The Big Easy: Literary New Orleans and Intangible Heritage

The Introduction – Little Boxes on the Hillside

This unit was originally inspired by YNI 2011 Seminar on New Orleans and the iconic 60s folk-song Little Boxes with focuses on two site-specific locales— Westmoor High School, and its adjoining neighborhood(s), and New Orleans— that serve to anchor the themes and goals of this unit into actual places and that assist, paradoxically, to free us, my students and myself, from the repressiveness of myopia in our own thoughts and immediate environment. It is the effort to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange, and in doing so, to help all involved to better perceive the greater world and its issues that affect all of our lives, and then to do something about it.

Most of my students have never been to New Orleans, certainly fewer pre-Katrina, and most New Orleaneans have never been to Westmoor, yet I believe that both places have the potential to illuminate life and show that regardless of our individual histories and cultures and stories we are more familiar to each other than strange. I believe that it is impossible to comprehend other persons, much less other places, without Imagination, and I believe that our individual and collective Imaginations suffer from Educational mal-nutrition, our Educational systems being fragmented and nearly, if not already, broken, despite the efforts of very creative people who are fighting impossible odds to keep inspiring children to dream. Thus, as I provide content for the study of Westmoor and New Orleans, I do the same with Imagination. Many of the concepts and terms (see Concepts/Terms below) that were taught in "The Big Easy" seminar, no pun intended, are parallel to concepts of the Imagination, especially in connection to the likewise ancient symbol of the Tree of Life. With Imagination, I also teach responsibility. It is imperative, I believe, that we, as teachers and students, become responsive stewards of our classrooms and communities and, ultimately, of our world. Thus, I include in this unit the "passion, vision and inspiration of world renowned scientist and environmentalist, Dr. David Suzuki, as he speaks about the human animal and our place in the universe." ¹ His teachings, as presented in the one-hour video Suzuki Speaks, are a "powerful, thought-provoking and timely catalyst for change." ²

It is my intention to show the universal need for all humans to be more aware and pro-active in creating actual change in how we view and live with our Earth, especially in light of the on-going natural and man-made catastrophes that seem to be plaguing our world, i.e., Hurricane Katrina and the B.P. oil-spill in the Gulf, and the inevitable earthquakes in California and worldwide. The San Andreas Fault crosses Daly City and moves out from land into the Pacific Ocean just south of Westmoor High School. It is imperative that we are prepared as thoroughly possible, not just for a big shake but for all the figurative internal shakes or troubles within each of us, especially in our Youth for whom we are here to help nurture into adulthood via Education.

Though this unit is particular to Westmoor High School, and its communities, and New Orleans, I believe that both the neighborhoods surrounding any school and any major City in the world can be substituted and studied with similar, yet unique results. Also, I developed this unit for my 12 ^th grade Film as Literature classes. That said, the documentaries, films and literature, et al, used here might be surrogated with others that are more relevant to any other school and City. Novels, and even other discipline subject-matter materials, may be swapped with the films that I have included.