Climbing PoeTree presents a multi-media two-woman show about unnatural disaster and a great shift in universal consciousness.

 Trust me, you don't want to miss it.

When I saw Climbing PoeTree perform at the Empowering Women of Color Conference at UC Berkeley earlier this year, I was overwhelmed with a call to action. Their passionate art comes alive and inspires the soul to reach out to the world...to turn challenges into opportunities...to join the movement and build community. 

Hurricane Season interweaves spoken word poetry, sound collage, shadow art, dance, film and animation to explore critical issues facing humanity through the kaleidoscope of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, namely: land rights and housing rights; water access and food justice; over-policing and mass-incarceration; state violence and militarization; racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia; environmental justice and climate change; globalization, migration, and economic justice. It is centered on building bridges, creating safety nets, and finding solutions through art to the interconnected problems our communities face—how can we become agents for change rather than victims of circumstance?

A “solutions-cipher” follows every show, where audience members participate in a dialog featuring local grassroots organizations, visionaries, and healers. The objective of the post-show “solutions-cipher” is to address the issues surfaced in Hurricane Season on a local level, to cross-pollinate creative strategies for self-determination, and to turn the passion generated in the show into action manifested in the community. 

Get invovled in your local city and don't miss this amazing tour! 

Twenty-three months after the federal government received health complaints from FEMA trailer residents and test results that showed some trailers had formaldehyde levels that were 75 times the recommended safety levels, the Center for Disease Control has confirmed that high formaldehyde levels create health risks for hurricane victims.

And everyone in my office in East London, South Africa, chimes in about what they think Americans should care about. The general concensus is that Americans should care more about America and less about the rest of the world.

One girl brings up Katrina, and said how pathetic it is that America hasn't rebuilt New Orleans yet.

Another guy said that America's economy is going to collapse if we don't do something about it fast. "The whole bubble is going to burst," he said.

 
HAMPTON–As most college students enjoy their winter breaks in the comfort of their homes, thirteen students from Hampton University, a Historically Black University in Virginia, are traveling to New Orleans, hoping to help rebuild a city that is still in turmoil more than two years after Hurricane Katrina. “I am excited to go and help those in need. If my city had been devastated, I would want people to do the same,” stated Sabriya Rosemond, one of the Hampton students who will be heading to New Orleans.

This is awesome.  FEMA is working hard to establish credibility after Hurricane Katrina, and one of their top priorities is looking good, no matter what it takes.  So, to discuss their response to the California fires, they held a press conference closed to all reporters (they could dial in) and open to their employees... acting as reporters. In other words - a staged press conference.

Check it.

My favorite line?

"It was absolutely a bad decision. I regret it happened. Certainly . . . I should have stopped it," said John P. "Pat" Philbin, FEMA's director of external affairs. "I hope readers understand we're working very hard to establish credibility and integrity, and I would hope this does not undermine it." [emphasis added]

Oh FEMA. The public absolutely loves you now. 

Jim Downie and Kay Steiger each wrote great articles (see the front of CampusProgress.org or click their names) catching us up on the two years since Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans. Jim’s crib sheet sums up just how little progress has been made and notes that the Army Corps of Engineers charged with rebuilding the levees seem to be “repeating many of the same mistakes that plagued earlier levees” despite all the money and control they’ve been given. Kay reminds us that Katrina hit communities of color extra hard and brings our attention to issues like domestic violence which often get overlooked while city officials and the media focus on lack of schools and hospitals.

I have little to add to the discussion, so I’ll just urge you all to download the song that never seems to get out of my head whenever I read anything Katrina-related, “Georgia…Bush” by Lil Wayne. Here’s a photo montage some YouTuber put together that accompanies the song:

50% rise in the mortality rate. 3 out of 9 hospitals open, with the only public one of the three stuck in temporary facilities, operating at a third of its normal capacity. 6000 physicians displaced. No mechanisms for reimbursement for any physicians that want to return. Almost no places for Louisianan medical students to train in state, thus losing the doctors of the future. These are only a few parts of the disturbing picture that is New Orleans health care after Hurricane Katrina.

Where is the state? They're enjoying a surplus in the billions, yet refusing to invest in the non-existent hospital system. 

 And where is our federal government? Well, most of New Orleans's own representatives are too busy covering themselves for either corruption or hypocrisy.

In the hopes of raising more awareness about this issue, and getting some assistance for those who actually care, I joined some fellow Columbia students yesterday on Capitol Hill to lobby on this issue. More information about the horrible situation and the lobbying trip inside.

If you looked up the antonym of Good Samaritan in a thesaurus, you would probably find a picture of a college student on spring break. Katrina Corps is trying to change that, however, by getting party people nationwide to give up a week in Tijuana for a trip to New Orleans.

How can college students help out their country, and will there be sangria?