COMMUNITY ART IN THE POST-DISASTER LANDSCAPES OF TODAY

Monday, February 12, 2007

"Making Contact" Radioproject.org Profile on ArtInAction!

Please listen to the "Making Contact" public radio profile done on ArtInAction in February 2007.







This broadcast was dedicated to the memory of Mrs. Giselle Rooney.

3 comments:

Marci "Merci" Davis said...

Elizabeth,

I explored the http://www.radioproject.org/ site and it's glorious. Thanks for the advance notice of The St. Valentine's Day Inspiration. Hallmark can't touch this!

ArtInAction facilitates healing via alchemy. Blight and pain transmute into the light of insight and beauty. ArtInAction is shamanistic -- it's about community coming together to explore, remember, interpret; for folks to reclaim their city, their memories, and the ghosts that haunt both.

You once wrote to me that I must love New Orleans. That I do, but New Orleans is now imbibed with meaning, laden with symbolism as it once wore beads. Beyond being one of America's historically rich and culturally vibrant cities, New Orleans has become a prism, a telescope, a speculum to open and examine the body politic. Interested in race relations? Economics? Urban planning? Demographics? Immigration? Prison reform? Transportation? Public safety? Housing? Medical care? Infrastructure? Here's your test case.

We needn't be content to merely recreate The Crescent City. We can work towards a City that does not forget to care. Ms. Elizabeth, through your writing, photography and art installations you're working tirelessly on behalf of those who are rich in empathy and compassion, as well as the economically disenfranchised.

For these reasons, I am excited and happy to see the lovely, lyrical work ArtInAction is gifting to New Orleans and the world. ArtInAction lifts the spirit and rouses the soul like a spirited strut in a lively Second Line to a badass bass beat.

And on a purely personal and prurient note, I love to look!

Cheers,
Marci “Merci” Davis

ARTinACTION said...

Merci Marci. It's the people of the city that make it possible for me to do anything at all - even the people who can't be here.

Did you see the PBS "American Experience" show on New Orleans? Wow, it's beyond great. Illustrates the history of this city/this country in such a profound way - explains how & why the aftermath of Katrina was/is what it was/is - I hope they offer it on dvd soon I'm going to have to buy it. Great footage of powerful NOrleanian artists/writers/etc saying really kick ass things - John Scott's interview was priceless. "We can teach America how to be America - if anybody's watching."

Anonymous said...

I was in New Orleans in April and had a chance to take a tour with Elizabeth of many of the ArtinAction sites. I had read about them before I came and was most looking forward to seeing the pink tree. It seemed like such a wild and feminine statement. I was not disappointed. The tree rises up out of the still largely gray, though now greening, landscape, utterly ridiculous and, at the same time, hopeful. Elizabeth told us the story of painting the tree, returning to her old neighborhood, and of the conversations she had with recovery workers and neighbors as she painted and grieved many losses. I loved hearing her story and experiencing art that has so many layers and connections to a very specific life.

I hope that at some point, each of the ArtinAction sites can have more of the stories behind them as part of the installation. The pieces themselves are small, shy almost, but as Elizabeth told me and my companion about each artist and how the individual installations were made, she really communicated the individual human experience of New Orlean's disaster and rebuilding.

I am glad to see that New Orlean's artists have such a fierce love and will to rebuild and create!