Some signs of life and death in New Orleans

Views observed while scouting for the JCCA Maccabi Artsfest this summer; driven around town by fellow artist-in-residence and NOLA native, Hannah Chalew.
Learn more about Hannah at: http://www.jccmaccabiartsfest.org/?pageid=YMV3260

A grand city... dripping with history, a spicy gumbo of heritages, and richly-lived culture. Love it.

FYI: the "Death Area" sign is in the smoking court of a drug-rehab clinic in the Lower Ninth Ward. The minister who runs the facility has put it up to remind smokers of what they are doing to themselves.

It was really quite bracing to come upon this until I learned what it was for - it's in a very rough part of the city.

Ernie K-Doe's Mother-In-Law Lounge

'Nuff said. Nawlin's flash & funk... strut yo' wonderful self in style.

1500 N. Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans.
Do not pass Go, do not collect $200 - go directly to:
http://www.k-doe.com/lounge.shtml

Ernie K-Doe sez: "I'm cocky, but I'm good!"

Shrines in New Orleans

These roadside shrines, to murder, violence, and Hurricane Katrina victims, I found while scouting sites for this summer's artist-in-residency I will be doing for the JCC Maccabi Artsfest. Most were in the devastated Lower Ninth Ward; one was downtown.

They are immediately recognizable as spontaneous memorials. I find it interesting that they do not look like the shrines I find around Washington DC. Surprisingly for New Orleans, a city famed for its vivid and colorful expressions, the shrines I encountered were far more subdued than DC's cascading masses of teddy-bears, liquor bottles, T-shirts, flowers, balloons, written notes and other memorabilia.

see also:
http://dcshrines.blogspot.com

The light