FoodMusicJustice.com

Left to right: Bo Dollis, Big Chief of the Wild Magnolias (lead singer of what may be the funkiest funk band of all time); rhythm and blues artist Al “Carnival Time” Johnson; singer Michelle Davis; poet Chuck Perkins; composer and arranger Wardell Quezergue (seated); Ken McCarthy

Last month, I was at the 80th birthday party for Wardell Quezergue “the Creole Beethoven,” a musical genius who applied his gifts behind-the-scenes to countless hits over the last fifty plus years.

Some of Quezergue’s music with cuts from the Wild Magnolias and Al “Carnival Time” Johnson.

New Orleans has a number of formal sister relationships.

Here’s the current list:

* Caracas, Venezuela;

* Holdfast Bay, Australia

* Innsbruck, Austria

* Juan-les-Pins, France

* Maracaibo, Venezuela

* Matsue, Japan

* Mérida, Mexico

* Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo

* San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina

* Tegucigalpa, Honduras

The plan for reviving the relationship between Manchester and New Orleans is simple.

Bring New Orleans artists, musicians, scholars etc. to Manchester and welcome Manchester folks to visit New Orleans.

Last spring, we got the ball rolling by hosting Manchester poet Grevel Lindop.

Last month, we brought a New Orleans poet Chuck Perkins to Manchester.

He’s the video of his first visit (the first one was so successful there are bound to be many more):

New Orleans poet Chuck Perkins visits Manchester

New Orleans and Manchester have a history together that goes way back - but everyone forgets because no one on the US side of the ocean asks the question:

“Where did the cotton from New Orleans go?”

To Manchester, where textile mill workers - including children as young as five - faced conditions every bit as brutal as Delta slavery.

In spite of their own situation, Manchester workers stood in solidarity with enslaved Africans in America and called for Abolition.

Today, victimized by government corruption, incompetence and neglect on an epic scale, the people of New Orleans have been beaten, but are not bowed.

If ever there were a time for Mancunians who love the beat to turn their eyes back to New Orleans, now’s the time.

Every beat in popular music - jazz, R & B, rock and roll, funk - originated on a drum kit in New Orleans.

Chicago and Detroit? Musical nephews of the Big Uncle Big Easy. Look it up…and share the video.

Manchester loves New Orleans

Thanks to videographers Hubie Vigreaux, Ken McCarthy, and YouTubers. Edit by Matthew Lipscomb and Ken McCarthy.

Special thanks to A Guy Called Gerald.

Info about the upcoming Food Music Justice program in Manchester, UK is here:

http://www.ChuckPerkinsVoices.com

The “Katrina Myth” has been the #4 top rated video in the “News and Politics” category on YouTube for the last 12 hours.

That means the levee issue is right up there on the top line with stories about the Democratic convention and McCain’s choice of Governor Palin as his running mate.

It’s also the #10 top favorite video, and the #14 top rated video in ALL categories.

YouTube’s counter, which is notoriously slow, shows 23,146 views in the last 24 hours.

Thanks to everyone who helped in this effort.

If you haven’t had a chance to support the video yet, there is still time.

The goal here is to keep the levee issue on the top of YouTube’s consciousness at least so that it might be picked up by a major news service.

That way instead of hearing how corrupt New Orleans people are, or how doomed the city is, people might learn that if the FEDERAL levees were simply built the way we all already PAID with our tax dollars for them to be built, New Orleans would be facing a hard time, but
not a second inundation by flood waters.

We’re getting a lot of international interest in the video and the comments from international viewers are all the same:

“How is it possible that the US treats its citizens this way?” They are genuinely baffled.

Anyway, if you’re in a position to (i.e. not packing up your belongings and heading out of town), keep pushing it.

Bizarrely (to me at least), this video seems to be the only source of publicly available information that lays out the levee situation in a clear, concise and comprehensive manner.

Here it is. Please let people know about it…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wln_iq5bc8k

After you watch the movie, please click through to YouTube and rate it, comment on it, favorite it.

And then send the link to friends, family members, and colleagues and ask them to do it too.

There will never be a better window of opportunity to get the truth out about Katrina, New Orleans and levees.

Thanks.

Click here now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wln_iq5bc8k

We’re already getting a some major press for “The Katrina Myth.”

This came as the result of the sneak preview at the Rising Tide blogging conference last weekend.

Click here for the review from the Guardian (UK):

The Guardian reviews “The Katrina Myth”

In the meantime, my heart goes out to all New Orleanians who are currently being terrorized by the weather news and the realization that the levee problems have nowhere near been corrected.

If you can make it to the premiere tonight, great. If not, I certainly understand.

Three cheers for Sandy Rosenthal of levees.org for keeping up the fight.

We didn’t have the runtime in the video to make a dedication, but if we had, we would have dedicated “The Katrina Myth” to her. No one has done more to fight against the Katrina myth and for the future of New Orleans than her.

Info on the premiere of “The Katrina Myth”

I admit it.

I’m hiding out in the cool weather of the Catskills.

But if I were in New Orleans, I’d made sure I was at this event. It looks like it will be absolutely beautiful.

Click here and be inspired: http://www.weshallnotbemoved.org/

New Orleans was worse than you think…and other US cities are at current risk of even greater catastrophes from…levee failures.

That’s the conclusion of group of respected civil engineers who have studied natural and engineering disasters (New Orleans was an engineering disaster) all over the world.

Here’s Part One of the two-part series.

There’s more. Click here for PART TWO: California’s levees are even worse

This is the second in a series of “finished” video pieces.

The first was about the birth of a new parade, the St. Claude Easter Parade sponsored by the Goodchildren Carnival Club.

http://foodmusicjustice.com/2008/04/29/easter-parade-new-orleans/

This one features Carol Kolinchak, an attorney who has successfully fought official New Orleans on behalf of Indian tribes and Second Line parades. It was filmed at this year’s Super Sunday.

Enjoy!