Doctor Daisy

Who knows when I’ll ever get to see this [considering my new Wisconsin town has yet to get Burn After Reading], but I know I’ll look as hard as I can to find it. May even drive to Milwaukee since this schedule says filmmakers will be there in November.

As Loki writes, “It is fortunate that Katrina hit us in an era when technology has made documentation like this possible. Camera phones and video cameras have allowed a much more intimate view of the disaster than any prior era could offer. This is an opportunity to be on the inside for a moment, to put yourself in the shoes of one of us.”

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Cross-posted at Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster:

Last week I was interviewed by the communications staff here at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. They contacted me, saying they had heard about my research into the post-Katrina blogosphere, and the result of our conversation is this press release, which was sent out to 50 local and regional reporters. I guess you could say that my new media efforts are about to make waves through the old media channels.

On a more serious note, the blog post that accompanied this news story has reminded me of my ever-conflicted feelings of trauma and loss. It features a picture of me that they describe as follows: “Pignetti is shown here in a February 2006 photo as she sits on the front steps of her childhood home in New Orleans, which was devastated during Hurricane Katrina.”

Anyone viewing the picture can clearly see that it was taken on a sunny day, with my house gleaming white. The only visible indication of Hurricane Katrina’s wrath is the spray paint on the front door. Because of this, I felt I should immediately share a link to pictures of the house’s interior, which truly shows the damage 10-feet of water can do.

The urgency with which I left that comment proves that I still wrestle with feelings of being misunderstood. After all, I was living in Tampa in August of 2005 and didn’t have to physically endure anything other than frustration at not having any precise information about which levees breached and what that even meant. Yet, three years later, I am still traumatized by what happened to my house, on my street, and to my city. I experience survivor’s guilt on a daily basis, with my feelings of doubt only increasing with the passage of time, making me wonder, how am I justified in feeling as sad as I do?

For instance, when I meet people face-to-face for the first time, I still proudly proclaim that I’m from New Orleans, but often only respond with, “We lost everything” to their question of “How’d you make out after Katrina hit?” Why is that all I say? I certainly am annoyed if no one bothers to ask, so why, when given the chance, do I truncate my story to a three-word response?

I think it is because I figure that if I respond, “I couldn’t find my parents for almost a week,” they will think that my mother and father were like the people they saw stranded either at the Superdome or Convention Center. I am convinced that when they find out my parents are better off than most “victims” due to their relocation to a second home we already owned in Picayune, Mississippi, any sympathy they had for us will diminish.

Writer and scholar Louise DeSalvo states the following in her book Writing as a Way of Healing, and I believe it explains my situation as a transplanted New Orleanian exactly:

Often…trauma remains undisclosed because, though people would like to discuss it, they can’t or won’t because they fear punishment, embarrassment, or disapproval or because they can’t find an appropriate audience. So, many people actively stop themselves from telling their stories; they inhibit the need to tell their traumatic narratives.

But, to quote Loki’s most recent post, “that is one of the reasons why I blog.”

By directing my writing to an invisible, nonjudgmental audience, I have used this blog to cultivate a more emotional persona and, as a result, have embarked on a journey of healing. When I find an image of a now-destroyed familiar place or a news story that disturbs me to the point of again unleashing the sorrow of that week of national and man-made disaster, I know I can blog about it. Not only will I feel better as a result, others will recognize that I am not OK that New Orleans is nowhere close to being recovered, and that the world should not deny us its sympathy.

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Things have escalated beyond imagination:

“The footprint of Katrina was about 400 miles when it hit. Gustav currently has a footprint of 900 miles and continues to grow.”

Video of the mayor’s official press conference is here.

My parents are staying in Picayune, Mississippi, for the time being. I’ve gotten in touch with nearly all my NOLA friends and they’re all leaving or have already left. Not sure about the few who just flew into town for Southern Decadence, but it looks like the rest of those scheduled events have been canceled so I would think that if they’ve got their plane ticket, they should be getting out asap.

Several NOLAbloggers have turned to twitter to set up their alerts so we [at least the people already following them, I’m not sure how many will use hashtags] know how to find out how they are and where they will be for the next few days. What’s most fascinating to me is that here’s even a GustavAlerts twitterstream to follow now as well as an all-encompassing Gustav Information Center & Social Network.

View my page on Gustav Information Center

I hate that I’m watching this from afar again because I feel so helpless, but all I can do is pray. Everyone’s much more prepared this time, which is great, but I really hope that this storm doesn’t ruin all the rebuilding efforts I’ve seen my friends spend so much time, money, and energy on over the past couple years.

More updates as they come.

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Re-posting this from FoodMusicJustic.com:

Levees.org has just posted “The Katrina Myth” to YouTube.

The more people who visit this video,watch it, rate it, and comment on it, the higher it goes in the YouTube ratings.

If you are a YouTube member, rate it with a high rating (five stars) and make a comment (any comment, it doesn’t really matter.)

Also, please send this message to your friends and colleagues.

Time is of the essence.

Because of the third anniversary and Gustav, New Orleans is in the spotlight.

If attention is ever going to be paid to the levee problem, now is the time.

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As today is the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I’m honored to have been asked to reflect on my own experiences over at the Open Society Institute’s Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster blog.

Some information about the site is as follows:

Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster was named the best nonprofit website of the year in the 12th Annual Webby Awards. OSI was chosen from nearly 10,000 entries from across the United States and more than 60 countries.

Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster features the Katrina Media Fellows’ investigative reporting on the Hurricane’s continuing devastation across the Gulf Coast. The site combines never-before-seen video, photography, print, and radio with previously published work to spark a national discussion on race, poverty, and government neglect.

So far just my biographical post is up, but a longer narrative should go up today.

I hope you explore other parts of the site too because there is a lot of informative and revealing text and video.

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Time to get nervous.

I’ve already been on the phone with several NOLA friends who are ready to get outta dodge, although today the maps showed a slight westerly turn:

Still, a lot of people are on edge, and with the 3-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina tomorrow, this new storm is taking me back to my very first Katrina-related blog post where I quoted a lighthearted musician: “I’ll be here tomorrow, I’m not leaving,” said trombonist Eddie “Doc” Lewis. “I’ve been through typhoons, monsoons, tornadoes, hurricanes and every other phoon, soon or storm. I’m not worried.”

Well, things have certainly changed since then, as documented in this NYTimes article “No, We’re Not Nervous. Are We?”: “In Broadmoor, David Brouillette, a musician, was making plans to leave should the storm threaten. ‘A little freaking out,’ he said, ‘in a town where nobody really freaks out about anything, is O.K.’”

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Last year I was honeymooning in Australia, this year I’m in Wisconsin starting a new job and still unpacking the new house.

I hate missing this, especially since my dissertation focuses on this fabulous group of passionate placebloggers, but I’ve already promised myself I won’t miss Mardi Gras next year and I won’t miss Rising Tide 4 either!

The schedule looks great, and if you’re in NOLA, you should definitely go. Those who can’t make it, go remind yourselves of how social networking saved New Orleans by reading this article by the same name.

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I’m proud to share the link to the essay I recently wrote in response to Dan Gillmor’s “Principles of New Media.” It has been published as part of the publius project, which is a Berkman Center blog-site featuring “essays and conversations about constitutional moments on the Net.”

Having Gillmor as my advisor last summer when I was at Harvard for the OII Summer Doctoral Programme was inspiring, and it was great to get his feedback on my dissertation project. As I’ve been writing the past 8 months or so, I have often been skeptical about what new media genres can really do in terms of social change, but at the heart of my work will always be an appreciation for the writing and recovering that is happening in New Orleans quite independently of established channels.

New Orleanians like myself are a passionate people very much attached to our humid bohemian city, and the more my scholarly work and their blogs can remind the world that “we are not OK,” the more I hope people will take notice.

I hope you enjoy the essay and do leave comments!

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Growing up in the Catholic school system of New Orleans holds fond memories for me. We had a school mass every week, and starting in the fifth grade, we students were allowed to do the readings, carry up the gifts, and sing in the choir. This was more than just studying to receive the sacraments and putting on a frilly dress for a ceremony. Every week, in our plaid uniforms, we were the church.

Sure, when you’re young it may come off as another hour to be out of class or “people-watch” instead of listen, but I very much miss the sense of community that those weekly masses instilled in me. Even though I was always upset when our priests were “stationed” somewhere else, I think having the physical place and ceremony always made me feel that I belonged to something larger. Perhaps that is one of the reasons I’ve never felt at home in any other church aside from St. Raphael the Archangel. Had Katrina not happened, it’s likely I would have been married in that church, but I was never given that option.

Today, many parishioners of churches in New Orleans that did not even suffer the water damage St. Raphael experienced are also not being given an option. Today, the Archdiocese [reminiscent of my time in 1992 when my high school the Academy of the Holy Angels was forced to close due to financial strain] announced numerous church closures and merges. A map and list can be found on these pages, but this video of local author and livejournaler Poppy Z Brite is most powerful:

Let us hope the people and the protests save some of the churches and parishes that need not be disturbed, especially when these structures help hold most neighborhoods together, particularly now.

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For those new readers of my blog who may be visiting this site after attending our Saturday Katrina panel at 4Cs–”Composed in the Wake of Disaster: (Re)Writing the Realities of New Orleans”–I’d like to post some text and links for your benefit. As I was the last panelist of four and we were Internet-less in our conference room [something I’ve started to rant about over at Dennis’s blog], I felt a bit scattered. I typically create Powerpoints, but wasn’t in the mood for that this time around. So even though I had typed up a few pages and had a plethora of examples to share, I ended up doing what I prefer, extemporizing.

Here is a more fleshed out version of what I shared on my handout:

Like Bryon Hawk [who spoke on Hurricane Katrina as a cultural media event, using the framework Jean Baudrillard sets forth in The Gulf War Did Not Take Place], I agree that there were repeated and manipulated images of Katrina that circulated at rapid speed, particularly during that week of the storm when little to no information could be verified and the media focus had to remain on those still stranded in the city, Superdome, Convention Center.

But as a New Orleans native, I had other issues with the depiction of my beloved hometown. I was skeptical when Brian Williams declared on NBC’s Today Show (August 30, 2005. 7:05 a.m. ET): “There has been a huge development overnight … the historic French Quarter, dry last night and it is now filling with water. This is water from nearby Lake Pontchartrain; the levees failed overnight.”

Not only did I not know how to begin to process this information—which levee? how much water? where would the water go?—when I watched the news later that night and saw streets in and near the Quarter bone dry, I knew that these news stories were evolving into journalistic “meta-narratives,” and I knew that from this moment on, these would no longer suffice.

Thus, my focus today is on those locals–primarily those cyberliterate and with access to technology–who had evacuated and were watching from hotel rooms or the homes of extended family members. When they could not find any information relevant to their neighborhoods, never mind their eventual return to their homes and beloved city, many went online.

[Here I referred to the chart from a Pew Internet and American Life report on getting news during the storms of 2005, and wanted to highlight how it’s likely that, once again, locals were not part of the sample population. ]

While it’s great that more and more Americans nationwide are turning to and trusting alternative news sources like blogs and discussion boards, my argument is that in the years since the storm, the only place one can truly get a real depiction or chronicle of a Katrina survivor/resident of NOLA is in the New Orleans blogosphere.

With that said, and without Internet access, I read from several blogs, highlighting the dates of the posts to prove that the Katrina narrative is still developing, with every insurance claim, abandoned house or business, death, and reiteration of why New Orleans matters!

Full list of examples I shared or wanted to share, organized by rhetorical mode:
1. EXPLAIN: Katrina stories—locals who stayed and who watched from afar

2. DESCRIBE: the look of one street in January 2008 and a video commentary 16 months after the storm:

Grocery from Editor B on Vimeo.

3. ENTERTAIN: in order to meet new insurance guidelines and avoid flooding next time around, one has to raise one’s house:

4. PERSUADE: a powerful speech and then the speaker’s reflection 1 year later, still outraged at the lack of change when it comes to crime

5. INFORM: One’s shock at the lack of discussion surrounding a scary statistic.
Finally, how to describe New Orleans? It’s a place of its own and one to which we are intensely attached

If anyone has comments or questions, please leave a comment. Watch this space for a link in the coming weeks because a more theoretical look at the “writing wrong” examples like these demonstrate is now in print in the Spring 2008 issue of Reflections.

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I’m so happy Leisa posted the link to this in her Twitter stream. I think I had heard of this project through the Open Society Institute, but never got a chance to read more or watch the student-produced videos until now.

The Katrina Media Fellows’ mission is stated as follows:

Through stories and images, the fellows aim to deepen public understanding of the government’s long-term response to Katrina; failures of public policy; use or misuse of public funds; the role of private contractors; the effectiveness of clean-up and rebuilding efforts; the psychological impact on residents, now more than two years after the storm; and lessons that should inform the handling of future disasters.

One of the most powerful videos, considering the subject of my dissertation research, is the one entitled “Not As Seen on TV.” Not only does it let locals speak for themselves, it shows the pain that permeates the city still today. (However, I actually wish less edits were made because I think some interviewees were on the verge of sharing more and, while that may be uncomfortable to watch, how else can their grief be honestly represented and understood?) Still, heavy emphasis is also made on the music, culture, and humor of New Orleanians, with one interview subject stating it quite plainly, “New Orleans is not just a place, it’s our soul.”

I’m in the midst of revising my own narrative which deals with my denial during the week of August 29, 2005, and watching this only reminds me of how my parents could have also been part of those people left behind had the storm not hit the magic number 5. I truly think that’s the only thing that convinced them to evacuate at the last minute. While they were lucky and never had to live in a FEMA trailer, I know we are all still trying to deal with the loss, the gutting & buy-out of our home, and the feeling of “not knowing when this was going to end.”

Even though I blog about this quite often, it’s not something I voice out loud much, probably because I’m still suffering from the pain and anger of things being forever changed by the levee breaches. Because I’m not living in NOLA now, and because when I visit I see friends who seem genuinely happy with the way their lives are going, it’s easy for me to purposefully forget how traumatic it must be to cope with the many changes that have occurred the past three years.

All I can do though is write my story, share the blogs of those living there now, and try to remain as involved in the city’s recovery as possible.

In fact, next week when I am there for the Conference on College Composition and Communication I’ll have a chance to meet again with fellow New Orleans bloggers and have my first ever “tweetup” with eve11 who I’ve connected with through Twitter. Her blog is wonderfully written and I’m looking forward to both talking to her about a term she introduced me to called “naked blogging,” and donating my OLPC XO laptop to her proposed children’s social media project!

Watch this space for updates on this next week. Til then, go watch the videos at the Soros site.

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Ever since Katrina hit, the fleur de lis has become a symbol of rebirth in NOLA and you can see them everywhere. In my previous blog post about the Katrina Warriors, I included their symbol which, in case you couldn’t figure it out, is a fleur de lis/heart/vagina hybrid created in time for the 10th anniversary of V-day.

That item aside, I seem to be finding more and more fleur de lis fashions outside of New Orleans, including bags by Gianni Bini and now Kimora Simmons for Baby Phat. We hardly ever go to the mall, but keep these fashions coming and I’ll talk my Visa for a walk!

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I recently spent an unprecedented 5 days offline. And I liked it. In fact, since my return to the web, I’ve only forced myself to log on so to read my online students’ drafts and check email. I find I can focus on my dissertation much better this way, even though those days off produced more editing than new pages… but I will say that those few days back in the Big Easy reminded me how important my research is. “Katrina” or “the storm” is literally uttered every minute and you know we’re all still in a process of healing or dealing with something related to the levee breaches, even on our good days.

My trip last weekend was mainly to see family and friends [and the dentist–look ma, no cavities!] but also included a stop at the Alternative Media Expo where I got to act “researchy” when I saw some of my fellow NOLA bloggers, Leigh and Loki. That event was very cool and again reminded me of how unique our city and blogging community really is–we all want to spread the word our way and when we get together it’s always a party!

I am going back to NOLA in April for the national Conference on College Composition and Communication, although I wish I could stay an extra few days to be at the 10th anniversary of V-Day and its Superlove event in the Superdome. Go here for more info.

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Speaking of commercials, I just saw one laden with Katrina images, streets flooded, etc. spliced with images of a Hummer driving through the deep water. The final tagline: Visit HummerHelps.com. Upon doing so, I was directed to the main Hummer page, then to a menu of links “to learn more about what you can do with your truck,” some of which include stories of owners pursuing heroic efforts with their vehicles. The Katrina narrative begins as follows:

Some might argue Mike Morris’ search-and-rescue vehicle of choice, a Hummer H1, is a fuel-sucking monster. But Morris isn’t making any apologies for himself and a small battalion of other H1 (and H2 and H3) owners who spent nearly two weeks serving as early responders after Hurricane Katrina.

“You don’t ask the ambulance that pulls up at your home what its fuel economy is,'’ said Morris, of South Bend, Indiana, as he motored the debris-littered streets of New Orleans. The group, dubbed HOPE (Hummer Owners Prepared for Emergencies), performed a variety of volunteer work following Katrina…

OK–I’m not sure how I feel about this and, while the narrative begins to offer some support, the actual commercial’s visuals cast the Hummer as the superhero, not the individual heroes driving them. Also, this is but one story, so how are we to really assess the vehicle as a do-gooder, when the miles per gallon facts and environmental concerns are much more publicized and persuasive? Not to mention the vehicle’s reputation as a status symbol…

It’s been a long day and I need to think about this more thoroughly, but since I already planned to design a writing project around the visual rhetoric of Katrina, this commercial has moved to the top of my list!

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[I started composing this post before Thanksgiving, but never got around to finishing it until now–my apologies]

As you all know, this has been the most hectic semester for me. While I probably did not have the time to attend a conference, I knew I had to attend the Louisiana Association for College Composition conference for several reasons:

1. It was being held in New Orleans, my hometown
2. Its theme was re•NEW•al, the overarching subject of my dissertation
3. It was hosted by Xavier University of Louisiana, where I was an Instructor for three years before starting my PhD
4. I had attended two of these conferences before when I was teaching at Xavier, and I’ve always appreciated its close community and small number of panels. When you’re faced with the immense program books of national conferences, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Here I only had to choose between two sessions each hour!

Needless to say, every trip I’ve made to NOLA since Katrina has been an emotional one and this would be no different, especially because I got to see my friend, Sarah, who recently had a stroke. I also had the chance to see my undergrad university’s ballet program, something I don’t think I have ever done as an audience member! I know watching the show was hard for Sarah to do, especially since some of the choreography was originally chosen for her to perform, but she was a trooper. Just last week she returned to a ballet and a character dance class, which is more than I think I’d ever do only 12 weeks after a stroke. She’s got amazing will power, and I’m so proud of her for never giving up!

Another off-putting feeling I had was checking into a hotel for this visit. Typically, we stay with my parents or friends, but because of the conference, I thought it easier to stay in the conference hotel than rent a car or rely on friends to drive me around. [Just the week before, though, the St. Charles streetcar began running again, so I could have had an alternative mode of transport]. Anyway, I felt weird being a tourist in my hometown, but got over it pretty quickly when I was reminded of all the fun things to do nearby. Walking St. Charles is something I’ve done every Mardi Gras so I just pretended there was a parade to get to and I was fine

But how about the conference?! Friday morning I attended a great session on Literature and Writing, and while it was noted that the second composition course requirement is moving away from using literature, I was reminded how much I enjoyed teaching the genres and creating unique paper assignments that asked for reader responses and new historical/social commentary. Perhaps my interest was piqued by the emphasis on regional literature and how students can supplement, in this case their reading and scholarly research of A Lesson Before Dying, with newspaper archival work and oral histories. The presenter, Elizabeth M. Beard’s, goal was to share how she helped make literature meaningful for her students, and I appreciated her strategies since this projects really pushes students to become critics and creators of cultural narratives. A text she referenced that I want to check out is a 2006 NCTE edited collection, Bergmann and Baker’s Composition and/or Literature: The End(s) of Education.

The Keynote Speaker at LACC was Dr. Jacqueline Jones Royster who shared 5 wonderful goals for all teachers, particularly those who Katrina has left traumatized, to consider:

context matters–specific circumstances have a way of changing our world view so what can we learn from these circumstances, what teachable moments are out there? How can be on guard to patterns of action?
vision–who are we as teachers and what it is we’re trying to enable our students to do?
courage–a motivating force; be upfront with students about the limitations of language b/c when they leave the cocoon of the classroom, they may be shocked at the lack of response
compassion to act responsibly–Q: why should we care about others? Who is included in “our circle”? A: Draw larger circles of caring–connect to others around the planet
conscious of our global realities–have the fortitude and commitment to be consistently “fired up.” Link lives and stories to those of others in humanity.

Her hope for those of us in the field of writing studies is for more opportunities to stand back and think about what we do and what we must do–>professional integrity. Most applicable to my work with trauma theory and the connection between the body and mind [writing to heal] is that we should pay attention to the whole body experience when writing, not just the “writing about.”

On Saturday I had the pleasure of chairing the panel on Civic Rhetoric and presenting along with Lei Lani Michel and Clancy Ratliff. Because I was chair and didn’t have a lot of time to take notes, but I did record my fellow panelists’ talks with my new i-pod attachment. I haven’t had a chance to listen to the recording, so for now I will share the memorable names and phrases from each.

Clancy’s presentation proposed “Opportunities and Ideas for Teaching Civic Literacy in Louisiana” and used Donald Lazere’s definition of civic literacy, which includes having a store of knowledge of history, civics, political movements and theorists. Obviously many of our students lack this specific background but if we localize the experience to issues specific to Louisiana–Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, FEMA trailer standards [or lack thereof], the Jena 6 case, etc., perhaps our students will thrive at vocalizing their opinions and grounding them in research/history.

Lei Lani’s presentation focused on “findability” and a course exercise she conducted with her students in order to emphasize writing for both people and search engines. Reminding us all that technology is unfixed and we all have the chance to be part of its change, a part of the information[’s] culture, it became clear that those of us who aim to teach technological literacy that we should also model “finding” for our students. One unique way she suggested we could do this is to ask students to do a rhetorical analysis of a search engine beyond Google and Yahoo, e.g. Kartoo.com, IceRocket.com, Like.com, and MsDewey.com. I’ve never heard of any of these and am fascinated by their emphasis on visual design [although I’m kind of scared of Ms. Dewey!], so I’m eager to explore these further and try this exercise out next semester!

More blogging to come over the next 2 weeks!

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When I was at Harvard this summer, I was introduced to a slew of social networking tools. I joined Facebook a couple weeks before the session started and have come to use it on a daily basis to keep up with my SDP and other academic contacts. Now that applications have been added, I can also have my blog, my Flickr page, my del.icio.us account, and my Dopplr account all feed into my profile.

If you’re not familiar with Dopplr, it is an invitation-only travel schedule site, so you can organize your trips as well as “share your future travel plans with a group of trusted fellow travellers that you have chosen. It also reminds you of friends and colleagues who live in the cities you’re planning to visit.” I know some folks have privacy issues and do not necessarily want to publish all the places they are going, but so far I like it, especially since I have friends all over the place!

You can read more about it on the Dopplr blog, but my absolute favorite thing about it is this:

When I type in New Orleans, it tells me, “We know about just one place in the world that matches what you’ve typed: New Orleans, LA, United States.” However, when I type in Tampa, it hesitates: “We think you mean Tampa, FL, United States. However, there are 2 places that could match what you’ve typed.”

More reinforcement that NOLA is my one and only!

P.S. If you want an invite, leave me a comment or email me.

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Fox’s attempt at a show about cops in post-Katrina NOLA debuts tonight. This Times-Picayune review seems dead on about what clichés to expect, “One of the main cops drinks on the job, tortures a crime suspect and makes gratuitous gumbo references,” but you know I’m gonna watch anyway. I know too many local actors who are bound to have cameos so there is no way I would miss it!

UPDATED: Chris Rose’s review, like others I’ve heard this morning, expresses our surprise and worry that the show may get cancelled.

Oh and speaking of Katrina, both good news and bad news came my way today. The good news is that my parents had their closing Road Home appointment today and the “check is in the mail,” for real this time! The bad news is that I waited too long to submit a proposal for a SSRC Katrina grant. I made contact in June and was told there was no deadline. With my summer travel out of state and out of the country, I put it off only to discover that they’ve run out of funds. Damn damn damn.

One less thing to write, I guess, especially now that the job list has come out!

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Last Thursday was my 32nd birthday. One of the things AC and I had not yet done after returning from Australia was reunite with our cat, Sweetness, who had been staying with my parents in Mississippi. So we decided to go to the Gulf Coast for the bday weekend and to pick her up.

On my birthday I had a great 5 Happiness lunch with my parents then spent the evening chatting on the phone. It was like old times, being silly on the phone at my parent’s house. I spoke with several people, but especially my best friend forever, Sarah. She’s been so busy with work and planning an event at the museum that it had been awhile since we had an extended conversation. We talked about not feeling our age, goofy 80s and 90s songs that the fabulous DIVA 92.3 plays, and how our 30s are going to be fabulous. We talked about the presents we have been collecting for each other all summer and how excited we were to see each other the next day.

Typically when I go to NOLA these days I have to split my time between Mississippi and NOLA so my main night to see friends was Friday. I drove in around 11am, had a late lunch with the little girl I used to tutor [who is now in college!], then was making my way to my hotel when I got a phone call from Sarah’s cell phone.

But it wasn’t Sarah’s voice. It was Leigh’s, one of our fellow dancer friends. She asked me if I had heard about what happened to Sarah. When I said no, she asked if I was sitting down. I told her I was driving but to hurry up and tell me anyway. Nothing could have prepared me for what she said next. Apparently Sarah had had a stroke that morning and was about to go into surgery so the doctors could remove a blood clot in her brain.

What shocked me then and still now is that Sarah is the healthiest person I know and for this to happen to someone only 29 years old makes no sense. I knew I couldn’t get to the hospital right then so I got some more info from Leigh then made it to my hotel. I was slightly relieved that this seemed to be a very medical issue and not something caused by a car accident or something else tragically human. A few hours later I got to speak with Sarah’s mom who was so calm and optimistic and strong that I couldn’t help feel the same way. It turns out that her condition was congenital and that the doctors seem to have taken care of it. The left side of her body is not very responsive, yet, but she’s already out of the Intensive Care Unit and in her own room in the Therapy wing.

Andy and I went to the hospital on Saturday morning and actually got to see her. She waved and nodded and I could see her smiling a couple times with the right side of her mouth. Friends have been calling me after they visit her on a daily basis and I’m going to try my best to get to NOLA again soon. Last night I even got to speak to Sarah on the phone and while she sounded weak and said “I want to go home,” which broke my heart, I have to believe that her progress will continue on an upswing.

Our friend Trina just sent me this link which helps explain the type of stroke Sarah had. Keep her in your prayers.

Life doesn’t prepare us for these things, but it only reminds me how much my NOLA friends mean to me and how badly I want to be physically present in their lives.

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An outsider’s take on Rising Tide 2:

In most cities, bloggers practice a peculiar virtual cannibalism, tearing each other apart for sport. But at Rising Tide, among people young and old, black and white, I saw my first glimpse of what can be termed blogger solidarity. It stemmed, as one told me, from “the necessity of coming together after Katrina.”

The bloggers represent the best of something beginning to bubble that you won’t see on the nightly news, as the two-year anniversary of Katrina arrives today. Amid the horror, amid the neighborhoods that the federal government seems content to see die, there are actual people sticking it out. And they do it with gusto.

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I’ve never liked Oprah, particularly after she did that “look at my fabulous week-long birthday party and how much people with money love me” segment a couple years ago, but this takes the cake.

WTF????

Chris Rose’s book is amazing and I’ve required my students buy it, so let’s hope the word gets out and Americans do flock to bookstores!

EDITED 8/30–Not sure if word spread, but on Oprah’s website, the re-cap includes the following:

Chris Rose, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated columnist in New Orleans, wrote the book 1 Dead in Attic. Although he has no history of mental health problems, Chris is one of many Gulf-area residents who eventually found himself on the edge. “I’ve had a number of friends kill themselves since the storm. I now understood why people did such things.”

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Graphic by Greg Peters

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While I am wary of any site whose tagline includes the phrases “Your Go-To Page” and “Everything you need and need to know is right here” [is it me or is that redundant and grammatically awkward?], I do appreciate any effort to gather the latest in Katrina headlines and resources. Check it out here.

Much more interesting to me is this new book, Heart Like Water, which only reminds me to finish my dissertation as soon as possible so I too can publish something great and evocative.

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With the 2 year anniversary coming up, NOLA theatre writer David Cuthbert has written a great piece on all of the works written and performed by locals, those “creative voices… raised in response.” Here’s a snippit from the section that features my best friend, Rudy:

[In Fleeing Katrina there is] Rudy Rasmussen, a hotel concierge/actor and one of the funniest people you will ever meet in life or onstage. Rasmussen, a flip, glib live wire, proved to be the voice of reason at the American Can Apartments building where he still lives. “We have food and we have Scotch,” he told his neighbors, “everything’s OK.” His mother, Ione Rasmussen, the longtime band director at Ridgewood Preparatory School, was infirm and, as something of a local legend, wasn’t used to being told what to do. Rasmussen had to cajole, plead and bully her to safety via helicopter and two planes. Along the way they met Geraldo Rivera, Al Gore and his kids (”sweating and helping people at the airport, changing people’s diapers — he’s a hero to me”) and ended up flying to Houston on a private jet.

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but the jet lag is killing me!

Rising Tide 2 is a conference, a party and an opportunity to learn where New Orleans stands two years after the failure of the federally-built levees following Hurricane Katrina. The weekend schedule of events is organized and presented by New Orleans bloggers in an effort to bring real-life activism to their online visibility.

This post on the RT blog is everything my dissertation aims to explore.

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