Lower 9th Ward

by Eugene Yacobson
May 29, 2008

Marking the start of what organizers hope will be a consolidated, community-driven effort to advance the rebuilding of the neighborhood, a town hall meeting drew a crowd of more than 100 Lower 9th Ward residents last week.

“This is the beginning of the end of all this foolishness,” said meeting organizer Ward “Mack” McClendon to a standing-room-only crowd. “This is the beginning of the end of all this red tape of a problem that we didn’t cause.”

Organized and hosted by the Lower 9th Ward Village, a community-led nonprofit, the meeting served as an open forum for residents to name the problems that continue to besiege the area. Residents shared, both vocally and via confidential note cards, issues that have hindered reconstruction and frustrated locals since Katrina.

The Lower 9th’s main roadblock to progress, many attendees said, has been miscommunication on several levels.

Article and Photo by Edwin Lopez
May 22, 2008

Mr. Williams leaned forward as he drove a large wrench toward the wall. Swaying back to gain momentum he again thrust his 60-year old body forward to unscrew the pipe he had been battling with for several minutes. He pushed again and in a swift motion the pipe came loose. The room was dim, but a small sliver of sunlight revealed a layer of floating dust. Beads of sweat covered his forehead. Mr. Williams leaned back to stand upright. He took a quick deep breath and with a smile stretched across his face he said, “Okay, no smoking in here.”

The gas pipe Mr. Williams held in his hand was a stumbling block for the volunteers who arrived in the early morning. 30 plus volunteers from across the country, the majority of whom were women, worked with a sense of urgency to drywall his home. They measured and cut sheetrock to the sound of beating hammers, the hum of power drills, and old school R&B/Soul music. Everything about the work crew seemed to howl college student: from their youthful look to their working attire composed of shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flop sandals.

Warren and Anita Williams evacuated New Orleans the day before the storm. Anita drove 23 hours to Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Hopeful about his return to New Orleans, Mr. Williams rejected the phone number for requesting a FEMA trailer. When he arrived in October 2005, he realized the water had risen over seven feet. The pressure of the storm surge raised everything in the house, lifting and tumbling their furniture about. He eventually got on the phone and requested a trailer.

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.

By Maggie Barr
Photo By Matt Schinske

Groundbreaking ceremonies were held the evening of March 5, 2008 at the site of the Holy Ground Baptist Church in the Lower 9th Ward. In attendance were Reverend Adams, congregation members, Common Ground Volunteers and 9th Ward residents. Also present were members of Global Hope, a Chicago-based non-profit organization and representatives of Deltec Homes of Asheville, NC, the company that initiated the rebuilding of the church. Deltec brought a busload of builders from around the country to the ceremony. Building is to commence shortly and is a sign of hope for many in the L9 community and throughout the country.

A decidedly unusual site now greets visitors to the Lower Ninth ward: lots which have remained mostly vacant since August 29, 2005, have been transformed into a village of bright pink cubes.

Formally unveiled on December 3, the structures, which are constructed from scaffolding covered in custom tarpaulin, cover 12 city blocks. The installation will remain in place until January 8, open for visitors to walk through during the day, or drive through at night, when they are dramatically illuminated from below. The cubes represent homes simultaneously past and future. In their current, scattered state, they reflect the post-Katrina devastation. As contributions are made to the show’s organizers, the Make it Right Foundation, the cubes will be gradually rearranged into a neighborhood, symbolic of the homes that can and will be built.