ARK HIVE

a memoir of south

MARTHE REED the operating system print//document

ARK HIVE

ISBN: 978-1-946031-47-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2019902620 copyright © 2018 by Marthe Reed edited and designed by ELÆ [Lynne DeSilva-Johnson] with Lori Anderson Moseman

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ADVANCE PRAISE FOR ARK HIVE

"There are locations—like Hawai’i, like Louisiana—where cultures are unique to the place, and outsiders are made to know themselves from insiders. As a poet familiar with issues of appropriation and theft, Marthe Reed asked herself how a Californian who had lived in Providence and Perth, could write about Louisiana, a place she loved over her many years of living in Lafayette. “Writing Louisiana, outsider-inside, poles of affection and alienation push and pull against me.” Her answer was to piece together an archive, and to write an epic from its documents: photographs, maps, names of birds, travel journals, histories, languages. What ultimately brings this material to life are the heart-lyrics stitched through the whole: from “threnody”: “I keep the contents of my heart / stacked in wet clay / heavy with downpour,” where “behind the grate the small / eyes of an armadillo / muted reek / of urine and feces[.]” The threnody she wrote was for a beautiful, fraught, and fragile place. It grieves me to write my paragraph in the past tense. Shortly before she died she told me, “We’re all going to die and no one will remember us; it’s ok.” We are here to remember her and this ravishing, important, necessary work."

—SUSAN M. SCHULTZ

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"Here. Now. Live. Marthe Reed’s intimate engagement with South Louisiana will moor you to wherever you find yourself. An “act of memory and affection,” ARK HIVE teaches us how to attend to place. “Following the ley-lines carved out in the streets and bayous of a rapidly eroding landscape, this collection refuses stability, confident of the only riddle and the manifold voices activating it.” Reed’s hive is a choral fugue of over 85 voices: jazz legends, FEMA officials, fishermen, botanists, bakers, executives, imprisoned citizens, literary icons—neighbors all—knit multiple languages into an exquisite sampler of contemporary poetics. Lush with flora, handmade maps, collaged language and altered documents sing resiliency; this “palimpsest of deluge and silt” flourishes amid debacles— Katrina, BP oil spill, and Texas Brine. A spine of questions borrowed from Bhanu Kapil (the how-what-when of bodily love-n-fear) sutures readers into Reed’s tender, monumental dance: “the band is already playing step, slow- quick, quick.” Mesmerizing. It is as if she never left Louisiana, as if she never left us. —LORI ANDERSON MOSEMAN “Marthe Reed’s ecological long poem ARK HIVE is a tour de force, a towering work in the field of documentary poetics that both sounds the alarm with sonic brilliance and subverts its own monumentality through the interrogation of place. ARK HIVE enacts on a formal level the trembling prairie of South Louisiana and so unfolds in a constant state of oscillation: between prose and poetry, fact and uncertainty, the lyric and the visual, English and French, French and Atakapa-Ishak, and, most of all, between celebration of and elegy for the “ bottomland forest, green coastal seas, green marsh grass—prairie tremblant—shifting in the wet.” In an extraordinary and personal meditation on one of the most fractured and ecologically vulnerable regions in the known world, Reed writes as an insider-outsider of the umwelt where she lived for eleven years: “Here and not here, what to make of this place called home?” Through arduous research, oral histories, and even hand-drawn maps, ARK HIVE leaves prairie-wide space for the reader to truly consider and understand the impact of racism, corporate malfeasance, and the widening delta of chemical spills on this place and the people who live here. ARK HIVE asks us whether we can survive ourselves—our flooding, our oil industry—and if a new sociality, a new way of being with others, as encapsulated by this book, may help ensure the survival of species, ourselves included.”

—HENK ROSSOUW

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"It’s no wonder that Reed quotes poet C. D. Wright at the start of the work as Wright’s work covering south Louisiana could no doubt be seen as a necessary prerequisite to Reed’s own project. In the opening pages, Reed approaches her predicament as if she were a researcher placed in a foreign land, situating herself among her surroundings, in the midst of a condition of place that is both physically distant and so very different from the places she had previously lived. From there, she leans into language, the language of water, of floods and earth reclaimed, only to be lost again as the seasons change in places that are far away, the words occasionally scattered across the pages like the silt that drives the Mississippi water to the Gulf of Mexico.

ARK HIVE is the memoir of a person but it is also the narrative of a place, how it came to exist in the time that Reed was living there. We traverse the geography as we traverse the culture, one affected deeply by and also the governmental response to that disaster. Here the language is erased, something that nearly happened somewhere between the storm and the individuals in charge of helping those caught in the middle. The book ends in another crisis — one for her as ‘nomadic wanderer’ and for the Louisiana coast, changed by the oil spewing from the bottom of the ocean that no one could seemingly stop.

While south Louisiana went through change, so did Marthe, this project tying those changes together, through her own choices of form and thought and language to a kind of self-identification through place, through shared traumas. This was a place once foreign that by the end is reflective of the journey of an individual poet among many who witnessed along with her.

Marthe Reed passed away on April 10th with ARK HIVE scheduled as part of The Operating System’s 2019 ‘cohort,’ a word choice Marthe would no doubt have loved for its sense of comradery among writers and those who publish them, something she embodied for the rest of us."

­—AMISH TRIVEDI, for Jacket 2

However briefly I find myself in a strange place, I am intent on locating myself; where I came from at this point is portable; I carry it with me. —C.D. Wright

the disasters / we place on the tare are weightless —Jaimie Gusman

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Here and Not 15 once under pressure of water 21 Réponds: Who was responsible for the suffering of your mother? 22 Displacements/Deformation: Sunrise People 23 Left behind 25 Île Copal Sugarcane 27 Réponds: Where do you come from? 29 Displacements/Deformation: Sunrise People (2) 31 topos: an ode 32 Coulée 33 Displacements/Deformation: Sunrise People (3) 34 Water and history (1) 35 Displacements/Deformation: Sunrise People (4) 38 water 39 Réponds: Who are you and whom do you love? 41 afore Réponds: How did you arrive? 48 Ode: negotiation with place 49 ’Tit Ben 51 When the waters recede 52 Land and water 53 threnody 56 Réponds: What is the shape of your body 57 Take Me To The River 58 Réponds: How did you arrive? (2) 59 Flora 60 Réponds: What do you remember about the earth? 61 Réponds: What this means 63 what Texaco used: Jimmi Martin 64 thereupon Lapse :: a city 70 Plaquemine Aquifer 72 Report Réponds: What this means (2) 75 current of geography 76 Myrtle Grove Trailer Park 77 Réponds: Whom do you love? 79 whence KATRINA 84 \\\ 12 \\\ | Réponds:Howwillyoulivenow? DeadWaste oilfielddreams: roy champagne Mapping Wasted Stormtracker Réponds:Tell me whatyouknowaboutdismemberment blowout:MelvinLirette Boat-mindedPeople youwokewithout fear Réponds:Describeamorning by by and wastedcity Vieux Carré unnaturalmetropolis Binx’s lesquartiers oldcity the occasion on that Politics remembered the place Réponds:Whatare consequencesofsilence? the erode ||erase grandisle:patlandry GrandIsle ChemicalLouisiana Awakening: GrandIsle heretofore gulfcoasttoad Clean-up Water andhistory(4):ChandeleurSound threnody Water andhistory(3) LakeMartin Réponds:Whatistheshapeofyourbody?(2) reel Water andhistory(2):MacondoProspect BaratariaBay all atonce 173 172 170 169 168 165 164 163 162 161 157 154 151 145 144 143 135 133 132 131 129 127 126 124 119 118 117 116 114 113 112 111 106 104 | /// 13 /// 179 180 181 184 186 191 192 193 197 198 203 204 Ark Hive - Brenda Iijima Brenda - Hive Ark after-words Acknowledgements on Reflections Acknowledgement: Active An Editor's Note: on ARK HIVE after Marthe About Marthe Reed henceforth Les ‘Cadiens threnody Bayou Corne incident Catechism LLC Brine Company, Texas sudden sun threnody would you say if you could? Réponds: And what

HERE AND NOT | /// 15 /// HERE AND NOT HERE AND A Lesson Before Dying A Lesson Before nutra rats nutra eating up the coast. there. yet I was there, I was not —Ernest Gaines, Gaines, —Ernest Chatoui. Rat du bois. Bequine, plaquemine, rodee. Suce-fleur. Make the bahdin. Five million

A friend invites us to dinner, her home a circle of rooms leading one into the next. No next. the into one leading rooms of circle a home her dinner, to us invites friend A warding sky at hints , to to back room to bedroom to bedroom kitchen to living room only the circuit: “haint” center, painted ceiling, porch The me? miss you Did kitchen. Blue south. the across carried knowledge water— cross cannot who spirits off ceilings guard against insects also, mosquitos plying the owning air, the evening. Being in, though not of this place, by what permission Being in, though not of this place, do I write about it, here where I live(d)? After school, I listen to the men cutting hair at Barber Ike’s Shop, my child sitting high in the chair it though piece together, nor neither parse I can listening a French unfathomable, also. Their talk flowsaround me, holds me still listening, as to the sound while I against saucers, cups clinking of Bakery, water in Poupart’s folk chatting overhear tumbling over root and rock. I order epi or baguette, the Français cadien. beignets Old and world hand French, 17 pies ‘Cadien. th calling Mixed. Century from and the code-switching counter. French, My own route to Lafayette took the long way around: from Western Australia by Western Australia from took the long way around: to Lafayette My own route Rhode Island, by way by way of Providence, way of Indiana, by way of San Diego, the in Californiaof Central way on, by earlier San Diego of farm,orchard almond an nonetheless: eleven though here nor there, countryside near Escalon. Neither here outside stepping 2002, July Orleans, New in landed jet the When Lafayette. in years we had come up, as when in winter elsewhere our eye-glasses immediately fogged in from the cold. Summer humidity in Louisiana less does unrelenting than not plants Tomato midday. give rest, up the come the July, evenings heat of no outside stand mid- up, Wake resilience. their sapping night the of most through morning in the shade, sweat. Summer teaches us to slow down, have a sno-cone: plan exercise to come winter. Here in the wet, green tangles everywhere in summer. Up gaps in the asphalt bridges, through across telephone poles and along the wires, wherever sometimes), sidewalks, are there (where sidewalk the in cracks and earth gathers unbidden in human spaces. No rooting it out. Green. Green verges over moss branches, across fernsprofligate highways, and roads beside railings, over brick and walls. rendered Green rice fields, green bottomland forest, —shifting marsh grass—prairie tremblant coastal seas, green green in the wet. bayou. the Up “Hub City,” center of Acadiana lies and almost straddling due west the of Vermillion New River, formed depositional lobes—Sale- Mississippi as it laid down successive by the Orleans Lafayette across the Atchafalaya Basin. back and forth switching river great and Lafourche—the The Teche, Cypremort, basin, finding the shortestroute to the Gulf, giving rise to the whole of south Louisiana along the way. If not for the Army Corps of Mississippi Engineers, would its now locks enter and the Gulf levees, by the way of the Atchafalaya Basin and River. \\\ 16 \\\ | HERE AND NOT n epi. o hs yas ee e rud o rt? o au, o roe no Creole, no Cajun, No write? to Louisianan by birth or groundadoption? By what permission? Only me love, heart broken open cede years and those love in Do despair. years in eleven years, eleven Louisiana south in flood. lived I outsiderinside? the too, place, upon my this Is question? into call perched to challenge, or rebuke to I am Thibodeaux who Still, City, Morgan Iberia, New fingers slender sea: of series the a in coastline state’s the bridge-cum-highway, a by land erosion degrees, two just rise temperatures global combined with Antarctic ice melt will reduce New Orleans to an islandtied to if 2050, By years. 80 just in polluted waters, Its forever. the 492. Russia’s in last even and poisoned,itscoastlineswashingawayatperilous rates–2000square miles rate than would highest greater far the they – at 816/100,000 citizens if country: its as imprisoning poverty-stricken, monies is one-time Paradise spending corporations, and affluent the to taxgiveaways through manufactured often crises crises, economic and culturally most vulnerable,allowedschools,hospitals,andthepoortobearburden of both region, diverse richly and ecologically, itsinhabitantshavesoldparadiseforoilandgasmoney, ignored astonishing the An me. against pull winter. Writing Louisiana,outsider-inside, polesofaffection andalienationpush in satsumas lemons, Meyer oranges, summer, in blueberries your-own or grits pick- and cheese blackberries Wild okra, coulis. pepper red roasted Pickled with grits peaches. corn Zea’ssweet and corn sweet corn, sweet corn, Sweet Rice™, Country Cajun mirlitons, eggs, roasted chilies and grilled okra, cornbread, collards, Creole tomatoes, muscadines. Local Lebanon. as known be eventually Often Lebanesefood,heritageofwavesMaronite immigrantsfrom whatwould I do not eat meat or seafood: “But what maquechouxandshrimp,mystudentsgapeindisbeliefwhentheydiscover or corn gravy,and roadsiderice the grandmothers’ at their boudin Praising stop. rice, dirty hot Lafayette, in plate-lunch rabbit Orleans, New in Oysterloaf 31. LA of bottle a trays ofoystershalf-shelled,drenched ingarlicandtabasco,washeddownwith here. Outsiders-in-the-midst. Mike digs in, devouring mounds of boiled crawfish or less also,weorbittheedgesofextendedfamiliesuponwhichcommunitytakesform Kin- carnivorous. the among vegetarianism faithful, the among piety of shoals the faith never rooted in me, nor Judaism in my husband. At school, Lafayette isCatholiccountry,our atraditionfamiliarandnot,mymother’schildren Episcopalian navigate trees, the from rain scolds squirrel of Sound PEE-can. not Puh-CAHN ATCH-uh-fuh-lie-uh. not uh-CHAF-uh-lie-uh pronounced Atchafalaya listening: feet, my and books of means by place this know to Coming germination. house” (gynoecium) and spikey “man house” (andoceum). Seed-making and blossoms, theirsprawling,creamy tepalscircling thegreen andgold“woman oak line the median of live our and street. Magnolia In brushes. it spring, among the -and--bodied, astonishing Oriole, scent Baltimore and size of magnolia brush hostsbrown thrashers andruby-throated hummingbirds; Ioncespotteda neighbor’smy In birds. native bottle- yard,plants, and trees native for guidebooks passerine fliers stopping over. Phoebes, flycatchers, nuthatches, sparrows. I purchase burrows,I walkthewoodsspyingforraccoontracks(chatoui,catyes),armadillo o et” hy odr amazed. wonder, they eat?” you do cher becomesha. HERE AND NOT | /// 17 /// Memento mori. An archive is an act of memory and affection, of loss: adrift upon a skim of oil, a scud is an act of memory and affection, An archive of cloud, fragments on the floating Gulf. What to keep, what to give away? What will not come with me, or might? Here and Here might? or me, with come not will What away? give to what keep, to What what to make of this place called home? not here, Eluding silence, I write to impossible idea an and place A world. disintegrating amid a of capsule archives—time fragments, from journals, this photographs, fragments, these are What multitudes. its hands, my in apart falls it reconstruct, memory, seeds. and keys, stray maps, pages, loose of box a build I narrative? At Jefferson and East Main Streets, sunset rises over Pat’s Diner, saffron and orange and saffron Diner, Pat’s over rises sunset Streets, Main East and Jefferson At orange, raspberry, watermelon, stands: ice shaved Cajun towering. clouds of tumult and lemonadeor wedding cake, guava, piña colada. with a quick bit stands of good where, tape to on go. the Fishing lid, camps you’re Drive-through daiquiri nation. at the the coast, in hunting camps store in the . Cream Back yard Ice gardens, back yard chickens: Borden’s Last support. field oil to way given agriculture Dance the two-step at Blue Moon Saloon to Feufollet and Lost Bayou all year Ramblers. the limbs of oak trees Gras, beads stranded in and courirs of Mardi Krewes facto de city, Segregated Pointe. Fausse Lake Martin, Lake Chicot, Lake Kayak long. segregated schools: poor and black northside, affluent and along the city, river. the In International. Festival Créoles, et Acadiens Festivals middle? the in Meet by private its winding swath obscured two public access points to the Vermillion, estates. The mass of vegetation composing a swamp: Lake Martin’s bald cypress, water tupelo, bald cypress, composing a swamp: Lake Martin’s The mass of vegetation and live oaks draped in Spanish Moss, seeds afloat on , the ash, water. pecan, buttonbush, palmetto. Blue-eyed grass and red buckeye. hydrilla tangle the water where and coontail, duckweed, water hyacinth, fanwort, Invasive bladderwort, Powdery also. thrive hyssop water and iris red iris, flag blue and yellow lotus, native thalia. Sedges all along the lake’s margin. The extraordinary population Cormorants, Egrets, Snowy Neotropic Anhingas, Ibises, White lake: the inhabiting of birds Tricolored Roseate Spoonbills, Egrets, Great Herons, Green Little Blue Herons, Night-Herons, Black-crowned Night-Herons, Yellow-crowned Cattle Egrets, Herons, Kingfishers. Belted Coots, American and Moorhen Common Herons. Blue Great and Northern Parula, White- Warblers, Along the levee trail: and Yellow-throated eyed Vireos, and Buntings; flycatchers, woodpeckers, Hawks, Broad-winged nuthatches, Hawks, Cooper’s In the air and in the woods, Sharpshinned wrens. HornedHawks, Red-tailed Hawks, Barn Owls, Owls, Eastern Great Screech-Owls, swamp the others, myriad and species these All Nighthawks. Common Owls, Barred a-thrum with life. again and again. Sky over New Orleans, that endless expanse of blue and cloud, high and wide as all the earth, or so it seems. Walker Percy had the way of of waxwings comes high thin piping blue sky and the cloud in the mild sketch of it, “a Kate mud, or sand lapping water Gulf, the of mutterings soft The everywhere.” from in the salt water that [grow] the reeds through “voice of the sea whispering Chopin’s suspended idly over the horizon.” pools,” “white clouds \\\ 18 \\\ | once

ONCE insert image

file name KIC Image 7.png needs text layered on it \\\ 20 \\\ | ONCE | /// 21 /// water under pressure water under time or water assume a posture of prayer of prayer posture assume a or regret land :: submerged what holds in what pattern land under suspension no petition of pressure (( colloidal )) sediment flood plain pierced and patched wetland :: fluvial terrace marsh bayou a subjective state decays against a lost of error margin ruin registering ((forfeiture)) furrowed ex -tracted ((ex)tent) marais :: :: marécages \\\ 22 \\\ | ONCE Réponds: Whowasresponsible suffering forthe ofyourmother? already inmyhand the switch eachto each tofeelindisposed fi xedona delicate a burning taste pyramidal knob a strong smell a large round ONCE | /// 23 /// Sunrise People Sunrise 1 in the sands on the banks along the woods soil in the red in the pine-barrens on the high hills ‘nya’-uta ‘no’kne hukē’t ne’ ō’l haven’t found it yet haven’t insert image insert image found it yet haven’t Displacements/Deformation: . I will wait for you to I will wait for you come you to come the Mothers below (from) in time, soon here, Atakapa-Ishak words and phrases and rough English translations from A Dictionary of Atakapa English translations from and phrases and rough Atakapa-Ishak words Language accompanied by texts 1 \\\ 24 \\\ | ONCE their friendlywelcome,and Iresumed myJourney. Atakapas, whileassuringthem ofmydesire tobe able tomakesomereturns for When my warriors were rested and refreshed, I took leave of Joseph and of the have sixchildren whomIloveagreat deal,andwithwhomIwanttoendmydays. I Europe. to return to desire least the not have and here, satisfied and happy am I their skinsforclothing.Ihavebeenlivingwiththesepeople foraboutelevenyears; wanderings sothattheycannotgetawayfrom us.We usetheirmeatforfoodand camp neartheminorder toaccustomthemseeingus,andwefollowall their very careful nevertofrightenthem.Whentheystayonaprairieorinforest, we great numbers, and as tame as if they were consequently, raised on a farm; we are very skilfulatthishunting.You understand,moreover, thattheseanimalsare invery sometimes asfartheMissouri;wekillthemwith arrows; ouryounghunters are autumn comedownintotheseparts;there are herds ofthesebuffalo, whichgo in order tofollowthebuffalo, whichinthespringgobackintowest,and is fartheron.We are inthehabitofdividingourselvesintotwoorthree groups He toldme:“You seehere aboutone-halfoftheAtakapasNation;otherhalf Orleans. them theyhadtakentotheAkancas,from where theycouldeasilygotoNew with kindness,would give themhospitality; and iftheydidnotwish to remain with or Frenchmen happenedtobelostinthisbayregion, theAtakapaswelcomedthem endure whentheyhadcometotakepossession of Mexico;thatifsomeEnglishmen way toward thisnationtoavengetheirancestorsforthetorture thatthey madethem they wouldroast himalive,butthattheydidnoteatthem;actedinthis given tothisnationbytheSpaniards becauseeverytimetheycaughtoneofthem, methatthenameAtakapas,whichmeanseatersofmen,hadbeen He informed what partofEurope hecame. French from ratherwell.HetoldmethathisnamewasJoseph;butIdidnotlearn having goneintoMexico,thesepeoplehadchosenhimastheirchief.Hespoke thathewasaEuropean;with thisman,Ilearned thathehadbeenaJesuit;and to myentire detachment;andduringthetimeofaboutsixhoursthatIremained warriors whichIaccepted,whileexpressing tohimmygratitude.Meatwasserved an easymanner, unusualamongthesesavages.Heoffered foodanddrinkformy that he did not belong to the Atakapas nation; he addressed me politely and in recognized I sight, first at me: toward straight coming savages these of one I smoke-drying meat.Assoonasmythree detachmentshademerged from theforest, were onehundred andeighty [180] ofthem of bothsexes, busy, aswesuspected, from seekingtodefendthemselves, madeussignsofpeaceandfriendship.There us. We were soonassured thattheywere Atakapas,who,assoontheysawus,far what nationthesesavagesbelongedto,andwouldbetheirintentionstoward then made them all move forward, and I sent ahead a subordinate chief to ascertain surround these savages, and to leave them no way of retreat except by the pond. I themintothreeseen. Iformed detachments,andarrangedtheminsuchawayasto The forest wewere theninwasthickenoughsothatnoneofmymencouldbe —Louis LeClerc Milfort,1781 ONCE | /// 25 /// Left Behind . Women’s Periquito. hats, Women’s Passager, darkening the sky. In low-lying wet forests: oaks, , In low-lying wet forests: 3 2 Kelinky among the Chickasaw, their flesh poisoned cats. Painted periquito, cream-capped “little” “wig”. Parrot, parakeet, twelve to Greeny-blue Greeny-blue thirteen inches long, wild orange eyespot and blue. Blue-bodied Louisiana long- tailed conure. Cone tail. Noisy, nesting in vines: thieves, and orchards voraciously sampling swamp parrot Bottomland parrot, tree hollows, cypress and sycamore. raiders, robbers. by Audubon, greeny-blue and cream-capped carcasses. Slender with a slight and downward. curving beak. Some Warbler, certain, possessing in earlier times, a along the slightly Lower Suwannee. Slender downward olive-green passerine with yellow lores, yellow abdomen. Bachman Yellow-bellied thickets, Zeep- (the millinery trade) -zzzzzip. amid swampy blackberry and cane Warbler, “sparrow” “shaped” Passeriformes. Yellow shoulder patch rump. Black and and gray and “A olive-gray. lively bright active bird,” males more vivid than their mates, “seizing insects the from air.” Russet and gray, thick as locusts, “the birds poured in migrants Voracious “wandering about,” eating, consuming in everything, beechnuts, countless multitudes.” acorns, . Blueberries, grapes, cherries, mulberries, poke berries, the fruit of dogwoods. Earthworms, caterpillars, snails multitudes, “passing (in in undiminished numbers....three days breeding in succession.” Three season), wandering days in succession. Tens of “Obscured thousands as by an eclipse,” like the sound of thunder approaching. at Cheap meat a time Extinct. poor. for slaves and the Extinct. deforestation. Curlew, Curlew, a clear “target of choice,” thousands at one time, among market hunters after extirpating the passenger pigeon. A at twenty-year a time, assault, pursued autumn and high thousands spring, from migrant migrating fliers killed shorebirds: traversingCurlews, theEskimo call. globe whistling inclear long A arcs. elliptical arctic tundra to Tierra del Fuego. Lost tallgrass prairie, migratory Lost insect hunters. pasturage, lost Rocky Mountain grasshoppers, grasshopper pastures, forage. dry Fields, edges of marshes, vegetated or green blue eggs. Mottled and “formerlybrown white birds. throated part of the dunes. Whatever remains. Browny- established biota, possibly still persisting...” Not seen for thirty years. Almost certainly extinct. Not seen. Blue-backed and red-capped giant, shiny black giant amid woods. and White lower upper wing trailing: Grail Bird, Lord God Bird. crowned And emperor black. of Red the capped, Singer red Tract, Madison and Mill Chicago oblivion, to cut Parish, forest tract, Logging tract. forest primeval Louisiana. Last Southern single a 1944, spring By Godbird. (Bird). God Lord than better feet Board Company. adrift in devastation: last of uncut timber, female Ivory-bill found in a small stand verified sighting. Grail bird. Critically imperiled, extinct. or probably, extinctDefinitely, in Louisiana. Lord God. black gums. Lost breeding and wintering habitat, last seen (hats and haberdashery) haberdashery) and (hats seen last habitat, wintering and breeding Lost gums. black decline. Extinct. 1988. A severe \\\ 26 \\\ | ONCE 3 2 Conservation Area, 47birds. 47birds. Criticallyimperiled. Wetlands Lakes White in Reestablished Louisiana. in Endangered Grus Americana. 2011: 437 wild, 165 captive. One of only two native North American crane species, birds. captive two wild, 21 1941: hunting. and loss habitat by cinnamon-brownDecimated juvenile. and white One juvenile. one eggs, olive-colored blotchy eggs, Theirbugling three to One dawn. at waking and fields. pairs, crane of call cry.Unison or prairies, sound whooping wet mudflats, marshes, Wetlands, legs. dark White with red crown, red patch along cheeks and down, black wing-tips, long Ornithilogical Biography,volii,page483, both) (Ornithilogical “having onlyprocured afewspecimensof bothsexes,withoutbeingable tofindanest”. Audubon quotingRev. JohnBachman,whosentthepainterspecimens,eventhough Quotesfrom JamesJohnAudubon. ONCE | /// 27 /// Île Copal Sugarcane Île Copal losing a full third of their number in the ensuing battle. 4 John D. Winter, Civil War in Louisiana. Civil War John D. Winter, As for the statue, at the threat of a 1980 lawsuit from the venerable Daughters, the of a 1980 lawsuit from As for the statue, at the threat the city to agreed a permanent injunction, not promising to move it. A local group advocating for keeping the statue, demands no new “political “Why Not Alfred?”, correctness verbiage” be attached to “our community heritage”: a man who died Language proffers “valor”, dressing up white supremacy’s evil. up white supremacy’s “valor”, dressing Language proffers 4 On April 17, 1863, charged with defending his hometown, General Mouton with defending On April 17, 1863, charged the Pinhook Bridge, burning stop the Union advance, and across it to retreated Though him. with up caught eventually forces Union where Opelousas to on fleeing Governor Île Copal, arrested captured Union General Nathaniel Banks not before Mouton, burntOrleans, and liberated the him to prison in New his sugar mill, sent 120 enslaved people held there. Île Copal became General Banks’ headquarters. at the Mouton was mortally wounded Brigadier General Alfred The following year, Battle of Mansfield cavalry by “With a marksman tears Mouton’s in of Banks’ army. avenge to determined hail, deadly the through on eyes….ran their in rage and grief the death of their leader,” A plantation of 19,000 acres along the Vermilion River, Île Copal’s sugar production sugar production Île Copal’s River, along the Vermilion A plantation of 19,000 acres made the Moutons both very wealthy and powerful. Though local lore holds that Mouton, the founder of the sugar never slave holders, Jean the Acadians were plantation, was born and expulsed by the British along with his brother in Acadie Marin and the rest of the Acadians. Nor was Mouton Martin, Andrew alone Trahan, Charles Beraud, Honoré Broussard, Isadore Acadians in enslaving people: all depended on the labor of enslaved people Claude Martin, and Antoine Mouton Mouton’s Jean of hands the into came eventually Copal Île plantations. their work to son who Alexander, would become a U.S. GovernorSenator, of Louisiana and, in Convention. 1861, convener of the Louisiana Secession Adjacent to downtown, the Rico Freetown-Port neighborhood takes its name both people of Reconstruction-era Lafayette People of and freed for the Free who took up residence in “Mouton the variety of sugarcane Alexander Mouton—and for established by his father, Addition”—a subdivision of the plantation at Île Copal, a Caribbean import. grown I linger over a bowl of lemon sorbet, downtown Lafayette hot and bright in midday and bright in midday Lafayette hot sorbet, downtown a bowl of lemon I linger over stern, and cross-armed Mouton, Alfred General Confederate street, the Across sun. stares back. His Île papaw’s Copal Plantation founded the One city. hundred and education, College Georgetown father’s for his paid labor people’s enslaved twenty wealth. secured Later the Mouton JeanJacques-Alfred-Alexandre family’s was sent Point, to though West he knew little English. After a brief commission, he resigned Donated War. Civil the of outbreak the until is, that growing, sugarcane up took and in honor of his valor for “The of the Confederacy in 1920, by the United Daughters Cause,” enfranchising Jim Crow, the statue stands, with its back to facing Lee Jefferson Avenue, Street before the former town hall. The way history asserts itself everywhere. \\\ 28 \\\ | ONCE again andagain,rending apart“society, fellowship,friendlyintercourse.” future, the on violence its inflicts past the parish’sway the The of population. 26% (80%), and Alice Boucher Elementary (96%). Yet account for only Middle Lafayette (76%), PreparatoryP. Moss N. black: majority are 2015 in Parish Lafayette in schools performing lowest three The poverty. entrenched Jim-Crow, labor, wage to sacrificed share-cropping,mule a and acres forty arise: made, been the distributionofwealth,generatedbyblacklivesforwhichnoreturnhasever of question the does Nor Plantation. Long Walnutand at Plantation, Grove,Myrtle offer no such succor to either community or heritage, the names of those enslaved Apparently, thenames—lost,erased,forgotten—of thoseenslavedatÎleCopal for famous Confederates? named streets up give wonder, they next, What Confederacy. the defending ONCE | /// 29 /// Réponds: Where do you come from? do you come Where Réponds: here Ta’kapa kic n ichā’k ka-ukin, īt utska-ukulat Ta’kapa Ta’kapa kic n ichā’k ka-ukin, īt utska-ukulat Ta’kapa Atakapas woman and man after death over face covered here here || Atakapas ((Atakapas)) Caddo || Tunica Natchez Houma Chitimacha || Choctaw Ishak || heat here here yardbirds || urban neighbors yardbirds jays sparrows cardinals mockingbirds || songs || shade and green ddles porch || (the blues) swamp fi yardbirds || interminable || wet shadeandgreen quaking land here marsh brackish marsh salt || tupelo gum || fresh live oak and water oak bald cypress and swamp || forest || here || ancient chênières || -sedge-mangrove wet dry wet soaked further back? Plains || basket Great and Appalachians || bread the mountains || Rockies River || Mississippi mud- seas || Mississippi River Mississippi Pleistocene silt inland sprawl-swamp subsidence no || where how far back? Arkansas || California Indiana ||||Canada Illinois Virginia Australia the coasts || || Africa || Asia || any Ireland California Britain’s || California || Britain and Ireland elsewhere \\\ 30 \\\ | ONCE much one thing memanythingspeople ||((no here among Lao FilipinoHmong French Croats (((white)))||Iberian German etlesChinois||MexicanVietnamese Créoles duCarib||Code Noir ||CodeblackfolkAfricanand Les AcadiensAcadiennes||CajunsetCréoles “free creoles ofcolor”||Les ONCE | /// 31 /// Sunrise People (2) Sunrise 5 lya’ něk mōn ya’ nā kētnat imō’ cti (h)ui’ xts tanu’ kip cakwa’ nts cok ku’ ltan cakyo’kat ha’ ickici’l ha’ nīl oktanu’k ha’hu icla’uk imo’ culat mo’hat wi okē’t tu’l icitsiu’tsicat icatsi cki’ñcat icōñcat kē’tne Displacements/Deformation: she came my mother the lake up made us grow glad we were we did not want to remain to tell about things to tell about things long ago she sang her daughter her grandchild the same rst, previously fi yellow fever they buried her that is all she lived she is there buried and lies there I knew her once Atakapa-Ishak words and phrases and rough English translations from A Dictionary of Atakapa Language English translations from and phrases and rough Atakapa-Ishak words 5 accompanied by texts. \\\ 32 \\\ | ONCE topos: anode of avanishingworld cartography whisper aboutmyfeet and wildaster star grass and gratitude recognition means both connaissance in French re- the treeline course toward in fragmented my bodymakes the space sense oftime to myeroding counterpoint bayou orchids anarrow phloxes I comeforwild long-leafed among darker and wateroak cypress graze amid black andwhitecattle ONCE | /// 33 /// Coulée cattle like a good beverage like a cup hermaphrodite in winter male and coming out “Any coulee that’s going to be carrying water is going to be carrying trash....When carrying be to going is water carrying be to going that’s coulee “Any the city.” from like a trash train moving, it’s that water’s Only a month in town, we shelter from the late sun’s glare, traveling by way of the glare, the late sun’s we shelter from Only a month in town, the signal, a As vehicle we slow down approaching street. shade of the tree-lined in front of us pauses for the . The passenger door the car the asphalt, before drink cup onto opens, an down to set an emptied McDonald’s arm reaching the turn. Class warfare? as it glides through door clicking closed pulls away, West Bayou Parkway, a suburban road wandering through one high-end suburb one high-end suburb through wandering a suburban road Bayou Parkway, West along the edge River bending the Vermillion takes its name from another, toward uentof core. Lafayette’s affl Live oaks zamias. and palmettos of over graceful place in palms Exotic roses. daylilies, azaleas, with green Manicuredlawns. gardens The swooping curves of At driveways the mirror meander. the western parkway’s the toward margin road’s the from away winds Mine Coulée terminusroad, the of grasses, tall oaks, water with Lined street. the from away water storm carrying river, river. muddy-red into the Vermillion, the coulée drains directly overgrowth, \\\ 34 \\\ | ONCE Displacements/Deformation: Displacements/Deformation: accompanied by texts. 6 Atakapa-Ishak words andphrases andrough English translationsfrom ADictionaryofAtakapa Language it out we willbake in thefi re a hoggoescrying well withyou on ahorse sweet small, green 6 SunrisePeople and andoyne hita’ uc cakwāktikit kidso’ nkckin wān-haihaickit nto’l tsanu’ki and fi ne peculiar certainly ONCE | /// 35 /// Water and history (1) and Water basin and range Off to one side of the town was the dwelling place of the Curaca of the Curaca the dwelling place of the town was to one side Off as a fortress. on a high mound which now served (chief). It was situated house...... this to ascend one could stairways two of means by Only beholding the pillage and seizure of his vassals, he grasped a battle- the in fury, greatest the with stairs the descend to began and ax his into came who anyone slay to fiercely and loudly vowing meantime land without permission. —Hernando de Soto what remains after flood what remains two ends of an experiential continuum one room and an attic one room moss and mud en la louisiane rendered between the 40 th and 49 th parallels Les Maritimes wet earth :: houses than not more dolomite argillite sandstone to speak of a life dolomite argillite Treaty of Utrecht Treaty (Acadie) involuntary transportation recapitulates erosion east south the purposive et le Grand Dérangement organism hunters farmers oysterers loaded on ships and sent delimits memory Coushatta Houma Natchez Caddo Tunica accretion accretion or precipitation mud (( silt )) roots mangrove \\\ 36 \\\ | ONCE edging themarginal deltaic alcohol disease intermarriage a practiceof aftermath de Soto’s sister moundsabandoned plateau green Emerald Mound’s pentagonal trees wetland stimuli assign((drowned Jack Canal scattered inhousesalongHappy ((les Acadiensvenusparbateau) Houma Atakapa-Ishak ChoctawChitimacha subjective ||states locating asenseofplace earth hearthhome ways ofknowing || maizestored ingranaries a progression ofattitudestoward theland across hard clayplazas|| Chenco discsstonerolled gods abandoned green moundswingedserpentsthunder migration overalandbridge 12,000, 15,000y.a. sedimentary :: depositional neither rock norsand prerogative ofempire placement the dis- ONCE | /// 37 /// basin cheniers ancient sedimentary France for Louisiana 1600 Acadiens left disease deported drowned 11,500 imprisoned fur trappers marginal oysterers gardeners (dit beausoleil) Joseph Broussard seining the bayous failed Mik’maq confederacy sunlight “Acadians of the Atakapas” :: a faculty for exploitation muck organic trans sect || trans act en pirogues naviguèrent le long du Golfe \\\ 38 \\\ | ONCE Displacements/Deformation: Displacements/Deformation: accompanied by texts.Atakapa-Ishakisnolonger alivinglanguage. 7 Atakapa-Ishak words andphrases andrough English translationsfrom ADictionaryofAtakapa Language yonder theydance old here at thedancingplace feathers they paintedthemselvesblack white theypaintedthemselves they paintedthemselveswithred to Otsotat sun attherising they prayedstanding large grapes sweet persimmonssmallgrapes, 7 SunrisePeople(4) hiya’ñ Cuka-kulět wā’ci a tikpum ne’kin na’-u hatmē’lco cakatko’pcĕn hatiu’lco ’n’o’hik Utsuta’t ut hiye’kiti tawatwe’năt hicka’m a’liñ hicōm, ōl a’yip ONCE | /// 39 /// water All is open. Open I. Open water. “The Outer Banks” Muriel Rukeyser, — sunonwater rocking here rocking blue echo / fallow -ing furrow blue green sunonwater particles of air (( shift -ing cordgrass yaw pitch and pitch open air open water open water of departure departure of or initial energy or initial energy awaiting a predicate awaiting a predicate the necessary state Open I (eye) \\\ 40 \\\ | ONCE prairiea(s)way saltmarsh((gnawn -edspartinagrass above piers concrete trammel bluechannel w ideng crudeoozingintosilt pipelines fi ftyyearold ((blue)) rigshunkeron no edge:: horizon -bingintogreen bob dock ((my))weightoveralow ONCE | /// 41 /// Réponds: Who are you and whom do you love? and whom do you Who are Réponds: an oak a floodplain nothingdry floodplain nothingdry an oak a EXCESS nitrogen what, love, are you what, love, are (( vested) interests erasure presupposes presupposes erasure e r o s i o n e r o s any coastline lined in platforms propagates flood tornado hurricane family of pernicious weeds duckweed hyacinth kudzu duckweed hyacinth noendtoit damp writes itself into wood sprawls damp writes a whole- 4000 miles of river || g r e e n || or a color widows weeds widows weeds salt an influx of the rate of compression of memory against of memory the rate of compression

\\\ 42 \\\ | ONCE waterhadnone In Atakapaswidow() love languages follylost akindin accountforweather howwe arriveagainand histories (several) Creole Acadien Bourbon Native West African New Iberian | /// 43 /// \\\ 44 \\\ | afore

Art. 33. L’esclave qui aura frappé son maître, sa maîtresse ou le mari de sa maîtresse, ou leurs enfants avec contusion ou eff usion de sang, ou au visage, sera puni de mort. O O D N C R E I

Art. 34. Et quant aux excès et voies de fait qui seront commis par les esclaves contre les personnes libres, voulons qu'ils soient sévèrement punis, même de mort, s'il y échet. \\\ 46 \\\ | AFORE | /// 47 /// like a star cirrriform and four white a real Aunt Cheyney was jus’ out of bed with a sucklin’ baby one time, and jus’ out of bed with a sucklin’ baby Aunt Cheyney was breedin’. baby of massa’s Some say that was ’nother she run away. so they misses her to nurse her baby, come to the house She don’t They gits near gits the hounds and takes her trail. and old Solomon but them in a tree, a limb and tries to h[o]ist herself her and she grabs and onto her, pull her down. The men hollers them dogs grab her and She her body. plumb off the breasts her nake[d] and et the dogs tore suck to has woman ’nother but woman, old a be to lived and well got more. no of breasts got no sign ain’t her baby and she WPA Project, Federal Writers’ Dallas, Texas ca. 1937, ca. 1832-1865 Interview conducted of Mary Reynolds, Enslaved in Louisiana, — Narrative \\\ 48 \\\ | AFORE Réponds: How did youarrive? Réponds: Howdid alone hungry in themidstofkin belly oftheslaveship et dansleGolfeduMexique par bateau air landbridge-bayou-sea priests in thesudorifi cbaths blossoms copal burnt asincense burnt AFORE | /// 49 /// Ode: negotiation with place Natchez Tangipahoa

drone in the thick air, matted verdure matted verdure in the thick air, drone to articulate a means of entry a means of entry to articulate water oak and oak water Arcady Teche Ardoin, Fontenot, Abshire, Segura Abshire, Fontenot, Ardoin, forest and booted feet carry me here and booted feet carry me here forest mosquitoes sweat clinging to my brow, a sanction against trespass trespass a sanction against cypress swamp lilies and bald moccasins, sticky clay salt domes, water Builders, slavers, French Builders, slavers, French colony the wet a world defined by language of 1812 woodcocks, M. de Iberville, War tupelo gum, zydeco, crawfish, frottoir silt and flood, bayou slips silt and flood, bayou knees over cypress imperceptible left a net of language local particulars and Army Corps of Engineers arbitrary and infinite intersections complex branched :: memory and place chronicle the relation between topos the relation whispers its own arguments over my skin, irrefutable inhabitants collaborate human surfaces synthetic Pontchartrain its hybrid, Tchoupitoulas one into an(other) into Mound one place, palimpsestic language and history— batture experience and opossum, articulating language bird-foot, translation, palimpsestic damp, a

a sensation or impression of impression Mississippi or sprawling sensation implacable, a humidity,

consensual knife-edged opening opening knife-edged waterway consensual Atchafalaya bayuk Choctaw, from absence people a removed in \\\ 50 \\\ | AFORE away, andborne catandchildplace cover under sprawling sheltering houses,looseningfoundations— Suburban topos:liveoaks solidlyinseven-year-old arms leaf-litterclatteringoverthelawn abandonleavesandleaf-outallatonce cat,grayintruder, grasped nearnatives,thesedomesticatedspawn lithe green anolesspring,take azaleas,waxycamellialeaves limbsofpurpleandwhite AFORE | /// 51 /// ’Tit Ben ’Tit Ben chastises us for paying Thomas, the man he recommended to help in Thomas, the man he recommended Ben chastises us for paying ’Tit our garden, what was asked, rather than what paternalism,earth-floored White and indigency Black Ben mother. his to Thomas report prescribed. Ben promises to columns. “quarters” and neo-classical porch Locals say Meche’s makes the best King Cake, though we prefer Poupart’s old Poupart’s though we prefer makes the best King Cake, Locals say Meche’s , cakes, galette des rois Northern Frenchstyle puff pastry filled with and beans Red out. lets church when frangipane. noon, after until alcohol buy can’t we Sundays rice. beans and rice, old chicken gravy and rice, red Zamia palms coat their cinnabar seed pods in tawny . I mean to collect these but these collect to mean I felt. tawny in pods seed cinnabar their coat palms Zamia Swallowtail walk. every from moss Spanish of strands home trail children The forget. ‘orange dogs’ in spring, on the leaves of lemon and orange trees, put away green solitary a of remnants shells, oyster over clatters rain Later leaves. glossy beneath fat feast, yellow flags in the pond flowering. Beneath St. Jean’s bells, I ignore the Banksias, heat, Gamecock iris, blue plant and yellow flags. roses, Weeds pernicious yellow in like summer, and white thieving his “Japanese his porch, BB gun from Ben shoots with a ’Tit the squirrels Lady ” and pecans. Across the a way, red tail hawk stoops through live oaks, and into the canopy. in its talons, and vanishes flies up clutching a luckless squirrel Bells of St. John’s— Église de Saint Jean, once upon a time—peal Sunday mornings Sunday time—peal a upon once Jean, Saint de Église John’s— St. of Bells Île Jean Mouton’s built on gifted plantation land, a church over our house tops, Copal. On the north side of town, the Immaculate Heart of Mary was founded in 1934 to afford positions for four African American Mississippi. Immaculate segregation. priests Louis Bay, newly ordained at St. Eleven years in south Louisiana does not teach me to eat oysters, crawfish, etouffé. etouffé. crawfish, oysters, eat to me teach not does Louisiana south in years Eleven We make vegetarian gumbo only once, and stop, for though the children, I learn to adopt accept “Come “How are see” you, Boo?” from the youngest my nurse, of elderly twelve neighbor, children, as ’Tit Ben. recognize Forbidden French in school, his siblings taught him English so he wouldn’t be punished. Never learned his mother tongue. \\\ 52 \\\ | AFORE When the watersrecedeWhen the BONNEVAL. June 30.J.A. all sooffending. enforced against be rigorously as thelawwill said negresse, or employing against harboring are cautioned all otherpersons of vesse’s and Courier. Captains office ofthe thereof atthe give information her injail,and whoever willlodge will bepaidto The Abovereward known inthecity. English, andiswell speaks French and her front teeth; very fast,haslost and thin,walks 24 years,verytall MELITTE, aged the negress before yesterday, subscriber theday Runaway from the REWARD TEN DOLLARS —Rickey Laurentiis a boat’s mastclaimingmylonelynighttoo? Is there here BIBBER. 1857. SAMVAN dollars. July15, of twenty-five will payareward delivered tome,I given andheis notice thereof parish anddue jail outofCaddo is lodgedinany lately seen.Ifhe where hehasbeen DeSoto parish, near Keachie,in Mr. Wm. Speils, He hasawifeat is notrecollected. clothing hehason The kindof of quickmotion. conversation, and quite plausiblein slow tospeak,but dark color, rather feet height,of he isaboutsix or 170pounds; weighs about165 28 yearsofage, by trade,27or is acarpenter June last.Lunn about the28th absented himself man LUNN,who LA., ofmynegro in Shreveport, delivery tome, apprehension and reward forthe give theabove $50 REWARD Iwill TANEY. me. CHAS.H. and returned to taken inthisState State, and$50if if takenoutofthis give $100reward for theWest. Iwill some steamboat left onboard of supposed tohave MD. Heis Mary’s country, Sherwoods, ofSt to thefamilyof having belonged 14 yearsago, Maryland above Orleans from He cametoNew inches inheight. is about5feet10 and English, speaks French read andwrite, clothing, hecan has plentyof dressed person, very politetowell well combed,is keeps hishair looking, and slender andgood color, israther old, ofbrown about 28years man CHARLES, instant theslave the 1STofMarch, Absconded on REWARD DOLLARS ONE HUNDRED CONVENT 1809. URSULINE Reward. July26, receive theabove Antoine Abat,will to theiragent, who willbringhim nunnery. Those belonging tothe named NARCI, a Negro, abaker th inst,wentaway REWARD Onthe7 TEN DOLLARS AFORE | /// 53 /// Land and water Land and , Saina —Craig Santos Perez “No page is ever truly blank” is ever truly blank” “No page the visible rend

something else obtains inexplicably another luminosity in the Mississippi between 2 bends a map or mapping erosion) (accretion the visible rend egrets white ibises herons Dow Chemical churns out polyethylene and methylcellulose milkshakes emptying wastestream ((dioxin into the Mississippi ((milk jugs and vinyl chloride a dead ((PVC zone 1989 Morrisonville cancer freed alley “freetown” ((liberated by Dow)) men and women bought out and moved away de- populated by Dow new town new burial ground

\\\ 54 \\\ | AFORE lessand geography’s bonessurfacing betweenriverandbasin((Atchafalaya (((atchafalaya economyofexploitation ::refi neryjobsawhole (ofendeavor poisoned fl ight any projected (pejorative)“fi eld” rushingwater supplication a fi eld alignedwith Baton RougeàNewOrleans chemical corridor 80 milelong abandoned poisoned (air) town wellspoisoned located )) incomeAfrican Americancommunities” disposal incinerators((likewise “confi nedtolow- Louisiana andTexas produced in PCBs hexachlorobenzene dioxin grounds Dow’s sprawling1,400acre AFORE | /// 55 /// history’s ( ) history’s steady perspective this blank(ed) coastline ((terra incognita sun ((terra nullius glistening \\\ 56 \\\ | AFORE threnody this senselessthrashing it getsawayfrom you boat inthewater boat inthewater and quitcometrappingseason drilled thathole,toolpushing gambling onspringandsummer oilfi elds barges andrigs up anddownthecoast a goodlife amid thesoakandfl ow getting there allalong bowing afi ddle shelling boiledpeanuts raising theleveesagainand magnolia sweet an achethatisnotpain such anawkward alliance knowing howthiswillend on thebanks large bushes thick asafi nger in winter AFORE | /// 57 /// 8 Réponds: What is theRéponds: your body shape of because of brother- in-law's acts in-law's brother- of because Lindor insurrection hung, and exposed found guilty, commuted due to special special to due commuted circumstances Isaac or Jacques, insurrection Honore hung, and exposed found guilty, Joseph Charles insurrection hung, and exposed found guilty, insurrection exposed hung, and guilty, found insurrection hung, but buried (not exposed) Etienne (Neptune) Etienne (Neptune) insurrection Daniel Garret, exposed hung, and found guilty, Hector insurrection guilty and hung found Louis Jessamin insurrection hung, and exposed found guilty, Theodore insurrection insurrection Gilbert hung, and exposed found guilty, hung, and exposed found guilty, exposed insurrection mercy but recommend found guilty, Caesar insurrection Atys but shot, not hung and guilty, Orphee insurrection hung, and exposed found guilty, insurrection insurrection hung, and exposed found guilty, death sentence found guilty, German Coast Uprising: facsimile of original Criminal case 229: 1812, Honore, insurrection. Found insurrection. German Coast Uprising: facsimile of original Criminal case 229: 1812, Honore, 8 guilty, hung, and exposed. guilty, \\\ 58 \\\ | AFORE Take MeTo TheRiver 10 9

https://www.democracynow/2017/5/23/as_;ast_confederate_statue_is_removed http://takeemdownnola.org/ agitators. Oftheremaining sixteenmonuments,noword. vests andoperatethecranes bynighttoavoidtheviolenceofwhitesupremacist E. bullet-proof wear to Robert forced were workers The statue, down. pulled was fourth Circle, Lee of the Lee 2017, May In well. as schools, city thirty and names twenty statuesandcommittedthecommunityto renaming hundreds ofstreet the of four remove to voted council city the and Landrieu Mitch Mayor Louisiana. Crow installationsre-consecrating thecitytowhitesupremacy ofpre-Civil War Orleans communitytoremove allConfederatemonumentsinNewOrleans, Jim the statehouse grounds, #TakeEmDownNola Breeactivist the and Newsome’s removalsubsequent from flag Confederate the of the MotherEmmanuelAfricanMethodistEpiscopalChurch byawhitesupremacist statehouse grounds, Foundedinresponse tothe2015murders ofninemembers Carolina South the from flag Confederate the of removal Newsome’ssubsequent African MethodistEpiscopalChurch byawhitesupremacist andtheactivistBree Founded inresponse tothe2015murders ofninememberstheMotherEmmanuel of terrorism.” MartinSuber, co-founder#TakeEmDownNola one been has South the in organizations supremacist white of history whole “the agitators. Oftheremaining sixteenmonuments,noword. vests andoperatethecranesbynighttoavoidviolenceofwhitesupremacist E. bullet-proof wear to Robert forced were workers The statue, down. pulled was fourth Circle, Lee of the Lee 2017, May In well. as schools, city thirty and names twenty statuesandcommittedthecommunitytorenaming hundreds ofstreet the of four remove to voted council city the and Landrieu Mitch Mayor Louisiana. Crow installationsre-consecrating thecitytowhitesupremacy ofpre-Civil War Orleans communitytoremove allConfederatemonumentsinNewOrleans,Jim terrorize us.We demand: the maintenance of publicsymbols that demeanusandpsychologically the freedom tolive in a city where we are not forced to pay taxes for many so terrorized that of this city’s ancestors. They misrepresent our community. We demand of legacy horrid the of reminders visual signs dedicatedtoWhiteSupremacists. Thesestructures litterourcitywith take immediateactiontoremove allmonuments,schoolnamesandstreet We thepeopleofNewOrleans demandthattheMayorandCityCouncil ofthemonumentsandchoosingtheirreplacements. 3. Thatthecitydevelopacommunitydrivenprocess fortheremoval toencompassallmonumentsWhiteSupremacy; 2. Thatthecityexpanddefinitionfrom 4specificmonuments monuments; 1. Thatthecityrelease atimelinefortheimmediateremoval ofthe 10 9 pressured the New pressured theNew AFORE | /// 59 /// a series of a series of steps or decelerating pas de (no progressions schematic covering the familiar scape ((escape return presupposes the past “an ideal dimension” or velocity ((water)) aground water always returning though never fully retrievable of lost things an archive memory longing grief ark hive Isle(s) Dernière(s) Réponds: How didRéponds: (2) you arrive? \\\ 60 \\\ | AFORE Flora How know to know any place comes first to me through trees and birds, native and birds, trees In me through plants. to first comes place any know to know How see. evenings, gulfcoasttoadscallfrom pondtoplumeria,comesee, Reflections waver over the panes of the window, water-marking the page. In thethe late to listen I room, pond outside, water splashing into itself among native my iris, pickerel and zebra rush. of light diffuse the in Quiet scrubbing. for better the all sand, with water.laced shallow stems in rigid happily growsIts pots, clean to used knotted with sporangiophores. Horsetail rush, or winter scouring rush because once Equisetum hyemale,ontheotherhand,demandsmyattention,itscreamy strobilus weed “honeyvine” anoxious named something it page. the to diffuse,easily and come simple love lines, Its leaves? heart-shaped its with not How call them. Some love monarchs fields. the through though way its stitches roadsides, along posts, up gorgeously twines swallow-wort, or milkweed, Bluevine common. Some daysIstandatadrawingtable,sketchingnativeplants,somerare, some drawings waitonmyreturn. egg-laying, assuring the success of her clutch. At home, half-finished in pond-light, banana spiders,thefemales eatthemalesaftermating,ahighprotein mealbefore throughsoughs wind alreadywoods, sugar the the field, cane Of a high. feet eight Behind barn. the of red weathered the beside line a in stamping neighbors his at luck. When I brush him down after the ride, squirrels scold overhead and he nickers across accelerates the horse for stocking white one and blaze white spring’sA as last fence. low a over and acorns balance finding woods, these through riding by canters, leftforeleg reaching out,whitehindbrightinthedust:aleafydesire roused and flies, at tail his flicks horse The ones. biggest the clearing for handy stick long of blackberrybrambleswhere thehorseandIpass,almostblithelythoughkeepa trees, pecan and oak of woods ragged the among or roofline, and roses between amber- and orange- curved long, mottled abdomens. They their are lovely after spiders, happy them stringing their names traps in my Louisiana garden South next. habitat, bananaspidersspinningnetsofgoldensilk betweenonefrond andthe into theairorcollapsedontoground: almostanyvinemakesthepalmettos The understoryisthick with dwarfpalmettos sending theirbroad fronds splay-like feet. wet of chance quotidian dry,the and wet alternately ground the woods, the Through woodsandtrails,alongcanoetrailscircumnavigating lakes,trampinginto at thebaseofpage. flowers Pressed skin? gray smooth, from hooks sharp thrusts trunk thorned whose tree, of sort What vine? Which bird? Which me. feeds everywhere world common exquisite order.”The natural stranger/ Of four.”a and habit/ and white/ fruit real faint/ a “some star/ honeyvine, a like “cirriform/ present? the translated to 1817 means in this Louisiana by south of say language such might What narratives. fragmented draw I which from with reservoir a become names entries the their Instead images. the include to not choose I end, the in Though clear. come names plant its Robin” C. C. of names are often in error. French Tracking them through the aegis of the Google, most modern from Improved, and Revised, “Translated, then Rafinesque S. C. by recorded and collected First am. I as uncertain as often , I find a companion creature, a companion find I Florula Ludoviciana,AFloraofLouisiana, AFORE | /// 61 /// Réponds: What do you remember about the about earth? remember What do you Réponds: not dry en pirogue les marécages ils naviguèrent les bayous || swamp wetland bay Mississippi alluvial loess deltaic clay lagoonal clay late pleistocene sediment loam sand stone neither/not :: s t o n e t o m u d s t o n e t o m u s t o n e t o m u d st o ne to mu d st o stone to mud stone stonetomud stonetomud inverting the heights inverting the heights erosion precipitation accretion processes processes :: seas plains :: mountains cañon canyon \\\ 62 \\\ | AFORE Cajunmusicianandoilfi eldworker —Werlien Prosperie, July9,2003.Houma,LA. Much lessradar. Buttheydidn’t needcompasses. need…well theydidn’t have.Theydidn’t evenhavecompasses. boats alltheirlife.Andtheydidn’t needcompasses. Theydidn’t boat skipperswere local people. From downtheBayou.Beenon their jobs.Anditdidn’t Andthen….allthe take themlongtolearn. experience. They… applied that. When they went on their…on life from Just Youknow? this. utilize we’d and dock no…dry have we didthiswiththeboat.You know?We hadtogetitupwedidn’t see ifitworks.Let’s trythis.We usedtodothis.Iremember when oilfi the eld to get they’d usethesamepracticalapplications,youknow?Let’s trythis they’d when Well, survive. and living a make the shrimpin,’trappin.’You know, thesurvivalthingtodo And theenvironment they camefrom. Thetrawlin,’thecrabbin,’ white and handsome loose whitish andsmooth cylindrical the male AFORE | /// 63 /// Réponds: What thisRéponds: means a means through watersupposing ground

((( buoyed, bodied ) bodied buoyed, ((( certain nothing (figure and (figure ground) snak -ing \\\ 64 \\\ | AFORE what Texaco used:JimmiMartin or we can’t hardly trawl fill theGulfupwith the bay, orthelakes the Gulfup could fill everything overboard dumped the oilcompanies small woodenluggers the smallluggers fishing oysters steady paycheck,and in thesky pie like a laying pipeinthemarsh hauling pipe pipelines inthemarsh Golden Meadow Leeville and wooden rigs oil rigs knowing a matterof booming the oilfield in thefisheries in thefisheries a seventy-twofootboat a sixty-fivefoot Texaco Texaco off theland on thebayouand AFORE | /// 65 /// over the side ten foot deep desks, a sink anything went over the side what care don’t trash left on the bottom , grating le cabinets fi dodging, these dodging, long hangs no regulation regulation “We are all okay. It hit bad. We had plenty of trouble keeping things together with had plenty of trouble It hit bad. We all okay. are “We Glenn and Old two children, and I took Olga and her nothing much to do. Tannie ve children to high landNora untiland theher stormfi Now was I over. am on the did not have high gulf still We going back home…. boat with Dada and Tannie, say if we will have a big loss. Some can’t water but wind and sand blowing…I families will lose plenty.” September 20, 1943, Louisiana Paradise , , Chenier au Tigre —Zoe Cessac Sagrera \\\ 66 \\\ | Louisiana Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)

The EPA tracks the management of certain toxic chemicals that may pose a thereupon

threat to human health and the environment. Total onsite and off-site disposal or other releases: 140.4 million lbs from 389 companies. Most prevalent toxics released: Acetonitrile, Ammonia, Methyl, Methacrylate, Cyanide compounds. Louisiana ranks 5 out of 56 states/ territories nationwide based on total releases per mile

(Rank 1 = highest releases), 2015. (https://iaspub.epa.gov/triexplorer/tri_factsheet.factsheet_ forstate?&pstate=LA&pyear=2015&pParent=TRI&pDataSet=TRIQ1) \\\ 68 \\\ | WHENCE | /// 69 /// sweet to clean and scour seven feet branched like a pea …Grand Terre is going: the sea mines her fort, and will before before will and fort, her sea mines the is going: Terre …Grand the ramparts by storm.many years carry Isle is going, Grand her into miles three eaten has Gulf the surely; but —slowly Last Isle has gone! meadowed land. —Lafcadio Hearn , Chita \\\ 70 \\\ | WHENCE Lapse ::acity coteau::maidencaneandarrowhead sprawlingtoward water the weightofthings::highwaysbridgesrectilinear city foot shallowsea river’s ancientdepositionbird- merely mud leveeslithosphere laughinggullson chatlike navigationalconcerns down-warping alluvialearthfloodcontrol and thecityshiftsonitspiers::alocalvernacular inundationsubsidence WHENCE | /// 71 /// of channelization narrow shoals narrow sea rising over fresh canouche fresh sun king’s flooded realm le Conseil realm le flooded sun king’s by the river rapt river the by city wrapped within wrapped city lapse toward toward lapse salt grass and wire grass wire salt grass and :: hem brackish a things of the past things of hydrology Souverain erodes \\\ 72 \\\ | WHENCE Plaquemine Aquifer quiet plumegrowth quiet dispersion))contribute to & quietprocesses ((advectionand beautiful dispersedaway a beautifulMississippiRivertransport it wasabeautifultransport quiet uppersand quiet aquifer & quietPlaquemineAquifer beautiful oncecontaminantsmoved a beautifuluppersandaquifer it wasabeautifuldirect ((indirect)) contact quiet significantsource quiet prominent atthelikely & quietcuttingtendstobe beautiful facilitatedthemovement a beautifulsite13 it wasabeautifulfluvialprocess quiet nearsite13 quiet anyreleased ator & quietanycontaminant beautiful shifttotheoutsideturn a beautifulchanneleach inthestreamit wasabeautifulturn quiet cut-bank quiet turbulentriverflow & quietsolidphaseseroded beautiful probable source a beautifuloriginalsource area it wasabeautifulcontaminanttransport &quietwithmists.” “It wasabeautifulspringmorning—warm —Dorothy Wordsworth WHENCE | /// 73 /// it was a beautiful lateral stream lateral stream it was a beautiful pipeline cutting a beautiful descent beautiful accelerated & quiet cutting there quiet vinyl chloride quiet cis-1,2dichlorethene it was a beautiful 1 foot per day estimate a beautiful rough beautiful spreading & quiet indicated by quiet purpose quiet an idea of of magnitude it was a beautiful order a beautiful contaminant reach wells beautiful Myrtle Grove & quiet 20-40 year quiet time frame quiet 1964 Dow dioxin it was a beautiful [formerly spill Morrisonville] a beautiful racial of chemical beautiful profiling & quiet plant placement quiet likely significant source in black quiet area it was a beautiful ((color line a beautiful color line)) does not rule out beautiful does not & quiet rule out quiet 1993 release quiet the contaminated material \\\ 74 \\\ | WHENCE quiet MyrtleGrove watersupply quiet drinkingwater & quiet97ppb beautiful chlorideinground water a beautifulvinyl- it wasabeautifulnolongeridentifi ableonthesurface admitting only thecalyx doubtful affi nity akin its natural might alsobe WHENCE | /// 75 /// distance answers what any Réponds: What thisRéponds: means (2) (-taxa a matter of waters this asking what what water gathers meaning this also asking what you’re matters what waters ((peri-tactical such meaning such any any (para)tactical matter no matter || water water what gather asks watering the ground what this means this what \\\ 76 \\\ | WHENCE current ofgeography here where Istop and springstays blossom brushesitsscent over myskin oxygen lemon a longtrough introducing soundand spills intoitself green givingwaytoblackwater small carpcarvealgaewithorangemouths day andduty: ignoring thesummonsto outdoors read voraciously my hair or wash gather laundrybefore rain here nowthere walking asrest 3 history leftmebehind place orhas moving doIoccupythesame if Istop time (re)asserts itselfgenerationally 2 scaffolding time: a movementlikebreath here ||now adrift onacurrent ofgeography 1 breeze traversinganother(felt)space on pressure ofwind,this shallow gobletsofrose scentwave lemon tooak in lowtrajectoryfrom larks stillcallfrom lemontrees dart seed making and blushedwanton chartreuse whileazaleasbeckonwhite Louisiana dousesitselfinmalegametesturns shower ofoakssouth on everysurfacevernal oak pollen&catkinsdriftintheaircollect leafrattle insect humbird callwaterspill WHENCE | /// 77 /// Myrtle Grove Trailer Park Trailer Myrtle Grove “I hope—” lose my baby” “—I don’t solution ((source)) the plant solution ((source)) is not the source 5 years “human error” to tell report to failure vinyl- chloride detected in Upper Plaquemine Aquifer than jobs for more 6000 Dow and contract employees rows of sugar cane of sugar cane rows against hard “we all had miscarriages” dented but decent steak and stewed smothered PLAK-uh-mun trailers to a community ceases not exist what was said a word not— Louisiana Hospitals and Human Services a word— failed to, failed vinyl -chloride in the water report Myrtle Grove to report “And I thought—” Dow Chemical working to pin- point the source ((part of the \\\ 78 \\\ | WHENCE “a niceplace” ((“partofthesolution”)) ready spokenfor locating onchecksal- re- cools the schoolbusafternoon children throng from Dow inLouisiana “—That manywomenononestreet?” contaminated water Morrisonville ((cemetery)) grounds already condemned toxic to bepartofthesolution” Dow “working no knowinghow5years production)) ((1964 PVC Dow’s “pure product” blows inoff thecane gone wind homes patches peopleand empty spacebrown washing cars splash poolsmen social responsibility trailers withporches :: bigshadetrees economic environmental and community balancing part ofthesurrounding miscarrying “Thirteen—” “—on withlife,cookingit” “we alljustwent—” WHENCE | /// 79 /// might be so imperfectly described remarkable Réponds: Whom do you love? Whom do you Réponds: globular fi ve small fi fl oscules fl the same smell and sweet || canouche kin woods roses \\\ 80 \\\ | Particular places enter into our self-conception and self- identity inasmuch as it is only in whence

our grasp of, the places in which we are situated that we can

encounter objects, other persons, indeed ourselves... —Our identities are intricately and

essentially

place- bound.

—J.E. Malpas \\\ 82 \\\ | WHENCE | /// 83 /// fruit and habit form some faint a stranger a most egregious natural order “I want to assure the people of the affected areas and this country and this areas of the affected the people assure “I want to under the assets necessary to get the situation that we’ll deploy gonna help of this situation. and we’re get on top control....we’ll help.” people that need Bush, Sept 3, 2005 George —President \\\ 84 \\\ | WHENCE KATRINA Brownie candor -nervous” people with list of pending further sufficient no guidanceor dumping ground stagnation grounding built onasponge not “if” roof and near impossibletofocus forecast ((disappeared )) some strengthening Saturday, August28 should betoleavethecity.” city ofNewOrleans:“Iwanttoemphasize,thefirstchoiceeverycitizen At 10am,MayorNaginissuesthefirstevermandatoryevacuationor Les haricotssontpassalés… —NationalHurricaneCenter, Saturday, August28,10:11am ALL GABLEDROOFSWILLFAIL. OF WELL-CONSTRUCTEDHOMESWILLHAVE ROOFANDWALL FAILURE. UNIHABITABLE FORWEEKS…PERHAPSLONGER.AT LEASTONEHALF OF HURRICANECAMILLEIN1969.MOSTTHEAREAWILLBE UNPRECENDENTED STRENGTH…RIVALLING THEINTENSITY HURRICANE KATRINA…A MOSTDEVASTING HURRICANEWITH no 72-hourwindow cars without special needs had no fund sites waiting tosee no remaining and 112,000without a priori was no for avoluntary we maycall 31 super- gumbo” stability residential lowground failure a toxic erosion stormsurge some 27milesofmarsh marketed as “the mayorwas- evacuation priorities “hazmat and coastal der for WHENCE | /// 85 /// -saken Bush va- -saken Bush old and left 11 for them for for for them for needing what (?) shacks pride owning those little pride owning those little buses coming buses coming took Ninth Ward special needs -gotten for behind cationing at the ranch out in the wet needy people Oliver Thomas, City Councilman representing the Ninth Ward Oliver Thomas, City Councilman representing

11 \\\ 86 \\\ | WHENCE shelter 2000 2 something something engineering flaw shifted protection projects an diversionof theneedfor no police attic orcanoe? Ward inundatedby spillover area get outofmy Lakeview calls mostly flood wallstop down South hurricane resort” Advisory 23::maximum 8am (918mbSuperdome Saturday, August28 nd storiesabove —James O. Byrne, Times-Picayunewriter —JamesO.Byrne, Or so,forfewfleetingminutes,wepretended.” full ofbrightstars.Justgorgeous, youknow, itmadeyoufeelallright. “The combinationofKatrinawindsandnoelectricityledtoanight in theSuperDome more ((already ))standinginline geysers an odd 17 th Street Canal fundingfrom floos repairs Congress’ habitual out ofsewers glow roads nowgloodaglow water flash floodnearNinth up tomy—” noFEMA communicationandwaterlike washout only Mirabeau Bridge Lakeview Ninth Ward “Ican’t New OrleansEast ping 600911 5 inchesofwater 175 mphCategory5 sustained windsincreased to attic. Thewateris White Street ariver “shelter oflast marshy WHENCE | /// 87 /// 15 an 13 the Hyatt baby supplies and a baby supplies and 8:14am FEMA’s single FEMA’s oached by the Industrial Canal breach feet where that information that went.” where News in the Quarter News in the Quarter debris commandeering supplies dying here black” desperate and the cops to prioritize rescue and compassion “How do you marshal law inching toward terrified unevacuated 20 minutes urgent emails to emails to Brown urgent the city “out of his depth“ Brownie

14 lady with dry “a pregnant stop the 500 Where marooned St. Bernard in deep and rising St. Bernard 14 feet in 10 minutes “I just Lake Bourgne MRGO down medical aid bursts

12 at assumed I was dead” water 800 foot nursing home flooded to the ceiling food 80% of the city under water former breach Nagin breach Marty Bahamonde, New Orleans’ only FEMA official as Katrina appr Commander Tim Ballard, Vice and Narcotics NOPD Vice and Narcotics Ballard, Commander Tim Outlet Mississippi River-Gulf for FEMA aid detailed request re: St. Bernard Parish State Representative Nita Hutter, ::hiding out in 6 9am Ninth Ward of water quickly St. Rita’s Chalmette head of horseshowjudging agent in New Orleans sends know “I don’t

15 12 13 14 FEMA buses troops 400 Nat’l Guard for his own safety prepare for this?” prepare people wading through people wading through “people are “so poor and so people don’t give-a-shit Fox high and a shopping cart cop “Stop, lady!” Monday, August 30: Devastation Tour 30: Devastation August Monday, \\\ 88 \\\ | WHENCE I don’t Bush avers Good Morning think anyone before thehurricane no no lockthedoors Natl Guard food andwateralmost 90 degrees plus federal response “write ablankcheck”Bush not oneto Monday, August30::nightfall —James O. Byrne, Times-Picayunewriter —JamesO.Byrne, Boy, were theywrong inthatregard!” that peoplewouldrushtotheirassistance.ThiswasAmerica,afterall. would telltheirstory. Theywere right.We did.Buttheyalsobelieved “People were happyto see reporters. Theyknewthatsomebody submerged forweeks Homeland Security everywhere press weapon searches shit west to financial anticipated the breaching andfloodsleaving“theMetro Area I don’t thinkanyone in the Morial

breach oflevees.” or months” survivors flood “edgy” nochoicebutto hit more deadthan ConventionCenter gone the temperatures intheDome (( offer to America predicts bothlevee Auguste 29 no Guardsmen fetid obligationsofthe “I don’t think... humid lookingintothe President alive )) WHENCE | /// 89 /// everywhere “survive” Guard nightfall overpasses attics rooftops streets St. Bernard Parish St. Bernard in to FEMA (( news of the levee break Coast boats dump trucks vans trained personnel rubber aircraft stranded in the city surprise” caught…by “really 1,200 rescued by 1,200 rescued ski-doos canoes flat-bottomed boats ski-doos canoes flat-bottomed “We winged it.” “We Jimmy Duckworth, U.S. Coast Guard —Lt. Commander 47 rescue copters rescue 47 finally in the sky Chertoff mid-day 1 7 t h S t r e e t C a n a l b r e a c h w i d e n e d t o 5 0 0 f e e t 1 7 t h S t r e e t C a n a l b Operation Dunkirk folk Center Superdome Convention corpses help of offers pour law enforcement FEMA: “Request denied” “Paddle around around “Paddle rule people one “save Lakeview Lakeview rescues Ward Ward diy Ninth Seventh NOLA Homeboys Patrol Cole and the Soul Dyan “Mama D” French LA Fish and Wildlife Mitch Landrieu

Tuesday, August 31 August Tuesday, \\\ 90 \\\ | WHENCE dehydrated, babiesdying….Africansinthehullofaslaveship. I saw5,000AfricanAmericansontheI-10Causewaydesperate,perishing, President Bush reached theadministration 16

Rev. Jesse Jackson speakingtoCNN’s AndersonCooper. photo-op in guitar Monday, 7:30am))CheneyMontanafly-fishing 16

WHENCE | /// 91 /// X Parks, schools, sidewalks, roads. Birds, nutria, small animals, abandoned 17 . to USA Today Brown Murphy Oil employee Shepard

raw crude’s benzo(a)pyrene, diesel and oil range organic chemicals, arsenic. Exceed. arsenic. chemicals, organic range oil and diesel benzo(a)pyrene, crude’s raw Exceeds screening levels. In the On In air. water. the soil, U.S. “Children EPA: and pets should not enter the oil contaminated area.” Protect skin, open windows and doors, wear boot covers so as not to track oil convulsions. nervous system damage, depression, about. Skin burns, rashes, central dogs. Oil. Mired in oil. Trapped in. Mired, fumes and. Muck. Stuck. No contamination contamination No Stuck. Muck. and. fumes Mired, in. Trapped oil. in Mired Oil. dogs. no ventilation. Floated gear, 16

1.1 million gallons of crude. Floated, 1700 modest homes “never going to get that get to going “never homes modest 1700 Floated, crude. of gallons million 1.1 clean.” Murphy Oil, down low, keeping an eye, the down low, on costs set up, set up shop on costs set up, set the down low, keeping an eye, down low, Murphy Oil, in St Bernard Parish. Refining oil. On low-lying land. Refinery in the lea of MRGO’s storm surge excess. Excess (profit) siphoned off. Gambled and.Tank Lost. 250-2, lost. Not full, not Not empty. filled with water as a precaution, and. Floated away. Adrift. In the flood, westthrough streets and housesFloated of Meraux and Chalmette. Tuesday, August 31: raw crude August Tuesday, \\\ 92 \\\ | WHENCE 18 Wednesday, September1 free toShekinah Full outofthe bowl her neighborsafullbusload (( commandeered behind doambulances” “theDOTdoesn’t FEMA?RedCross? pluckingfolkfrom thebilgewhere NOLA homeboys pullingpeoplefrom the flood thecops gets Cross past t-shirt railroad tracks marooned and “beggingusforwater”‘looters’supplyfoodandwaterelderly volunteer boats movehousetotunnelhullsaluminumvesselsbay skimming under 19

Robert Block,Wall Street, September13, 2005 Journal pray-painted red X’s used toindicateafloodedhomehas beensearched. —MichaelChertoff calltotheWhiteHouse,Tuesday night. FEMA cando.Iamaskingforhelp.” “Guys, thisisbiggerthanwhatwecanhandle.This X Charmaine NevilleinaCanal StreetCharmaine citybus cops trashtalktheleft- WalkerReverend Willie borrows aRed people strandedinthesun homemade johnboats “fire ants” bodies onfences 18 X niggers” “dumb Lake ArthurCharlesCajunNavy traffic onoverpassinwheelchairs 19 street lamps WHENCE | /// 93 /// X buses) no buses a blue state red? political a PR blitz medical personnel blame game :: enough 8 Swift Water Rescue Teams Rescue Teams 8 Swift Water X riding it out in Texas Brownie “any- Brownie Texas riding it out in do thing we need to getting Blanco from keeps Gov. fault though Bush’s 500 Natl Guard boats food radios water Glory Baptist Church Glory Baptist through roving and Karl Rove American Bus Association can’t )) Commerce friendships (( Chamber of blame Blanco’s at the Dome just

5 days late :: This is not the time to play the WHITE HOUSE update George Bush still Bush George or tweak?” BR getting a meal in between emails contracted turn help to FEMA (( FEMA)) get through (no Landstar trucking $400 million buses coming not churning out Bush’s White House is saying…” fault “The not Schwarzenegger sends MREs one per and water LA Natl Guard triaging One taking in flying over -head Air Force the view \\\ 94 \\\ | WHENCE Thursday, September2 20 “Getthefuckoff thebridge”“ over their Crescent 6000evacueescrossing the US Route90>Gretna heads City Connection buses arrivefourorfiveatatime walking refugees stranger I-10 fish tofrytakingthe to Baton Rouge

Brian G.Lukas,WWL-TV cameraman —Terry Ebberts,NewOrleansHomelandSecurity tsunami victimsbutwecan’t bailoutthecityofNewOrleans?” is nocommandandcontrol. We cansendmassiveamountsofaidto “This isanationaldisgrace.FEMAhasbeenhere three days,yetthere X cops fire shots s intheirown— awol (?) from Louisiana “necessary force” “This is…” children black poor ….keepthose “..toughtowitness” fight totheterrorists bereft little damaged Louisiana stiflingheat folkwaitoncauseways separated from fucksoutofhere” ( )andbigger 20 parents weak andconfused(?) X WHENCE | /// 95 /// X center Mr. center Mr. X who don’t have food and water.” who don’t businesses high and businesses of thousands…” have not heard 8 feet of water while white 8 feet of water while can’t pay can’t— can’t “…of people at the convention center Where is the help? Where have water. don’t have food. We don’t We 15,000 inside the convention center the convention 15,000 inside outside convention “…Iraq.” No buses for the medivacs Charity and University University and Charity medivacs hospitals hiring hiring 5000 hospitals under Hollygrove “This is not…” General Honoré the buses? are Where “I Chertoff like this? here going to make us sit you really Are \\\ 96 \\\ | WHENCE Friday, September3:“notgoingexactlyright” 22 23 21 brought intothemorgue.” mayday.” “There’s alotofcrying…people inpain.Anelderlywomanhasjustbeen President Bush‘coptering.In.“Mayday…”From the17thStreet Canal.“… “Come in.”“Check,check.”Lockeddown,airportlockdown.“Doyou-?”Perished. wrapped inplastic,dead. through?” APresidential lock-,onlockdown.Feetswollen,acart,two babies Communicating distress. “Doyoucopy?”Converge atroadblock. “AmIcoming break. Copy?”XDehydrated,onfoot,pushingwheelchairs.Downairlinehighway. The contactdimension,airlinehighway. Evacueesbloody, exhausted.“Break- workers puttotheheadofline.“Copy.” 2000-3000 left.Spaceabodytakesup.Orair. “Over.” 700Hyattguestsand two.” 5,068children missing.12,514adults.“Doyoucopy?”Reported.Nearly. you hearme?”Transports. Whowent,whowhere. “Checkone,…”Norecords. “… “Check, check,check.”Superdome nearlyemptied.Norecords ofthese.“Can affirming. ThoughnotinHaley Barbour’saffirming. Mississippi.“Canyouhearme?Over.” “federalizing” NationalGuard inLouisiana.Emphatic.“Doyoucopy?”Phatikos: The phaticdimension.Radiosignals,vibratingairmolecules. Bushdead.Seton

Brian G.Lukas,WWL-TV Michael Chertoff, Secretary ofHomelandSecurity, 2005-2009 President BushspeakinginAlabamaonhisfirstvisittothe GulfsinceKatrina. President BushmeetsGov. BlancoandMayorNaginatLouisArmstrong Airport Ecology Without Nature —Timothy Morton,EcologyWithout understand thatwordin whichcommunicationtakesplace.” “The contactisthedimension—asliterallyasyouwouldliketo “Given thedire circumstances…things are goingrelatively well.” X 23 Ill andinjured comeinbyhelicopter, ambulance.Triage 21 A quickinandout X X 22 WHENCE | /// 97 /// X 24 quick and Spreading the blame Spreading FEMA finalizes bus request FEMA finalizes bus “government planners did not X Bush signs U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division six days into the flood 25 Morial Convention Center Morial Convention angry and exhausted angry and exhausted calls rescue 1,000 emergency dispatchers: X “As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared declared Blanco still had not “As of Saturday, official said.” the senior Bush a state of emergency, people still at X stabilized 1:05 am EST President 1:05 am EST President 25,000 X “There was a period of days when we weren’t sure who was directing directing who was sure we weren’t of days when was a period “There being taken.” all the actions and were the federal response 2001-2004 Security Advisor, Falkenrath, Homeland —Richard Terry Ebbert, New Orleans Office of Homeland Security Terry Washington Post,9/4/05. Correction issued hours later. Gov. Blanco had declared a state of Blanco had declared Gov. hours later. issued Post,9/4/05. Correction Washington

predict such a disaster ever could ever disaster a such predict water the 82nd “instantly a city under city a command and control” house- to-house searches

thick

deployment orders deployment the convention center 9am-6pm buses finally clear emergency Friday, th th August 26 , and forwarded the letter to the White House Saturday August 27 , the letter to the White House Saturday th th August 26 , and forwarded Friday, emergency for Louisiana. a federal state of emergency declare the President requesting 25 24 Saturday, September 4 September Saturday, \\\ 98 \\\ | WHENCE 26 grateful dry Houston fed deep bereft in Superdome clear trash this is working

Former FirstLadyBarbara Bush,Monday,Former September5,2005 (AmericanPublicMedia) X X X X hospitality five feet X X “so manyofthepeopleinarena here, you 250, 000evacuees 5pm X know, were underprivilegedanyway, X X verywellforthem.” X sothis, 26 WHENCE | /// 99 /// between Sabine Pass between Sabine Rita (( sustained winds Rita (( sustained makes landfall Louisiana Hollybeach Hurricane Hurricane )) 120mph and Texas September 24 September \\\ 100 \\\ | all at once

There is no sight like the rising Mississippi. One cannot look at it without awe or watch it rise and press against its levees without fear... . When a section of riverbank caves into the river, acres of land at a time collapse snapping trees with the great cracking sounds of artillery, On the water, the sound carries for miles.

—John M. Barry \\\ 102 \\\ | ALL AT ONCE | /// 103 /// affi nity affi common a fragrant has some yellow white nearly winged shining the small lakes (the throat squeezed tight, squeezed “ert” each Pelican: ert. ert. ert. ert. (the throat Brown — like squeaky & bubbly a seal, discrete) (like a laugh — through a (like ah!-ah!-ah!-ah! a laugh — through er-it, er-it, Laughing Gull: er-it, each “ah” sharply enunciated) squeezed throat, Caspian tern: tight) vibrate the — — r sound throat (k)urh(t) u tut (squeeze almost a click, then drawn out like a hoarse quack \\\ 104 \\\ | ALL AT ONCE Barataria Bay 27 Hache, past orange groves, cattle grazing, past infamous Caernarvon south from NewOrleans following the course of the Mississippi to West Point La country,country.drive Persimmon oak We language. trade Mobilean native the in Plaquemines Parish takes its name from the French translation of the word piakimin wide. He tells us how many is no sign of trees, except the skeletons of salt-killed of skeletons the except trees, of sign no is many how us tells He wide. still narrower,is though channel, This look. we wherever us from away extending theboat,followsanother channel:greenOur guideturns andyellow marsh astonishing, the dolphins are a have sign they of Though marsh, grass. oyster how and rush the black through highway endangered salt the of up fish the these followed pair skirts wetlands the a have along become. by fish Hunting surprised boat. are the we near dolphins marsh, of throve. the into that minutes therein twenty than Less every in direction. horizon the animals to out spread grass marsh and other Water here. flat is world The and As birds, sweetmarsh. fish, killing plants, Gulf, of the widen, of communities continually out inland channels saltwater the marshdies,muddyearthwashesaway, takingwithitthecomplex The hauling drilling. girth and their exploration La to made WestPointe “cuts” oil narrow channels, wider through to accommodate way toward us give carries quickly we head that boat marsh the The in Bay. boat, channels Barataria fishing in a Project Diversion in Hache settled morning, the In summer.of heat damp thick, the liven mosquitos and flowering ants, bees, by where gardens, supplanted been have quarters slave the Betsy, Hurricane by away river.the swept of Ultimately bank west the below galleries yellow its of ‘splendor’ antebellum the in tourists houses now Plantation Woodland plantations. on labor to river the down and up retailed then were Africans enslaved The Bayou. Grand Lafitte Jean pirate the with who abductedthemfrom slaveshipsoffshore, in bringingthecaptivesinsecret partnership up a Africans site: enslaved on buildings kept brick Johnson two-story however,four house”, “big plantation. sugar the a building once Before was Woodland Johnson, William captain Plantation. river Woodland by to Built on driving before way, the along peaches for stop We sweetmarsh. luxuriant Bay,of Barataria patches into to water rise silty giving the of building silt out over the continental shelf. Diversion projects pipe a slender fraction the taming Levees, flood. sprawling impulseoftherivertoescapeitsbanksandwander, inadvertentlysendland- next the above pilings on hover Houses land. sinking and strange,ahumanlandscapeofmake-doinresponse tounrelenting wind,water, fishing camp houses loom above us on piers. Plaquemines Parish flows past, ordinary new Orleanslevee relieved thepressure anyway. compensated for penniesonthedollar. Theeffort ultimatelywasunnecessary, asanaturalbreak inthe of waterpersecond,destroying thehomes andproperty of 10,000displacedpeople.Familieswere wereCaernarvon blasted openmakingashortcuttothesea.Thechannelreleased 250,000 cubicfeet

At thebehestofNewOrleanscivic leaders,theleveesonwestward loopintheriverat 27 . Post-Katrina ALL AT ONCE | /// 105 /// We return the way came, silent, the trembling prairie quickly becoming more water more prairie quickly becoming way came, silent, the trembling the return We than earth. Complexity gives way to salt marsh, on the flycatcherspiers of toGrand Bayou. In seagulls2012 Plaquemines roosting Parish became the highest oil of the fragile from 14 million barrels parish in the state, pulling over producing marshes of the coas As our craft glides closer to the diversion project, the diverse wetlands, bird-filled, expanses of cut up wetland giving way to increasingly marsh gradually changes, and the water loses banks sprawl over the water the heavily vegetated lush where red clarity, and muddy with river silt. Only four of the eight pipes run where patch narrow this in most difference extraordinary an Still, guide. our to days, according the river water’s silt reaches. Wildflowersbanks, turtles in the water. along the Redwing blackbirds, herons, egrets, flycatchers. oaks, cheniers the only high ground fifty or souls, out less, more who still make Grand Bayou, past community, the remnant in the wet. Our guide takes their us living shrimping and down oystering. Most houses huddle in some progression of collapse, damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Seeking the marching surge destruction, its protection community left after the storm’s inland, nearly all the of land further easily through the wide passes cut through the marsh. Our guide tells us that only Now road. by community the reach still could people past, generations three or two by yellow school boat. travel to school the children \\\ 106 \\\ | ALL AT ONCE Water andhistory(2):MacondoProspect thousand others a hundred illusion or any— assure itssuccess” “it isnotpossibleto circulation deep || dead deadman’s switch11 escape failed minutes to April 20,9:45pm,5 what doesnotweather 1500 feet beneath thesurface —Tony Hayward, BPCEO “[the impactofoilspillintheGulfwillbe]very, verymodest” island roseate spoonbillbarrier alligator egret osprey collide ::black needlerush ::smooth cordgrass andcoolwater layers ofwarm tar-oiled surf black mat-like its seedytangle deltaic mudflatsprawl heliotrope salt sea purslane yellow leg dowitchers lesser :: beaverinwildmillet Wine Raccoon ||WhiskeyTrinity ||East les islesdernières ALL AT ONCE | /// 107 /// a shrub-like herb with yellow flowers needle rush passerine songbirds edging the marsh or memory saline marsh conspicuous saline oiled tropic oiled seabirds fish dolphin intertidal perennial salt grass sea shallow blue water —basin, deep water coral garden coastal rookeries /grass given to sea this apparatus “re- mains a new technology” preventer keeping oil preventer cheap and available dead man’s dead dead man’s rush behind schedule failed blow-out trapped below the surface one million dollars a day running behind subsea dispersants subsea dispersants oil ||failed failed domes switches pipe- lines faith (parenthetically speaking (parenthetically there is no there cost to us or the environment \\\ 108 \\\ | ALL AT ONCE information necessary” information to promptly provide all gulf “BPwillcontinue culpability— (minimizing losses/ legitimate claims (maximize profits) payall do allinitspowerto hold BPwill strangle-vine, strangle- thoughbrackish alarm, concern need forundue (assurances) or our betsdoubtsthere are no “remain uncertain”hedging 5000 feetbelowthesurfacewe Kemp’s Ridleyseaturtles of nurseriesbluefin hive knew this could haveknown 5000 feetbelowthesurfacewho crab pelicansblue oysters shrimpbrown dodder glasswort salt grass to fourfeet(willowy yellow flowers goldenrod’s small grass sea canelong margin themarsh avender wolfberryblossoms ALL AT ONCE | /// 109 /// Plaquemines Parish persimmon waterandland place brown pelicans brown yellow-eyed egrets blue herons Gulf’s night herons wading birds along edge shrimpers oysterers fishers shrimpers oysterers boats idling Bayou Fourchon setting boom cleaning :: dunlits willets plovers the beach— oil from piakimin no subordinate, accidental injury shredded annular failed tests over- pressure ridden BP six weeks over schedule (drilling oil spill oil— “a single distinct event” minor casual not at all not at necessary quantifying “the incident” is difficult or assigning blame catastrophe catastrophe column bursting methane gas rising rapidly into the nitrogen seals barriers Halliburton’s foamed cement/non- apparatus we— functional pod/BOP/decision-making unsealed remains standard operating procedure \\\ 110 \\\ | ALL AT ONCE 3 months2010 7 billioninprofits first and compensationto-date 720 millioninclean-up before exploding sea— seawater certainty: mud-concrete-mud pressure test accurate measure no knew/know who pressure ofoilreleased atthesiteofentry upward under methane forced targets) fedintotherig’s generators “a suddencatastrophic failure ofcement,thecasingorboth” reach plume mat cloud “celebrating theproject’s safetyrecord”— dispersant corexit oil current loop labile gulfsea buoyant and ALL AT ONCE | /// 111 /// reel thick Robin seeking to come out a fl ower a fl eld missed (we) near Pensacola smelling like honey “I want my life back.” “I want my 2010 BP Oil CEO, Hayward, —Tony a a mesh || mapped over made || (over) a gap || inviting full out and over made || (over) a gap || a mesh || mapped a lace fretwork || central plains down outfall disposal waste || go down owing || Mississippi down fl mud earthmade where || worn Rocky Mountains wear || down where (here) there clumping black mud delta mud clay || mud feet and mud sea || clay clinging black black oiled || sand black || oil land || sh shrimp oysters redfi sea || crude || beach || miss (miss) you || not (this) night a near || or (not) a Macondo mud and black sand dark shell thou || shalt not shall || shell || any moment naught here any where || ooze wound drill down no || frills deep oil dark down || oysters shrimp || dreams || worn|| birthing || || down || carve or cut curve away channeled trampled berth a way make || over || midden done done-in pipe bed and pipelines lay pipe make reminds (remains) || gulf coast || what eld || birdfoot fi eld (gold) || coast || quaking fi meadow (quaking) || fi miss mist || mist-rise over gold || golden missed out || moist lure sure our || land our fi shermen oystermen shrimpers oil men our || land our fi sure missed out || moist lure no || we’re hey daddy-man man-o-man we’re big big men big daddy daddy-oh || boast a not || this coastless || nowhere here no || where we’re || not there we’re || nope || knotted here bent toast but not || no not here \\\ 112 \\\ | ALL AT ONCE Réponds: What is the shapeofyourbody?(2) Réponds: Whatisthe dérangement parallax|paralysis later, some deal a sub ((drowned immersion an arrangement bodyonloan of time later -terranean zoneof watermoves waterheadingnorth bisected pent tides siltation (( transecttransact)) mightbe deferral adone erosion’s reach more orlesswet ALL AT ONCE | /// 113 /// Lake Martin A month later, our kayaks skim easily over the lake surface, pushing through lake surface, pushing through over the our kayaks skim easily A month later, duckweed, clotted hyacinth. The lavender flower stalks of the hyacinth belie their wretched work: foreigners, like us, though dry pods better year’s the lotus, last push through and tupelo, a harder under the cypress adapted to the heat. Deeper tipped on bent stems, a few seeds still cached within. End of April it and is already cypresses the where border the From start. to day the in late too are we Or hot. too brushy islands in duck blinds pose as tiny, end and open water begins, long-held their in spoonbills and egrets, herons, except moves, Nothing lake. the of heart the nests, shuffling, fanning their wings above the nests. Martin, we surprised ourselves by coming upon week, walking the back side of Lake Any breeze welcome. Last a sunning alligator sideways across the path. We left him to it, going back the way we came. Soon enough to get out of the sun into anyway, the shade of the trees. diving into the lake for sac-au-lait. Cormorants cool off Startled, a tangle of tiny alligators, five or six, tumble off a log into the shallow water. water. shallow the into log a off tumble six, or five alligators, tiny of tangle a Startled, Only twelve to fifteen inches in length, stippled in yellow bands, their thickrough hides shine in the dappled glimmer. Their mother somewhere close Such by, sightings unseen. have been nests rare. Two carefully guarded, hatchlings swimming More back. mother’s their on perched ones little of pair a rushes, and reeds through sunning on the banks, owning all the world. often, though still uncommon, adults In March, the rookery is spoonbills, snowy alive egrets, great egrets, with cattle egrets. A birds constant murmur nesting. of their talk fills the A Great air. barred owl drowses, nearly unseen, in blue the branches of a herons, roseate tree. No sign of turtles or alligators: too cool this morning for sunning. In the low apart shelter little blue herons grove, the edge of the cypress deciduous scrub at maroon deep are head and necks their color, in blue slatey Dark others. the all from or . More brown than blue. Colonists like the little blues appear until the eye shifts focus, then their perch Martin, invisible in other birds nesting at Lake in the middle suddenly, range, dark with yellow eyes and greeny legs. Their chicks among the leaves of the with dusky tips, light and shadow have white plumage dust. already the gravel road one else is here, scrub. Midweek, no \\\ 114 \\\ | ALL AT ONCE Water andhistory(3) nets shrimpers :: set blows Macondo out luggers seiningtheflood vegetative trembling profusion this ground amid thewet il estraidecommeunebabiche more orless “boat-minded people” shrimpers oysterharvesters bull tonguewire grassislands blue drifting against boats polethrough flottant marais shell heaps earth toold cheniers bindingsoaked “laviefourchaise” marsh grasssmoothcord grasscommonreed movingthere more orless water Bayou Fourchon channel trammelwatertrending south “…we thoughttheworldwasoursawright…” :: h emoragsintGulf ALL AT ONCE | /// 115 /// before the slick before take record hauls record take tied turtle-by-catch excluders shut the unlikely of things shapes syntax a regional drifting unoiled drowned dead tossed back to sea \\\ 116 \\\ | ALL AT ONCE threnody reek ofurineandfeces its muted of anarmadillo behind thegratesmalleyes empathy onlygetsussofar no matter against therear doorofthechurch leaf-and-catkin wallow horsetail woods I thinkofplumeria,waxyandfragrant headdown intherain an abandonedchurchyard shrivel andbloom adjusting totheheat a longcryfrom there and showeduplate mostly wet or theshovelburiedinmychest on mossanddaub the swamphasnothing an all-consumingrut heavy withdownpour stacked inwetclay I keepthecontentsofmyheart ALL AT ONCE | /// 117 /// eparing Water and history (4): Chandeleur Sound history (4): Chandeleur and Water Profit, 93 million dollars a day ||“No adverse”, not || part of the scheme || 93 million dollars a day ||“No adverse”, Profit, this || web feeding squid, sperm whales, dolphin copepods grazing on corexit, || meaning || Yield acquisition || MMS like BP leashing science to production, at the bottom of things || counting our to take, to harvest || accumulate wealth this || hydrocarbon in fumes || larval bluefin, swordfish blessings and breathing || be expected || Or imagined || pr nursery || “adverse impacts” cannot Barrier islands braceletted in orange ||royal terns, above laughing gulls glide in orange ||royal Barrier islands braceletted dolphin sea turtles || given to loafing on shoals || shelter (oiled) surf ||pelicans || residual at stake really investment portfolio, what’s home. This: haven refuge regime widgeon-grass || a regulatory pompom booms mimicking marsh toxicity, || fill in the blank || thirst of our || idealized machines cut-to-fit Big Oil, profit, soak, seat || “linked to statutory “No clear strategic objectives”—tern estuary, What is required? requirements.” || analysis || necessary || the exigencies of greed No detailed environmental || pipe dream widgeon-grass meadow another || coral reef keeping us grounded || shrimp bed and and oil suspension) dreams || illusion feeding on (corexit || trading nowhere going everywhere road oyster bed || better this: cheap petrol, and our || “good intentions” || for jobs-in-the-industry || the covenant, land, law, it goodbye, Chandeleur || Sound, industry || Selling || out || Down and— || Kissing a categorical exclusion A categorical exclusion, birdfoot deltaic lobe sprawling || eastward. “No || eastward. deltaic lobe sprawling exclusion, birdfoot A categorical a lapse, this piping plover expected”|| impacts are significant adverse and Sandwich terns pelican nursery || Caspian || diving against sludge brown necessary, (additional) mitigation measures too “unlikely” no || catastrophe safety and abrogating management) (revenue ||obligatory though urgency corals, blanket, mantle || smothering spongefields, oil “plume” environmental— rush, field of rushes fouled meadows ||a lapse and cordgrass remnant amid black mangroves roosting birds the bottom line || thousands of frigate stabilizing the coast \\\ 118 \\\ | ALL AT ONCE Clean-up Drill, baby. Drill. Eleven mendead.Eleven. everything. underlie assumptions he’sIdeological men, sex. of for army looking an among Alone say? he’ll imagine we do later.”What me “Call here. share can’t he Later, backattheport,acontractor strikes upconversation,hassomeinformation of Corexit. very big ocean.” Skimmer ships, floating boom, controlled fires. 1.84 million gallons Gulf. Somehow BP CEO Tonythe Haywood manages into to sleep: “The hemorrhaging Gulf of oil Mexico is a of barrels million 4.9 of force the about wonder I sex.” a has force “Every claims, Bachelard surface. the to up feet 5000 hauled oil slick, tragedy. witness to come we water”: deep about “learn to sent manager rig the schedule,” behind and budget “over Horizon Deepwater father’shouse. his to home way its wending inexplicably blood his II, Arcadio Jose of think I town. Marquez’scursed An ironic correspondence, MacondoProspect takesitsnamefrom GabrielGarcia cranes, CajunIron Workers, Inc.Oilfieldmetropolis. tugs, sheds, steel giant tanks, storage us, Behind view. from disappear platforms the At protection. of oil leggy do range middle way the in only east, to west by jetty,horizon the across gazing else little boots, rubber gloves, wearing bags into sand soiled debris, oiled balls, tar scoops crew clean-up A beach. the of end the west at jetty the toward walk we as us, beside wanders sand crude-spoiled of line tide black supper.A for water the from plucked Fish picnic.” and swim a for them brought here. always it We love grandkids “The bags. into wrack sea oiled stuffing Beach cordoned off, asheriff escortsuspastmeninrubberbootsand gloves lot. parking makeshift a into Pickups andearthmovingequipmenthunkerovertheMini. off pull we Fourchon Port At Road. Chevron base, Road (3090) takes us past Kajun Truck Plaza, Fourchon Beach RV Park, the sea buy a bag of satsumas at the roadside,We channel. peel and the eat in them moored on boats our shrimp way.shops, thrift A.O. and Rappelet shacks crab Lafourche: A monthaftertheblowoutinGulf,afriendandIdrivesouthalongBayou . Floating orange boom bellies up to the to up bellies boom orange Floating An idealregion ofruralfelicity. ALL AT ONCE | /// 119 /// gulf toad coast thrummmmming gulf coast toad coastal plain toad persied shower waning cloud crescent black por- ceiling wigle silk strands scatter green string algae gather of yellow roots iris flag males after rain bufo incilius nebulifer trilling long resonant rain rut rainsong cloud blanket comet august debris grass thick late season egg strings toad spawn rrreeeeeeeee(ehhh) rrreeeeeeeee(ehhh) - rrruuh uuuuuuhh rrreeeeeeeee(ehh) rrruuuh-uuuu(hh) rrreeeeeeeee(ehh) rrruuuh-uuuuhh-(hhh) rrreeeeeee(ehhh) rrru- uuuuuuhh \\\ 120 \\\ | heretofore

"A s nature

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(1565 pamphlet) \\\ 122 \\\ | HERETOFORE | /// 123 /// the real whitish and small white small differs from this from differs J’ai après marcher, ouais, au long de la rivière, ouais, au long marcher, J’ai après échapper de la prison, Après reposer, pour me j’ai arrêté Moi j’étais assis là, rivière. là, oui, au long de la Droite Hé, la rivière! “Along The River” —Livaudais ‘Les’ Sonnier, \\\ 124 \\\ | HERETOFORE Awakening: GrandIsle the sycamore tree it hadnobeginning circling a broken wing up anddown along thewhite clamoring, murmuring the sun water of blue melting hazily the stretch ofyellow water-oaks the gaunt and lemontrees away still acres ofchamomilereaching sporadic the beach a firstbreath of muddled likewine flushed and solitude low, drowsy among theorange little grayweather- the salt-waterpools the reeds making hereyesburn passed through her the hotsouth the water could hearagain after KateChopin HERETOFORE | /// 125 /// bending taste of almonds black long, slender as shade in winter milk used to the hum of bees lled the air fi \\\ 126 \\\ | HERETOFORE Chemical Louisiana HERETOFORE | /// 127 /// Grand Isle Southwest, across the pass, gleams beautiful Grand Isle: the pass, gleams beautiful Southwest, across primitively a wilderness palmetto (lantanier);—then drained of Spanish sugarplanters; and and diked, and cultivated by the ocean the war the Since bathing-resort. a as chiefly familiar now sandy into degenerated have canefields own;—the its reclaimed to the smooth beach;—the plains, over which tramways wind into rustic hotels, have been converted plantation residences cottages cozy of villages into remodeled negro-quarters the and of oak, of guests. But with its imposing groves for the reception of oleander, lanes odorous its orange-trees, its golden wealth of chamomile, wild with yellow-starred gazing-meadows, broad its island of the Gulf. the prettiest Grand Isle remains The oak groves are mostly gone, along with palmetto wilderness, mostly gone, along with palmetto meadows, are The oak groves and dunes south-facing the Behind chamomile. wild and groves, orange ‘quarters,’ stilt-legged cabins, a the fishing handful town outfitters,of offers signs restaurants, for the state park and Coast Guard. On the north side, across Bayou Rigaud, away washed largely was hideout, to rumored was Lafitte Fifi Jean pirate where Island, Isle, Grand of Eastward it. stabilize to made been has effort some though Katrina, by operations. of base a 1900’s, early the in Terre Grand controlled also Lafitte Captain ousting the pirate, its ruins still visible In 1834 a military fort was constructed there, Last of remnants the lies sight, from far east, Further Isle. Grand of end east the from Island, Îsle Dernière: a twenty-five-mile-long pleasure ground for the planter class of south Louisiana. Pounded As by Wine. Raccoon, the Whiskey, 1856 Trinity, hurricane into islets—East, small two five to islands, it reduced subsequent have storms islands, These damage. extensive caused Katrina islands, barrier Louisiana’s all with efficacy their storm-surge, up soaking coast, the shelter wetlands, coastal with along as the islands and marsh erode. endangered During squalls, I sit in the high library, above the ground, watching the Gulf. The librarian brings me books on the history of the island Chita, A Memory of Last Island, Lafcadio Hearn writes, to while away the rain. In A friend and I come to Grand Isle in the rain, drive lazily about. Fishing camps and Guard Coast a end, east the on post-Katrina, end west the dominate piers on houses station and a state Barataria park. town, a was there The Before houses chenier. ancient the of on oaks the among sheltered the marshy side are older, worn-down, Plantation sprawled 60 arpents, 2 miles, at the widest island’s part. One hundred enslaved people, thirty-eight cabins to house them, a sugar house and machinery. The overseer had his own house, four Levees and a rooms, draining machine kept back the Gulf. The plantation owners came to outside flanked byladles, and spoons silver pigeonnaires. ruins, the Amid parties. dinner and swimming for island the fine china for a party of twelve. tablecloths, napkins, \\\ 128 \\\ | HERETOFORE entre-poiteaux, bousillage- with constructed cottages in lived still 1800’s,folk late the In isolated. remains island Bay—the Barataria across flies crow the as closer Orleans—far New fromdrive two-hour A leaden. sky and sea both made has rain today Though blue. recalls DeSoto’s EspíritoSantofortheskyaboveGulf,itsendlessreach of Hearn them. liberate to dance mad stuffedher has at she pockets, shells her the in of out crawl crabs tiny when madly laugh I shells. picking shore the down and up nativesandbeach-starved,walk When theweatherclearsmyfriendandI,California 28 wet sand.Theisland,theboundarybetweenanddry. A wingofbrown pelicansslidesoverthegroin eastofthepier, ourfeetthickwith whiskey. Glassware andozonewater—“NothingbetterforaHIGHBALL.” dinner,cigars, offer Adverts monetized. properly and constrained Neatly live.” to carefully assures itsreaders, “Thisistheboundaryinwhichwomenare compelled writ in their names. Prostitution, like slavery, a “peculiar” institution. The Baekdeker TaliePrevost, Mary Mendez, Mosbey—Louisiana’sChiquita history names. colonial is “color” boards, women’sof lists blue the “colored”head “octaroon,”and “white,” seems: it everything its Within Tremé. Faubourg in situated district, light red In theshelves,IalsolocateThe Blue Book, aBaedekerforStoryville,NewOrleans’ My reverie intheisland’s libraryafforded more thanhistoryoftheislandandChita. though duringtheannualTarpon Rodeoitexpandsby15,000. Isle’s Grand village, fishing 1,296, a only Still is ovens. population beehive resident

Mud andmossbetween timberframing 28 Creole cottageswithlong covered galleries,outdoorkitchensand HERETOFORE | /// 129 /// m grand isle: pat landry grand isle: a sugarcane plantation || when the slaves were || disbanding || big orange orchard || disbanding || big orange orchard the slaves were plantation || when a sugarcane cabins || and went || marsh|| last slave cabins || little tourist just a little strip of || the 1893 stor || a huge hotel || nothing but the finest to the beach and wet anything || below that || going to get just a place || fish migrated to || barnaclesjust a place || fish place || rich soil was and—|| a wonderful green Orleans || cauliflower, Market in New in and|| the French || the first crop real squash beans, tomatoes, on Grand Isle || houses || survived everything this was a door || that was a window|| away|| with the current || blow || or good enough over here ||firm ground|| a farmer || knew everybody || French || oystermen || a farmer || heavy || hauling them by trade || French || knew everybody || in the summer time sacks || oyster boats really a good storm || ’65|| fierce fishing, oyster and shrimping || a still || after Betsy || || the lap of || electric lights || was real || cows in all them pastures time what you grew nice \\\ 130 \\\ | HERETOFORE —NationalOceanographicandAtmosphericAdministration the Geographic of Names. records offi federal in cial, retained are names flwas following The Names. Geographic on Board U.S. the to agged names were alsoremoved from CoastSurveychartsandtheirstatus Those 11364. and 11361 chart affected that surveys shoreline from removed from thechart.Additionalchangeswere subsequentlymade named features nolonger existed.Thosegeographicnameswere and 11358,CoastSurveycartographersdiscovered thatseveral In October 2011, a new shoreline survey was applied to charts 11364 white orbluish common toSeptember high with few yellow reckoned apoison HERETOFORE | /// 131 /// erode || erase erode \\\ 132 \\\ | HERETOFORE Réponds: Whatare consequencesofsilence? the if done if nothing if little different certainly and toothed imbricated summer a rough yellow HERETOFORE | /// 133 /// the remembered place the remembered flayed intimate space set of relations set of relations torso this wind course heat flow wind course felicitous coast-as-site no reverie cemetery? garden? platform’s the floating drilling from cross umbilical connections again and again thin, slick filler- cake and cement seal the site(s) of entry less rigorous parsing the possible futures itself a coast re- locates permeable by salt redefined margin matter geologically realm fluid nomadic mud knit among weeds oneiric coast the axis between and erosion of limit a comparative lack this \\\ 134 \\\ | HERETOFORE —George Washington Cable,Bonaventure downy broods underthe shade oftheChina-trees. hens, andmother-geese awaythepuppiesandchildren warned from fitheir on staggered and housewives, dooryards the in while legs, rst eagerly ofthebrightnewgrass,andfoals,calves,lambsstood ate fl herds the and people’sthrift, ocks the by rapidly so narrowed at thesower’s heels;ontheprairiepastures, oncesovast,nowbeing fi almost the springing in were crops pairs; elds, nesting into were broken north away gone fl not feathered ocks the all marshes, reedy hiding alltheirgrayinshimmeringgreen; inthesecovertsandthe fonds theoaksofmanykindsandtupelo-gumswere In thebas hogs are veryfond feet high numerous at Atakapas lettuce andchicory HERETOFORE | /// 135 /// Politics Paul F. Kaspar Paul F. Marine & Coastal Section - Region 6 U.S. EPA 1445 Ross Avenue Dallas, TX 75202-2733 I hope these contacts are helpful. Also, as a general strategy, EPA continues to EPA helpful. Also, as a general strategy, I hope these contacts are coastal siphons and diversions as key elements towards support and propose restoration. Tom Bernard Bernard Tom and Restoration Louisiana Office of Coastal Protection (504) 280-4071 [email protected] In terms Caernarvon, of diversions along the Mississippi such as Davis Pond and and Restoration of Coastal Protection I suggest contacting the Louisiana Office of is: and the best contact I’m aware PJ Hahn of Coastal Zone Management Director (504) 297-5629 [email protected] : Thank you for your inquiry regarding the operation of siphons : Thank you for your inquiry regarding Response by EPA Point a la Hache the West Regarding River. and diversions along the Mississippi to, Plaquemines Parish operates this and the referring you are siphon in the area siphon you regarding contact I can provide other siphons in the Parish. The best operational information in Plaquemines Parish is: Marthe Reed Original Message: A recent visitor to Barataria Bay, I noted while touring the Bay I noted while to Barataria Bay, visitor A recent Original Message: running. the Mississippi were 8 pipes diverting water from that only two of the the who decides, and how much running, why only 2 were I would like to know rates and how often. being run: at what are in this region other diversion projects and the beside the diversion project between the marsh The striking difference Canal Villagemarsh out by Grand in terms in Barataria Bay was striking, of the life. These diversions of plant life as also for animal diversity and abundance along the Louisiana the wetlands and re-establishing essential to protecting are all the time? Thank you for your they running at full power coast. Why aren’t assistance in this matter. EPA Region 6 Internet Feedback EPA \\\ 136 \\\ | HERETOFORE levees. pipes outofeight(8),due to constructionandrepairs tothatsectionofthe CEA betweenPlaqueminesandtheState.Thatsiphon iscurrently running(4) needed todredge thecanal.PonteaLaHacheSiphonisoperatedthrough a made aware oftheproblem, buthasnotbeenabletocomeupwiththemonies ofcompromisingcausing concern ourleveesalongthisarea. TheStatehasbeen more freely. Operatingfour(4)pipescausedwatertobackup againstthelevees, Unfortunately, thecanalneeds tobedredged inorder forthewatertoflow Siphon, whichiscurrently runningwiththree (3)outoftheeight(8)pipesopen. Paul, We havetwo(2)diversionsonthewestbankofMississippiRiver. Naomi RE: FYI-PublicInquiryReceivedbyEPA onDiversions/Siphons Lonnie Serpas(PlaqueminesParish) Albertine Kimble(PlaqueminesParish) Billy Nungesser(PlaqueminesParish) Blair Rittiner(PlaqueminesParish) Krista Clark(PlaqueminesParish) CC: MartheReed FROM: PJHahnTO:PaulKaspar(EPA) email: [email protected] fax: 214-665-6689 mobile: 214-310-6202 office: 214-665-7459 Dallas, TX75202-2733 1445 RossAvenue U.S. EPA -Region6 Marine &CoastalSection Paul F. Kaspar inquiry, butletmeknowifyouhaveanyquestionsorconcerns. below. Idon’t haveanybackground tospeakofregarding thegenesisof passed yournamealongasaPOC.Theresponse provided totheinquiryisalso operation ofsiphons&diversions.Justwantedtogiveyouheads-upthatI FYI -We hadreceived thefollowinginquirythruourAgency’s websiteregarding P.J., To: PJHahnRE:FYI-PublicInquiryReceivedbyEPA onDiversions/Siphons From: PaulKaspar(EPA) HERETOFORE | /// 137 /// Marthe Reed Thank you for your time and assistance. I look forward to your response with keen response to your Thank you for your time and assistance. I look forward attention, and interest Also, could you tell me why copies of your response to me were cc’d to Mr. cc’d to Mr. to me were of your response Also, could you tell me why copies Parish officials? Why would my query be of Nungasser and other Plaquemines of deciding when, unless he is the person in charge Nungasser, to Mr. interest in fact, in charge Nungasser, run? Is Mr. are how much, and how often the siphons of these in charge assumed that you were of making those daily decisions? I had decisions. Is this not the case? I thank you for your response, though I am surprised to learn that the Parish I thank you for your response, management in the marsh. Indeed, my considers the siphons as only for salinity sees in New Orleans made it clear that the EPA with the EPA correspondence via the transport of Is coastal restoration siphons as vital to coastal restoration. Parish policy for dealing with coastal silt to the basin not a part of Plaquemines as the science indicates that policy, If so, could you tell me the basis of erosion? our coastline? essential to rebuilding of silt to the basin is that the replenishment Dear Mr. Hahn, Dear Mr. From: Marthe Reed From: on Diversions/Siphons EPA P J Hahn Subject: FYI - Public Inquiry Received by To: P. J. Hahn Director, J. Hahn Director, P. Department Coastal Zone Management 307 8056 Hwy 23 Suite Belle Chasse, LA 70037 Regards, Remember that these siphons were designed to regulate the salinity levels in the salinity levels regulate designed to were that these siphons Remember 100% under normal not always running During conditions. that basin, and are and adjust the siphons area we do monitor salinity levels in this high river events, further questions, healthy balance. Should you have any to maintain a accordingly to call my office. please do not hesitate \\\ 138 \\\ | HERETOFORE attempt tostopthelineof questioningIwaspursuing. apparently calledDr. Carolyn Bruder, thenDeanofmyuniversity, Ipresume inan call mebackoncehewas in hisofficeagain.Insteadof mycall,he returning unable tohearmyquestions duetohailandrainlashinghiscar be re-established locationsoncethecoastwasrestored, initsformer hebecame I askedwhyoysteringhadtooccurinthenewlyopened lands,andratherthan bed issue–andsalinizationremediation asaneffort toprotect oysterbeds– and exploration hadoverthatsameperiod.WhenMr. Hahnaddressed theoyster silting efforts hadbegun,thoughwithoutaddressing theimpactsoilandgas restoration, hecitedastudythatindicatedmore land hadbeenlostsince for maintenanceorduetoCorps’workgoingon.When Iaskedaboutcoastal remediation projects, andthatfewersiphonswere beingrunduetotheneed he returnedmycall,toldmethatthediversionprojects were allsalinization After thisemailexchange,IcalledMr. Hahn. Hewasawayfrom hisoffice.When Marthe Reed I amathomeandwouldbehappytospeakwithyouaboutthis. remediation bytheParish. EPA describesasaproject torestore the coastlineisdescribedassalinization was takenasachallenge,whichitisnot.Iwanttounderstandwhywhatthe was representing anagenda:thusmymore pointedresponse. Ifeltmyquestion an agenda.Thecc-ingdisconcertedme,makingmefeelthatyourr forthewetlandsandourcoastline,whichiscertainly My onlyagendaisconcern Subject: FYI-PublicInquiryReceivedbyEPA onDiversions/Siphons TO: PJHahn FROM: MartheReed PJ Hahn Regards, others haveaboutallaspectsofourparish. Nungesser istheelectedleaderofourparishanditmydutytoshare concerns this further. Asforyourcommentsonwhowascc’edinmyemail,President agenda. Icalledyourofficeandleftyoumynumbersshouldcar Marthe ReedAfterreading yourresponse, itisobviousthatyouhavean Siphons o: AuthorNameSubject:FYI-PublicInquiryReceivedbyEPA onDiversions/ From: PJHahnT . Iaskedhimto esponse e todiscuss HERETOFORE | /// 139 /// t obably Dr. Carolyn Bruder Carolyn Dr. for Academic Affairs and Vice President Interim Provost I received a call from an official in Plaquemines Parish regarding an email an regarding Parish an official in Plaquemines a call from I received He questioned why our had had on the subject of siphons. exchange you all management. I didn’ be challenging their handling of water university should Carolyn Hi, Marthe, him as a private citizen, but it is pr I have no issue at all with your engaging Thanks for your understanding. FROM: Carolyn R Bruder R FROM: Carolyn Subject: siphon query TO: Marthe Reed used the you but apparently talking about, obviously, know what he was your communication as coming so he perceived address, “Louisiana.edu” email as a faculty member here. you in your capacity from in the exchange since this is not to use the university email account inappropriate here. to your faculty role related \\\ 140 \\\ |

Building permits for building Negro houses on that occasion in white communities, or any portion of

a community inhabited principally by white

people,

and vice versa prohibited.

Penalty: violators fi ned from $50 to $2,000, and the municipality shall have the right

to cause said building to be remov- ed and destroy- ed \\\ 142 \\\ | ON THAT OCCASION | /// 143 /// the city old unrecognizable good this good unrecognizable magenta pure its lush roses city populate the old it recreates mystical more matter more -of-fact turninga glittering wheel us inside out everywhere a fabric of abandoned gestures “Will you be there?” perilous and not that being the future spelling numerous a set of words attracts her such vivid exhaustion “Hurry up!” air coastal geometries sinking into the a fundamental circumstance the bushes flowering furiously I—” “Well, impossible meat sleep’s \\\ 144 \\\ | ON THAT OCCASION les quartiers sackcloth andashesthantoownthewholestateofOhio. become astudyforarchaeologists…but itisbettertolivehere in buried undertaxesandfraudsmaladministrationssothatithas Times are notgoodhere. Thecityiscrumblingintoashes.Ithasbeen Lafcadio Hearn, lettertoafriend,1879 —Lafcadio Hearn, ON THAT OCCASION | /// 145 /// 29 Binx’s Blues Binx’s (1) still burning sky over Gentilly it is easily overlooked strange island the slightest interest New Orleans lace sags like rotten behind high walls Gras Mardi a week before warm wind and bearing it looks tremendous the street devotion commencing to make a fire the very sound of winter mornings with tears streaming the mantelpiece an evening gown against the darkening sky so pleasant and easy old world gone to Natchez a houseboat on Vermillion extraordinary more the sky into her upturned face her eyes a soundless word ample and mysterious a litter of summers past Lines excerpted from Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer Percy’s Walker Lines excerpted from

29 \\\ 146 \\\ | ON THAT OCCASION whole bunchesofnecklaces leaning forward like crusaders maskers “Ah now!” showering sparks the flambeauxbearers measuring Negro mencarrychildren the Tchoupitoulas docks the smellofcoffee inside thewetleaves (3) already moved like aboywhohascomeintoplace cold andbriney her fingersonthezincbar like aseashell Carrollton Avenue earlyintheevening the oddnessofit the happiestmoment enclosed shallowandirregular ofthewall a corner such acomfort going under the islandsinsouth of thosesummerafternoons the mystery in yellowbars streaming August sunlight a peculiarthing not distinguishable stray bitsandpieces transfigures everyone a fresh wind (2) ON THAT OCCASION | /// 147 /// that sail us on horseback toward loose in the city neighborhood the entire possible somewhere (4) simulacrum of a dream tooth like a sore commoner than sparrows celebrating the rites of spring yellow-cotton smell thumb-smudge over Chef Menteur sculling the bright upper air the world is all sky vee a broken suddenly white the tilting salient of sunlight diesel rigs glowing like rubies nothing better evenings over Elysian Fields wants to listen who really in the thick singing darkness cottonseed in a streetcar an accidental repetition despair her woman’s a little carcass a kiss on the mouth not even the earth has memories of winter \\\ 148 \\\ | ON THAT OCCASION thrush flutings man-smells and narrow place come and thewideskyofGentilly a summerafternoon two aspirin easier a regular littleteam we partlaughinganddead on Carondelet (6) far awayasEufala tilting herhead facet andswell saved me the tinyfossa along herthigh the sunshine forget aboutwomen oil cans a driftofhoneysuckle down thelevee connive withme full ofpretty snapshots the verywords black earth new green shoots tunneled by a queerthing seeing thefootprintonbeach fog from thelake perfect lawns virginal, as the sidewalks,anyhow (5) ON THAT OCCASION | /// 149 /// dry in the dry in the weeds summer’s far flung porches immaculate under the streetlight smell of the hour when night falls away (7) than no more Judas trees a sketch of cloud dreaming the waters of the sound the same slow slack strata like archeological the difference in rolling and lathered green your heart lifts up rivulet tussock of sand and grass a crown foams at her knees thighs asuck sweeping the water a sparrow aslant the rinsing sadness of it that yellow dress lopsided yellow moon the marsh cleaves to me might not see me \\\ 150 \\\ | ON THAT OCCASION suppose therightword fails aware ofus a strangecity and abstracted wheeling it’s blazingflambeau Canal Street all mylife as if a moviegoer marvelously high blackened andancient swaying againstme a densepure matrix a drink (9) a habitualdisposition like acodetappedthrough awall Chandeleur Island aching phosphorcolors black water bayou blue boat the easydispensationofkitchen how longittakes voices ofthemorning rough boards cattails red-wings a lapfullof cleaning redfish they’ve beentalking the boatrunintocotton like smoke a nightbittern on BayoudesAllemands (8) ON THAT OCCASION | /// 151 /// 30 unnatural metropolis unnatural

31 swamps floods lake river some blooming young man river some blooming young man swamps floods lake the common disorder absolutely poisonous bilious fevers and navigational concerns a few hours after the black vomit a swath of high ground hemorrhages inadequacies profuse natural and fiscal capacity of flood mouth nose ears eyes levees expand the among the poor glistening, yellow lower ground, induced the utmost distress poor drainage stained with blood yellow jack yellow fever sewage dumped dark, mottled along the batture lapses festering livid, swollen a huge privy the face and whole body 4000 deaths distended dusky red impregnated often I have met city often I have an unlikely , Craig E. Colton. Baton Rouge: LSU Nature New Orleans from Wrestling An Unnatural Metropolis: Dr. Clapp, a Presbyterian minister in New Orleans, writing of deathbed scenes due to yellow fever in Clapp, a Presbyterian Dr.

1856 Press, 2005. Press, 31 30 \\\ 152 \\\ | ON THAT OCCASION —Mahalia Jackson, “Recollections of Early Childhood” home. Ifi ndacertainjoythere...otherwise I‘dbesad. a girlchoppingwoodorcuttingdowntree togetkindlingforthe barges layingaround andchopwood.Itwasnothingstrangetosee could thinkbetter. AlotoftimeItakeanaxwhere there wouldbeold in the wintertime….I would fi nd out on that Mississippi, I would fi nd I might havewoodfortocookwithandheatkeepuswarm banks oftheriverandletitdry. AndIwouldtakeithome thatwe wood inthat was drifting out ontheriverup sands ofthe picking upwood.Andmypeoplewere poorandIhadtodrawthis around thelevee,on other sideoftheleveenearMississippi, better.living fito used I condition the But down wandering myself nd too well.Ihadthisfeeling,couldlivebetter. AndIusedtodream of of asadfeelingI’dhave,’causethere weren’t manyofusthatlived pretty intothiscondition but itwaskind lean.AndIdunno, I wasborn When Iwasagirlthehouseswere pretty shabby... .Andthingswas and unfoldgradually the onlysimilarity rise but sweeter ON THAT OCCASION | /// 153 /// is excellent fruit it never hurts leaves, odoriferous in shady I don’t know any man or woman when I was growing up that did that up growing was I woman when or man any know I don’t And I don’t in their pocket or pocketbook. not have a switchblade a child nitely defi was I but switchblade, rst fi my had I when remember them; we had switchblades because we needed (laughter). Everyone I was police. Anything could go wrong. being hunted by the were a in Baltimore a in gave Coates Ta-Nehisi that speech a to listening church, and he was talking about how what people don’t realize live our lives often in fear for our We afraid. is are that black people was And so my father having a switchblade physical well-being. normative,not only completely And he used it for but it was smart. did my aunts in mother had one too, and so everything. And my and horror and pocketbooksspeaking of beauty their furs and pearls existing simultaneously. —Robin Coste Lewis \\\ 154 \\\ | ON THAT OCCASION “I wonderwhy, baby, youwanttoseemethisway.” Vieux CarréVieux Lower Ninthliescattered from oneanotherlikefallenteeth. TheMakeItRight Toxic drywallimported from China mademattersworsestill.Newhousesinthe who did rebuild lost their investment to contractors who never completed the work. from the neighborhood chose not to return, not to rebuild. More Many than that. a near nowherefew is of Ninth those Lower the population, pre-hurricane its to close on, empty lots litter the Lower Ninth. While the rest of New Orleans has returned to years twelve desolated Still Ninth. Lower the into Canal Industrial the in breaches plays out in ruined lives. As with Betsy in ’65, Katrina’s storm surge flooded through invisible cityinsidethestoriedone,where theendgameofcenturiesraceviolence the is this CBD, the and Quarter the of Wardwest Third the Like Ninth. Lower the East of Tremé are the Seventh and Upper Ninth Wards, across the Industrial Canal, povertyand Street, failed schoolingdominate. Rampart of North line. second the for finery—home-ground their in brilliant and fierce Boys days—Pretty parade on gather Indians Gras Mardi o-Town, where Congo Square’s diasporic culture and music gave birth to jazz, where oldest AfricanAmericanneighborhoodintheUnitedStates,Faubourg Tremé, Back- here between boundary The Tremé-Lafitte 10. there,the Interstate and of shadow the in the lies neighborhood Street, Rampart North At tight. shuttered windows floor ground the keep gates, the over razor-wire of tangles weave Quarter the of the and migrantsinthemidstofindigenouspoverty, pedicabs, enclaves ofnorthern theinhabitants and clubs jazz Bywater’s the Marigny, the with affluent. Cheek-to-jowl and cool the of Mecca neighborhood, oldest city’s the Carré, Vieux the the hubbub of Bourbon Street lie the wrought iron balconies and bright walls of Beyond thetouristbars,mulecarriages,andtarot readers ofJackson Square or strolling among couples, soundsofbrassbandswellingupfrom below. lean we where off, far seems river the but Everything gone. rain morning of vestiges the glad, and day,tired the for done We’re Gulf. rocking the beignets thickly dusted in white sugar. The familiar tropes of the city ride like oil on gather to-go cups—pink hurricanes spouting straws—the comfort of rum, or jambalaya, andouille and shrimp for in stop Visitors memorabilia. Saints and juju, hunting the genuine article, soul of the city to carry home: off-season throws, loads Chartres, Street, Royal Quarter Street, Bourbon along French lines clotted in the pressair. Visitors the of jostle and clamor The edge. water’s at hunker port tourist hotels mount the coastal sky, while across the river, cranes and piers of the levee’sthe Below shoulder,upriver,silent. glides downtown calliope riverboat The belie thattime.Easysittinghere nowwaitingonnothingmuch,maybedinner. heads. Here in the Quarter at river’s edge, the soft light falling and day cooled down and shelter. Anything preferable to the fetid Superdome, then shots fired over their some trying to get home, some hoping to pass through, some seeking dry land us. about Lights limnGretna Bridge, where townpoliceheldthelineagainstKatrinarefugees, falling night river, the above levee the on back to back lean us Twoof —Robert Pete Williams, “PoorBob’s—Robert PeteWilliams, Blues” ON THAT OCCASION | /// 155 /// My affection for this city is complicated, unsettled, like so many of my feelings about for this city is complicated, unsettled, My affection the occupy I levee the on here it, to alien entirely nor place this of Neither Louisiana. ruptured, Contingent, easy. out—nothing looking in, looking margins, strange city’s fervent. Fertile. Against environmental collapse, institutionally the insidious cynicism of the political class, nevertheless this against and poverty, structured racism Trembling day. the of end the at orange burning sky The me. on allure its exerts city prairies like ragged hems of the skirts, city’s its margin of in error in Macarena’s from times pupusas Handmade Deli. and Market of storm. Stein’s at offerings Kosher turtle the Palace, Commander’s of walls the inhabiting birds strange The Carrollton. the the crumbling crypts and ruins of Lafayette Cemetery across soup served there, street where second best a of not sound joyful to sudden The wander after Marigny. the dark. in Lounge The HiHo the vanished behind eatery pop-up vegan Korean line coming up the street (“Alright, dig deep, dig deep!”), and the pride of community Social and force Aid Pleasure Clubs, the pothole-filled streets and grubby the rumbling streetcars neighborhoods, of the city’s shoulder-to-shoulder-ness Upriver from the Vieux Carré, the Marigny and the Bywater have rapidly the Marigny and the Bywater the Vieux Carré, Upriver from transformed. The Bywater was once a working-class nearly doubled while the black one has been millennium, its white population has neighborhood. In this new halved. A transformation fed in large part by young aftermath, this pattern been has people in Katrina’s to the destruction that befell the city arriving in response exacerbated by young creatives, migrants who fled south middle-class well-educated others, and writers, musicians, artists, crash: 2008 the to New Orleans after however, Claude, St. and Bywater affordable into move Their dream. a after seekers sent rents through the roof. For those who had made these neighborhoods home back home to make up the no parents of reach: for generations, home slipped out difference between what is earned and what is they could of rent in search Parish driven further out, often as far as Jefferson were necessary. The former residents afford. It is a long bus ride into the city for work. And I get with it. trees of I, shade the too, in afternoon Sunday am a on drawn Bacchanal the to at Jazz Bywater. the olives, and grilled haloumi cheese is a bottle of wine, a plate of house-marinated not I’m then, But newcomers. and residents longtime of mix a crowd the fine, pretty on $7.50 an hour. trying to live here homes, vivid, handsome and surreal in their wildly canted roofs, eccentric shapes, eccentric roofs, wildly canted in their surreal handsome and homes, vivid, and leggy piers, stand out against the backdrop of isolation. Lovely and strange, alien creatures in a blasted landscape. Wandering through the rebuilt areas, While one loneliness. pervasive cannot of help sense but a miss and the lots, other empty homes, the those in half-repaired, filling their grass unfinishedtall walls in, tarped the neighborhood was about, anyone hardly among the ruins, we played tourist resembling a Hollywood backlot more than a place people make their lives. There are no grocery stores and few neighbors. for a market farmer’s A one day a local week. The The city non-profitcommunity. a invested of in search bringsa in neighborhood senior a center: place, health gathering pool, indoor produce in center, stayed There mainly however, the dry. floodwatersQuarter, reached only the back original city the is lower, the ground where North Rampart in from edge, crossing here. built on what counts as high ground \\\ 156 \\\ | ON THAT OCCASION the Quarter’s aninsulatingbubble,bauble,around noiseandlightforming us. do, we though stops, Nothing crisis. a parade, a soon, up show will band Ward.A barrel coopers, to a neighborhood at the edge of the city, becomes finally the Ninth tocottonpickeries,breweries,which thengiveswaytoclustersofsmallfarms, and primeval wetlandbordering cypress forest, tilledbecomesasugarcane plantation eddies Time south. way its on here, past,present, andfuture aboutoneanotherincomplicatedwhorls.A bent turning river astonishing that edge, city’s the form fittings glintingin refurbished splendor. Thewidemeandersoftheriverwhich along the neutral ground of St. Charles Avenue, the cars’ seats and brass ON THAT OCCASION | /// 157 /// 34 wasted city wasted Construction Areas of Homicide Research Construction Areas Homicide data map from 34 \\\ 158 \\\ | Vast stands of virgin cypress once grew in the swamps and bottomlands of the fl oodplain, as well as along other rivers and lakes of the area (Viosca, 1928). by and by

At the time of European colonization, an estimated 11 million to 12 million acres (4.4 to 4.8 million ha) of forested wetlands existed in Louisiana, but by the mid- 1970s only about half the original acreage was left. The amount of forested wetlands has continued to dwindle. \\\ 160 \\\ | BY AND BY | /// 161 /// Réponds: Describe a morning Describe a Réponds: woke without you fear when once sea when quondam chalk to niobram saline shallow slough mother mowry mowrysea (( shale )) running way the entire tethys sea gulf d f l o o (( before ) laramide (( before thrustfaults atirons hogbacks fl ) orogeny when once when once )) north (( to south ood seas in fl blue gray shale and yellow chalk p r o f u s i o n \\\ 162 \\\ | BY AND BY Boat-minded People Cameron Parishes,allheavilyimpactedbywetlandloss. and Plaquemines, Jefferson, by industry the against filed been have suits 39 loss, last place in a Presidential primary, race to the bottom. In response to coastal land- to protect the interests of oil and gas companies, patrons of his political ambitions, and gasindustriesresponsible, BobbyJindalfoughttooth andnail then-Governor inland. When the Southeast Flood Protection Authority sought to sue to hold the oil than restored asrequired drawtheGulf’s bystateandfederalpermits, rather salt-laden water abandoned routinely canals, Those coast. Louisiana’s through canals direct effecta oftheactivitiesoilandgasindustrytheir10,000miles roots. as came tangled loss their Louisiana’sland of in 36% Survey, coast Geological U.S. the the of to According soil silty the secure state, the hem Marshes wetlands protecting thecoastbartered foroilandgaswealth. and gas on depend, which culture andidentity hinge: vast networks of ancientcheniers, islands, and industries fishing oil the which The on landscape affluence. the destroys also unimagined industry an people boat-minded these offered however, work, Oilfield wetlands. the in live still folk few industry—though dollar Commercial billion- activities—a pirogues. economic important remain hand-hewn fishing and oystering, in shrimping, navigating cypresses, felling swamps, the from moss gathering fishing, shrimping, Crabbing, descendants. Cajun their and Water has always been a way of life in south Louisiana for the Acadian refugees from heat. mid-morning sticky already shade, into back paddle We fish. on waiting wet, the of edge the at just legs, yellow stocky on motionless stands heron green A Egrets. Cattle Egrets, Reddish Egrets, Great Egrets, canopy.Snowy cypress the in roosts to glide wing, hunting caddis flies and mosquitos. Herons frog in the shallows. Fishing egrets take Here in the swamp, life teems. Flycatchers and gnatcatchers swerve through the air, blocked. is wind where up mound walkways, drives, roofs, over crackle pollen, the Mounds of spent, brown catkins follow. The tumbling narrow leaves, which precede camellias. and roses of leaves the chairs, patio cars, pollen—houses, chartreuse in surface every coat oaks everywhere.Live manifests landscape this of thickness The Louisiana. south in Spring sunblock. skin, bare bottles, water hats, sun with come air,we humid still, the In it. spot can we before gone already alligator an reveals the Where canopy opens, turtles sun on logs, snakes in the tea. crotches of trees. A sudden splash long-steeped of color the water shoreline, the clutter trunks and limbs tree submerged Half shade. to shade moving boughs, cypress low beneath Canoeing onLakeChicot,earlyenoughtoavoidApril’s inexorableheat,weglide BY AND BY | /// 163 /// eady || getting ready || eady || getting ready blowout: Melvin Lirette blowout: roasted a pig || twenty dollars per family || make it go around || a handful of people || a handful of it go around a pig || twenty dollars per family || make roasted || the blowout || the boss, the big shot || yeah || the old seaplane || a bigger plane Bay || the same time || a Thibodeaux boy || in those days || fish until || on Vermilion clean the fish || getting r eight || a little early || a little early || the derrick || coming out || no weight, light as- || oh god, it come at us || the the derrick || coming out || no weight, blew up || couldn’t piece || 1 inch || it || an ordinary toolpusher and the roughnecks relays || rope days || gas blowing through close it || any other who || a cat in them || water like that || || the damn things || can move || jet that || any fire || in the barge after the blowout out || drilling barge jetted that || barge I remember || water lilies || drift by, and oh|| go to pieces || oh, I’m telling you || the and oh|| go to pieces || oh, I’m drift by, || water lilies || I remember || the pipe out of the hole || right here || a driller || we pulled derrickman for Texaco casing || A steel plug || a steel plug || that 9 and 5/8 || pulling out of the hole there || || what the hell || cement job || Halliburton know job || don’t || a bum job, cement mud || a chickenhouse what the hell || to treat a bum cement job || in them days || blowout || out on Vermilion Bay || fought that || forty-two days || that engineer || || that engineer || || forty-two days Bay || fought that || out on Vermilion blowout || big joints || son of a son of a gun || pipelines to a little island a mud engineer || || shove that || jam it down Gas || devil horse hear? || Terrebonne gun || doing that || crew || got || they || lost an arm|| turnbuckles || firefighting || something wasn’t to his arm || devil mud || cut off four inch || that pack of mud || sack killed || that damn it || made a spark loosen it || they had to loosen horse || when it blew|| chain || in the hole throwing \\\ 164 \\\ | BY AND BY Réponds: Tell mewhatyouknowaboutdismemberment isledejeancharles.com/ their homeisland toaninlandlocationduecoastal landlossandrisingsealevels. http://www state ofLouisianatoresettle theIsledeJeanCharles BandofBiloxi-Chitimacha-Choctawtribefrom 36 Statement ontheCoastalResettlement websiteannouncingtheaward of48milliondollars tothe 36 . BY AND BY | /// 165 /// 37 Stormtracker What has happened down here? Is the wind have changed? Clouds the wind have changed? Is here? happened down What has rained and hard real Rained rain. to started it and north the from in roll Evangeline. of in the streets long time. Six feet of water for a real 1927” “Louisiana Newman, —Randy September 13, 2008 - Hurricane Ike, Morgan City, LA City, September 13, 2008 - Hurricane Ike, Morgan Ten Depression September 22, 2007 – Tropical Parish, LA Cameron Storm Edouard, August 4, 2008 – Tropical October 10, 2004 – Tropical Storm Matthew, Grand Isle and Haynesville, LA Storm Matthew, October 10, 2004 – Tropical June 30, 2003 – Tropical Storm Bill, Chauvin, LA June 30, 2003 – Tropical Storm Bill, Chauvin and Montegut, LA June 30, 2003 – Tropical Storm Grace August 31, 2003 – Tropical August 5, 2002 – Tropical Storm Bertha, Slidell, LA August 5, 2002 – Tropical and Grand Isle, LA Cameron Storm Fay, – Tropical September 5, 2002 LA Storm Hanna, Sondheimer, – Tropical September 14, 2002 Tropical storms and hurricanes during the eleven-year period during which I was a resident of storms and hurricanes during the eleven-year period during which I was a resident Tropical 37

the state, 34 across widespread August 31, 2008 – Hurricane Gustav, disaster areas parishes declared September 13, 2007 – Hurricane Humberto September 24, 2005 – Hurricane Rita, Lake Charles, LA September 24, 2005 – Hurricane July 10, 2005 – Hurricane Dennis, New Orleans, LA July 10, 2005 – Hurricane Dennis, New Katrina, New Orleans, LA August 29, 2005 – Hurricane July 5, 2005 – Hurricane Cindy, New Orleans, LA July 5, 2005 – Hurricane Cindy,

September 15–16 and September 22-23, 2004 – Hurricane Ivan, Southwest Pass September 15–16 and September 22-23, and Holly Beach, LA

October 3, 2002 – Hurricane Lili, Lafayette, LA October 3, 2002 – September 26, 2002 – Hurricane Isidore, Grand Isle, LA – Hurricane Isidore, September 26, 2002

Louisiana. \\\ 166 \\\ | BY AND BY August 29,2012–HurricaneIsaac,St.Bernard, St.Charles,andLafourche Parishes November 10,2009–HurricaneIda,Elmer’s Island,GrandLA June 23–24,2012–Tropical Debby, Storm ShellBeach,LA September 4,2011–Tropical Lee Storm Mid–August 2010–Tropical Depression Five July 25–26,2010–Tropical Bonnie,West Storm BatonRougeParish BY AND BY | /// 167 /// acrimonious three long and and —Lil Wayne, “Tie My Hands” “Tie —Lil Wayne, a furrow fringed a raised margin

Some say tragedy’s hard to get over hard Some say tragedy’s over tragedy means it’s But sometimes that academy league of rollers the from Soldier, though they seem to hold us I deny being down ‘em wrong I prove strong My shoulders are on, let the truth be known doing nothing but moving I ain’t us at freedom But they talked that damn even leave a ladder, And didn’t \\\ 168 \\\ | BY AND BY Wasted BY AND BY | /// 169 /// Mapping I come to Cocodrie in early summer to visit LUMCON, Louisiana Universities I come to Cocodrie in early summer of the marsh as I walk by the lush green Marine Consortium, and am astonished over the floatingboardwalks. At the Research Station, scientists from around the country study the impacts of the BP Horizon oil coastal catastrophe on Louisiana’s grass, crustaceans, sea mammals marsh ecosystems, the toxins leached through and birds, and terrestrial birds. Back at and phosphorus run- a matter of sifting the internet: agricultural nitrogen research home, the view is less and sewage, toxins, spectacular, industrial of movement the Gulf, the the in dead-zone a spiking off of history delta, the the bird-foot outlets of the pharmacologicalthrough waste identifying the names of lost bodies of water industrial spills along the Mississippi, in or Barataria marking Bay, the co-incidence of “concentrated disadvantage” and again and again returning hand, steady a take maps The Orleans. New in homicide and harm carved mark centuries of suffering to trace the lines, as if I might somehow through this landscape. Do the names of New Orleans’ wards give a shape to that I am? history? How do I know where Tracing, then labelling, maps affords none of the ease of drawing vines and leaves. then labelling, maps affords Tracing, lines of coast, river, or on an IPad, tracing the intricate printed originals I work from back then details, finer the capture to in zooming work, tedious is This flow. islands, boundary marks the tentative continue the endless line that out and further along, always margin the exists, boundary clear no page, the Off earth. and water between in flux, tides or boat wake, the ceaseless action of erosionre-staking the line each moment. In the winter, growth of the salt rushes and the of brackish seeds marshes the soil, slows nearly season’s next to becoming vegetation a browning The stop. feed migrating waterfowl. Spike-rush and widgeon grass, coco and three-cornered grass. In spring brown shrimp make these marshes a Later nursery. mottled ducks mate and hatch their broods amid the wet. The seed-heads form in summer when salinity rises, when white shrimp arrive to clutch. ducks come in late summer, while alligators guard their young from other alligators’ predation. In autumn the the once hatch, mosquitos marsh and Gulfwards, head and mature shrimp white and muskrats. traditional season for trapping nutria \\\ 170 \\\ | BY AND BY oilfield dreams: roy champagne cement class-A sacks thoseconnections three thousand a transparent reality check water fuelmud grandfather clause that a yellowsheet risks lieacross a jack-upsteady a rope never sloweddown casing between themrigs mud drillpipe Pass Ponchartrain Southeast Napoleon Bay back of further out nice bigrigs marsh thenbays all south and mybrother Cut Off a barandgrocery store specific places specific bodiesin a decentlife going allthetime flung thatdeepslow intimate andfar drilling rigsoddlyanywhere pushin’ tools rough-necked why don’t youcome BY AND BY | /// 171 /// the world drowned drowned the world you all feel all feel ten foot seas to kill and red that white yellow systemic and irreversible mud comes yellow too late nor neither culpability solutions a breakdown a blow-out same thing gone you’re \\\ 172 \\\ | BY AND BY Dead Waste —JoannaSouthcott “The nextsummer, grew 1794,corn dear, anddistress beganinourland.” BY AND BY | /// 173 /// Réponds: How willRéponds: you live now? garden :: garden amphibian double-lunged amphibian ((geographer)) permeable wet thickair hyacinth-and-lotus (( hallucinatory )) (body) :: garden collate light thinscaled moss spanish branching vines branching vines chronology ((memory)) bowl sutured Omne vivum ex vivo (( generation )) softashyacinth this ((body) like ) any weed \\\ 174 \\\ | BY AND BY rr() arup aarrru(p) arrru(p) respiration ((body)saturatedair arrru(p) mangrove aerialrootwork bill diffused ingreen nautyellow legsblack aero soakgleams:: drowses torso(())tenementmatterdilates fi sher::vegetalanatomy Casmerodius albus consummate carex sedgeandcypress fi nger root tangle ((duckweed)) anchorintuition | /// 175 /// \\\ 176 \\\ | henceforth henceforth

The changes men have made in Southern Louisiana these last few years are great. I say nothing, again, of the vast widths of prairie stripped of the herds and turned into corn and cane fi elds: when I came, a few months ago, to that station on Morgan’s Louisiana and Texas Railroad where Claude fi rst went aboard a railway-train, somebody had actually moved the bayou, the swamp, and the prairie apart! —George Washington Cable, “The Shaking Prairie” \\\ 178 \\\ | HENCEFORTH | /// 179 /// Les ‘Cadiens And a love of porch music, dance music. A friend and I drive toward Breaux Bridge Breaux toward drive I and friend A music. dance music, porch of love a And to breakfast at Café des Amis. Along the road, a mile or so from town, we pass a Zydeco trail-ride heading the opposite direction. Men and boys on bays, , of and , western cowboy hats and boots, young kids riding in front saddles, skittish settling laugh, riders the music, play to and picnic a to Headed pops. or dad horses, waving a beer syncopated in time, their dance free Zydeco, hands. blaring Up DJ ahead, the pickups ferries one haul coolers, trailers and loaded families with Families time, gathering leading or the communities, way. the trail-rides have their origins in Creole cowboys working cattle At in the Louisiana end and of Texas. the and gumbo, cochon de lait while the frottoir trail-ride, folks will feast on barbecue, accordion pull everyone to their feet. I know when we get to breakfast, the band playing and someone will ask me to dance, step slow-quick-quick. be will already Married in a shared way of life founded in fresh seafood and the home-grown or and the home-grown seafood fresh way of life founded in Married in a shared made: etouffé, filé gumbo, oysters on the half-shell,andouille sausage,red beans po’boys, catfish po’boys, shrimp po’boys, Oyster food. fried of paradise a rice, and bottle A sauce. Hot mayonnaise. and rolls bread French Soft po’boys. crab shell soft upon out turned boil crab or crawfish Spicy shade. the in table a and Blond NOLA of table. a newspaper-covered Guatemalans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotians, Thais. Waves and waves of migrants. of waves and Waves Thais. Laotians, Vietnamese, Chinese, Guatemalans, Lac des Allemands. Manila Bon Town. Secour, Catahoula, Caernarvon, Calcasieu, Bogue Falaya, Caspiana. Brittany, Mixed, multiple. In Many. Acadiana, those who Cajun no. or surname French also, Cajun became Cajuns the of life-way the up took not are and Waguespack McGee, Romero Reed, as Schexnayder, family names such Boudreaux, Broussard, names like Breaux, French obvious uncommon among more Thibodeaux. Hybrid realm, wet and dry, woods and fields: South Louisiana was settled by people people by settled was Louisiana South fields: and woods dry, and wet realm, Hybrid Coasati, Houma, Choctaw, Chitimacha, Atakapas-Ishak, the After cultures. many from the and French and Tunica-Biloxi, Spanish came. Creoles. Les Acadiens. Bourbons and Isleños. Italians, Germans. Cajuns and Coon Asses. Czechs, Hungarians, Jews, Cubans, Filipinos, Mexicans, Croatians, \\\ 180 \\\ | HENCEFORTH threnody adrift onthewake moss leaftwigstem I amgrowing intomyself the slowpulseoftidalforce then nolongerexists rising gulfheadednorth tucked intoanoppositemoment ofthecontract inevitable astheterms a habitofwateranderosion devoid offuture a rancidaftertaste the actionunfoldsoff-stage hough everythingisupfordiscussion distance erodes withthetrees t lotus pods,rattledandbrash I pushthrough amazeofdry and thehorizonflips breaking thesurface becomes translucent at acloserangle,thewater’s ink under thestair, sow’s heart beating sorrows stackedlikecordwood forgive theloan waiting itout,wemightaswell HENCEFORTH | /// 181 /// Bayou Corne incident pressure Ah, well, et ça semble vrai, tout ça, vous comprends? tout ça, vous comprends? et ça semble vrai, Ah, well, —Wilson “Ben” Guinē Mitchell cess pool mud pool sink cess pool mud pool extractive detritus its depths sparkles invisibly from TENORM radium thorium potassium blue fire orange tongue and earth bubbles open escape velocity of gas under political desk at the arcane somewhere this year next year any of their decay products a nuclear memo ((DNR)) Department of Natural Resources gas rattles the earth radium 226 228 radon salt mud sink Bayou Corne spewing methane hydrogen- sulfide carbon- pentane butane dioxide ethane propane a whole biogenic thermagenic scheme keeping it under wraps do not Louisiana DNR (do not report “and respond) asked for patience” tout ça radionuclides pumped into Brine™ “surprised as Texas anyone” radioactive dome “slurry area” expanding 16,000 sq ft mire \\\ 182 \\\ | HENCEFORTH technically enhanced what wasgoingon” “a relationship to arbitrary distinction a completely “…structural problems inthecavern” -active materialNORM occurring radio naturally “might berelated to…” authorized disposal “kind ofshocked”DNR collapse Texas Brine™ accumulation anticipated” emergence “never the possiblestateof subsidence andsub reservoir notyettested salt salt dome walls veneer cavern -active scaletransportmodels industrial processes ::radio risk calculationsand concentrated asaresult of radioactive scale boundary gas breaching thesalt ça semblevraiintegritytest a failed was discovered detection” ofradiation bottom lines“no the specificgravityofmemos surface instability HENCEFORTH | /// 183 /// tremors and gas bubbles and gas bubbles tremors thorium series decay wastes crude oil refinery for weeks “imagine…” first instability of cavern reported 20 months earlier DNR occurring department of naturally the best resistance practices business practices oil and eying the bottom line a positive business climate gas production “…our surprise” ? vous comprends 150 homes evacuated become 35 2.5 acres and growing Brine™ Texas burning off 40 million cubic feet of escaping gas think “I don’t anyone could see this coming” \\\ 184 \\\ | HENCEFORTH Catechism What are theconsequencesofsilence? defying cultivation.Mutableastheweather, heavyandwet. Palimpsest ofdelugeandsilt,standinginplainsight, bared factandbare roots withoutfear.Describe amorning Flood watersspilloverthebanksoflevees. Tornado watch. fiery blowoutblackeningday. Corpsegarden, plaguehollow, hurricanewatch. Pipeline andcanalthresh, dredge anddrudge,gasflaringintothecloud-litnight, Tell mewhatyouknowaboutdismemberment. Brackish andsweet.Oneseagivenwaytoanother. Water, silt,salt,clay. Rock-mountain-erosion-flood. Where doyoucomefrom/how didyouarrive? those manifoldpresences disclose? movements ofearthwater, weather, andecosystems, couldspeak,whatwould If southLouisiana,ifagatheringofsuchpeoplesandhistories,thevast youwokewithoutfear.Describe amorning What istheshapeofyourbody? How willyoubegin? a pivotalopeningintothisnewcountryinwhichIfoundmyselfstartingoveragain. and return,wanderers toward turning ahomefarfrom everythingfamiliar—offered diasporic Indianwomenshemetinhertravels—voicesofdisplacement,alienation, to posed 38 questions, Kapil’s twelve Bhanu Writer silt. flood, compression, drift, cultures unsettled and astonished me. Here, nothing was hard, firm, solid, sure. Only These bottomlandforests, wetlands,andprairies,Louisiana’s tangledhistory and and stone, acacias and eucalypts, contrasts acutely to the lush verdancy of Louisiana. landing in Lafayette. The aridity of Australia’s ancient continent, landscape of desert home, came we Australia, Western in years seven After back. and world the round career, academic partner’s my of intimate connections to place have moored me in response to re-locations trajectory half-way the following wanderer nomadic A 38 The Vertical Interrogation ofStrangers(KelseyStreet Press, 2001). HENCEFORTH | /// 185 /// Where Where Finding my way by means of books, archives, the living world—trekking, talking, world—trekking, living the archives, books, of means by way my Finding seeking answers to Kapil’s of my passage, gathering, listening—I compile a record and my own questions. Sediment core sample. archive. Choral No single fugue. metaphor Quilt, suffices: like songbook, tides. the pelicansof dross and over froth the amid thefragments hunt I shore-break,away, gliding, heading diving, The messy carnage of present-past, past-present—weeds and tilth: geological and tilth: past-present—weeds The messy carnage of present-past, Agency assessments; Protection Environmental reports, histories, accident peoples, of Indigenous the encounters with of early European documentation in Lafayette; studies the GermanAfrican enslavement, the Civil War Coast Uprising, oil and gas Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico, into the run-off of pollutants and destabilization extraction’s of the coast; oral histories, autobiographies, memoirs, halls Gras, Second Lines; dance Clubs, Mardi Aid and Pleasure stories, tales; Social and Jim Crow. and jazz clubs, foodways Put spade in and dig. Put spade in and What would you say if you could? you say if you What would here? am I now? What does it mean to be \\\ 186 \\\ | HENCEFORTH Texas BrineCompany, LLC sinkhole an virtually unchanged effort othermatters to 123 observation expected assembled and UPDATE August18,2012 going evacuation 2-3 components days escortsrig drilling observation planfor alongboom waterapath on any the hydrocarbon UPDATE August14,2012 surface assistance checks place remain in resumption HENCEFORTH | /// 187 /// suspended anticipation suspended have departed day interior available condition available additional No No additional No UPDATE September 30, 2012 UPDATE chemical plumes chemical found no cavern or near elsewhere methane or aerial survey aerial radiation sinkhole all air and sinkhole equipment sinkhole as secure drilling evacuate will casing salt dome a diagonal afternoon UPDATE: August 27, 2012 August UPDATE: path across Isaac’s September 6, 2012 UPDATE \\\ 188 \\\ | HENCEFORTH forward asteady 14p.s.i flaringnonstop naturalgas surface liquidhydrocarbon sloughing noreported debris UPDATE November6,2012 aquifernotexpected removal Nopressure noobservable shutin wellcasing cavern liquidhydrocarbon remains in UPDATE October26,2012 deployedtocontainaccessbyrecovery north leaning trees no review observable Hydrocarbon plans removal for UPDATE October15,2012 remained shut HENCEFORTH | /// 189 /// ogen sulfide deeper perimeter shallow aquifer natural and liquid hydro natural and liquid hydro “geophone” flow rates. Flaring will well begin cleaning flushing gas zone remains shut in remains revealed bubbling in revealed natural gas no work Bayou Corne no observable debris clean-up in no secured the possible hydr the possible array cubic system 36,000 monitoring begin shut in shut UPDATE December 9, 2012 UPDATE resume well placed well excess water inside expected venting and caprock remains shut in shut remains caprock another plan a new monitor shut in and in shut UPDATE November 25, 2012 November UPDATE \\\ 190 \\\ | HENCEFORTH real-time in-home No assessments naturalgas monitored remain closed UPDATE December29,2012 monitored 23,000 cubicfeet sinkhole data pipeline no clean-up monitors safely pressure in early noobservable right-of- certainseismic aquifer shut inane HENCEFORTH | /// 191 /// sudden sun sudden sudden sun sudden sun warming in two dimensions || here now thin cloud-line (( artemisa frozen in blue mid-February (( absinthe in blue waits spring sudden weight of warm air :: (( sweet at its edge chjjjjjj mockingbird (( fennel day shimmering plays itself into existence (( green anise hyacinth frostburned mutters (( gin like chronology talk hydrological late winter’s \\\ 192 \\\ | HENCEFORTH threnody giving way bruised awake where Ifindmyself like anafterimageofrain melancholy weather water’swarm twist intolight displacements morning parasitic ferns brown thrashers blue jays urgency sun’smorning leaf clatterrisingin cultivating time one another what weask ofmemory a form at all nothing against whatseems tossed green gray branchedbody through aliveoak’s limbs movement wind measured as HENCEFORTH | /// 193 /// 39 Curages Réponds: And what would you say if you could? you say And what would Réponds: one purplish, every rose ne, thick a fi and all the following along the rivers plenty bees to the smell like honey Language excerpted from Florula Ludoviciana, entry for Smartweed. Language excerpted from 39 \\\ 194 \\\ | after-words \\\ 196 \\\ | | /// 197 /// Jacket2 “Poems “Trash Issue,” “Trash The Volta ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Otoliths, Marsh Hawk Review, Entropy, Loose Change, Unlikely Loose Entropy, Otoliths, Marsh Hawk Review, and Poetics,” Living for Poets Dusie Kollektiv, The Ottowater, review, less horse Stories, Poems of the Gulf Coast, Lit of Our Climes, The The Gulfstream: Waters, and BAX 2014. Quarterly, Tupelo Project, Arcadia The poems titled “Réponds” take as instigation Bhanu Kapil’s questions in of Strangers. Interrogation The Vertical for Room Louisiana Library’s Louisiana of the University to also Gratitude university the of support the for and workers, oilfield of histories oral to access there. tenure and English Department during my and nudged and the poets who read Deepest gratitude to dear friends, suggested turns the form that led to Mullen, Eileen this book has taken: Laura Iijima, and and to Brenda the summer with workshop Eleni at Naropa Tabios, and grew. the many of the ideas percolated Sikelianos where Gratitude to the following journals and anthologies for publishing excerpts Ark Hive: from (or versions thereof) \\\ 198 \\\ | BRENDA IIJIMA AN ACTIVEACKNOWLEDGEMENT::REFLECTIONSONARKHIVE historical forces. In an email to me, Marthe stated that the C.D. Wright quote that serves as an epigraph was the impetus of C.D. the that stated Marthe me, to email an In forces. historical incredibly openandinclusive matrixofinterwovencontemporaneousand an also is book memoir,this personal--a once At devastation. social and Louisiana,documentedinthemidstofspiralingecological southern and other-than-human social-culturalrealities withinplace,focusedon Ark Hiveisabroadly conceived, interrelational meditationonhuman 1 the bookasamemoirofSouthLouisiana--the categorizes Marthe extension.” its were itself body the if as it protecting of form a always collectively livingaterritory, ofinhabitingit,caringforitand aform is land of piece “A presences. living of ecosystem an cultural changesthatoccursimultaneouslytoaplace,home,region: as well as the social and upon geologic and biospheric transformation andtotalecologicalbearing,ArkHivetouches within elementalconcern air, plein in notebook field geological all-weather an in documented if As expressed thetimeline. through most of Governor Bobby Jindal’s tenure as governor”--is how she for elevenyearswithherfamily, “aperiodstretching from HurricaneLily worked Marthe me. with on thetextandgraphicsthatmakeupthisbookwhilelivinginLafayette it carry I portable; is point this at from came I briefly I find myself in a strange place, I am intent on locating myself; where disparity running rampant, blatant racial targeting in for-profit prisons. for-profit in targeting racial blatant rampant, running disparity imprisoning more ofitspopulationthananyothernation onearth),racial more peoplethananyotherstate(inthecountrythat holdstherecord for guises. Louisiana, until 2018, held the dubious distinction of incarcerating present to the racist past, placing white supremacy under scrutiny in all its power, to truth speaks Marthe traces the history of slaves and that slavers, connecting the racist energy anti-imperial rebellious With Ofo. including theAlabama,Biloxi,Konsatiand Coushatta,andthe communities whowere drivenintoLouisianaaftertheEuropeans arrived Natchez, the Taensa and Avoyel, and the Tunica, as well as the indigenous Caddo, theNatchitoches,Chitimacha,Choctaw, theHouma, home forNativeAmericansincludingtheAkakapa, theOpelousas, Ark Hive isasmuchabookaboutresilience asLouisianacontinuestobe homelands. their of appropriation and people Indigenous of decimation to the narrative is an acknowledgement of the colonial-settler legacy of the graphics and telescopes and focuses, bringing in wideranged and text micro detail. Central The 1715. to 1643 from reigned who France of King of thelowerMississippi region, naming it after their sovereign, Louis XIV, carry anamedemarcated byFrench colonialsettlerswhotookpossession book is Louisiana, a parcel of land and a brimming ecology that continues to and the region itself, an integral point in the web of life. The nucleus of family her the and she including region this of residents the destabilizes and Liasons, InTheNameof ThePeople,p.47 1 andaboutthatsustains Ark Hive: However | /// 199 ///

3 freedom fighters--civil rights 2 Teche Arcady Natchez Arcady Teche Pontchartrain Tangipahoa "palimpsestic language and history-- "palimpsestic language one into an(other) a world defined by language - http://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/color-of-justice-racial-and-eth 30. ARK HIVE, p. Builders, slavers, French Builders, slavers, French colony the wet between topos the relation local particulars and

The title of this epic work is composed of two words that reverberate that reverberate of two words The title of this epic work is composed ‘archive’. out sound they Together hive. and ark side: by side placed when documents of collections highly safeguarded are archives Historically, value and essential in the continuance deemed by a power elite to be of and furtherance of their that archive the in points up dominance opens She archive. with reckoning and a performs myths of superiority. Marthe have systematically diminished and or erased the importance and impact living Indigenous presence. ecological as well as class and race gender, of history takes precedence over colonial Withdata experiential accumulated and assembled a hive mind, she mythmaking and obfuscation. from diversified sources that give rise to a holism. Complex multiplicity is consequential. References importance tangle, of persons occluded binding from the together vessel, is the vehicle that echoes the mobility of the facts of persons’ record. The the ark, a missing floating lives held down, misidentified and mistaken. The hive is her metaphor 2 The ; III. of Disparity Scale nic-disparity-in-state-prisons/ 3 damp, bird-foot, opossum, batture batture experience opossum, articulating bird-foot, translation, damp, a placeMound whispers its own arguments over my skin, irrefutable inhabitants collaborate human surfaces synthetic" its hybrid, is a record of the potent legacy of the potent legacy of Hive is a record Ark activists past and present whose contributions have changed the way changed the contributions have whose past and present activists national and community life is imagined. Black Lives Matter activist Bree courageous Newsome’s act of taking down a Confederate flagfrom the of all is an impetus for the removal grounds statehouse South Carolina in New Orleans. Confederate monuments situated within everpresently are affairs human Historical and real-time ecological reality: flora, fauna, mineral, water, earth, air. The Mississippi courses through, as do the within ecosystem, routes and circulatory absorption; pathways run-off, many waterways of the region. the cultural imagination. economic zone and Spillover, \\\ 200 \\\ | etec o 8 pret f h Erhs ims: lns Pat have Plants plants. biomass: Earth’s the of existed at the bottom of a percent 80 of sentience the body of this work, thus bringing the equity of attention to the living, breathing within community floral rich the included has She document. that fact the by just initiated is shift connectivity through one-on-one and communal action. A major paradigm foundwaystorecuperateevery turn, meaning,validityandagenerosity of earthly vulnerability, guided her senses through stages of demise and at and enemy.worst appropriation)own its is maturewith of Marthe, knowledge exploitation profiteering, of glorifications and stories (its history of accelerant that demolishes history--its history of ownership. The narcissism war andexploitation and hasexcitedforthglobalclimatechangeisthe catastrophe thatiscapitalism,hasbeenthereason forunending the that case the seems It satisfying. so is his-story of out eventually and Contemplating therole of thefemalearchivist steeringthearkthrough 6 biomass-180969141/ 5 4 easy the takes it long morning/how dispensation ofthekitchen/blueboatbayou” the of “Voices possible. justice anddemandsthatmake others, alwayskeenlyfocusedontheconcerns LGBTQ among always is with justice) racial environmentaland for advocate and rights allied feminist passionate a was (she activist citizen, poet, effect of myriad voicings. Life proliferates within the polyphonous the hear We interaction. and responsiveness communal for xeine yn ad et ad lo thriving. also and death and dying experience collectively andautonomously, have feelings,havefamilialconnections, conscious, as understood are active, self-directed, sentient,communicative,interactive:abletoact Plants work. this in consideration major given are Plants tradition. Judeo-Christian Western, the in humans and animals plants, between exists that split ontological the rectifies Marthe wood chips,andotherdisposableproducts. swamps ofstandscypress continues,theirtrunksground downinto razing of practice the and development, human burgeoning for make to Louisiana’s sprawlingcypress swampswere clearcutnearlyacenturyago of gopher species is taken onto the ark.” The ark is said to have been fabricated out a not Therefore, beings. single individual from the world’s living three hundred thousand flowering plant as designated not are plants however, job, rescue this of context the In receded. has flood the once Earth the oversight collect specimensoflivingcreatures, whichwillbeabletorepopulate major to especially Noah instructs “God when an narrative flood Genesis and the in place takes consciousness human of Flora out cultures. Western slips in forms life of hierarchy the on important less rings deemed therefore still and female, gendered be and to continues flora assertion, that true, blatant a is It care. or consideration of worthy has systematicallybackgrounded plantsaspassiveandinertbeingsnot

Matthew Hall, Plants asPeople, APhilosophical Botany. SUNY Press, 2011,p. 59. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/humans-make-110000th-earths- ibid 6 wood, another name for cypress. The majority of Southern Southern of majority The cypress. for name another wood, , p. 124. 5 sci heacy Ter instrumentalization Their hierarchy. psychic Ark Hiveisanemphatically inclusive 4

Ark Hive advocates for Ark Hive. Marthe, the | /// 201 /// Coursing 9

7 abounds abounds Ark Hive 10 animals living in the Gulf, even worse than animals living in the Gulf, even worse 8 , p. 148 , p. https://ocean.si.edu/conservation/pollution/gulf-oil-spill https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/dispersant- https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/la-wetlands/ ibid the toxic oil released during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster may be may disaster Horizon Deepwater 2010 the during released oil toxic the the very oil dispersants used to clean it up, a new study finds.” 8 9 makes-oil-52-times-more-toxic 10 7 This has largely resulted from human mismanagement of the coast. At one At coast. the of mismanagement human from resulted largely has This River Mississippi the from floods spring when to added was land the time, in plant presences dialogically storying the thousands has potentially meristems, a plant thousands of keen, “with book. Plant intelligence is of ‘brain units’. It is proposed by advocates of plant informationplants integrate sensory decisions based upon and make neurobiology that such as the root, between a multiple of plant tissues communications meristems, internal meristems, and the vascular tissues.” human-floralrelationships that are ecologically appropriate,ethical and take into consideration the personhood of plants. throughout are other intersecting catastrophes and the disproportional and the disproportional other intersecting catastrophes are throughout disenfranchised those and color of communities on have they effects economically and for other reasons. an ecosystem in her vicinity the shifting balances of Documented are event Horizon Deepwater the understood Marthe ruination. experiencing and crisis. contingency, compounding precarity, as a yet another disaster, in a way organized informsThese that actualities the are micro the macro past and the momentary and historic and versa, as do the geologic present. Southern Louisiana signals what human engineered ecological collapse looks like in our present arrived and Louisiana, stripped of half of its wetlands since Europeans moment. The US has already been its of all lose to course on is losses, these of bulk a for accounts which to the US Geological Survey centuries, according wetland within two more southern“The fastest- the among is States United the in Louisiana of coast in the world." disappearing areas processes grief through the intertwined realms of the aesthetic, realms the intertwined grief through Ark Hive processes (human and bodies political as they play out across the ethical, and the non-human) in both mundane and extraordinary ways. Grieving passes of of the acknowledgement an active process many stages as through sorrow and loss. “Time eddies here, past, about present, one and another future in turning complicated whorls.” p. 138. objects Withinof attention that make these poems there is the an expression of the moving also a commitment to easing the grief continual shouldering of grief, and catastrophe Horizon Deepwater 2010 the experienced Marthe others.“ of while living in Louisiana. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill as is the worst oil recognized spill in “By U.S. the history. time the well was capped on July 15, 2010 (87 days later), an estimated 3.19 million barrels of oil had clean- spill, oil Horizon Deepwater the of case the In Gulf. the into leaked chemical various of gallons million 1.4 over with oil the treated workers up microscopic For dispersants.” \\\ 202 \\\ | Editions, 2018,p. 28 12 map/# 11 names. place to had Administration Atmospheric remap thenearbyPlaquemines Parishandindoingsoremoved thirtyone and Oceanic National The day.” every fields football 30 to equivalent mass land a losing is state estimate the that researchers Some problem. the exacerbated have waters sea Rising marshes. and swamps damages it where inland, water sea move to storms allow also industry gas and oil the for dug Canals inland. move been extensively logged, leaving canals and ditches that allow saline water to have Swamps marshes. to sediment and water fresh bring would that water flood spring block levees Artificial causes. multiple are There shrinking. now is land growth;the marsh stimulated and sediment added as citizen-activist-teacher-lover-mother-friend-witness. demonstrates human animals are capable of through acts of language and experientially Marthe uncertainty ways all and in possibility, generously open extending find to fluid becoming edges with Living -relevancy. life involvesthistextisabreathing chronicle ofinterwoventangibility- grow into another. Responsive to the range of contingencies that terrestrial their orientations,unspoolthelogicsofmapandpointsreference the meanings that that had been foreclosed. Innumerable voices proliferate and tone opening up for representationocclusions with variegated form Listening calibrated consciousness. for silences,thevoicesthathavebeensilencedReedrepresents the sentient of and ongoingness of focus complexity the unhurried of a beckons It sensitivity toward shiftingassemblagesthatopenupanunderstanding duration. long a over Ark Hive offers textual contemplation that can be unraveled and parsed however thefindings, to share awillingness unsettling theymaybe. and difficulty at look to fearlessness a diligence, involves changes these of Tracingtrajectory the Elizabeth Rush,Elizabeth Rising: Dispatches From the New American Shore, Milkweed https://geog.ucsb.edu/louisianas-coastal-landmarks-are-being-wiped-off-the- 11 Dramatic and subtle changes are presently taking place. arepresentlytaking changes subtle and Dramatic 12

| /// 203 /// and Tupelo Quarterly, Quarterly, Tupelo ELÆ / LYNNE DESILVA-JOHNSON ELÆ / LYNNE EDITOR's NOTE : On ARK HIVE After Marthe NOTE : On EDITOR's , Kristina Marie DarlingKristinaat Marie 2, Jacket so many others for supporting this project though dialogue, ongoing so many othersfor supporting this project collaboration, organizing, and by publishing of the excerpts work. that Marthe and I did not My last note is an editorial one. I must add here passing, her before editsthiswork of any through work to chance a get the version and unedited from and so the work you see has been unaltered for her not having the opportunity to engage with that in respect I received That process. said, is there a lot of materialdifficult and here, in a handful that Marthe did of cases, short pieces or quotations have been removed edits on with me that I felt would have not get a chance to work through I made this decision aided to be publication ready. needed to be altered by a number of external and in conversation with others sensitivity readers, this with I wish I had had a chance to work through central to the project. Marthe, but I trust that as editor and publisher alike, she would respect choice, as she did everything in her path. and honor this difficult When Marthe passed in the Spring of 2018, we had only recently accepted accepted When Marthe passed in the recently Spring of 2018, we had only enthusiastic about ARK HIVE for the been incredibly 2019 catalog. She had the new "cohort" model, and even though together we'd only just worked getting OS offered for short time, she generously this project towards attendto been scheduled had I Festival, thePoetry which NOLA to books wouldn't be able to attend.and perform at, but Marthe's April 9th, last email to me, on gave instructions on how to ship pick she would she wrote, Rat in New Orleans, where, our books to Pack them up along Black Radish titles. She died the following day—and the a place to celebrate Marthe's 2018 NOLA festival would become, for many, life and mourn her loss. In the months that followed, countless I learned friends and colleagues from was a hallmark of Marthe's that this type of quick kindness and generosity thosedidn'twell...theeven to she know being in world—indeed, of way like me, in this case. ARK HIVE for publication, been clear when I accepted It had already IIjima (who originally sent me a hard especially in conversation with Brenda that its acceptance) this copy for consideration perhaps a year before deep awareness, withwork was a magnum opus of a human deep care, and document, archive, to seek, and a desire boundless curiousity, and respect. humility, and humans alike with honor, both environs represent It has been a gift to have the work on this opportunity to book and in celebrating both its publication and Marthe's work with the and poetry I am indebted publishing community and especially with her community. Henk Rossouw, Iijima, to Michael Kalish, Lori Anderson Moseman, Brenda at Trivedi Amish \\\ 204 \\\ | ABOUT THEAUTHOR:INMEMORIAM She wastheco-publisherand managingeditorforBlackRadishBooks. in Ressurrects, Openned,CutBank,NewPages,TheRumpus and appeared have reviews poetry Her others. among Fairy Tale Review, ExquisiteCorpse,TheVolta, andTheOffending Adam, Writing, GoldenHandcuffs in Review, Entropy, NewOrleansReview, published Jacket2, was poetry Her (2016). contest hastain withReed’s ,whichwonthe2013SmokingGlueGun j/j six chapbooks,includingthecollaborativechapbook thrown,by text of author the also was Marthe 2007). Ink, (Lavender A Wunderkammer (Moria Books,2013);Gaze(BlackRadish2010);and Tender, Box 2013); Books, (Unlikely hastain j/j with , Ink, 2014);Pleth passing in April 2018. Her previous titles were: ARK HIVEisMartheReed'ssixthbook,publishedafterher sudden Nights Reading (Lavender Nights Reading BAX2014, NewAmerican Jacket2, Galatea (em)bodied bliss bliss (em)bodied Rain Taxi. ABOUT THE OS : WHY PRINT / DOCUMENT?

The Operating System uses the language “print document” to differentiate from the book-object as part of our mission to distinguish the act of documentation-in- book-FORM from the act of publishing as a backwards-facing replication of the book’s agentive *role* as it may have appeared the last several centuries of its history. Ultimately, I approach the book as TECHNOLOGY: one of a variety of printed documents (in this case, bound) that humans have invented and in turn used to archive and disseminate ideas, beliefs, stories, and other evidence of production.

Ownership and use of printing presses and access to (or restriction of printed materials) has long been a site of struggle, related in many ways to revolutionary activity and the fight for civil rights and free speech all over the world. While (in many countries) the contemporary quotidian landscape has indeed drastically shifted in its access to platforms for sharing information and in the widespread ability to “publish” digitally, even with extremely limited resources, the importance of publication on physical media has not diminished. In fact, this may be the most critical time in recent history for activist groups, artists, and others to insist upon learning, establishing, and encouraging personal and community documentation practices. Hear me out.

With The OS’s print endeavors I wanted to open up a conversation about this: the ultimately radical, transgressive act of creating PRINT /DOCUMENTATION in the digital age. It’s a question of the archive, and of history: who gets to tell the story, and what evidence of our life, our behaviors, our experiences are we leaving behind? We can know little to nothing about the future into which we’re leaving an unprecedentedly digital document trail — but we can be assured that publications, government agencies, museums, schools, and other institutional powers that be will continue to leave BOTH a digital and print version of their production for the official record. Will we?

As a (rogue) anthropologist and long time academic, I can easily pull up many accounts about how lives, behaviors, experiences — how THE STORY of a time or place — was pieced together using the deep study of correspondence, notebooks, and other physical documents which are no longer the norm in many lives and practices. As we move our creative behaviors towards digital note taking, and even audio and video, what can we predict about future technology that is in any way assuring that our stories will be accurately told – or told at all? How will we leave these things for the record?

In these documents we say: WE WERE HERE, WE EXISTED, WE HAVE A DIFFERENT STORY

- Elæ [Lynne DeSilva-Johnson], Founder/Creative Director THE OPERATING SYSTEM, Brooklyn NY 2018 RECENT & FORTHCOMING FULL LENGTH OS PRINT::DOCUMENTS and PROJECTS, 2018-19

2019

Y - Lori Anderson Moseman Ark Hive-Marthe Reed I Made for You a New Machine and All it Does is Hope - Richard Lucyshyn Illusory Borders-Heidi Reszies A Year of Misreading the Wildcats - Orchid Tierney We Are Never The Victims - Timothy DuWhite Of Color: Poets’ Ways of Making | An Anthology of Essays on Transformative Poetics - Amanda Galvan Huynh & Luisa A. Igloria, Editors The Suitcase Tree - Filip Marinovich In Corpore Sano: Creative Practice and the Challenged* Body - Elae [Lynne DeSilva- Johnson] and Amanda Glassman, Editors

KIN(D)* TEXTS AND PROJECTS

A Bony Framework for the Tangible Universe-D. Allen Opera on TV-James Brunton Hall of Waters-Berry Grass Transitional Object-Adrian Silbernagel

GLOSSARIUM: UNSILENCED TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS

Śnienie / Dreaming - Marta Zelwan, (Poland, trans. Victoria Miluch) Alparegho: Pareil-À-Rien / Alparegho, Like Nothing Else - Hélène Sanguinetti (France, trans. Ann Cefola) High Tide Of The Eyes - Bijan Elahi (Farsi-English/dual-language) trans. Rebecca Ruth Gould and Kayvan Tahmasebian In the Drying Shed of Souls: Poetry from Cuba’s Generation Zero Katherine Hedeen and Víctor Rodríguez Núñez, translators/editors Street Gloss - Brent Armendinger with translations for Alejandro Méndez, Mercedes Roffé, Fabián Casas, Diana Bellessi, and Néstor Perlongher (Argentina) Operation on a Malignant Body - Sergio Loo (Mexico, trans. Will Stockton) Are There Copper Pipes in Heaven - Katrin OttarsdÓttir (Faroe Islands, trans. Matthew Landrum) 2018

An Absence So Great and Spontaneous It Is Evidence of Light - Anne Gorrick The Book of Everyday Instruction - Chloë Bass Executive Orders Vol. II - a collaboration with the Organism for Poetic Research One More Revolution - Andrea Mazzariello Chlorosis - Michael Flatt and Derrick Mund Sussuros a Mi Padre - Erick Sáenz Abandoners - Lesley Ann Wheeler Jazzercise is a Language - Gabriel Ojeda-Sague Born Again - Ivy Johnson Attendance - Rocío Carlos and Rachel McLeod Kaminer Singing for Nothing - Wally Swist Walking Away From Explosions in Slow Motion - Gregory Crosby Field Guide to Autobiography - Melissa Eleftherion

KIN(D)* TEXTS AND PROJECTS

Sharing Plastic - Blake Neme The Ways of the Monster - Jay Besemer

GLOSSARIUM: UNSILENCED TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS

The Book of Sounds - Mehdi Navid (Farsi dual language, trans. Tina Rahimi Kawsay: The Flame of the Jungle - María Vázquez Valdez (Mexico, trans. Margaret Randall) Return Trip / Viaje Al Regreso - Israel Dominguez; (Cuba, trans. Margaret Randall)

for our full catalog please visit: https://squareup.com/store/the-operating-system/

deeply discounted Book of the Month and Chapbook Series subscriptions are a great way to support the OS’s projects and publications! sign up at: http://www.theoperatingsystem.org/subscribe-join/ DOC U MENT /däkyәmәnt/

First meant “instruction” or “evidence,” whether written or not.

noun - a piece of written, printed, or electronic matter that provides information or evidence or that serves as an official record verb - record (something) in written, photographic, or other form synonyms - - deed - record - writing - act - instrument

[Middle English, precept, from Old French, from Latin documentum, example, proof, from docre, to teach; see dek- in Indo-European roots.]

Who is responsible for the manufacture of value?

Based on what supercilious ontology have we landed in a space where we vie against other creative people in vain pursuit of the fleeting credibilities of the scarcity economy, rather than freely collaborating and sharing openly with each other in ecstatic celebration of MAKING? While we understand and acknowledge the economic pressures and fear-mongering that threatens to dominate and crush the creative impulse, we also believe that now more than ever we have the tools to relinquish agency via cooperative means, fueled by the fires of the Open Source Movement. Looking out across the invisible vistas of that rhizomatic parallel country we can begin to see our community beyond constraints, in the place where intention meets resilient, proactive, collaborative organization. Here is a document born of that belief, sown purely of imagination and will. When we document we assert. We print to make real, to reify our being there. When we do so with mindful intention to address our process, to open our work to others, to create beauty in words in space, to respect and acknowledge the strength of the page we now hold physical, a thing in our hand, we remind ourselves that, like Dorothy: we had the power all along, my dears. 

 the PRINT! DOCUMENT SERIES is a project of the trouble with bartleby in collaboration with the operating system