Community Gumbo

6/13/2009 Community Gumbo

2009-06-13T07:14:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (6/9/09)

Shell to Pay Out $15.5 Million to Settle Landmark Lawsuit over Death of Nigerian Activist Ken Saro-Wiwa
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Nurses Union Leader Rose Ann DeMoro Urge Obama to Embrace Single-Payer Healthcare System

Listen | Democracy Now (6/10/09)

As Tensions Flare in Peruvian Amazon, Award-Winning Actor Q’orianka Kilcher Heads to Peru to Support Indigenous Rights

Listen | Democracy Now (6/11/09)

Longtime White Supremacist Opens Fire at DC Holocaust Museum, Killing Security Guard; Shooting is Third in as Many Months Linked to White Nationalist Groups

Music Played

Guitar Slim, "Down Through the Years"

Guitar Slim, "Guitar Slim Boogie - 2"

5/30/2009 Community Gumbo

2009-05-30T07:44:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (5/22/09)

Human Rights Attorney Vince Warren: Obama’s “Preventive Detention” Plan Goes Beyond Bush Admin Policies
Environmental Groups See Divide over Landmark Climate, Energy Bill Weakened by Industry Lobbying
Native American Environmental Leader Tom Goldtooth: Climate Change Bill Fails to Address Indigenous Rights

Listen | Democracy Now (5/21/09)

Teaching Pioneer Deborah Meier on Obama’s Education Policy and the Future of Charter Schools

Listen | Democracy Now (5/19/09)

“Open the Gates that the Righteous Nation May Enter”: Rumsfeld Used Biblical Quotes in Top-Secret Iraq War Briefings for Bush
Grammy-Winning Soul Musician John Legend at UPenn Commencement: “A Commitment to Truth Requires a Commitment to Social Justice”

Music Played

Vetiver, "Down from Above"

Winfred E. Eye, "Oh So Free"

T.Rex, "Girl in the Thunderbolt Suit"

Cowboy Jack Clement, "Guess Things Happen That Way"

Azar, "Wetlands Dancehall"

Bob Dylan, "If You Ever Go to Houston"

5/16/2009 Community Gumbo

2009-05-16T06:48:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (5/13/09)

Baucus’s Raucous Caucus: Doctors, Nurses and Activists Arrested Again for Protesting Exclusion of Single-Payer Advocates at Senate Hearing on Healthcare
Howard Zinn: “I Wish Obama Would Listen to MLK”

Listen | Democracy Now (5/14/09)

“Omnivore’s Dilemma” Author Michael Pollan’s New Advice on Buying Food: “Don’t Buy Any Food You’ve Ever Seen Advertised”

Listen | Democracy Now (5/12/09)

Doug Peacock on “Walking It Off: A Veteran’s Chronicle of War and Wilderness”

Music Played:

Edgar Blanchard, "Somebody's Doin' Me Wrong," Real Blues from New Orleans, Bandy Records.

Edgar Blanchard, "Won't Be Long," Real Blues from New Orleans, Bandy Records.

Edgar Blanchard, "Don't Need No Company," Real Blues from New Orleans, Bandy Records.

5/09/2009 Community Gumbo

2009-05-09T07:14:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (5/05/09)

Senator Russ Feingold on Obama’s Escalation of the War in Afghanistan, Torture, State Secrets and Single-Payer Health Care
William Greider: “Come Home, America: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of Our Country”
12-Year-Old US Citizen to President Obama: “I Want My Mom Back”

The Stone Center for Latin American Studies radio outreach project presents:

Listen | Latino wage disputes and victimization in New Orleans
Produced by Kiran Jain, Maggie Migliozatti, and Jessica Webb

Listen | The Latin American Studies major at Tulane
Produced by Andrea Pinto

These stories are part of the Stone Center for Latin American Studies' radio outreach project. The project is funded in part by the Center for Public Service and by a Title VI US Department of Education grant. For more information on the radio outreach project please visit stonecenter.tulane.edu or call 862-3143.

Listen | Democracy Now (5/7/09)

David Simon, Creator of Acclaimed HBO Series “The Wire”: As Profit Motive Guts Newspapers, Communities Lose Out

Music Played:

El Teatro Campesino, "Ninos Campesinos," Rolas de Aztlan, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Los Reyes de Albuquerque, "Corrido de Rio Arriba," Rolas de Aztlan, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Flor del Pueblo, "Soy del Pueblo," Rolas de Aztlan, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

5/02/2009 Community Gumbo

2009-05-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (4/29/09)

The “NAFTA Flu”: Critics Say Swine Flu Has Roots in Forcing Poor Countries to Accept Western Agribusiness
Ex-Virginia Tech Student Speaks Out Against Texas GOP Bill to Legalize Firearms on Campus
Prisoners at Federal Immigrant Detention Center in South Texas Stage Hunger Strike Over Alleged Abuses, Denial of Due Process
EXCLUSIVE: Jailed Houston Imam Zoubir Bouchikhi Speaks from Private Immigration Prison
Doctor in Sri Lanka Hospital Describes Casualties from Ongoing Conflict

The Stone Center for Latin American Studies radio outreach project presents:

Listen | The Latino immigrant experience in New Orleans
Produced by Taro Taguchi & Koplan Nwabuoku

Listen | The New Orleans Black-Brown coalition strengthens ties between the African-American and Latino communities
Produced by Melina Leodas

These stories are part of the Stone Center for Latin American Studies' radio outreach project. The project is funded in part by the Center for Public Service and by a Title VI US Department of Education grant. For more information on the radio outreach project please visit stonecenter.tulane.edu or call 862-3143.

Listen | Democracy Now (3/16/09)

Leftist FMLN Candidate Mauricio Funes Wins El Salvador Presidential Election, Ending Two Decades of Conservative Rule

Music Played:

Los Po-Boy-Citos, "Fried Neck Bones and Home Fries"

Los Mono, "Hecho esta"

Jose Cobles, "Sabor de engano"

Two-marimba ensemble of San Mateo Ixtatán, "Two marimbas in front of the church," Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Guatemala 1964

4/25/2009 Community Gumbo

2009-04-27T12:12:00.000-07:00

Listen | White House, Senate Dems Oppose Torture Commission, Energy Lobbyists Tried to Debunk Global Warming Despite Own Scientists’ Findings, Activists Conclude Indigenous Climate Summit, and more. (4/24/09 Democracy Now)

Interview with Allison McCrary and Aaron Viles on why they are picking on Shell Oil at Jazz Fest this year. Sound not available for this show.

Allison McCrary is a 2nd year law student at Loyola College of Law, the President of Public Interest Law Group, and a local community organizer around the Wiwa v. Shell case. Ms. McCrary talked about the human rights case against Shell in US civil courts. The "Wiwa" in Wiwa v. Shell refers to Ken Saro-Wiwa, an activist, author, and leader of the Ogoni people in their battle to protect their native homelands from damaging extraction practices. Mr. Saro-Wiwa was arrested by the Nigerian government along with 8 other activists and sentenced to death by hanging which led to the sanctioning of the Nigerian government by the international community. Allison will be part of a group canvassing at this year's Jazz Fest to raise awareness about the human rights case. For more information about the local Wiwa Campaign go here: www.shelljazzfest.com.

Aaron Viles, Campaign Director for the Gulf Restoration Network talked about oil accountability and the impact that the oil industry has had on Louisiana's wetlands. He said if you go to Jazz Fest on Saturday May 2nd, look up. There will be a plane flying over the Fest with the message "Shell-Hear the Music-Fix the Coast You Broke". Mr. Viles said they raised enough money for two hours of fly time thanks to a video request by Dr. John.

Shell Oil value statement

Both Allison and Aaron agreed that Jazz fest is great and supporting Jazz fest is a good thing. They explained that they are campaigning at the Fest because Shell is sponsoring it and will be paying close attention to the festival.

4/18/2009 Community Gumbo

2009-04-18T07:25:00.000-07:00

Listen | Noam Chomsky on the Global Economic Crisis, Healthcare, US Foreign Policy and Resistance to American Empire (4/13/09 Democracy Now)

John Hiatt, "Our Time," New West, 2008

Eilen Jewell, "Gotta Get Right," eilenjewell.com

Listen | A Roundtable of Local Florida Journalists on the Future of Newspapers, the Role of Community Media and Cubans in Florida (4/9/09 Democracy Now)

Jose Conde y Ola Fresca, "El Chacal," Putumayo, 2008

Listen | The Challenge for Africa: Kenyan Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai on Obama, Climate Change and War (4/10/09 Democracy Now)

Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile, "Cassandra's Waltz," Nonesuch, 2008

Diversions, not as fun as it sounds!

2009-04-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

Listen | Snippet of distinguished individuals speaking at the recent 3 day symposium titled “Mississippi Freshwater Diversion Summit” which was designed to be a serious discourse on rebuilding Louisiana’s coast using Diversions.

But, what is a Diversion? Well, it is when you take water from the Mississippi River and spill it (or divert it) over land to build the land up. Otherwise, you lose that land to the
Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi used to do this naturally but levees prevent this from happening now. Choosing where to divert the water, how much water to divert, and when to divert it have all been insurmountable problems going back decades and has paralyzed the process. There are many stakeholders and each one seems to have veto power over the process.

The Army Corps of Engineers hosted the symposium bringing together for the first time all the competing interests from the state, federal agencies, the environmental community, landowner representatives, navigation and port authorities, levee boards, scientists, engineers, lawyers, fishermen, you name it. They were there. It was standing room only.

We all sat through many presentations on Diversions and I gathered that pretty much everyone agrees that Diversions are a great idea. So, why aren't they happening? To find out, listen to these amazing speakers talk about how to solve the gridlock from their unique perspectives.

Listen | New Orleans City Council President Jackie Clarkson speaking to the group and I was lucky to catch up with her just after her presentation for a quick interview.

Listen | Len Bahr, the brains behind lacoastpost.com, a blog he started after retiring from his position with the State as resident expert on all things coastal. Here him talk about his surprise to be so positive about the summit and the importance of addressing nutrient pollution in the river.

Listen | Matt Rota, Director of Water Resources for the Gulf Restoration Network asks for some changes to come out of this meeting and recommends making a timeline.

Listen | Dr. Denise Reed, professor at University of New Orleans, and I talk about what she thinks about the summit and the best solution to fix our coastal problems.

Listen | Pam Dasheil with the Lower 9th ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development and I talked about how the rebuilding efforts in the 9 were progressing and her thoughts on river diversions.

Listen | Carlton Dufrochou, Executive Director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation is in rare form here as he makes a plea for South Louisiana.

Listen | Earl Melancon, professor of Biology at Nicholls State University, talks about how to pronounce his name and assures us that oysters and river diversions can co-exist.

Listen | John Barry from the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority eloquently explains the politics behind the decision making process.

Listen | Mike Benge, with Delacroix Corporation was at the Summit to talk about the impacts that the Caernarvon Diversion has had on large landowners.

Listen | John Day, LSU Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences

As for me, I just hope we can start moving some dirt. Hurricane season is fast approaching!

Cypress Mulch: Landscape Luxury or Lawn Loser?

2009-03-02T09:47:00.000-08:00

Casey DeMoss Roberts explores the impact of cypress mulch on Louisiana’s endangered Cypress forests and the campaign to stop the logging. She interviews three major players involved with the Save Our Cypress Coalition. Also featured in this week's show was a clip from Democracy Now talking about climate change regulations and Power Shift 2009. Also, Christian Roselund stopped by the studio to discuss the upcoming session with the Louisiana Public Service Commission over a proposed Renewable Energy Standard.

Listen | Dean Wilson, Executive Director of the Atchafalaya Basin: America's River of Trees. Dean was listed as People Magazine’s Heroes Among Us in 2008. To get in touch with Dean Wilson go to www.basinkeeper.org.

Listen | Marylee Orr, Executive Director of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network. Marylee has received many honors including To reach out to LEAN go to www.leanweb.org.

Listen | Dan Favre is the Campaign Organizer with the Gulf Restoration Network and he works to implement grassroots public education and outreach efforts to protect important Gulf habitats, such as cypress forests, throughout the Gulf. Dan may be reached at www.healthygulf.org.

Listen | Democracy Now for Thursday, February 26, 2009

A Renewable What?

Christian Roseland with the Alliance for Affordable Energy (www.all4energy.org) joined us in the studio to inform us that the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) is considering a state Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) on Tuesday March 3rd. He explained what the LPSC is and why we should care about what they do and what kind of RPS is being considered.

Louisiana Public Service Commission: An elected state body charged with regulating utilities in Louisiana. Learn more about them and find your Commissioner at www.lpsc.org

Renewable Portfolio Standard (or Renewable Energy Standard): Mandates that a certain percentage of energy purchased comes from a renewable source. Renewable energy is energy that can be replaced in a relatively short amount of time unlike fossil fuels, which require thousands of years to replenish.

Saving Louisiana's Coast

2009-01-31T11:49:00.000-08:00

Listen| Casey DeMoss Roberts explores the science, policy, and culture behind Louisiana's disappearing coast. Interviews with prominent leaders in the community featured.

Carlton Dufrechou, the Executive Director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. He is an engineer by training and explains the science behind Louisiana's coastal woes. To contact the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation call 504-836-2215 or email at info@saveourlake.org.

Mark Davis, Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy at Tulane Law School. He says we can't just drop money into a project and make it happen. There are legal obstacles to our goals. He talks about our state's legal traditions and some very clever solutions to our coastal policy troubles. To get in touch Prof Davis you can email him at msdavis@tulane.edu.

Dr Bob Thomas, the Interim Director of the School of Mass Communication and Director of the Loyola Center of Environmental Communication. He told me about the power of a cup of coffee, that we need to know how to communicate to a mass audience but we also just need to talk to each other. To contact Dr. Thomas email him at rathomas@loyola.edu.

Aaron Viles, Campaign Director of the Gulf Restoration Network and mastermind of many successful campaigns that protect our fisheries, our coast, and our music. He can be contacted at aaron@healthygulf.org.

Walter Williams, documentary filmmaker and creator of Mr. Bill, a favorite character from Saturday Night Live.

1/09/2009 Community Gumbo

2009-01-10T08:41:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (1/08/09)

Prospect.1 New Orleans International Art Biennial Comes to a Close

The Prospect.1 New Orleans International Art Biennial Comes to a Close on Sunday, January 18th with a Closing Salon from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Prospect.1 Welcome Center, 851 Magazine Street. In this edition of Community Gumbo, revisiting conversations about the Creative Alliance of New Orleans (CANO), and a unique arts collaborative and youth education venue at the Studio at Colton School, located at St. Claude and Spain streets.

Extended Interviews

Listen | Jeanne Nathan
The creation of The Studio at Colton School was the fulfillment of the vision and passion of Jeanne Nathan, a reknowned cultural entrepreneur and public relations professional, and her husband, Bob Tannen, an acclaimed artist and urban planner. Jeanne Nathan is the President of the Creative Alliance of New Orleans.

Listen | Wes Williams
An artist, journalist, and educator, Wes Williams was born and raised in New Orleans. He provides youth mentoring through songs of the underground railroad, and helps them understand the current social context of African-Americans through the trajectory of history and culture.

Related

Creative Alliance of New Orleans

Prospect.1 New Orleans

Doug McCash, "Prospect.1 New Orleans is a feast of first-class art anyone can understand," The Times-Picayune, 10/31/08.

Music Played

Leo Nocentelli, "Na Hey Na"

Jimmy Robinson, "Screeching Halt"

Los Po-boycitos, "Fried Neck Bones and Some Home Fries"

12/20/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-12-19T20:46:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (12/15/08)

Arundhati Roy: 9 Is Not 11 (And November Isn’t September)
Filmmaker Ron Howard on His New Film “Frost/Nixon”

Listen | Democracy Now (12/16/08)

President-Elect Barack Obama Names Environmental Team as Climate Change Conference Wraps Up in Poland
Farmers and Food Advocates Urge Obama to Create a National Sustainable Food and Agricultural Policy

Listen | Latin American Relations and Barack Obama

Perceptions in Latin America toward Barack Obama are examined in this story produced by Rachel Wenzel, with support from the Stone Center for Latin American Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Music Played

Papa Don Vappie's New Orleans Jazz Band, "Please Come Home for Christmas"

Susan Cowsill, "Crescent City Snow"

Dirk Keysser, "Winter Wonderland," Happy Clucking Holidays

12/13/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-12-13T07:15:00.000-08:00

[update in progress]

Listen | Democracy Now (12/9/08)

The History of the Nobel Prize: A Look at Alfred Nobel, the Man Who Invented Dynamite
Bush, Rove Tied to Effort to Dismantle Sweden’s Social Welfare Program
Sweden Ranks Second in the World in Per Capita Weapons Exports
Blackwater Guards Indicted for Role in Nisoor Square Massacre
Sweden Opens Doors for Iraqi and Afghan Refugees

Listen | Crawl for the Climate
Listen | The Alliance for Affordable Energy

Related:
Gulf Restoration Network

The Alliance for Affordable Energy

12/06/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-12-06T09:15:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (12/5/08)

CEOs of Big Three Automakers Return to Capitol Hill to Plead for $34B Federal Bailout
Ralph Nader and Medea Benjamin on Obama’s Cabinet and Grassroots Organizing Under the Next Administration
400 Killed in Nigeria in Violent Clashes Over Disputed Election Results
The Blogging Revolution: A Look at the Repression of Online Journalism Around the World

Listen | The Migrant Experience Through Mexico

Seven New Orleanians traveled for three weeks through Mexico this past August to learn about the experience of undocumented migrants. They discovered that the journey is filled with hazards, and that U.S. attitudes and policies toward immigrants might benefit from a more humanitarian effort to understand the issue of immigration.

Music Played

Odetta, "The House of the Rising Sun"

The Iguanas, "Por Mi Camino," Mexico and Mariachis, Milan Records.

Tito Larriva & Chingon, "Alacran y Pistolero," Mexico and Mariachis, Milan Records.

11/29/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-12-06T09:14:00.001-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (11/27/08)

Studs Terkel 1912–2008: A Democracy Now! Special Tribute to the Beloved Oral Historian and Broadcaster

11/22/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-12-06T09:11:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (11/18/08)

An Hour with Bolivian President Evo Morales: “Neoliberalism Is No Solution for Humankind”

Listen | United for Peace March

Parents of slain children, and relatives of murder victims, formed a peace march in New Orleans' Central City neighborhood. Producer Kyle Barnet was there to document this important event for peace.

11/15/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-11-14T23:27:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (11/14/08)

Democracy Now! Exclusive (Part 1): Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn on the Weather Underground, the McCain Campaign Attacks, President-Elect Obama and the Antiwar Movement Today

Listen | Día de los muertos

A traditional Latin American custom is to build a Day of the Dead altar for All Saints Day. Producer Rachel Wenzel has this story on a Day of the Dead altar built in the New Orleans Cabildo, once the local seat of government during Spanish colonial rule. This feature was made possible with support from the Stone Center for Latin American Studies and the Latin American Resource Center at Tulane, and with cooperation from the Cabildo & Louisiana State Museum

Listen | The Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra

Parents bring their children to Loyola University from as far away as Birmingham to learn the art of making music with the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra. Taming dozens of amateur musicians to play together as one orchestra is the talent and passion of Dr. Jean Montes, originally from Haiti, a cellist who earned his musical credentials in the United States, and settled in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

The Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra has been invited to perform in Carnegie Hall next summer. Members are currently fundraising to send the orchestra to New York.

The orchestra will perform tonight at 7:00 p.m. in Loyola's Roussell Hall.

For more information about the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra, or to help with fundraising goals, visit GNOYO.ORG.

Music Played

Feufollet, "Femme L'a Dit"

Los Poboycitos, "Barrio Blues"

Sonny Landreth, "Blue Tarp Blues"

11/08/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-11-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (11/06/08)

President-Elect Obama and the Future of US Foreign Policy: A Roundtable Discussion

Listen | Peter Spring

Peter Spring has sought and found healing and joy after the passing of his son, Steven, from cancer, by volunteering in the effort to help New Orleans heal from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures. A musician who built a career repairing pianos, Peter has brought dozens of pianos to New Orleans, and is creating a project to teach others the craft of piano repair. Along the way, he's teaching valuable manual skills to youth, along with a few vital, life-affirming lessons.

Related

Artists Revive Arts Education in Abandoned Colton School, 11/1/2008 Community Gumbo.

Steven Spring Foundation

Creative Alliance of New Orleans

Prospect.1 New Orleans

Music Played

Ellis Marsalis/Willie Nelson, "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It," Blue Note.

Dr. Michael White, "Algeria," Basin Street.

11/01/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-10-31T07:01:00.001-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (10/31/08)

Academy Award-Winning Filmmaker Michael Moore on the Election, the Bailout, Healthcare, and 10 Proposed Decrees for the New President’s First 10 Days

Artists Revive Arts Education in Abandoned Colton School

The Creative Alliance of New Orleans (CANO) will premiere a unique arts collaborative and youth education venue when the Prospect.1 International Arts Biennial opens in New Orleans on November 1st. Located at the corner of St. Claude and Spain streets, Colton School was used briefly after Hurricane Katrina, but was then left abandoned.

Extended Interviews

Listen | Jeanne Nathan
The creation of The Studio at Colton School was the fulfillment of the vision and passion of Jeanne Nathan, a reknowned cultural entrepreneur and public relations professional, and her husband, Bob Tannen, an acclaimed artist and urban planner. Jeanne Nathan is the President of the Creative Alliance of New Orleans.

Listen | Wes Williams
An artist, journalist, and educator, Wes Williams was born and raised in New Orleans. He provides youth mentoring through songs of the underground railroad, and helps them understand the current social context of African-Americans through the trajectory of history and culture.

Listen | Sara Hess
A New Orleans native who acquired a more profound appreciation of the importance of preserving New Orleans' culture after studying indigenous communities in Australia, Sara Hess returned to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and works as the Program Director of the Creative Alliance of New Orleans.

Working on the Following Interviews

Pandora Andrea Gastelum

Annie Evelyn

Ben Zeitlin

Related

Creative Alliance of New Orleans

Prospect.1 New Orleans

National Performance Network

Steven Spring Foundation

The Really Really Free Market

The New Orleans Photo Alliance

Doug McCash, "Prospect.1 New Orleans is a feast of first-class art anyone can understand," The Times-Picayune, 10/31/08.

Music Played

Rodd, Teri And The M.S.R. Singers, "Richard Nixon"

Gene Marshall, "Jimmy Carter Says Yes"

10/25/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-10-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

Guest Host: Kyle Barnett

Listen | Democracy Now (10/24/08)

McCain Calls Obama a “Socialist” – But Why is That a Smear?
Following Widespread Complaints, New Lawsuit Seeks Paper Balloting in Pennsylvania
Lawyers Planning Last-Minute Challenges as Time Running Out for Troy Anthony Davis

Listen | Karen Gadbois: Government Transparency, Social Networking, and Disaster Recovery (re-broadcast)

Karen Gadbois blogs about disaster recovery and documents New Orleans historic architecture at SquanderedHeritage.com. Her efforts to stop the bulldozing of historic properties led her on a trail which uncovered a scandal involving contractors who were paid to remediate flooded homes, but who never did the work. She was one of the featured speakers at the New Orleans Speaks Symposium, a forum highlighting lessons learned by fifteen civic activists involved in the struggle to rebuild. Due to Hurricane Gustav, New Orleans Speaks was rescheduled for the day this interview was broadcast at the University of New Orleans. More information is available at THENEWORLEANSINSTITUTE.ORG.

Listen | Democracy Now (10/23/08)

Indigenous Colombians Begin 10,000-Strong March Against Uribe Government

Listen | Democracy Now (10/22/08)

Does Obama's Record-Setting Fundraising Mark the End of Public Campaign Financing?

Music Played

Blurt “Get”

Metal Urbain “Colt 45”

Young Marble Giants “Radio Silents”

Suicide “Girl”

10/04/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-10-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (10/02/08)

Third Party VP Candidates Matt Gonzalez and Rosa Clemente Respond to Biden-Palin Debate
Wary of Public Outcry, Revised $800B Wall St. Bailout Stuffed with Earmarks to Sway Election-Year Incumbents

Listen | Democracy Now (10/03/08)

No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates

Listen | Fighting Climate Change, One Light Bulb at a Time

Andi Hoffman is the Executive Director of Green Light New Orleans. Since Hurricane Katrina, thanks to the support of donors and volunteers, the musician has led the fight to turn the Katrina disaster into an opportunity to re-invent New Orleans as a green city. 120,168 light bulbs later, Green Light New Orleans is making New Orleans a model for the rest of the nation to follow. Now, Green Light New Orleans needs additional donations and volunteers to sustain the effort.

Music Played:

Dr. John and the lower 911, "Time for a change"

Oliver Mtukudzi, "Ndima Ndapedza"

Jimmy Cliff, "The harder they come"

Ramatou Diakite , "Koulandian"

9/27/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-09-27T07:28:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (9/26/08)

Bailout Talks Founder, WaMu Collapses in Deepening Financial Crisis
Demonstrators Rally on Wall St. Against Federal Bailout

Listen | Democracy Now (9/25/08)

As Bush Admin Pushes $700B for Wall Street, Ralph Nader Asks, “Why Is There Need for a Bailout?”

Listen | Democracy Now (9/24/08)

Bush Admin Faces Congressional Skeptics on $700B Wall St. Bailout
Naomi Klein: “Now Is the Time to Resist Wall Street’s Shock Doctrine”

Music Played:

The Flying Lizard, "Money (That's What I Want)"

Public Image Ltd, "Home"

Terrakota, "E Verdade"

9/20/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-09-20T06:49:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (9/17/08)

US Seizes Control of AIG with $85 Billion Bailout
Sarah Palin and Global Warming: Alaska Prof. Says Palin Misrepresented State Findings on Endangered Polar Bears…and Tried to Cover It Up
Evo Morales Accuses Right-Wing Governors of Trying to Stage Violent Coup; 30 Dead, Many Still Missing in Pando

Listen | Democracy Now (9/19/08)

Amidst Wall Street Woes, Labor Activist & Writer Bill Fletcher on “Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice”
Book: Cheney’s Drive for Warrantless Spying Nearly Brought Down Bush Presidency

Listen | Assessing the Damage from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in Coastal Louisiana

Jamie Billiot is the Executive Director of the Dulac Community Center, and a member of the United Houma Nation. She was joined by volunteers from Southern Illinois University this past Thursday to move soggy books, water-logged furniture, and thick mud outside of the center. More volunteers and donations will be needed to help the United Houma Nation recover from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

Jamie can be reached at jjbilliot at removethis gmail dot com.

If you'd like to volunteer to help members of the United Houma Nation clean up houses and buildings flooded by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, send an email to communitygumbo at removethis gmail dot com.

Or visit the United Houma Nation Web site at UnitedHoumaNation.org.

Related:

More photos of the Dulac Community Center are in the Karen Apricot Flickr collection.

More photos of relief efforts in the United Houma Nation can be found in the vmcgmar Flickr collection.

Music Played:

Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, "Indien sur le chicot"

Feufollet, "Belle Louisiane"

9/13/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-09-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (9/11/08)

On 7th Anniversary of 9/11, Voices from StoryCorps Recordings of Friends, Kin of Victims Killed in the Attacks
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows Continue Advocacy for Victims of US Attacks on Iraq, Afghanistan
From One Ground Zero to Another: An Afghan American Who Lost 19 Family Members in US Bombing, and a New Yorker Whose Brother Died in the World Trade Center

Listen | Democracy Now (9/9/08)

US Bails Out Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac
Sarah Palin and the Wasilla Church of God

9/06/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-09-06T07:34:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (8/29/08)

Listen | Democracy Now (9/05/08)

Listen | Democracy Now (8/29/08)

Listen | PBS Now, Amy Goodman on her Convention Arrest

Listen | Support the United Houma Nation Relief Fund

Related:

Robichaux’s father was an oyster and shrimp fisherman; her grandfather, a “traiteur,” or healer. Her father’s education ended in the 7th grade, because that was as far as Native Americans were allowed to go—hers was the first generation to integrate regular public schools and then to graduate from high school. Robichaux’s mother served on the tribal council of this matriarchal tribe—the foundation, perhaps, for Robichaux’s own tireless service to the United Houma Nation. Professionally, she works for the school board, helping them meet the academic and cultural needs of Native students. But her non-paying job is as Principal Chief of the United Houma Nation.

[more]

8/23/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-08-23T07:13:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (8/20/08)

The Limits of Power: Andrew Bacevich on the End of American Exceptionalism

Listen | Democracy Now (8/22/08)

“Trouble the Water”–New Film Provides Firsthand Account of Hurricane Katrina and Its Aftermath

Listen | Karen Gadbois: Government Transparency, Social Networking, and Disaster Recovery

Representatives of more than 20 contractors hired by the New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Corp. (or NOAH) delivered records in federal court on Thursday to comply with a grand jury subpoena as part of a widening investigation into malfeasance. The investigation is centering on allegations that contractors were paid to gut and clean flooded houses, but never completed the work.

The scandal erupted when WWL TV Eyewitness news reporter Lee Zurik began reporting on discrepancies found in records obtained from city hall through public records requests.

Irregularities in the records of the city-chartered agency were first found by local bloggers Karen Gadbois and Sarah Lewis. They were posting photographs of homes slated for demolition at SquanderedHeritage.com when they noticed a home that was gutted by NOAH contractors were going to be bulldozed. Gadbois wondered why the city would spend money to gut and clean a house if it was going to be demolished.

Using her persistent investigation skills, Gadbois had uncovered numerous cases over a period of weeks. Lists provided by the city appeared to show NOAH contractors billed the city for work that was never completed. Reporter Lee Zurik took notice of what she found.

Gadbois and Zurik put the NOAH controversy in newspapers around the country, and Mayor Ray Nagin accused them of hurting the recovery, calling Gadbois an "amateur investigator."

Karen Gadbois talks about how it feels to be the center of attention, how government transparency combined with new social networking technology like blogs is vital for disaster recovery, and she talks about an event taking place next Saturday at UNO, the New Orleans Speaks Symposium, an effort to write a living history of recovery, including stories of personal and community recovery, visions for urban renaissance, and resources communities need to bring to bring their visions from concept to completion.

Karen Gadbois blogs about disaster recovery and documents New Orleans historic architecture at SquanderedHeritage.com.

Related:

Susan Finch, "Documents submitted in NOAH investigation," The Times-Picayune, 8/22/08.

Listen | George Williams: Government Transparency, Social Networking, and Disaster Recovery

Continuing the conversation about blogging, George Williams is another New Orleans blogger who's discovered the importance of social networking for disaster recovery. Using the byline Loki, Williams blogs at HumidCity.com, and talked about the third annual Rising Tide blog conference taking place today.

Announcements

New Orleans Speaks
For many months after the levees breached we waited for someone to help us “recover”. Who was coming: FEMA? The federal government? A university? Developers? We were waiting for experts to arrive with answers. The answers and experts never came because they were already here in the person of every emerging activist, every parent struggling to navigate a shattered school system, every neighbor at a planning charrette, every small business owner who evaluated a volatile economy and chose to rebuild anyway, and every returning New Orleanian. We are the experts that we have been waiting for.

The New Orleans Speaks Symposium will highlight lessons learned by fifteen of these experts - the real deal about urban resilience.

Their lectures will include stories of personal and community recovery, present visions for urban renaissance, and identify targeted resources communities need to bring to bring their visions from concept to completion.

We know we must write a living history of our own. We recognize we must control our own message, herald our own accomplishments, and articulate our own frustrations. Only then can we, as a city, identify what our communities need, and what our learnings can contribute to a broader understanding of how cities can emerge from extraordinary challenges.

The New Orleans Speaks Symposium which will take place on August 30, 2008 at UNO’s Kirschman Hall.

More information at NewOrleansInstitute.org

Rising Tide III
Rising Tide is a gathering for all who wish to learn more and do more to assist New Orleans' recovery from the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the failure of the levees that were supposed to protect the area.

We will come together to dispel myths, promote facts, share personal testimonies, highlight progress and regress, discuss recovery ideas, and promote sound policies at all levels. We aim to be a "real life" demonstration of internet activism as we continue to recover from a massive failure of government on all levels.

John Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, will be keynote speaker at the Conference this year.

Rising Tide started in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding of the city when a small group of New Orleans, La.-based bloggers decided to expand their on-line advocacy for the rebirth of New Orleans into a public event.

August 22-23, 2008, Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center, 1724 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd (@ Felicity) New Orleans, LA 70113.

More information at risingtidenola.net.

Music

Dr. John, Sippiana Hericane, Blue Note, 2005.

8/16/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-08-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (8/13/08)

The Way of the World: Ron Suskind on How the Bush Admin Deliberately Faked an Iraq-al-Qaeda Connection and Undermined Diplomacy, Democracy in Pakistan and Iran

Listen | Democracy Now (8/08/08)

“This is the Olympics the West Wanted”–Dave Zirin on US Corporations Entering China, Athletes Speaking Out and the Games from ’68 to Today

Listen | Democracy Now (8/15/08)

Russia-Georgia Conflict Fueled by Rush to Control Caspian Energy Resources
Naomi Klein and Christian Parenti on How Beijing Olympics Highlight Globalization of Police State, Inequality

Announcements

New Orleans Speaks
For many months after the levees breached we waited for someone to help us “recover”. Who was coming: FEMA? The federal government? A university? Developers? We were waiting for experts to arrive with answers. The answers and experts never came because they were already here in the person of every emerging activist, every parent struggling to navigate a shattered school system, every neighbor at a planning charrette, every small business owner who evaluated a volatile economy and chose to rebuild anyway, and every returning New Orleanian. We are the experts that we have been waiting for.

The New Orleans Speaks Symposium will highlight lessons learned by fifteen of these experts - the real deal about urban resilience.

Their lectures will include stories of personal and community recovery, present visions for urban renaissance, and identify targeted resources communities need to bring to bring their visions from concept to completion.

We know we must write a living history of our own. We recognize we must control our own message, herald our own accomplishments, and articulate our own frustrations. Only then can we, as a city, identify what our communities need, and what our learnings can contribute to a broader understanding of how cities can emerge from extraordinary challenges.

The New Orleans Speaks Symposium which will take place on August 30, 2008 at UNO’s Kirschman Hall.

New Orleans Institute

Rising Tide III
Rising Tide is a gathering for all who wish to learn more and do more to assist New Orleans' recovery from the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the failure of the levees that were supposed to protect the area.

We will come together to dispel myths, promote facts, share personal testimonies, highlight progress and regress, discuss recovery ideas, and promote sound policies at all levels. We aim to be a "real life" demonstration of internet activism as we continue to recover from a massive failure of government on all levels.

John Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, will be keynote speaker at the Conference this year.

Rising Tide started in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding of the city when a small group of New Orleans, La.-based bloggers decided to expand their on-line advocacy for the rebirth of New Orleans into a public event.

August 22-23, 2008, Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center, 1724 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd (@ Felicity) New Orleans, LA 70113.

risingtidenola.net

Music

Brad Meldau Trio, "Black Hole Sun," Nonesuch.

Miles Davis, "Spanish Key," Miles from India, Times Square Records.

Ellis Marsalis Quartet, "Ruby, My Dear," An Open Letter to Thelonius, Elm.

7/26/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-07-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (7/25/08)

Steve Clemons: Obama’s Wall Speech Should Have Been About Israel, Not Berlin
Main Core: New Evidence Reveals Top Secret Government Database Used in Bush Spy Program
Race, Politics and the Media: A Roundtable Discussion from the UNITY Conference

The Aural Landscape of New Orleans: A conversation with Jacob Brancasi

Heather Booth and Jacob Brancasi have created OpenSoundNewOrleans.com as an experiment in media democracy to document and archive the sound landscape of New Orleans.

7/18/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-07-19T08:15:00.001-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (7/15/08)

With Crises in Fuel, Food, Housing and Banking, What Gvt. Policies Are Being Pushed Through? Naomi Klein Reexamines “The Shock Doctrine”

Listen | Democracy Now (7/16/08)

Amory Lovins: Expanding Nuclear Power Makes Climate Change Worse

Listen | Democracy Now (7/17/08)

Bailout for Mortgage Giants, IndyMac Bank Collapse, Dollar Hits New Low, Inflation at 26-Year High, Dow Falls Below 11K...A Look at the Financial Crisis

Music Played

Lightnin' Sam Hopkins, "Speedin' Boogie," Arhoolie (LP).

Mississippi Fred McDowell, "Mortgage On My Soul," Antilles (LP).

Mr. Honey, "Build a Cave," Juke Joint Blues, Blues Classics (LP).

Sonny & Brownie, "People Get Ready," A&M (LP)

6/21/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-06-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (6/20/08)

As Global Warming Fuels More Extreme Weather, McCain and Bush Urge Congress to Lift Offshore Oil Drilling Ban
Joseph Nevins on “Dying to Live: A Story of US Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid”
World Refugee Day: US Criticized for Failing to Help Iraqi Refugees and Iraqis Who Aided US Occupation

Listen | Democracy Now (6/16/08)

Extreme Weather & Global Warming: Floods in Iowa & China, Wildfires in California, Heat Waves on the East Coast, Tornadoes Across the Midwest

Listen | New Orleans Affordable Housing Options Diminish as Public Housing Demolition Continues (re-broadcast)

Music Played:

Little Freddie King, "Kinghead Shuffle," MadeWright Records.

Valentin Silvestrov, "Post Scriptum," ECM New Series.

John Mooney, "Rainin' Down on My Broken Heart," Powerhouse Records.

6/14/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-06-14T07:22:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (6/09/08)

Broadcast Legend Bill Moyers on Media Reform: “Democracy Only Works When Ordinary People Claim It as Their Own”
Bill Moyers Takes on Fox News Producer Sent by Bill O’Reilly to Media Reform Conference

Listen | Democracy Now (6/11/08)

Ex-White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan Speaks Out on the Bush Admin Lies and Media Allies that Led the US to War

Announcements:

June 16 is the deadline to apply for $30,000 Road Home elevation grants. Contact Nikki Najiola of Build Now, (504) 324-3964 or najiola@buildnownola.com. Or visit www.buildnownola.com.

Related:

David Hammer, "Elevation Grant Rules Change," The Times-Picayune, 3/05/08.

"Louisiana's Road Home restarts home elevation grants," City Business, 2/23/08.

Citizen's Road Home Action Team

Build Now

Music Played:

Lisa Simone, "I wish I knew how it felt to be free," Simone on Simone, Koch.

Chick Corea & Gary Burton, "I love you Porgy," The New Crystal Silence, Concord.

Little Freddie King, "Bad News," Messin' Around the House, MadeWright Records.

6/07/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-06-07T07:41:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (6/05/08)

Democracy Now! Special: Robert F. Kennedy’s Life and Legacy 40 Years After His Assassination

Listen | Democracy Now (6/06/08)

Robert McChesney and Josh Silver of Free Press on the National Conference for Media Reform
FCC Urged to Probe Pentagon Propaganda Program
Adrienne Maree Brown of the Ruckus Society on Media Justice, Election Protection and the Issue of Race in the 2008 Election
Native American Writer and Independent Bookseller Louise Erdrich

Announcements:

BQQ for the NOPD
COPS II and the Oak Street Merchants Association have again partnered to host a benefit for the officers of the Second District. The 2nd Annual “Oak Street BBQ Block Party” will be held on June 8th from 12pm – 6pm. This event will directly benefit the officers of the 2nd District, by way of the COPS II organization. In the past, COPS II has purchased many important items for the men and women of the district. Those items include scooters, air conditioning units for the station, food for Mardi Gras, etc.

Road Home Elevation Grant Seminar
Wednesday, 6 p.m., at Dillard University gymnasium, 2601 Gentilly Blvd. Build Now, Dillard CDC and CHAT will discuss sources of elevation financing. June 16 is the deadline to apply for $30,000 Road Home elevation grants. Contact Nikki Najiola of Build Now, (504) 324-3964 or najiola@buildnownola.com. Or visit www.buildnownola.com.

Related:

David Hammer, "Elevation Grant Rules Change," The Times-Picayune, 3/05/08.

"Louisiana's Road Home restarts home elevation grants," City Business, 2/23/08.

Citizen's Road Home Action Team

Build Now

5/24/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-05-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (5/21/08)

Former Chief UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix on the US Rush to War in Iraq, the Threat of an Attack on Iran, and the Need for a Global Nuclear Ban to Avoid Further Catastrophe

Listen | Democracy Now (5/19/08)

Spies for Hire: Carlyle Group to Become Owner of “One of America’s Largest Private Intelligence Armies”

Listen | Democracy Now (5/23/08)

“War, Inc.”: John Cusack’s New Film Satirizes the Corruption, Profiteering and Hubris Behind the Iraq War

5/17/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-05-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

Democracy Now

Listen | World Renowned Philosopher Slavoj Zizek on the Iraq War, the Bush Presidency, the War on Terror & More

Listen | Legendary Author Gore Vidal on the Bush Presidency, History and the “United States of Amnesia”

Listen | Back to the Basics: Energy-Efficient Home Designs to Rebuild New Orleans Look Familiar

Architect William Monaghan and his daughter Tess debut "The Octavia", one of ten homes designed using traditional New Orleans architectural principles such as building housing raised on piers, and maximizing ceiling height and airflow to provide comfort without the need for air conditioning. Monaghan founded Build Now to provide affordable but attractive historic designs which are less expensive to build than the cost of renovating a flooded home. Ranging in price from $100,000 to $160,000, the efficient Energy Star designs consume 30 percent less electricity than other modern construction. Monaghan and his daughter Tess are displaying the first completed house at an open house today. In customary fashion, crawfish and a brass band will be on hand for visitors. The open house will be held from Noon to 6 p.m. at 5713 Elysian Fields Avenue, above Prentiss Street.

For more information, the Build Now office is located at 7731 Maple Street. Call Build Now at 324-3964, or visit BUILDNOWNOLA.COM.

Related:

Kate Moran, "Duo aims to make starting fresh affordable," The Times-Picayune, 5/04/08.

Ariella Cohen, "Builders lowering price tag on eco-friendly housing," City Business.

Music Played:

Dirty Dozen Brass Band, "The Flintstones Meets the President (Meets the Dirty Dozen)," Louisiana Scrapbook, Rykodisc, 1987.

The Treme Brass Band, "Wolverine Blues," Straight from the Sixth Ward, Tipitinas, 2003.

Sylvester Weaver & Walter Beasley, "Bottleneck Blues," The Slide Guitar: Bottles, Knives, and Steel, Columbia, 1990.

5/10/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-05-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (5/6/08)

Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear
“Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism”

Listen | Democracy Now (5/7/08)

Broadcasting Legend Bill Moyers on the 2008 Elections, the Rev. Wright Controversy, the Media, Vietnam and More

Listen | Democracy Now (5/8/08)

“Economic Hit Man” John Perkins Recounts US Efforts to Block Nationalization of Panama Canal

5/03/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-05-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (4/30/08)

Obama Repudiates Ex-Pastor over Controversial Remarks
The Politics of the Rev. Wright Controversy: A Debate with Melissa Harris-Lacewell and Adolph Reed, Jr.
CorpWatch’s Pratap Chatterjee and Ex-Titan Translator Marwan Mawiri on Corporate Cronyism and Intelligence Outsourcing in Iraq

Listen | The 311 on Inspector General Robert Cerasoli (re-broadcast)

When Robert Cerasoli began work as New Orleans' first Inspector General seven months ago, he said "I didn't think this would be a bed of roses" (The Times-Picayune, 9/05/07).

Cerasoli initially worked for months without an office, budget, or staff. At the end of November, the City Council approved a $3.2 million budget for the Inspector General's office -- three times greater than Mayor Ray Nagin's suggested $1.3 million (The Times-Picayune, 11/27/08).

He finally moved out of a donated office in the Loyola library, and into an unfurnished office without phones or computers on St. Charles Avenue (The Times-Picayune, 4/19/08).

At the end of March, Cerasoli said he couldn't pay an invoice for advertising to recruit his staff, complaining that his budget hadn't been entered into the city's computer accounting system. "There's a lot of entrenched incompetence, and there's a lot of people who just don't want me to do anything anyway," Cerasoli said (Gambit Weekly, 3/25/08).

This past week, the Inspector General's services would have been helpful in resolving a dispute over the city's 311 contract. WWL TV news reporter Lee Zurik was stonewalled while investigating why New Orleans citizens are paying almost $20 per resident for the telephone information service, almost seven times greater than the national average for 311 services.

In an email mistakenly carbon copied back to Zurik, Mayor Ray Nagin's deputy director of communications James Ross wrote to intergovernmental affairs director Kenya Smith, "Let's smoke him out." Zurik was promised an interview, but was told after he arrived at City Hall that no one was available to speak to him (WWL TV, 5/01/08).

One of Robert Cerasoli's first experiences as Inspector General involved the very topic of the 311 contract.

He addressed a standing-room only crowd of spectators at a speech he delivered last November.

Music Played

Dr. Ross, "Fox Chase," Takoma Records.

Big Joe Williams & Sonny Boy Williamson, "Stack of Dollars," Arhoolie Records.

4/26/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-04-25T22:12:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (4/24/08)

The US Role in Haiti’s Food Riots
Thousands of Delegates Tackle Climate Change Issues at UN Forum on Indigenous Issues
“Welcome to the Axis of Evil”—Bolivian President Evo Morales to Paraguayan President-Elect Fernando Lugo
Up the Yangtze: Documentary Takes on Social Impact of Three Gorges Dam in China

Under the Claiborne Overpass

Despite strong statements made by Mayor Ray Nagin that he would have homeless people removed from an encampment underneath the Claiborne I-10 overpass, the makeshift homeless gathering of troubled post-Katrina victims remains. A deeper understanding of the problems of the homeless is provided in three interviews.

Listen | Tommy
Tommy says he chooses to live in the streets because "The Mission" rules are too strict to let him have a night job, and he prefers his freedom to following rules.
Listen | Jesse
Equal parts street-wise and guardian angel, once living among the homeless in Duncan Plaza in front of City Hall, thanks to Unity of New Orleans, Jesse now has an apartment, and uses his time away from work to help those still living on the streets.
Listen | Eddie Cox
On his nineteenth trip from Texas to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, Eddie Cox spreads the message of Jesus through his "Smokin' for Jesus Barbecue," and exhibits a genuine understanding of, and compassion for, the homeless.

Music Played:

Robert Pete Williams, "It's a Long Road," Louisiana Blues, Takoma, 1980.

John Lee Hooker, "House Rent Boogie," The Hook, Chameleon, 1989.

4/19/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-04-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (4/17/08)

ABC News Coming Under Criticism for Focus of Obama, Clinton Debate
Nader’s Running Mate Matt Gonzalez on the Dems, the War and the Strategy for November
Law Professor Lawrence Lessig on Net Neutrality, the Rise of Google and His “Change Congress” Project to Take on Corruption in Washington

New Orleans Affordable Housing Options Diminish as Public Housing Demolition Continues (re-broadcast)

Listen | Part 1: Women stand in line to apply for housing assistance as demolition commences on the Lafitte Housing Development across the street.

Listen | Part 2: A woman turned away from a Housing Authority of New Orleans office is told she has to come back after she has a case worker assigned.

Demolition of the Lafitte Housing Development commenced, even as women stood in line across the street hoping to obtain Section 8 housing assistance expressed frustration in their search for affordable housing in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Photo: Children play basketball at dusk in the ruins of the B.W. Cooper Housing Development (Community Gumbo).

Related:

Coleman Warner, "Unanimous," The Times-Picayune, December 21, 2007.
Unbowed by days of caustic protests, the New Orleans City Council on Thursday unanimously approved the demolition of four sprawling public housing developments, launching a new era in the troubled history of a social safety net launched in the World War II era. [more]

Coleman Warner, Michelle Krupa and Gwen Filosa, "Demolition protests ignore some realities," The Times-Picayune, December 15, 2007.
As opponents of a federal push to raze old-line public housing developments protested last week about uncaring bureaucrats, racism, greedy developers and shattered communities, a claim that has gained traction in Washington and the national media moves beyond perception and into the realm of demonstrably false: That displaced public housing residents have no place to live. [more]

"Nagin chides protesters," The Times-Picayune, December 15, 2007.
Mayor Ray Nagin called the planned demolition of aging public housing in New Orleans a "no win-win" situation and chided protesters who he said have never lived in the developments. [more]

Jarvis DeBerry, "Public housing: plot or paradise?," December 21, 2007.
Do you believe that the American government was engaged in a conspiracy against black people when it began building huge apartment complexes that served to concentrate poverty?

Or, do you believe that the American government's hatred for black people is evident in its decision to tear down huge apartment complexes that were occupied exclusively by the poor? [more]

Bruce Alpert, "HUD secretary leaving the job; Departure comes amid investigations," April 01, 2008
HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, whose advocacy for a plan to demolish public housing units in New Orleans and replace them with mixed-income developments generated international controversy, announced Monday that he will leave the job April 18. [more]

Endesha Juakali, "Old units razed, replacements unfinanced," The Times-Picayune, Letter to the Editor, April 3, 2008.
I grew up in public housing, served on the HANO board and currently advise displaced St. Bernard residents who wish to participate in the redevelopment of their community. I am appalled by the lies our elected officials have told to bolster their efforts to eliminate public housing and, by extension, rid the city of the low-wage work force that has been the bedrock of our tourism economy. [more]

Lolis Eric Elie, Housing has council hanging up," April 07, 2008.
It's understandable why Jackson didn't want to talk about allegations that he sought to rig contracts in New Orleans, Philadelphia and the Virgin Islands. What isn't clear is why New Orleans officials are so reluctant to talk about it. [more]

Rebecca Mowbray, "Developers yet to nail down financing needed for work," April 09, 2008.
Although demolition of the sturdy brick buildings at Lafitte is scheduled to begin this week, developers still have not secured all of the financing to replace the "big four" public housing complexes with mixed-income communities. [more]

Katy Reckdahl, "Razing of Lafitte could start today," April 10, 2008.
Today, backhoes could start tearing into the bricks of the Lafitte public housing development, the last of the "Big Four" complexes to come down.

The St. Bernard, C.J. Peete, and B.W. Cooper complexes have largely been reduced to rubble. But Lafitte, which occupies eight blocks of Orleans Avenue starting at North Claiborne Avenue, got a two-month reprieve. Mayor Ray Nagin withheld its demolition permit until the U.S. Department of Urban Development addressed issues of developer financing and alternate affordable housing. [more]

Listen | Protesters Converge on New Orleans to Challenge the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America Conference

An in-studio conversation with Kathy Chandler on the symbolism of President Bush's SPP conference being hosted in New Orleans, and what the goals of the SPP really are.

Music Played

Kansas Joe & Memphis Minnie, "When the Levee Breaks"

Bessie Smith, "Money Blues," Nobody's Blues But Mine, Columbia Records, 1972.

Howlin' Wolf, "Come Back Home," The Blues Years, Sun Records, 1984.

4/12/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-04-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

Update in progress (check back for audio) ...

Listen | Democracy Now (4/11/08)

V to the Tenth: Thousands of Women Gather in New Orleans for 10th Anniversary of Global Movement to Combat Violence Against Women

New Orleans Affordable Housing Options Diminish as Public Housing Demolition Continues

Listen | Part 1: Women stand in line to apply for housing assistance as demolition commences on the Lafitte Housing Development across the street.

Listen | Part 2: A woman turned away from a Housing Authority of New Orleans office is told she has to come back after she has a case worker assigned.

Demolition of the Lafitte Housing Development commenced, even as women stood in line across the street hoping to obtain Section 8 housing assistance expressed frustration in their search for affordable housing in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Photo: A sign posted just inside the Sojourner Truth Housing Authority of New Orleans office (where applicants leaving the grounds can see it) advertises a $1250 apartment (Community Gumbo).

Listen | Democracy Now Host Amy Goodman Visits WTUL

4/05/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-04-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (4/04/08)

Democracy Now! Special: Martin Luther King’s Life and Legacy 40 Years After His Assassination

Listen | Katrina Warriors: Dr. Ruth Berggren

Dr. Ruth Berggren told her powerful account of the struggle against all odds to save lives in Charity Hospital after the New Orleans levees failed. Interviewed by Eve Ensler; recorded by Crystal Kile, at the May 21, 2006 Katrina Warriors event. (alternate link to audio)

Related:

V to the Tenth
April 11-12, 2008 Join Salma Hayek, Oprah Winfrey, Faith Hill, Jane Fonda, Glenn Close, Ali Larter, Calpernia Addams, Rosario Dawson, Kerry Washington, Jennifer Beals, Didi Conn, Christine Lahti, Jennifer Hudson, Doris Roberts, Liz Mikel, and Charmaine Neville on Friday and Saturday, April 11 – 12, 2008 for V-Day’s mega two-day anniversary celebration in New Orleans at the New Orleans Arena and Louisiana Superdome

Music Played:

Fats Domino, "Red Sails in the Sunset"

Hot 8 Brass Band, "Fly Away"

3/29/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-03-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

Please support the broadcast of alternative perspectives and voices from the community by pledging your support to WTUL New Orleans. Pledge online at wtulneworleans.com, or call (504)865-5885/(504)865-5887.

Democracy Now

Listen | Anti-Epileptics, Sex Hormones, Mood Stabilizers, Antibiotics Among Pharmaceuticals in US Water Supply (3/24/08)

An exhaustive five-month investigation by Associated Press has found the drinking water in at least twenty-four major American cities across the country contains trace amounts of a wide array of pharmaceuticals. Amy Goodman speaks with Associated Press national writer, Jeff Donn.

Listen | A Century in Iraq, Replacing UN with “League of Democracies,” Rogue State Rollback? A Look at John McCain’s Foreign Policy Vision (3/26/08)

Amy Goodman talks to investigative reporter Robert Dreyfuss about Senator John McCain’s vision for foreign policy. “McCain is drawing up plans for a new set of global institutions,” Dreyfuss writes, “from a potent covert operations unit to a ‘League of Democracies’ that can bypass the balky United Nations, from an expanded NATO that will bump up against Russian interests in Central Asia and the Caucasus to a revived US unilateralism that will engage in ‘rogue state rollback’ against his version of the ‘axis of evil.’ In all, it’s a new apparatus designed to carry the ‘war on terror’ deep into the twenty-first century.”

Listen | Climate Change: In the Community & the Courtroom

Tulane Law School's 13th Annual Environmental Conference on Law, Science & the Public Interest (April 4 & 5). Conference organizer Dante DiPasquale, and Mary Kathryn.

3/22/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-03-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

Democracy Now

Listen | Fed Bailout of Bear Stearns First of its Kind Since Great Depression (3/20/08)
The Fed has become the lender of last resort for other investment banks in a move that marks one of the broadest expansions of the Fed’s lending authority since the 1930s.

Listen | Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming (3/21/08)
For the past twenty-five years, he has headed NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Just over a year ago, Dr. Hansen went public with a charge that made headlines around the world—that the Bush administration had been trying to silence his warnings about the urgent need to address climate change.

Former President Bill Clinton Inspires Student Volunteers in New Orleans to Solve Global Problems

Listen | Former President Bill Clinton, CGIU closing (excerpted)
Listen | Jennifer Landix, Lower Ninth Ward resident
Listen | Rebecca Otten, Tulane University student
Listen | Darryl Malek Wiley, New Orleans Sierra Club & Victor Amoo, Historic Green

Related:

Historic Green

Delta Chapter of the Sierra Club

Make It Right Foundation

Clinton Global Initiative

Clinton Global Initiative University Meeting 2008 Coverage hosted by KaiserNetwork.org

Ryan Rivet, "Clinton Targets Change Around the World or Around the Corner," New Wave, 3/17/08.

John Pope, "Clinton rallies students to improve world," The Times-Picayune, 3/16/08.

Joseph R. Schwartz, "Family finds reasons to stay in Lower Ninth," The Daily Tarheel, 8/30/07.

David MacCauley, "Dwell Visits Historic Green," Historic Green podcast, 3/15/08.

Gordon Soderberg, "Ms. Leblanc talks about the Lower Ninth Ward," New Orleans Voices for Peace (vcast), 8/24/07.

Tom Valtin, "'Historic Green' Event Helps Rebuild Lower Ninth Ward," Sierra Club Grassroots Bulletin, 3/10/08.

Music Played:

Benny Goodman, "Blue Skies"

Benny Goodman, "Basin Street Blues"

3/15/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-03-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (3/14/08)

Headlines for March 14, 2008
Winter Soldier: Hundreds of Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Gather to Testify in Echo of 1971 Vietnam Hearings
House Holds Rare Secret Session on Spy Bill

Listen | Anne Rolfes: Louisiana Bucket Brigade

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade is a 501(c)(3) environmental health and justice organization working with communities that neighbor the state's oil refineries and chemical plants, empowering citizens to take air samples in the fight to reduce pollution and protect public health. Anne Rolfes is the Louisiana Bucket Brigade's founder, and program director.

Related:

Louisiana Bucket Brigade
5th Annual Crawfish Boil
Saturday March 22, 2008 1-5 PM
Palmer Park at the corner of Carrollton & Claiborne
Buy your tickets now

Testimonials of people who live next to the Exxon Mobil Refinery in Chalmette, La.

Jim Cross, "Plan for Yuma Refinery Moving Forward," KTAR.com, 3/12/08.

Refinery Reform Campaign, "Refinery gets permit: Group to Take Refinery Permit Battle to EPA as State Issues Permit," 4/15/05.

David Baker, "Hurricane damage points up need for more refineries: Legislation would ease environmental laws for new ones," San Francisco Chronicle, 10/2/05.

Wikipedia, Oil Refinery.

3/08/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-03-07T21:31:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (3/03/08)

Stephen Kinzer on US-Iranian Relations, the 1953 CIA Coup in Iran and the Roots of Middle East Terror.

Listen | The Inspector General: Not a Play by Nikolai Gogol

Did New Orleans' new Inspector General accept a take-home vehicle? What kind of car does he drive? Six months into his tenure, has Robert Cerasoli made a dent in corruption, and what are his plans to improve efficiency of government services? And did he accept the gift of a tie in exchange for his address delivered at St. Charles Presbytarian Church?

Related:

Ethics in Public Service and The Inspector General Function: An Address by New Orleans Inspector General Robert Cerasoli, Loyola University, 11/27/07 (Community Gumbo, 12/1/07).

Cripple Creek Theatre performs The Inspector General by Nikolai Gogol, March 6-29. SeeAPlay.org for more information. Robert Cerasoli answers questions every Thursday at 7:00 before the performances.

Announcements:

Fifth Annual Crawfish Boil and Egg Hunt to Benefit Clean Air Campaigns and Ninth Ward Re-Building

WHAT: The Louisiana Bucket Brigade and the Palmer Park Neighborhood Association are sponsoring the Fifth Annual Crawfish Boil and Egg Hunt. The proceeds will benefit the work of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, including green building projects in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward as well as communities’ work to reduce petrochemical pollution around the state.

Otra! will provide live music, and the entrance fee is good for all the crawfish you can eat. The annual Egg Hunt is free for children. A raffle will be held throughout the afternoon.

WHO: The events are sponsored by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, the Palmer Park Neighborhood Association and Abita Beer. The Lower Ninth Ward Re Building Projects involve collaborators including the Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development as well as the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association.

WHY: We need clean air, we need sustainable development, we need to eat crawfish and we need to have fun! There aren’t many egg hunts around town, so grab your basket and head to the park!

WHERE:

Palmer Park – uptown at the intersection of Carrollton and Claiborne

WHEN:

Saturday, March 22 – the day before Easter
1 PM – 5 PM; Egg Hunt Starts at 2 PM

Ticket Information:

Call 484 – 3433; online at www.labucketbrigade.org

$15 for adults; $5 kids 8 – 12; Free for kids under 8; Egg hunt is free for all kids!

Oceans Night of Action

Please join us March 11th for an Oceans Night of Action to help end overfishing and conserve our ocean legacy. Last year, a study published in the journal Science predicted widespread collapse of the marine ecosystem by 2048 due to overfishing, pollution, and other human-induced factors. It's time to act for the Gulf and all of our oceans!

Next Tuesday, GRN Campaign Director, Aaron Viles, and University of Southern Mississippi Professor, Janet Kessler, will discuss threats to the Gulf's marine resources and the solutions we can implement now. With proper ecosystem-based management that truly ends overfishing, the Gulf can be restored to a vibrant marine ecosystem with abundant fish populations.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is currently revising their rules concerning overfishing and environmental review, so the evening will conclude with a series of action steps we can take to have an impact on protecting the Gulf. There will also be a free raffle and food! Please RSVP to emartin-craig@greencorps.org.

An Ocean Night of Action
Tuesday, March 11th at 7pm
Tulane University's Lavin-Bernick Center, Room 201
New Orleans, LA

RSVP today by emailing emartin-craig@greencorps.org.

Music Played:

Eddie Bo, "It Must Be Love"

Eddie Bo, "Tell It Like It Is"

3/1/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-03-01T08:33:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (2/29/08)

Headlines for February 29, 2008
EXCLUSIVE–The Three Trillion Dollar War: Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Economist Linda Bilmes on the True Cost of the US Invasion and Occupation of Iraq

Listen | Democracy Now (2/28/08)

William F. Buckley Dies at 82; A Look Back at his 1969 Debate with Noam Chomsky on Vietnam

Listen | Spring Crush: A Flood of Volunteers is Still Needed to Help Rebuild New Orleans

While the range of rebuilding activities has moved beyond gutting flooded houses, Spring Break volunteers are still helping New Orleans rebuild from the destruction brought upon neighborhoods by Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failure. Volunteers who sign up to help in the Lower Ninth Ward can be trained for a range of activities, says the Director of Operations for Common Ground Relief, Tom Pepper, including deconstructing houses to recover valuable wood and historic architectural "gingerbread" ornamentation, hanging sheetrock and making homes energy efficient, and planting seedlings to restore the wetlands forests which once dissipated hurricane wave action. More information on how to sign up to volunteer is available at commongroundrelief.org.

Announcements:

All About Eve

"The Vagina Monologues" playwright Eve Ensler will be back in town Friday, when she speaks at the University of New Orleans on the upcoming "V to the 10th" celebration, inviting the college population of New Orleans to be part of the April 11 to 12 event.

On both those days, the Superdome will be transformed into "Superlove," a giant vagina enclosure offering speakers, singers, theater performers, slam poets, storytelling, art and healing. Tickets to "Superlove" are free with the purchase of a ticket to the all-star production of "The Vagina Monologues" April 12 at the New Orleans Arena.

Scheduled to perform Ensler's play -- which has grown into the worldwide V-Day movement to stop violence against women -- will be Sally Field, Jennifer Hudson, Glenn Close, Rosario Dawson, Salma Hayek, Jessica Alba, Julia Stiles, Marisa Tomei, Kerry Washington and Jane Fonda, who brought considerable attention to the gathering on the "Today" show by uttering the word Ensler urges audiences to reclaim and yell in one of the monologues. Oprah Winfrey will perform a new monologue written specifically for the occasion by Ensler. Musical guests Faith Hill, Common, Eve and Charmaine Neville will also be part of the evening.

The event is a benefit to raise money for groups working to end violence against women, including the New Orleans area and Gulf South region.

Tickets to the Saturday event are $25 to $1,000. To reserve tickets, visit www.vday.org/tickets.

Ensler's Friday appearance at 6 p.m. is free. It will be held in Room 165 in the Business Administration Building, 2000 Lakeshore Drive on the UNO campus.

Freret Street Market

Music Played

Susan Cowsill, Just Believe It.

Irma Thomas, Gonna Cry 'Til My Tears Run Dry.

Eddie Bo, Piano Roll.

2/23/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-02-23T07:42:00.001-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (2/22/08)

Headlines for February 22, 2008
Behind the John McCain Lobbying Scandal: A Look at How McCain Urged the Federal Communications Commission to Act on Behalf of Paxson Communications
Report from Belgrade: Serbian Protesters Set U.S. Embassy on Fire to Protest Independence of Kosovo
Samantha Power v. Jeremy Scahill: A Debate on U.S. Actions in the Balkans, the Independence of Kosovo, the Iraq Sanctions and Humanitarian Intervention
Samantha Power on “Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World"

Listen | Puentes: Building Bridges to Link the Spanish-Speaking Population of New Orleans to Services

The mission of Puentes New Orleans, Inc. is to encourage, promote, and advance full community integration of Hispanic families in the Greater Metropolitan New Orleans area through housing, economic and cultural and educational growth, as well as research and advocacy activities. Tuesday, 2/26 Press Conference at Esperanza School, and Saturday, 3/01 Voter Registration kickoff, food and music, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., also at Esperanza School, 4407 Carrollton Avenue (at Banks Street). http://www.latinolanow.org, or 821-7228. Lucas Diaz and Alejandro Lurati, a conversation hosted by Jimmy Huck.

2/16/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-02-16T05:40:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (2/14/08)

Headlines for February 14, 2008
Entertainment Writers Claim Victory in Deal Ending 14-Week Strike
“Chocolate’s Bittersweet Economy”: Cocoa Industry Accused of Greed, Neglect for Labor Practices in Ivory Coast
Theo Chocolate Founder, CEO Joe Whinney on Fair Trade Cocoa
Activists Call for Boycott of Diamond Giant Leviev for Support of Israeli Settlements and Links to Human Rights Abuses in Africa

Related:

(Photo: Getty Images)

"Payson Team to Lead Child Labor Study," Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

Initiatives to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor in the Cocoa Sector of Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, Tulane Payson Center for International Development.

Listen | Democracy Now (2/12/08)

Nobel Laureate and “Banker to the Poor” Muhammad Yunus on Micro-Lending, Its Critics and the Bush Administration’s Negative Impact on Global Poverty

Listen | Democracy Now (2/15/09)

On Tenth Anniversary of V-Day, Vagina Monologues Playwright Eve Ensler Focuses on Violence Against Women in New Orleans and Gulf South

Related:

2/09/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-02-09T05:18:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (2/08/08)

Headlines for February 08, 2008
Will Conservative Republicans Back McCain? Following Romney’s Departure, John McCain Appears Set to Become GOP Nominee
Examining Clinton & Obama’s Stances on the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, Universal Healthcare, Privatizing Social Security and Nuclear Energy

Listen | Democracy Now (2/05/08)
New Book Alleges 9/11 Commissioner Philip Zelikow Minimized Scrutiny of Bush Admin Failure to Prevent al-Qaeda Attack

Listen | Democracy Now (2/07/08)
EXCLUSIVE: Former 9/11 Commission Chief Philip Zelikow on Allegations He Secretly Allowed Karl Rove & White House to Influence 9/11 Probe

2/01/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-02-02T05:42:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (1/23/08)
Economics Journalist Robert Kuttner on the “Most Serious Financial Crisis Since the Great Depression”: “This is the Result of Rightwing Ideology and the Political Power of Wall Street”
Corporations Reaping Millions as Congo Suffers Deadliest Conflict Since World War II

Rising Tide (excerpt)

1/26/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-01-26T05:03:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now

“An Opportunity to Look at Ourselves and Reorder Our Priorities”–Legendary Activist Grace Lee Boggs on the Ailing Economy, the Legacy of Dr. King and the 2008 Race

A New Civil Rights Movement is Needed in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Listen | Lance Hill, Part 1
Listen | Lance Hill, Part 2

The not-for-profit Southern Institute at Tulane University is dedicated to promoting ethnic harmony through tolerance education. Since 1993, more than 3600 teachers in more than 800 schools across the Deep South have benefited from the program. They in turn touch the lives of more than a million students a year.

Lance Hill is the Director of The Southern Institute. As a labor organizer, Hill learned how to persuade poorly-educated blue-collar white workers to consider a more tolerant, inclusive perspective on the world. Later, while organizing to defeat neo-Nazi and former KKK Klansman David Duke’s bid for Louisiana governor, Hill learned the art of political public relations, employing the negative national attention on a potential Duke governorship to help turn the election.

These days, Hill inveighs against what he claims is a broad racist sentiment to keep poor black residents from returning to post-Katrina New Orleans, and he believes that a new civil rights movement is needed to address the rights of all citizens following crises. Hill believes it’s necessary to remove the veil of civility shrouding racism, and through teaching and example, to engage the hearts and minds of bystanders into caring and action.

One of the most insidious forces preventing people from returning to New Orleans, says Hill, is the lack of health care -- and Hill argues that the rest of the nation should pay more attention.

Music Played:

Eddie Bo, Havin' Fun in New Orleans

John Lee Hooker, Early One Morning

Tuba Fats, Mardi Gras in New Orleans

1/12/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-01-12T07:55:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (1/09/08)

Headlines for January 09, 2008
In Upset Victories, Clinton and McCain Win New Hampshire Primaries
New Hampshire Primary Results Fuel Talk of Most Unpredictable Presidential Race in Decades
Barack Obama and the African American Community: A Debate with Michael Eric Dyson and Glen Ford

Listen | Democracy Now (1/10/08)

Study: Of Over 2,000 Sunday Talk Show Questions to Candidates, Only Three on Global Warming

Listen | Democracy Now (1/12/08)

Greg Palast Reports on the Battle Between Indigenous Ecuadorians and the U.S. Oil Giant Chevron

Announcements:

Plant a Tree on Arbor Day and Help Restore Wetland Forests at the
Audubon Louisiana Nature Center

When: Louisiana Arbor Day - Saturday, January 19th from 1:00pm to 4:00 pm

Where: Audubon Louisiana Nature Center, 5600 Read Boulevard, New Orleans
East (behind Joe Brown Park)

Who: Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, Audubon Nature Institute,
Entergy Corporation and Restore America’s Estuaries invites all
interested volunteers to participate in a community based habitat
restoration project at the Audubon Louisiana Nature Center in New
Orleans East.

What: Volunteers will assist the Coalition and other partners to plant over
1,000 trees in five acres to begin restoration of this devastated forest.

REGISTER NOW
Email Natalie Snider at nsnider@crcl.org or call (888) LACOAST
Please respond by Friday, January 18, 2008

The Audubon Louisiana Nature Center suffered considerable damage from Hurricane Katrina which devastated its interpretive center, exhibits and the 86 acres of bottomland hardwoods and bald cypress-tupelo swamp. The swamps were inundated with muddy saltwater for nearly a month and an estimated 75 percent of the forest was destroyed. The Nature Center has not reopened to the public since August 2005 and the resident and migrant wildlife that flourished in this area have not returned in large numbers.

Please volunteer on January 19th to help BRING NATURE BACK.

Music Played:

Chef Menteur, Trebuchet, The Answer's in Forgetting, Back Porch Revolution, 2007.

Margo Guryan, 16 Words, Pure Mint Recordings, 2007.

Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, Carnival Time, The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans.

1/04/2008 Community Gumbo

2008-01-05T06:36:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (1/04/08)

Obama, Huckabee Score Victories in Iowa Caucus
After Iowa: A Roundtable Discussion on the Democratic Race with Danny Glover, Wayne Ford and Ellen Chesler
Peace Activists Take Action to Keep Focus on War During Presidential Campaign

Listen | Democracy Now (12/26/07)

"Today’s Decision Would Make George Orwell Proud" -- FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on the FCC's Vote to Rewrite the Nation's Media Ownership Rules

Remembering Dinerral Shavers and Helen Hill
Listen | Kevin George, former Rabouin High School principal
Listen | Mo Lappen, creator of The Opposite Machine

This week, the new District Attorney Keva Landrum-Johnson and Police Superintendent Warren Riley announced that their cooperation has reduced the number of defendants automatically released from jail because prosecutors failed to file charges against them within 60 days.

"701" releases were reduced to just 6 in December 2007 from a high of 580 in January 2007 -- a month which began with the tragic murders of two beloved members of the New Orleans community, Dinerral Shavers and Helen Hill. Those murders spurred some 5000 people to march against violence, and to register their discontent with the city's ineffectual leadership on the steps of City Hall.

At the one year anniversary of their slayings, and with Carnival season commencing tomorrow on King's Day, today Community Gumbo remembers Dinerral Shavers and Helen Hill with excerpted re-broadcasts of previous programs with Kevin George, the former Rabouin High School principal who facilitated Dinerral Shavers desire to start a new marching band which premiered during last year's carnival season, and Mo Lappen, whose Opposite Machine in memory of Helen Hill rolled on Mardi Gras last year.

Related:

WYES TV, Channel 12, Saturday 1/04/08, 11:00 p.m. Celebrating a Life in Film. A profile of filmmaker Helen Hill. Included: clips from her animated films and comments from friends and family members.

Dave Walker, "A documentary examines murder victim Helen Hill as a filmmaker," The Times-Picayune, 1/05/08.

Laura Maggi, "Cooperation pares down prisoner releases," The Times-Picayune, 1/04/08.

Music Played:

Fred Weaver, "The Light at the Corner," Apocalypse the Apocalypse, 2006.

12/15/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-12-15T05:41:00.000-08:00

Listen Democracy Now (12/11/07)

Headlines for December 11, 2007

“It Is Time to Make Peace With the Planet”–Al Gore Accepts 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
Chair of UN Climate Panel Says Nobel Peace Prize Signals a “Clarion Call for the Protection of the Earth”

Mitch McConnell, George Bush, Dick Cheney Are “Climate Criminals”–Environmentalist in 99th Day of Climate Emergency Fast Blasts GOP

Listen | Torbjörn Törnqvist: Linking slushy Greenland to swampy Louisiana -- A bumpy ride into the greenhouse future? (re-broadcast)

(Visit the original post for more photos)

Delegates from nearly 190 countries concluded two weeks of intense talks in Bali, Indonesia today with a two-year timetable for reviving the Kyoto protocol signed by President George H.W. Bush in 1992.

The agreement calls for "urgency" in addressing climate change, recognizing that "deep cuts in global emissions will be required," but still doesn't bind the United States or any other country to reducing greenhouse gases.

Prior to the talks in Bali, the Bush administration dropped its stubborn opposition to formal negotiations on climate change.

And just this past April, the Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration's claim that carbon dioxide wasn't a pollutant, and ordered the administration to re-examine the case for regulating carbon dioxide. Dozens of states are moving ahead with caps on greenhouse gases.

Meanwhile, melting of the Greenland ice sheet in 2007 increased from 30 to 150 percent above the previous 19 years, with melting occurring on 25-30 more days than the previous average, according to research published by NASA's Earth Observatory last week.

And as Al Gore was accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo this week, NASA reported that the amount of Arctic sea ice reached an all-time low in recorded history this year.

If the Greenland ice sheet alone were to completely melt, sea levels might rise to 23 feet -- an event which wouldn't just affect south Louisiana. In fact, 53 percent of the U.S. population lives in a coastal area.

Professor Torbjörn Törnqvist arrived in New Orleans to teach at Tulane University just days before Hurricane Katrina, evacuating from the city less than a day after he arrived. Deciding to "stay the course," rather than "cut and run," he recently addressed the 2007 class of Tulane freshmen in a lecture drawing a comparison to a climate change event 8200 years ago, and the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, providing evidence that global warming is worse now than was originally anticipated when the first predictions were made in 1990. Törnqvist argued that Hurricane Katrina accented both danger and opportunity for Louisiana in an era of climate change. As the one of first areas of the world experiencing the consequences of climate change, he called upon students to use their educations to accept the challenge of solving the climate change crisis in whichever discipline they choose.

Announcements:

The Big Easy Roller Girls
The Confederacy of Punches v. Crescent Wenches; and the Marigny Antoinettes v. the StoryVillains. Doors open at 6 p.m. at Mardi Gras World; Action starts at 7 p.m. Featuring halftime entertainment by Quintron and Miss Pussycat! Afterparty at d.b.a., 618 Frenchman Street.

Music Played:

Six Organs of Admittance, "Shelter from the Ash"

Mariee Sioux, "Two Tongues"

12/08/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-12-08T06:20:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (12/03/07)

Listening Is an Act of Love: National Oral History Project StoryCorps Records Ordinary People Telling Their Remarkable Stories to Each Other

Listen | V to the Tenth

The Katrina Warriors Network is the diverse body of individuals, affinities, organizations, and institutions doing work to support and enhance the well-being of women and girls in New Orleans and Southern Louisiana, and
the gulf south.

On December 11th, 2007, 7PM, at the Contemporary Arts Center, The Katrina Warriors Network will be
holding a very important meeting with V-Day regarding the planning for
V to the 10th. This will be a great chance to come to be inspired
about the amazing events taking place in New Orleans, April 11th-12th.
This will be the best opportunity to learn more about the events and
become involved in rallying New Orleans around such an important life
changing experience.

Crystal Kile is the Assistant Director of Planning and Projects at the Newcomb Center for Research on Women, and is the Minister of Communications for the Katrina Warrior Network.

Announcements:

Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews will headline a program at First Baptist Church of New Orleans that matches him with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the 65-voice Shades of Praise gospel choir, Latin vocalist Terc Martinez, gospel singer Susan King and others.

"We want this to be a night of healing, a chance for our entire community to come together," said Jerome "PopAgee" Johnson, who organized the event under the auspices of the New Orleans Music Hall of Fame. "We want the picture on stage to show how music can be a force to bring us together. These aren't musicians who would usually be collaborating."

Music Played:

Mariee Sioux, "Wizard Flurry Home."

Common, "Love is ..."

Trombone Shorty

12/01/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-11-30T17:54:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (11/28/07 excerpted)

“The End of America”: Feminist Social Critic Naomi Wolf Warns U.S. in Slow Descent into Fascism

Listen | Ethics in Public Service and The Inspector General Function: An Address by New Orleans Inspector General Robert Cerasoli

Loyola University, 11/27/07

Inspector General Robert Cerasoli was selected as the Inspector General by the Ethics Review Board of the City of New Orleans. As New Orleans’ first Inspector General, he will be shaping the position from the ground up. Cerasoli possesses a decade of teaching experience in ethics, auditing, oversight, financial management and anti-corruption practices. He served as the Inspector General for the state of Massachusetts from 1991- 2001 and was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1975. Nationally recognized as the father of the Association of Inspectors General (AIG), he co-authored the authoritative, seminal texts used to train Inspector Generals throughout the country, including Principles and Standards for Offices of Inspector General (The Green Book).

Listen | The Federal Communications Commission Moves Again to Relax Ownership Rules

Federal Communications Commissioner Chairman Kevin Martin has proposed an ambitious plan to relax decades-old media cross-ownership restrictions, including a repeal of the FCC rule which forbids a company to own both a newspaper and a radio or television station in the same city.

Martin wants to repeal the rule before Christmas, allowing little time for public review of the proposal.

Present FCC rules governing broadcast ownership have unofficially or provisionally permitted a company to own two television stations in larger markets where there are at least eight stations -- as long as one of them is not among the four largest of those stations.

Martin wrote in a November 13th New York Times op-ed piece that:
IN many towns and cities, the newspaper is an endangered species. At least 300 daily papers have stopped publishing over the past 30 years. Those newspapers that have survived are struggling financially. Newspaper circulation has declined steadily for more than 10 years. Average daily circulation is down 2.6 percent in the last six months alone.

Newspapers have also been hurt by significant cuts in advertising revenue, which accounts for at least 75 percent of their revenue. Their share of the advertising market has fallen every year for the past decade, while online advertising has increased greatly. ...

If we don’t act to improve the health of the newspaper industry, we will see newspapers wither and die. Without newspapers, we would be less informed about our communities and have fewer outlets for the expression of independent thinking and a diversity of viewpoints.

In contrast to the bleak outlook presented by Kevin Martin, online ad revenues for newspapers are predicted to increase exponentially for the foreseeable future. The MediaPost eMarketer documented an estimated 36 percent increase in ad revenues in 2005, predicting double-digit increases through 2008. And the Project for Excellence in Journalism reported in 2006 that newspaper industry profits were higher than the hugely-profitable pharmaceutical and oil industries.

Helping to sort out these issues, Dr. Anita Day teaches advertising at Loyola University's School of Mass Communications.

December 11th is the deadline to get informed and involved in response to Kevin Martin's proposal:
1) Get more information at StopBigMedia.com.

2) File a comment with the FCC on Kevin Martin's idea to relax ownership rules by using the StopBigMedia form (or the more complicated FCC form).

3) Voice your support for legislation moving through Congress (S 2332), the "The Media Ownership Act of 2007" (summary), to force the FCC to address localism concerns and the dismal state of female and minority ownership before changing any rules to unleash more media concentration.

Related:
Devil in the Details: 10 Facts Kevin Martin Doesn’t Want You to Know About His New Media Ownership Rules (pdf)

The Project for Excellence in Journalism, "Newspaper Economics, 2006 Annual Report: Profits and Revenues," 3/13/2006.

Newspapers To See Online Ad Surge

The State of News Media 2006

William Safire, "The Big Media Gulp," The New York Times, 5/23/2003.

Tuning In to One Company

The Daily Show

Plan Would Ease Limits on Media Owners

Few Friends for Proposal on Media

Size Limits for Cable Look Likely

Regulating Cable

Spreading the Broadband Revolution

Google to Join Spectrum Auction

Announcements:

This Sunday, 3 p.m.--Food, Wine, Music
Benefit For La Crepe Nanou's Robert Strong, Crime Victim
For twenty-four years, Robert Strong has been the bar manager at La Crêpe Nanou. A few weeks ago he was attacked and shot on St. Charles Ave. during an armed robbery. The incident left Robert in critical condition with major trauma to his jaw. He will require five more surgeries to rebuild his jawbone. He is still in the hospital.

This Sunday, Nanou DeRaczynski asked his culinary friends to help him put on a benefit event to assist Robert with his recovery--as well as to make a statement against the continuing violence in our city.

The event begins at three in the afternoon and goes until eight, along the 1400 block of Robert Street, at Prytania. Your $30 donation will be returned with foodm, wine, desserts, live music, and self-defense demonstrations. There's also be a silent auction of a wide variety of art, restaurant dinners, and other packages.

The restaurants include La Crêpe Nanou, Galatoire's, Café Degas, Dick & Jenny's, Dante's Kitchen, St. James Cheese Company, New Orleans Ice Cream Company, and more to come. The musicians will include Alex Chilton (of the Box Tops), Susan Cowsill, The Stringbeans, Herringbone Orchestra, and David
Doucet and Al Tharp.

Tickets can be had at La Crêpe Nanou and The Wine Seller (both on Prytanian at Robert). All proceeds go directly to the Robert Strong Fund established at Capital One. If you'd like more information--or to make a contribution--please contact Aimée Toledano at aimeetoledano@hotmail.com.

Robert is a much-liked guy at one of the city's most popular restaurants. It's intolerable that people like him fall victim to this unconscionable spread of crime in our city. Please help.

The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra

New Orleans Musica da Camera

Music Played:

Billy Bragg & Wilco, "All You Fascists," Mermaid Avenue, v. 2, Elektra.

88 Fingers Louie, "Newspaper," Back on the Streets, Hopeless Records.

Elvis Costello, "Radio Radio," This Year's Model.

Billy Bragg & Wilco, "Someday Some Morning Sometime," Mermaid Avenue, V. 2, Elektra.

Robyn Hitchcock, "I Wanna Go Backwards," I Wanna Go Backwards, Yep Records.

11/24/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-11-23T08:21:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now

“We Are Now In The Danger Zone”: Leading Australian Scientist Tim Flannery on Climate Change and How To Save the Planet

Listen | Stay Local! More Than Ever This Holiday Season

New Orleans businesses are struggling more than ever this year as rising costs of hurricane recovery fuels inflation. Dana Eness is the Executive Director of the Urban Conservancy.

Related:

"Festivus Market Has Good (Social) Values," MarketUmbrella.org.

Announcements:

John Pope, "Trees felled by Katrina weighed as factor in global warming," The Times-Picayune, 11/24/07.
Decomposing trees felled by Hurricane Katrina are offsetting a year's worth of carbon dioxide which is normally absorbed by trees across the United States, according to Jeffrey Chambers, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, who contributed to a report published in the peer-reviewed journal Science.

Leslie Williams, "New Orleans jazz loses one of its early pioneers," The Times-Picayune, 11/21/07.
New Orleans' oldest traditional jazz musician, 100-year-old Ernest "Doc" Paulin, passed away on Tuesday.

An icon of brass band culture in New Orleans since the 1920's, trumpet player Doc Paulin played for social aid and pleasure clubs, church parades, jazz funerals, and customarily performed at the Corner Club on Mardi Gras. He also trained and inspired a number of other musicians who have themselves become legendary.

Music was a family tradition for Doc Paulin -- his father played accordion, his uncle the trombone, and six of his children performed with him in his band.

"He understood life; he knew how to make a way of no way," Paulin's son said.

Music Played:

Doc Paulin', "Just a While to Stay Here," Doc Paulin's Marching Band.

Doc Paulin', "We Shall Walk Through the Streets of the City - Dirge," Doc Paulin's Marching Band.

Doc Paulin', "We Shall Walk Through the Streets of the City - March," Doc Paulin's Marching Band.

11/17/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-11-16T20:54:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (11/16/07)

Lawmakers Strip Immunity for Telecom Companies from Surveillance Bill
"The Fall of the House of Bush: The Untold Story of How a Band of True Believers Seized the Executive Branch, Started the Iraq War, and Still Imperils America’s Future”
Activists Converge on Washington, D.C. for Weekend of Protest Against Hate Crimes, Police Brutality

Listen | Save Our Sandwich: The First New Orleans Po-Boy Preservation Festival

Oak Street in the Carrollton neighborhood will host the first New Orleans Po-Boy Preservation Festival on Sunday, 11/18, from 12 to 6. A conversation with Marilyn Kearny, Program Director for the Oak Street Main Street Program, and Dr. Michael Mizell-Nelson, professor of history at the University of New Orleans.

Related:

Judy Walker, "R--E--S--P-- E--C--T ... that sandwich," NOLA.com, 11/16/07.

Po-Boy History:

Music Played:

Gene Marshall, "Jimmy Carter Says Yes!," The American Song-Poem Anthology: Do You Know The Difference Between Big Wood And Brush, Sentata 2003 (a tribute to displaced/misplaced former WTUL DJ Duncan Edwards to promote an informed and active electorate on this election day).

Howlin' Wolf, "Poor Boy," Howlin' Wolf: The Real Folk Blues, Geffen.

Rodd, Teri, and the M.S.R. Singers, "Richard Nixon," The American Song-Poem Anthology: Do You Know The Difference Between Big Wood And Brush, Sentata 2003

11/10/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-11-09T15:25:00.000-08:00

Listen | Democracy Now (11/06/07)

Guatemala's Indigenous Countryside Drives Election Victory Over Atrocity-Linked General
Thousands Arrested in Pakistan Defying Musharraf’s Crackdown
New PBS Documentary Gives Voice to Victims of U.S. “Extraordinary Rendition”

Louisiana Attorney General Sues Insurance Companies

Listen | Michael Homan and Therese Fitzpatrick, Mid City

Listen | Lisa Palumbo, Uptown

Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti filed suit against State Farm and Allstate, along with several other insurance companies alleging that they were "reaping huge profits from the misfortunes of persons whom they pledged to protect from the risk of loss." The suit alleges that insurance companies engaged in rigging the value of policyholder claims, coercing policyholders to settle their claims of damages for less than their value by editing engineering reports, by delaying payment, and by forcing policyholders to litigate claims to receive full value. Attorney General Foti, who lost his re-election bid on October 20th, said that the activities of the named companies amounted to illegal collusion, price fixing and antitrust violations which resulted in "unjust enrichment of themselves to the detriment of the state, policyholders and commerce in Louisiana."

A comprehensive two-part feature on WWL TV News this past week reported that Allstate significantly increased its profits even as it was supposed to be paying out claims for the worst hurricane disaster in U.S. history. According to WWL, Allstate averaged profits of $82 million per year from 1986 to 1995, but from 1996 to 2005, the company increased it profits to an average of $2.2 billion per year.

In August 2006, on the eve of the one-year deadline for homeowners to file lawsuits against their insurance companies for unpaid claims, Community Gumbo broadcast a pair of stories in which homeowners described their experiences with their insurance companies. In those stories is illustrated the manner in which insurance companies were allegedly acting to pass losses onto their policyholders at the same time that those companies were raising premiums and reporting record profits.

After fighting with her insurance company to win a full claim of wind damages, Lisa Palumbo hired an attorney. Rather than sue State Farm, Palumbo's attorney had a construction consultant go through her house to itemize damages, proving that the insurance company had underpaid the claim. Palumbo is still in limbo, living with her mother while her house remains gutted. She's still hoping to get help from the Road Home program to help make up the tens of thousands of dollars in additional funds she'll need to make her house livable again.

Allstate finally settled the claim made by Michael and Therese Homan rather than go into costly litigation, offering an award in the amount of the mortgage. Unfortunately, a general contractor estimated that repairs to the house would cost $100,000 more than the mortgage. The Homans carefully crafted a financial plan joining the insurance settlement to a Road Home award, savings, and an inheritance, to rebuild, but are worried that they'll have just enough money to make ends meet, and "can't screw it up." Despite the challenge, Michael Homan said he's "happy to have work started on the house, and that it's no longer just sitting there." They hope to be back in their house by June or July of 2008.

Here again on Community Gumbo are the stories of Mid-City residents Michael and Therese Homan, and Carrollton resident Lisa Palumbo. The original Community Gumbo post contains photos and additional links.

Related:

Community Gumbo, "Sue your insurance company now!," 8/12/06.

Mike Hoss, "La. Attorney General sues insurers, alleges price-fixing" (video), WWLTV.com.

Dennis Woltering, "4 Investigates: Did Allstate reduce claims to boost profits? - Part 2" (video), WWLTV.com.

Rebecca Mowbray, "Foti sues insurers over storm payouts," The Times-Picayune, 11/08/07.

Rebecca Mowbray, "Leaning on Insurers," The Times-Picayune, 7/15/07.

People Get Ready, "Hold on to your wallet," 4/19/06.

Music Played:

Fred Hersch & Michael Moore, "Canzona," Jazz at the Concertgebouw, Radio Nederland, 2007.

Christian Scott, "Litany Against Fear," Concord, 2007.

11/03/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-11-03T08:16:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (11/01/07)

Carbon Trading: Practical Solution to Global Warming or Corporate Greenwash? A Debate
FCC Commissioners Adelstein and Copps Decry Proposals to Ease Caps on Media Consolidation
Attorney General Nominee’s Confirmation in Doubt Over Waterboarding Stance

Listen | Terence Blanchard, A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina)

A conversation with Dave Anderson, principal bass player for the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and a preview of New Orleans native son and Grammy Award winner Terence Blanchard's, "A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina)," an emotional tour de force of anger, rage, compassion, melancholy and beauty, containing music from and inspired by director Spike Lee's HBO documentary, "When the Levees Broke."

Related:

The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra
Experience the music as New Orleans native son and Grammy Award winner Terence Blanchard performs his impassioned song cycle, A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina). This 13 song emotional tour de force of anger, rage, compassion, melancholy and beauty contains music from and inspired by director Spike Lee's HBO documentary, When the Levees Broke. LPOMUSIC.COM, or 523-6530, for more information, or for affordable student admission.

Fred Kasten, "A Tale of God's Will" (podcast), LPO.

Jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard talks about his collaboration with Spike Lee on "A Tale of God's Will (Requiem for Katrina)" (video), NOLA.com.

Keith Spera, "The pain of Katrina will spill forth when trumpeter Terence Blanchard performs with the LPO on Saturday," The Times-Picayune, 11/03/07.

Keith Spera, "Trumpeter Terence Blanchard's 'A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina),'" The Times-Picayune, 8/24/07.

Music Played:

Billie Holiday, "All of Me," Lady Day: The Master Takes and Singles, Columbia Legacy.

Terence Blanchard, "Dear Mom," A Tale of God's Will, Blue Note.

Terence Blanchard, "Mantra," A Tale of God's Will, Blue Note.

10/27/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-10-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

Democracy Now (montage)

Listen | FCC Chair Kevin Martin Proposes Rules to Allow for Greater Media Consolidation (10/22/07)
Listen | Environmental Journalist Bill McKibben on the Links Between Global Warming & the California Wild Fires (10/23/07)
Listen | Leading Australian Scientist Tim Flannery on Global Warming and the Worsening Dangers of Climate Change Denial (10/25/07)

Listen | Save Our Coast: Carlton Dufrechou, Executive Director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (re-broadcast)

Saving New Orleans means saving Louisiana's receding coastline, and restoring a once healthy wetland ecosystem of marshes, and forests of cypress and tupelo to break storm surges. As Executive Director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, Carlton Dufrechou has led the cause for a healthier ecosystem in Southeast Louisiana for nearly two-decades. The current battle being waged is for passage of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007. Both parties in both houses of Congress overwhelmingly supported the WRDA bill, which contains more than $3.5 billion in Louisiana hurricane- and flood-protection projects, yet President Bush is threatening a veto.

[Previous post, with links to articles]

The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF) is committed to bringing the New Canal Lighthouse back to life after Hurricane Katrina. Since 2001, LPBF has actively sought ownership of the lighthouse once the USCG moved into their new station in Bucktown. Before Katrina, LPBF was participating in the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Program to turn the lighthouse into an education center for the public featuring exhibits about the history of the light and the ecology of the Pontchartrain Basin. It is the intention of LPBF to restore the lighthouse from hurricane damage and continue the work to open it as a public education facility.

Announcements:

Tell President Bush: Don't Veto the Water Resources Development Act!

Save Our Cypress Day of Action

On Saturday, November 17th, the Save Our Cypress Coalition is participating in the International Day of Action Against Big Box Retailers. All over the world, people will be speaking out to address problems with big box retailers. All around the U.S., we've got a great opportunity to make an impact for protecting the Gulf's cypress forests.

New Orleans March and Rally to End the War
and Rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast

United for Peace and Justice with military families, veterans, faith based groups and those involved in recovery efforts along with a new peace coalition, NO Coalition Against the War, are joining together to march and rally on Saturday, October 27 in New Orleans. We will call for an end to the war in Iraq as a giant step towards redirecting our country's resources to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Never has it been so clear that while our children and loved ones are sent to fight an unjust war, they come home to communities ravaged by disasters, both natural and man made. We must join together and press for an end to the war and justice for our communities!

In New Orleans, we will gather in Washington Square Park (Corner of Frenchmen and Royal) at 2 PM on Saturday for a rally that will include military families, veterans and community activists. On that day, we will launch a petition drive aimed at the passage of a City Council resolution to put our city on record along side of hundreds of cities calling upon the Bush administration and Congress to end the war to rebuild our communities.

At 4 PM, we will march through the French Quarter and return to Washington Square Park.

Robert Greenwald video.

Stop Big Media

10/20/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-10-15T21:36:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (10/17/07)

The Conscience of a Liberal: New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman on Healthcare, Tax Cuts, Social Security, the Mortgage Crisis and Alan Greenspan

Listen | The Big Easy Roller Girls Second Season Rolls Around

The world of Roller Derby has changed a lot since the days when Raquel Welch starred in 1972 as the scrappy but seductive Kansas City Bomber. It's no longer a staged version of the World Wrestling Federation for actresses on wheels, but is a serious sport comprised of over a hundred North American leagues owned by the skaters themselves. During their inaugural season in 2006, the Big Easy Roller Girls provided one of the best ways for New Orleanians to take their minds off of ripping out moldy sheetrock, fighting insurance companies, and attending endless planning meetings. Instead, fans were entertained by aggressive skaters in costume, live bands, Ruthie the Duck Lady tossing throws to the audience, and Carnival floats lit up at Mardi Gras world. Now, they're back for their second season, and have added two new teams to the lineup. Recently, at Skate Country in Terrytown -- on the other side of the Mississippi from New Orleans -- three skaters took a break from practice to talk about the new season. Their skate names are Jet Lisa, Lush Fatale -- and Sophie Nuke'Em, a bombshell whose alma mater, Newcomb College, anointed her with the honor of being last year's Queen of the Mystick Krewe of Newcombus Festivity.

Related:

Meet the Girls

Kansas City Bomber (1972) -- movie trailer

Announcements:

The New Orleans Opera Association
Charles Gounod's Faust
McAlister Auditorium
Saturday, October 20, 2007 @ 8:00 pm
Sunday, October 21, 2007 @ 2:30 pm
NEWORLEANSOPERA.ORG

The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra
Music of the Spheres
October 25, 2007 - 7:30pm
October 27, 2007 - 8:00pm

Beethoven: The Creatures of Prometheus Overture
Dankner: Symphony No. 8 “Music of the Spheres” (World Premiere)
Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D
LPOMUSIC.COM

The New Orleans Ballet Association
MOMIX
OCTOBER 26 & 27, 8 P.M.
Dixon Hall, Tulane University
NOBADANCE.COM

Music Played:

Red Stick Ramblers, "Katrina," Made in the Shade, Sugar Hill Records, 2007.

The Best Love in Town, "NOLA"

Jim Croce, "Roller Derby Queen"

Roger Miller, "You Can't Roller Skate In A Buffalo Herd"

10/13/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-10-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (10/12/07)

Al Gore, UN Climate Change Panel Share Nobel Peace Prize
Oil Giant Chevron Urged to Cut Ties with Burmese Military Junta
Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy

Listen | Left Behind: The Story of the New Orleans Public Schools (rebroadcast)

Left Behind documents a school system which had a dropout rate as high as 70 percent, with only half of the students passing math and reading proficiency tests. Before Hurricane Katrina, there were approximately 60,000 students in the New Orleans public school system, and the school budget was more than $500 million. Post-Katrina, the operating budget is about half as large, the school system has about half the number of students, and – the biggest change – about half of the schools are now being operated by private charter schools, with the majority of the remainder being operated by a Recovery School District after a state takeover. Only a small handful of schools are still being operated by the New Orleans Public School System.

Vincent Morelli is a writer, producer, and co-director of the film (along with writer Jason Berry and executive producer Bobby Moresco).

Related:

Ellenese-Brooks Sims accepts bribes

Brooks-Sims secretly recorded conversations with Mose Jefferson

Announcements:

Helen Hill
48 Hours airs at 9:00 p.m. on WWL TV New Orleans, Channel 4.

New Orleans Film Festival
Times-Picayune Lagniappe Best Bets

New Orleans Musica da Camera
Sing a Tapestry Weave a Song
The Fabric of Early Music
Sunday 14 October 3:00pm
Holy Name of Mary Church - 500 Eliza St. - Algiers Point
NOMDC.ORG, or 895-1972, for more information.

Big Easy Roller Girls
Bout Season starts on Saturday, Oct. 20 -- A double header featuring the Crescent Wenches v. the Marigny Antoinettes, and Confederacy of Punches v. the StoryVillains. Doors open at 6 p.m. at Mardi Gras World. BigEasyRollergirls.com for more information.

New Orleans Opera Association
Charles Gounod's Faust
McAlister Auditorium
Friday, October 19, 2007 @ 8:00 pm
Saturday, October 20, 2007 @ 8:00 pm
Sunday, October 21, 2007 @ 2:30 pm

Secluded in his study at dawn, the old philosopher Faust contemplates the meaning of life. Determined to bring his own to an end, he defiantly challenges both God and the Devil. Mephistopheles magically appears with a tempting offer: eternal youth and the love of the beautiful Marguerite, in exchange for only one thing–Faust's soul!

10/06/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-10-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (10/01/07)

Deadly Attack on Darfur Peacekeepers Leaves 10+ Dead, 50 Missing
Unbowed: Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai on Climate Change, Wars for Resources, the Greenbelt Movement and More

Listen | Save Our Coast: Carlton Dufrechou, Executive Director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation

Saving New Orleans means saving Louisiana's receding coastline, and restoring a once healthy wetland ecosystem of marshes, and forests of cypress and tupelo to break storm surges. As Executive Director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, Carlton Dufrechou has led the cause for a healthier ecosystem in Southeast Louisiana for nearly two-decades. The current battle being waged is for passage of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007. Both parties in both houses of Congress overwhelmingly supported the WRDA bill, which contains more than $3.5 billion in Louisiana hurricane- and flood-protection projects, yet President Bush is threatening a veto.

Carlton Dufrechou.

Louisiana coastal restoration projects (image from the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation Web site).

Bayou La Loutre and the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (image from the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation Web site).

A levee on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

Related:

The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation

Carlton Dufrechou, "Water Act deserves support," Letter to the Editor, The Times-Picayune, 9/29/07.

Jen DeGregorio, "Port hopes $160 million in water bill gets by Bush," The Times-Picayune, 9/26/07.

Christine Harvey, "1st District hopefuls vow to rebuild: All three want to see the Gulf Outlet close," The Times-Picayune, 10/02/07.

Pam Radtke Russell, "Operators balance safety with production: Shell plays it safe with judgment call," The Times-Picayune, 10/03/07.

Bill Walsh, "White House opposes Morganza levee project," The Times-Picayune, 4/10/07.

"Senate OKs federal flood bill; Closing of MR-GO would be prompt," The Times-Picayune, 5/16/07.

Bob Marshall & Mark Shleifstein, "Last chance Day 2: Losing ground," The Times-Picayune.

Mark Schleifstein, "LAYING THE GROUNDWORK: Success stories like the Atchafalaya River Basin hold the promise of restoring lost wetlands," 3/06/07.

Sidney Coffee, "Levees, wetlands both vital," Letter to the Editor, The Times-Picayune, 9/11/07.

"WATER BILL (Here are some of the major Louisiana projects in the $21 billion Water Resources Development Act)" The Times-Picayune, 9/25/07.

Editorial, "Don't veto our survival," The Times-Picayune, 9/26/07.

Grace Lee Boggs, Bill Moyer's Journal, 8/31/07.

Editorial, "Wanted: A Regional Flood Control Plan," Gambit Weekly, 10/02/07.

Announcements:

The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra
The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra launches a new season of its popular "Family Concert" series of kid-friendly performances with "Adventures in Space" - a musical explosion of the solar system and beyond - Sunday afternoon, October 7, 2007 - at 3:00pm - at the First Baptist Church of New Orleans, 5290 Canal Boulevard. [more information]

New Orleans Musica da Camera
Sing a Tapestry Weave a Song
The Fabric of Early Music

Sunday 7 October 4:00pm
Ursuline Chapel - 2701 State St. - Uptown New Orleans

Sunday 14 October 3:00pm
Holy Name of Mary Church - 500 Eliza St. - Algiers Point

NOMDC.ORG, or 895-1972, for more information.

Karaoke with the Big Easy Rollergirls
Monday, Oct. 8 - Live rock n' roll karaoke night, featuring members of the Molly Ringwalds & Metal Rose, with special guest Gal Holiday -- raffle Prizes, a penalty wheel, and belly dancers! Bout tickets and calendars on sale. Southport Hall, 200 Monticello Avenue. Tomatoes at 8 p.m., karaoke at 8:30 p.m.

Bout Season starts on Saturday, Oct. 20 -- A double header featuring the Crescent Wenches v. the Marigny Antoinettes, and Confederacy of Punches v. the StoryVillains. Doors open at 6 p.m. at Mardi Gras World. BigEasyRollergirls.com for more information.

Music Played:

Big Joe Williams and Sonny Boy Williamson, "Baby Please Don't Go," Arhoolie (LP).

Bob Dylan, "The Levee's Gonna Break," Modern Times, Sony 2006.

9/29/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-09-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (9/24/07)

Alan Greenspan vs. Naomi Klein on the Iraq War, Bush's Tax Cuts, Economic Populism, Crony Capitalism and More
Blackwater Back on Patrol in Baghdad as Shootings Probe Continues

Listen | Angelo Brocato's is Back! (Re-Broadcast)

Angelo Brocato's Ice Cream & Confectionary, is re-opened a year ago for the first time since Hurricane Katrina.

This is a re-broadcast of the interview that aired on the occasion of the re-opening of this landmark in the cultural geography of New Orleans.

[More photos and information available in the original Community Gumbo feature]

Music Played:

Dave Brubeck, "Georgia on My Mind," Indian Summer, Telarc, 2007.

Memphis Minnie, "You Need a Friend," CBS, 1988.

Snooks Eaglin, "Funky Malaguena," The Legacy of the Blues Sampler, Crescendo, 1976.

Sonny Boy Williamson, "Too Old to Think," The Real Folk Blues, Chess, 1987.

Dave Brubeck, "You'll Never Know," Indian Summer, Telarc, 2007.

9/22/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-09-22T08:17:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (9/21/07)

In Historic March, Tens of Thousands Gather from Across Nation to Demand Justice for Jena Six
Rev. Al Sharpton: Jena Rally Marks “Beginning of a 21st Century Rights Movement”
Live from Jena: Two Mothers of the Jena Six React to Outpour of Support for their Sons
The Jena Six Story: A Look at the Origins of the Case

Listen | All Colors with Love and Respect: ERACE of New Orleans

ERACE New Orleans fosters racial harmony through civil dialog. Annette McGee is the organization's secretary, and trades off as a facilitator.

Meetings:

Saturdays 10 to 11:30 AM
WRBH Building
3606 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA 70115

Tuesdays 6 to 7:30 PM
618 City Park Avenue
(across from Delgado)
New Orleans, LA 70119

Screening of the movie American History X
Co-sponsored by the New Orleans Lyceum and ERACE of New Orleans
Saturday, 9/22, 7:00 p.m.
618 City Park Avenue

Music Played:

Joe Calicott, "Down to the River Jordan," Ain't a Gonna.

Dave Brubeck, "You'll Never Know," Indian Summer, Telarc 1997.

9/15/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-09-15T05:16:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (9/14/07)

EXCLUSIVE: In One Of His Last Interviews Before His Death Iraqi Tribal Leader Abu Risha Details Relationship With U.S. Military
From Empire to Earth Community: Author David Korten on "The Great Turning"
Vandana Shiva Decries the "Outsourcing of Pollution to the Third World"
Michael Klare on the Internal War For Control of Iraq's Oil
"Climate Porn" - Simon Retallack on the Dangers of Using Alarmist Language to Talk About Climate Change

Listen | Remembering Helen Hill (re-broadcast)

America's Most Wanted will air a feature on Helen Hill's murder tonight.

Crimestoppers increased to $15,000 the reward for information leading to the capture of Helen's murderer.

America's Most wanted airs on Channel 8 in New Orleans, 8-9 p.m.

Related:

HelenHill.org

Photos and more available in the original Community Gumbo feature.
America's Most Wanted, Filmmaker And Family Under Fire.

Music Played:

Mississippi John Hurt, Hop Joint.

Joe Calicott, Fare You Well Blues.

9/08/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-09-07T14:37:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (9/03/07)

The 50th Anniversary of Jack Kerouac's "On The Road", Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" and Poetry As Insurgent Art

Listen | Torbjörn Törnqvist: Linking slushy Greenland to swampy Louisiana -- A bumpy ride into the greenhouse future?

Professor Torbjörn Törnqvist arrived in New Orleans to teach at Tulane University just days before Hurricane Katrina, evacuating from the city less than a day after he arrived. Deciding to "stay the course," rather than "cut and run," he recently addressed the 2007 class of Tulane freshmen in a lecture drawing a comparison to a climate change event 8200 years ago, and the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, providing evidence that global warming is worse now than was originally anticipated when the first predictions were made in 1990. Törnqvist argued that Hurricane Katrina accented both danger and opportunity for Louisiana in an era of climate change. As the one of first areas of the world experiencing the consequences of climate change, he called upon students to use their educations to accept the challenge of solving the climate change crisis in whichever discipline they choose.

Related:
Torbjörn E. Törnqvist, Tulane University.

CBS News, New Threat To Big Easy: Global Warming

Live Science, How Global Warming Can Chill the Planet

Tulane University, A New Look at Subsidence Issues

TerraDaily, New Study Fuels Louisiana Subsidence Controversy

Tulane University 2007 Reading Project, Elizabeth Colbert, Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change

Tribute:

Luciano Pavarotti, Nessun Dorma ("No one shall sleep")

Tens of thousands of Luciano Pavarotti's fans paid their respects to the operatic tenor in his hometown of Modena, Italy. The beloved singer died at the age of 71 on Thursday after fighting pancreatic cancer for a year.

Music Played:

Guitar Slim and Jelly Bean, "Snowing And Raining Blues," Blues Roots, Tomato Music, 1978.

Muddy Waters, Forty Days and Forty Nights, Chess Records.

Announcements:

FRERET ART * FARMERS * FLEA MARKET
Saturday, September 8
12 Noon – 5 P.M.
Freret and Napoleon
40+ Vendors * Live Music * Giveaways * Great Food

9/01/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-09-01T07:05:00.001-07:00

Democracy Now

Listen | The Path to Destruction: Two Years After Katrina, Cleanup and Recovery Far From Complete
Listen | "The Resilience of the People Is What Carries This City Forward": Poet Sunni Patterson & Hip-Hop Artist Truth Universal Reflect on New Orleans Two Years After Katrina

Listen | Carl Brauner: Surviving the Flood (re-broadcast)

Carl Brauner weathered Hurricane Katrina inside his State Street Drive New Orleans home. He details his experience wading out of his house, the camaraderie he discovered in the city as he escaped the flooding and made his way downtown, his confrontation with Gretna police on the way out of town, and how Hurricane Katrina has provided him with an opportunity for positive growth despite the personal property losses he suffered. Some of the experiences he relates are similar to other disaster accounts reported by Rebecca Solnit. This interview was conducted on 3/12/06.

Note: Because the interview was anchored when it was originally broadcast, and the whole audio was uploaded without anchor comments, continuity may be difficult to understand in a couple of places -- Carl helps a police officer push a car out of the floodwater, Carl crosses the CCC bridge, and Carl arrives in Baton Rouge where he saw video of the extent of flooding for the first time.

Music Played:

Dr. John, "World I Never Made"

Irma Thomas, "Back Water Blues"

Allen Toussaint, "Tipitina and Me"

Dr. John, "Sweet Home New Orleans"

8/25/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-08-21T14:14:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (8/25/07)

"What this Rule Change Amounts to is a Declaration of War Against the Appalachian People": Opponents of Mountaintop Removal Decry Bush's New Mining Rules
Political Prosecution? Justice Dept Holds onto Docs in Case of Jailed Alabama Governor Siegelman
Grace Paley 1922-2007: Acclaimed Poet and Writer Dies at 84

Listen | Disaster Capitalism: Tsunami Victims Visit New Orleans

On December 26th, 2004, a magnitude 9-plus undersea earthquake struck the Indian Ocean just west of Sumatra, triggering a series of tsunamis along landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean. The United Nations put the worldwide death toll at over 186,000, with more than 42,000 people lost. In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, more than 10,000 people died or were lost. The long coastline of southern India was filled with fishing communities. Since the Tsunami, a flood of assistance arrived from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's). The results of the disaster recovery, however, has caused the displacement of fishing communities in favor of tourism developments on valuable beachfront properties. Alex Doscano and Michelle Baxter are two residents of the state of Tamil Nadu who are in New Orleans as part of an Action Aid exchange of disaster victims. A few weeks ago, residents of Katrina-affected New Orleans visited India. Mr. Doscano and Ms. Baxter advocate for more equitable and democratic development to empower disaster-affected populations. What they've observed in India, however, are opportunists exploiting disaster for profit.

Related:

Tsunami photos, Guardian UK.

Vijay Prashad, Disaster Capitalism, World Affairs, v. 23, iss. 18, 2006.

Naomi Klein, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, The Nation, 5/02/2005.

Asian Development Bank, India: Tsunami Summary

Bill Quigley, "Less Meeting, More Fighting!: Lessons Learned by Grassroots Katrina and Tsunami Social Justice Activists," Common Dreams, 5/29/07.

Wikipedia, "2004 Indian Ocean earthquake."

Tsunami Affected Area of India, Maps of India.

Virginia Leavell, "Fishermen Swim Against the Tide of Disaster Capitalism," The Common Language Project, 1/22/07.

Nick Cater, "Calculating the risks from a flood of cash," Reuters AlertNet, 2005.
As donor nations pledge billions for tsunami relief, consultant and writer Nick Cater suggests local institutions should be at the centre of spending decisions, not international agencies.

Jane Perrone, "The coming age of citizen media," The Guardian UK, 12/26/05.

Randeep Ramesh, "Indian tsunami victims sold their kidneys to survive," The Guardian UK, 1/18/07.

John Vidal, "Tsunami victims still wait for promised billions," The Guardian UK, 12/20/06.
Of $6.7bn pledged, about $3.5bn has not been spent; Tens of thousands still homeless two years on.

Announcements:

Naomi Klein's celebrated posts from the front line in the war against corporate tyranny have appeared in The Nation, the Guardian UK, the L.A. Times, and many other publications. Her new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, examines how corporate economic power exploits conflict and disaster -- natural or manufactured -- to enrich the few and disenfranchise the many by exploiting the disorientation and chaos of states of disaster.

Klein examines how the shock doctrine was used for profit in the wake of Hurricane Katrina when the Bush administration corporatized the recovery. Later, according to Klein, the dismantling of the public schools was another attempt to exploit the displaced population in order to privatize education and dismantle subsidized housing.

Naomi Klein is returning to New Orleans, this time to present her new book:

Saturday | August 25th | 6:00 p.m.
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
7214 St. Charles Avenue, rm. 405 (fourth floor, the large lecture theater)

You can also hear a recorded Naomi Klein lecture on Democracy Now, and on WTUL's Community Gumbo.

Music Played:

Preservation Hall Jazz Band, "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans," Our New Orleans 2005, Nonesuch, 2005.

Richa Sharma, "Maahi-Ve," from the Bollywood movie, "Kal Ho Naa Ho," performed at the Tsunami Relief Concert.

8/18/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-08-18T06:35:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (8/15/07)

KPFT Targeted: Bullet Pierces Studio Window of Pacifica's Houston Station
Naomi Klein: From Think Tanks to Battle Tanks, "The Quest to Impose a Single World Market Has Casualties Now in the Millions"

Listen | Naomi Klein: Hurricane Katrina and Disaster Capitalism

Naomi Klein's celebrated posts from the front line in the war against corporate tyranny have appeared in The Nation, the Guardian UK, the L.A. Times, and many other publications. Her new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, examines how corporate economic power exploits conflict and disaster -- natural or manufactured -- to enrich the few and disenfranchise the many by exploiting the disorientation and chaos of states of disaster.

Klein examines how the shock doctrine was used for profit in the wake of Hurricane Katrina when the Bush administration corporatized the recovery. Later, according to Klein, the dismantling of the public schools was another attempt to exploit the displaced population in order to privatize education and dismantle subsidized housing.

Naomi Klein is returning to New Orleans, this time to present her new book:

Saturday | August 25th | 6:00 p.m.
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
7214 St. Charles Avenue, rm. 405 (fourth floor, the large lecture theater)

(Note that (at last check) the Loyola calendar has the event listed as starting at 7:00 p.m. This is wrong (to my understanding). Email exchanges I received moved the time back to 6:00 p.m. under the logic that 7:00 was too late.)

You can also hear a recorded interview by Amy Goodman with Naomi Klein on Democracy Now, and later on WTUL's Community Gumbo. That's Saturday morning, from 8-10 a.m., 91.5 FM.

Blogging for Recovery

Mark Folse writes for the New Orleans blog, Wet Bank Guide. He visited the WTUL studio to offer his perspectives on how the medium transformed from a forum for response to disaster, into a tool for recovery. The second New Orleans blog conference, Rising Tide 2, is scheduled for Saturday, August 25th.

Announcements:

Rising Tide 2
Do bloggers matter? Over 100 New Orleans bloggers think so, and they’ve formed a nitch -- unique in the world -- filling a media void for eloquent narratives, personal stories, rage and angst, investigative journalism, civic activism, humor, and whatever else is on their minds. What began as a need for communication in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is now recognized around the world as the place to go to find out what average citizens are thinking about and doing as they struggle to recover their lives, their homes, their neighborhoods, and their institutions. Katrina-related short films open the Rising Tide 2 conference of New Orleans bloggers at Buffa’s Restaurant and Lounge on Friday, August 24th. The main conference activities take place on Saturday, August 25th, at the New Orleans Yacht Club. More information at RISINGTIDENOLA.COM.

Music Played:

The Clash, "London Calling"

Randy Newman, "New Orleans Wins the War"

Susan Cowsill, "Just Believe It"

Wynton Marsalis, "Supercapitalism"

8/4/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-08-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (8/02/07)

“Robber Baron Over the Last Century”: Dow Jones Union Head on Likely New Boss Rupert Murdoch
With New Internet and Cell Phone Rules, Federal Communications Commission Approves Mass Sell-off of Public Airwaves
Independent Artists Lead Fight Against Proposed New York City Regulations Limiting Filming, Photography in Public Places

Listen | A Gentilly 4th of July (re-broadcast)

Photo Gallery

Announcements:

Support Community Radio

Community radio hopefuls and broadcasters alike announced a breakthrough in the fight to bring low power FM radio licenses to thousands more cities and towns. Congressional bills H.R. 2802 in the House, and S. 1675 in the Senate, is a chance for community radio hopefuls from Omaha to Orlando to get new licenses to build their own low power FM radio stations.

The Senate spoke up in 2005 and 2006 in support of low power FM -- passing bills out of the Senate Commerce Committee to expand the service twice.

This is the first time in seven years that the House of Represenatives has considered expanding low power FM radio to your community.

To continue this momentum and get more Congressmembers to support low power FM radio, grassroots organizers are trying to get more Congressmembers to cosponsor and push for a full vote of Congress this fall to expand community radio.

Learn more about how Congress limited low power FM radio in most American cities here: PrometheusRadio.org

FreePress.net features research and action to stop media consolidation.

There are also efforts underway to start a full-power non-commercial FM community radio station in New Orleans. More information at FreeRadioNewOrleans.org.

Phoenix Recycling

Plastic (#1 - #7), glass, cans, newspaper, mixed paper, cardboard.
Bi-monthly collection, $15/month.
PhoenixRecyclingNOLA.com
Flyer

Coverage map:

Host a Katrinaversary

This Katrinaversary, Wednesday August 29th, the Gulf Restoration Network hopes you will join hosts across the country in reminding the nation & our leaders that Louisiana's coast & communities still need help!

· A copy of Louisiana Public Broadcasting and independent producer Christina Melton's award winning documentary, Washing Away: Losing Louisiana

· A “HOW TO” sheet filled with facts about Louisiana's coastal wetlands, and ideas about how to introduce the documentary to your guests and follow up after.

· Gulf Restoration Network brochures complete with forms that will allow you and your guests to become a member of the Gulf Restoration Network and alert your member of Congress about the need for Louisiana coastal wetland restoration and preservation.

· A Party Pack complete with a recipe for red beans and rice from renowned chef Leah Chase, who is featured in Washing Away, and other party favors straight from the Louisiana Coast!

As a "thank you" for hosting, you will receive a FREE Gulf Restoration Network T-shirt, and the top 5 hosts who garner the most RSVPs along with the 5 hosts with the most successful party will receive a FREE copy of Marsh Mission, a breathtaking book of marsh photographs and paintings by Louisiana artists C.C. Lockwood and Rhea Gary.

More information here, or go to HealthyGulf.org.

Music Played:

Nick Drake, "They're Leaving Me Behind," Family Tree, Tsunami, 2007.

Johnny Cash, "Troublesome Waters," Ultimate Gospel, Columbia, 2007.

Nick Drake, "Rain," Family Tree, Tsunami, 2007.

7/28/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-07-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (7/27/07)

Should Impeachment Be Off the Table? A Debate with Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan, Ex-CIA Analyst Ray McGovern and Democratic Strategist Dan Gerstein
State Repression Continues Unabated More than One Year into Oaxaca Uprising

Listen | Million Dollar Blocks

Download the presentation here.

Systemic change to the criminal justice system was on the agenda of the New Orleans City Council Criminal Justice Committee meeting on June 12th. The Vera Institute of Justice and the Soros Open Society Institute funded two innovative research projects which take a fresh look at changes that might improve the functioning of the criminal justice system. One of those projects highlighted the positive effects of establishing small community courts to try perpetrators of lesser misdemeanor crimes, and to require that those offenders participate in restorative justice projects. Another project recommended a complete inversion of investment in communities, pumping dollars into neighborhoods instead of prisons. The Million Dollar Blocks concept, advocated by Dr. Laura Kurgen of Columbia University's Spatial Design Lab, identifies neighborhoods where high concentrations of jailed perpetrators once lived. Dr. Kurgen argues that a wiser strategy of investing in social services and jobs in those problem neighborhoods -- rather than investing in prisons -- would provide opportunities and hope to people, thereby reducing the conditions of depravity which are an important factor in breeding criminal behavior.

Related:

View Dr. Laura Kurgen's Million Dollar Blocks presentation, filled with detailed maps and analysis, which was delivered to the City Council:
Million Dollar Blocks Spatial Design Lab Presentation to City Council in New Orleans, June 12th, 2007

Columbia University Spatial Design Lab

Vera Institute of Justice

Vera Institute of Justice, "Proposals for New Orleans' Criminal Justice System: Best Practices to Advance Public Safety and Justice"
Renovation of the city’s infrastructure will help set the stage for criminal justice reform and should be a top priority.

New Orleans can improve public safety by pursuing the following new policies or programs:

• Early triage of cases and routine communication between police and prosecutors,
• A wider range of pretrial release options,
• Community-service sentencing and greater use of alternatives to prison, and
• More appropriate and cost-effective sanctions for municipal offenses.

For each of these policy areas, this report identifies specific areas of need and proposes solutions that are based on effective practices used in other jurisdictions. Moreover, it focuses on practical steps that over the next six to 12 months promise the “biggest bang for the buck.”

Open Society Institute and Soros Foundation

New Orleans City Council Criminal Justice Committee

New Orleans City Council Meetings and Agendas

Independent Lens, Red Hook Justice

Announcements:

Developers Unveil a New Orleans Riverfront Development Project

The final public presentation and discussion regarding the strategic development plan for the New Orleans Riverfront between Jackson Avenue and the Holy Cross neighborhood.

Saturday, July 28
9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Port Authority
Auditorium (behind the Convention Center + free parking)

Sean Cummings, "Plans for rebuilding Big Easy cause unease," USA Today, 7/27/07.
Sean Cummings, a cutting-edge developer who has created some of New Orleans' hippest hotels and condos, is tackling one of the biggest redevelopment projects of his career — and one of the biggest in the city's recent history.

The project, scheduled to be unveiled to the public on Saturday, would reconnect the city with the Mississippi River, creating a 4.5-mile stretch of bikeways, jogging trails, cruise ship terminals and hotels on city-owned riverfront property two blocks from the French Quarter. ...

"It's totally out of context and out of character and out of scale with the wonderful historic neighborhoods," said Nathan Chapman, president of a French Quarter advocacy group.

Nathan Chapman stated in an email that "no neighborhood leaders were allowed on the steering committee. Decisions were made behind closed doors." (RiverfrontAlliance.Org).

The developer's Web site is NewORiverfront.com.

Support Needed to Expand Low-Power FM Community Radio

Community radio hopefuls and broadcasters alike announced a breakthrough in the fight to bring low power FM radio licenses to thousands more cities and towns. On June 21st, Congressman Mike Doyle (D-PA) joined Congressman Lee Terry (R-NE), as well as Senators John McCain and Senators Maria Cantwell, to introduce the Local Community Radio Act of 2007. This bill -- H.R. 2802 in the House and S. 1675 in the Senate is a chance for community radio hopefuls from Omaha to Orlando to get new licenses to build their own low power FM radio stations.

The Senate spoke up in 2005 and 2006 in support of low power FM -- passing bills out of the Senate Commerce Committee to expand the service twice.

This is the first time in seven years that the House of Represenatives has considered expanding low power FM radio to your community.

Since June 21st, 23 members of Congress have signed on to cosponsor H.R. 2802, the Local Community Radio Act.

Grassroots support has been vital to getting this legislation moving through Congress.

For example, because local community radio supporters at WRFU-LP contacted their Representative, Congressman Tim Johnson, a Republican from Urbana Illinois, and asked him to expand Illinois' access to great community radio stations like WRFU-LP, Rep. Johnson will be signing on to the legislation to expand low power FM radio.

Because Jay Inslee (D-WA), the Democratic Congressman who represents the Seattle area, heard from so many great local folks that they want low power FM in the Northwest, he has moved to cosponsor this vital legislation.

And Congressman Mike Doyle recently asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) if they continued to support expanding low power FM radio to America's cities -- all five Commissioners agreed.

To continue this momentum and get more Congressmembers to support low power FM radio, grassroots organizers are trying to get more Congressmembers to cosponsor this bill over the next week before Congress goes on vacation in order to set up a call for a vote to expand community radio in the fall.

Learn more about how Congress limited low power FM radio in most American cities here:
http://www.prometheusradio.org/take_action/lpfm_in_congress

7/21/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-07-21T07:58:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (7/18/07)

Senate Democrats Hold All-Night Debate on Iraq
Professor and Preacher Michael Eric Dyson on Hip Hop & Politics, Don Imus, the “N”-bomb, and Bill Cosby

District Attorney Eddie Jordan Defends His Office

Photo: Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune

New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan answered heated criticism, including calls for his resignation or impeachment, after his office dismissed charges against defendants in two high-profile murders -- the murder or Hot 8 Brass Band drummer and teacher Dinerral Shavers, and the execution-style slaying of five teenagers last summer. The City Council Criminal Justice Committee called Jordan to testify.
Criminal Justice Committee Chair James Carter opens the meeting | Listen
D.A. Eddie Jordan opening remarks | Listen (complete | abbreviated)
Council President Arnie Fielkow questions Jordan | Listen
Councilwoman Stacey Head questions Jordan | Listen
Criminal Justice Committee Chair James Carter questions Jordan | Listen
Councilwoman Shelley Midura questions D.A. Eddie Jordan | Listen (complete | abbreviated 1, abbreviated 2, abbreviated 3)
Rev. Kasner(?), public comment | Listen
State Representatives Cedric Richmond & J.P. Morrell | Listen
Malcolm Suber, public comment | Listen
Ursula Price (Safe Streets), public comment | Listen
Robert Hardin, public comment | Listen

Note: Two small portions of the proceedings were removed due to background electronic noise from the Council press feed, and about 15 minutes at the end was lost due to the length of the meeting.

Related:

March Against Crime, Community Gumbo, 1/13/07

The Rabouin Marching Band Hits the Parade Route, Community Gumbo, 2/17/07

Jazz Funeral for Helen Hill, Community Gumbo, 3/03/07

Gwen Filosa, "For Jordan, Firestorm Has Long Smoldered," The Times-Picayune, 7/22/07.

Gwen Filosa, "N.O. district attorney rejects scapegoat role," The Times-Picayune, 7/19/07.

Music Played:

Nina Simone, Why? (The King of Love is Dead), The Best of Nina Simone, BMG, 1970.

Nina Simone, I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free

7/14/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-07-13T20:58:00.000-07:00

*SORRY* -- Technical difficulty today. A Tulane network administrator conceded that work on the network today has interrupted the studio connection to the transmitter. We are working on resolving the problem to restore the broadcast.

Listen | Democracy Now (7/12/07)

The Other War: Iraq Veterans Speak Out on Shocking Accounts of Attacks on Iraqi Civilians
Iraq War Vets Describe "Brutal Techniques" Used by U.S. Military Against Iraqi Civilians
If Soldiers Came From Another Country And Did This To My Family, I Would Be An Insurgent Too” – War Vet Describes Iraq House Raid

7/07/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-07-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (7/04/07)

We Shall Overcome: An Hour With Legendary Folk Singer & Activist Pete Seeger.
Also recommended, Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson Reacts to Bush’s Commutation of Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jail Sentence in Outing of Valerie Plame, on Democracy Now (7/05/07).

Listen | A Gentilly 4th of July

Photo Gallery

It’s difficult to gauge the progress of New Orleans neighborhoods still recovering from the great flood unleashed by the failure of the levees during Hurricane Katrina.

One of the hardest hit areas of New Orleans was the expansive Gentilly neighborhood. Despite the vast devastation caused by floodwaters over 8 feet deep, there are at least some reports which suggest the neighborhood is on the rebound.

There were, for example, encouraging conclusions drawn from a Dartmouth College survey of just over 16,000 Gentilly properties in March. Researchers reported that just 4 percent of those properties remained untouched since Hurricane Katrina. Meanwhile, 31 percent are occupied or completely restored.

On the other hand, the Dartmouth researchers calculated that 57 percent of homes are gutted or under construction. As everyone in New Orleans knows, however, there’s a big gap between gutting a home and rebuilding it.

After fighting with insurance companies, after wading through the red tape of federal rebuilding grants, the inflated price of materials and contractors makes rebuilding all the more difficult.

That fact that there are 2500 FEMA trailers in Gentilly might be taken as a sign that the neighborhood is being re-populated, but that’s a relatively small number of trailers. Moreover, the presence of trailers might suggest that the neighborhood is being repopulated, but many of those trailers don’t appear to be regularly occupied.

Again, there were signs of promise in a recent study which reported that the New Orleans population has grown to 262,000 residents, a 17 percent increase from July of 2006. On the other hand, there are still 200,000 residents who haven’t returned, and now, almost on the eve of the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, these are very likely some of the city’s most productive residents – homeowners who may have started to build careers and lives elsewhere while their lives here in New Orleans remain on hold.

Because statistics can be deceptive, and because there’s a lot to learn by listening to individual narratives, I decided to set out for the Gentilly neighborhood to find out how residents were celebrating the 4th of July holiday.

I hoped to find more activity in Gentilly on the 4th of July. I really hoped to find some backyard barbecues.

What I found instead was a piece of America still under siege. It isn’t an inspiring sight. On the other hand, as with most things in New Orleans, what inspires is not the work yet to be done, but the spirit of tenacious citizens fighting to reclaim their own little piece of land, despite the odds, despite the difficulties. Like the homesteaders of another era, these New Orleanians are 21st century pioneers, creating new homesteads out of the wreckage of a devastating flood almost two years ago. These too are proud Americans … struggling to reclaim their neighborhoods … and the heritage of their city … on the 4th of July.

Corps flood risk assessment

Dartmouth survey

Related:

Coleman Warner, "Survey shows Gentilly on the rebound," The Times-Picayune, 4/26/07.

Bruce Eggler, "New Orleans population reaches 262,000 in May," The Times-Picayune, 6/28/07.

Mark Schleifstein and Sheila Grissett, "Corps releases flooding risk maps," The Times-Picayune, 6/20/07.

Music Played:

Pete Seeger, "You are My Sunshine," American Favorite Ballads, v. 4, Folkways, 1961 (re-issue).

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, "Tryin' to Win," Midnight Special, Fantasy Records, 1977.

Johnny Cash, Troublesome Waters, "Ultimate Gospel," Columbia Nashville Legacy, 2007.

The Staple Singers, "A Better Home," Great Day, Milestone Records, 1975.

6/30/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-06-30T06:25:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (6/27/07)

With Release of “Family Jewels,” CIA Acknowledges Years of Assassination Plots, Coerced Drug Tests and Domestic Spying
In Blow to Campaign Finance Reform, Supreme Court Throws Out Restrictions on Special Interest Campaign Ads

The Big Green Bus Tour

Listen | Part 1
Listen | Part 2

An interview with Brent Butler and Frances Vernon from Dartmouth College, traveling across the country on a recycled vegetable oil school bus to spread the message about alternative fuels and energy conservation to address energy supply issues and climate change. To find out more about their message, links to useful information, or to read their blog, visit TheBigGreenBus.org.

Announcements

Final UNOP Public Hearings Today
The New Orleans City Council's Recovery Committee will hold two public hearings Saturday on the Unified New Orleans Plan's citywide strategic recovery plan.

The hearings will be at 10 a.m. at Calvary Baptist Church, 2401 Gen. de Gaulle Drive, Algiers, and at 2 p.m. at the council chamber in City Hall, 1300 Perdido St.

It had been announced earlier that the City Hall hearing would be Sunday.

All New Orleans residents are invited to attend.

The council voted last week to endorse the citywide plan in principle, and on that basis the Louisiana Recovery Authority this week agreed to accept the plan and begin the release of $117 million in federal block grants for infrastructure repairs.

However, the council has yet to vote on an ordinance formally adopting the plan, which proposes recovery strategies and lists more than $14 billion in infrastructure and other recovery projects.

The council's hearings are expected to be the public's final chance to comment on the citywide plan. They follow a series of public hearings that the City Planning Commission held on the document.

CONTRACTOR FRAUD FAIR AND SEMINAR

-- Today, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., in the City Council chamber at City Hall, 1300 Perdido St.

UNIFIED NONPROFITS OF GREATER NEW ORLEANS

-- Mondays, 9:30-11 a.m., at Nonprofit Central, 1824 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. Call (504) 895-2361. All leaders of nonprofit groups invited.

ALLIANCE FOR AFFORDABLE ENERGY'S ENERGY INDEPENDENCE DAY

-- Tuesday, noon-7:30 p.m., at The Alliance for Affordable Energy at ArtEgg Studios, 1001 S. Broad St. Seminars and programs to demonstrate methods to make homes, businesses and the city more energy efficient.

Green Project Fashion Show
The Green Room (at The Green Project) 2831 Marais (map), 8 p.m.
recycle4thearts.org

6/24/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-06-24T06:21:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (6/20/07)

Ex-Marine Josh Rushing on his Journey from Military Mouthpiece to Al Jazeera Correspondent
War and Censorship at Wilton High: Connecticut High School Students Perform Play on NY Stage After Ban by Principal

Listen | Jerilyn Perine: Lessons for New Orleans in the Renaissance of New York's Blighted Neighborhoods (re-broadcast)

Listen | Democracy Now (6/22/07)

As Concern Over Media Consolidation Intensifies, New Measures Could Bring Influx of New Noncommercial Radio to the Airwaves

6/16/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-06-16T06:31:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (6/13/07)

Vanessa Redgrave Combines Lifelong Devotion to Acting and Political Involvement in New HBO Film “The Fever”

Listen | Anthony Tung: Preserving the World's Great Cities (re-broadcast)

Announcements:

From The Times-Picayune listings:

Soul Fest Audubon Zoo, 6500 Magazine St. A celebration of African-American food, music with crafts by local and national artisans, Creole cuisine and soul food, children's activities and entertainment, 10 a.m.-6 Sat-Sun. Saturday music includes the Hot 8 Brass Band, 12:30, Wanda Rouzan, 2:45 and Irvin Mayfield and Purple Disrespect, 4:15. Sun features Phillip Manuel, 1, Yolanda Adams, 3, and Rebirth Brass Band, 4. By admission. Dads admitted free Sun. No outside food or beverages. Call 581-4629.

Juneteenth Celebration New Orleans African American Museum, 1418 Gov. Nicholls St. The event marks the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas and features guest speakers, an art exhibit, food, music by Bamboula 2000, Zion Trinity, Rudy Mills and the Caribbean Funk Band and others, 2-7 Sat. Free. Call 566-1138.

Charter School Applicant Workshops
The Louisiana Department of Education is hosting a series of Charter Applicant Support Workshops on June 23, July 14 and July 21. www.solutionwhere.com/ldoe

The Parents' Guide to Public Schools in New Orleans provides essential information that families need to chose and gain admission to the school of their choice. The guide, which was produced by a consortium of non-profit organizations, and is available at public libraries, public schools, United Way, and Head Start offices, offers detailed information about 68 public schools that will operate in the upcoming school year, including nine schools that the state has not yet assigned campuses. There are 10,000 printed copies, and parents seeking a copy can also call find the guide online at nolaparentsguide.org [more]

ERACISM DISCUSSION GROUP

-- Saturdays, 10-11:30 a.m., at 3606 Magazine St. Topic: race relations in New Orleans. Call (504) 866-1163.

LOWER GENTILLY NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

-- Today, 11 a.m., at Kearny Hall on the Dillard University campus. Topics include Entergy and other utility bills, and policing and crime.

CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 'A' MEETING ON HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS

-- Today, noon-2 p.m., at Grace Episcopal Church, 3700 Canal St. An informational town hall meeting.

CENTRAL CITY RENAISSANCE ALLIANCE

-- Today, 2-4 p.m., at the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. An open community meeting. Call (504) 581-5301.

NORTHWEST CARROLLTON CIVIC ASSOCIATION

-- Today, 4-6 p.m., at Carrollton United Methodist Church, 921 S. Carrollton Ave. Call Karen at (504) 866-0985.

UNIFIED NONPROFITS OF GREATER NEW ORLEANS

-- Mondays, 9:30-11 a.m., at Nonprofit Central, 1824 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. Call (504) 895-2361.

CARROLLTON UNITED COMMUNITY MEETING

-- Monday, 5 p.m., at Greater St. John Missionary Baptist Church, 8616 Hickory St., at Leonidas. Topics: update on Priestly School, Johnson Elementary summer activities, forming committees. Call Jean Fischer, (504) 861-1807.

GLOBAL GREEN PANEL DISCUSSION

-- Wednesday, 5:30-7 p.m., at Global Green Resource Center, 841 Carondelet St. To discuss weatherizing homes against storms. Contact John Moore, jmoore@globalgreen.org or Jeanne Nathan at nathan@creativeindustryusa.com.

CITIZEN'S ROAD HOME ACTION TEAM

-- Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m., at the old Business Administration Building, Room 212, University of New Orleans. The advocacy group meets weekly. Visit chat.thinknola.com.

HOLY CROSS COMMUNITY MEETING

-- Thursdays, 5-7 p.m., at 5130 Chartres St.

EDGEWOOD PARK NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

-- July 7, 11 a.m., at Gentilly Presbyterian Church's Fellowship Hall, 3708 Gentilly Blvd.

Music Played:

Staple Singers, "Masters of War," Great Day, Milestone Records, 1975.

Amedee Breaux, et al, "Vas y Carrement," Cajun, Vol. 1 Abbeville Breakdown, 1929 - 1939, Roots & Blues, 1990.

6/09/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-06-08T20:14:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (6/05/07)

John Perkins on "The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption"

Listen | Poetry Slam (re-broadcast)

Announcements

The Parent's Guide to Public Schools
The Parents' Guide to Public Schools in New Orleans provides essential information that families need to chose and gain admission to the school of their choice.

The guide, which was produced by a consortium of non-profit organizations, and is available at public libraries, public schools, United Way, and Head Start offices, offers detailed information about 68 public schools that will operate in the upcoming school year, including nine schools that the state has not yet assigned campuses. There are 10,000 printed copies, and parents seeking a copy can also call find the guide online at nolaparentsguide.org [more]

Toy Camp
Opening Night for Toy Camp has been changed to Thursday June 14. All tickets purchased for the 15th will be honored on the 14th. The remaining performances will stay the same. All performances at the NORD Ty Tracy Theater, Gallier Halll, 1st Floor, 545 St. Charles Avenue.

Fridays, 7:30 p.m.
Saturdays, Noon.
Sundays, 3:00 p.m.

Founded in 1993 as the Summer Stages Children's Theater, we continue to provide performing opportunities for the young people of the Greater New Orleans area, now through year-round programming in partnership with the City of New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD) and the Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Louisiana.

For more information, CrescentCityLights.org, 598-3800.

Music Played

Bob Dylan, "The Levee's Gonna Break," Modern Times, Sony, 2006.

Mark Bingham with A Particularly Viscious Rumor, "Fly on Home" (poem by R. Moose Jackson, Dirge for the Deluge, Piety Street Recording, 2006 (available at The Sound Cafe, 2400 Chartres Street).

6/02/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-05-27T10:48:00.001-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (5/29/07)

War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death

Listen | Bari Landry: North Rampart Street's Revival

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has designated North Rampart Street as one of its designated Main Streets eligible for economic revitalization grants. Bari Landry is the Manager of North Rampart Main Street.

Related:

North Rampart Main Street

National Trust Main Street Center

Broadway South push centered in Legislature

Listen | Robert McClintock: The Alliance of Guardian Angels Establishes Residency in New Orleans

Robert McClintock is the West Coast Regional Director of the Alliance of Guardian Angels. He has established residency in New Orleans to open a regional office and help with crime abatement. Curtis Sliwa formed the Guardian Angels to patrol crime-ridden neigbhorhoods of Brooklyn almost thirty years ago. (Note that the added sound effects were added thanks to a thunderstorm that snuck up during recording). Full audio download.

Related:

The Alliance of Guardian Angels

The Guardian Angels' Mission: To safeguard neighborhoods, schools, and cyberspace from crime and violence, through partnerships with educators, corporations, and community leaders, via programs that heighten risk awareness, foster character development, provide peaceful solutions, and empower individuals, especially our youth, to lead positive, productive, contributing lives.

The Guardian Angels is now recruiting New Orleanians to join the organization.

New Orleans contact:
Robert McClintock
347-582-4777
redstring1_ga at yahoo dot com

Listen | Lauren Anderson: Neighborhood Housing Services Hosts the 10th Freret Street Festival & Home Ownership Fair

As the Director of Neighborhood Housing Services, Lauren Anderson has been a tireless advocate of, and facilitator for, homeownership as a path to wealth creation and economic development. Neighborhood Housing Services is hosting the 10th annual Freret Street Festival today.

Related:

Neighborhood Housing Services

Freret Street Festival and Homeownership Fair

Leslie Williams, "Little-known program can turn renters into owners," The Times-Picayune, 5/30/07.

Announcements:

Symphony Book Fair
Jewish Community Center, 5342 St. Charles Ave. Symphony Volunteers Inc. present the 54th annual event to benefit the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra with more than 100,000 books in every category, sold 9 a.m.-9 Sun.-Tues. Sunday admission is $10, free thereafter. Call 319-8106.

Historic New Orleans Collection
Williams Gallery, 533 Royal St. "Four Hundred Years of French Presence in Louisiana: Treasures from the National Library of France," ends today. Hours are 9:30 a.m.-4:30 Tues.-Sat., 10:30 a.m.-4:30 Sun. Free. Call 523-4662.

Music Played:

Mark Bingham with Micheal Skinkus, "The Mardi Gras Raven" (poem by R. Moose Jackson, Dirge for the Deluge, Piety Street Recording, 2006 (available at The Sound Cafe, 2400 Chartres Street).

Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews & Orleans Avenue, "We Gonna Make You," Orleans Avenue, Treme Records, 2005.

5/26/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-05-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

Listen | Democracy Now (5/25/07)

"Somebody Had to Speak Out. If Not Me, Who?" - Maj. Gen. John Batiste Fired by CBS News for Anti-Iraq War 'Advocacy'

Anthony Tung: Preserving the World's Great Cities
Listen | Part 1, Venice
Listen | Part 2, Warsaw

Anthony Tung as been a New York City Landmarks Preservation Commissioner, an instructor on architectural history at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a visiting professor on international urban preservation at MIT. He has lectured around the world on historic preservation. Preserving the World's Great Cities (Three Rivers Press, 2001) is a detailed socio-cultural portrait of preservation efforts in eighteen cities across the globe and throughout history. He was recently invited by the Louisiana Landmarks Society to speak in New Orleans. Excerpted from that lecture are Anthony Tung's comments on the rebuilding of Venice after the 1966 flood, and Warsaw, after it was leveled by the Nazis in WWII.

Related:

Louisiana Landmarks Society

Announcements:

Greek Fest NOLA
Holy Trinity Cathedral
1200 Robert E. Lee Blvd.
Saturday, May 26 — 11:00 AM to 11:00 PM
Sunday, May 27 — 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM

Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo

The 2nd Annual Bayou Boogaloo
Saturday, May 26

New Orleans String Project Crawfish Boil
Saturday, May 26, 12-5
Burke Park (Annunciation between 2nd and 3rd Streets)

Music Played:

Pete Seeger, "Army Life," American Favorite Ballads, 4, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 2006.

John Fahey, "Amazing Grace."

5/19/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-05-18T23:33:00.000-07:00

Democracy Now (5/16/07)

Studs Terkel At 95: “Ordinary People Are Capable of Doing Extraordinary Things, and That’s What It’s All About. They Must Count!”

Jerilyn Perine: Lessons for New Orleans in the Renaissance of New York's Blighted Neighborhoods

On May 17th, the New Orleans City Council voted to grant New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) limited legal authority to seize abandoned or blighted property without court approval. Its members appointed by Mayor Nagin, NORA has been criticized for its inability to move 1500 pre-Katrina blighted properties off of its rolls and into the hands of private owners who would develop them. Meanwhile, NORA officials recently enacted a hiring freeze because it’s so starved for cash.

In coming months, NORA will enter into an adjudication process perhaps tens of thousands of blighted, once-flooded properties. At the same time, Mayor Nagin’s appointed recovery director, Ed Blakely, is saying that NORA will lead the New Orleans rebuilding effort, placing NORA in charge of overseeing a $1 billion plan to invest in 17 targeted redevelopment areas.

The challenges to successfully stimulating a renaissance of rebuilding which will bring back the most devastated areas of New Orleans is daunting. Fortunately, there are models of success.

The Harlem neighborhood of New York City, for example, was a crime-ridden neighborhood of dilapidated tenement buildings. Now, it’s one of the most-celebrated, vibrant communities in the city.

One of the people who led that remarkable transformation was Jerilyn Perine, a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing, Preservation, and Development. Over a span a quarter century, Ms. Perine and her colleagues pioneered the development of public-private-community partnerships to invest billions of dollars in tens of thousands of blighted buildings. At the same time, she fought for the right to affordable housing for working class New Yorkers.

At the start of the process, the outlook for New York was as bleak as it appears for New Orleans. And yet, now, land which the New York City once couldn’t give away is viewed by private developers as worth investing in. In no small part, the work of Ms. Perine and her colleagues led the renaissance of New York City.

Jerilyn Perine is now the Executive Director, Citizens Housing and Planning Council of New York. She was invited by the Rockefeller Foundation to speak in New Orleans.

Related:

Frank Donze, "NORA granted 'quick take' power," The Times-Picayune, 5/18/05.

Gordon Russell, "Blighted Hope," The Times-Picayune, 5/06/07.

Frank Donze, "Agency Tackles a Handful of Properties," The Times-Picayune, 5/06/07.

Frank Donze, "Recovery financing strategy falls flat," The Times-Picayune, 5/11/07.

Stephanie Grace, "NORA inherits a mess," 5/20/07.

"Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg Announces the Resignation of Housing Preseravation & Development Commissioner Jerilyn Perine," Press Release, 1/12/04.

About CHCP.

Amy Waldman, "Homes and Shops to Rise on Abandoned Harlem Properties," New York Times, 12/27/00.

Jerilyn Perine, "Eminent Domain is a Tool, Not a Conspiracy," Gotham Gazette, 12/12/05.

Susan Fainstein, "Eminent Domain Benefits Developers, Not the Public," Gotham Gazette, 12/12/05.

Michael Cooper, "City Is Selling Symbol of Its Troubled Schools," New York Times, 7/09/03.

Amilda Dymi, "Creating a ‘Common Ground’ in NYC," National Mortgage News.

"Cities Exchange: International Brownfields Exchange," Waterfronttrail.org.

Brad Lander, "Eminent Domain: What The Supreme Court Ruling Means To NYC," Gotham Gazette, 7/12/05.

Mark Berkey-Gerard, "42nd Street," Gotham Gazette, 8/29/05.

Daniel Goldstein, "Life in the Atlantic Yards Footprint," Gotham Gazette, 12/09/05.

Gus Garcia-Roberts, "The Battle Over the Iron Triangle," Gotham Gazette, 12/09/05.

Joshua Brustein, "Columbia Expansion and Eminent Domain," Gotham Gazette, 12/09/05.

Mark Berkey-Gerard, "Eminent Domain Revisited," Gotham Gazette, 12/12/05.

Announcements:

Big Easy Rollergirls, New Orleans' only all-female, flat-track roller derby league, hosts the Memphis Roller Derby on Saturday, May 19 at Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World in Algiers Point. The doors open at 6 PM, the action starts @ 7PM.

5/12/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-05-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

Democracy Now (4/30/07)

Fighting Fascism: The Americans - Women and Men - Who Fought In the Spanish Civil War
Abraham Lincoln Brigade "Represents an Important Part of the American Soul" - Harry Belafonte Pays Tribute to U.S. Vets Who Fought Fascism in Spain

Shelton Alexander opens the poetry slam
"Q" Querido Arias
Chris Williams
Sunni Patterson
Sheldon introduces youth poets
Evander
Latrelle
Deuce
Awards
Tulane students introduction
Jose Maldonado
Feminist
Observer
No title
My mother
Xavier
Love you mom
Close & last poet

Music Played:

Billy Bragg & Wilco, "All You Fascists" (Woody Guthrie), Mermaid Avenue II.
Billy Bragg, "Help Save the Youth of America", Billy Bragg Box Set Vol. 1.

Announcements:

Final Review and Public Comments on the City-Wide Recovery Plan

The plan can be viewed and downloaded at
http://unifiedneworleansplan.com

(French Quarter, CBD, Lafayette Square and Warehouse District are called District 1. This hearing is particularly about the “city-wide” version.)

Opportunities for your input:

May 15, 2007
1:30 PM
City Council Chambers
1300 Perdido Street

May 22, 2007
3:00 PM
City Council Chambers
1300 Perdido Street

NOTE: They are hoping to receive the testimony/comments on May 15,
with the vote occurring after normal CPC hearing on May 22.
However, if you can only testify on May 22, you will be allowed to do so.

A printed copy of the city-wide plan is available for review at the City Planning Commission office, City Hall, Room 9W03, 1300 Perdido Street, New Orleans .

For more information, please contact City Planning at 658-7000.

5/05/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-05-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

No broadcast due to a Tulane electricity outage.

4/28/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-04-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

Democracy Now (4/25/07)

Legendary Broadcaster Bill Moyers Returns to Airwaves With Critical Look at How U.S. News Media Helped Bush Admin Sell the Case for War

Kidd Jordan Housegutting

The Arabi Wrecking Krewe helped New Orleans jazz saxophone legend Kidd Jordan gut his house in September of last year.

Kidd Jordan and IAQ will be on stage at Jazz Fest, Sunday, April 29, 12:35, in the WWOZ Jazz Tent.

Related:

People Get Ready -- Photos of the Kidd Jordan housegutting, and additional links.

The Arabi Wrecking Krewe

9/09/2006 Community Gumbo -- The Arabi Wrecking Krewe

David Kunian, "Mental Notes," Offbeat Magazine, 4/24/07.

John Swenson, "Kidd Stuff," Gambit Weekly, 4/27/04.

IVAW Kelly Dougherty Interviews Sheik Richardson

Dirty Dozen Brass Band, "Kidd Jordan's Second Line," Jazz Moods - Hot, Legacy, 2005 (Amazon.com preview).

Kidd Jordan recordings available at the Louisiana Music Factory:

Palm of Soul, 2006, with Kidd Jordan, Hamid Drake, William Parker

Nickelsdorf Konfrontation, 1995, with Joel Futterman 'Kidd' Jordan Quintet

Kidd's Stuff, 2001, Kidd Jordan & The Elektrik Band

Southern Extreme, 1998, Joel Futterman /'Kidd' Jordan Trio with Alvin Fielder

Music Played:

Kid Oliver, "Snag It," "Deep Henderson," MCA Records, 1980.

Kidd Jordan Quartet, New Orleans Rising, Konnex Records, 1997.

Kidd Jordan Quartet, New Orleans Festival Suite, SilkHeart, (flood-damaged disc).

4/21/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-04-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

Democracy Now (4/16/07)

In Rare Joint Interview, Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn on Iraq, Vietnam, Activism and History

The Rabouin Marching Band Hits the Parade Routes (re-broadcast of 2/17/07 feature)

Starting Rabouin High School’s first-ever marching band following Hurricane Katrina was the special passion of Hot 8 Brass Band drummer Dinneral Shavers before he became the unintended victim of a shooting in December. His spirit lives on in the Rabouin marching band.

Music Played:
Snooks Eaglin', "Funky Malaguena," The Legacy of the Blues, vol. 2, Crescendo, 1976.

The Staple Singers, "Gloryland," "Hear My Call," Milestone, 1975.

Eddie Bo, "I'll Keep on Trying," Ace of New Orleans Sound, Ace, 1979.

Announcements:
Voce Resonare: The Voices of a 14th Century Convent Sing Out - with Vox Feminæ
nomdc.org

Sunday 22 April 4:00pm
Ursuline Chapel - 2701 State St. - Uptown New Orleans

Sunday 29 April 3:00pm
Holy Name of Mary Church - 500 Eliza St. - Algiers Point

Young Prophetz Citywide Youth Slam
4/21/07, 7-9:30 PM, Rogers Memorial Chapel
myspace.com/youngprophetz

4/14/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-04-14T07:08:00.000-07:00

Democracy Now (4/12/07)

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut Dies at 84
Red Cross Warns "Disastrous," “Immense” Iraqi Humanitarian Crisis "Ever-Worsening"
War and Taxes: With 40% of IRS Revenue Going to Military, Resisters Prepare to Withhold Taxes to Protest War
Is Princeton Professor and Retired Marine on Government No-Fly List for Criticizing the White House?

Mark Davis, Director of the Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy (re-broadcast)

The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority on Thursday approved a master plan to restore coastal wetlands and protect southern Louisiana from hurricanes. The state legislature will consider the plan's recommendation to spend $199 million on levees and wetlands projects in fiscal 2008 when the session begins on April 30th.

The Army Corps of Engineers is working on a separate Category 5 hurricane protection proposal to submit to Congress, and will include the state plan in the proposal. Corps officials and wetlands scientists are getting behind the idea of a system of leaky levees which would stop storm surge, but still allow a natural flow of silt to replenish wetlands.

More information in the previous broadcast post.

Related:
Mark Schleifstein, "Board OKs wetlands, levee work," The Times-Picayune, 4/14/07.

The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority -- read the master plan.

Music Played:

Nick Drake, "Place to Be," Pink Moon.

Nick Drake, "River Man," Five Leaves Left.

Philip Glass (w/ Allen Ginsberg), "Echorus," Compassion.

4/07/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-04-06T20:50:00.000-07:00

Democracy Now (4/04/07)

Subprime Lending Crisis: Millions of Families Face Losing Their Homes to Foreclosure
In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Burst
Imprisoned Journalist Josh Wolf Released After Record 225 Days in Jail
Beyond Vietnam: 40th Anniversary of King's Landmark Antiwar Speech

Chef Leah Chase, on rebuilding Dooky Chase's Restaurant, and the Lafitte Housing Development Across the Street

Two anchors in the Treme neighborhood are about to re-open for business. Willie Mae’s Scotch House, and Dooky Chase’s Restaurant, have been landmarks in the cultural geography of New Orleans for more than half a century.

Willie Mae’s Scotch House was open for two days earlier this week to celebrate the completion of a year and a half of rebuilding efforts by Oxford, Mississippi chef John Currence, and volunteers from around the country. For fifty years, 89-year-old Mrs. Willie Mae Seaton has cooked what might be the best fried chicken in the country. Just months before Hurricane Katrina, Mrs. Seaton was recognized for her contribution to America’s culinary heritage with the most distinguished prize a chef could hope for in the United States, The James Beard Foundation award. Her medal was one of the last things she grabbed before she evacuated from New Orleans, and before her Treme home and restaurant was claimed by four feet of floodwater. A Joe York documentary on the rebuilding of Willie Mae’s premiered at The Republic this past Sunday. Willie Mae’s is planning to re-open for regular business (possibly) as early as next week.

Just around the corner from Willie Mae’s, Dooky Chase’s Restaurant was in business for over 60 years before it, too, was claimed by floodwater. Renovations continue, but a patron party was held this past Holy Thursday to thank everyone who’s supported Mr. Edgar “Dooky” Chase, and Mrs. Leah Chase, in rebuilding one of the most celebrated restaurants in the nation. The Dooky Chase Holy Thursday tradition of serving Gumbo Z’Herbes returned, and for dessert, a melt-in-your-mouth bread pudding with whiskey sauce was served. The party was attended by some of the best chefs in the city, as well as dignitaries like Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu. Mr. Chase said that rebuilding the restaurant has been difficult, but the patron party was a welcome way to forget about those challenges. He hopes the restaurant will re-open for regular business by around the middle of May.

Dooky Chase’s restaurant is located directly across the street from the Lafitte Housing Development. Establishing the restaurant in the late 1930’s, the Chase family have a perspective on their neighborhood which predates the building of the Lafitte development just a few years later.

In October of last year, Chef Leah Chase shared her thoughts about the changes in the neighborhood in a fascinating conversation.

Background:

Before Hurricane Katrina, about 5,100 families in the 1940’s-era public housing complexes operated jointly by the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Since the storm, about 1,250 families have returned to units in the Iberville, Guste, Fischer and Cooper developments. HANO has repaired 2,000 apartments in all, and claims that about 200 families are on their way back to the city to settle into some of the 542 units now ready for occupancy.

Nonprofit developers recently signed a contract to redevelop Lafitte, where 850 families lived before Katrina. Providence Community Housing, part of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and Enterprise Community Partners plan a sweeping renovation of Lafitte and the surrounding neighborhoods of Treme, and Tulane and Gravier.

HANO & HUD say that it has adequately served the housing needs of former residents with vouchers and the Section 8 program, but residents say they were removed from their apartments almost 19 months ago because the housing agencies want to end public housing.

HANO closed the St. Bernard, Lafitte, C.J. Peete and B.W. Cooper complexes after the post-hurricane levee failures. Late last year,it reopened some apartments at B.W. Cooper, although the Cooper project is still slated for demolition.

Although the minimum rent is $25, many families were paying up to $300 a month for rent. The average public housing rent paid was $85 a month, with all utilities paid.

Related:

NPR, Leah Chase's "Gumbo Z'Herbes" recipe, a Holy Thursday tradition.

Leah Chase's Old Style Greens and "Pot Likker"

Leah Chase Biography.

PGR -- The fried chicken that saved New Orleans

Gwen Filosa, "Public housing trial set for November," The Times-Picayune, 3/28/07.

Gwen Filosa, "HANO picks rehab teams," The Times-Picayune, 3/29/07.

Bill Quigley: Public Housing, the Right to Return, and MLK (re-broadcast)

Bill Quiqley, an attorney at the Loyola Poverty Law Center, was present to support the reoccupation of the St. Bernard Housing Development on MLK Day this past January. The occupants were later forced out by a law enforcement raid. In this interview, Quigley talks about the right of residents to return to public housing, social justice, and how Washington's preoccupation with stabilizing Iraq is de-stabilizing New Orleans.

Music Played:

Mississippi John Hurt, Rediscovered, Vanguard, 1998:
"Nearer My God to Thee"
"Shortnin' Bread"
"Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor"

Charlie Miller, "Prayer for New Orleans" Our New Orleans 2005, Nonesuch, 2005.

Joe Callicott, "Frankie and Albert," Ain't a Gonna' Lie to You, Fat Possum, 2003.

3/31/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-03-31T07:05:00.001-07:00

Pledge Your Support for Community Gumbo in the 2007 WTUL Marathon
Proudly advertise your support for community voices by wearing the Community Gumbo T-Shirt, available to supporters who pledge $50 for Community Gumbo, 865-5885.

3/24/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-03-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

Democracy Now (3/20/07)

Three Officers Charged in Sean Bell Killing Plead Not Guilty, Family Calls For Justice
Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army

Mark Davis, Director of the Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy

Part 1
Part 2

Earlier this month, Times-Picayune reporters Bob Marshall and Mark Shleifstein wrote an alarming series of articles warning that Louisiana has ten years to start reversing coastal wetland loss.

"Unless the state rapidly reverses the land loss, coastal scientists say, by the middle of the next decade the cost of repair likely will be too daunting for Congress to accept - and take far too long to implement under the current approval process. New research suggests that Louisiana may have no more than about ten years to start reversing land loss before the Gulf Coast reaches urban communities in south of New Orleans.”

Meanwhile, a fresh coastal restoration plan being developed by the state has come under criticism by some of the best scientists available on coastal restoration issues. The Louisiana legislature created the Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority after Hurricane Katrina to develop a comprehensive strategy to reverse the loss of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands – a critical barrier to protect communities from hurricane storm surge.

Some of Louisiana’s top water resources scientists criticized a massive levee project across south Louisiana – the “Great Wall of Louisiana” – and other projects which don’t consider more contemporary solutions to both protect populations and support sustainable wetlands. One such proposal not included in the plan is something called “leaky levees” which can be closed to prevent storm surge, but which can be opened to allow nutrient-rich sediments flowing down the Mississippi River to replenish wetland soils.

Representatives of the state plan say that it’s still a work in progress, and that scientists are invited to participate in the process of improving the plan.

Scientists, meanwhile, complain that they haven’t been invited into a process, if a process for participation has even been developed.

Among the alarming predictions listed in The Times-Picayune series:

· Gulf waves that once ended on barrier island beaches far from the city could be crashing on levees behind suburban lawns.

· The state will be forced to begin abandoning outlying communities such as Lafitte, Golden Meadow, Cocodrie, Montegut, Leeville, Grand Isle and Port Fourchon.

· The infrastructure serving a vital portion of the nation’s domestic energy production will be exposed to the encroaching Gulf.

· Many levees built to withstand a few hours of storm surge will be standing in water 24 hours a day and facing the monster surges that come with tropical storms.

· Hurricanes approaching from the south will treat the city like beachfront property, crushing it with forces like those experienced by the Mississippi Gulf Coast during Katrina.

· The entire nation would reel from the losses.

Mark Davis is one of the state’s best advocates for wetlands protection, and one of the best minds on coastal restoration. He was recently recruited by Tulane University to lead a new Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy.

Related:
Bob Marshall & Mark Shleifstein, "Last Chance: The Fight to Save a Disappearing Coast," The Times-Picayune series, 3/4/07 - 3/6/07.

Bob Marshall, "Panels blast coastal master plan," The Times-Picayune, 3/19/07.

Bob Marshall, "Corps caused disaster, report says," The Times-Picayune, 3/21/07.

Alfred Sunseri (President, P&J Oyster Co.), "Create agency to oversee coast," Letter to the Editor, The Times-Picayune, 3/21/07.

Jerome Ringo (Chairman, Board of Directors, National Wildlife Federation), "Corps Reform Must Come First," Letter to the Editor, The Times-Picayune, 3/24/07.

Mark Schleifstein, "Entergy chief urges U.S. to address global warming," The Times-Picayune, 3/21/07.

Announcements:

More information at 3 Ring Circus Productions.

Music Played:

David Rovics, "They're Building a Wall"

Esther Sparks, "Irreplaceable"

Electrical Spectacle, "Supernumerary ...," on the WTUL Back to the Basement V. 5 Marathon CD compilation.

3/17/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-03-17T05:27:00.000-07:00

Democracy Now (3/16/07)

Mother of Ailing Iraq War Vet Confronts Rep Obey Over U.S. Troop Withdrawal
Veteran Dies After VA Refuses Treatment For Days
As Health Deteriorates, Jailed Palestinian Professor Sami Al-Arian Enters 54th Day of Hunger Strike to Protest Indefinite Imprisonment

Civic Activism, Blogging, and Media Democracy in the Rebuilding of New Orleans (re-broadcast)
Squandered Heritage, Part 1
Squandered Heritage, Part 2

In perhaps an unprecedented manner, the internet has become for New Orleanians an essential tool for re-establishing personal connections, for sharing stories, for communicating the will of residents, for organizing residents to rebuild their neighborhoods, and for fighting for desperately-needed answers and resources from every level of government.

New Orleans bloggers Karen Gadbois and Laureen Lentz have become champions of many causes, but their primary focus is preserving New Orleans historic heritage in a blog called “Squandered Heritage.”

Links:

Squandered Heritage

The Citizens' Road Home Action Team

Other Local Bloggers

'REINVENTING THE CRESCENT'
-- Today, 9-11 a.m., at the Port of New Orleans Building, auditorium. Discussion with architects charged with planning the redevelopment of 4.5 miles of riverfront wharves into residential, cultural, recreational and commercial opportunities. Call (504) 561-8686.

ERACISM DISCUSSION GROUP
-- Saturdays, 10-11:30 a.m., at 3606 Magazine St. Topic: race relations in New Orleans. Call 866-1163.

CENTRAL CITY RENAISSANCE ALLIANCE
-- Today, 2-4 p.m., at Ashé Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. Call (504) 581-5301.

NORTHWEST CARROLLTON NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING
-- Today, 2-4 p.m., at Carrollton United Methodist Church, 921 S. Carrollton Ave. Agenda includes training for Neighborhood Watch. Call Karen at (504) 866-0985.

Music Played:
Johnny Cash, "Danny Boy," American IV, American Recordings, 2002.

3/10/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-03-09T13:45:00.000-08:00

Democracy Now (3/05/07)

Robert Fisk on Osama bin Laden at 50, Iraqi Death Squads and Why the Middle East is More Dangerous Now Than in Past 30 Years

Unified New Orleans Plan Public Hearing (3/07/07)
Harvey Stern
H.V. Nagendra
Janet Howard
Jean Nathan
Nathan Shroyer
Paul Ikemire

Citizens were given another opportunity to express their views on the citywide rebuilding plan this past Wednesday. Many expressed their support for what they viewed as an inclusive, democratic process, and encouraged members of the City Planning Commission to incorporate a process of ongoing citizen participation in the implementation phase of the rebuilding process. Other citizens, however, were critical of the plan’s failure to produce a detailed roadmap with legal and financial mechanisms to guide appropriately prioritized projects.

Janet Howard, from the Bureau of Governmental Research, is calling for the entire citywide document to be revamped. The BGR this week published a review of the plan titled “Not Ready for Prime Time,” which praised its good intentions, but called for a complete bottom up revision, criticizing the nearly 600-page Unified New Orleans Plan for failing “to deliver a cohesive, workable road map for recovery. Instead, it proposes a sweeping list of 91 projects without placing them in a realistic financial context. As for recovery strategy, it offers a continuation of the indecisive and confusing approach that has characterized New Orleans' recovery for a year and a half."

The public hearing this week was the second of two on the Unified New Orleans Plan. Many citizens expressed confusion about the review process itself. There is no reliable schedule for citizens to know when the UNOP plan might be approved or revised, and the rules for the process seem to change all the time.

The City Planning Commission and UNOP planners respond that the citywide plan is still a work in progress subject to review and revision.

Today on Community Gumbo, selected remarks by citizens at this week’s public hearing on the citywide plan.

Moderating the hearing was City Planning Commission Chair, Timothy Jackson. Answering questions was UNOP consultant Troy Henry.

Announcements

Music Played

Allen Touissant, "Me and Tipitina," Our New Orleans, Nonesuch 2005.

Irma Thomas, "Back Water Blues," Our New Orleans, Nonesuch 2005.

Panorama Jazz Band, Live Recording from the Jazz Funeral for Helen Hill, 2/24/07.

3/03/2007 Community Gumbo

2007-03-02T19:59:00.000-08:00

Democracy Now (3/01/07)

The Case of Gary Tyler: Despite Witness Recantations and No Physical Evidence, Louisiana Prisoner Remains Jailed After 32 Years
New York Times Columnist Bob Herbert on Al Sharpton's Ancestral Link to Strom Thurmond, Sean Bell, and the Clinton-Obama Race

Jazz Funeral for Helen Hill

A conversation with Jacob Hill, Helen's brother.

Photo credit: Kevin Held, WWL TV

Interview with Mo Lappin, Helen Hill friend, and creator of the Mardi Gras float, The Opposite Machine.

Related

Helen Hill Jazz Funeral Parade (YouTube)

Helen's pet pig Rosie doing tricks (YouTube)

dsb nola's photos of the jazz funeral (Flickr)

More photos (Yahoo)

Jazz Funeral audio (mp3)

Blogging New Orleans, "Helen Hill and Ernie K-Doe"

The Times-Picayune, "Filmmaker celebrated with tea -- and tears"

WWL TV photo gallery

People Get Ready, "Help find Helen Hill's Murderer"

Kittee, a principal organizer of the jazz funeral, has a LiveJournal page with reflections on Helen.

HelenHill.org

This Mardi Gras post features a short video clip of The Opposite Machine

Community Announcements

"Dig This!"
A daylong seminar hosted by the New Orleans Food & Farm Network showing participants how to grow fruits and vegetables at home. Basic organic growing techniques will be offered as well as hands-on activities and take home information for home gardening. Speakers include local gardening expert, Dan Gill as well as Permaculture designer, Grant Estrade (ess-trahd).

The event takes place at the Trinity Christian Community Center on March 3rd, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reservations are $50 each, scholarships available. Call Anne Baker soon at (504) 864-2009 or visit www.noffn.org. Spaces are limited!

Big Easy Roller Girls’ Try-Outs
The Big Easy Rollergirls, New Orleans’ only women’s flat track derby, are holding try-outs Tuesday, March 6th from 7:00 to 8:30PM at Westbank Skate Country, 1100 Terry Parkway, Gretna. You can rent skates, but you will need to have safety equipment: wrist, ankle, knee, helmet & mouthpiece. You must pre-register by emailing tryout@bigeasyrollergirls.com.

For more information, visit www.bigeasyrollergirls.com.

Music Played
Excerpts from the Jazz Funeral for Helen Hill