The Wake and the Work of Culture: Memorialization Practices in Post-Katrina Black Feminist Poetics

MELUS ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Samantha Pinto ◽  
Jewel Pereyra
Keyword(s):  
African American Women ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Women Poets ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Black Artists ◽  
Black Life ◽  
Mississippi Gulf Coast ◽  
Ethical Failures

Abstract Hurricane Katrina has come to represent a nexus of natural, infrastructural, and ethical failures that forced a moment and perhaps an era of public reckoning with the ongoing processes of black disenfranchisement from US state protections and rights. Poetry about Katrina both promises and is asked bear witness to this spectacular, violent show of force and to manage public and political appetites for recognition and remembrance through its ability to merge the material and the abstract in linguistic form. This cultural imperative stands as both opportunity and limit for black artists and poets, as they are expected to weigh in exclusively on the fates of black life, historical and present, and are frequently only given accolades and earn readership when they accede to this demand to represent the spectacle of Blackness in pain. In this article, we consider the Katrina-focused work of two prominent African American women poets, Claudia Rankine and Natasha Trethewey, arguing that they engage in innovative practices of poetic memorialization, performing black feminist “wake work” in their insistence on the long-standing, porous boundaries between black life and death, black expressive creation and precarity, and black material history and the present. Their work in Citizen: An American Lyric (2014) and in Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (2010) refashions the perverse poetic “opportunity” of Katrina as a moment to reframe black life and black cultural production both through and beyond the immediate temporality of disaster.

scholarly journals From Disaster to Resilience

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Perkes ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Community Design ◽  
Design Studio ◽  
Mississippi State University ◽  
State University ◽  
Art And Design ◽  
Mississippi Gulf Coast

What is changing in the world so that the word “resilience” is so frequently used? 2015 marks the ten year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the five year anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The Gulf Coast Community Design Studio has been working on the Mississippi Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina and their work provides the vantage point of this paper. The Gulf Coast Community Design Studio is an off-campus research and service center of Mississippi State University College of Architecture, Art and Design located in Biloxi, Mississippi. It was created to respond to Hurricane Katrina and has evolved from disaster response to long-term efforts of resilience. The design studio’s evolution is not an isolated story. It is part of a national move toward resilience.

The #Landmass between New Orleans and Mobile: Neglect, Race, and the Cost of Invisibility

2019 ◽  
pp. 125-134
Author(s):  
Shelley Ingram
Keyword(s):  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Expressive Culture ◽  
Mississippi Gulf Coast ◽  
The Cost

In 2012, a forecaster on The Weather Channel allegedly reported that an incoming hurricane was a threat to “the landmass between New Orleans and Mobile.” The folklore of the “landmass” internet meme cycle that followed, in which residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast mocked their own invisibility from mainstream consciousness, could easily be dismissed as an inconsequential bit of fun. However, this chapter argues that the meme is part of a larger pattern of expressive culture that, when examined, reveals lingering trauma from Hurricane Katrina and the disturbing systems of oppression—racial, economic, cultural—still at work in the region and, consequently, the nation.

Community Resilience, Psychological Resilience, and Depressive Symptoms: An Examination of the Mississippi Gulf Coast 10 Years After Hurricane Katrina and 5 Years After the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joohee Lee ◽  
Bret J. Blackmon ◽  
David M. Cochran ◽  
Bandana Kar ◽  
Timothy A. Rehner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Community Resilience ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Psychological Resilience ◽  
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill ◽  
Mississippi Gulf Coast

AbstractObjectiveThis study examined the role of community resilience and psychological resilience on depressive symptoms in areas on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that have experienced multiple disasters.MethodsSurvey administration took place in the spring of 2015 to a spatially stratified, random sample of households. This analysis included a total of 294 subjects who lived in 1 of the 3 counties of the Mississippi Gulf Coast at the time of both Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. The survey included the Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) scale, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 10), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).ResultsThere was a significant inverse relationship between psychological resilience and depressive symptoms and a significant positive relationship between community resilience and psychological resilience. The results also revealed that community resilience was indirectly related to depressive symptoms through the mediating variable of psychological resilience.ConclusionsThese findings highlight the importance of psychological resilience in long-term disaster recovery and imply that long-term recovery efforts should address factors associated with both psychological and community resilience to improve mental health outcomes. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:241–248)

scholarly journals Network Interns Volunteer Support After Katrina

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
B. Wayne Walters
Keyword(s):  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Work Experiences ◽  
Excellent Opportunity ◽  
Excellent Work ◽  
Volunteer Support ◽  
Mississippi Gulf Coast

The effectiveness of college internships often vary dramatically. Sometimes an internship can provide excellent work experiences but on other occasions work may be less than satisfactory. When an internship comes along that provides an excellent opportunity for learning, leadership, and contributions to society, it is quite rewarding to all involved. Just such an internship was provided soon after Hurricane Katrina struck the Mississippi gulf coast on August 29, 2005.

Bounce to the Chocolate City Future

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Anthony Hunter ◽  
Zandria F. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Black People ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Black Music ◽  
Deep South ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Gender Nonconforming ◽  
Black Life

Centering the life, music, and experiences of New Orleans–based bounce music artist Big Freedia, this chapter explores the migration stories of black people across the Black Map through the lens of hip hop music, bounce music, gender-nonconforming peoples, Hurricane Katrina, Down South, and the Deep South. Emphasizing the importance of cultural production and black music, the authors highlight the role of race, place, music, forced migration, gender, and sexual orientation in black life and politics. Focused on the connections across space and time, this chapter demonstrates the key role black power politics, natural disasters, sexuality, and regional sounds in the politics and migrations of black people throughout the chocolate cities.

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