The Big Easy: Literary New Orleans and Intangible Heritage

Rationale

"New Orleans is the spring from which so many thousands have drawn their wealth, but it is also a bitter cup of suffering, misery, and despair" ⁶. I began my love affair with the mystique of New Orleans as a junior in high school when I visited the city for the first time as a student. I became enthralled with the rich heritage, eclectic artwork, music, and the uniqueness of the city; this led me to further study the diversity and racial tensions that have plagued the region since the 18 ^th century and this love turned to heartache as I watched the debilitating effects that the breeching of the levees caused on my beloved city. Many residents felt that the levees were blown up at the Lower 9 ^th Ward; sentiments that stem from previous demolitions to the levees by the government to spare the French Quarter in an effort to preserve the economic integrity of the business district of the city. In contrast, the vast majority of the Lower 9 ^th ward was black and nearly 36% of them lived beneath the poverty level, twice the state average. The complicated racial and socio-economic factors echoed through the governmental response to breaching of the levees ⁷.

At the conclusion of the Intensive Session, several members of my Seminar group visited New Orleans to conduct field research for our units. During that trip I toured Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School in the Lower 9 ^th Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana and had the opportunity to interview Ms. Sylvia Arcenaux-Ellison, Project Manager at the school. She shared with me her personal account of having to evacuate during Katrina and shared the accounts of many of her students and their families. During the interview she stated that many families who had been unable to evacuate took refuge in the school and set up temporary living quarters in the classrooms on the second floor until they were forced to take refuge on the roof of the school. No one vandalized the school during the wait and days later, the Coast Guard rescued those stranded by Katrina from the roof top. Today, the school has partnerships with several mental health agencies to service family members and students. It has partnered with the state to provide a medical van in the parking lot for families. It serves as a community meeting place, polling place, and it houses the public library in the front of the school building. After Katrina, the city had no plans to rebuild a school in the Lower 9, and instead assumed the families would not return to their homes, or what was left for them. The King "family" petitioned and picketed governmental and local agencies and began the clean up effort themselves. Ultimately, they reopened as a charter school under the direction of the principal Dr. Doris Hicks, who now serves as the CEO/Principal for the school. When they opened, they began with 470 students and had a waiting list of 300 others despite having lost 27 students or family members in the storm.

Dr. King School has been visited by Tom Joyner, President Bush, Spike Lee, Anderson Cooper, Marc Morial, and most recently President Obama. When President Obama toured, he met with the entire school body and shook the hands of just about all of the children. This left an indelible mark on all of the staff and children and truly touched the lives of all involved. The school was decorated throughout with paintings of Obama and Dr. King, in an effort to give the students something to aspire to. They have many innovative and exciting programs at King School and offer both Gifted and Special Education programs in an inclusive and resource model, where students are provided additional services in the general education classroom and in a specially designed classroom. The students also participate in healing arts through the performing and visual arts and through gardening. They have many mentorship opportunities for the kids to get involved in and re-opened with 98% of their pre-Katrina staff in 2007. It is my hope that my students will have the opportunity to become pen pals with students from Dr. King School to open up a dialogue about resiliency between students in each community and to have them develop a deeper understanding of the struggles and successes of students similar to themselves.