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Issue: Culture
New Orleans has been home to some of the world's finest jazz and blues music and other unique traditions of cultural expression. Katrina scattered local artists far and wide, raising concerns that this vital center of cultural history can never be the same. For those who remain, culture continues to provide a conduit for social activism and healing.
Main Image: After the Storm: Life in the Crescent City
After the Storm: Life in the Crescent City
Eve Troeh was the only public radio reporter on the ground full-time in New Orleans after Katrina; she reports on public safety, housing, and cultural rebuilding.
Audio National Public Radio Stories National Public Radio Stories
Main Image: Another Black Blues Story
Another Black Blues Story
Clarence Williams is producing a photographic essay of post-Katrina New Orleans, from flood to aftermath to rebuilding, with a visual emphasis on the remnants of the cultural wealth and family ties that make this city unique.
Photo Another Black Blues Story Another Black Blues Story
Main Image: Beyond Black and White
Beyond Black and White
Sara Catania wrote stories on the long-term effect of the storm on Vietnamese communities all along the Gulf Coast.
Print Patching a Broken City Patching a Broken City
Photo Vietnamese Tet Festival in New Orleans East Vietnamese Tet Festival in New Orleans East
Main Image: Faubourg Tremé
Faubourg Tremé
Lolis Eric Elie and Dawn Logsdon are working on a feature-length documentary, Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans, which focuses on the historic neighborhood in New Orleans that, during slavery, was home to one of the oldest, most prosperous, and most politically active black communities in the country.
Video Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans
Main Image: From Flood Lines to Second Lines
From Flood Lines to Second Lines
Kate Ellis and Stephen Smith completed two documentaries for American RadioWorks: Rebuilding Biloxi: One Year After Katrina, about families there struggling to recover one year after the storm; and Routes to Recovery, about whether the preservation and restoration of New Orleans' cultural life might provide the most enduring path to its rebuilding.
Audio Routes to Recovery Routes to Recovery
Main Image: Generation Katrina
Generation Katrina
Youth Radio partnered with local New Orleans youth media groups, schools, non-profit organizations, and individual young people to create Generation Katrina: Youth Voices from New Orleans.
Video Bounce Music Bounce Music
Audio College Student Conversation College Student Conversation
Audio Generation Katrina Generation Katrina
Audio Troy Andrews on Jazz Troy Andrews on Jazz
Photo Youth Radio Photographs Youth Radio Photographs
Main Image: New Orleans Now: Weathering the Storm
New Orleans Now: Weathering the Storm
Tena Rubio developed the Katrina Uncovers/New Orleans Now series for the National Radio Project; as part of the project, she produced a 30-minute show on street art, a one-hour show about New Orleans two years after Katrina and a three-part series on the immigrant/migrant workforce in New Orleans
Audio Can Art Help Heal a Broken City? Can Art Help Heal a Broken City?
Audio Immigrants, Labor Rights and the Human Cost of Rebuilding an American City, Parts 1-3 Immigrants, Labor Rights and the Human Cost of Rebuilding an American City, Parts 1-3
Main Image: Portrait of Neglect: Injustice of Hurricane Katrina
Portrait of Neglect: Injustice of Hurricane Katrina
"Portrait of Neglect: Injustice of Hurricane Katrina" is a body of photographs by Debbie Fleming Caffery that aims to capture the effects of this disaster on Louisiana's African American population.
Photo Portrait of Neglect Portrait of Neglect
Main Image: The Real Deal
The Real Deal
Students at the Center produced a series of short movies by youth from New Orleans that address the impact of Katrina on the daily lives of young people.
Video A Jazz Journey A Jazz Journey
Main Image: Struggling to Make It
Struggling to Make It
Katy Reckdahl covered the working poor in New Orleans, their struggles to return to the city after Katrina, and the hurdles they faced once they arrived home.
Print The Price of Parading The Price of Parading
Print Razing a Community Razing a Community
Print Sour Note Sour Note
Print They Got It Bad They Got It Bad
Main Image: Those Who Fell Through the Cracks
Those Who Fell Through the Cracks
"Those Who Fell Through the Cracks" is a collaborative photography project by Stanley Greene and Kadir van Lohuizen that documents Hurricane Katrina's effects on Gulf Coast residents who are still struggling to reestablish their lives after the storm.
Photo Photographs by Kadir van Lohuizen Photographs by Kadir van Lohuizen
Main Image: Won't Bow Down
Won't Bow Down
Larry Blumenfeld researched and wrote about the post-Katrina realities faced by the prime movers in New Orleans's musical subcultures—from jazz musicians and brass band players to tribes of Mardi Gras Indians and the Social Aid and Pleasure clubs—and the cultural crises that emerged in the wake of the 2005 floods.
Print America's New Jazz Museum! (No Poor Black People Allowed) America's New Jazz Museum! (No Poor Black People Allowed)
Print Barack Obama in New Orleans Barack Obama in New Orleans
Audio Can New Orleans Music Survive? Can New Orleans Music Survive?
Print Do We Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? Do We Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?
Print Goin' Home, Eventually Goin' Home, Eventually
Print Hard Listening in the Big Easy Hard Listening in the Big Easy
Print It Ain't Easy in the Big Easy It Ain't Easy in the Big Easy
Print Magic and Loss Magic and Loss
Print Mending the Levees Mending the Levees
Print Not Wash Away Not Wash Away
Print Rebuilding the Foundation Rebuilding the Foundation
Print A Saint Goes Marching Home A Saint Goes Marching Home
Print Spike Lee's Reality TV Spike Lee's Reality TV