Andrea's Photos

Waiters-in-training at Cafe du Monde
First night driving The Armada. Note the look of sheer terror in my eyes.
Zydeco band, Curly Taylor, at the Rock 'n' Bowl.

Lady New Orleans

Lady New Orleans
by Will Sales

(Taken from "After the Flood" published by Common Ground Collective)

Meet the beautiful, sophisticated
Captivating Lady New Orleans
The oldest, boldest, classiest, jazziest
Multi-cultured city in our nation
She garned every aspect of the arts
From all corners of the globe
To season, flavor, and stir into her
Tasty pot of multicultural stew

Brought here in bondage from Africa's shores
Black people opened new artisitic doors
Birthing America's first original,
Musical form of art
Thus jazz and the blues got its start
In the artistic atmosphere
Provided by Lady New Orleans
Black people nurtured their new creation
Note by note
From root to bloom
In the rich fertile soil of their souls
Very early on when New York City
Was still a tiny horse and buggy town
The City of New Orleans
Was being celebrated with
International reknown
And so in all her Mardi Gras splendors
She's reigned supremely to this day

Then Hurricane Katrina ferociously arrived
Bringing death and destruction in its wake
Leaving Lady New Orleans broken and wounded
And yet
Her undaunted spirit and soul
Reamain courageous and whole
We're here for you Dear Lady New Orleans
We're all in the same leaky boat
But working together
We'll stay afloat
Raising ourselves above
The great nitty gritty of it all

Amen.

How to Help

If you feel like making a donation or contribution or volunteering or participating as an activist, here are some places to do it.

http://www.commongroundrelief.org/
Where I worked in New Orleans. They do all kinds of work in the community from legal assistance to healthcare to gutting houses.

http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=8219
This organization is gutting thousands of houses for free. The WCL students who did physical labor worked with them.

http://www.advancementproject.org/katrina.html
This group is fighting the many legal battles against FEMA and Housing Authority of New Orleans. The website has a lot of great resources for learning more about these cases as well as link to write to your congressperson about housing issues in New Orleans. At Common Ground Legal we worked on research projects to help this group with some of its cases.

http://www.neworleansworkerjustice.org/
This group is fighting against the exploitation of (mostly immigrant) workers during the rebuilding of New Orleans. One of the main projects I worked on at Common Ground was a research report for this group.

The Fun Stuff

Fire-eating pirates and jesters in the French Quarter
Beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde. So addictive, I ate here about 5 times in 10 days.

Bead Man in the French Quarter
Matt ready to celebrated New Years
Aliza and Adam(?) in Jackson Square on New Years Eve
Confetti in Jackson Square on New Years Eve. You can also kind of see the roof where the ball drops at midnight. Except it's not a ball, it's a giant pot of gumbo. Really. Jenny, Lauren, Laura, and Andrea in Pirate's Alley on New Years Eve.

Random Stuff

Street car on Canal St.
The Armada. Yes, there is a vehicle named "The Armada"
Yes, it is enormous
And, yes, a drove The Beast all over New Orleans. I am the Beastmaster
Graffiti in The Spotted Cat. Many people choose club bathrooms as a forum for expressing their Katrina-related woes.

More of the Common Ground Collective

This is an art project that decorates many of the walls at Common Ground. An artist sketched local residents faces and recorded their Katrina-related thoughts and stories. There are dozens of these pieces all over the Common Ground House of Excellence.

Our Dear Leader, Soleil, consults with WCL volunteer, Rebecca.

Lower 9th Ward near the spot where a barge crashed through the canal wall

View of the canal wall where the barge burst through. It has since been rebuilt.

Walking around the Upper 9th near Common Ground

"Toxic Flood Water"
The blue roofs are FEMA tarps. You can also see the end of a FEMA trailer in the yard.

FEMA trailer: Most people living in FEMA trailers have them parked next to their houses. Some live in FEMA trailer parks that are set up in open spaces. Many, many people have been living in these trailers with their families since the hurricane. That is a year and a half in 240 square feet. Each trailer cost FEMA $50,ooo - $60,000 to produce, distribute, and hook up. Some people wonder if that money could have been better spent by the displaced people themselves.

This house was demolished.