Hello, it’s been a while but I’m excited to say that Caricia and I are in New Orleans, LA and beginning our VideoVoice/New Orleans project. We’ve been walking around Central City - the community within Orleans Parish (aka New Orleans) - that we will be working with. Here are some pictures of the neighborhood:

The picture on the left is the parking lot mural at the Ashe Cultural Center and on the right is Caricia on Camp Street (just south of Central City).

Orthea Castle Haley Road runs through the heart of Central City and it’s where many of the outreach centers are located. To the right is a lot on the south side of Central City.

We are staying just south of Central City in the Garden District on historic Magazine Street at the gracious McKendrick-Breaux House. Brett, owner with his partner Rachel, is giving us a volunteer discount as we are a 501(c)3.

It’s been really helpful for us to be close to Central City and get our feet on the ground. New Orleans is still a flyer and hand-shake town (as Jerald White from the Ashe Cultural Center put it) and so getting the word out means walking from building to building and talking face to face. There is still a lot of reticence about using the internet by most people who live in New Orleans and that’s going to take some adjusting on our part.

Some of our community partners invited us to sit in on a meeting in the Lower Ninth Ward’s Holy Cross neighborhood. The meeting was organized by the ________ Church’s Charles Allen and our partner Dr. Ben Springgate gave a short presentation on Healthy Living. I’ll post some footage of that in a later blog. It was really exciting to be there for what is most definitely the most engaged community meeting I’ve ever been to. Various committee chairs gave reports on subjects ranging from the Corps of Engineers progress to energy efficient light bulbs.

Caricia and I are very much looking forward to our training that will take place this weekend at the Ashe Cultural Center.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 9:38 pm and is filed under New Orleans, VideoVoice News.