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Neighborhood Voices, Citywide Power November 2007
Issue #10 Volume 1
What’s Inside:
Why Coastal Louisiana is Important to the Nation page 5
Broadmoor’s Efforts to Survive page 8
Be a New Orleanian :: Dirty Coast Style page 12
NPN provides an inclusive and collaborative city-wide framework to empower neighborhood groups in New Orleans Find out more at NPNnola.com Musicians Union Hall, 2401 Esplanade Ave. New Orleans, LA 70119 • Office 504-940-2207, Fax 504-940-2208 • thetrumpet@npnnola.com
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NPN’s The Trumpet
November 2007
Letter From The Editors I confess: On Election day, I could not help but be thankful. Along the neutral grounds the signs, smiles and barbeques were genuine. Louisianans have taken stock of the political harvest and they are ready for change. A seasoned cynic or pundit would call me naïve or “Pollyanna.” What about all the corruption? Yet I resist the temptation of pessimism. The country has seen the resiliency of New Orleans’ neighborhoods and takes pride in Louisiana’s spirit – approximately half of all the registered voters in Louisiana cast their votes on Saturday. Seeing the enthusiasm and candor of those who voted and those who urged others to raise their voices leads me to believe Louisianans will not stay on the sidelines in the coming years. As one impassioned resident from Parkview told me, “In New Orleans, civic participation is not a spectator sport.” Working with NPN and the Trumpet for over a year has taught me many lessons, and perhaps the most impressive one is the depth of people’s determination to succeed. I appreciate those who have followed their words with action and I am thankful that we have worked hard to share our successes. Now, over this we can all break bread. Thank you for supporting the Trumpet.
Ted Hornick Editor-in-Chief Alethia Picciola Art Director Max Goldstein Assistant to the Editors Art Director Alethia Picciola brings forth terror on Editor-in-Chief Ted Hornick, leaving the directors of NPN to salvage the letter column (see left).
NEIGHBORHOODS PARTNERSHIP NETWORK
NPN provides an inclusive and collaborative city-wide framework to empower neighborhood groups in New Orleans.
Gill Benedek Programs Director, NPN
Find out more at NPNnola.com
My being thankful in the midst of these disarranged times for my hometown may seem strange, even foolish. Yet it is during this time that I step out of myself and I reflect on where I was, and how bright my future is NOW. As I sit writing these words, I hear my maternal grandmother singing a familiar song that I heard her sing many times in her uptown kitchen as she cooked teacakes and biscuits. I never truly understood the words until I was much older: “How I got over, How I got over… you know my soul looks back and wonder how I got over.” The idea of getting over is to think beyond what you see in front of you. Not in a cunning or dishonest manner but instead becoming more informed, equipped and resilient to the opportunities presented before you. I think about how not even a month ago I was one of five persons living in a one-bedroom house and now I am in a home of my own participating in the rebuilding of a city that I love. Reading this issue, I see that the city is filled with love – just check out Jessica Kinnison’s story about rebuilding in Broadmoor starting on page eight, or Marcia Wall’s inspirational stories of community thanks on page twelve.
COMMUNITY PROGRAMS MANAGER Gill Benedek
It is these words of thankfulness that plant seeds of hope for me, that New Orleans will one day be a city of aspiration and inspiration, and that all things are possible when all peoples BELIEVE. Timolynn Sams Executive Director, NPN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Timolynn Sams
Third Party Submission Issues Physical submissions on paper, CD, etc. cannot be returned unless an arrangement is made. Submissions may be edited and may be published or otherwise reused in any medium. By submitting any notes, information or material, or otherwise providing any material for publication in the newspaper, you are representing that you are the owner of the material, or are making your submission
with the consent of the owner of the material, all information you provide is true, accurate, current and complete. Non-Liability Disclaimers The Trumpet may contain facts, views, opinions, statements and recommendations of third party individuals and organizations. The Trumpet does not represent or endorse
Cover Photos by Alethia Picciola: “With this collection of photos, I wanted to represent what I am thankful for as a New Orleanian. I am thankful for street performers, the Saints (no matter their rankings), the view of the city from the Algiers Ferry, the food and of course, THE MUSIC.”
the accuracy or reliability of any advice,
Corrections:
information is at your own risk.
We did not credit Catherine Cotton for her work on the graphic we ran on page 11 last month. In the “Queen of the Ball” article (Trumpet Oct, 2007) by Orissa Arend, the writer overlooked the crucial contributions of Tami Hills to the design of Queen of the Ball. Ms. Hills provided labor, creativity, love, and design skill to help launch the snowball parlour. We apologize for these mistakes.
opinion, statement or other information in the publication and use of or reliance on such advice, opinion, statement or other
Copyright Copyright 2007 Neighborhoods Partnership Network. All Rights Reserved. Any copying, redistribution or retransmission of any of the contents of this service without the express written consent of Neighborhoods Partnership Network is expressly prohibited.
AMERICORPS VISTA Jules Goins BUSINESS MANAGER Mario Perkins FOUNDING BOARD MEMBERS Phil Costa, Board Chair City Park Neighborhood Association Patricia Jones, Board Treasurer Executive Director, NENA Lower 9th Ward Deborah Langhoff Steering Committee District 5 Lakeview, Lake Vista Neighborhood Association Amy Lafont Mid-City Neighborhood Association Latoya Cantrell President, Broadmoor Improvement Association Lynn Aline Baronne Street Neighborhood Association Dorian Hastings Project Manager, Central City Renaissance Julius Lee Real Timbers Property Owners Association, Inc. Victor Gordon Pontilly Neighborhood Association Kim Henry Oak Park Neighborhood Association
NPN’s The Trumpet
Letter to the Editor
Photo by Ted Hornick
Write, Submit, Share Your Story! Events, Poems, Neighborhood Updates, Opinions, or Advertisements Contact us with submissions or comments Email: thetrumpet@npnnola.com or call 504-940-2207 Write to us at: The Trumpet, 2401 Esplanade Ave. New Orleans, LA 70119
Submission Guidelines: An article in doc, txt, html or any other format. Any photos and credits of photographer. Contact information such as name, telephone #, e-mail, neighborhood, organization.
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NPN’s The Trumpet
November 2007
Neighborhood Voices The Opinions of New Orleans
Neighborhood Profiles Walnut Bend
The Trumpet has no responsibility for the views, opinions and information communicated here. Each article’s contributor(s) is fully responsible for content. In addition, the views and opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the The Trumpet.
Editors’ Note: The responsibilities of Neighborhoods Partnership Network’s staff involve liaison work with specific community groups, to both better understand neighborhood concerns and provide resources to them. For this month’s Trumpet, we wanted the Neighborhood Liaisons to communicate with people in their specific neighborhoods, to better understand both the people living in the city and what in their communities inspires them.
NPN’s Americorps VISTA, Jules Goins, spoke with Yvonne Mitchell-Grubb, President of the Walnut Bend Civic Association. Jules: How long have you lived here? Ms. Mitchell-Grubb: “Twenty-eight years.” Jules: “What do you find here that you can’t anywhere else in New Orleans?” Ms. Mitchell-Grubb: “The fact that we have long-time residents that reach out to new neighbors . . . [the] camaraderie.” Jules: “What are your favorite/least favorite parts of this community and the City? How would you improve either?” Ms. Mitchell-Grubb: “I like our proximity . . . We are a quiet community, but very close to Algiers and Downtown. The streets that need to be repaired are my number one complaint.” Jules: “What would you say to encourage others to come here?” Ms. Mitchell-Grubb: “I appreciate the friendliness of community, encourage neighbors to participate and am always happy to have any new neighbors.” Ms. Mitchell-Grubb also wanted to emphasize her thanks that more people are back in New Orleans. As she views things, Algiers Charter Schools Association has been making the schools and neighborhood associations stronger by encouraging people to work with them.
Desire
Marica Peterson, Development Director of Desiree Street Ministries. Photo by Mia Partlow
NPN’s Public Relations Director, Mia Partlow, interviewed Marcia Peterson, Development Director of Desire Street Ministries. Editor’s Note: Marcia is not from the Desire neighborhood but is working actively to rebuild it and has been working in the community for the past thirteen years. Marcia: I’ve been involved with Desire since 1994, with the church. I’ve been involved with Desire Street Ministries since 2003-4. Mia: What do you find here that you can’t find anywhere else in New Orleans? Marcia: A strong sense of community, heritage, and neighborhood traditions. Mia: Can you give some examples of these traditions? Marcia: People say “good night” when they greet you in the evening. If you do that in other parts of the city people know you’re from the Ninth Ward. Mia: What are your favorite parts of this community? Marcia: My favorite parts are the way people have faith in the midst of all this poverty; that stuns me ... People have so much hope in the midst of hopelessness. It makes me want to stay connected, seeing that. Mia: How would you improve the community? Marcia: By rebuilding housing stock, bringing necessary services ... bringing drug stores, banks, medical services, adequate transportation, education. Mia: What would you say to encourage others to come here? Marcia: Don’t abandon this neighborhood - Come back and let’s build it together.
Gentilly Elizabeth Falcom, NPN Neighborhood Liason Coordinatior talked with John Lyon from the Gentilly Terrace Neighborhood: John Lyon bought his Gentilly Terrace and Gardens home in January, 2005. He loves the Arts and Crafts Bungalow and the surrounding neighborhood. “It’s a great community,” he says. It’s safe, clean and people care about each other. His neighborhood has “all the things I love about New Orleans.” As someone who has lived all over the country, Lyon says New Orleans is the most distinct city in the country because of its culture, idiosyncrasies, history and diversity. When asked what he was thankful for, John Lyon had only one word: “family.” He was especially thankful of the support his fiancé has given him this year.
NPN’s The Trumpet
Why Coastal Louisiana is
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Important to the Nation
Robert Thomas, Ph.D.
Interim Director of Loyola University’s School of Mass Communcation
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n the aftermath of Katrina, hundreds of thousands of Americans have given of themselves to help rebuild our coast. I recently visited with a group of students from the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and shared why New Orleans is important to our nation. When finished, Conrad Smith, one of the group’s chaperones, approached me and said, “You don’t have to convince me how important New Orleans is to Nebraska. I’m a corn farmer. When Katrina hit, we were in the middle of our harvest. We couldn’t send our product past New Orleans on the Mississippi, so we filled up our silos. About the time they were full, the bottom fell out of the market and we lost our year’s income.” There are two paths out of this quagmire of devastation. Citizens must dig deep to pull themselves up, and citizens must elect enlightened leaders who can reconnect the dots that were so horribly scattered after Katrina and Rita. Here are a few of the major dots:
Oil and gas: Louisiana is the energy coast, with 30 percent of all oil and gas entering the country through the Port of Fourchon. The industry annually pays salaries of $2.7 billion to over 40,000 employees, half of whom are residents of other states. Petrochemical corridor: Louisiana’s petrochemical business is consistently number three in serving the needs of the U.S. In 2005, the Katrina/Rita year, we shipped $50 billion in product. Coastal fisheries: America’s WETLAND is the nursery that provides 40 percent of the commercial fisheries in the continental U.S. Nationally, seven of the top 10 landing ports are in Louisiana. We are the nation’s largest producer of oysters and supply 50 percent of the shrimp. Total annual value is $2.85 billion and fisheries provide 40,000 direct jobs. Coastal agriculture: Sugar alone produces $1.7 billion in economic value. Though rice production took a beating in the storms, its most recent value was $235 million. Port system: Louisiana is home to the number one port complex in the nation, hosting five of the fifteen largest individual ports in the nation.
A recent study showed the ports’ total annual economic impact was $30 billion, which supported more than 240 thousand jobs. Tourism: Before the storms, tourism produced $10 billion in revenue, and provided more than 110,000 direct jobs. Greater New Orleans consistently ranks number two in desired destinations for Americans. Unique culture: One cannot put a value on the gumbo culture that we all love, and that is arguably the largest draw for tourists in coastal Louisiana. The ambiance of coastal Louisiana is attributable to the people who live here, their cultures of origin, and the means by which they have adapted to living in this unique coastal wetland environment. The place created the people, and the people’s consequent lifestyles are extraordinary. Inherent abilities of our citizens: Frances Smith has relocated to the metro Dallas. She and other New Orleanians in the area are networking for the betterment of their displaced community. Members of the group have launched several restaurants, and other members volunteer their time and efforts. There are often lines of customers out the door – mainly because
of two things we take for granted. One is that we cook very tasty food, and the second is that we do that because there are so many culinarily gifted people living along the coast. I’ve heard that many of our citizens who have relocated are immediately improving their work lives: sous chefs are becoming chefs, waiters are becoming maetre d’s, and the like. What we see as commonplace, others see as extraordinary. Steve Cheramie, a Houma Indian from Point-aux-Chen, says that his tribe defines itself in terms of the places people live. He believes that if the land where he lives sinks beneath the sea, the Houma will cease to exist as a people. I believe most citizens of south Louisiana feel the same way. If we lose our way of life, the place we live, we will not be the same people, and America will have lost its most unusual geographic and demographic area. When the dots are reconnected, enlightened leaders will see the outline of a key to national security and prosperity that will only work in the lock of a restored coastal Louisiana. Dr. Robert A. Thomas is Director of Loyola’s Center for Environmental Communications; email is rathomas@loyno.edu
Coastal Louisiana's Importance
50%
of the nation's shrimp comes from louisiaina.
#1.
Louisiana is home to the
largest port complex in the nation. The
30%
Port of South Louisiana is the largest bulk cargo port in the world.
of the nation's oil and gas enters through Louisiana.
This column ran in the Op/Ed section of the Times Picayune, B-5, on 7-30-07.
Graphic Design by Max Goldstein
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NPN’s The Trumpet
November 2007
The Courage to Rebuild and the arguments for problems I can’t comprehend overwhelmed Rex Gregory New Orleans Transplant me. I had to ask extremely critical questions about a time that is still hurtful and incomprehensible. hen I went to Oregon What made/makes Katrina such a in August to see family for the painful and senseless experience first time since the year before is that it strikes at the very core the storm, I found a very critical of the problems and divisions of question posed to me. In fact, our American society and lays bare social interactions were mostly the fact that an entire city can hinged around this question: lose its livelihood and be torn “Should New Orleans and at the seams and lose millions Southern Louisiana be allowed to of American citizens if political rebuild?” pundits, elected leaders and the social structure itself fails to help. Or to care. Or chooses to profit off of raw suffering, or uses the drama of the event as a distraction to divide themselves further down ideological or political lines. What made/makes Katrina such a painful and senseless experience is that it displays the failure of American compassion. What did I have to defend? anger. It insulted me that I should I had to spell out New Orleans’ To you, I am sure this sounds contributions to America. Dr. ridiculous. Unfortunately, it seems have to defend the place that has to be the debate that the rest of the incontrovertibly shaped my destiny Bob’s article in this issue can speak volumes here. I had to country is having about us behind and character for my entire adult defend our political leadership, life. To jump into the question our backs. With government aid which as you might imagine was so abruptly after not seeing my figures ostensibly at staggering family for three years was wholly nigh impossible. What struck me heights, the task of securing our as most absurd, though, was that I livelihood seems too cumbersome insensitive to the trauma of over had to defend black people in New two million individuals whose for most Americans outside of Orleans in general. To have to do lives have been turned upside Southern Louisiana to justify. this really helped put in perspective down and inside out. The diatribe Take, for instance, the cover some problems in White American of why the problems of New story for the August 2007 issue of Orleans and South Louisiana void society. Why should I be the National Geographic. The article any effort to rebuild the city seems spokesperson for an entire group presented a barrage of facts and pictures that gave an impression of tantamount to blaming a victim for of people? Why are they singled out in the national debate? Why being robbed. New Orleans as a blemish on the are African Americans viewed as a My second reaction was an geological map. True, there was problem people? I heard the figures acceptance of my position. “Do a minor acknowledgement of the of New Orleans public school not blame them, for they know city and the life it has historically not what they do,” my conscience enrollment being over 90% black sustained, but it paled in the face spoken as some kind of epidemic. whispered. I found myself of the hopeless forecast. Only Do White Americans say the same unprepared for this sucker punch cursory mention at the articles’
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end was given to a Dutch scientist who put it quite rightly: “How could you imagine an America without a New Orleans? We could never begin to imagine a Holland without Amsterdam, Italy could never be the same without its Venice.” These cities face similar problems as New Orleans. In fact, the half of Holland with all of the major cities would be underwater if the country’s government and its people didn’t take the decisive action that they do. My first reaction was a flash of
I had to ask extremely critical questions about a time that is still hurtful and incomprehensible.
thing about suburbs in America comprising a non-white population of less than 2%? Most of all, I had to really ask myself where I saw the city going and be aware of the many factors that shape the contours of other non-New Orleanians’ perceptions. In a time where the TV-show “K-Ville” is probably the major agent of public perception (and the sensationalist mainstream media) it is important to show others that we carry ourselves with dignity and not only deserve the chance to rebuild and exist, but that we do it in a way that only a New Orleanian can: with grace, respect, a (perhaps acrid) dose of truth-telling, and, most importantly, humor. In this time of Thanksgiving, I can honestly say that I am thankful for the experience of Katrina, as a lot of illusion has been dispelled for me. It is said, “Unless the wind blows, we do not see the fowl’s rump.” I am grateful for being put up to the task to ask why we should exist because it makes me stronger, it makes me yearn for a more satisfying answer, and in turn, yearn for a more satisfying and rich life in this precious crown jewel of the Delta. And I am thankful for the millions of Americans and handful of officials that were/are compassionate in our time of trials. So if you’re faced with this question, please do not be another chip in their ante against you and the city you represent, but dispel misconceptions, have the courage to give a positive, sustaining answer and summon the compassion you might have been denied.
The diatribe of why the problems of New Orleans and South Louisiana void any effort to rebuild the city seems tantamount to blaming a victim for being robbed.
Simple Thanks Travis Leger Carrollton Resident Editor Ameritus
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have a lot to be thankful for, but I want to single out an individual who has played the role of guide for me since I moved to New Orleans over a year ago. While I will enumerate the reasons why I am thankful for this one person, I think she embodies a whole group of people that we will all agree deserve our thanks. This group is made up of all the young people who have moved here since the hurricane to aid in the rebuilding. The one I will single out, who embodies the spirit they all brought to the city, Meghan Finn. My wife and I moved to New Orleans in June of 2006. We had just returned from a stint with the Peace Corps in the island country of East Timor, in Southeast Asia. Katrina happened while we were away. We are both native Louisianans: I am from Lake Charles and my wife from Baton Rouge. We felt that the best thing we could do, upon reentering the US, was to help out however we could in the recovery of our beloved city. I don’t consider myself one of those
exceptional young people who came to rebuild. Not only because I don’t feel that young anymore (I’m 27), but because this is my state. There should be nothing special in my wanting to rebuild my home. My first job here was as a part-time
NPN’s The Trumpet and my work would be much appreciated there. I took the job. It was as an AmeriCorps member with NPN (then called the Neighborhoods Planning Network) and the newspaper I would work on is the one you are reading now. I worked with NPN until August of this year, mostly as Editor-in-Chief of The Trumpet. In this capacity and with this organization I was able to do what I had
There should be nothing special in my wanting to rebuild my home. soccer coach in Metairie. I began to wait tables, too, soon after. It was something, but I wanted a job that was more recoveryrelated. I heard stories of young people gutting houses all over the city and began to look for opportunities like that. I soon came across a craigslist listing for an AmeriCorps position that caught my eye. It did not involve gutting houses but it did involve something that I thought might be even more interesting, a local non-profit was looking for someone to help them start up a newspaper. I went in for an interview, and that’s where I first met Meghan. After the interview, I still wasn’t sure if it was what I wanted, but then it was Meghan who convinced me that my skills were needed
wanted to do when I first arrived in the city: Contribute. And while many people deserve my thanks for giving me opportunities, I want to especially thank Meghan. But she didn’t stop there. As my tenmonth AmeriCorps term came to an end, Meghan inadvertently directed me to what I am doing now. She was then working with Trinity Christian Community to help organize the 2007 Festival of Neighborhoods in the Superdome. She needed some help picking up the Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP) for District 6 and I volunteered to pick up a copy at the University of New Orleans campus. At that time, I was considering going back to school to get a Master’s in Creative
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Writing. I knew UNO offered the degree but the last day to apply had come and gone. But when I visited the campus to pick up the UNOP plan, I paid a visit to the Creative Writing department just to talk to them, and they encouraged me to apply anyway. I filled out the paperwork and submitted it with writing samples the next day. In my application I said that I wanted to learn how to be a better writer so that I could tell the inspirational stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things and then get those stories to people all over the world. I wanted to learn how to capture the feelings of people battling through difficult times so that those who read about them could understand them. I wanted to be able to tell the story of the Recovery. Today, I am a student at UNO, halfway through my first semester in the Creating Writing Program. And I have to thank Meghan for that, too. Meghan has only just moved back home to Seattle. Like many of the young people who have responded to the city’s call for help, she has put her heart and soul into her work, but heard the call of home wanting its beloved daughter back. We can’t keep them all forever in the city, but there is always room in our hearts. Thanks, Meghan, for what you’ve done for me and my city.
Something About New Orleans Folwell Dunbar Holy Cross Neighborhood Association
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y wife and I have left New Orleans numerous times. Going against the practical advice and desperate pleas of family and friends, and defying logic, we’ve always returned. It would be easy (and a bit cliché) to say it was the music, food or architecture that drew us back. Truth is, it was something else, and I’m not exactly sure what. My mother, a character culled from the pages of a Tennessee Williams’ play, used to blame it on some unexplainable ethereal force. “Even Marie Laveau,” she would say, “couldn’t peg a voodoo pin to it.” My father, the quintessential southern gentleman, says, “The city is like an old familiar chicken coop. Eventually, we all come back to roost.” My doctor diagnosed it as “dementia induced by the balmy subtropical heat.” We were
incapable of responsible decisionmaking because our gray matter had been reduced to a lumpy, swamp-like roux. A lay meteorologist friend of mine quickly retorted, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity, stupid.” Another friend of mine, an entomologist, had an easy answer: “The place is just crawling with bugs. Swarming termites and marauding fire ants, cockroaches the size of pterodactyls and mosquitoes capable of carrying off small bovine, what’s not to like?” Then there are the transplants, people who came down for Jazz Fest or Mardi Gras and never left. While dancing to the Iguanas at Café Brazil or drinking a Pimm’s Cup at the Napoleon House, these people slammed headlong into a geographical soul mate. It’s as if they were abducted by aliens who just
happen to live on a much cooler planet. They buy a shotgun double and rent out the other half, take a few classes at Tulane or UNO, acquire a taste for chicory and seersucker, and, eventually, join the “confederacy of dunces.” Like so many other Big Queasy “char-actuz” (Listen to Dr. John’s rendition of “Basin Street Blues” for the proper pronunciation), they become part of the ethereal force my mom couldn’t quite put a finger on. Two days before Katrina hit, my wife and I fled to the “high ground” of Avery Island. We watched from a distance in disbelief as our city was battered and beaten about. We, like others around the world, were incensed by the slow response and human folly of it all. It was utterly surreal.
For the longest time, we considered leaving. San Francisco, Charleston, Key West, Charlottesville, and a slough of European and Latin American cities made the initial cut. We listened to people far more rational than us and we swallowed the poison of one pragmatic argument after another. And then, two days before the mayor said we could return, we were back. When people ask me what it is that keeps us here, I think of George Harrison and simply say, “Something.” Folwell lives two blocks from Desire, a levee away from the river, and a short stagger from the French Quarter.
“I don’t want to leave her now, you know I believe and how” George Harrison
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November 2007
IN THE
NPN’s The Trumpet
SPOTLIGHT
Broadmoor Refuses to Disappear Jessica Kinnison Uptown Writer
“R
ide, Postman, Ride,” Broadmoor Improvement Association President LaToya Cantrell says, her fist in the air, grinning, as she sits at the long conference table in the BIA office at 4514 S. Derbigny St. late on a Friday afternoon. She remembers this line from her favorite movie as she speaks about her determination after the storm. Kevin Costner’s 1997 flick, “The Postman,” is about a post-apocalyptic America in which a con man finds an old postman’s uniform and mail bag and goes from town to town pretending to be a U.S. postman, says Cantrell. She describes the film as if she were sitting after a long week with a close friend. She says, raising and lowering her voice, wide-eyed, “The people begin to believe in him and believe that, through him, the United States is coming back and order is being established.” It is the simple, everyday things that people hold onto, she says. “This guy who started out as a swindler became their beacon of hope and he enlisted like hundreds of other
Orleans Education Foundation of which she is the director. She begins to relax. She leans back in her chair, pulling up her top layer above her pregnant belly. She rubs it in a circular motion as she discusses finances, government, and her determination to implement the Broadmoor Redevelopment Plan completed in June 2006. She is deliberate with her comments, and has the voice of a lullaby but the message of a storm siren.
From Swamp to Home The first houses in Broadmoor were built on what was then woodsy, uninhabited marsh in 1910. There was a housing boom in the 1920s--thirty percent of all construction occurred between 1920 and 1924. The Andrew H. Wilson school opened in 1922 in conjunction with the formation of the Broadmoor Civic Association. By the 1940s, 50 percent of the homes in Broadmoor were owneroccupied. Ninety percent of the buildings in Broadmoor are historical buildings--860 buildings, 3 churches, and one school.
“It’s either exist or not. The hell with being afraid.” -Latoya Cantrell, BIA President postmen,” she says, laughing. “It’s a feelgood movie.” “When someone tells you that you are not going to exist anymore, you say no,” says Cantrell, a California transplant who has been active in BIA since 2001. “It’s either exist or not. The hell with being afraid.” She never thought to back down. She says she had to stand up for the people of her community so that they wouldn’t be afraid to stand up with her, come back and rebuild. She is stylish in black pants with a sheer top over another black shirt, direct from a meeting at the Greater New
The BIA developed from the Civic Association in the late 1960s to fight “blockbusting,” a common practice among local realtors at the time. The realtor would sell a home to a black family help the white families move off the block, and get commissions from all. The BIA stopped this practice and today, Broadmoor is one of the most racially diverse neighborhoods in New Orleans with 68 percent African Americans, 26 percent Caucasians, and 4 percent Hispanics. It was home to more than 7,000 residents. “The more people you talk to, you
will realize Broadmoor is such a diverse neighborhood. Everybody loves where they live, they love their community and that’s what brings everybody together. When it comes to Broadmoor, everybody’s on the same page,” says Eusi Phillips, a 29-year-old lawyer and Broadmoor resident. Phillips drives by his house at 4308 S. Galvez St. every day on his way to work. “Sometimes I forget and start driving there at night, and when I realize, sometimes I just go anyway and look at it.” Phillips grew up in Broadmoor and is currently living in an apartment in Jefferson Parish with his wife and their two daughters, ages 3 and 1, until they finish repairs on their home. They were in Houston for almost a year after the storm. They moved back in June 2006. “I want my girls to play on the same neutral ground I played on when I was a kid,” he said. “I feel pretty strong that we will be back in our house by January.” He added that last January he projected Easter and then, in the spring, he hoped to be home by summer. Their house got eight feet of water and they raised it ten feet. For some, it was a forgotten teddy bear or a local hangout. Phillips says for him that the house itself was his symbol of home. “My daughter’s first birthday was in our yard, August 13, 2005. It was a beautiful thing,” he says. “Two weeks later, we were looking at what was happening in New Orleans on CNN.” But his personal teddy bear was more tangible than a memory. “Anyone who knows me will tell you I am like diehard times a hundred,” he says. He kept a helmet autographed by former Saints players and coach, Aaron Brooks, Jim Haslett, Duece Mcallister, Joe Horn and Dave Atkins, in his basement where he watched the games in a display case. “I didn’t think about the helmet. I just wrote everything off,” he says. He says that the man they hired to gut their home called him in Houston to tell him that he found it. At first, Phillips told him to throw it out, assuming it was unsalvageable. But the man explained
that it didn’t get wet. “I told him to hold it and the next day I was down here to get it. The console must have fallen over, sealing it in, and then it floated. I have it on top of my TV in my apartment now,” he says, proud. Mona Dogans returned home a week before Hurricane Rita in September, 2005. “I was one of the first to come back,” she says. “People who live in Broadmoor --they want to come back home, even the renters, it’s just the type of neighborhood that it is.” What’s her address? Dogans’ family has lived in Broadmoor since 1973. “We’ve been around a long time. This is an area we like and we’ve always liked. It’s very diverse. It’s economically diverse. It’s culturally diverse. It’s just a strange area, where you have a little bit of everything.” She is the agent for the family business, Claiborne Avenue Ventures, at 4235 S. Claiborne Avenue. “The family corporation owns the building--sisters, brothers, mother,” she says. “Everybody in the family lives in Broadmoor.” Her family has run Crump’s Seafood Market and Sandwich Shop out of the Ventures building since 1989. “We are going to reopen, yes indeed,” she says. “The box between the 45 and the 50, I am in there,” she says laughing. She is starting over in the middle of life. “We are learning a lot about energy-efficient things for your house and how your house should be in general to protect us from these storms. Before, we just accepted it,” she says. “Who would have thought? This is the way life is. You are like the pioneers. You are like the farmers who build a crop. You clear the land and you start planting all over again. It’s going to be better,” she says.
Something Tangible “We’re in the implementation phase,” says Cantrell. “We’ve been implementing for over a year.” A phonebook-sized booklet, detailing everything from financial prospects to repopulation to how to register to
The People in your Neighborhood NPN’s The Trumpet vote, sits beside her on the table. The citizens of Broadmoor met over a hundred times to compose this Broadmoor Redevelopment Plan. Scores of interns from Harvard, MIT, Notre Dame, Bard College, the University of Portland and others helped conduct research and worked with citizens to make the plan a reality. The first meeting was in a white tent on the Napoleon Avenue neutral ground and it formed in reaction to the 2006 Bring New Orleans Back Committeeissued urban planning report. According to the “Parks and Open Space Plan,” much of Broadmoor had been transformed into a big, green circle, representing a park. Residents viewed this plan as a call to action. Now, nearly two years later, the Broadmoor community has not only broken free of the green circle, but have made its own plan for the space. “This is our opportunity to have some control of our environment, for people to start over,” says Phillips. The Broadmoor Redevelopment Plan is supported by a network of public and private partnerships under the Clinton Global Initiative. Cantrell says the plan, published in the summer of 2006, took a lot of time because everyone was involved. Dogans says, “We put hours in on that. All volunteer work. Everybody in the community had a voice. We didn’t leave anybody out.” Residents like Phillips came from the areas where they were displaced. “I would drive from Houston,” he says. “That is the level of commitment that people have to
Before
that organization. Even though we weren’t back in our homes. It wasn’t like people just walked down the street to meet on the corner. They came from all over just for the meetings” “There was a spirit there that
buildings under construction-- the Andrew H. Wilson School and the Rosa Keller Library. The BIA plans to link these two buildings with an education corridor that will serve as a community meeting place. State Education Superintendent
9
time in Broadmoor will be a visual representation of progress in the community. “Building community, that is what it’s all about,” she says. “The people are what it is all about.”
“You are like the pioneers. You are like the farmers who build a crop. You clear the land and you start planting all over again. It’s going to be better.” - Mona Dogans, Broadmoor Resident ensured we were going to have a successful organization. Everybody knew something special was going to happen,” he says. “What we really rallied around was that the city was going to make Broadmoor a green space--a pond or park. The motivating force behind us was that someone said you are just going to be a pond. It was a sounding of the alarm.” According to Phillips, the rooms used for the initial meetings after the storm were filled wall-to-wall. “They had to be held outdoors, that’s just how many people were coming,” he says. Later, they broke the group up into three main subgroups. “A plan is only as good as its initiative,” says Cantrell. Fifty to sixty percent of Broadmoor’s residents are back. At the beginning of the new year, there will be two new community
Paul Pastorek announced September 12 that he chose the Wilson School as one of five schools in the New Orleans area that the state will build new or asgood-as-new in the coming year. The BIA raised 2.4 million dollars privately to rebuild the Rosa Keller library. Donors include the Mercy Corps, the National Cathedral School, St. Albans School, the Laura Bush Foundation, Keller Family, RosaMary, and the New Orleans Public Library Foundations. The Carnegie Corporation gave a $2 million grant. “Faith without works is nothing,” says Cantrell. “When we started, I knew we would be very successful. I had no doubts. We didn’t have a choice.” The new school is something tangible, according to Cantrell. She says having two buildings under construction at the same
In the late afternoon, there is a thin sheet of New Orleans rain where the sun still shines, a large puddle reflects a postman’s truck parked at the corner of General Taylor and S. Miro streets. A “Broadmoor Lives” sign leans in the mud in front of the long, metal beams raising a home from its foundation. Grass green “Broadmoor Lives” bumper stickers are stuck like neon signs to dark bumpers lining the streets. Two men walk their dogs and laugh in broadbrimmed hats. A man and two boys in soccer cleats pile into a car on Gayoso Street. A woman picks the dead leaves from her plant on the corner of her porch. The postal truck is in front again on Napoleon Avenue now beneath a street of “Broadmoor Lives banners.” Ride, Postman, ride.
After
The BIA raised 2.4 million dollars privately to rebuild the Rosa Keller Library which flooded during Hurricane Katrina. The illustration to the right shows what the library will look like upon completion. Photo on the left by Alethia Picciola, Illustration on the right by Christopher Grubbs.
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NPN’s The Trumpet
November 2007
Curbside Recycling Reborn,
Thanks to Phoenix Will Lavender Phoenix Recycling
P
hoenix Recycling owners David McDonough and Steven O’Connor are committed to the local economy and environment, making their company one of the most ecologically exciting businesses in the Greater New Orleans area today. Office chatter these days among early adopters of the curbside service is about the reliability as well as the expanded types of papers, plastics, and metals that Phoenix collects. The free, but limited recycling provided by the city pre-Katrina did not. It may come as a surprise that Phoenix Recycling has been operating since 1991. McDonough. After graduating from the University of Georgia in 1989, McDonough moved back to New Orleans and was puzzled at the lack of recycling options. He began making plans to start his own recycling company, before learning that the City of New Orleans had began its
own. Phoenix switched its focus to commercial recycling. Shortly before Hurricane Katrina, McDonough followed his ex-wife and children to Atlanta. After the storm, during a visit to New Orleans for Jazzfest, McDonough had dinner with Steven O’Connor, again discussing the lack of recycling options in New Orleans. After sending out a few emails to test the waters, and receiving very positive responses, McDonough decided to commute to New Orleans, and Phoenix began its residential recycling service. Business has been booming for Phoenix ever since. In fact, it has been so overwhelming that McDonough and O’Connor have been riding the trucks themselves in order to keep up. Phoenix has the support and cooperation of the City of New Orleans and the Sanitation Department. Although some of private waste haulers, such as SDT and Richard’s, accidentally picked up the recycling bins as the program started, they have also been responsive in the
wake of such large-scale support for the recycling program. That’s not to say there haven’t been some larger setbacks. Phoenix, with only two trucks for the residential routes and one for the commercial, purchased a used curbside truck, which turned out to be a costly mistake. The truck spent much more time with the mechanic than on the street, explaining why Phoenix has been spotted making pickups in rented vehicles. There has also been some skepticism from residents who received free recycling services from the city before the storm, and are now paying monthly fees to a private company which then sells those same materials. In the month of August, Phoenix’s residential program picked up twenty tons of materials and grossed only $567. This figure does not include the cost of transporting these materials to the closest sorting facility in Baton Rouge. Phoenix Recycling has big plans for the future. While the commercial side of Phoenix runs on a traditional business model, the residential side is less conventional. McDonough and O’Connor plan to gather as much material as possible, and expand the service as quickly as possible. The greater the number of customers, the less the monthly fee will be. Prices will lower as break-even points are reached. Phoenix would also like to build their own sorting facility here in New Orleans. This would also lower the
cost of residential pickup, saving the company the expenses of transporting the materials to a Baton Rouge material recovery facility. A local sorting facility would also provide more Phoenix jobs and a manned dropoff center. While unmanned dropoff centers have proven to be dangerous (toxic materials and even loaded guns have been found in these unsupervised sites), a staffed dropoff center would allow the public to recycle normally difficult items, such as fluorescent light bulbs and used automobile oil filters. More than just a recycling service, Phoenix would like to be an educational and environmental resource, as well as supporting and recognizing other people and organizations that are doing similar things. As soon as there are established options, all the trucks in the Phoenix stable will run on biodiesel (see http://www.nobifuel.com/ for more information). “There are many progressive things happening in the waste management business right now,” says McDonough,”and we’d like to bring some of those things to New Orleans.” Price for residential service is $15 per month, with a $1 discount for members of neighborhood associations. See http://www. phoenixrecyclingnola.com for a sign up sheet, a route map and schedule, a materials list, and a description of the service. Contact Phoenix through phoenix.recycling@gmail. com or at (504)914-0739.
Charts by Phoenix Recycling. For more information, visit www.phoenixrecyclingnola.com
NPN’s The Trumpet
11
New Orleans Kid Camera Project This is the second in a monthly series of photographs taken by New Orleans children.
Buddy
Curtis
Raymond Check out more photos from the New Orleans Kid Camera Project at www.kidcameraproject.org
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NPN’s The Trumpet
November 2007
The People in your Neighborhood
BE A NEW ORLEANIAN :: DIRTY COAST STYLE Mike Dingler New Orleans Artist
Y
ou’ve seen their shirts around town. You know their look. And now, you can find their store. Dirty Coast began shortly before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and it is one idea that has made it through the rain. Starting small with a solid idea, Blake Haney and Patrick Brower decided that they should grow their business through good ole word of mouth. The first concept that came out of Dirty Coast was their shirt “Metairie, it’s safe here.” Made about seven months before the storm, the shirt reflects a time when it was still safe in Metairie. The most recognizable designs, and typically the best selling, are shirts that locals can immediately identify with, such as: “Be a New Orleanian. Wherever you are,” “I am New Orleans,” and “Premium NoLa.” Following the storm, which served
Photo by Blake Haney
as the catalyst for this business idea, New Orleanians sought a means of identifying themselves with their city and there has been no t-shirt company that has done that besides Dirty Coast. Initially started as a web-based storefront, and aided by local stores carrying their shirts, Blake and Patrick decided to go to the person with a discriminating taste in t-shirt choices. Though they had an ambitious ad campaign of over 250,000 stickers, Patrick feels that the designs they offer sell themselves. “People want a way to identify themselves with our city and we do that,” he explains. “I have to say the shirt that nails the city, in its identity and value is “New Orleans: So far behind, we’re ahead,” Blake adds. “As the rest of the country begins to value their neighborhoods, localism, walk-ability and identity, they will realize that New Orleans has been on the right path all along.” There have been some design
Dirty Coast Press owns Patrick Brower and Blake Haney opened a shop in September at 5704 Magazine St. Photo by Mike Dingler
issues with some of the shirts, most notably “Snitchin’ is Bitchin,” which was meant to be interpreted as promoting snitching (talking to the police about crimes), given the egregious murder rate. On the back of the shirt, instead of the usual Dirty Coast logo, is a cell phone (connoting that people should call in crimes) Due to misunderstanding by critics, they pulled the shirt from the website, though it is still available at the store. Recent designs for t-shirts involve the popular New Orleans personality Lil’ Doogie (“Brah, I’m Real?”) and “Iraq needs a Contra-flow.” While Haney and Brower like to work from an idea out, they do very selectively accept design submissions. Blake says, “We like our shirts to say something or create a reaction.” Depending on the complexity of the work, they’ll pay a design fee for the pieces they accept. “A pretty image of a chicken on a shirt isn’t very Dirty Coast,” adds Blake. Patrick follows with, “We wanted something that was more of a high end New Orleans t-shirt.” These aren’t stiff shirts, though, as they see their target audience as “anyone who loves New Orleans and the Gulf South area and has a sense of humor.” Adhering to the organic growth philosophy, their physical store location opened quietly at the beginning of September, with no
address, no awning and no hours on the door. “It worked out well for us,” Blake explains, “Folks has to know where we were or seek us out, which created a little buzz. All nonintentional, but a nice happy accident.” Since opening, Patrick says that the sales at the store have at least equaled their internet sales. “I know I’ve shipped up to Canada and over to England, but also every state in the country.” Patrick believes that many of the shirts have been shipped to our ex-patriot citizens living in other states due to the 504 area code attached to many of the orders. It’s not all business, though. Dirty Coast sponsors a number of fashion shows, which is undeniably a reason to have a party. “I am of the philosophy that if there is an opportunity to throw a party it is your duty as a New Orleanian to do so. If we don’t entertain ourselves and revel in being here amongst other New Orleanians, then we might as well live above sea level,” Blake says. “We give out a bunch of shirts to friends and get them to parade on stage to show the new designs. It’s basically a reason to drink and be merry … it goes with the Dirty Coast attitude,” Patrick says of the fashion shows. When asked about what the hope for Dirty Coast was, Blake answers that it’s to “keep building
NPN’s The Trumpet the audience so we gain more reach across the country. The more folks wearing our stuff the more conversations about New Orleans can be struck up.” Blake says that his hope for the city is much more expansive and includes helping “bring to power leaders who understand the city’s best interest and speak for the citizens (versus business interests elsewhere). Or, in the absence of that leadership, citizens doing things on their own and finding new ways to collaborate and communicate on the hopes and ideas for each block, neighborhood, district and then city as a whole.
“I hope that new NOLA converts keep coming to the city and are accepted with open arms because we need new energy and new ideas…Let’s bring young talent to the city to start new businesses, do research and fix up the homes in our beautiful neighborhoods. It’s not to say that locals can’t save the city, but there are much fewer of us than there were before the storm. But, we have one huge asset going for us: We are New Orleans! “The people who matter usually love us or are intrigued enough to visit and then you know the rest of that story.”
With the desire to make enough money to live on and keep the business running smoothly, they are happy to expand looking into the feasibility of hats, bags and paper products. “It’s great,” says Patrick, “sometimes we have people return weekly to get a new shirt.” “We want to keep the ideas and quality high so we never have our audience question our brand value,” follows up Blake. Dirty Coast is another success story in post-K New Orleans and further proof that New Orleans is rising. When asked if they’d like to give a shout-out to anyone,
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the answer was unequivocally New Orleans: “To all the crooks and criminals who ‘Keep the brand out there’ and to the local politicians who think 15-25K is enough money to accept as a bribe to justify destroying their careers. Keep it up!” If you have a t-shirt idea you’d like to share or you want to find a shirt that represents your love for New Orleans, visit Patrick and Blake at Dirty Coast Press at 5704 Magazine Street, near the corner of Arabella and Magazine. You can also find them online at www. dirtycoast.com.
Blake Haney’s uniquely New Orleans shirt designs have become a city staple since their beginning in February of 2005. Following the storm, which served as the catalyst for Dirty Coast’s popular appeal, New Orleanians sought a means of identifying themselves with their city and wearing a t-shirt the says “Be a New Orleanian Wherever You Are” does just that. Photos by Mike Dingler
Angel Food New Orleans Stretching the Food Budget and Reaching Out to the Community Cheryl Napoli
Angel Food New Orleans Coordinator
N
ew Orleans is a different place since
Katrina. One thing really stands out though;
needs in the community, we decided that a
how much it can help you to stretch your
is the same high quality food that one could
discount grocery program was really needed,”
budget. For more information, please contact
purchase at the grocery store. There are no
says Pastor Shawn Johnson. “This is just a
Community Church New Orleans at (504)
government surplus commodities, no second-
great way to help people. Every time we hear
846-4466 or angelfood@communityno.
hand items and no damaged or out-dated goods.
someone say, ‘if it wasn’t for Angel Food I
com. For the most recent menu and
couldn’t have paid my bills’, we know it was
additional information about the program,
the right decision.”
visit the Angel Food website at www.
While the menu changes every month, it
How does the program work? People order
everything is so much more expensive! Rents
in advance every month before deadlines, and
have gone up, utilities have gone up – even the
then pick up food on specific distribution days.
cost of food has gone up. We are paying higher
For example, November’s deadline is Monday,
prices at the grocery stores, and our wallets feel
November 5th, and the pick up on Saturday,
it. Of course, while everyone is facing higher
November 17th. Orders are taken Monday
costs, not everyone has the same earning power
through Thursday at Community Church’s
as before the storm. A lot of the businesses have
office at 430 Maine Street in Jefferson. The
moved out of the area or have downsized to
office is one block from Causeway, in the
keep up with their own price increases.
front corner of the old Jefferson Shopping
There is help out there, though. Community
angelfoodneworleans.com.
Plaza. Cash, money orders and food stamps are
Church New Orleans hosts Angel Food New
accepted at this location. You can also order
Orleans, a discount grocery program. The
online at www.angelfoodneworleans.com, using
program can increase your purchasing power by
credit or debit cards.
providing good quality meats and vegetables at a
Try it out yourself and you will see just
Community Church New Orleans started
discounted price. Every month you can purchase
hosting the program in June 2006 as a way to
a box of food worth $50 – $75 for only $26. The
reach out to the community. “It has always been
menu includes frozen meats, vegetables, and
the heart of Community Church to help people.
several pantry items. The best part is that there
After the hurricane, we knew that we had to do
are no qualifications for acceptance, no limits on
something that would be an ongoing blessing
quantity and no application process.
to the community. After looking at the biggest
Cheryl Napoli, with the help of volunteers, fills around 500 boxes of food per month for the Angel Food Network. Photo by Alethia Picciola
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NPN’s The Trumpet
November 2007
Giving Thanks, Giving Back Marsha Wall
French Quarter Writer
O
prah Winfrey once said “If the only prayer you ever say is ‘thank you,’ that is enough.” That is especially true when gratitude leads to action. Two community leaders, Deanne DePass Feaster and Sherran Thomas, understand this principle well. Through their works, they give thanks to those who came before them by inspiring, motivating and serving others. Feaster is the owner and operator of Studio 13, an exercise and wellness studio she calls the “miracle center.” It is located at 4300 Dumaine St. at the corner of Henessey near City Park in Mid-City. Feaster, the director of Liberation Spirit Wellness and a Certified Wellness Professional, Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer with over 30 years experience, opened this studio as a way of serving the needs of the community. She says that the studio “is not my space. It is a community space. It is a non-competitive environment where people can heal from Katrina.” To her way of thinking, “the mind, body, and spirit are all one thing.” She uses fitness as a vehicle to help people work through their issues and examine the foundational causes that prevent them from achieving their wellness goals. She provides clients with “the tools, training and resources necessary to assist them in attaining overall health and wellness.” To know Feaster is to understand that she is a deeply spiritual person who is thankful for everything in her life. She sees her brother, father, grandmother and Spirit as the foundation of her success. On Saturday, October 13 at the grand opening of Studio 13, Feaster radiated gratitude. She gathered with family, friends, and future clients to give blessings and thanks. This group of about 30 people formed a circle and held hands as Feaster prayed and invoked the power of Spirit. She proclaimed that, “the Creator has something here for you.” Tears of joy came to her eyes as she began to sing “Order My Steps,” a gospel tune that asks God for help in living a life of honor and service. Soon, the diverse group of Black, white, Asian, young and old, male and female joined her in her revelry, clapping hands, stomping feet, and singing proudly. Feaster then proceeded to enter the center of the circle. Still singing praises, she danced with her arms open wide to the heavens, encouraging everyone to lift their spirits up high. “I say thank you because I couldn’t do it without you all,” she said, speaking as much to the Spirit as to everyone assembled. It is this immense sense of gratitude that fuels Feaster’s desire to realize the full potential
of Studio 13. Currently, group exercise classes featuring yoga, Pilates, samba reggae, dance and cardio pump are offered by a total of four instructors. Personal training is also available. In the future, more fun, exciting, and challenging courses and workshops will be given as the studio evolves. Right now, weights, exercise balls, yoga mats, and an elliptical trainer round out the tools needed for a total body workout. The studio’s bookshelf is filled with inspirational and self-help titles such as Joel Olsten’s “Live Your Best Life Now,” and Les Brown’s “Live Your Dreams.” Feaster’s own CD, “Finding Peace After the Storm: A Guided Meditation” is another tool clients can use on their journey to wholeness. Beginning October 17th, Studio 13 will host “Wine and Cheese Wednesdays,” social gatherings where people can get more information about the studio. For spiritual lagniappe, each week Feaster will discuss one of her philosophies of exercise and wellness. All “Wine and Cheese Wednesdays” are offered on a complementary basis to the community and begin at 7:30 p.m. To celebrate All Saints Day, Studio 13 is hosting a dance to honor the ancestors. All are welcome to attend this event free of charge. Feaster invites everyone to pay respect and give thanks to the ones who came before us, to the ones whose love and sacrifices make our lives possible today. The community dance will take place on Thursday, November 1, at 8:00 p.m. This is your chance to see for yourself how the attitude of gratitude can transform your life. Sherran Thomas is another community leader who, like Feaster, has channeled her sense of gratitude into community service. During the past nine months, Thomas raised over one thousand dollars to have a plaque made to honor the life and work of Charlene Schneider, an advocate and champion of human rights who died last December after a battle with cancer. Thomas, grateful to Schneider for her work and dedication to the community, wanted to honor the life of someone so selfless and daring. “I like what she stood for, helping other people,” Thomas said. To understand the fiery passion behind Thomas’ sense of thankfulness, one must first understand what Charlene Schneider meant to the people of New Orleans. A native of Mississippi, Charlene, as she was known to all, opened up a women’s bar at 940 Elysian Fields in 1977. It was simply named “Charlene’s.” According to Thomas, she wanted a place where the gay women in our community could feel safe. Thomas recalls that “back in the
day,” Charlene would stand alone on the dark corner of Elysian and N. Rampart all night as customers came and went. She used to say, “I’m watchin’ my girls.” As Thomas put it, “she was being a mama.” Charlene ran her bar for 22 years, but she was much more than a bar owner. She helped people in need, gay or straight. Over the years,
Sherran Thomas stands next to the plaque honoring human rights activist Charlene Schneider. Photo by Marcia Wall
she raised funds for many groups, including Buzzy’s Boys and Lazarus House, two AIDSrelated organizations. Back in the 70s, when the streets of New Orleans were not safe for gay and lesbian people, she was unafraid to march on the steps of City Hall to demand fair treatment. Each year at Christmas, Charlene collected food, toys, and money for families in need. At her memorial in December of 2006, former councilman Oliver Thomas revealed that his family, a family of eight children and limited means, was one of the beneficiaries of Charlene’s selfless giving. Charlene loved all of humanity and helped others as much as she could because it was the right thing to do. When she and Linda Tucker, her partner of 20 years, returned to Mississippi after the closing of the bar, they started Pride with a Purpose, an annual festival designed to help low-income women get mammograms and to raise awareness about issues related to breast cancer. Tucker’s own family suffered losses due to breast cancer. Last year was the first year that Tucker ran Pride with a Purpose without Charlene, but she plans to continue doing so “as long as I can breath,” she said. As a testimony to the number of lives Charlene touched, nearly two hundred people attended her memorial service (held at New
Life Community Church at 3157 Dauphine in the Bywater). Politicians, community leaders, local historians, and her loyal customers were all there. “People were standing in the hallway,” Thomas reported. Clearly, Charlene’s life and work meant a lot to a lot of people. “She was a great asset to my life” Thomas reflected. That is why she felt so compelled to honor Charlene with a memorial plaque. Hundreds of other people who felt similarly gathered on Saturday, October 13th to celebrate, remember, and honor Charlene as her plaque was unveiled at 940 Elysian Fields (now the home of a bar called John Paul’s). People came from Houston, Mobile, and points in between to be a part of the historic moment. Like Thomas, they understood that the freedom they enjoy today is a direct result of Charlene’s bravery and hard work. Although important and monumental, Charlene’s plaque is just one of the ways Thomas honors the work of her (s)hero. As the founder and president of Warm Hearts for Women, Thomas assists women and children who face financial difficulties. She realizes that a community cannot be whole if some of its members are shut out. Like Charlene, Thomas knows that it is one thing to champion the idea of unity and quite another to do the work required to make that unity possible for all. Warm Hearts for Women’s next project surrounds the issue of health care. Thomas hopes to work with an insurance broker to secure a group rate for the countless uninsured and underinsured women in our community. Warm Hearts for Women needs funding and volunteers “to continue the work that Charlene started.” It can be said that being thankful and giving thanks are not the same thing. Both Feaster and Thomas understand that our city’s recovery depends on individual action. Together, they demonstrate how people and communities can be healed when gratitude is expressed through service. To learn more about Studio 13, call Deanne at 504-236-9968. To learn more about Warm Hearts for Women, call Sherran at 504-838-6151. Pride with a Purpose takes place in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi the Friday and Saturday of Father’s Day weekend each year. To learn more about the festival, contact Linda Tucker at 10001 Oliver Rd. Bay St. Louis, MS 39520 or e-mail her at ltuckerbsl@aol.com Marcia Wall is a writer and photographer living in the French Quarter. This is her first article for The Trumpet. She can be reached via e-mail at wallmarcia@hotmail.com. Her website is www.seeitmywayphoto.com.
NPN’s The Trumpet
15
King Wells’
Thankful Throne Elizabeth Falcon
NPN Membership Coordinator
M
any people have good reason to be thankful for King Wells, and you could see that as he stood in front of the City Council surrounded by friends and family to be recognized by the City Council and Mayor’s Office. Councilwoman Stacy Head thanked him for “improving the quality of life for so many in Central City.” Mr. Wells was recognized for fourteen years of service at the Central City Economic Opportunity Center (EOC) as Deputy Director. He was a key player there in developing the Handleman project, which is now home to affordable rental housing for families and senior citizens, as well as NonProfit Central. He considers one of his greatest accomplishments that for “any organization that wanted to get involved in the process, we provided
the leadership.” This helped to “create a climate for other non-profits to come work in the area and for other foundations to come in and fund in the area.” Those who have worked with Mr. Wells recognize him for his dedication and his personality. “He is a peopleperson,” says Pricilla Edwards, who worked with him at the Central City EOC, “and he works tirelessly to get the job done.” Michael Darnell joined him on stage at City Hall, and remembered that, “in every meeting you were the person with the steady hand.” Mr. Wells also helped start the Central City Partnership. In 1993, he and others saw the need for a collaborative effort to revitalize Central City in what he calls a “community mobilization.” Ms. Edwards describes the Partnership as a “holistic view of a community that includes clergy, schools, social services, [and] anything that makes up a community.” The Partnership advocates for residents and supports them. It was based on a
Surrounded by friends and family, King Wells is recognized by Councilwoman Stacy Head for his 14 years of service at the Central City Economic Opportunity Corporation. Photo by Shawn Chollette
model that existed in New York where “anyone who wants to participate has an opportunity to sit at the same table and work on the issues.” Mr. Wells’ involvement stems from his belief that “the more that people do for themselves, the better our democracy is.” He also demonstrates this through his leadership in the Pontilly Neighborhood Association, where he is President. He says that “neighborhoods should make their own decisions.” For this reason, he helped start the Pontilly Disaster Colaborative, which is now directed by Audrey Browder. Mr. Wells was modest as he stood at City Hall. “I really appreciate my friends in Central City for pushing
these [awards] for me.” But those around him had other things to be thankful for. “I am thankful for his dedication to our agency and his dedication to uplifting the staff,” said Ms. Edwards. Ms. Browder says she is thankful to Mr. Wells for “mentoring me and encouraging me.” She also recognized his leadership as a “strong black man in our community.” When asked what he is thankful for, Mr. Wells responded, “I have been adored in 40 or more years in this business.” Although he has retired from work, Mr. Wells is unlikely to stay still for long. As he told me when I first met him, “I’m retiring from work, not from life.”
New Neighborhood Group helps St. Bernard Sharon S. Ober
Community Center of St. Bernard
S
t. Bernard Parish has many reasons to be grateful to the dedicated staff and directors of the Community Center of St. Bernard in Arabi, Louisiana. After the storm, more than 1,500 residents signed a Statement of Support calling for the establishment of a permanent facility where they
could network, conduct business, socialize, connect to services, share stories and grieve for the family and friends they had lost. Thanks to this strong grassroots effort and the generosity and hard work of many volunteers and organizations, the Community Center moved from being simply a shared vision to a valuable resource. The grand opening ceremony was held in January 2007. Today, the Community Center provides parish residents access to necessary services like free internet, faxing and telephones. Community meals, dances and other social and cultural events are also held at the Center and at nearby schools, giving people the opportunity to renew old ties and make new ones in a safe and all-inclusive setting. Food, personal care items and household supplies are distributed to those in need every
week, and the Community Center has actively pursued partnerships with other agencies to provide people health care, housing information and legal aid. For all they’ve done to make this possible, we would like to thank the wonderful volunteer
team of Executive Director R.M. “Iray” Nabatoff and Board Members Bruce Conlay, Chris Andry, Cynthia Burke, Alberta Lewis, Larry Aisola Jr., Claude Rome, Brenda Catania, George Barisich, Mark Madary and Lt. Col. David Dysart.
Since January of 2007, the St. Bernard Community Center in Arabi, Louisianahas provided people the opportunity to renew old ties and make new ones in a safe and all-inclusive setting. Photos by Sharon Ober
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NPN’s The Trumpet
November 2007
A Space for Peace
“When you hear music and perform it transforms you. It’s seemingly magical, but science proves it too. Something changes in you,” says Ausettua Amor Amenkum, a performer with the Kombuka Collective who has organized the event in the past. Get to know Ausettua and you will be moved by her grace, her knowledge, and the power behind what she says. Her hair, if let out, would likely root her to Mother Earth. She speaks with some gravel in her voice, “When you perform, that space has been made better.” In the early days of New Orleans, Congo Square exemplified transition. Previously swamp lands on the fringe of town, it was a place where African slaves were allowed to come one day a week—largely unsupervised—to make music, dance and trade. Ausettua Laura Pavicevic-Johnston explains “Through all that exchange, NPN Service Learner Congo Square was significant to New Orleans as a space for peace.” ncle Lionel’s token wristwatch This year, the festival kicked off glistens from the top of his hand as at St. Augustine’s Cathedral with a he keeps beat with the Blind Boys of special guest appearance from the Alabama at St. Augustines. Hours Grammy award-winning Blind Boys later, white, red, yellow and black of Alabama. It was my first time in flash in blurs of buoyant color as the cathedral, and as I listened to the the dancers of the Kombuka African Priest, I was also elevated by the sight Drum and Dance Company spin to a before me: white people in fancy suits, mad drum beat. black people in fancy suits, black Such was the scene at the Congo people in African prints, white people Square Rhythm Festival held on in African prints, punks covered with Sunday, September 30th. The neck tattoos, babies and a few people festival brought together musicians, so old they probably couldn’t see any dance collectives, poets, chiefs, of it. Then again, seeing wasn’t really storytellers and people in a whirl of necessary, because the energy and the positive energy. sound were everywhere.
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The Congo Square Rhythm Festival brought together musicians, dance collectives, poets, chiefs, storytellers and people in a whirl of positive energy. Photos by Laura Pavicevic-Johnston
Amenkum sees significance in that cultural exchange as well. “Back in the 17-1800’s, when Louisiana was forming, you know it was so harsh. It was rough on the Europeans, rough on the Africans, and rough on the Native Americans. If it hadn’t been for all those people coming together they wouldn’t have survived,” she says. “There was institutionalized racism, yeah, but daily life dictated that you got along.” During the sermon, as the Priest lamented the woes of New Orleans, I wondered if and how this vibrant energy could be used as a tool. “Music and art help you to tolerate those problems without being hopeless,” says Ausettua Amenkum. “It is the culture that shows you there’s still a way.” As she speaks, she radiates that same powerful energy that can be seen in her dance. “Through that unity, through respect for cultures and preservation, through dancing, and good food, we can pull New Orleans to a better place than it was before.” Her conviction leaves me doubtless that the soul of our city can comfort the world. And if not, Sunday at the Square elevated me and left me with a deeper understanding of where this unique spirit comes from. Events like this can’t explain the ever growing problems of our city, but they can explain why we all stay, and show us how we can thrive. Thanks to organizations like the Jazz and Heritage Foundation,
the Congo Square Foundation and countless other preservation, dance and music associations throughout our city—not to mention independent artists—New Orleans culture is guarded, preserved, and most importantly, made accessible. Life here isn’t about watching a show- it’s about feeling that show and giving some energy, zest and dance back to that performer. I think we do it here better than anyone. A fortune teller on Jackson Square once told me that people who drink the water in New Orleans can’t leave because Marie Laveau put something in the river. Perhaps, but I think it’s even deeper than that. There is a soul here that is older than all of us and makes itself known through music and dance; that positive expression has the power to change a space and those in it. That power makes this place better.
NPN’s The Trumpet
Poetry
Incommunicado
17
Sweet N’awlins Rain
by Jean-Mark Sens
Maestro Teacher
by Priscilla Baca y Candelaria, 2003
The age of absence never closes its parenthesis voiced dreams in cables and fiber optics distill conversations great cusps of satellite dishes like becoming Virgins gape at inviting callers. All gone in smokes the signals from mountain to mountain prayers of dissipating cloud-Gods reverting to the sky, the telegraph with its helpless show of chopstick arms and transitional voices passed into hair-thin, copper wires from ear to ear re-amplifying at each end imperceptible delays of a split present, and to no avail the posted signs of a red crossed cell phone around public buildings. Talkers go to and fro, along pathways, lawns, crossroads somnambulists of a great heart’s murmur in cars and airport terminals-each so far and each so close to the ones they don’t talk to absence never joins the long curved lines from pole to pole sometimes two parallels bridge a touch of hands, light, vibrating and yet each will repeat their parting messages left on fridges “will be back later,” “3 leeks, 2 carrots,” “Anna, forth and back, I love you—” “Don’t forget the beer,” “Gina has been delayed,” a magnetic puzzle of crossed words on vinylled metal, halos of voices trapped in ice cube trays, breathed hue in the crisper. After Katrina’s flood, curbs dotted with vertical white coffins Frigidaire, G.E., Coolbreeze, all strapped, duck gagged, graffiti that yelled crying out to the world passing by Keep Shut! Cash Inside, Gamy Gumbo Yummm, N.O.P.D. Kills, Bad Breath ….
Voice Give them voice Child’s song, poetry Value their pearls. Read, Regurgitate Read, Question Read, Write Write, Voice Rights , Voiced Poetas have been Politically persecuted By the powering factions Because we dare have voice Many martyrs leave their voice Floating, dancing From pen to paper Script Whispering caresses of love Shouting orgasmic lust Spouting political rhetoric Of ones soul Maestro teaching voice Amendments Silenced Contoured Masked Ridiculed Waves of poetas speak Shout out With ink and pen We need no more Martyred sons Ancient shores claim far to many Warring acts of destruction Always leaving fathers asking For children to be brought home Voice Spoken Voice Heard Speak.
New Orleans’ TRANSIENT BLUES Shana Dukes Broadmoor Columnist
NOLA Artists, ALL NOLA Artists
acts of improvisation and adaptation. When I first moved to New Orleans e New Orleanians are blessed in 2003, the art culture of the city to call so many artists our neighbors. charmed me. I fell in love with the And, when I say artists, I mean each visual art for sale on sidewalks. I fell in and every single soul in the city with love with trash days. I still remember the drive to keep creating - not just the first painting that I salvaged from a those artists with art degrees. I do not Royal Street sidewalk trash container: mean just those artists who are lucky A celestial vision on canvas with an enough to go to work every day in the eclipsing moon and a distant, cloud arts industries, or those artists whose art covered starry image. The blue-green can pay the bills. What and who I mean foundation paint had faded in places, are those artists who make art no matter and the brush strokes were inconsistent what. I think that I especially mean and without pattern so that at times the ones who do not have any reason I felt I was looking at an unfinished, to write, paint, photograph, draw, abandoned work. For me, all that was perform, etc., other than that they are incomplete and flawed in the work consistently drawn back to their chosen were the very elements that made this media in a way that feels like going piece of art live and speak for itself. home at the end of each day. Those artists That wasn’t the last painting that I are as true and as touching as the human pulled out of a New Orleans garbage
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can and I can say the same for my family. We learn from the abandoned works of visual artists as most people learn from their mistakes. We learn the arts of fortitude and persistence by appreciating the work that someone else, maybe even the artist, cannot. How wonderful it is to me, then, to see that the artistic spirit and energy of NOLA residents could not be blown away or drowned out by a hurricane. Even as I walk along streets that have not recovered their residents, I can detect life in the graffiti artist’s lament or in the hand painted street signs that our neighbors made with stray pieces of fence wood, and some tempera paints from a kitchen drawer. I can drive past an abandoned housing project that may be slated for demolition and take in a painted representation of a smiling
musical legend on a brick wall directly across the street and see the tragedy in not rebuilding such a sacred place. Such art has told their story and ours. It is a part of what makes our city great and helps us to persevere. As new murals are painted across the city, we see ourselves living on. And, if I could, I would vote that we leave even graffiti up and on display. There’s no accounting for taste, is there? The only thing that remains consistent and universal for visual artists and those who appreciate them is that we all see our community in different colors. The contrast is important to take into account as we continue to envision and renew our New Orleans.
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NPN’s The Trumpet
November 2007
Ask City Hall Question: What do I need to submit to City Hall to do business as a
non-profit organization? Can you explain steps to take, as well as the pros and cons of organizing?
Answer: The process for becoming a non-profit organization happens
at both state and federal levels. A non-profit, or 501-(c)(3) organization, is a business that does not seek profit for its services. For that reason, a non-profit is eligible for state and federal tax exemptions. Since I don’t know what type of organization you want to start, I’ll use a neighborhood association as an example. The pros of establishing an organization as a non-profit are tax exemption status, tax write-offs for donors and a plethora of possible grants. However, the cons of forming a non-profit are that the application process requires more time and money than a for-profit entity and the organization must have both stringent bookkeeping and financial disclosure procedures. To start a non-profit, you will first need to incorporate. You can find further information about this at the Louisiana Secretary of State’s website, www.sos. louisiana.gov and the Internal Revenue Service’s website, www.irs.gov/charities.
Question: One side of my street has a streetlight, but that’s the only
one for the entire block. The other side is dark and gloomy at night. There are light poles, but there are no fixtures on them. Who do I contact about putting up additional light fixtures?
Answer: You need to contact the Department of Public Works at (504)
658-2299 to report your problem. Given the backlog of work, it may take some time to have the problem remedied, but you’ll be given a reference number to check on the status of the project.
Have a Question for City Hall or need a particular concern addressed? E-mail it to sean@npnnola.com and the Trumpet will do its best to get an answer.
District A City Hall, Room 2W80 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1010 Fax: (504) 658-1016 Email:SMidura@cityofno.com District B City Hall, Room 2W10 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658 -1020 Fax: (504) 658-1025 Email:SHead@cityofno.com District C City Hall, Room 2W70 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1030 Fax: (504) 658-1037 Email: JCarter@cityofno.com District D City Hall, Room 2W20 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, Louisiana 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1040 Fax: (504) 658-1048 CHMorrell@cityofno.com District E City Hall, Room 2W60 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1050 Fax: (504) 658-1058 CWLewis@cityofno.com Council Member-At-Large City Hall, Room 2W40 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1060 Fax: (504) 658-1068 Email: AFielkow@cityofno.com Council Member-At-Large City Hall, Room 2W50 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1070 Fax: (504) 658-1077 E-mail:mdarnell@cityofno.com
NPN’s The Trumpet
Neighborhood Meetings
Community Events
Bywater Neighborhood Association Meeting November 13th, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Holy Angels Concert Hall, 3500 St. Claude Avenue
Bunny Friends November 10th, Noon Greater Mt. Carmel 3721 N. Claiborne Ave
Carrollton United Saturdays, 8:30 a.m.
Greater St. John Missionary Baptist Church 8616 Hickory Street
Central City Renaissance Alliance Saturdays, 2 p.m. Ashe Cultural Arts Center 1712 O.C. Haley Blvd.
Central City Partnership Friday,November 30th, 1 p.m. 2020 Jackson Avenue, second floor
Claiborne/University Neighborhood Association November 29th, 7 p.m., Jewish Community Center 5342 Saint Charles Ave.
Gentilly Terrace and Gardens Upper Ninth Ward Wednesday, November 14th, 7 p.m. Farmers Market
Kirschman Hall, Room 137 University Saturdays, 1 – 4 p.m. Holy Angels Convent, St. Claude at of New Orleans Gallier (504) 280-7120 or president@ gentillyterrace.org
Hollygrove
Lower Ninth Ward Farmers Market
Saturdays, noon St. Peter AME Church 3424 Eagle Street
Sundays, 12 – 3 p.m. St. David Church St. Claude at Lamanche
Holy Cross
Sistas Making a Change
Thursdays, 5 – 7 p.m. Greater Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 5130 Chartres Street
Mondays and Thursdays, 5 – 7 p.m. Ashe Cultural Center 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. An inner-city wellness and health project using culture to promote wellness and healthier lifestyle. All ages are welcome! Call (504)-569-9070
Lake Bullard Homeowners Association Saturdays, 3 p.m. Cornerstone United Methodist Church 5276 Bullard Ave.
Edgewood Park Neighborhood Association meeting Sat, Nov 3rd, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. Gentilly Presbyterian
Faubourg Marigny Improvement Association Monday, November 19 6:30 p.m. St. Paul Lutheran Church 2624 Burgundy St.
District 6 Community Council Mid City Neighborhood Organization Every other Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. UNO old Business Administrator Building, Room 211
Downtown Neighborhood Improvement Association Tuesday, November 13th, 7 p.m. Musician’s Union Hall, 2401 Esplanade Avenue, Upstairs
Faubourg St. John Monday, November 12th, 7 p.m. Fair Grinds Coffee House
Gentilly Tuesdays, 6 p.m., Sav-A-Center Second Floor 6600 Franklin Avenue. (504)-943-0044, ext. 112.
Pontilly General Meeting Saturday, 11 a.m. St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church
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Monday, November 5th Grace Episcopal Church 6:30 p.m.
Holy Cross Community Meetings Thursday,November 8th, 5 – 7 p.m. Center for Sustainability, Greater Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 5130 Chartres, Lizardi and Chartres
Center for Sustainability
At-Large City Council Election Forum October 4, 2007 7:00pm Nunemaker Auditorium, 3rd Floor of Monroe Hall, Loyola University Twelve of the thirteen candidates will be participating in the panel discussion.
Kids Theater Workshops and St. Anna’s Church Fri, November 16th, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. 1313 Esplanade Ave. In conjunction with NYU and Neighborhood Housing Services.
Brass Band Music Across the Generations
Tuesday, November 6, 6 p.m. Musicians’ Union Hall, 2401 Esplanade Ave Keith and Philip Frazier of Rebirth Brass Band, and Ray Johnson and the John McDonogh Marching Band talk about the evolution of brass band music in New Orleans.
What’s Your Neighborhood Story?
Tuesday, November 13 Thursdays, 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. Neighborhood Story Project - 2200 Greater Little Zion Missionary Baptist Lapeyrouse St. Church, 5130 Chartres at Lizardi Learn how to interview neighbors, take photos and publish your own stories about your neighborhood. Writing workshop hosted by the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Eracism Discussion Group Orleans and the Neighborhood Story Saturdays, 9 – 10 a.m. Project. For more information contact 3606 Magazine Street nicolosi@loyno.edu Call (504)-866-1163
Events
Meet the Authors
Thursday November 15, 7 p.m. Dillard University’s Lawless Memorial Chapel, 2601 Gentilly Blvd Nine Times authors read from and sign their book Coming Out the Door for the Ninth Ward.
Nine Times Social and Pleasure Club’s Annual Second Line Parade
Sunday, November 18 12 p.m. Magee’s Lounge, 3434 Louisa Street Throughout the month of December, the S.M.C.L Foundation and Associates will host a number of sports events, including games for senior and handicapped citizens and wheelchair sports. The National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) sanctioned games will be on the 21st through 23rd. Learn more by contacting Julius Lee, the Director of the Bayou-Gulf States Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America at (504) 450-4014.
“De-Confusing Green”
Hosted by Tulane City Center & Neighborhood Housing Services Saturday, December 1, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm GREENbuild house locates at the corner of Seventh & Danneel Streets This event is intended to “deconfuse” the terminology associated with sustainable building practices through direct contact with the GREENbuild house, designed and built by students of the Tulane School of Architecture. Representatives from local non-profit groups and companies specializing in sustainable systems will be present to answer questions and share information about their products, programs and initiatives. Printed materials and green building guides will be available. Please join us for a tour of the houses and local BBQ!
Check http://www. npnnola.com for exciting information about NPN’s forum on “Education and Community Participation” for October 24! E-mail Mia@npnnola.com for more.
Mail in the Trumpet Survey, and you will be entered into a raffle contest to win TWO TICKETS to