Category Archives: activism

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Weighing In On A Confederate Past

It’s amazing to be alive at the moment of the tipping point for a social movement: For my lifetime, they already include the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of apartheid in South Africa, Arab Spring, the extension of legal rights for women and for same-sex unions among many others.
What all of these have in common is that they happened well before the formal governing entity signaled that it was ready for the change or even in some cases, before the solid majority had decided to back the change.
All were hard-fought and seemed destined to fail at many points in their campaign. All had active opposition.

The removal of statues of Confederate leaders from public space is another tipping point in a country that is heading toward a time when whites will be a minority (by 2043).
The affronted use mockery (“Why don’t we remove all traces of Washington? HE owned slaves! Where will this end?”) or condescending treatises on what they view as “the real history”, as understood through a lifetime of racist schoolbooks and likeminded family members (“The war was about states rights and not about slavery, duh.”)
To me, the arguments stated above mask the bigger truth: The public lionization of the Confederate past of the South is a barrier to working together for the future and signals to people of color that whiteness is a privilege earned, when it is not. I don’t care what version or scope of history you subscribe to, although I may pity you; have a statue of Lee in your backyard, but holding on the “Lost Cause” narrative in public places is a recipe for the continuing disintegration of our region. It also masks the true vibrancy of the South: that it is based on a multi-cultural, multi-generational belief in place, extreme socialization and culture handed down from person to person.
I wish we had the ability and forethought as a people to have created realistic evidence of the world of slavery and the brutality of the Civil War as Eisenhower ordered to be done with the concentration camps after WW2, but we did not. Instead we have inherited this soft and “heroic” narrative that does not truly represent the history of that ugly time.

Statues of those who brought a civil war to defend a system that allowed people to be sold as chattel should not be kept in public spaces.
Keep all of the statues and throw some Mardi Gras beads on em if you’d like, but put them in the Custom House or another place to properly frame their history as those who ignored the opportunity to expand human rights for their neighbors, along with information on when the statues were commissioned and by whom.

And thank you to Isabel Wilkerson, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of “The Warmth Of Other Suns:The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” for writing this piece in the NYT about how symbols do help to define their time:

With the lowering of the Confederate flag in the state that was the first to secede and where the first shots were fired, could we now be at the start of a true and more meaningful reconstruction? It would require courage to relinquish the false comfort of embedded racial mythologies and to open our minds to a more complete history of how we got here. It would require a generosity of spirit to see ourselves in the continued suffering of a people stigmatized since their arrival on these shores and to recognize how the unspoken hierarchies we have inherited play out in the current day and hold us back as a country.

“Any time, any time while I was a slave, if one minute’s freedom had been offered to me, and I had been told I must die at the end of that minute, I would have taken it—just to stand one minute on God’s airth [sic] a free woman— I would.” — Elizabeth Mumbet Freeman secured her freedom in a precedent setting court case on 8/22/1781.

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Suspected bike thief arrested in wig disguise after ex-bounty hunter, Facebook group run stakeout

“Gray tailed him for a few blocks, when, he said, Wells found an easy target: a red cruiser bike tethered with a cable lock. With a snip, the bike was free and Wells was on the move, Gray said.

Wells pedaled up to the Lowe’s hardware store on Elysian fields where he tried to sell the ride to the day laborers out front, Gray said. Finding no takers, Wells approached Gray, he said.

“Know anyone who wants to buy a bike,'” Wells asked, according to Gray’s account.

Gray said he only had about $15 on him. Wells said that was good enough, and the deal was sealed, Gray said.”

Keep your eyes and ears out about suspicious behavior around bikes and report it to the Stolen Bikes Nola Facebook page. And DON’T use cable locks.

Suspected bike thief arrested in wig disguise after ex-bounty hunter, Facebook group run stakeout | NOLA.com.

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Petition · Cancel plans for development of the “Championship” level golf course in Northern City Park

Especially for downtown residents and visitors, City Park is a necessary amenity and is conveniently located only a few easy miles down Esplanade by bicycle, leg or vehicle. As a FQ teenager, I rode my bike to City Park regularly, learned how to drive there and generally used it to escape from my fabulous but often trying daily life of the Quarter. Because of all of that and more, it remains one of my favorite places in the entire region.
This new golf course will take away what has been a much-loved and well-used space since the 2005 levee breaks. There is no doubt that City Park management has had to find ways to monetize/program much of the park, and has done so by offering many great amenities (i.e. 24 hour beignets, putt-putt, Botanical Garden/music, soccer fields, stables, Grow Dat Youthfarm) but they also need to balance that with open space that encourages a wide variety of beneficial insects, wildlife and plants that add diversity and won’t be attracted to a golf course. People need diversity of spaces too, and the space in question has served as a recuperative spot for thousands who rebuilt the city and were here in the gloomy days after 2005. I believe this need was clearly defined by that use and the management should attend to the felt desire to offer non-programmed or non-monetized space that benefits its residents, visitors and the rest of the natural world.
Please consider signing the petition and sharing it so we can show the support for balanced uses of our beloved City Park.
Petition · Cancel plans for development of the "Championship" level golf course in Northern City Park · Change.org.

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New Orleans Can Thrive: Mario Savio

And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!”

Savio's Free Speech Movement speech anniversary.

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18-wheeler hits French Quarter home

In one 2-hour period today, a drunk driver hit and killed a pedestrian on Conti and this illegal 18-wheeler hit a house on Chartres. I might suggest that we get some traffic enforcement in the city?
18-wheeler hits French Quarter home.

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Experts ask if New Orleans’ ‘exceptionalism’ masks grimmer reality

Writer Katy Reckdahl covers New Orleans with her usual tact and fair approach in this article from the Advocate. I wish there was more of the story covered here, but at least the idea of examining New Orleans’ “exceptionalism” has been raised along with comparing that assertion to its massive challenges. Certainly, the larger idea of American exceptionalism and its etymology should be examined as well. In other words, only reminding ones citizens about “positive” indicators-what for us is tied up entirely in our culture-seems to blind or restrict a more in-depth conversation about the systemic inequalities that also characterize life in New Orleans. Or as one astute online commenter said : let’s not keep falling for bread and circuses.

Allison Plyer, of the Data Center, who has crunched the city’s demographic numbers for nearly two decades, said the city is exceptional “only in terms of culture.” For the few indicators the Data Center keeps about culture, New Orleans is “well above the national average,” she said.

“We’re also well above the national average in incarceration,” Plyer said. “But we’re not different than other places in other measures of hardship, and those are glaring and need to be addressed.”

For all of New Orleans’ numerical similarities to places such as Cleveland, when Plyer looks up from her spreadsheets and PowerPoints, she sees a city that is special, she said. “And because it is special, I am interested in working to address issues of hardship and well-being here,” she said.

Tony Recasner, who heads Agenda for Children, said that because of the city’s small size and tight geography, the problems of the poor are often in plain view, just like the brass bands and parades. That proximity among people of all income levels contributes to high levels of volunteerism here, he thinks.

Experts ask if New Orleans’ ‘exceptionalism’ masks grimmer reality | News | The New Orleans Advocate — New Orleans, Louisiana.

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People United for Armstrong Park

2014 Lineup

Food
We at People United for Armstrong Park are excited about the amazing local food options we have put together for Season 6 of Jazz in the Park, which starts September 4, 2014.
Join us at Jazz in the Park and enjoy some delicious food from the following vendors:

Harold’s Barbecue
barbeque chicken, pulled pork, ribs

Chocolate Devil
bacon-wrapped sausages, hamburgers

Direct Select Seafood
fried seafood plates, fried seafood salads

Ninja
yakiniku (garlic ribeye) poboy, shrimp yakisoba (fried noodles), crabstick & cucumber salad, seaweed salad, vegetarian poboy
drinks: iced green tea, cold sake

Mello D’s Catering, LLC
chicken Pasta, Apple Cobbler, Merliton Dressing
sides: white beans, loaded mash potatoes

Lil Dustin’s Italian Ice
Italian Ice in several different flavors and deep fried oreos

A & L Catering Services
crab cake with crawfish sauce, chicken and sausage Jambalaya, shrimp and crawfish fettuccine, seafood sausage (alligator, crawfish and shrimp) on a bun

Ms. Dee’s Catering
red beans and rice, fried chicken, hot dogs and homemade chili, file’ gumbo
sides: french fries, salad

NOLA Foods
ghetto burger, jerk chicken, ribeye steaks, BBQ shrimp

Ms. Ackie’s Meal on Wheels
snowballs, nachos and cheese, yaka-mein and hot tamales.

(2013 post is below and shows how delicate the funding and support for this wonderful series is in constant peril; take a second to write to your council and mayor to let them know how much you enjoy the activities there.)

People United for Armstrong Park needs your help now more than ever to keep the spirit of Congo Square alive!
Jazz in the Park’s future in danger as City fees double: Armstrong Park’s Nola for Life program suspended, musicians cut

Today (10/10), major programming cuts will take effect as the fees imposed on Jazz in the Park by the City of New Orleans double. Most notably, the at-risk trainees of Armstrong Park’s Nola for Life-funded Event Production Program (EPP) will lose hours. Additionally, the 2-4pm musical act has been cancelled and Thursday will be the final second line at Jazz in the Park from 4-5pm. If city fees remain at their new level, organizers say the spring series will only feature one performer per event instead of the four acts that currently perform weekly. Additionally, the event founders (themselves unpaid volunteers) have been forced to cover city fees through a personally-guaranteed emergency line of credit.

Jazz in the Park is produced by People United for Armstrong Park, a volunteer-led Treme-based non-profit now in its second year. Since the spring of 2012, PUfAP has produced 30 free public concerts, featuring more than 100 local performers and bringing over 70,000 residents and tourists into the newly renovated Armstrong Park. In four seasons, PUfAP has trained and hired 20 community members in need, many of them public housing residents, unemployed and with criminal records. All told, Jazz in the Park events provide weekly employment opportunities to over 100 community vendors, musicians and staff.

Fees levied on the free event have increased 100% this year and 1000% from 2012. Sadly, it will be those who depend on their Armstrong Park jobs the most that will pay the greatest toll. “There is no fat to cut,” says Founder Emanuel Lain Jr., “we are cutting into bone at this point.” Jazz in the Park provides its high-quality cultural programming on a bare-bones budget – approximately 80% lower than those of the concerts at Lafayette Square.

Through its community programming, PUfAP has significantly improved the perception and reality of Armstrong Park, Rampart Street and the Treme neighborhood. Their goal is to transform Armstrong Park into a premier hub of the city’s cultural economy by honoring the cultural traditions of Congo Square.

“People United for Armstrong Park has made Armstrong Park a real park instead of an under-used landscaped backdrop for the City’s performing venues. Jazz in the Park brings together such a diverse group of people – it is unlike any other event in the city,” says Treme resident Dabne Whitmore.