lowernine.org - post-Katrina recovery of New Orleans historic Lower Ninth Ward

Remember my last post? How I described being in New Orleans? Part of my time there was spent with the powerful and amazing Laura Paul, executive director of lowernine.org, a non-profit dedicated to practically single-handedly rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward.

I wanted to visit her and have my feet on the ground in the Lower Ninth because a portion of the proceeds for my novel Another Kind of Hurricane (Schwartz and Wade, July 2015) go directly to lowernine.org. I had already researched the organization (after a recommendation by the wonderful children's book author, Phil Bildner, and had been communicating with Laura for a while, but it was another thing altogether to finally go and meet her, meet her wonderful staff and crew of volunteers, meet some of her neighbors and see some of the houses that they have rebuilt.

And to see the houses that have a long way to go…

I could sing on about the great work that lowernine.org does, and rant on about how much should have been done for the Lower Ninth that still hasn't been done, but I will let Laura and her kick ass gang speak for themselves:

And then I will tell you…if you want to find a place where the landscape is rich with history, where you can practically hear the stories of generations of folks in the two by fours and the wind, you should come here…to New Orleans…to the Lower Ninth Ward.  

Happy Post Thanksgiving, you all.  I am grateful to you for choosing to hang here when you do.

Tam