The Big Easy: Literary New Orleans and Intangible Heritage

Introduction

What do you do when you fall far from help?

There is a delicate balance between beauty and heartache that lies within cities that border major river ways; each carries the burden and anticipation that one day they could be extraordinarily impacted by massive flooding. Through this unit, students will examine the disastrous governmental response created when the levees were breached during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on August 30, 2005. Additionally, we will briefly discuss the failure of the drainage systems throughout Richmond, Virginia; which resulted in the flooding and near destruction of the Shockoe Bottom area of the city on August 30, 2004 after Tropical Storm Gaston, allowing the students to recount their own experiences and the experiences of their families in the wake of post-Gaston. Further, we will investigate the idea of civic disengagement and the implications that race and socio-economics have on public policy decisions. In examining these disparities, I will pose the questions: What makes one a citizen and what happens when the government fails them? Why does the government fail them? What role should the government play in the wake of natural disasters? How do political dynamics affect public policy decisions?

Socially conscious literature such as, Zeitoun, Voices from the Storm, and A.D: After the Deluge, sensitizes and motivates the reader to become actively engaged in the public policy process. Paired with Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, the reader will explore the inhumanity, humiliation, abandonment and the indignities that were inflicted upon the stranded residents of New Orleans post-Katrina by various governmental agencies and media outlets. Staged in New Orleans by the Classical Theatre of Harlem, Godot used the agonizing wait for help after Katrina as central metaphor ¹. Each text is significant in recounting the harrowing effects of the public policy decisions made by the Bush-era crisis management in the wake of Katrina and provides a voice for those who are often marginalized by the lingering effects of poverty, race, and class. It is my goal that these texts, coupled with the song "Strange Fruit," will ignite action in the learner that will compel them to become informed citizen-learners.

As defined by the Project Citizen program, "public policy is an agreed-upon way that our government, at whatever level, fulfills its responsibilities, such as protecting the rights of individuals and promoting the welfare of all the people" ². The degrees to which its citizens participate in the civic affairs of the community are vital to the stability of a democratic society. We will discuss the differences between political and humanitarian responses and the students will reflect on how the lack of emergency preparedness impacted the each city's most vulnerable citizens. We will investigate the idea that humanitarian crisis's that are exacerbated by public policy are unnatural and that due to the mismanagement of federal, state and local governmental agencies, thousands of residents of New Orleans were displaced, traumatized, or lost their lives after the levees broke. Many believe that "at its core, this was a Southern racial narrative being performed a national and global audience" ³. Additionally, the students will participate in a comparative analysis of the response of local and state officials in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, Louisiana and post-Tropical Storm Gaston Richmond, Virginia and the effects on the human inhabitation in the aftermath of each unnatural disaster. Through imagery, film, and discourse, the students will examine the factors that attributed to the unnatural disaster that occurred post-Katrina.

Next, the students will examine the idea of intangible heritage and will explore the cultural places, practices, and performances that permeate New Orleans. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Intangible Heritage is defined as living heritage ⁴. To receive UNESCO Intangible Heritage designation a community or event must be traditional, contemporary, and living at the same time, inclusive, representative, and community-based. "It also includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts" ⁵. This designation is based on nominations by member nations and is an effort to preserve cultural practice and sites and to increase tourism in these areas. Some examples of Intangible Heritage sites include the ritual dramatic art of Ta'z?ye of Iran, the Mediterranean diet of Spain, Italy, Greece, and Morocco, and the Peking Opera of China. Currently, there are no Intangible Heritage sites in North America. Therefore, we will recreate the definition of intangible heritage to include traditions and practices rooted in both New Orleans and Richmond. This discussion will include the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans, and we will draw upon our own experiences to include sites and traditions unique to Richmond.

Through our readings, students will be afforded the opportunity to discuss the significance of New Orleans to our nation's landscape. Students will discuss why New Orleans matters to the fabric of our nation and we will explore its contributions to the performing and visual arts, culinary arts, religion, and to American literature by focusing on areas where historical, cultural and behavioral vortices still exist. In Seminar we defined cultural and behavioral vortices as physical energy, the pull of social necessity that brings people (or audiences) together with certain behavioral characteristics, self-expression, and self-invention. In essence, it is a collective social version of behavior and cultural identity. To reinforce this idea, students will identify cultural and behavioral vortices that exist in their own communities. In addition, they will participate in a pen pal exchange with students who live in New Orleans as they study the importance of civic engagement and public policy by using cognitive terminology such as analyzes, predicts, classifies, reflects, and synthesizes. The unit is designed for an eleventh grade English class, but could easily be modified to be taught in US History or Government classes as well. Differentiated instruction will provide avenues for the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learner. The unit follows the state and district standards and guidelines for Language Arts.