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Loading... Why New Orleans Mattersby Tom Piazza
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) Fjumonvi | Apr 11, 2020 |  This book was written a very short time after Hurricane Katrina. Katrina hit at the end of August in 2005, and this book was copyrighted the same year. In Part I, the author describes the culture of New Orleans: the food, the music, the parades, Jazz Fest, Mardi Gras… He also talks about the bad side: the crime, the poverty. In Part II, he looks at the devastation caused by Katrina and contemplates the rebuilding. I liked it. I’ve been there once, and I already wanted to go back… and the book made me want to go back even more! I was there in 2011, and most of the places I visited hadn’t been affected by the flooding. I did get to one of the affected areas that still, in 2011, mostly hadn’t been fixed up. Reading the book certainly brought back some good memories of my visit, though! (  ) LibraryCin | Aug 27, 2017 |  ) stanfordc | Dec 12, 2010 | Piazza wrote the book in the month following hurricane Katrina, unsure of what, if anything, would be left of it, as an effort to "cast a kind of magic spell, to summon up for myself all the things that I found most potent about New Orleans and somehow make them live." The book is also an impassioned for rebuilding New Orleans (recall that in the weeks after the storm there were prominent public officials wondering that "made sense") from the bottom up in way that respects the diverse, vibrant cultures of the people rather than top-down profit models of corporate interests. And it is remarkably successful at both. Ultimately though, this book is the story of the twenty year love affair between the author and his adopted city. Piazza acknowledges the city's tragic flaws - the grinding poverty, the lingering racism, and the criminal and sometimes brutal political corruption -- as only a lover can. "Sooner or later," he writes, "New Orleans will test any love you bring to it." But he argues that the great things about New Orleans -- the food, the music, the joyful insouciance are hard-won, culturally deep reactions to those problems. "In the black gospel tradition which is so central to New Orleans culture, there is a saying: `No Cross, no crown'....You can't have triumph without triumphing over something." (  ) JFBallenger | Nov 24, 2010 | ) stanfordc | Jun 5, 2010 | no reviews | add a review
Every place has its history. But what is it about New Orleans that makes it more than just the sum of the events that have happened there? What is it about the spirit of the people who live there that could produce a music, a cuisine, an architecture, a total environment, the mere mention of which can bring a smile to the face of someone who has never even set foot there? What is the meaning of a place like that, and what is lost if it is lost? The winds of Hurricane Katrina, and the national disaster that followed, brought with them a moment of shared cultural awareness: Thousands were killed and many more displaced; promises were made, forgotten, and renewed; the city of New Orleans was engulfed by floodwaters of biblical proportions--all in a wrenching drama that captured international attention. Yet the passing of that moment has left too many questions. What will become of New Orleans in the months and years to come? What of its people, who fled the city on a rising tide of panic, trading all they knew and loved for a dim hope of shelter and rest? And, ultimately, what do those people and their city mean to America and the world? In Why New Orleans Matters, award-winning author and New Orleans resident Tom Piazza illuminates the storied culture and uncertain future of this great and most neglected of American cities. With wisdom and affection, he explores the hidden contours of familiar traditions like Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest, and evokes the sensory rapture of the city that gave us jazz music and Creole cooking. He writes, too, of the city's deep undercurrents of corruption, racism, and injustice, and of how its people endure and transcend those conditions. And, perhaps most important, he asks us all to consider the spirit of this place and all the things it has shared with the world--grace and beauty, resilience and soul. "That spirit is in terrible jeopardy right now," he writes. "If it dies, something precious and profound will go out of the world forever." Why New Orleans Matters is a gift from one of our most talented writers to the beloved and important city he calls home--and to a nation to whom that city's survival has been entrusted. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)307Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology CommunitiesLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.96)
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