Hearing the Hurricane Coming: Storytelling, Second-Line Knowledges, and the Struggle for Democracy in New Orleans Author: Catherine C. Michna Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/2753 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2011 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of English HEARING THE HURRICANE COMING: STORYTELLING, SECOND-LINE KNOWLEDGES, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY IN NEW ORLEANS a dissertation by CATHERINE MICHNA submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August, 2011 © copyright by CATHERINE C. MICHNA 2011 Abstract Hearing the Hurricane Coming: Storytelling, Second-Line Knowledges, and the Struggle for Democracy in New Orleans Catherine Michna Dissertation Chairs: Carlo Rotella and Cynthia A. Young From the BLKARTSOUTH literary collective in the 1970s, to public-storytelling- based education and performance forms in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and fiction and nonfiction collections in the years since the storm, this study traces how New Orleans authors, playwrights, educators, and digital media makers concerned with social justice have mirrored the aesthetics and epistemologies of the collaborative African diasporic expressive traditions that began in the antebellum space of Congo Square and continue in the traditions of second-line parading and Mardi Gras Indian performances today. Combining literary analysis, democratic and performance theory, and critical geography with interviews and participant observation, I show how New Orleans authors, theatre makers, and teachers have drawn on "second-line" knowledges and geographies to encourage urban residents to recognize each other as "divided subjects" whose very divisions are the key to keeping our social and political systems from stabilizing and fixing borders and ethics in a way that shuts down possibilities for dissent, flux, and movement. Building on diverse scholarly arguments that make a case both for New Orleans's exceptionalism and its position, especially in recent years, as a model for neoliberal urban reform, this study also shows how the call and response aesthetics of community-based artists in New Orleans have influenced and benefited from the rise of global democratic performance and media forms. This dual focus on local cultures of resistance and New Orleans's role in the production of national and transnational social justice movements enables me to evaluate New Orleans's enduring central role in the production of U.S. and transnational constructs of African diasporic identity and radical democratic politics and aesthetics. !"#$%&'(&)'*+%*+,& ! -./*'0$%123%*+,& 444& 5*+6'17.+4'*& 8& "Choice" vs. Story Circles in Post-Katrina New Orleans! "#! "Agonistic" Storytelling in the City! $%! The Spirit Family of Second-Line Literature Makers! $&! &&)9":+%6&;*%<&=%.'*1>?4*%&@*'0$%12%,&"*1&+9%&A%>=:"+4"$4B"+4'*&'(&A%,4,+"*.%&4*&C%0& ;6$%"*,& DE& Second-Line Geographies and the Subaltern Fleur De Lis! '#! The Promise of a Better World: From Congo Square to Central City! (%! Diaspora and Diversity in New Orleans's Jim Crow Counter-Public Spheres! ()! Mardi Gras Indian Performances: Re-spatializing National Geographies! #'! Second Lines, Second-Line Literature, and the Neoliberal City! #)! )9":+%6&!0'<&FG%&-6%&H$"./&I4*1&J'./%K,F<&!'3&L%*+M&!9%&N6%%&='7+9%6*&!9%"+%6M& "*1&+9%&=%"6.9&('6&"&=%.'*1>?4*%&?4+%6"6K&-%,+9%+4.& OP& Black Arts Movement Discourse and the Rhetoric of Urban Crisis: A Scenario for Literary Revolution! *$! Tom Dent: BAM Ambassador to the City in Crisis! )'! Home: New Orleans?: The FST and the Search for a New Orleans Base! )*! FST 2: From Imported Theatre to Community-Based Performance! "%&! The FST Writers Workshop and the Jazz Paradigm for Artistic Production! ""'! "What We Can't Get on the Page Speaks Just as Strong": Nkombo's Second-Line Publication Philosophies! "'#! "That's Not Us": The Blk Mind Jockeys and the Return of John O'Neal and Gil Moses! "(#! The Post-Urban Crisis Institutionalization of FST and BLKARTSOUTH Aesthetics! "&$! )9":+%6&!96%%<&=+'6K&)46.$%,M&Q17."+4'*"$&A%,4,+"*.%M&"*1&+9%&=+71%*+,&"+&+9%&)%*+%6& R6'26"3&H%('6%&"*1&-(+%6&S7664."*%&@"+64*"& 8T8& SAC and Neo-Griot Beginnings! "#)! Story Circles: An Overview! "+&! The Long Ride! "*'! "Choice" vs. Collective Resistance: Market-Based Educational Reform in New Orleans and the Nation! ")&! When It's Your Turn, You Have to Play! $%+! KIPP, SAC, and the Future of Public Education in New Orleans! $"&! )9":+%6&N'76<&FA7**4*2&"*1&J73:4*2&+'&J'4*&+9%&R"6"1%F<&A".%&"*1&U%*1%6&4*&R',+> @"+64*"&=%.'*1>?4*%&?4+%6"+76%& VVD& Of Racial Myths and Cross-Racial Solidarity in the Neoliberal City! $$)! The Problem of Craig and Lucy in City of Refuge! $'&! Testimonial Narratives and Fictions of White Supremacy: Dan Baum's Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans! $&"! Creating a Collaborative, Popular Second-Line Literature: The Neighborhood Story Project Books ! $+"! Mike Molina and Second-Line Literatures of the Future! $)%! & ! ""! !"#$%&'()*+&,(!'-../0#1*#2(3%-'4%&22*56(#57(3&1-57/8*5&(9"&#%'&(:#;*56(<=%&'(%"&( >&2?6&( @AB( Finding and Funding "Community" in Community-Based Performance! #$#! %&'(!)*+,*-.+!%-,&!)/0,/-1!2"3"04!5"-,'!,6!.!)",789":/!;,6-7!)"-<+/! #=>! The Pedagogy of Affect in Story Circle: The Play! #>?! Public Storytelling and Performance as Digital Second Lines: Mondo Bizarro's I-Witness Central City! ###! Parading Post-Racialism or Singing Spiritual Geographies of Change?: Creative Time and ArtSpot's Performance Spectacles in Public Space! #@?! !-7#,(<(C-2*%*1.(-=(0&D#*5*56( EBF( G*H2*-6'#$"4( ( (( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ((((((EBB( ! """! Acknowledgments This dissertation would not have been possible without the generosity and patience of my family, friends, and many teachers and mentors in New Orleans, Boston, and Rhode Island. First, however, I want to thank my sister, Elizabeth Jeffers. More than anyone else, her teaching, writing, and commitment to social justice in New Orleans has been a model for me and led me to conceptualize and write this dissertation. I am greatly indebted to my sister for introducing me to the students and staff of Students at the Center (SAC), the writing and digital media program in the New Orleans public schools whose profoundly important work has informed and inspired my work throughout this project. SAC codirectors, Jim Randels and Kalamu ya Salaam, thank you for your astounding generosity to me with both your time and your insights during a period of years when your time was so scarce and the stress and struggles of teaching in New Orleans were so great. Thank you for being my teachers and the teachers of so many others. Knowing you has fundamentally changed how I see, hear, and move through the world. SAC students: your stories and practices of active listening have taught me more than you can imagine. SAC staff members and partners Greta Gladney, Julie Wedding, Katrena Ndang, Christopher Burton, Alexandra Lear, Ashley Jones, Gabrielle Turner, GaBrilla Ballard, and all the others: thank you for motivating me with your deeply ethical dedication to public education in New Orleans. I also want to express my sincere gratitude to my teachers and mentors at Boston College. Carlo Rotella, your brilliant scholarship, astute writing advice, and your big- hearted approach to professional mentorship have guided me through this project and will continue to inform my work for years to come. Cynthia Young, your teaching and ! "#! research have enriched my writing in ways I could have never imagined. I appreciate your enthusiastic support of my research at every turn. M. Shawn Copeland, thank you for inspiring me with your New Orleans seminar and for deepening my project by guiding me to attend to its spiritual and theological elements. My scholarship and teaching have also been greatly enriched by the writing and mentorship of Christopher Wilson, Laura Tanner, and Lad Tobin (whose knowledge of contemporary New Orleans music not only guided my research, but also made my research trips a lot more fun). My approach to writing about New Orleans would not have been possible without the methods and insights of Clyde Woods. As I continue to develop this work, I will do so in an attempt to honor his memory and legacy. This dissertation would also not have been possible without the kindness and the inspiring dedication of many artists, teachers, and organizers in New Orleans. I am profoundly grateful to John O'Neal for welcoming me into his life and his work with such openness and kindness. John, I cannot imagine what kind of place New Orleans would be without you. Carol Bebelle, Kathy Randels, Jerry Ward, Ron Bechet, Bertha O'Neal, Joanna Russo, Lisa Shattuck, Rebecca Mwase, Quo Vadis Gex-Breaux, Felipe Smith, Jan Villarrubia, Sean LaRocca, Kiyoko McCrae, Terry Scott, Ashley Sparks, Stephanie McKee, Chakula Cha Jua, Bruce France, John Grimsley, Jeff Becker, Keith Weldon Medley, Reggie Lawson, and Monique Moss—thank you for sharing your work and insights so generously with me. I also owe a special thanks to Nick Slie, Jan Gilbert, and Rachel Breunlin, not only for the ways in which they have inspired and taught me, but also for their camaraderie and astute critical feedback during my writing process. Thank you all, for the time and care you took to share your work with me. Believe in the power and promise of your collective efforts. ! "! Kristen Buras, your critical insights and commitment to New Orleans inspired me and guided me on my path towards publicly engaged scholarship during the past three years. Christian Roselund, Jordan Flaherty, Anne-Liese Juge Fox, LaKisha M. Simmons, Lynnell Thomas, Jan Cohen-Cruz, Helen Regis, Lizzy Copper Davis, Dana Edell, Adam Bush, and Micah Salkind: you have been my muses. I hope to continue to learn from each of you in the future.