Conversation Point

In This Moment

The Diaspora Soul of the City of New Orleans

News coverage continues regarding the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, albeit much more hopeful than even a week ago.

While supplies and volunteers move into the regions of Mississippi and Louisiana in need of support, the residents of New Orleans are being dispersed across the country, literally, to wherever open arms are ready to receive them. Texas, Minnesota, California, Ohio, Tennessee, New York and Rhode Island are only a few of the states which will be hearing the sweet Southern drawl of a weary people who cannot go home. They, quite literally, now must walk by faith, and trust that we who are caring for them are living by ours. The United States and the world have responded generously to give shelter and strength to people who are bereft of the former, and drained of the latter. We care enough to share our resources, material and emotional, with people who mostly ache for home, something we cannot provide in the way that they have identified it their whole lives.

Acclaimed actor Morgan Freeman addressed this issue with Charlie Rose of PBS earlier this week. Referencing his childhood sense of safety in his hometown in the state of Mississippi, rekindled as he visited his aging parents in the late 1970's, Mr. Freeman decided to return home permanently. He spoke intently of how he really had a whole village raise him, and that it really took a village. As a native Southerner, and having come to this public venue to continue to draw attention to hurricane relief, Mr. Rose directed the conversation to the recovery and rebuilding of the city of New Orleans. A deep stillness came across Mr. Freeman's face as he said, "If it can be." Mr. Freeman went on to say, with a deeply felt knowing in his voice, that it was important to remember that it is people's souls that create a village, a community.

So the equally important question we must now ask ourselves is, as did Mr. Freeman in this interview, how is it with the souls of the people of New Orleans? With the City of New Orleans now living in diaspora, we who are not displaced from our homes are entrusted with more than physical maintenance. We have accepted a new calling, a new vocation, that of caretaker of souls. With mercy, tenderness and grace, we are now in the position to welcome our fellow villagers into our homes, but we must also realize that we are being welcomed into their homes. We will learn, meal by meal, conversation by conversation, story by story, and hope by hope, what it means to be a New Orleanian, to celebrate that rich history, to be privy to its intimate pleasures and passions. We have been given both the great luxury, and the obligation, to experience New Orleans through the souls of its people.

As days go by, and months and years, and the city comes back to itself, it will be through the people that the true nature of the city will be revived. When this time comes, know also that our histories will be interwoven in the oral history of this city. Even now we are more than caretakers of the soul of New Orleans. We
are part of the soul of the City of New Orleans itself.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 4:53 PM