Daniel Wolff's Blog, page 3

Grown-up Anger

Coming June 13th : GROWN-UP ANGER: The Connected Mysteries of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Calumet Massacre of 1913. Pre-order at http://bit.ly/2o2ISNI

More soon.....

Grown-Up Anger: The Connected Mysteries of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Calumet Massacre of 1913

BIRDS IN NYC

Join Jonathan Demme, Bill Irwin, John Sayles, and more for "Stars Support Poetry: A Benefit Performance of Daniel Wolff's THE NAMES OF BIRDS" on Tuesday, October 6. Doors open at 7 pm. The show will begin at 7:30 pm at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker St.) in NYC. Admission is $25, or $35 which includes a copy of THE NAMES OF BIRDS. Tickets available online only.
www.fourwaybooks.com
The Names of Birds

How Lincoln lives!

http://weturnedoutokay.com/006/

In which D Wolff is interviewed re. "How Lincoln Learned," home schooling, etc.

How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great Americans and the Educations That Made Them

West Coast reading schedule

"BIRDS' in AUSTIN
Malvern Books April 24 7 p.m.
with Bob Ayres and musician David Pulkingham
An Evening with Daniel Wolff & Bob Ayres
Join us for an evening with writers Daniel Wolff and Bob Ayres, with live music from acclaimed guitarist David Pulkingham. Daniel will be introducing his new poetry collection, The Names of Birds, ...
malvernbooks.com

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"BIRDS" in SAN FRANCISCO
with Brian Komei Dempster and Dean Rader
April 25th 7 pm
GREEN APPLE BOOKS
Clement: A Night of Poetry | Green Apple Books
Saturday, April 25, 2015 - 7:00pm This event will be held at our Clement street location. Green Apple Books is happily hosting a night of poetry with Daniel Wolff, Dean Rader, and Brian Komei Dempster for a reading in our Granny Smith Room on Saturday, April 25th, 2015 at 7pm. Facebook…
greenapplebooks.com

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"BIRDS" in OAKLAND
with John Shoptaw
DIESEL BOOKS
APRIL 26, 3 PM
Oakland - Poetry Flash with John Shoptaw and Daniel Wolff | DIESEL, A Bookstore
Diesel, A Bookstore in Oakland hosts another installment of the always excellent Poetry Flash, featuring guest poets, John Shoptaw and Daniel Wolff on Sunday, April 26th at 3pm.
dieselbookstore.com

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"BIRDS" in CORTE MADERA, CA.
BOOK PASSAGES
April 27th, 7 p.m.
Daniel Wolff - The Names of Birds | Book Passage
A field guide to perception, The Name of Birds is about how we see the “natural world.” That is, how we approach what isn’t us and name what we see. It also offers detailed observations of common North American birds.
bookpassage.com

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"Birds" in Seattle! Vermillion 1508 11th Ave April 30 7 pm

Reading with Jeanne Morel and JW Marshall

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Seattle. May 1. With the great Lucia Perillo.
Daniel Wolff with Lucia Perillo - Hugo House
Poet Daniel Wolff will read from his new collection, The Names of Birds, out in April from Four Way Books. Lucia Perillo will read from her forthcoming boo
hugohouse.org

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9th Anniversary Katrina

Ninth anniversary of Katrina, the New Orleans Times-Picayune does a nice job of before and after pix.

See: http://www.nola.com/katrina/index.ssf...

For in depth look, see D Wolff's The Fight for Home and Jonathan Demme's film I'm Carolyn Parker.

The Fight for Home

U.S. City with highest private school enrollment?

"Private school versus public school isn’t an option for most Americans. The average annual cost of a private education is $10,940, and only about 20% of students have parents willing or able to pay that freight....

"According to a new study by real estate website Trulia, the city with the highest proportion of private school enrollees is New Orleans. A whopping one-fourth of all students in the Big Easy attend a private institution....

"Dr. Jan Daniel Lancaster, superintendent of Catholic Schools for the New Orleans archdiocese...: “New Orleans is a very Catholic area,” said Lancaster. “People want a very strong academic education that is embedded in the catholic faith, and Catholic schools are so strong academically.” Another reason might be the example set by prominent members of the community. Lancaster says two state senators, the mayor, and the local district attorney, among others, all received a Catholic education..."
-- Money magazine, Aug. 13, 2014
http://time.com/money/3105112/private...

For other reasons, please see The Fight for Home: How (Parts of) New Orleans Came Back The Fight for Home

NOLA's 9 Most Endangered Sites 2014

As listed by the city and state preservation organizations include two that readers of The Fight for Home know well.

-- Semmes Elementary School, across the street from Carolyn Parker, is cited as "a blighted public nuisance" whose owner (a fromer public official, last I checked) has repeatedly paid fines without fixing violations. The article doesn't mention that Semmes was the scene of crucial school integration in the 60's -- or that the structure would make a great community center in an area that could use one.

-- Historic Holy Cross District, which includes not only Carolyn's home but Patsi's, Mark's, Lathan's. Preservation Magazine calls the two high-rise condo towers proposed for the "anchor" site of Holy Cross -- former site of the Holy Cross School -- "out of scale and character with the neighborhood" and adds that they "will set a dangerous precedent for historic neighborhoods along the river."

Streets and neighborhoods supposedly recovered after Katrina still face real threats. What can you do? Stay in touch with issues via the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association https://www.facebook.com/holycrossnei.... They should let you know how and when to plug in and fight for home.The Fight for Home: How (Parts of) New Orleans Came Back

Still Fighting for Home

Stalking the storyline of my book on New Orleans’ recovery, “The Fight for Home,” was what you might call the fight against home. Even as the people I profiled -- Carolyn Parker, Pastor Mel Jones, and many others -- struggled to get back into their neighborhoods, there was a growing sense that, as a number of people put it, “They don’t want us back.”
The “they” in this case seemed to be government; the “us” was low-income residents of color; and the reason was simple: there was money to be made from re-configuring New Orleans as a “boutique city” with a “new economy.” From the mayor’s original redevelopment plan -- which designated “inner city” neighborhoods as not worth recovering -- to the continuing focus on gentrifying the riverfront “crescent,” official New Orleans has used the Katrina disaster as an opportunity for 21st century urban renewal.
You can see it in the Lower Ninth Ward area known as Backatown, where the city made it almost impossible for former residents to rebuild on their properties (many of which are now occupied by post-modern Brad Pitt houses). You can see it in the attempt to pass laws to keep Mardi Gras Indians off the streets of Treme because more recent, more up-scale residents complain that this centuries-old African-American tradition is too noisy. You can see it in the political battle over what class of business should be allowed to return to Pastor Mel’s Gentilly neighborhood. You can see it in the closing of public schools and the dismissal of long time teachers – many of whom are black – in favor of charter schools with imported Teach for America staffs. Maybe the easiest way to see it is simply to take a drive through New Orleans today and note which neighborhoods seem to have recovered and which haven’t, who lives where, and who doesn’t.
In the case of Carolyn Parker’s Holy Cross neighborhood, you can see it in the current battle over development. This part of the Lower Ninth used to be “anchored” by the private Holy Cross School. The school abandoned its property post-Katrina, even as Carolyn and her neighbors were fighting to get back home. Now, a developer has decided the best plan for the thirteen acres is a massive high-rise and high-price condo project. As one commentator put it, “The Holy Cross plan, promoted by the politically well-connected Perez Architecture firm, calls for 284 residential units, plus commercial uses, 500 parking places and the loss of a stand of live oaks. This is nearly quadruple the current density of an historic neighborhood noted for its small-town feel!”
It’s anchors like this that drown neighborhoods. They price people out of their houses and celebrate a new economy where only the new New Orleans is welcome. That’s why, almost nine years after the floods, people are still fighting as hard as ever. And could still use your support.
Here’s a video showing some Holy Cross neighbors who oppose the condo project -- and how the developers have resorted to fake petitions in trying to get their high-rise “renewal” passed. http://www.fox8live.com/story/2521812...
The Fight for Home: How (Parts of) New Orleans Came Back

‘Reinventing the Crescent’ reconsidered: mere gentrification or good for us all?

The plan to create green space along the riverfront in New Orleans needs a new name. Its supporters have called it Reinventing the Crescent and describe the project as being “first and foremost about connection — reconnecting our city and our communities to our riverfront.” [their emphasis]

According to the project’s website, “New Orleans is emerging from the shadows of Katrina as a burgeoning entrepreneurial community… Reinventing the Crescent harnesses the creative power of design to express what this ‘new New Orleans’ is all about.”

So, maybe it should be called Reinvesting the Crescent?

The recovery of New Orleans is of national importance. That’s why I helped Jonathan Demme make his documentary film, “I’m Carolyn Parker,” (one of what we hope are five features on the subject of New Orleans recovery), and why I wrote the book “The Fight for Home: How (Parts of) New Orleans Came Back.”

People haven’t rebuilt their homes, their blocks, their neighborhoods to reinvent the Happy Plantation.The people we talked to and have become friends with over the past eight years don’t tend to talk about burgeoning entrepreneurial communities. They’re more interested in what to do about junkies moving into abandoned buildings — and why calling the police only seems to make things worse. They’re less concerned about “creative power” than decent health care and schools. And while they might like to connect with the river, their first priority is to make sure it doesn’t end up back in their living rooms.

Reinventing the Crescent isn’t about the people we met in Gentilly, St. Bernard Parish, the Upper and Lower Ninth wards. Quoting again from the official website, the aim is to create a “new economy” based on a new “creative class … of dynamic workers such as engineers, architects, musicians, educators, scientists and artist ….” That’s what the six miles of parks and riverfront amenities are designed to attract — though over 90 percent of the almost $300 million cost will fall on the average, apparently non-creative, tax-payer. This is, we’re assured, “a prudent, acceptable and essential public investment.”

Maybe it should be called Reinventing the Creative Class?

Why use limited public money to build “architectural icons” along the river? Because it will make the city a “more desirable place [where] profit-seeking individuals will naturally seek new opportunities….” And because it’s projected to create some 24,000 new jobs. The catch is that fewer than 900 of these will be for engineers, architects, etc. The remaining 23,000 will be in the field of tourism. That sounds suspiciously like the old New Orleans: a city of service jobs paying just enough to cover the rent but not enough to ever get ahead. One Gentilly resident described that economic model to us as the Happy Plantation.

What’s being called Reinventing the Crescent in New Orleans is known as the Inner Harbor project in Baltimore, Riverfront Park in Passaic, N.J., the Renaissance Center and International Riverfront in Detroit, Waterfront Greening in Manhattan. In each case, an industrial waterfront, abandoned as American manufacturing has faded, gets reinvented as a way of drawing the creative class back into the central city.

Maybe it should be called Remagnetizing the Crescent?

Baltimore’s one of the earliest examples, providing a chance to see how the model plays out. From the late Sixties through the Seventies, public money paid for a rebuilt Inner Harbor that was soon attracting millions of visitors. Tax breaks encouraged private developers to build in the area, including condominiums for the creative class. (Reinventing the Crescent features two new neighborhoods, “like two bookends” — one at the old power plant just upriver from the Convention Center, the other the former Department of Defense facility along the Industrial Canal in Bywater.)

Like New Orleans and many other cities, Baltimore had begun losing population in the Sixties; the Inner Harbor was advertised as a way to stop that. It didn’t. In the two decades after the Inner Harbor was completed, in 1965, Baltimore’s population dropped by nearly one fifth, with continuing losses right through the 2010 census — even as crime and unemployment rose. The city ended up with nearly 40 percent of its families living in poverty and 40,000 abandoned homes (compared to about 48,000 in New Orleans today). The tourist-based economy helped increase the gap between rich and poor, between entrepreneur and dishwasher. As one study of the Inner Harbor puts it, “Baltimore is today two cities, separate and unequal, not in spite of its extravagant and interventionist redevelopment program, but because of it.” [their emphasis]

I called my book “The Fight for Home” because New Orleanians kept saying that was the central issue: not just returning but making a home in the broadest sense. The fight was over what the new New Orleans would look like and who it would be for. That’s why so many people rejected the proposal by urban planners working with Mayor Ray Nagin’s Bring New Orleans Back Commission to green dot certain parts of the city as unsuitable for immediate resettlement: because when you looked at a map, it was the low-lying neighborhoods that were slated to be mothballed, most — but not all of them — poor and black. The city’s higher ground would be targeted for government investment and accelerated recovery.

Reinventing the Crescent (which enjoyed Nagin’s endorsement) aligns with that approach: taking Community Development Block grants from their intended application in low-income neighborhoods and instead pouring them into what Tulane geographer and author Richard Campanella calls ” ‘the white teapot’ … a relatively wealthy and well-educated majority area” along the river.

Maybe the project should be called Regilding the Teapot?

New Orleans has made a remarkable recovery from a major disaster. The huge influx of federal dollars worked like stimulus money to shield it from the hard times that came with the 2007 market crash and global recession. The recovery also attracted an influx of generally young and well-educated transplants, eager to help the city rebuild. So while the nation lost over 4 percent of its jobs between the end of 2007 and the end of 2011, New Orleans held about even.

Eight years after the floods, the effects of that stimulus have just about ended, and the city again faces the national problem: how to re-vitalize the economy. Over the past half century, urban center after urban center has looked to the tourist potential of its waterfront for salvation. By now it’s clear that reconnecting “our” communities to “our” riverfront can only succeed if it benefits the majority of the citizens.

People haven’t rebuilt their homes, their blocks, their neighborhoods to reinvent the Happy Plantation. The tough questions remain. How does the city (and the country) create jobs that offer a creative future for all? How can we look beyond the crescent to the whole?

Daniel Wolff’s “The Fight for Home: How (Parts of) New Orleans Came Back” is out in paperback this month.
The Fight for Home: How (Parts of) New Orleans Came BackDaniel Wolff

Fight for Home paperback

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Publication date: August 13, 2013

CONTACT: Carrie Majer

Senior Publicist

(212) 419-5361

carrie.majer@bloomsbury.com



AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK

THE FIGHT FOR HOME

HOW (PARTS OF) NEW ORLEANS CAME BACK

DANIEL WOLFF



“Wolff covers the facts, the politics, the need-to-know information and context of the catastrophe…But this book's essential charm -- and there's plenty of it -- lies in the voices, the strong characters that Wolff translates incandescently onto the page.” —New Orleans Times-Picayune



“[A] moving narrative…achingly poignant. Wolff provides a powerful message about human will.”

—Chicago Tribune



"THE FIGHT FOR HOME tenaciously and colorfully, like the survivors themselves, exposes the initial

trauma and despair, and the subsequent anger, frustration, joy and exaltation of their plight. This is a historic document.” —Christian Science Monitor



“In THE FIGHT FOR HOME, writer/filmmaker Daniel Wolff sets aside national politics and Red Team/Blue Team narratives. Instead he focuses on a handful of New Orleans–area residents and outside volunteers, using their stories to tell the saga of rebuilding the city one house, block, and neighborhood at a time. The result is one of the finest histories of Hurricane Katrina to date, and one of only a few to relegate state and national politics to their appropriate role on the sidelines.” —Reason Magazine





After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans became ground zero for the reinvention of the American city, with urban planners, movie stars, anarchists, and politicians all advancing their competing visions of recovery. In this wash of reform, residents and volunteers from across the country struggled to build the foundations for a new New Orleans.



For over five years, author Daniel Wolff has documented an amazing cross-section of the city in upheaval: a born-again preacher with a ministry of ex-addicts; a former Black Panther organizing for a new cause; a single mother, “broke as a joke” in a FEMA trailer. Told mostly through their eyes, THE FIGHT FOR HOME: How (Parts of) New Orleans Came Back (Bloomsbury / pub: August 13, 2013 / $18 paperback / 344 pages) chronicles their battle to survive not just the floods, but the corruption that continues and the base-level emergency of poverty and neglect. >From ruin to limbo to triumphant return, Wolff offers an intimate look at the lives of everyday American heroes. As they play out against the ruined local landscape and an emerging national recession, The Fight for Home becomes a story of resilience and hope.





ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daniel Wolff is the author of How Lincoln Learned to Read, a Chicago Tribune Editor’s Choice pick; 4th of July, Asbury Park, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice pick; You Send Me: The Life and Times of Sam Cooke, a national bestseller; and two volumes of poetry, among other books. His writing has appeared in publications ranging from Vogue to Wooden Boat to Education Weekly. He is the co-producer, with Jonathan Demme, of several documentary film projects on New Orleans.



THE FIGHT FOR HOME: How (Parts Of) New Orleans Came Back

Daniel Wolff

Bloomsbury

ISBN: 9781608197514

Pub date: August 13, 2013

$18 paperback

344 pagesThe Fight for Home: How (Parts of) New Orleans Came BackDaniel Wolff