LINES OF THE DAY

". . . But the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present, just as I can point to something over there only because I am here. But nothing is inherently over there or here. In that sense, the past has no content. The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past." p. 15

". . . But we may want to keep in mind that deeds and words are not as distinguishable as often we presume. History does not belong only to its narrators, professional or amateur. While some of us debate what history is or was, others take it into their own hands." p. 153

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Monday, October 5, 2009

Going Back to New Orleans -- Home of Red Rice and Beans!

October 10, 6 p.m. -- a Year Before the Flood reading at Octavia Books, New Orleans.

October 11, 1 p.m. -- Prince of Wales second line (I'll be there in the crowd, supporting my bud JD, who is now a fully dues-paying and suited member of the POW, and don't forget to check out his shoes) -- starts out at the Rock Bottom Lounge on Tchoupitoulas.

October 15, 7:30 p.m. -- signing at Faubourg Marigny Art and Books, 600 Frenchmen Street, New Orleans

October 16, 2 p.m. -- keynote address at Zócalo Public Square's conference "La Nueva Orleans?" Race and Immigration in Post-Katrina America at W New Orleans, 333 Poydras Street.

October 17, 3:45 -- Louisiana Book Festival, Baton Rouge, book talk followed by signing.
Back home the 18th, then NYU the next day to address and class in interdiscipinary studies: Latin American Studies, African American Studies, Popular Culture & Music.

California the last week.

Then comes November -- and Texas and New Orleans again.

Damn! An AP story on The Year Before the Flood that profoundly mis-quoted, re the flood waters.

"It was clear something would happen. I just didn't know when or that it would be a 30-foot (9-meter) wall of water topping the city levees, and that after a catastrophic flood the survivors would be left to rot."
What he said, was that he had imagined, prior to the fact of the Katrina catastrophes, a 30 ft. wall of water.  It happened rather otherwise than that, of which we're profoundly aware.  Though this illustrates again how few people even now actually understand what happened to New Orleans, how and why, as a consequence of Katrina.

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