New Orleans: A Bowl of Distinction

Jazz ministry plays an upbeat note for New Orleans
Solange De Santis
Sep 20, 2007
from the Anglican Journal

Jazz trumpeter Kermit Ruffins plays at a “mission to musicians” jam session at St. Anna’s Episcopal church, New Orleans.

Last night, St. Anna’s Episcopal Church did what it has been doing every Wednesday night for nearly two years, since the great storm raked the city: it fed people and it opened its doors to jazz.

There was an extra buzz and extra visitors at St. Anna’s since the Episcopal Church’s bishops were arriving, along with the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the city for a crucial meeting on the future of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

A PBS television crew filmed a worship service as the exuberant rector, Rev. Bill Terry, talked of healing the wounds of Hurricane Katrina, the August, 2005 disaster that flooded the Gulf coast.

Priests and seminarians participated in each of the mysteries of the rosary. Father Joseph Cazenavette moved the event along as spiritual director, and Kitty Cleveland provided musical interludes.

Faubourg St. John Neighborhood Association’s second monthly crime watch walk was once again well attended.Many people including our State Senator Edwin Murray and candidate for State Representative Deborah Langhoff ventured forth to walk the walk.

The first in a series of monthly meetings concerning the Neighborhood Watch program was held September 11, 2007. Sponsored by the Faubourg St. John Neighborhood Association’s Crime Committee these meetings strive to improve the quality of life for everyone in our area.

The race for District 94 Representative affords us the opportunity to vote for one of us.

Regular folks know what is happening in their neighborhood.   Regular folks get out and help their neighbors and their community.    Let’s vote for someone like us…..   Involved,  Knowledgeable, and willing to work full time for our community…..

 http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/neworleans/index.ssf?/base/news-23/1188539639239140.xml&coll=3

She touts experience in helping city heal

Friday, August 31, 2007

From staff reports

Deborah Langhoff, a community activist, has announced her candidacy for the 94th District state House seat.

As a civic leader and small business owner, Langhoff said she has spent the past two years working with people who are leading the city’s recovery. It’s this experience, she said, that will serve voters.

As a homeowner and small business owner, Langhoff said she has felt the frustration citizens have with rebuilding, rising insurance, safety and politics.

“I’m running for state representative because I believe New Orleanians deserve a chance to be represented by an advocate for them,” she said.

For 16 years, Langhoff has been a public schools advocate. She serves on the founding board of the Neighborhood Partnerships Network, the 5th District Neighborhood Recovery Group Steering Committee and the New Orleans Energy Police Task Force, where she promotes urban tree canopy restoration.

Langhoff also serves as president of the Lake Vista Homeowners Association and revived the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization’s block captain program.

The 94th District includes the lakefront neighborhoods, City Park and parts of Mid-City, Gentilly and Faubourg St. John. The primary is Oct. 20.

A native New Orleanian, Langhoff graduated from John McDonogh High School and attended the American Ballet Theatre School in New York City. She and her husband, Alan, have three children.

With the onslaught of two major hurricanes

hitting Central America in less than a month,

thoughts of our experience come rushing back.

FEMA bashing has become extremely popular.

There are many reasons why this may be

appropriate.

However, FEMA put money in my checking

account when I really needed it and FEMA

came and picked up the contents of my home

after I gutted it and they came right away.

Granted, I came back as soon as the city

was officially opened and we were able to

get busy immediately.   Many people did

not have that luxury.

While FEMA may not be the best administrated

program in the world, I think about what services

the people in Central America will receive after

experiencing two devastating hurricanes in less

than a month.

I am guessing there won’t be FEMA handing out

money and machinery to clean up the mess right

away.

More than likely the people themselves will clean

up the mess as best they can. rebuild with what

they have as best they can, and move on.

Their goverment will help with the process but

I doubt it will be to the extent ours has helped us.

And, much of their recovery will come from other

countries, help our country largely refused.

We are the richest country in the world.   There

are many benefits to living here. 

Yes, we pay taxes that support the benefits we

receive both locally and nationally.

We should be very grateful to live in this great city

and country.   Even with all its problems, its still

the country people swim rivers, cross oceans, and

leave everything behind for.

Charlie

http://katrinafilm.wordpress.com

Sept. 1, 2007, 9:04PM
New Orleans artist John T. Scott dead at 67

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — John T. Scott, a renowned artist who created drawings and prints but was best known for large-scale abstract sculptures, is dead at the age of 67.

Scott, a longtime Xavier University art professor who received the prestigious John D. MacArthur Fellowship — commonly called the “genius grant” — in 1992, died Saturday at Methodist Hospital in Houston, after a long fight against pulmonary fibrosis.

“We’ve lost a giant,” said Xavier University President Norman Francis, who knew Scott both as both a student whom he taught and as a loved colleague.

He said Scott’s family plans to hold his memorial Mass at Xavier University, where Scott earned his bachelor’s degree and where he returned as a faculty member in 1965, the year he earned his master’s degree from Michigan State University.

“He wanted only a Mass. He did not want a funeral celebration,” Francis said. Details are not yet complete.

Although he had known Scott and his work for decades, Francis said he was impressed by the depth and variety, from calligraphed letters to his son to huge metal sculptures, when the New Orleans Museum of Art held a retrospective of Scott’s work in 2005, shortly before Hurricane Katrina hit the city.

“I have never seen the breadth of expression that I saw that day,” he said.

Scott’s “passion for the historic contributions of African-Americans in the arts, humanities and music was without limit,” Francis said.

And, said Francis, Scott gave himself unstintingly as a teacher, wanting only for students to follow “the tradition, his tradition, of excellence.”

“He had a very famous admonition that all of us remember,” Francis said. “He didn’t want thanks. Just pass it on. Pass it on to others.”

The Arthur Roger Gallery exhibited his work and posted one of his paintings on its home page with the dates of his birth and death.

Xavier University, where Scott earned his bachelor’s degree and where he returned as a faculty member in 1965 after getting his master’s degree from Michigan State University, will hold a memorial service, probably next weekend, spokesman Warren Bell said.   Xavier’s schedule will depend on the family’s plans, he said.

Scott was born on a farm in the Gentilly section of New Orleans; his father was chauffeur to the owners, who used the farm to supply meat and produce for their restaurant, Kolb’s. When he was 7, the family moved to the Lower 9th Ward.

His love of art may have sparked when his mother taught him to embroider. He graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1958 and began formal art studies.

Hurricane Katrina forced Scott to evacuate to Houston, where his disease required two double-lung transplant surgeries.

He was recovering from one of those operations in June, when Xavier gave him an honorary doctorate in humane letters. His wife, Anna Rita Scott, accepted the award for him. Michigan State had given him an honorary doctorate in 1995 and Tulane University in 1997.

He is survived by his wife, Anna Rita Scott; a son, Ayo Scott; four daughters, Maria Scott-Osborne, Tyra Joseph, Lauren Kannady and Alanda Rhodes; and six granddaughters.

See a film about Vetiver grass here:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid452319854?bctid=1153170770

In a city searching for ways to combat two great plagues — termites and flooding — Dr. Henderson believes an unremarkable-looking tall grass could be a new weapon to fight both. Vetiver grass’s densely clumped stems quickly shoot up to 8 feet tall. It puts down a massive root system that has been touted for diverse uses, ranging from erosion protection for the hurricane-prone Gulf Coast to a treatment for baldness.