Katrina Commemoration Events
NEW ORLEANS
• (August 24) Free Katrina Memorial Concert III. The performance will feature several of the area's most distinguished musicians at The Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, 1235 Louisiana Ave. For further information on the Memorial Concert, please contact the Rectory at (504) 891-1906 or olgc@archdiocese-no.org
• (August 29) "We Shall Not Be Moved." The project is designed to heal, uplift and unify the people of New Orleans---and the world---to help us all turn the page once and for all, release the images of devastation to flow downstream, and stride into the future with spirits soaring. Launching on Utube on August 29, 2008. www.weshallnotbemoved.org.
• (August 28) "The Katrina Myth: the Truth About a Thoroughly Unnatural Disaster" 6:30 Thursday August 28, 2008 documentary showing and pre-party at Touro Synagogue, 4238 St. Charles Avenue. Free and open to public. More info at www.levees.org.
• (August 28) Black August Benefit for Political Prisoners sponsored by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, featuring Mos Def. 9 pm Tipitina’s Uptown. Tickets: $20 presale or $25 at the door.
• (August 29) 3rd Annual Katrina March and Commemoration. The day begins at 9am with a healing ceremony at the Lower 9th Ward levee breach that will lead into a march to Hunter’s Field in honor of those lost during Hurricane Katrina and the Great Flood. Local activists will focus on issues of affordable housing, education, the prison industrial complex, and healthcare. Put on by the New Orleans Katrina Commemoration Foundation. More info at http://katrinacommemoration.ning.com.
• (August 29)The Sankofa Day of Commemoration*** Second line through central city featuring the Rebirth Brass Band and ending with a cultural celebration at the Tremé Community Center. Assembly begins at 1pm with interview opportunities starting at 1:30pm. The second line kicks off at 2pm and will make five stops at symbolic locations that highlight the costly overuse of New Orleans’ criminal justice system at the expense of critical community and public infrastructure. The stops include BW Cooper, Day Laborer Corner at Martin Luther King and Claiborne, Greyhound Bus Station, Charity Hospital and Craig Elementary School. For more information, contact Ursula at 504-522-3949 ext. 223.
• (August 29 & 30) New Orleans Association of Black Social Workers Events
- Panel Discussion “Social Service and Social Justice Needs Post-Katrina” Friday 6pm, Xavier University
- 8/30 Motor Tour around New Orleans. Ends with Hands around the Dome. Contact 504.393.2029
• (August 30) Hands Around the Dome African American Leadership Project will convene the Third Annual Hands Around the Dome ceremony, Saturday August 30 from 1pm until 3:30 pm.
• (August 30) New Orleans Institute Saturday, August 30 from 9am-4pm at UNO Kirschman Hall. The New Orleans Young Rebuilding Professionals (NOLA YURP) is putting on a speaker series discussing a range of issues from education to housing. Free and open to the public.
NATIONAL
• (August 29) Los Angeles, New Orleans and Los Angeles: Fighting for the Right to the City*** Co-sponsored by the East LA Community Corporation, Esperanza Community Housing Corp., Korean Immigrant Workers Alliance, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, South Asian Network and Union de Vecinos. This event will feature a candle-light vigil filled with art, food, theater, speakers, live music and entertainment connecting the struggles for working class people of color in New Orleans and Los Angeles. August 29, 2008 6:30 pm 3245 Wilshire. For more information please contact: Thelmy Perez-213-745-9961 x226
• (August 29) Miami, Trouble the Water Film Screening, Fundraiser and Speak Out*** Co-sponsored by the Miami Workers Center, Vecinos Unidos, and Power U center. Friday August 29, 7:30pm at Shantel’s Lounge (5422 NW 7th Ave). This event will connect the struggles around police, prisons, poverty, and education for communities in New Orleans and Miami. Including Power U Band and open mic. $5 Donation. Contact 305.576.7749 for more info.
• New Orleans/Gulf Coast Tour Youth from New York’s West End and Middle Collegiate Churches are traveling to the Gulf Coast to help with recovery work in the region and to meet with youth advocates. They will spend two days in Mississippi helping to rebuild homes in the Gulfport area and a few days in New Orleans working on green projects and meeting with youth affiliated with Save Our Schools New Orleans and Frederick Douglass High School to understand how communities are rebuilding through the eyes of young people. For more info contactwww.westendchurch.org or www.middlechurch.org.
• (August 29) New York, Commemoration Rally and March*** New York City – Right To The City Alliance, the New York Solidarity Coalition with Katrina/Rita Survivors, Artist Relief, Brenda Stokley, Joetta Rogers and Northeast Survivors Group. The event will start with a rally and press conference at Sarah Roosevelt Park followed by a march starting at 4:15pm. The march will wind through the Lower East Side and Chinatown with short stops in each community and will end with a vigil in front of One Police Plaza. The commemoration will end with a fundraiser at Judson Memorial Church at 7:30 pm put on by the Artist Relief Collective and the Nola Preservation Society. For more information contact Rob Robinson at Picture the Homeless (646) 314-6423 or Brenda Stokley at the New York Solidarity Coalition with Katrina and Rita Survivors (212) 969-0449
• (August 29) Philadelphia-Hurricane Season. Alixa and Naima of Climbing PoeTree are premiering their two-woman show on 8/29/08 kicking off a 50-city national tour. A multimedia piece, Hurricane Season connects issues that surfaced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to the "unnatural disasters" unfolding nationwide and world wide on a daily basis. Hurricane Season tackles global warming, environmental injustice, criminalization, militarism, corporate domination and displacement as they manifest from one gulf to another, with a powerful tale of resistance, resilience, creativity and survival . For more info visit www.hurricaneseasontour.com. Doors open at 7pm, Show starts at 7:30. Location: The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Tickets are $10-$20
• (August 29) Providence, RI Commemorative March*** Sponsored by Boston/Providence Right to the City Alliance members including DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality) and ONA (Olneyville Neighborhood Association). Second line style action starts at 3:30pm at DARE offices (340 Lockwood St. Providence, RI 02903) Participants will follow the Hurricane Evacuation Route and will make stops along the way which highlight issues of criminalization, foreclosures, gentrification, education, and immigration and will connect the struggles of Providence to New Orleans. For information contact 401-351-3560 or 401-228-8996.
• (August 29) San Francisco Bay Area-No Business as Usual Katrina Anniversary*** Action is Co-sponsored by Bay Area Right to the City. August 29th 10am-5pm. Start at 7th St and Market in San Francisco for rally and march. 1pm cultural performance at Oakland City Hall at 14th and Broadway. Followed by march to rally at Oakland Police Department. Highlighting connections between Bay Area and New Orleans including: criminalization, incarceration and deportation of communities of color; public housing, privatized development/gentrification, and displacement of working class people of color. Contact Robbie at robbie@justcauseoakland.org or 510-763-5877.
• (August 29) San Francisco Bay Area-Katrina Commemoration and Community Forum (Part of Black August) In Solidarity with the Peoples' of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast: Right of Return, Reconstruction, and Self-Determination. Friday, August 29th from 6 – 9 pm at the Eastside Cultural Center, 1227 International Blvd. In collaboration with Huaxtec, Katrina Solidarity Network, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and Right to the City. Contact 510-533-6609, email mxgmoakland@gmail.com or visit www.mxgm.org.
• (August 29)Washington DC- Rally at FEMA*** Friday, August 29th 11:30 am-1:30pm, FEMA Headquarters, 500 C Street, SE. Mid-Atlantic Right to the City Alliance is rallying at FEMA headquarters to highlight the federal government's failure to protect residents' human rights. Community groups are calling on the government to stop promoting incarceration and demolition of supportive housing, and to invest in a permanent solution to the housing crisis, public education, mental health and other crisis services. Contact awillis@onedconline.org for more info.
*** Denotes activities that are a co-sponsored by the national Right to the City Alliance
