NY2NO

Today, Nat Turner, teacher at Our School at Blair Grocery took our BC/Wes/Pitzer group, representatives from National Youth Leadership Council and others on a field trip!

  So we went down to Tangipahoa, aparish with about 2,000 residents [about a quarter of whom came from New Orleans after Katrina], a parish with a 40% poverty rate and a median incomefor a family of three at 17,000. We went there and saw acres of land. That is what I would’ve said if I had driven past it. But today we saw and learned allthat the parish of Tangipahoa could be. What we saw out there on the great stretches of land that had thepotential to link the urban farm to the rural and vice versa. A place to expandthe work we’re doing and in doing so build with so many more people. Monday I probablywouldn’t have believe the words I’m typing , but currently , I know it’ll happen. Nat Turner and the Mayor of Tangipahoa, Michael D. Jackson (former NFL player) showed us the possibilities of using 40 acres of land to work towards food sovereignty in the rural town and in the Lower Ninth Ward. That would mean complete community control over good healthy food (production and distribution). The connection between Tangipahoa and the Lower Ninth would be not only built through a farm on that land but also would provide jobs for more then 300 young people as well as working towards rural and urban youth empowerment through service learning project together. Our School at Blair Grocery is making many partnerships with different organizations, restaurants and schools in Louisiana and after seeing Turner's vision. I believe that this is possible. OSBG is attacking inequality from all fronts: education, employment, food, housing and health this is a model that we hope to bring home to our own communities.

   Then we went down to TREE [Teaching Responsible Earth Education] and learned of new ways to learn about the earth and understand how important our involvement in it actually is. The change theearth undergoes has everything to do with us, and it is when we understand that, that we realize we have to take steps in creating a better world.This organization uses alternative education and experiential leanring to teach 5th and 7th graders about responsible energy consumption through awesome and engaging activities. I wish I had gone to a school like that! OSBG is partnering with them and plans to take young people from the L9W and Tangipahoa on field trips in order to learn and grow together.

   And partnerships are important inall of this. You can’t make changes alone and if you try, there’s a good chanceyou’ll burn out. This is a fear a few of us here have. We’re here now andcurrently being surrounded by other students interested in organizing hashelped us stay focused. But Saturday we leave, and then what? It’s so easy togo back home and forget about the problems addressed in our stay here. That’s the luxury so many people have and I think it’s one of the primary reasons change isn’tmade. Because the problems are so easy to ignore back home, even while thosevery same problems are a real possibility anywhere. The Lower Ninth Ward is notin the state it’s in now simply because of a really bad hurricane and really weak levee. It’s because the residents were ignored.

-Biola

This morning we were tasked with tackling a difficult question: What are we going to do?

Turner gave us an assignment:

Imagine you are a community organizer and you have arrived in the Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina.

   a. How will you engage with the community?

   b.Will you be a non-profit or a for-profit?

   c. What will your goals be?

   d.Who will you partner with?

   e. Develop a first year plan

Needless to say, at first it seemed to be a daunting task. Where do we even begin? The infrastructure that led to the devastation that we are addressing today stems from such deeply embedded historical roots. What could a group college kids possibly do now to undo the damage? How could we revitalize what had once been a thriving community?

It began with a lot of questions. Once we began talking, however, the tools that we have gained from Our School in the short time we've been here kicked in. Ideas were flowing, and every member contributed such an enormity of potential resources and solutions. The hour and a half that we had to formalize our ideas flew by in the healthy dialogue. I was amazed at the creativity and inspiration that our group provided, because everyone drew upon their past experiences and their own unique perspectives to create a model that would nurture and restore this broken community. For that hour and a half, I truly felt that our group of eight individuals might have just created a viable solution for empowering the remaining community of the Lower Ninth Ward.

We finalized our ideas and were ready to present them to representatives from the National Youth Leadership Council. Nat Turner began with story of The Lorax. This Dr. Seuss book, one of my childhood favorites, had never seemed more relevant. It's a story about the destruction of a forest of Truffula trees by a careless Once-ler looking to make a profit, ultimately displacing the native Bar-bo-loots and Swomee-swans. It was said that this community could not be restored because of the environmentally devastating consequences of the Thneed factory, and its endless BIGGERING and BIGGERING. The Lorax, the speaker of the trees, leaves the Once-ler a cryptic message:

UNLESS.

Unless someone like you

cares a whole awful lot

nothing is going to get better.

It's not.

We care. A whole awful lot. And it showed in our presentations. The three groups had unique approaches in addressing the needs of this community. One thing the models all shared was a respect for the people who live here, and the need for their input in every step of the way. When I was listening to people discuss their creations, I was shocked at how so many of us have developed the basic tools of community organizing in the five days that we've lived here.

After that we composted, we sifted soil, we learned. The people of these three separate colleges have become a family, a big boisterous monster that gets things done and talks about what else could be done and is ready to do more. We all have a deep respect for the staff here and their knowledge. I discovered a question that I love and that I feel reveals a lot about a person: If you had a garden all to yourself, what would you plant? Hopefully we'll all be able to make these dream gardens a reality someday.

Debrief tonight was deeply personal. The simple question of "How are you feeling?" made us all reflect on how we've developed in the past five days. We talked about ourselves and each other and how our assignments from this morning should be a reality. The amount of love that I feel for this inspiring group of young people is enormous. We are all hopeless confronted by the fact that we only have three days left in this place.

Three days of organizing/thinking/learning/composting/sifting/absorbing/raising hell ahead.

Let's make them great.

Our book list has grown quickly, and our second installment is full and ready for viewing:

"Interpreter of Maladies" - Jhumpa Lahiri

     * Great anthology of short stories.

"The Yarabian Building" - Asya Al-Aswany

     * A great look into the eyes of modern Egypt.

"Orientalism" - Edward Said

     * Just read it if you have the slightest interest in the Middle East!

"The Respectful Prostitute" - Jean-Paul Satre

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" - Robert Pirsig

      * Mind-blowing philosophy, societal interpretations

"Things Fall Apart" - Chinua Achebe

"Mountains Beyond Mountains" - Tracy Kidder

"Song of Solomon" - Toni Morrison

      * Speaks of the importance of your roots! self-love!

"Under the Feet of Jesus" - farm works in Cali. Awesome book!

We here at the alum blog decided that it would be great for ourselves to create a group booklist of interesting and relevant reading material. So, we've all been writing down some of our favorite books on a piece of paper taped to the wall, and we thought it would be fun to share what we've come up with. Each book is followed by a short descripion for your enlightenment (when available). So without further ado, here is the first page:

"The Little Prince" - Antoine de St.-Exupry

     * Beautiful things can be said simply.

"Cloud Atlas" - David Mitchell

     * Relates to the future of our world & the power of the individual in the grand scheme of things.

     * Fictional novel, but beautifully written.

"A Raisin in the Sun" - Hansberry

     * Play about a Black family in NYC in the 1950's!!!

"Earth Democracy" - Vandana Shiva

     * A book about justice, sustainability, and peace through embracing our connection with the Earth.

"Zeitoun" - David Eggars

     * A story surrounding a man who went missing in Katrina.

"End Game" by Derrick Jensen

     * Culture of Make Believe

"The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" - Michael Chabon

     * Must-read if you're a Brooklynite! Best. Book. Ever.

"The House of Spirits" - Isabel Allende

     * Family, history, and culture - can I say more?

"Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" - David Foster Wallace

     * A look at gender relations through fictional interviews, along with other short stories about life

     and self.

Today was a compost marathon! Since we went on an extensive tour of the ninth ward by the one and only Nat Turner, there was twice as much organic waste from whole foods. We decided to make up for the day of missed work by putting twice as many people on the job.

It was my first time working compost here and to be honest, it was a welcome break from the never ending dirt heap we were sorting through to prepare the new lot for farming. The heaps of colorful compost of steaming smoking monsters of metabolism. Each morning the staff of Our School picks up big boxes of organic waste from Whole Foods that consists of all of the fruit cores and vegetable parts that they use to prepare their foods as well as the produce they deem unfit to sell. It's amazing the things this place throws away.

After rummaging through the boxes you can find whole apples that are only slightly bruised or perfectly good lettuce! At one point we were chopping up red-green lettuce and argula and peppers with our shovels. It was like we were preparing a salad for a giant. We gave some of the grains and lettuce to the chickens who were really happy with their daily treat. After a few wheel borrows fill of pinapple cores, corn husks, and apple peels, we put a layer of chicken manure on top. It was a dirty job but someone had to do it.

 After a delicious lunch and a brief sun nap, we went back to work to find a mysterious yet familiar smell billowing from David's pick-up truck. It was filled with coffee grounds from a local brewery. David is a graduate student from Washington State who is interning at Our School. He put us through an intensive Compost 101 since he's been studying urban argiculture.David sloshed around in the back of the truck as we digged the grinds out and put it right on top of everything else.

The heap kept growing as we were charged with the task of tranferring an all ready composting heap on top of it. It was gross but amazing. The pile had been building for a few weeks so inside it was already cooking. Steam was piping off of it right in from of our eyes. There was even white ash inside of it. It was amazing to see nature at work. The waste that could have ended up in a garbage dump strategically placed in a poor neighborhood was now having a positive effect. It made me realize that everything has the potential for good, it all depends on how you use it.

We watched Fresh, a documentary about local and organic food before during our dinner of grilled cheese and chili. It's really not the movie to watch while eating. It really drove home the point about thinking about what you're eating and what effect it has on the type of society you live in. We discussed the movie during debrief and it seems we came the conclusion the the standardization and specialization of the argiculutural industry is applied to other aspects of our lives such as education and just like we learned in the movie, sometimes things just need to time to cook to work.

After two nights of sleeping in uncharacteristically freezing cold weather, New Orleans finally warmed up today. Turner returned to Blair Grocery early this morning and we embarked on a tour of the levee on the NY2NO school bus. The tour was long, lasting from 10AM to 4PM, and although we were tired and hungry, I think we all left with a surplus of food for thought (Apologies for the terrible pun). 

We began our tour at the levee in the Lower Ninth Ward. Turner gave us a historical background of the events leading up to Katrina that impacted the level of relief efforts with each neighborhood. As we toured various locations in and surrounding the Lower Ninth, including the bayou and the Mississippi River, we learned of the inequalities that local residents were predisposed to. We were able to see firsthand the roles that race and socioeconomic status play in shaping the surrounding landscapes of each neighborhood. Residents of the Lower Ninth have grown accustomed to the heavy pollution surrounding their homes, a factor that has come to affect their health and well-being. They were hit hardest by Katrina, due to a levee that was not well built, and compared to wealthier neighborhoods surrounding the Lower Ninth, efforts to rebuild the neighborhood have been sparse. After learning about the aftermath of Katrina, we were able to see why residents of the Lower Ninth would be disenheartened by the government, as they were clearly neglected as a neighborhood in terms of relief efforts and government support.

We wrapped up our tour with a visit to a Save-A-Lot store, an experience pertaining to our food justice project. Over the past week, we have been grocery shopping at different supermarkets in order to compare the availability of healthy foods to neighborhoods of different socioeconomic backgrounds. We found that, while it may appear on the surface that customers of Save-A-Lot stores are saving money, they are sacrificing the health of their families in the long term. Many of the foods sold at Save-A-Lot contain additives and saturated fats and are low in nutritional value. In addition, many residents of the Lower Ninth Ward do not possess the transportation necessary to reach larger supermarkets that offer fresh produce and meat.

After returning the Blair Grocery, we briefly discussed what exactly is going on in this community. Some of the issues we identified were the lack of faith with authorities, an unhealthy living environment, and inadequate educational resources. Later on, after dinner, we continued our discussion, branching off into an intense discussion on race, and the role that it can play in community organizing, especially in a community of a different demographic than your own. We shared our personal experiences with our racial identities, and discussed what being white or a person of color meant in our society. We spoke about stereotypes and discrimination, and what society expected from us according to our ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. We debated the role that Blair Grocery plays in the Lower Ninth Ward, whether it is truly integrated into this community, and what changes can be made to meet its goals. This may be one of our most personal discussions to date.

I can honestly say that we, as a group, have grown a lot closer over the past few days. We are all "displaced peoples" in terms of space and time -- an observation that was made during a previous debrief. We came to Blair Grocery as guests, and for many of us, the tour of the levee exposed us to issues that we have never previously encountered. Our discussions during debrief have become a safe space for people to share their opinions and spread their knowledge and personal experiences with others. Personally, the intensity and weight of the things we have seen over the past few days have left me questioning the values that I previously held. Our discussions have caused me to rethink my personal identity and my role in my community and beyond. Seeing the extreme conditions that Lower Ninth residents live under and the state of race relations in New Orleans have left me wondering whether I should be jaded or optomistic that change is possible. I am glad I am surrounded by a community of intelligent and compassionate people to help me make sense of my thoughts. There is still so much work to be done and so much more to be seen, and I'm eager to see what the rest of this week has in store for us.

Catherine

Before I begin, excuse the poor grammar, the mixed-up typing, and the stream-of-consciousness. It's late, I'm tired, forgive me.

Today was Day 2, but it feels like Day 1,000.  Lots of work got done today, and new jobs were created within our group. We fed the chickens, washed the dishes, added to the compost pile, cooked a delicious taco dinner (both beans & beef), cleaned up Our School for Turner's return tonight, walked the goats so they could graze across the street, shopped for our food at Magnolia and Winn Dixie, walked the dogs - Buddie and Diamond, and finally wrote this blog entry.

Everyone here is an amazing person. This entire organization began because a few kids wanted to do something positive, and instead of letting the real world stop them, they just got it done. Hardbody. Every kid/young adult I've spoken to on this trip has been brilliant and incredibly aware. I've never seen so much motivation or been so inspired. The craziest part is that we're doing this all on our own. I never realized that I am actually capable of getting done the changes I want to see made. This confidence and self-reliance is something completely new and amazing, and the trip has been worthwhile just for that reason alone. Within literally 10 minutes of arriving, we insulated our own sleeping quarters. We weren't really taught, we just kinda did it. And that's possible. I knew nothing about soil and farming, but I've spent the last two days sorting soil because I now know that in order to grow the best fruits and veggies and herbs, you need healthy soil, which is soil that is free of rocks and logs and garbage. And free of shoes. The seashells are okay, though, because they add calcium when they break down. We're learning skills, we're learning knowledge, we're learning about ourselves, we're learning about the world, we're learning about society, and we're doing it on our own. We are doing it only with the help and guidance of the peers in our community, and we are all filling that role for each other.

We were also instantly able to form a community. These people all genuinely believe in themselves, me, and the work we're doing. Some of the deepest and most open conversations of my life have been with people I've known for 48 hours, and that's okay. I trust them. We're in this together, "for all humanity."

We're capable of making complex decisions as a group without leaders (reppin' the Consensus Method here); the previously-blogged mission sentence was the result of about 45 minutes of group discussion and tweaking. It may take time, but the energy, enthusiasm and results are beautiful. Without anyone explaining what needs to be done, we found the tasks that will keep the school running, and we organized ourselves to get them done. This all goes back to my new-found independence, but it's just so mind-blowing that I can't get away from the idea. I'm incredibly disoriented and questioning lots of things about myself and my world, because the way we see the world is almost never the way it really is. I'm slowly learning how much I don't know, and for the first time I'm accepting that. Everyone here is conversing about some really heavy topics and meaning what they say, being open to opinions and honestly exploring the answers. At the same time, no one is a afraid to kick back and have fun. We're genuinely enjoying the work we're doing because we believe in it. This is not about an ideology and it's not about rebellion or revolt. It's about us learning to be more caring, more aware, more independent, and more productive human beings. That is not something most people work toward on a daily basis. I'm honestly amazed here.

I'm beginning to learn what it means to be humble as well. Humble isn't "oh wow, these houses are destroyed; how poor and unluckly these locals are." Humble is not about being thankful for what you have - that's important, but it's not humble. I've been truly humbled by realizing that I'm not the lucky one - I'm selfish, I'm ignorant, I'm easily confused, I'm hesitant, I'm prejudiced, I make excuses, I'm not exceedingly brilliant, I'm not actually aware of the world around me, and I'm not wholly the person I should be. I'm extremely, blatantly flawed. But we all are in some way or another. I've been humbled into acknowledging and accepting that. These people I'm with all share some of these faults, but almost all of them see it, accept it, and work to change it. My prideful/arrogant nature just got sucker-punched by Our School @ Blair Grocery and my compadres on the NY2NO brigade. This isn't about us. This isn't really about farms, or houses, or even community organizing. This is about reaching out to people who could benefit from our priviledges, and it's about reliquishing our priviledge to help those people, these people down here in the Ninth Ward, and it's about doing it because we are people and they are people and that's all that matters. It's not about helping; it's about helping people. All the rest is just tools and consequence.

Mission Statement:Were here to engage in and build on a model of urban farming and community organizing that can combat systemic and internal opression both here and at home for all humanity.

            NY2NO first college brigade compised of 24 students from Wesleyan University, Pitzer College, and Brooklyn College came together to create the mission statment above. On our first day, we began to prepare the school new gardening lot by raking and applying new soil on the plot. Another group of students work on composting, others feed the chickens, goats and dogs. Following the activities we watched "Trouble the Water", a documentary comprised of actual footage of the Hurricane which evokes emotions that further expands our perspective on Hurricane Katrina and the community of the Lowe 9th Ward as a whole.  The day concluded with our first debrief meeting.

It's the last day and I'm feeling the expected dissatisfaction in terms of the work we've done (or haven't) along with an overwhelming desire to go back to NY just to say my goodbyes to those I love dearly and to grab a few more tubes of toothpaste. Bottom line, we are not here for a long enough time to experience the gratification of real progress in both the Lower Ninth Ward community and the movement towards ending oppression. And that, to me, is not acceptable. This might not be the case if our mission wasn't so broad and cloudy which is why I've come up with a new plan for NY2NO's handle on their approach to saving this world from inequality.

The plan works as follows:

It's in my personal opinion that as an organization, we continue to repeat tasks, debrief prompts and conversational conclusions and with this, take nothing said into consideration for a progressive and developing organization. People need to see what they're doing down here for the sake of motivation and at the moment, it's just not happening which leads to 30 discouraged kids playing guitar in an air conditioned room with the thought of change erased from their memory. WE MUST FOCUS.

In order to do this, I propose that for every week (or possibly two) we focus on one portion of oppression (i.e. education, housing, etc.) so as to fully inform people on the issues rather than giving facts on oppression as a whole. What the organizers and inner reach members would have to do is assign leaders of these specific movements and really brainstorm on how to fix these small factors that create precisely what we're fighting altogether. This would solve our focus, our understanding and picking people who are getting in way over their head.

If this plan doesn't work than we would all be learning something about just how possible it is to develop this movement and work from there. THIS IS SOMETHING I THINK WE ARE ALL STRUGGLING WITH.

Our lack of progress is exemplified thorugh our heated debriefs that end in the exploitation of the people we pretend to work for and with by  patting ourselves on the back for just how "selfless", "sustainable", and "HELPFUL" we are for getting our parents to pay for a $200 dollar plane ticket.

WE CANNOT CONTINUE TO WORK LIKE THIS, WE CANNOT KEEP SENDING KIDS BACK TO NEW YORK JUST TO BRAG AND WE CERTAINLY CANNOT FORCE PEOPLE TO SPIT OUT NY2NO IDEOLOGY BULLSHIT AND CLAIM IT AS CHANGE.

Change involves movement and right now WE ARE STUCK.

On a positive note, this has been a wonderful group despite our common laziness. We have discussed these issues in depth and have not let our personal bias get in the way of productivity. Together we created a relatively stable community and dynamic which I think says something.

It's crucial for me to thank Group 8 for working together, disagreeing with one another and proposing solutions.

I do not regret coming here.

Gaby Marks