NY2NO

New York 2 New Orleans Coalition

Our School at Blair Grocery

This Summer we are kindly being housed by Nat Turner at Our School at Blair Grocery. The school is located right in the Lower Ninth Ward which is very beneficial because it is the community where we do all of our work. Many years ago, before closing, the building used to be a grocery store for the community. Now it is a small highschool with a few students, the only high school in the whole neighborhood at that.

Equip with two dogs, thirteen chickens, and a wonderful garden, there is no better place in the Lower Ninth Ward to be living. We sleep on individual cots (with an air conditioner) in the main room. There are four shower and three toilets which we all share, constant cleaning is must! Upstairs there is the kitchen and our computer lab with four working computers. Outside there is a wonderful shade structure around the parameter of the building. There is an equally wonderful mural painted by children of the neighborhood on one of the outside walls. But one of the greatest features of Our School at Blair Grocery is the garden. There are many different fruits and vegetables growing from eggplant to watermelon to okra. There is even a small wetlands and snake grass which is one of the oldest plants on the planet!

Day Care

Every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we pick up a few children from the Lower Ninth Ward and bring the back to Our School at Blair Grocery. The children range from ages 6 to 11. We attempt to engage the children with fun art projects, musical instruments, and sports. As an educational aspect of the day care, we take the children into the garden to learn about plants and help us water, weed, etc. We are very excited to continue working with children of the neighborhood for the rest of the summer.