Public Humanities
Initiative
Humanities Research Center
Rice University
Houston & Katrina: February 25-March 1, 2008
View or listen to archived webcasts for this series.
The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast triggered the largest human migration in the United States since the Dust Bowl. The Houston area received the greatest numbers of New Orleans evacuees, resulting initially in a seven percent increase in the population. Two and a half years after the storm, many thousands of New Orleanians remain, some intending to return to New Orleans, others adopting Houston as their new home.
The Humanities Research Center at Rice University offers a weeklong public lecture series featuring speakers from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds who will address the social, cultural, economic, educational, and demographic impact of Hurricane Katrina on the city of Houston. By combining perspectives from the evacuee community, the academy and municipal government, a many-faceted and still-emerging portrait of Houston will be composed.
Houston and Katrina was made possible by generous funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Gilder Foundation.
Katrina: Evacuation and Inspiration
February 21 to March 15: The Rice Media Center hosts an art exhibit featuring primarily artists from New Orleans now living in Houston. They hew to no single approach or background, reflecting the great diversity of art in New Orleans, and the reat bounty received her in Houston. Their works range rom the exuberant proclamations of folk artist Big Al Taplet, long known in Jackson Square for his shoe shine placards, to the rather more abstract considerations of color, dimension, and form in Jeffrey Jennings' tall paper and wood constructions, which seem to be pulling themselves down off the wall. The exhibition — which includes works by Lolet Boutté, Mike Guidry, Alice McNamara, and Robert Ruello — pays honor to New Orleans and acknowledges the ties of kinship between our cities.
Monday, February 25 - Retrieve the webcast.
Glenda Jones Harris
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Glenda Jones Harris is a native of New Orleans and a lifelong resident of the Lower Ninth Ward. After many years as a community activist and neighborhood spokesperson, in 2004 she was appointed Director of the Advocacy Center for the Lower Ninth Ward. In January 2005, Ms. Harris participated in the first field school mounted by the Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston project. Currently, she is back in New Orleans as the Katrina Coordinator for the Children's Defense Fund. Ms. Harris was joined for a panel discussion by two experts: Gerald Eckert, the Southeast Texas Disaster Long Term Case Management Supervisor contracted through the Salvation Army for the past two years for Katrina/Rita; and Pastor R.C. Blakes of the New Home Family Worship Center, part of whose flock now lives in Houston. |
Tuesday, February 26
Michael Eric Dyson
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Author of Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster, one of the first responses to the disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi, Dr. Dyson is also noted for his commentaries on race, culture and capitalism. Dr. Dyson has spoken to many audiences about the development of disaster capitalism, and the legacy of racial injustice. His book examines the disaster in terms of the experiences and treatment of the black community and the poor as they face a new diaspora. |
Wednesday, February 27 - Retrieve the webcast.
Mayor Bill White
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Last year Mayor White received a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for his efforts during and since the evacuation of New Orleans in September 2005. He not only oversaw the emergency response in September 2005, but also continues to direct the municipal government in meeting the unique needs of a city suddenly transformed by mass immigration. He is noted especially for the speed of his response to the immediate needs of displaced persons, moving many out of shelters and into homes and apartments, even as federal agencies postponed action for months and longer. |
Douglas Brinkley
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Since Katrina, Dr. Brinkley has relocated from New Orleans to Houston, joining Rice University as Professor of History and Fellow in the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. A noted presidential historian, Dr. Brinkley undertook a detailed history of the disaster in The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. His account, winner of the 2007 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, tells the story of both heroic efforts and astonishing incompetence to produce a narrative of a disaster that was both natural and man-made. |
Thursday, February 28 - Retrieve the webcast.
Stephen Klineberg
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Dr. Klineberg, Professor of Sociology at Rice, has been recognized for the Houston Area Survey, his twenty-six year study of public perceptions in Houston of racial, class, religious diversity, and social change, including changing public opinion since Katrina. His recent survey on the changing attitudes concerning ethnic diversity in Houston and its surburbs is featured in Rice News (11/30/2007). See also: Rice News (09/29/2005), Houston Chronicle (03/24/2006), and Rice Sallyport (Winter 2006) for Dr. Klineberg's previous remarks on Katrina and Houston. |
Carl Lindahl
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A folklorist and Martha Gano Houston Research Professor of English at University of Houston, Dr. Lindahl directs the oral narrative project Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston in partnership with Pat Jasper. For the project, they have developed a program in which hurricane survivors receive training and pay to interview other survivors in order to create a comprehensive collection of narratives of those who sought shelter in Houston. This project has been featured on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” (August 26, 2006) and the Chronicle of Higher Education (September 14, 2007) and will reside in the collection of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. |
Friday, February 29
Katrina: Evacuation and Inspiration
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
As a finale to this series, we invite Houston and New Orleans to share an evening of art, food, music, and refreshments in honoring the evacuee community, including transplanted artists, musicians, entrepreneurs and community leaders. This event will take place at the Rice Media Center.
Musical entertainment provided by soprano Lisa E. Harris and her band the Nights of Malta. Ms. Harris is a Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music who draws freely from classical, jazz, hip-hop and soul to forge a style that is all her own: at once progressive and traditional, both experimental and deeply rooted. Not to be missed!
When the Levees Broke
Rice Cinema will screen Spike Lee’s documentary film which provides an essential resource for future considerations of the disaster.
Friday, February 29
7:00 p.m.When the Levees Broke – Part I
8:15 p.m. When the Levees Broke – Part II
Saturday, March 1
7:00 p.m.When the Levees Broke – Part III
8:15 p.m.When the Levees Broke – Part IV
Besides the resources and organizations identified above, the following were represented during discussions or contributed to our community outreach. Thank you.
United Methodist Committee on Relief
City of Houston Community Settlement Network
Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County
Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
Photos of Ms. Harris and Dr. Lindahl by Alice McNamara.
Rice News preview here (01/22/08).
Rice News description here (02/20/08).
Houston Chronicle coverage here (02/26/08).
Community Settlement Network's Newsletter stories here (02/22/08), here (02/26/08), here (02/27/08), and here (02/29/08).
Parking
For all events, parking is free in the Central Campus Garage, beneath McNair Hall. From Rice Boulevard, take Entrance 20, and then turn right at McNair Hall.
For campus maps and parking information, please click here.
Contact
All events are free and open to the public. For additional information on this series, please contact the Assistant Director of the Humanities Research Center, Hank Hancock at hmhancock@rice.edu or 713-348-2770.