Art and Rebuilding in New Orleans

I was sitting in a shelter in the 7th Ward yesterday, talking with a friend about white people's place in the movement to rebuild New Orleans' communities of color. Do we have a "right" to be there? Do we have a duty?

Well, one of the ideas my friend had about rebuilding was to paint the white walls of the small shelter (housing 3 families with 5 children total) instead in bright and energetic colors to add some beauty to the house. On second thought my friend said there were probably more important things that should get done first like picking up the glass shards that were lining the side of the house and the gutter in front of the house. [This in a neighborhood were no FEMA has ever showed up to help the people rebuild.]

But I said that beautification should happen simultaneous with other rebuilding projects. Ideally, beautification should be built in, apart of such sustainable rebuilding projects. Taken from one point of view, there will always be something more important than painting the walls "simply" for beauty's sake. On the other hand, what does beauty do for a person's soul? How does it change a person's outlook, their behaviour and sense of hope to have something beautiful in their lives?

This same consideration goes for a lot of other situations where some would want to hold off on certain projects others in the movement might enjoy pursuing because there are other things deemed more important by the powers that be. The thinking being that the effort can be better used in other "more fundamental" areas. One example is the raising of class issues at the expense of race or gender or other issues because class war, once won will solve all other problems. Or feminists who do not look at race issues in gender studies because one can look at the former independently of the latter. Of course, this is not the case. Many in the movement today see all issues of oppression as inextricably tied to one another and any

What I would like to include in this panoply of issues, which is not talked of much in the movements' literature is the promotion of the art issue. We need art and freedom, one will support the other and vice versa. Art and artists will show us the possibilities, art will make our demonstrations human and attractive, art will help us keep our sanity in the face of this death culture. Art will reach people in places in their heart that rational thought can't reach them. Art will give people courage, and make life a little easier to live.

Fascists attack art and music instead use symbols of oppression to degrade our thought, but they cannot totally destroy in us what is human-there will always be art.

Beautify everything there is to beautify. Tear down branded psuedo-art. Leave it in shreds. Post diaries onto street lights. Burn memories into magazine ads.