If you could stop another hurricane from hitting New Orleans, you would, wouldn't you? This week, Hurricane H.U.D. is on its way to New Orleans to demolish over 4,500 units of low-income housing. If the bulldozers begin by December 18th they get a huge tax incentive, so it's going to take a levee of human proportions to stop it! Housing is a human right: we should be fighting to improve and increase housing for all the people of New Orleans, NOT demolishing what little structurally sound low-income housing remains! There are 50,000 families still living in FEMA trailers this holiday season, and H.U.D. wants to send bulldozers as a holiday gift. Last week Ruckus was asked to send support for the Stop the Demolition Coalition, a group of local partners who have banded together in this effort. We've responded as big and as quickly as possible, sending an action team of folks this past weekend to provide nonviolent direct action training and action support to the local action team. Our crew includes Indigenous People's Power Project (IP3) Director Marty Aranyado, Ruckus Project Director Sharon Lungo, and IP3 board member, Robert Chanate, all three of whom who are on the ground right now working with the communities in New Orleans to prepare to stop the bulldozers. It is absolutely critical that you support the work in New Orleans this week. When we speak about climate justice, it is this type of work we mean - this is the frontline of our environmental efforts and it's up to YOU to strengthen the demands of the low income communities of New Orleans, who have been disproportionately affected by natural disasters, and continue to be ignored by our own government. There are a multitude of ways to stand in solidarity: Drop everything and go to New Orleans! (If you aren't from New Orleans, you are invited with love to come and support, but the role of decisionmaking lies with the local folks! More information is below.) We've posted the original call to action on our website, so please check out the solidarity pledge there and pack your bags! Drop everything and go do a solidarity action at a Department of Housing and Urban Development office near you! (Bay folk, read BELOW) Drop everything you can in the form of a donation! Drop everything you can in the form of a donation! We only need $2,000 to cover our action team's travel and support gear for actions this week! Please donate to Ruckus - we will immediately apply every dollar! To support ongoing work and actions, or if you think you can head down this week, please email action@peopleshurricane.org ! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ATTN Bay Area folks---Think National act Local---Participant in an Action this Friday in Oakland at 12pm! (Full Details Below) *URGENT OAKLAND ACTION:** **DEFEND PUBLIC HOUSING IN NEW ORLEANS **/Friday 12/14 @ 12pm, Oakland!/* *Support public housing residents from New Orleans to the Bay Area!* *Housing is a Human Right!* In the next few days, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) plans to bulldoze more than 5,000 livable public housing units in New Orleans, Louisiana. This attack specifically targets working class women of color and their children, who have been working to reclaim these units since Hurricane Katrina. In response to this crisis, New Orlean's Coalition to Stop the Demolition has called for national support. Everyday more and more Bay Area residents experience first hand the result of ongoing gentrification policies in San Francisco and Oakland. The Katrina Solidarity Network (KSN) views the current housing crisis in New Orleans as part of a larger attack on the existence of public housing nationally. We hope that you will join with us to send a message to development corporations and congress: *We know that in order to stop the destruction of our local communities, we must Stop The Bulldozers in New Orleans!* *WHEN:** **Friday, December 14th at 12:00 pm* *WHERE:** **13th Street and Broadway in Oakland* *WHO:** **Everyone that supports the Human Right to Shelter.* For more information please email Katrinasolidarity@gmail.com
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updated

(from Laylah Amatullah Barrayn)

Last night the ultra-fabulous KAMOINGE, Inc., opened their show, 'Revealing the Face of Katrina' at the HP Gallery at Calumet Photo.

Follow the link below for just a taste of the festivities: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21344423@N08/sets/72157603313403765/

Above: Wall of Radcliffe Roye's work

questions to ponder

A friend sent the E-mail below last week regarding a recent staging in New Orleans of Waiting For Godot; she raises some important, seemingly perpetual questions, and I have not yet responded to her.

Last night I went to see the last performance at the Brava Theater in San Francisco of

STARDUST and EMPTY WAGONS
Stories from the Katrina Diaspora
with music performed by The Hot 8 Brass Band
Script and Direction by Ellen Gavin

(photo by David Allen)

Developed from the testimony of Katrina survivors in the Bay Area, Stardust and Empty Wagons is a tribute to the culture, music and everyday life of a New Orleans now struggling to be reborn. With live music performed by New Orleans' own The Hot 8 Brass Band, ten actors portray tales of terror and bravery from the greatest disaster in U.S. history. Out of destruction always comes creation-so new life will rise from the scattered "stardust" that comprises the Katrina Diaspora.

Cast: Velina Brown, L. Peter Callender, Elizabeth Carter, Olivia Charles, Frederick Delahoussaye, Jeff Jones, Amber McZeal, Elizabeth Summers and Karla Vaughn. Visual design by Daniel Gamberg, set design by Mikiko Uesugi, lighting design by Cathie Anderson, photography by David Allen, Associate Producer, C.C. Campbell Rock.

Of course, my family is from New Orleans, so I was very moved by the whole thing, and we'd brought my 8-year old little sister, who didn't know what Katrina was until we got there (although as we found it it's her middle name), and though I'm sure much of it went over her head, she was very moved by it, too. (In truth, whenever I see a stage full of black folks I get choked up.) Ultimately the point that the performers/writers/survivors were trying to drive home is that their primary support came from individuals, not institutions, and that we must help keep their voices/stories alive; although their story has faded from the news, it remains an ongoing struggle (they're also seeking other venues to travel the show; if you're interested, E-mail CC Campbell-Rock@ survivorsforsurvivors@yahoo.com.

So when I re-read Lauren's E-mail this morning:

hi Everyone.....sorry for the mass mail......but i
would like your input.....these are questions i am
always pondering in regards to my own practice.....

http://creativetime.org/programs/archive/2007/chan/

waiting for godot staged in the 9th ward...and other
locations in new orleans.......paul chan..artist
project...

what do you think...?.....

interesting project....?..with altruistic
intentions..?...creative fundraiser......?.......or
another artistic exploitation by a visual artist of a
post katrina new orleans........or any other disaster
zone for that matter.......

if there is an ounce of "eploitation"......is this a
moot point when dollars are involved...?........the
end justifies the means.....

(sontag did it before chan in 93 in
sarajevo.....before that...some guy did it in the 50s
at san quentin penitentiary....)

SFKO

I couldn't help contrast these two projects, particularly in terms of funding and resources. I mean, let's start with the website, which we all assume is basic these days. Waiting for Godot in New Orleans' site starts out with a simple but starkly elegant and dramatic fade-in; Stardust and Empty Wagons doesn't even have a site. SaEW is actively seeking funding to continue its production; WfGiNO is produced by Creative Time, a New York-based non-profit, and the Classical Theatre of Harlem. Those are just a couple of the more obvious differences.

I've been researching black photographers and publishing lately, and one of the things by which I was struck was that in the last couple of years the number of projects about black people being published, though still scant, outnumbered the number of projects by black people (even the SMH's magazine features one such project--David Yellen's Hair Wars, which seemed to me, in 2007, to be problematic. And I couldn't help but think about these in the same terms--when black artists are still grossly underrepresented as the originators of artworks (not as the subjects, or even collaborators), then this kind of thing just perpetuates the gaze, no? It's hard to even consider these projects on their merits alone (which I'm sure are many) because the glaring inequity just rankles.

Samo, samo.