If God is Willing, and Da Creek Don’t Rise

Water coolers will be abuzz with talk about Spike Lee’s new documentary premiering on HBO this week. “If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise” is a follow up to Lee’s 2006 documentary, “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,”  chronicling New Orleans’ remarkable and somewhat exhaustive journey to recover after the disaster of Hurricane Katrina.

The film will definitely evoke strong emotions from the people of metro New Orleans, both those home, and those still trying to make it back, as well as people around the country; maybe even the world.

Lee seems to hold nothing back. Covering people still dying to get back home years later; the perceived failure of the government to protect and serve its people; the economically-crippling oil spill by British Petroleum (BP); and the monumental Saints season that lead to a Super bowl victory that seemed to lift the spirits of the entire nation.

Hate it or love it… everyone will have something to say about this documentary. And maybe that’s Lee’s objective; not to make a film that people love, but to make a film that will incite responses and keep the discourse open. In which case, he nailed it.

If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise will debut on HBO in two parts. Part one on Monday, August 23rd and part two on Tuesday, August 24^th at 8pm CST.

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Hurricane Katrina photography exhibit opens at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans

Hundreds of patrons to the Ogden Museum filled a small gallery Thursday evening to view Telling Their Stories: The Lingering Legacy of the Katrina Photographs exhibition during it's grand opening in the warehouse district of downtown New Orleans. As the fifth anniversary of Katrina approaches, fifty three images were chosen at the National Press Photographers convention earlier this year to retell the story of the Gulf Coast disaster.

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President Barack Obama to visit New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina anniversary

President Barack Obama, accompanied by members of his Cabinet, will travel to New Orleans on Aug. 29 to mark the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
The visit will include remarks by the president at Xavier University, where, days short of the first anniversary, then-U.S. Sen. Obama delivered the commencement address to the first class to graduate after the storm.


The announcement was welcome news for political leaders and others in the city and the region who are ever wary that the connection and commitment of a nation that was once so fixed on New Orleans and surrounding communities in the terrible wake of the disaster, is perhaps inevitably waning with each anniversary.

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High marks for New Orleans' charter schools

By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina four years ago brought with it many changes for this city, but perhaps its most enduring mark may be the new charter school system that came cascading in during the storm's aftermath.

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Tulane University library to get $16 million from FEMA

Tulane University will receive $16 million from FEMA to replace mechanical, plumbing and electrical equipment that drowned under 8 feet of Hurricane Katrina's floodwater in the Howard-Tilton Memorial Librarybasement.

From Nola.com by John Pope

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Obama Marks Katrina Anniversary, Says He Will Visit New Orleans

President Barack Obama today marked the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and said he will visit New Orleans later this year as the city and region continue rebuilding.

Obama, in his weekly address on theradio and Internet, promised the federal government will be a partner in the city’s recovery and has learned lessons from the disaster.

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The Ladies of Louisiana Spirit Minister to Katrina Sufferers

Stacy Phelps, center, attended the Make It Right Foundation Hurricane Katrina commemoration not in any official capacity, but as a friend. Stacy knows how to be a supportive friend, as she has made it her profession. As a worker with theLouisiana Spirit crisis counseling service, she and her colleagues pictured here have been friends to those in need who are still suffering psychologically from the effects of the hurricane.

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Half a Million Volunteer Hours Rebuild New Orleans

In 2007, pollster John Zogby ventured that Hurricane Katrina would be the defining moment of our generation, signalling American hunger for a renewed, proactive government that led by example and empowered civic engagement.  One positive outcome of Hurricane Katrina's devastating impact on the Gulf Coast is the number of volunteers who have participated in the recovery.  Now I see from HandsOn New Orleans that more than 15,000 volunteers have contributed over 500,000 volunteer hours to the revitalization of New Orleans alone.

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Four Years After Katrina, New Orleans Now A Hub Of Entrepreneurship

Four years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has emerged as a flourishing city for entrepreneurship.

With the four year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on the horizon, New Orleans' rebuilding efforts are still underway.

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Culture and Race in New Orleans

Cheryl asks for comments on rebuilding the culture of the city. My experience here, knowing a lot of musicians, some writers, an artist or two, and some filmmakers, is that the culture of this place is rebuilding itself even better than the economy, and far better than, say, the political culture. Any city with the remotest claim to a culture will have responded to an event like Katrina with a flood of work, and New Orleans has complied. Aside from Cheryl's book, there have been literally dozens of novels and non-fiction accounts, poetry, and an impassioned polemic ("Why New Orleans Matters") arguing for the city's continued existence. There have also been songs, paintings, photographic exhibitions, and screenplays galore.

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