Floodlines http://floodlines.org Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six Thu, 25 Nov 2010 01:38:19 +0000 en-US hourly 1 What People Are Saying About Floodlines: http://floodlines.org/?p=204 http://floodlines.org/?p=204#comments Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:13:05 +0000 admin http://www.revolutiontwo.com/demo/streamline/?p=204

As the floodwaters rose in New Orleans, Jordan Flaherty began to write, rescuing precious truths about the reality of racism and solidarity in his city that risked being washed away in the tide of formulaic corporate journalism. I can think of no journalist that writes with deeper knowledge or more love about this highly contested part of the United States. With a new flood threatening life on the Gulf Coast – this time made of oil, not water, but powered, as always, by greed and neglect – these remarkable stories of injustice and resistance must be heard.
– Naomi Klein, author “The Shock Doctrine”
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This is the most important book I’ve read about Katrina and what came after. In the tradition of Howard Zinn this could be called “The People’s History of the Storm.” Jordan Flaherty was there on the front lines. He compellingly documents the racism, poverty, and neglect at the core of this national failure and the brave, generous, grassroots revolutionaries who saved and continue to save a city and a people. It is my favorite kind of book – great storytelling, accurate accounting, a call for engagement and change.
-Eve Ensler, playwright, The Vagina Monologues, activist and founder of V-Day
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Jordan Flaherty is one of the best and most courageous writers in America today. Beyond his obvious writing skills, what I admire most about Jordan is his dedication to truth-telling, to bringing the real and whole America to the American people. At a time in our nation when there is so much distortion of current events and history, Jordan Flaherty represents the core of who we truly are. And what we are capable of being as citizens of this ever-changing world.
-Kevin Powell, Author of Open Letters to America
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Jordan Flaherty is an independent journalist for the Hip-Hop generation. As a white anti-imperialist who is committed to social and racial justice, Jordan brings out the voices of the victims and survivors of Hurricane Katrina and the levee breach in New Orleans. This book not only speaks truth to power but is a rallying cry for all of us to take action. With this definitive work, the voices of the grassroots, the communities resisting displacement, finally have a voice.
– Rosa Clemente, 2008 Green Party VP Candidate, Hip Hop Activist and Journalist

Jordan Flaherty’s Floodlines takes us back into the path of the storm, evoking the almost unfathomable racism and hatred of the poor that the levee breach exposed, and exposing the continuing complicity with white supremacy of both state and nonprofit recovery efforts and of the white Left.  His is an unrelenting narrative that manages to chronicle the multiple system failures after the storm yet uplift by passionately detailing the spirit and history of organizing by grassroots New Orleanians in the years since the storm.  With millions of gallons of oil pumping into the ecosystem from the Gulf of Mexico,  all of our lives could depend on the knowledge Flaherty’s friends and comrades wrestle from their history.
- Mab Segrest, Author, “Memoir of a Race Traitor”
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The usual Katrina narrative tracks government incompetence during the emergency phase and and corporate greed — or inertia — in its aftermath. Jordan Flaherty tells a less well known story, centered on the boisterous infrastructure of left-leaning community groups and non-profits that were fired up by disaster and still struggle to shape New Orleans’ recovery. Flaherty is part of that movement. His vantage brings hands-on intimacy to this chronicle and poignancy to his conclusions.
.-Jed Horne, author, “Breach of Faith, Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City”
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Here’s the missing news from the Crescent City: folks are fighting back. Indeed, as Flaherty reminds us in this remarkable and noble book, the very soul of New Orleans is struggle.  As southern Louisiana again faces a man-made catastrophe, his portraits of activism and hope could not be more timely.
Mike Davis, Author, “Planet of Slums”

Jordan describes reality from the ground up. You’ve heard of the eagle’s eye view: this is the earthworm’s. Jordan knows who actually turns over the earth, and he follows them, even when most look away. His book brings us the good news of who’s working for change (and how) but also the reality about the price those people pay for our indifference.
-Laura Flanders, Host, Grit TV, Author, “Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians”

Jordan Flaherty is a journalist who causes revolution with the printed word. This book is a testament to the power of the pen when its in the hand of a freedom fighter and a global thinker. While others are just writing these stories, Jordan Flaherty is living them.
- Jesse Muhammad, Final Call Newspaper

Jordan Flaherty’s first calling is as a dedicated community organizer, but he’s also a top-rate investigative journalist.  The oppressed communities of New Orleans and larger Louisiana are fortunate to have this talented and compassionate reporter in their midst.  This book is invaluable to the United States’ social justice movement that relies on his expertise, honesty, and truth.
-Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Author, “Blood on the Border: A Memoir of the Contra War”
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Since Hurricane Katrina hit, Jordan Flaherty has—with spectacular dedication—chronicled New Orleans’s political changes with care and passion. His stories are the ones we all want to read: the tireless work of organizers in the city, the obstacles they face and the triumphs they celebrate….which ultimately inspire all of us.
.-Daisy Hernández, Executive Editor, ColorLines, the newsmagazine on race and politics.
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“Want to know what really happened to regular people during and after Katrina?  Read this book and get the real stories.  Read this book and get angry. Read this book and get busy making changes.”
. -Bill Quigley, Legal Director, Center for Constitutional Rights
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Jordan Flaherty’s work has been indispensable for social justice activists and organizations around the country who care about the inequities and social injustices that Hurricane Katrina revealed and exacerbated. He brings the sharp analysis and dedication of a seasoned organizer to his writing, and insightful observation to his reporting. Jordan unfailingly has his ear to the ground in a city that continues to reveal the floodlines of structural racism in America.
.- Tram Nguyen, author, “We Are All Suspects Now: Untold Stories from Immigrant Communities after 9/11”
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After the flood, many of us turned to Jordan Flaherty’s dispatches for real-time real talk about what was really going on in his beloved New Orleans. His from-the-low-ground accounts of how the politics of abandonment, the politics of containment, and racism combined to devastate this proud global city were brave and unsettling. His passionate, unsparing writing on the community organizers and the people struggling to make themselves and their city whole reminded us of the stakes. At this crucial point in American history, Floodlines captures the urgency of New Orleans and reveals why its recovery and renewal is one of the most important battles for justice in our time.
—Jeff Chang, author, “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History Of The Hip-Hop Generation”

“Floodlines is a powerful, moving account of one organizer’s witnessing of the struggles in the Deep South, and fighting to make a difference.  Jordan masters the insider’s voice, capturing the real fight from within the heart of the movement.”
- Jennifer Vitry, Executive Director, NOLA Investigates

]]> http://floodlines.org/?feed=rss2&p=204 0 Check out Floodlines on the Community and Resistance Tour http://floodlines.org/?p=209 http://floodlines.org/?p=209#comments Sun, 01 Mar 2009 10:14:49 +0000 admin http://www.revolutiontwo.com/demo/streamline/?p=209

For more information on the tour, including tour dates and schedule and how to bring the tour to your city, please seehttp://communityandresistance.wordpress.com

FALL 2010: THE COMMUNITY AND RESISTANCE TOUR
The COMMUNITY AND RESISTANCE tour seeks to communicate about current struggles for justice and liberation, from nooses hung in the northern Louisiana town of Jena to women organizing inside prisons, from resistance to school privatization to post-Katrina community organizing and cultural resistance. The tour also seeks to connect communities of liberation, and to build relationships between grassroots activists and independent media.
This tour is for anyone interested in issues of health care, education, criminal justice, housing, or the ways in which systems of racism, patriarchy and other forms of oppression intersect with these struggles.
Sponsored by Haymarket Books, PM Press, Left Turn Magazine, and other radical and independent media projects from around the US, the COMMUNITY AND RESISTANCE TOUR is an exciting movement-building opportunity. Beginning August, 2010, the tour will bring performances, workshops, and inspiration to towns and cities in across the US.
Featured Speakers include Jordan Flaherty, Jesse Muhammad and Victoria Law (see below for bios)
For more information on the tour, including how to bring the tour to your city, please email neworleans (at) leftturn.org or nick (at) haymarketbooks.org.
Featured Speakers (please note: line-up varies in different cities):

Jessee Muhammad

Jesse Muhammad: Affectionately called Brother Jesse, is a journalist, blogger, experienced community organizer, national motivational speaker, and social media strategist.

Brother Jesse has served as a writer for The Final Call Newspaper since 2004 and receives rave reviews for his reporting on hard-hitting stories that impact the community. He gained worldwide recognition for his consistent coverage of Hurricane Katrina survivors and was credited with bringing national and international attention to the case of the “Jena Six”. Brother Jesse developed a passion for blogging and walked away with three honors from the 2009 Black Weblog Awards including Blog of the Year. He is a guest blogger for GlobalGrind.com and HoustonBelief.com. His news articles and blogs have been featured in numerous print and online publications.

Brother Jesse is a weekly news commenter for several radio shows including Sound of Soul (S.O.S.) Radio hosted by DJ Zin on Houston KPFT 90.1FM. He has been interviewed on FOX, ABC, NBC, CNN Radio, Black Entertainment Television (BET), The Cliff Kelly Show, Front Page with Dominique DiPrima, The Stevie Wonder Show, The Roland Martin Show, Hard Rock Radio with Davey D, Sons of Afrika Radio, KJAMZ with Sonny Mac, Suavv Mag Radio, ConversationsLIVE, The Sankofa Experience and more.

 He is a husband, father, artist, and budding photojournalist….a Renaissance brother.

Vikki Law

Victoria Law: is a writer, photographer and mother. After a brief stint as a teenage armed robber, she became involved in prisoner support. In 1996, she helped start Books Through Bars-New York City, a group that sends free books to prisoners nationwide. In 2000, she began concentrating on the needs and actions of women in prison, drawing attention to their issues by writing articles and giving public presentations. Since 2002, she has worked with women incarcerated nationwide to produce Tenacious: Art and Writings from Women in Prison and has facilitated having incarcerated women’s writings published in larger publications, such as Clamor magazine, the website “Women and Prison: A Site for Resistance” and make/shift magazine. Her book Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women (PM Press 2009) is the culmination of over 7 years of listening to, writing about and supporting incarcerated women nationwide and resulted in this former delinquent winning the 2009 PASS (Prevention for a Safer Society) Award.

In 1995, she became involved with ABC No Rio, a collectively-run arts center on New York’s Lower East Side, a move that resulted in changing her lifestyle from delinquency to social justice with an arts focus. In 1997, she organized a group of activist photographers to transform one of No Rio’s upstairs tenement apartments into a black-and-white photo darkroom for community use. She has also participated in and curated numerous exhibitions at No Rio’s gallery, many with themes addressing social and political issues such as incarceration, grassroots efforts to rebuild New Orleans, Zapatista organizing, police brutality and squatting.

In 2003, she collaborated with China Martens to create Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind, a workshop addressing the specific (and often unacknowledged) needs of parents and children in radical movements; and has co-facilitated discussions in Baltimore, New York City, Providence, Montreal, Minneapolis, Detroit and Boston. They are editing a handbook for allies of radical parents by the same name.

Jordan Flaherty

Jordan Flaherty: is a journalist and community organizer based in New Orleans.  He was the first journalist with a national audience to write about the Jena Six case, and played an important role in bringing the story to worldwide attention. His post-Katrina writing in ColorLines Magazine shared a journalism award from New America Media for best Katrina-related coverage in the Ethnic press, and audiences around the world have seen the news segments he’s produced for Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, GritTV, and Democracy Now.

Jordan has appeared as a guest on a wide range of television and radio shows, including CNN Morning, Anderson Cooper 360, CNN Headline News, Grit TV, and both local and nationally-syndicated shows on National Public Radio.  He has been a regular correspondent or frequent guest on Democracy Now, Radio Nation on Air America, News and Notes, and many other outlets. As a white southerner who speaks honestly about race, Jordan Flaherty has been regularly published in Black progressive forums such as BlackCommentator.org and Black Agenda Report, and is a regular guest on Black radio stations and programs such as Keep Hope Alive With Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Jordan is an editor of Left Turn Magazine, a national publication dedicated to covering social movements. He has written about politics and culture for the Village Voice, New York Press, Labor Notes, Radical Society, and in several anthologies, including the South End Press books Live From Palestine and What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race and the State of the Nation, the University of Georgia Press book What is a City, and the AK Press book Red State Rebels.
]]> http://floodlines.org/?feed=rss2&p=209 0 Organizations in the Struggle for Post-Katrina Justice http://floodlines.org/?p=213 http://floodlines.org/?p=213#comments Sun, 01 Mar 2009 16:12:22 +0000 admin http://www.revolutiontwo.com/demo/streamline/?p=213

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Below is an incomplete list of  organizations who have fought for post-Katrina justice. Websites are listed when applicable.
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NEW ORLEANS AND LOUISIANA SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS
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Advocates for Environmental Human Rights
Works for the cause of environmental justice as a human right.
A Fighting Chance /NOLA Investigates
Investigations for the defense in capital cases.
African American Leadership Project
Agenda building, policy analysis, strategic dialogue and consensus-building. www.aalp.org
Agenda for Children
Policy work for children’s rights.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana
Legal struggles for civil rights.
American Friends Service Committee of New Orleans
Organizing against the cradle-to-prison pipeline and other campaigns.
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
New Orleans chapter of national housing rights organization. Disbanded in 2010.
Black Men United for Change and Equality
Grassroots organizing among Black men from New Orleans.
Children’s Defense Fund of Louisiana
National child advocacy organization – in New Orleans, conducts Freedom Schools, among other projects.
Common Ground Collective
Short-term relief and long-term rebuilding support.
Common Ground Health Clinic
Dedicated to providing free, quality health care for New Orleans.
Critical Resistance New Orleans
Prison abolition organization.
Deep South Center for Environmental Justice
Environmental justice organization based at Dillard University.
European Dissent
White anti-racist group in New Orleans, affiliated with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond.
Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children
Organizes among family members of incarcerated youth.
Finding our Folk
Raising the voices of displaced New Orleanians.
Fyre Youth Squad
Young people organizing for better schools.
Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center
Legal struggles against housing injustice.
Innocence Project New Orleans
Represents innocent prisoners serving life sentences in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Institute for Women and Ethnic Studies
Sexual and reproductive health justice among youth women of color.
Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana
Legal and organizing work to reform juvenile justice.
Louisiana Justice Institute
Legal advocacy for civil rights and facilitation of a wide range of social justice campaigns in New Orleans and across the state. www.louisianajusticeinstitute.org
Loyola Law Clinic
Legal clinic representing indigent clients.
Make It Right
Founded by Brad Pitt to rebuild housing in the Lower Ninth Ward.
Mayday New Orleans
Organizing for public housing justice.
National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA)
New Orleans chapter of national alliance working for reparations.
Nation of Islam – New Orleans
Rebuilding and antiviolence work in the city.
Neighborhood Planning Network (NPN)
Networks neighborhood organizations in New Orleans.
New Orleans Food and Farm Network
Food access organization.
New Orleans, Louisiana Palestine Solidarity (NOLAPS)
Organizing and activism for awareness of Palestine, linking struggles in New Orleans with Middle East.
New Orleans Tenants Rights Union
Organizing tenants to create concrete improvements in their situation as renters.
New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic
Originally established as a project of the Women’s Health & Justice Initiative in 2006, NOWHC was conceived to combine health services with a political analysis of the obstacles women face in receiving health care.
New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice
Building worker power, advancing racial justice, and organizing to build a social movement in post-Katrina New Orleans.
NO/AIDS Task Force
Services and advocacy for HIV-infected individuals.
Parents Organizing Network
Supports parents in taking a powerful role in the creation of excellent public schools.
The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
Anti-racist community organizers and educators dedicated to building an effective movement for social transformation.
Resurrection After Exoneration
Works to reconnect exonerees to their communities and provide access to those opportunities of which they were robbed.
ReThink: Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools
Students reforming school system post-Katrina.
Safe Streets/Strong Communities
Campaigns for a new criminal justice system in New Orleans.
School at Blair Grocery
Dedicated to the growth and development of young minds in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
Stay Local! New Orleans
Supports local businesses.
Students at the Center
A writing and digital-media program for students in New Orleans public, non-charter, high schools.
Survivors Village
Former public housing residents in New Orleans struggling for housing justice.
Twomey Center for Peace Through Justice
Education for social justice consciousness.
UNITY of Greater New Orleans
A collaborative of sixty agencies working with homeless people in New Orleans.
Vietnamese-American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA)
Empowering Vietnamese-American youth through services, cultural enrichment, and social change.
VOTE (Voice of the Ex Offender): Voices of Formerly Incarcerated Persons
Building the political power of people most impacted by the criminal justice system.
Women’s Health & Justice Initiative (WHJI)
A radical feminist of color, anti-violence, justice-based organization. The New Orleans affiliate of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence.
Women With A Vision
Health care justice for women from at-risk and socially vulnerable communities.
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ARTS, CULTURE AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS AND SPACES
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2-Cent Entertainment
Grassroots youth filmmaking collective.
Artspot Productions
Theatre and arts organization.
Ashé Cultural Center
Black-owned cultural and community space.
Backstreet Cultural Museum
Cultural center preserving the history and culture of Black Mardi Gras.
Community Book Center
African and African American-centered bookstore and community space.
Craige Cultural Center
Community space and cultural center in the Algiers neighborhood.
Guardians of the Flame Cultural Arts Collective
Preserving New Orleans’ Black Mardi Gras cultural traditions.
House of Dance and Feathers
Lower Ninth Ward space dedicated to preserving New Orleans culture.
Iron Rail Bookstore and Infoshop
Anarchist infoshop and lending library.
Islamic Shura Council of Greater New Orleans
Organization of New Orleans’ Muslim community.
Junebug Productions
African American Arts company, preserving the civil rights traditions of the Free Southern Theatre.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of New Orleans
Builds, strengthens, and unifies the Greater New Orleans area GLBTQ community.
McKenna Museum of African American Art
Dedicated to New Orleans African American art.
Mondo Bizarro
Creates original, multidisciplinary art and fosters partnerships in local, national and international communities.
Neighborhood Gallery
Exposure and support for artists.
Neighborhood Story Project
Works with writers in neighborhoods around New Orleans to write and publish books about their communities.
New Orleans Kid Camera Project
Uses photography training and support to help young people express themselves.
Patois: The New Orleans Human Rights Film and Arts Festival
Organizes events, amplifies local voices, and builds community at the intersection of arts and social justice.
Porch Cultural Organization and Center
Community-based organization using the arts to affect social change.
Social Aid and Pleasure Club Task Force
An alliance of the city’s social aid and pleasure clubs.
Tambourine and Fan
Works with young people in Treme community to pass on New Orleans art and culture.
Tekrema Center for Art and Culture
African American community space in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward.
Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center
Film and arts space in Central City New Orleans.
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OTHER SOUTHERN AND GULF COAST SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS

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Friends of Justice
Supports struggles against injustice in criminal cases across Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi.
Miami Workers Center
Building working class community power in Miami.
Mississippi Immigrants’ Rights Alliance (MIRA)
Advocacy organizing and education for immigrants’ rights.
Mississippi Workers Center
Grassroots worker advocacy.
Organizing in the Trenches
Founded by Caseptla Bailey and Catrina Wallace, family members of one of the Jena Six, to continue struggles for social justice.
Project South
Atlanta-based movement building organization.
Southerners On New Ground (SONG)
Visioning a world where the 3rd shift factory worker and the drag queen at the bar down the block see their lives as connected and are working together for liberation.
Take Back the Land
Miami-based collective empowering the Black community to determine how to use land for the benefit of the community.
NATIONAL ALLIES
The Advancement Project
A civil rights law, policy and communication “action tank.”
Catalyst Project
White anti-racist collective based in California.
Center for Constitutional Rights
Uses law for social justice struggles.
Color of Change
Online resource for racial justice organizing.
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence
A national activist organization of radical feminists of color advancing a movement to end violence against women of color and their communities. www.incite-national.org
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Defending human rights and promoting self-determination.
National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI)
Advocacy for a human rights vision in US.
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