisco Morazon (1792-1842) Native to Honduras, José Francisco Morazán Quezada was a strong political leader with a goal to unify Central American countries into a single nation.

He succeeded in creating liberal reforms for all countries, which included freedom of speech, press, and religion.

Nativa de Honduras, José Francisco Morazán Quezada fue un líder político fuerte con el objetivo de unificar a los países de Centroamérica en una sola nación. Tuvo éxito en la creación de las reformas liberales de todos los países, que incluye la libertad de expresión, de prensa y religión.

Jose Martí (1853-1895) Known as a poet, playwright, and most importantly, a freedom fighter, Martí hailed from Havana, Cuba. With Cuba’s fight for indepedence from Spain being his prime concern, many of his works centered around themes such as freedom, love, justice, and peace.

Conocido como un poeta, dramaturgo, y lo más importante, un luchador por la libertad, Martí provenía de La Habana, Cuba. Con la lucha por la independencia de Cuba de España ser su principal preocupación, muchas de sus obras centradas en torno a temas como la libertad, el amor, la justicia, y la paz.

Plaque beneath statue of Jose Martí

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NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE

In the 9th Ward,

A Recipe for Weight Loss Success By: Jay Shukla Irish Channel Neighborhood For most people, losing weight is incredibly hard. Weight loss requires willpower, planning, time, and even more, willpower. Now, imagine that you are a 9th ward resident who grew up in New Orleans, and is supporting a family and struggling to pay the bills. Your doctor tells you to change your diet and add 30 minutes of exercise 3-5 times per week into your schedule so that you can live a healthy life. In a neighborhood that is too dangerous to walk in at night, and where people treat food like a religion, this is not a simple prescription.

Yet it’s a very common scenario at the Daughters of Charity Family Clinic in the 9th ward. The clinic serves mostly uninsured patients and treats people of all ages. In a state that ranks 4th in the nation for obesity, it’s not surprising that the most common diseases encountered are closely related to body weight and diet, including heart disease, hypertension, and type-two diabetes.

As a Schweitzer Fellow and medical student, I am trying to address this problem by working with the doctors at Daughters of Charity to provide nutritional counseling to patients in the clinic. My goal is to use information I gather in the nutrition counseling sessions to design and teach a free cooking class for 9th ward residents that will be based on a typical New Orleans diet, but will incorporate some basic, healthy techniques aimed at losing weight.

Of course, the recipes used in the class will be both affordable and accessible to a typical resident, and they should be simple enough to fit into a busy schedule. The project aims to leave a sustainable impact on the clinic and 9th ward residents, via a Healthy New Orleans Recipe book which will be made available to the clinic as a permanent educational tool to be handed out to anyone interested. I also hope to enlist volunteers to teach future classes in the 9th ward.

So far, the response has been great.

When I go into the clinic, the doctors refer patients to me based on their need for weight loss and their desire

to make changes in their life. During the counseling sessions, the patients often describes to me the efforts they have made to lose weight that have usually failed. They tell me about what they have been eating, how they choose what to eat, how they cook their food, and where they go to purchase food.

In exchange, I offer them personalized advice on ways to eat healthier without straying too far from their typical routine.

They are usually very receptive to the new ideas, and most are very interested in knowing more about Dr. Pratt and Dr. Raman with Jay at the Daughters of Charity Clinic at St. Cecilia on Rampart the upcoming cooking As Fellows, we also classes. Most of them already know take initiatives to foster what’s healthy, but the conversations health and education in in clinic tend to remind them of what the community through 1 1/3 cups water they should be doing and how to public outreach.

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour do it. One man became excited at ½ cup milk the idea of riding his bicycle again I feel quite fortunate to be ½ cup oats with his wife. Another woman was able to work with such a 3 egg whites (no yolks!) inspired to start making new kinds charismatic population of ½ tsp vanilla extract of salads at home that she had never people, both in the clinic 1 tsp butter tried before. and in the Fellowship.

1tsp brown sugar In the clinic, I have the 1tsp ground cinnamon The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship privilege of learning 1 tsp baking powder (ASF) is a national nonprofit that about local cooking ¼ tsp salt works to address health disparities traditions, both healthy ¼ cup chopped walnuts (optional) by developing “Leaders in Service,” and unhealthy ones, ¼ tsp nutmeg (optional) individuals who are skilled in, and and interacting with the 1 ripe banana, sliced thin committed to, meeting the health 9th ward residents in a Add more diced fruit if desired (such as pears, needs of under-served communities. meaningful way. Through apples or strawberries) Each year, ASF supports over 200 the Fellowship, I have Aunt Jemima Lite Syrup graduate students in designing and been able to network with implementing yearlong service other graduate students Stir 1 1/3 cups water, milk, oats, and butter projects, all on top of their usual of various disciplines in heavy medium saucepan over mediumprofessional school responsibilities. who care about health high heat until mixture comes to boil. Cook There are now more than 2,000 disparities in New Orleans until mixture is very thick, stirring constantly, Schweitzer program alumni— and are willing to work about 5 minutes. Transfer to large bowl and Fellows for Life—working to address hard to make change cool 15 minutes. Stir in eggs first, then flour, health disparities in their careers as happen. sugar, eggs, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, service-oriented professionals. nutmeg, and rest of ingredients. Mix in fruit, For more information if desired.

While ASF is only in its 3rd year in about The Albert New Orleans, it has been at work Schweitzer Fellowship Heat griddle or large nonstick skillet over fostering idealism and service across (ASF) and the New Orleans medium-high heat. Brush very lightly with the U.S. since 1991. I applied to the Schweitzer Fellowship butter. Drop batter onto griddle or skillets by New Orleans Schweitzer Fellows Program, visit www. generous 1/2 cup for each pancake; spread Program as a 3rd year medical schweitzerfellowship.org. batter to 4- to 5-inch rounds. Cook pancakes student, and the organization and To support ASF, visit www. until brown and cooked through. Add Aunt other Fellows have been a major schweitzerfellowship.org/ Jemima Lite syrup. help in putting my project into action. giving.

Banana-Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes

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March/April 2010

School health centers reduce risky behaviors A new study released by School Health Connection (SHC), an affiliated program of the Louisiana Public Health Institute, suggests that adolescents with access to schoolbased health centers (SBHC) not only receive quality health services, but they may also be less likely to engage in behaviors that put their health at risk, including drug use, risky sexual activity, violence, smoking, unhealthy eating habits and lack of exercise.

The SHC report, School Based Health

evidence that SBHCs are making a positive difference in the clinical, behavioral, and overall health of adolescents.

While the report shows clear benefits associated with care provided by SBHCs, it also highlights the value of a comprehensive, coordinated school health system supported by sustained and secure funding for SBHCs as a part of the state’s annual Medicaid and budget planning.

“The report provides strong evidence that When compared to students without access to school-based a SBHC, students with access to SBHCs were: health centers help * more likely to have seen a behavioral health improve student counselor. health in general * more likely to see a mental health specialist if while serving as they had suicidal tendencies. an effective and necessary medical * less likely to engage in high-risk behaviors including substance use, sexual behaviors, care model for violent behaviors, smoking, unhealthy dietary under served behaviors, and physical inactivity. children and * less likely to visit an emergency room. teens,” says Marsha Broussard, Director * more likely to be physically active and actively of the School try to reduce their weight if they were obese.

Health Connection * more likely to have been diagnosed with program.

“The diabetes. growing body of evidence regarding the overall benefits of SBHCs is further Centers are Making a Difference: An underscored by the recognition and Evaluation Study of School-Based inclusion of SBHCs in the House Health Centers in Orleans Parish, and Senate versions of the National compared survey responses from Health Care Reform Bill. In line with public high school students with and national health reform outcomes, it without access to a school-based is our hope that Louisiana legislators health center and provides strong will work to cut through the red

Key Findings from the Report

Our community is counting on you!

Local census offices recruit local residents to work within their own community.

Every 10 years, a census of our population is conducted. The results help determine how federal funds are spent in residents’ communities on things like roads, parks, and other public services, as well as their representation in government. Becoming a census worker in your own community helps ensure that everyone is counted. A 2010 Census job offers a lot: good pay, flexible hours, paid training, and the chance to work independently in your own community.

For the 2010 Census, thousands of census takers and office clerks are needed for temporary jobs.

For more information, call your LCO (Local Census Office) # 3018 (New Orleans) which serves the tri-parish area of Orleans, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines parish at 504-302-5020, or visit the jobs web site at

www.2010censusjobs.gov.

It’s in our hands.

tape that keeps existing SBHCs underfunded and unable to realize their full impact on student health.”

School-based health centers provide greater access to primary and preventive care services to students, including those who are uninsured, under insured or who may not have access to other health-care facilities or care. Services offered by schoolbased health clinics range from comprehensive and sports physicals, immunizations, behavioral health screenings, diagnosis and treatment of clinical symptoms and conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma and more.

has been an invaluable resource for our students,” said Alex Hochron, Health Sciences Academy Principal at Walter L. Cohen High School.

“Having a health center on school grounds means healthier students and less time out of the classroom.

I don’t want to imagine where our students would be without it.”

Editor’s note: A copy of the full report and executive summary are available for download at http://lphi.org/home2/ section/2-158/announcementarchive/view/141/ About School Health Connection

Currently, 11 schools in Metro New Orleans have an operating schoolbased health center, while three additional schools should be up and running soon.

School Health Connection (SHC) is a regional collaborative effort formed after Hurricane Katrina to support the rebuilding and expansion of SBHCs in the New Orleans Metropolitan area. SHC collaborative partners “Whether it’s simply treating a include local and state government common illness or recognizing a and school systems, universities, child dealing with the silent crisis medical institutions, foundations, of anxiety and depression, school- and community partners. In 2006, based health centers provide the SHC received funding to support necessary care to ensure that our the construction of SBHCs and kids stay healthy and continue enhance physical and behavioral learning,” said Dr. Michaela King, health services in public and charter pediatrician and practicing physician schools in the four-parish area. The at O’Perry Walker high school. Louisiana Public Health Institute “We’ve seen everything from the flu (LPHI) administers funds provided to an undiagnosed congenital heart by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation on condition, and through our working behalf of the SHC program and its relationships with external health- partners. For more information care providers, we are able to get about SHC and a complete list of students the specialized care they partners and medical sponsors, visit need.” www.schoolhealthconnection.org.

“Our school-based health center

NPN would like to thank Gary Smith for his recent photography contributions. His new book hits stores soon!

“Through the Lens-A Field Guide to Digital Photography” By: Gary Michael Smith (Chatgris Press, 2010)

This book is available for $14.95 from Chatgris Press, PO Box 850227, New Orleans, LA 70185-0227 Gary Michael Smith’s commercial, documentary, fine art, and editorial photojournalism have been displayed in photo art galleries and have appeared in such publications as Cat Fancy, Louisiana Film and Video Magazine, The Trumpet, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune. He teaches photography in Jefferson Parish and is a member of the American Society of Media Photographers, the National Press Photographers Association, the Photographic Society of America, and the New Orleans Photo Alliance.

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NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE

Neighborhood Meetings

Algiers Point Association Every 1st Thursday of the month @ 7pm Holy Name of Mary School Cafeteria

Broadmoor Improvement Association 3rd Monday of every other moth @ 7pm St. Matthias Church 4320 S. Broad Street

Bunny Friends Neighborhood Association Every second Saturday of the month Mt. Carmel Baptist Church 3721 N Claiborne Ave

Bywater Neighborhood Association Every 2nd Tuesday of the month Holy Angels Cafeteria 3500 St. Claude Ave.

Neighborhood Association Central City Renaissance Alliance (CCRA) Saturday, September 19 @ 2p.m.

1809 O. C. Haley Blvd. http://www.myccra.org

Claiborne-University Neighborhood Association

Carrollton United

Every second Monday at 5:00 P.M. every other month St. John Missionary Baptist Church, corner of Leonidas and Hickory

Central City Partnership

Every last Friday of the month @ 1p.m.

Allie Mae Williams Center 2020 Jackson Ave.

Faubourg St. Roch Improvement Association Every 2nd Thursday of the month @ 6:00p.m.

True Vine Baptist Church 2008 Marigny St

Quarterly Meetings, time and date TBA Jewish Community Center 5342 St. Charles Ave

Garden District Association

Downtown Neighborhood Improvement Association (DNIA)

Gentilly Civic Improvement Association (GCIA)

Every 3rd monday of the month @ 7p.m.

Musicians’ Union Hall 2401 Esplanade Ave (entrance through parking lot on Bayou Road and Rocheblave Street)

Carrollton Riverbend Neighborhood Association DeSaix Neighborhood Association Every 2nd Thursday of the month Parish Hall of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Corner of Carrollton and Zimple

Every 2nd Monday @ 7p.m.

3201 Orleans Avenue http://www.fsjna.org

Every 2nd Saturday of the month @10a.m.

St. Leo Church 2916 Paris Ave.

East New Orleans Neighborhood Advisory Committee (ENONAC) Every 2rd Tuesday of each month @ 6 p.m.

St. Maria Goretti http://www.enonac.org

1 annual meeting per year, time/date/location TBA

General Membership- Every 3rd Saturday of the month 10am Board Meeting - Every 3rd Wednesday of the month 6:30pm Edgewater Baptist Church 5900 Paris Ave.

Faubourg St. John

Every 2nd Tuesday of the month @ 5:30pm Pleasant Zion Missionary Baptist Church 3327 Toledano Street

Hollygrove Neighbors

Quarterly- Saturdays at noon January 9 April 10 July 10 October 16 St. Peters Church 3424 Eagle St. Eage St and Edinburgh St

Holy Cross Neighborhood Association

Every Thursday @ 5:30 Center for Sustainability, Greater Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church 5130 Chartres, Lizardi and Chartres http://www.helpholycross.org

Gentilly Heights East Neighborhood Association Lake Bullard Homeowners Every 3rd Monday of the month @ 6p.m.

Dillard University Dent Hall – Room 104

Gentilly Sugar Hill Neighborhood Association Every 3rd Monday of the month @ 6:30 p.m .

VOA – 2929 St. Anthony Ave.

Gentilly Terrace and Gardens Improvement Association

Faubourg Delachaise Neighborhood Association Every 2nd Wednesday of the Quarterly meetings, time/ date/location TBA

Hoffman Triangle Neighborhood Association

month @ 7pm Gentilly Terrace School 4720 Painters St. http://www.gentillyterrace.org

Association Every Saturday @ 3p.m.

Cornerstone United Methodist Church 5276 Bullard Ave. http://www.lakebullard.org

Lake Catherine Civic Association

Every 2nd Tuesday of the month @ 7 p.m.

Lake Willow Neighborhood

Every 2nd Saturday of the month @ 10a.m.

St. Maria Goretti Church

Lower Ninth Ward

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March/April 2010

Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association (NENA)

Every 2nd Saturday @ 12 noon NENA – 1120 Lamanche St. http://www.9thwardnena.org

Melia Subdivision

Every 2rd Saturday of the month @ 5 p.m.

Anchoren in Christ Church 4334 Stemway Drive

Mid-City Neighborhood Organization

Board Meeting – Every last Tuesday of the month 6 p.m.

General Meeting - Every 1st Monday of the month 6:30 p.m.

Grace Episcopal Church 3700 Canal Street http://www.mcno.org

Oak Park Civic Association Every 3rd or last Tuesday of the month

Paris Oaks/Bayou Vista

Neighborhood Association Last Saturday of every month @ 4p.m.

Third District Police Station 4650 Paris Avenue

Tall Timbers Owners Association

Semi-annual meetings: 2nd Wednesday of October & April 7p.m. Board meetings: 2nd Pensiontown of Carrollton Wednesday of every other Neighborhood Association month 7.p.m Every 1st Saturday of the Tunisburg Square month @ 2p.m.

Homeowners Civic Leonidas House Community Association, Inc. Center (under renovation) Every 2nd Monday of the 1407 Leonidas St Temporarily housed at St. Paul month @ 6:30 p.m. http://tunisburg.org AME Church 8540 Cohn St (corner of West Barrington Leonidas and Cohn)

Pontilly Association Pontilly Disaster Collaborative

– Every 3rd Wednesday of the month General Meeting – every 2nd Saturday of the month http://www.pontilly.com

Rosedale Subdivision

2nd Friday of Every Month

Association

1st Tuesday of every month @ 6 p.m.

Holiday Inn Express 70219 Bullard Avenue

Send your neighborhood meeting details to: web@ npnnola.com

Upcoming Events Comedy Cares:

Arts Market of New French Quarter Orleans Festival

March 16th 8p.m.

At Le Chat Nor

March 27 through June 26

Irish Stew (and Jews too)

Come out to Le Chat Noir on March 16th for a night of incredible laughs (and a few surprises) with your favorite mayoral candidate, Jonah Bascle and national comedy legend Jessica Halem.

Tickets are $20 and include complimentary appetizers.

Purchase Tickets: thesocialproject2.eventbrite.com

10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. - free.

April 9-11

held throughout the historic French Quarter (Vieux Carre)neighborhood http://www.fqfi.org/

The Arts Market features handmade, affordable art from local and regional artists and artisans. Styles Trumpet Release Party of art include Painting, Photography, Ceramics, Glass, Jewelry, Wood, May 12th 5:30-8:30 and Printmaking, plus handmade At the Fair Grounds clothing, soap, candles, and other delights. Between 50 and 100 artists *Save the Date! display and sell their wares each This issue will spotlight Music, Arts month. and Culture in New Orleans and we will also be highlighting the Faubourg St. John neighborhood.

Ask City Hall District A

Shelley Midura City Hall, Room 2W80 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504)Joshua 658-1010 Cella Fax: (504) 658-1016 Rethink Summer Intern Email:smidura@cityofno.com

District B

Stacy Head City Hall, Room 2W10 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658 -1020 Fax: (504) 658-1025 Email:shead@cityofno.com

District C

James Carter City Hall, Room 2W70 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1030 Fax: (504) 658-1037 Email: jcarter@cityofno.com

District D

Cynthia Hedge-Morrell City Hall, Room 2W20 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1040 Fax: (504) 658-1048 E-mail: chmorrell@cityofno.com

District E

Cynthia Willard-Lewis City Hall, Room 2W60 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1050 Fax: (504) 658-1058 E-mail: cwlewis@cityofno.com

Council Member-At-Large

Arnie Fielkow City Hall, Room 2W40 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1060 Fax: (504) 658-1068 Email: afielkow@cityofno.com

Council Member-At-Large Jacquelyn Clarkson City Hall, Room 2W50 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1070 Fax: (504) 658-1077

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NPN’s THE TRUMPET MAGAZINE

This issue of The Trumpet Magazine, “Community Voices Orchestrating Change,” is proudly supported by: