The Texts
A.D.: New Orleans after the Deluge
A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Jeff Neufeld is a graphic novel which details the accounts of survival of five characters who lived in New Orleans in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina swept across the Gulf Coast. Neufeld focuses on Denise, Leo, Abbas, Kwame and Brobson, whose only connection is the city that they call home. He introduces the hardships and realities that each character faces as they struggle to determine the economic and social feasibility of evacuation. For example, Leo points out that many residents get paid on the first and may not have credit cards or the financial means to evacuate the city days before payday.
By introducing the reader to the characters a week before the storm, Neufeld allows the reader to develop a familiarity with each character; which allows the reader to empathize with them. It also gives the reader the opportunity to examine the economic and social circumstances that many residents in the wake of a mandatory evacuation order. The novels deals with the questions: How do you leave a business you've spent your entire life building? How do you leave your cat behind? What will happen to a comic book collection that you've amassed your entire life? How do you leave your congregation behind? Do we rebuild after New Orleans has betrayed us? Will I ever go home? These honest conversations give the reader a more personal account of the survival stories of those impacted by Katrina.
Voices from the Storm
To date, Hurricane Katrina is the worst natural disaster to occur in American history, nearly destroying a major city and killing thousands of its citizens. The residents of traditionally impoverished and minority communities suffered unconscionable losses and endured unimaginable conditions, due to the negligence of a governmental agencies on all levels. This disaster has left the victims of Hurricane Katrina displaced and struggling to secure jobs, homes, schools, and a sense of place after relocating all across the nation. Voices from the Storm allows the survivors to recount their tales of loss and survival.
Waiting for Godot in New Orleans: A Field Guide
Waiting for Godot in New Orleans: A Field Guide, publishes the photographs, writings, testimonials, research guides, newspaper clippings, and related documents gathered during the making of the production of Waiting for Godot in New Orleans, an interpretation of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. The production included the free outdoor performances in the Lower 9 th Ward of New Orleans and Harlem; theater workshops, educational seminars, conversations, and dinners; a Shadow Fund; and a short film.
Zeitoun
Set in New Orleans, Louisiana, the reader is introduced to the Zeitoun family who are Muslim-Americans are living the American Dream as entrepreneurs, owning a small home repair business. In late August, 2005, as Hurricane Katrina approached the city, Kathy Zeitoun and her four children evacuate New Orleans for Baton Rouge. Her husband, Abdulrahman Zeitoun stays behind to watch over their home, ongoing job sites and rental properties, in large part due to the possibility of damage and insurance issues with their rental properties. Once the levees are breeched, their neighborhood is flooded and Zeitoun begins to explore the city in a canoe which he finds among the debris floating around the city. Feeling that he has been called from GOD to assist in the search and rescue, he begins to distribute basic supplies, carries neighbors to higher ground in his canoe, and feeds a group of abandoned dogs. His finds this work rewarding and believes it to be ordained by GOD, so he ignores his families pleas to evacuate the city.
In early September, Zeitoun and three friends were arrested on suspicion of being terrorists at one of Zeitoun's rental houses by a mixed group of U.S. military officials and local policemen. Although the men were not immediately charged with any crimes, they were detained in a with hundreds of other uncharged American citizens in a Greyhound bus station for three days before being transferred to Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in nearby St. Gabriel, Louisiana. Zeitoun was held at Hunt for several weeks without having stood trial. He was later released without being convicted or tried for any crimes and none of the men were ever given an apology or compensated for their ordeal.
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