Published March 18th, 2007
in Uncategorized.
It is easy when placed in a situation like what we all found ourselves in upon arriving in New Orleans, to focus only on the negative and what needs to be done to correct it. The incomprehensible lack of attention to the struggle of the residents in New Orleans on a National level and the unfortunate lack of adequate response on a city level makes it easy to leave with a bad taste in your mouth. Not for the city of course, but for the experience. In short, it is easy to focus on anger and sadness. Mostly because of the enormity of the work we had to complete and the general emotional and physical exhausted-ness of most of us on the trip, we had been virtually unable to actually see the city from a perspective that was anything but sad. It is important to see these things, to realize how the neighborhoods look and understand the struggle of the residents who live within them. But, as I realized within the last 24 hours of our stay, it is equally important to discover and realize the amazing soul that is so vibrant within the city. This is important because it provides context, a view into what the city was and what it could be. It also provides a frame of reference to those who may now look at New Orleans as a broken city, rather then realizing the beauty that is still there.
On Friday night, after having what was hands down one of the best meals of the trip at a restaurant owned by one of Steven Jackson’s friends, we went out on the town to experience the night life. It was at this moment that I fell in love with the city. At first I felt slightly guilty about having fun while there was so much work to be done. But I soon realized that my exploration of the music and culture of the city was just as valuable a discovery as my realization of how I could help. It is much easier to commit oneself to doing something when you realize why it is valuable. Beyond the obvious fact that these are people who have been handed a great injustice, helping New Orleans is worth any effort possible because it is a place of such amazing and diverse cultural experiences.
On Saturday morning, Megan, Patricia, Shawn and I met with Dan Etheridge, active member and coordinator of the Porch Project. We showed him the Porch’s new blog and spent time reviewing the software and teaching him how to use the platform’s various features. He will be traveling to New York in May to meet with us again to review the progress of the blog and to discuss further possibilities of collaboration on the project.
After the meeting, we went to the French Quarter for lunch. It was fun but it was also a very strange juxtaposition to the neighborhoods we had spent so much time in during the rest of the week. I myself ignored the girls gone wild posters and crazy St. Patrick’s Day invaded bars. But thats just me.
Published March 18th, 2007
in Uncategorized.
In the afternoon of day five, I taught one of the classes in the Xavier Art Department. My class was focused on mobile technology and its place within grassroots journalism and social conversation. I introduced flickr, blip.tv and mobile uploading capabilities on facebook. I showed the class how to register for these various services and how to set their mobile settings. I then introduced and discussed freeformed and the Voices of New Orleans project. After introducing these various platforms, I showed the ny2no blog and discussed how to register for your own blog and how to upload video and images and how to configure blip to send mobile images and videos to the blog automatically. The students I taught were somewhat tech savy already and they seemed to understand how use the various features. I handed out my email address and pointed the students to the how-to page on the ny2no blog, which contained notes and step by step information as to how to execute all of the things I discussed.
Published March 18th, 2007
in Documentation.
On day five, Megan and I met again with Linda Jackson to show her the basic structure of the Lower 9th Ward Homeowner’s Association blog and further discuss with her the goals and ideas for the association. We actually ended up talking with her for a couple of hours about her personal experiences after the storm and the general politics of rebuilding the Lower 9th ward. Linda voiced her concerns about investors buying up large portions of property in the area and attempting push residents out. We realized through this meeting that Linda has a lot of influence within the discussion about the Lower 9th Ward’s future. She will be attending a meeting on Monday concerning the distribution of vacant land within the city where she plans to found out how she can purchase land to begin construction of temporary residences within the neighborhood for displaced senior citizens whose homes were destroyed. She spoke in great length about the hardships of many displaced residents who are barely getting by in the areas where they have been re-located to. Many are no longer receiving emergency assistance and are finding it difficult or impossible to pay the rent in their new neighborhood. She also spoke about the significance of the land to many former residents, whose property has often been passed down through generations.
We also discussed with Linda the importance of incorporating a donation button on the site, which would allow people to easily donate money to her organization through paypal with their credit card. At first she was not happy about paypal’s 3% cut of the donations but we convinced her that this was the best way to reach an online audience. Since the Homeowner’s Association is a relatively new organization, she has yet to obtain a bank account. She plans to do this on Monday so Megan and I can set up the paypal account for her. After this is completed, the next step is to inform as many people as possible about the organization and their need for funding. More about that to come as the project gets under way.
Published March 18th, 2007
in Uncategorized.
On the fourth day of our trip, I spent most of my time at the Xavier University Art Department working on various projects. I assisted Megan MacMurray in constructing the blog for the Porch project and began to work on the Lower 9th Ward Homeowner’s Association blog, including constructing the header and writing various static pages explaining the association’s goals. I also met with Ashley Thomas, an Xavier student, to discuss possibilities for the Voices of New Orleans project, a call-in freeformed open circle that the freeformed group created to facilitate easy means of conversation about various topics facing the citizens of New Orleans. Ashley provided some valuable input into the structure and purpose of the circle. She also offered to re-record the opening menu of the circle. This was a very necessary and important change to the project because it would provide those who called in with someone who sounds like them in accent, thus giving more familiarity to the project. Ashley also introduced the idea of specific topics for callers to discuss. She felt that three very important areas for discussion were the Road Home project, crime within the city and a space for teenagers to voice their specific concerns. Ashley also offered to be a local advocate for the project and plans to take business cards advertising the number to call to various places within the city including local high schools. She hopes that if the project takes off she will be able to present to the Mayor through an ongoing relationship that the radio station she works for maintains with him.
Published March 18th, 2007
in Uncategorized.
Published March 18th, 2007
in Uncategorized.
In the afternoon, Megan, Yonatan, Dan, Caleb. Paris and I went to the Lower 9th Ward with Mary Hill, a student at Xavier, and Ron Bechet, Director of Xavier’s Art Department. First, we went to have a meeting with Linda Jackson at NENA, the Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association, located in the heart of the Lower Ninth Ward. Linda also runs the Lower 9th Ward Homeowner’s Association, an organization dedicated to facilitating the return of neighborhood residents, especially senior citizens, and to preventing the land of the neighborhood from being sold to investors. Linda was an animated, intelligent and incredibly hard working personality and amazing individual. She has created a map which depicts the residents that she has been able to get in touch with since the storm. The green pins are those residents that have returned home, the yellow are those that are unsure whether they can return home (mostly due to financial concerns), the white are FEMA trailers and the red are those that will not be returning:
After meeting with Linda, I felt very strongly that I wanted to continue to work with her to a get a blog up for the Lower 9th Ward Homeowner’s Association and to facilitate donations to the organization, which is desperately needs.
Published March 15th, 2007
in Documentation.
Wednesday was the busiest and hardest day so far. Megan and I went in the morning to the Green Project, an organization that has been present in New Orleans for thirteen years and has been functioning as the city’s sole recycling center since the storm. They are a nonprofit organization dedicated to creatively promoting and encouraging environmental sustainability in New Orleans. They recycle building materials and paint, deconstruct homes and salvage usable materials. While there we met the acting Director Angela and the executive Director, Donald, who both seemed very excited to have us documenting their work.
The center functions mostly through volunteers who come for the day and help the organization recycle paint and lumber materials, work in the composting section or various other tasks. Megan and I were assigned to do composting for the few hours that we were there.
Published March 15th, 2007
in Documentation.
On the second day Marianne, Shawn, Patricia, Megan and I met with the Porch Project to discuss their technology needs and introduce them to the blog platform. We also met with Bruce, a professor at Xavier University in the Mass Communications Department and one of the people involved in the I-10 Witness organization, to find out more about their digital storytelling project and introduce them to the projects that we have been doing. Hopefully, there may be some collaboration in the future.
Steven then took us to the Lower Garden District for Lunch.
After that Megan and I went to the Xavier University Art Department, located in Gert Town. While waiting to go to our next meeting, we went out the immediate neighborhood and took some pictures.
Published March 15th, 2007
in Documentation.
In the late afternoon of the first day, all of us went to Dillard University to meet with various community groups working in different neighborhoods in the city. We introduced ourselves by presenting several projects that students had worked on previously and by explaining this blog platform. Some of the projects presented with Dan’s You are not here project, Steven’s mapping project, Ruth’s booth project and the freeformed.net voice circle.
Published March 15th, 2007
in Documentation and Uncategorized.
Upon arriving in New Orleans, after getting very little sleep the night before, Caleb, Yonatan and I received one of the rental cars and attempted to find our way to the hotel. We were initially following behind others but, thanks to inserting the incorrect address into our GPS navigation system, we ended up getting a little lost. Not that we minded, I have always found that getting lost in a city early on allows you to have a perspective of place that cannot easily be achieved from the highway. We actually ended up on Magazine Street in the Lower Garden District and somehow found the correct path to the hotel.
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