NOLA Residency

New Orleans has officially been my home for a week now, and I've already survived a hurricane, a sketchy walk through a rough neighborhood (by accident), and Bourbon Street. I'd say I've had a pretty awesome introduction to this city, and by "pretty awesome," I mean utterly fantastic. First things first, my apartment is adorable! Although furnished in the barest way possible as of now, it still has some charisma. We (Stephanie and I) did manage to scrounge up a couch from Craigslist for cheap, and it's super comfortable, and with a brand new slip cover, looks clean and new! Additionally, my room is massive and I can't wait to get back in my apartment tomorrow (evacuated right now for the hurricane) so I can start decorating and putting a little bit of Cat love into it.

I started my job on Monday, which was the only day I've had to work so far because Hurricane Isaac put a little damper on NOLA's agenda. Despite the office being a little crazy talking about the storm and evacuations, I was so happy to finally see where I'm going to be spending the next year. Everyone I'm working with is wonderfully pleasant, and all have great hearts. I learned a lot about Unity GNO and the kind of organization that it is, and I couldn't be more anxious, or excited, to be with such a caring, invested organization.

The main goal of Unity GNO is to alleviate homelessness in New Orleans, and in post-Katrina NOLA, homelessness is disgustingly prominent. There are many neighborhoods that haven't recovered and haven't been rebuilt at all. Because of that, many people were forced to resort to living on the street. On any given night, there are 8,000 to 10,000 people living on the streets of the city. This statistic is entirely unacceptable, and for the next year I will put my heart and soul into decreasing it.

For work I had to read a thesis paper by a student at UNO, Evan Casper-Futterman. The paper was titled "The Operation was Successful but the Patient Died: The Politics of Crisis and Homelessness in Post-Katrina New Orleans." The entire thesis was captivating, but I won't bore you all with the details, however I did want to share with you the quote he began with:

"If the ghetto burns down we will not know it because it does not show on the symap. If it is not in the census, it is not sensed. If remote sensing is efficient, and it is, why does it follow, and it does not, that intimate sensing is not? We have become so situational that we have lost sight of the site unless we can cite it in a senseless census. Great God, we have to sneak outdoors."

This quote, written by William Bunge in Fitzgerald from a Distance, is honestly brilliant. It opened my eyes to what I am really doing: trying to help the unnoticed become noticed.

Now for the fun stuff. Everything you've heard about New Orleans is true: it's a freaking blast. Everyone here is so nice and hospitable. The greatest part about the city is that you can drink in the streets! This still blows my mind, and yesterday when we were exploring the damage from Isaac around the neighborhood, we were walking in the middle of the streets with beers, and although I felt kind of badass-esque, I had to quickly remind myself that what I was doing was totally legal.

Speaking of Isaac, I am perfectly safe and sound. My new friend Tracy let me stay at her house with a few other people, and despite the weather conditions, we are having such a fun week. As I tweeted the other day: "Isaac feels like an ex boyfriend who wants you to pay attention to him and pisses you off, but can't stop you from having fun."

I haven't been to my apartment since the storm because it is still without power, but I'm praying that there was no flood damage. Isaac was pretty powerful, but it could have been a lot worse, so thank you everyone for your prayers. Please continue to pray for those in Louisiana and surrounding states who have lost there homes and who were injured or killed in the storm.

Isaac did cause quite a bit of damage around the area, and the following photos are not of my house, but were taken during my wanderings around the neighborhood.

But on a different note, the nightlife here is incredible, and I'm not going to start putting it into words just yet. I'm going to leave it up to your curiosity so that every single one of you books a plane ticket to come see me! See you all soon. I'll be waiting with open arms, a beer, and the infamous beads.