Saturday, August 30, 2008

"Making Light" blog commemorates Katrina + 3

[[ "Making Light" is the blog I first followed the Katrina story on. The blog is published by New Yorkers Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, with additional posts by Jim MacDonald and others.
-- Thomas ]]
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Katrina - Third Anniversary ("Making Light")

Making Light followed this story from the beginning, from the day before Katrina hit New Orleans:

Katrina: Not your usual weather disaster story
28AUG05 O the dreadful wind and rain—They’re talking about this being the kind of storm that can reshape coastlines. Hurricane-force winds could be felt up to 150 miles inland. The Mayor of New Orleans has ordered a mandatory evacuation, and the governors of Louisiana and Mississippi have ordered that all the lanes on the interstates be switched to “outbound.” Best-case scenario for New Orleans still has the levees breaking and the city under fifteen feet of filthy water—and it doesn’t look like we’re going to be a best-case scenario. As of mid-afternoon, the storm’s stats are worse than Hurricane Camille’s—and while Camille was intense, it was also physically small. Katrina is huge.
Katrina
29AUG05 “Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen? ‘Times-Picayune’ Had Repeatedly Raised Federal Spending Issues” by Will Bunch, in Editor & Publisher. A very strong article which lays out Bush & Co.’s consistent policy of stripping funding from levee maintenance and hurricane preparedness in the Gulf Coast area in order to reallocate those funds to the Department of Homeland Security and the war in Iraq.
Apocalypse deferred; likely damage merely “incredible”
29AUG05 Maybe there’ll be a New Orleans to go back to after all. We can hope.

More.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Katrina Commemoration Events

Via Katrina Information Network.

NATIONAL

(August 29) Los Angeles, New Orleans and Los Angeles: Fighting for the Right to the City*** Co-sponsored by the East LA Community Corporation, Esperanza Community Housing Corp., Korean Immigrant Workers Alliance, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, South Asian Network and Union de Vecinos. This event will feature a candle-light vigil filled with art, food, theater, speakers, live music and entertainment connecting the struggles for working class people of color in New Orleans and Los Angeles. August 29, 2008 6:30 pm 3245 Wilshire. For more information please contact: Thelmy Perez-213-745-9961 x226

(August 29) Miami, Trouble the Water Film Screening, Fundraiser and Speak Out*** Co-sponsored by the Miami Workers Center, Vecinos Unidos, and Power U center. Friday August 29, 7:30pm at Shantel’s Lounge (5422 NW 7th Ave). This event will connect the struggles around police, prisons, poverty, and education for communities in New Orleans and Miami. Including Power U Band and open mic. $5 Donation. Contact 305.576.7749 for more info.

New Orleans/Gulf Coast Tour Youth from New York’s West End and Middle Collegiate Churches are traveling to the Gulf Coast to help with recovery work in the region and to meet with youth advocates. They will spend two days in Mississippi helping to rebuild homes in the Gulfport area and a few days in New Orleans working on green projects and meeting with youth affiliated with Save Our Schools New Orleans and Frederick Douglass High School to understand how communities are rebuilding through the eyes of young people. For more info contactwww.westendchurch.org or www.middlechurch.org.

(August 29) New York, Commemoration Rally and March*** New York City – Right To The City Alliance, the New York Solidarity Coalition with Katrina/Rita Survivors, Artist Relief, Brenda Stokley, Joetta Rogers and Northeast Survivors Group. The event will start with a rally and press conference at Sarah Roosevelt Park followed by a march starting at 4:15pm. The march will wind through the Lower East Side and Chinatown with short stops in each community and will end with a vigil in front of One Police Plaza. The commemoration will end with a fundraiser at Judson Memorial Church at 7:30 pm put on by the Artist Relief Collective and the Nola Preservation Society. For more information contact Rob Robinson at Picture the Homeless (646) 314-6423 or Brenda Stokley at the New York Solidarity Coalition with Katrina and Rita Survivors (212) 969-0449

(August 29) Philadelphia-Hurricane Season. Alixa and Naima of Climbing PoeTree are premiering their two-woman show on 8/29/08 kicking off a 50-city national tour. A multimedia piece, Hurricane Season connects issues that surfaced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to the "unnatural disasters" unfolding nationwide and world wide on a daily basis. Hurricane Season tackles global warming, environmental injustice, criminalization, militarism, corporate domination and displacement as they manifest from one gulf to another, with a powerful tale of resistance, resilience, creativity and survival . For more info visit www.hurricaneseasontour.com. Doors open at 7pm, Show starts at 7:30. Location: The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Tickets are $10-$20

(August 29) Providence, RI Commemorative March*** Sponsored by Boston/Providence Right to the City Alliance members including DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality) and ONA (Olneyville Neighborhood Association). Second line style action starts at 3:30pm at DARE offices (340 Lockwood St. Providence, RI 02903) Participants will follow the Hurricane Evacuation Route and will make stops along the way which highlight issues of criminalization, foreclosures, gentrification, education, and immigration and will connect the struggles of Providence to New Orleans. For information contact 401-351-3560 or 401-228-8996.

(August 29) San Francisco Bay Area-No Business as Usual Katrina Anniversary*** Action is Co-sponsored by Bay Area Right to the City. August 29th 10am-5pm. Start at 7th St and Market in San Francisco for rally and march. 1pm cultural performance at Oakland City Hall at 14th and Broadway. Followed by march to rally at Oakland Police Department. Highlighting connections between Bay Area and New Orleans including: criminalization, incarceration and deportation of communities of color; public housing, privatized development/gentrification, and displacement of working class people of color. Contact Robbie at robbie@justcauseoakland.org or 510-763-5877.

(August 29) San Francisco Bay Area-Katrina Commemoration and Community Forum (Part of Black August) In Solidarity with the Peoples' of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast: Right of Return, Reconstruction, and Self-Determination. Friday, August 29th from 6 – 9 pm at the Eastside Cultural Center, 1227 International Blvd. In collaboration with Huaxtec, Katrina Solidarity Network, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and Right to the City. Contact 510-533-6609, email mxgmoakland@gmail.com or visit www.mxgm.org.

(August 29)Washington DC- Rally at FEMA*** Friday, August 29th 11:30 am-1:30pm, FEMA Headquarters, 500 C Street, SE. Mid-Atlantic Right to the City Alliance is rallying at FEMA headquarters to highlight the federal government's failure to protect residents' human rights. Community groups are calling on the government to stop promoting incarceration and demolition of supportive housing, and to invest in a permanent solution to the housing crisis, public education, mental health and other crisis services. Contact awillis@onedconline.org for more info.

*** Denotes activities that are a co-sponsored by the national Right to the City Alliance