“Women of NOLA: Voices of Resilience Before, During and After Katrina”

Four New Orleans women who survived Hurricane Katrina will tell their stories in person in a constantly evolving multimedia presentation created by WCU social work professor Nadine Bean. The production, which opens PASSHE’s two-day Women’s Consortium, takes place on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. in Asplundh Concert Hall.

A certified disaster mental health services volunteer with the American Red Cross, Bean has been involved in the recovery efforts in NOLA’s Lower Ninth Ward since approximately six months after the disaster.

“Women of NOLA: Voices of Resilience Before, During and After Katrina” is the outgrowth of Bean’s experiences working to help families rebuild and survive in New Orleans.  “What has struck me most deeply is how well many of the women in the Lower Ninth Ward have rebounded from the trauma of losing nearly everything, managed their anguish, and steeled themselves for the processes of grieving and moving on,” says Bean.

The “Women of NOLA” performance opens  the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s two-day Women’s Consortium, whose theme this year is “Creativity and Change: Women Shaping the Future.” 

The NOLA women have varied backgrounds, but, observes Bean, they share a strength and a sense of connection to their homes and neighborhoods that unites their experiences. “One thing I’ve learned in my three and half years volunteering there,” says Bean, “ is that the concept of place attachment is very strong for the people of New Orleans – more than in other American cities. People are born there, stay there, raise families there and die there.”

One of the women, who will be telling her story at West Chester, is Crystal Little. A lifelong resident of New Orleans whose roots in the city go back generations,  Little is the volunteer coordinator for the New Orleans’ Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgendered (LGBT) Center and has been a central force in its development. She did not want to evacuate her home after Katrina hit, as it had minimal water damage, and she was well prepared to stay with many supplies. But she joined her landlords, a Vietnamese immigrant couple who spoke very little English, when they were ordered to evacuate by the Army National Guard. She helped them through the ordeal and accompanied them to Texas. One of the issues she said concerned her, as a transgendered individual, was that, if she were to go to a shelter during or after the storm, she would face issues that few need to think about.

Cynthia George will also tell her story in person. At 76 years young, “Miss Cynthia” wasn’t ready to retire from her position as a Catholic elementary school principal, but her school was destroyed in Katrina and will not reopen. Her home was also destroyed and she lived in a FEMA trailer on her daughter’s property in the Algiers section of New Orleans for almost three years, finally returning to her home at the end of October 2008. Rebounding and returning to her love of education, she now teaches computer skills to seniors at the Sisters of Mercy Senior Center in New Orleans, Mercy Endeavors.

Lori Bolden offers the newest element in the “Women of NOLA” presentation – an original, jazz/blues composition called “Waited for Somebody.” Bolden earned her master’s degree in social work this May from Tulane, where she participated in the spring performance of “Women of NOLA” and was inspired. She and her husband Timothy live in Houma, La., where they minister and where she writes songs and serves as co-founder and vice-president of Yowcha Productions.

Lisa Cerullo (a 2009 graduate of West Chester University’s MSW Program) will read a contribution from Deborah B.  Deborah’s story is one of running ahead of the flood waters with her two young children and husband to a relative’s home in New York.  She and her husband eventually gave up on the rebuilding of their home in the Lower Ninth Ward and in July 2007, moved to Morocco, from where her husband emigrated a number of years ago.  Lisa has volunteered in New Orleans doing rebuilding work four times.  Dalissy Jose, a current, WCU, MSW student, who recently returned from a “voluntour” trip in New Orleans, will share her perspective on the experience.
 
Since its premier in New Orleans for the July 2007 opening of the Women and Theatre National Conference, this living oral history project changes with each venue as more women “share their stories of strength, resilience and hope, even in the face of widespread destruction,” notes Bean.

Nadine Bean originally volunteered with the National Call Center of the American Red Cross for New Orleans residents trying to locate missing relatives in the days and weeks after Katrina. She has since made 13 trips to NOLA and is a founding board member of the rebuilding organization called lowernine.org in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward. A member of West Chester’s graduate social work faculty since 1998, Bean earned an undergraduate degree in biology and psychology, a master’s in social science administration and her Ph.D. in social welfare from Case Western Reserve. Her work has been widely published in scholarly journals on social issues.