Disaster Recovery: A System That Continues to Fail Its People

OPINION: It is imperative that groups seeking to offer humanitarian relief direct funds to grassroots groups who are clNonprofits and churches are always the first, and often the only, to step up and provide basic needs during disasters. By Janea Jamison Originally published in Word in Black On the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ida landed as a Category 4 …

Resiliency Politics & Mutual Aid in the Wake of Hurricane Ida

The word resilient is one that has been oft-used to describe those of us in Louisiana who survived Hurricane Katrina. A description one finds in media spectacles, political assurances, and academic studies. However, this notion of resiliency overlooks all those who lost homes and lives, those who did not make it and those who could not return, those who could not withstand or recovery …

Louisiana Postpones Statewide Elections

For Immediate Release: September 8, 2021  Baton Rouge, LA– On September 8, ten days after Hurricane Ida made landfall, Governor John Bel Edwards approved Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin’s emergency election plan, pushing the fall elections back by a month. The primary election will now be Saturday, November 13 and the runoff election will take place on Saturday, December 11.  …

On Hurricane Ida, COVID-19, and trauma: Resilience cannot be a permanent state

OPINION: It is imperative that groups seeking to offer humanitarian relief direct funds to grassroots groups who are closest to the pain of marginalization By Ashley K. Shelton Originally published in The Grio: https://thegrio.com/2021/08/30/hurricane-ida-covid-19-resilience-permanent-state/ Today, one day after the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I cannot help but reflect as Ida ravishes our state. This storm comes as our region faces …