I start preparing, even as every fiber of my body resists this idea. I am physically antsy and mentally calm at the same time. I walk in a circle for a minute every few hours, rechecking my list of things to do.
The calls are starting: are you going? where are you going? when?
I think again and again, What about our farmers, fishers? Mississippi?
I am lucky to have friends and family to go to with no question. I will make plans for Memphis TN first and wait it out there with other New Orleanians, dogs and lots of coffee.
I was planning on a extended trip to Ohio after Labor Day, so will go few days early and continue my trip, eerily like 3 years ago.
This time, I will hold my breath and hold hope.
This old city is tough.
I love it.
Essays, links and visuals highlighting an alternative, resilient place at the strategic crescent of one mighty river.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
silent moment on 8-29
You are welcome to join the Amma Center meditation group for
a silent meditation Friday morning (August 29th)
from 7 a.m. until 7:30.
Please arrive in silence and join in for all or part of the half hour. We will meet at the park at Esplanade Ave. and Grand Route St. John. Bring something to sit on -- and you may want something for mosquitoes. Let me know if you have any questions.
anna maria
Feel free to forward this message, and please forgive any duplications.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen
a silent meditation Friday morning (August 29th)
from 7 a.m. until 7:30.
Please arrive in silence and join in for all or part of the half hour. We will meet at the park at Esplanade Ave. and Grand Route St. John. Bring something to sit on -- and you may want something for mosquitoes. Let me know if you have any questions.
anna maria
Feel free to forward this message, and please forgive any duplications.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen
Monday, August 25, 2008
a tour like no other....
Unique eBay auction to benefit the Community Center of St Bernard
When it comes to raising awareness about the true state of the Gulf Coast recovery effort on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the Community Center of St Bernard in Arabi, Louisiana is taking a creative approach. This 501c3 nonprofit organization is currently running an eBay auction where the lucky winner will receive a personal tour of New Orleans from the vantage point of a motorcycle sidecar operated by Iray Nabatoff, a long-term volunteer who serves as the Community Center's Executive Director.
It's a light-hearted approach that hides a deeper purpose. "Every day you see the devastation all around you, a full 3 years after the hurricane. And you wonder what you can do to make people aware of the situation here" notes Mr. Nabatoff.
During January - June 2008, the Community Center of St Bernard distributed 111,265 lbs of free food to 2,990 low-income residents. During the last quarter the Center served 1,534 free hot meals, made 601 referrals and distributed 5,592 flyers to help clients to find the specific services and resources they need. In June 2008 alone, the Community Center's public computer lab was used 580 times, and 116 applications for Food Stamps were processed at their facility. And every week, the Center continues to provide free clothes to more than 200 families. These numbers are an eloquent testimony to the overwhelming need that still exists in St Bernard Parish, 3 years after Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005.
"There remains so much to be done here -- for many of the clients we serve, this is NOT a recovery but merely a later stage in an ongoing crisis," states Mr Nabatoff. "Though numerous celebrities and aspiring politicians, includingOprah, Amy Goodman and Brad Pitt, have come to New Orleans, they don't venture beyond the Lower Ninth Ward, so they remain in the dark about the lives and struggles of the people in St Bernard directly next door, separated only by the Jackson Barracks. We hope that this eBay auction will help generate awareness about St Bernard Parish, and we encourage everyone to view the auction and spread word about it, even if it isn't practical for them to bid."
To view the eBay auction, which ends September 1, please visitsidecartour
And for more information about the recovery effort in St Bernard Parish and the work of the Community Center of St Bernard, please visitccstb.org or phone 504-281-2512.
# # #
Contact information: Iray Nabatoff, Executive Director, Community Center of St Bernard, 1107 LeBeau St, Arabi, LA 70032, 504-281-2512, info@ccstb.org
When it comes to raising awareness about the true state of the Gulf Coast recovery effort on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the Community Center of St Bernard in Arabi, Louisiana is taking a creative approach. This 501c3 nonprofit organization is currently running an eBay auction where the lucky winner will receive a personal tour of New Orleans from the vantage point of a motorcycle sidecar operated by Iray Nabatoff, a long-term volunteer who serves as the Community Center's Executive Director.
It's a light-hearted approach that hides a deeper purpose. "Every day you see the devastation all around you, a full 3 years after the hurricane. And you wonder what you can do to make people aware of the situation here" notes Mr. Nabatoff.
During January - June 2008, the Community Center of St Bernard distributed 111,265 lbs of free food to 2,990 low-income residents. During the last quarter the Center served 1,534 free hot meals, made 601 referrals and distributed 5,592 flyers to help clients to find the specific services and resources they need. In June 2008 alone, the Community Center's public computer lab was used 580 times, and 116 applications for Food Stamps were processed at their facility. And every week, the Center continues to provide free clothes to more than 200 families. These numbers are an eloquent testimony to the overwhelming need that still exists in St Bernard Parish, 3 years after Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005.
"There remains so much to be done here -- for many of the clients we serve, this is NOT a recovery but merely a later stage in an ongoing crisis," states Mr Nabatoff. "Though numerous celebrities and aspiring politicians, includingOprah, Amy Goodman and Brad Pitt, have come to New Orleans, they don't venture beyond the Lower Ninth Ward, so they remain in the dark about the lives and struggles of the people in St Bernard directly next door, separated only by the Jackson Barracks. We hope that this eBay auction will help generate awareness about St Bernard Parish, and we encourage everyone to view the auction and spread word about it, even if it isn't practical for them to bid."
To view the eBay auction, which ends September 1, please visitsidecartour
And for more information about the recovery effort in St Bernard Parish and the work of the Community Center of St Bernard, please visitccstb.org or phone 504-281-2512.
# # #
Contact information: Iray Nabatoff, Executive Director, Community Center of St Bernard, 1107 LeBeau St, Arabi, LA 70032, 504-281-2512, info@ccstb.org
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Must see premier in Mid City
From one of the city's most celebrated chefs who manned a soup kitchen to the hardware store owner who kept looters at bay while providing vital supplies, director Hanson Hosein and producer Tom Powers have captured the spirit of resilience and innovation of New Orleans' independent business owners in their documentary film, Independent America: Rising from Ruins. It is the inspirational story of the small businesses that risked everything to resurrect their neighborhoods after the worst natural disaster in American history -- even as they are now challenged by government policies skewed to favor corporate chain retailers.
What: World Premiere of Independent America: Rising from Ruins (www.independentamerica.net)
Where: Massey's Professional Outfitters (upstairs), 508 N. Carrollton Ave,
When: Saturday August 30, 2008; 6-9 pm
6 pm - First seating
7 pm – Light refreshments and discussion with filmmaker
8 pm – Second seating
Who: Open to the public. Suggested donation: $10, with proceeds benefiting Stay Local
Seating is limited: call 232-7821 or email dana@staylocal.org to reserve a space.
This film is being held in conjunction with a daylong conference, "New Orleans Speaks: We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For."
For more information about the conference, or to view a trailer of the film, go to theneworleansinstitute.org
What: World Premiere of Independent America: Rising from Ruins (www.independentamerica.net)
Where: Massey's Professional Outfitters (upstairs), 508 N. Carrollton Ave,
When: Saturday August 30, 2008; 6-9 pm
6 pm - First seating
7 pm – Light refreshments and discussion with filmmaker
8 pm – Second seating
Who: Open to the public. Suggested donation: $10, with proceeds benefiting Stay Local
Seating is limited: call 232-7821 or email dana@staylocal.org to reserve a space.
This film is being held in conjunction with a daylong conference, "New Orleans Speaks: We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For."
For more information about the conference, or to view a trailer of the film, go to theneworleansinstitute.org
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Currents and tides
ebb and flow. My mother (comfortably situated in the French Quarter for the past 27 years) has always lived near water, and cannot imagine living inland. But, does she go to see the water? (Umm, like never.) But she knows it's there, and probably lives by its movement, if one were to match her moods and flurries of activities to the nearby river. I live next to Bayou St. John and view the water everyday for a few minutes, and when I did live in a non-waterfront city (Columbus Ohio) I went a bit mad (would drive back to a lake-fronted city hours away every other week for months) and could never find the vista that appealed to me while in the middle of Ohio.
The tides and currents here at the crescent seem to me to mirror the ebb and flow and currents of the people who live here. I just said goodbye to a few friends who left town-one, who moved away after the levee breaks and was back visiting another who was moving to Italy, and a third who was traveling with the new Italian resident to help her get situated and would then come back to her artist life.
I thought as I said hello and goodbye to them that New Orleanians always seem to be flowing, never with jerky movements or ideas, and just as water can break rock ultimately, they are without cease as they move to what they know they must do.
That seems to be happening again and again. Some leaving and some returning to this "bowl in a saucer full of water" (as someone described the city to me long ago). Some fighting now, some doing battle at the outset of the troubles, spending all, leaving for a bit and now returning to pour more water on the fire.
My friend Pat returned this week, after living in Tyler Texas for 3 years. (A less likely person to live in Tyler Texas would be difficult to find.)
I have not spoken to her, but I feel as if I know how she feels this week, waking up in her house, with no travel plans to think through, looking at her things in her lovely home, remembering them, and walking in her side yard, silently talking to her trees.
Another just finished her house. I imagine her sitting there, smiling. Or, cooking in huge pots with steam and seafood smells rising.
People from away think that water is what betrayed us in 2005, but we all know that it was the lack of intelligent design and responsibility from a concrete government that did us in; levees broken, and no answers ever been given as to why so much of our money had resulted in concrete poured on top of peat.
So citizens took it upon themselves to investigate the levees.
City tells us green space will replace neighborhoods; citizens take it upon themselves to change that decision.
Corruption at the highest levels of city government, so individuals take on the role of clearing the debris to see the truth.
We rise together when we see the overwhelming need to amass, and when the work is done, we dissipate our combined strengths and go back to quiet individual needs.
Ebb and flow. When I was a child, my mother brought us here in the summers to stay with our grandparents and so she could reconnect to her city, before returning to the cold Midwest and its eveyday potato and meat life. How sad she was for so many years in Ohio, away from all that she knew and believed in, away from her river. I know this because when we moved here in 1980, she became a person I had never known; a New Orleanian. It just happened that the tide that returned her to her city took 18 years to come.
That ebb and flow is our strength, because we are all ready to match those rhythms and use its power as long as it takes. We may ebb at times, but we will most certainly flow together again.
The tides and currents here at the crescent seem to me to mirror the ebb and flow and currents of the people who live here. I just said goodbye to a few friends who left town-one, who moved away after the levee breaks and was back visiting another who was moving to Italy, and a third who was traveling with the new Italian resident to help her get situated and would then come back to her artist life.
I thought as I said hello and goodbye to them that New Orleanians always seem to be flowing, never with jerky movements or ideas, and just as water can break rock ultimately, they are without cease as they move to what they know they must do.
That seems to be happening again and again. Some leaving and some returning to this "bowl in a saucer full of water" (as someone described the city to me long ago). Some fighting now, some doing battle at the outset of the troubles, spending all, leaving for a bit and now returning to pour more water on the fire.
My friend Pat returned this week, after living in Tyler Texas for 3 years. (A less likely person to live in Tyler Texas would be difficult to find.)
I have not spoken to her, but I feel as if I know how she feels this week, waking up in her house, with no travel plans to think through, looking at her things in her lovely home, remembering them, and walking in her side yard, silently talking to her trees.
Another just finished her house. I imagine her sitting there, smiling. Or, cooking in huge pots with steam and seafood smells rising.
People from away think that water is what betrayed us in 2005, but we all know that it was the lack of intelligent design and responsibility from a concrete government that did us in; levees broken, and no answers ever been given as to why so much of our money had resulted in concrete poured on top of peat.
So citizens took it upon themselves to investigate the levees.
City tells us green space will replace neighborhoods; citizens take it upon themselves to change that decision.
Corruption at the highest levels of city government, so individuals take on the role of clearing the debris to see the truth.
We rise together when we see the overwhelming need to amass, and when the work is done, we dissipate our combined strengths and go back to quiet individual needs.
Ebb and flow. When I was a child, my mother brought us here in the summers to stay with our grandparents and so she could reconnect to her city, before returning to the cold Midwest and its eveyday potato and meat life. How sad she was for so many years in Ohio, away from all that she knew and believed in, away from her river. I know this because when we moved here in 1980, she became a person I had never known; a New Orleanian. It just happened that the tide that returned her to her city took 18 years to come.
That ebb and flow is our strength, because we are all ready to match those rhythms and use its power as long as it takes. We may ebb at times, but we will most certainly flow together again.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
River folks
livinglandandwaters.org is dedicated to the revival of the Mississippi and its tributaries, doing things like adopt-a-mile programs, planting trees and much more. Glad to see people up the river taking an interest in the degradation what we end up seeing the results of on our end. Take a look at their site.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
enter here.
This is a picture of a labyrinth that my friend Hilairie and I (and Dan, who came to say hello to me and got work!) did last year on New Year's Day. We invited folks to walk it, come to my trailer after and get a mimosa as well.
We had many, many friends come, gingerly step on the entrance and walk. Some did it slowly, some fast but all gave it a shot. I (silently) cheered them all on from my trailer doorway and added the moments walking myself to my cache.
A few days later, our friend Helen Hill was murdered in her home, in front of Poppy and Paul (son and husband) and I walked that labyrinth daily for a while, thinking of Helen and the brutality that was in contrast to her actual being.
I feel the need to spray chalk some more paths for my fellow citizens; I am hoping some of you want to lend a hand in different parts of town using this cool spray chalk to enter in and work through the muddle in our minds and lives.
If not, just give a beep or a bell ring when you go by and see me bent with a can in some weed-filled, glass strewn parking lot and know I am doing my best to even the odds of achieving peace in our tough little city.
Monday, August 11, 2008
info about levees across U.S.
As a public service, we have just introduced WeAreAtRisk.org
Now anyone can find out with one click if they live near an at-risk levee just by going to this website and typing in their zip code.
Note that the Corps' list includes only river levees and that in Louisiana all river levees have been deemed safe by the Corps (unbelievable!-Dar). Also, please see this note from Mark Schleifstein with the Times Picayune:
"There were no Louisiana federal levees in violation, ie river levees. Hurricane levees were exempted from this first list because faults were known and plans were underway for their repair, IPET was still underway and they aren't complete. However, they are under the same inspection requirements, and are being inspected -- along with all the other levees in the state -- under the oversight of the state Department of Transportation and Development/CPRA."
Sandy Rosenthal
Founder and National Spokesperson Levees.Org
www.levees.org
spread the "word" (Dar)
Now anyone can find out with one click if they live near an at-risk levee just by going to this website and typing in their zip code.
Note that the Corps' list includes only river levees and that in Louisiana all river levees have been deemed safe by the Corps (unbelievable!-Dar). Also, please see this note from Mark Schleifstein with the Times Picayune:
"There were no Louisiana federal levees in violation, ie river levees. Hurricane levees were exempted from this first list because faults were known and plans were underway for their repair, IPET was still underway and they aren't complete. However, they are under the same inspection requirements, and are being inspected -- along with all the other levees in the state -- under the oversight of the state Department of Transportation and Development/CPRA."
Sandy Rosenthal
Founder and National Spokesperson Levees.Org
www.levees.org
spread the "word" (Dar)
Big Buddhist to Bayou
Our Bayou St. John neighbors and friends, Louisiana Himalaya Association hosts Chamtrul Rinpoche in New Orleans this September. Here's what they say about the visit:
"We are very excited to announce that Chamtrul (Lobsang Gyatso) Rinpoche has accepted
our invitation and is coming to New Orleans for the month of September. This is his
first visit to the United States, and he will be staying courtesy of LHA right in the
Bayou St. John neighborhood. Chamtrul Rinpoche has been a teacher to and close friend
of ours since we began our work in India years ago.
We have planned a month of teachings, talks and other opportunities to meet with the
Rinpoche, and will be sending out his schedule in the next few weeks. For more information on Chamtrul Rinpoche, visit his website: chamtrul-rinpoche.com.
If you would like more detailed information or would like to be more closely involved with this project, please contact susandunlap@hotmail.com or shelleyom@rediffmail.com,
and we will add you to our specialized email list. We will need lots of help with his
stay and the events, and have many exciting opportunities, other information to present, which we will only be emailing to this list.
Let us know, and hopefully see you in September!
Susan and Shelley
P.S. We are pleased to announce our new blog site where you can find announcements,
updated information about our new building as it comes, and current information about
what is happening with the people of Tibet." lhainfo.blogspot.com
"We are very excited to announce that Chamtrul (Lobsang Gyatso) Rinpoche has accepted
our invitation and is coming to New Orleans for the month of September. This is his
first visit to the United States, and he will be staying courtesy of LHA right in the
Bayou St. John neighborhood. Chamtrul Rinpoche has been a teacher to and close friend
of ours since we began our work in India years ago.
We have planned a month of teachings, talks and other opportunities to meet with the
Rinpoche, and will be sending out his schedule in the next few weeks. For more information on Chamtrul Rinpoche, visit his website: chamtrul-rinpoche.com.
If you would like more detailed information or would like to be more closely involved with this project, please contact susandunlap@hotmail.com or shelleyom@rediffmail.com,
and we will add you to our specialized email list. We will need lots of help with his
stay and the events, and have many exciting opportunities, other information to present, which we will only be emailing to this list.
Let us know, and hopefully see you in September!
Susan and Shelley
P.S. We are pleased to announce our new blog site where you can find announcements,
updated information about our new building as it comes, and current information about
what is happening with the people of Tibet." lhainfo.blogspot.com
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Help map New Orleans for pedal pushers
UPCOMING NOLACYCLE MAPPING EVENTS
Confirmed August Events:
Saturday August 9th, 6pm - Coliseum Square near the Fountain. AFTER PARTY at my house. Mapping St. Thomas, Garden District, and the Irish Channel.
Sunday August 10th, 6pm - Bayou St. John at the big oak tree near the intersection of Orleans and Jeff Davis. Mapping Mid-City.
Saturday August 16th, 6pm - My friend's house at 1565 N. Miro. AFTER PARTY. Mapping the 7th Ward.
Sunday August 17th, 5pm - Lower Nine Headquarters at 6018 El Dorado Street. Mapping the Lower 9th Ward/Holy Cross.
Saturday August 23rd, 6pm - Washington Square Park. Mapping St. Roch and St. Claude.
Sunday August 24th, 6pm - Laurence Square at Magazine and Napoleon. Mapping Riverside/Uptown.
September events are still up in the air:
Saturday September 6th, 6pm - Loyola University (exact site TBD). Mapping Uptown and Carrollton.
Sunday September 7th, 6pm - Tulane University (exact site TBD). Mapping Uptown and Fountainblue.
Saturday September 13th, 6pm - City Park. Mapping west of the park (Lakeview, etc.). BBQ either before or after the meet-up.
Sunday September 14th, 6pm - City Park. Mapping east of the park (Gentilly, etc.). BBQ either before or after the meet-up.
OTHER NEW ORLEANS BIKE NEWS
A local cyclist, David Gordin, was a victim of a hit-and-run at the corner of Congress and St. Claude on Wednesday at 12:30pm. He was severely injured. He was a hit by a newer American model sedan with fancy custom gold paint job and chrome rims. It's Texas license plate number 355 NVR. If you see this car, please contact the police.
Metro Bicycle Coalition is having a meeting this coming Wednesday from 5:45 to 7pm at the Fairgrinds Coffee House. It is located at 3133 Ponce de Leon. Fairgrinds is just off Esplanade, near Canseco's grocery and across Esplanade from Alcee Fortier park. Use the outside staircase to get to the upstairs meeting room.
Confirmed August Events:
Saturday August 9th, 6pm - Coliseum Square near the Fountain. AFTER PARTY at my house. Mapping St. Thomas, Garden District, and the Irish Channel.
Sunday August 10th, 6pm - Bayou St. John at the big oak tree near the intersection of Orleans and Jeff Davis. Mapping Mid-City.
Saturday August 16th, 6pm - My friend's house at 1565 N. Miro. AFTER PARTY. Mapping the 7th Ward.
Sunday August 17th, 5pm - Lower Nine Headquarters at 6018 El Dorado Street. Mapping the Lower 9th Ward/Holy Cross.
Saturday August 23rd, 6pm - Washington Square Park. Mapping St. Roch and St. Claude.
Sunday August 24th, 6pm - Laurence Square at Magazine and Napoleon. Mapping Riverside/Uptown.
September events are still up in the air:
Saturday September 6th, 6pm - Loyola University (exact site TBD). Mapping Uptown and Carrollton.
Sunday September 7th, 6pm - Tulane University (exact site TBD). Mapping Uptown and Fountainblue.
Saturday September 13th, 6pm - City Park. Mapping west of the park (Lakeview, etc.). BBQ either before or after the meet-up.
Sunday September 14th, 6pm - City Park. Mapping east of the park (Gentilly, etc.). BBQ either before or after the meet-up.
OTHER NEW ORLEANS BIKE NEWS
A local cyclist, David Gordin, was a victim of a hit-and-run at the corner of Congress and St. Claude on Wednesday at 12:30pm. He was severely injured. He was a hit by a newer American model sedan with fancy custom gold paint job and chrome rims. It's Texas license plate number 355 NVR. If you see this car, please contact the police.
Metro Bicycle Coalition is having a meeting this coming Wednesday from 5:45 to 7pm at the Fairgrinds Coffee House. It is located at 3133 Ponce de Leon. Fairgrinds is just off Esplanade, near Canseco's grocery and across Esplanade from Alcee Fortier park. Use the outside staircase to get to the upstairs meeting room.
Monday, August 04, 2008
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