Peoples' Festival Raises Funds, Roof

by Eugene Yacobson

On May 2, far from the crowds and caravans of JazzFest, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School in the Lower 9th Ward was filled with the sounds of brass, blues and general jubilation. The occasion was the 1st Annual Peoples’ Festival, organized by Common Ground Relief, and featuring such JazzFest heavy-hitters as Big Chief Victor Harris and Fi Yi Yi, the Rebirth Brass Band and Michael Franti with Spearhead – all playing free of charge.

Lasting for more than four hours, the festival raised both funds and spirits - $4,500 of the former (all in donations from attendees of the concert), the latter in quantities indefinable. But the occasion had an even deeper purpose than raising money for the Lower 9th’s rebuilding efforts: to reflect the spirit of a different side of New Orleans, and to demonstrate that, for all its post-Katrina troubles, the neighborhood is back.

The venue and performers were symbolic of the Peoples’ Festival’s intentions. The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology, which remains the only educational institution in the Lower 9th, was gutted and re-opened in 2006 by hundreds of volunteers defying open threats of arrest, becoming a nexus of hope for further grassroots rebuilding efforts. Similarly, the performers at the festival were far from the benign big names of JazzFest that draw tourists from all over the world, but instead many were lesser known local acts, whose music resounds with the struggles of this city’s neglected communities. Bluesy singer-songwriter Sista Otis, New Orleans rapper Truth Universal, the aforementioned Fi Yi Yi Mardi Gras Indians, Revolution Second Line dancers and the explosive Rebirth Brass Band which featured guest vocalist, Cyril Neville of the Neville Brothers were all inspired to dodge the big clubs for an evening, join together and play free music for the people of the Lower 9th to express their solidarity.

But it was not only locals who joined in the revelry. Curious tourists ventured in as well, seeing the area firsthand in the process. Like numerous others, Angie Virzi of Kentucky came to see Michael Franti, and would not have otherwise found herself in the neighborhood. “Driving through it is totally different than seeing it on television,” she said. “This has definitely raised some awareness.”

Franti and his band Spearhead, themselves from San Francisco, are no longer strangers to the area either. Having come to Common Ground Relief last year and attended a volunteer orientation, Franti has taped footage of the rebuilding efforts for a television broadcast.

A performer with a strong social conscience, Franti has played his unique blend of reggae, folk and funk in such unusual venues as war-torn Baghdad and the occupied territories of Palestine. Many of his songs are moving paeans to the generative powers of love, spirituality, and community. It was thus no surprise when Franti urged the crowd to dance with the military police guarding the door. “I’m just trying to come out and inspire people out here,” he said.

Though he comes from afar, the connections between his music and the cause of rebuilding a just and sustainable New Orleans are undeniable. “Michael’s music speaks to the hope of people, to the problems that we have, to the resilience of the community,” said Jill Brogan of Guerrilla Management, Franti’s artistic management team. Common Ground Relief was persistent in booking Franti, and the community can expect to see him in the future. “[The rebuilding effort] needs to be given the proper attention,” stressed Brogan.

Common Ground Relief has big plans to ensure that the Peoples’ Festival is not an event that will soon be forgotten. The Festival is part of a larger project to reinstate a vibrant cultural and communal dimension to life in the Lower 9th. A monthly gathering that includes theater performances, poetry and spoken word readings, a farmers’ market and a crafts fair is in the works, with the ultimate aim of a weekly such event.

“It can give people a reason to be much more hopeful and much more enthusiastic,” said Common Ground Special Events Coordinator Sakura Koné of the plans. “It’ll add an impetus to come back.”

Photos by Gordon Soderberg, New Orleans Voices For Peace
Video by Teal Sievers (Living Dream Films), Producer/Camera/Editor and Jay Newby (Big Chief Films), Producer/Camera