FoodMusicJustice.com

It’s a mystery - to the Times-Picayune at least - why police harassment of backstreet culture in New Orleans continues, and who is behind it and why.

First, in every city that I know, the mayor runs the police because it’s the mayor who appoints the police chief. One word from the mayor and the word would trickle down: leave the Indians and second lines alone, or if there is a reason for communicating, do it with the same respect you’d afford people attending the opera or symphony.

Treme seems to be the battleground now. It must have to do with real estate and the desire of the city to “gentrify” north of Rampart. Why they think it’s necessary to kill the culture of the Treme in the process - one of the most culturally significant places in North America (and the world) - is another great American mystery.

Destroy what’s great to replace it with…what exactly?

Click here to read the latest police outrage

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!

THE MARDI GRAS INDIAN COUNCIL PRESENTS

INDIAN SUNDAY PARADE

Sunday, March 16, 2008 – 1 p.m.

Start: Washington Avenue and LaSalle Street. Down LaSalle to Martin Luther King Blvd. Left on MLK to Galvez. Left on Galvez to Washington Ave. Left on Washington to South Derbigny.

End: Taylor Park, Washington and Galvez

Info courtesy of the Backstreet Museum

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More…on legal observation campaign

Good afternoon all,

Just wondering if anyone wanted to volunteer for the ACLU’s legal observing effort for the Uptown Mardi Gras Indian Super Sunday this Sunday the 16th. Although no longer working for the ACLU, I’m volunteering to help coordinate the effort on Sunday.

If you can, please let me know and send me your name, cellphone number, and availability.

Volunteers will meet at 12:30pm on the corner of Washington and LaSalle on the park side of the street for a brief training. Super Sunday lasts generally till 6:30pm or so. We’d love it if you could stay all day but folks that can help even just for a few hours are welcome.

Thanks in advance for any help. Forward this to anyone who might be interested….

Tory Pegram
504.338.2631

——

Why the Indians need defending. The over-the-top campaign of police harassment and brutality took place just three short years ago.

Click here for the article St. Joseph Turns Blue

Just got back from a community screening of “Faubourg Treme: The untold story of New Orleans.”

I expected it to be good. It was great.

(more…)

I found a good collection of articles by Larry Blumenfeld (including an audio piece.)

Larry’s doing a super job of documenting the post-Katrina music scene in New Orleans.

Will the music survive?

This should be THE question of our time for everyone who cares about the future of music and culture in America.

Click here for the collection

I’m back in New Orleans and I’ll be at this one.

Was on it last year (we have some video from it on the site.) Great parade, great group, great energy.

Link: Big Nine Social and Pleasure Club Parade 2006 

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2007 – NOON

Start: Club Imagine, 1800 St. Bernard Ave. Up St. Bernard Ave. to N. Rampart. Left turn on Rampart to St. Claude Ave.

Stop: Sweet Lorraine’s Dugout, 1931 St. Claude Ave., 6 to 9 Social Pleasure Club. Continue on St. Claude.

Stop: 3014 St. Claude Ave, 6to 9 Social Club. Continue to

Stop: O’Blique’s Hair Salon, 4011 St. Claude Ave. Continue up St. Claude to Forstall St. Right turn down Forstall to Burgundy St. Left turn on Burgundy St.

Stop: Mercedes Place. Continue to Caffin Ave. Left turn on Caffin Ave. Continue to St. Claude Ave. Right turn on St. Claude Ave.

Stop: Eric’s Barber and Hair Care, 5920 St. Claude Ave. Continue to Tupelo St. U-Turn up St. Claude Ave. to

Stop: Mickey B’s Bar, 5119 St. Claude Ave.

Disband

Dedicated to our loved one who are gone but not forgotten!!!

Thank you!

Backstreet Cultural Museum

1116 St. Claude Ave.

New Orleans, LA 70116

504-522-4806

Jazz, R&B, Rock and roll, funk - it’s what America is known and loved for, and it all came out of New Orleans.

In New Orleans, it’s hard to imagine a more fertile musical garden than the neighborhood called the Treme, just across Rampart Street from the French Quarter.

So why is the New Orleans police department arresting people there for singing?

Read Larry Blumenfeld’s report: Band on the Run

We’re reprinting this news item from our good friends at Offbeat Magazine (you do subscribe don’t you?):

“In light of last month’s arrests of Derrick Tabb and Glen David Andrews for being a part of an impromptu second line, the tradition is on people’s minds. Thursday night at 7 p.m., there will be a discussion at the Sound Cafe (on Chartres in the Bywater) on “Rebuilding New Orleans: The Second Line Model.”

Participants include Tamara Jackson, president of VIP Ladies Social and Pleasure Club and the New Orleans Social and Pleasure Club Task Force; Waldorf “Gip” Gibson, vice president of the Young Men Olympia and president of the Furious Five; Ronald W. Lewis, president of the Big Nine Social and Pleasure Club and director of House of Dance and Feathers Museum; and Bennie Pete, leader of the Hot 8 Brass Band.”

Article: RIP Kerwin James (and New Orleans and Houston too)

Katy Reckdahl of the Time-Picayune wrote:

Monday, at about 8 p.m., nearly 20 police cars swarmed to a Treme corner, breaking up a memorial procession and taking away two well-known neighborhood musicians in handcuffs.

The brothers, snare drummer Derrick Tabb and trombonist Glen David Andrews, were in a group of two dozen musicians playing a spontaneous parade for tuba player Kerwin James, who died last week of complications from a stroke he had suffered after Hurricane Katrina.

The confrontation spurred cries in the neighborhood about the over-reaction and disproportionate enforcement by police, who had often turned a blind eye to the traditional memorial ceremonies. Still others say the incident is a sign of a greater attack on the cultural history of the old city neighborhood by well-heeled newcomers attracted to Treme by the very history they seem to threaten.

More

This weekend, Armstrong Park is the site of two day-long festivals, Inter-Fest on Saturday and Congo Square Rhythms Festival on Sunday. (more…)