Dear Friends and Family,
Greeting from New Orleans! As many of you may already know, Southern Louisiana and Mississippi are still in a very nightmarish situation over one and a half years after the levees broke. The Lower 9th Ward, where we are staying and partnering with Emergency Communities (www.emergencycommunities.org), is in exceptionally bad condition. Only one to two houses on a block are inhabited while the rest remain in the condition they’ve been in since the flooding. No grocery stories have reopened, the eight o’clock curfew still remains, and military police are still present. Some people who weren’t addicts before are now smoking crack as means of escape. Still, the residents of the Lower 9th Ward and New Orleans have hope, and envision a better future ahead.
So far, Gwen Rooker and I have performed in elementary schools, community centers, after school programs, and the Children’s Hospital of New Orleans. We held a parade in the Lower 9th Ward with the help of a local four-year old girl, her twenty-year old sister, and our new fiddle-playing friend, Mazy. Although most homes here still stand uninhabitable and empty, those residents who remain welcome our playful presence. They danced with us outside their homes until we continued on down the street.
The kids in the communities we visit laugh so hard during our shows that I’m pretty sure I lost some hearing. There’s one part of the show where Gwen makes a handkerchief disappear. The kids get so excited they shoot out of their chairs, telling her where they think the handkerchief went, and screaming with glee when she pulls it out of a child’s shirt collar.
Gwen and I have another five days to make the situation here a little brighter so you’ll see another email update from us. Until then I hope this email finds you healthy and in good spirits.
Elisa Lane
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