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Katrina: The Debris // Generations

Kate Richardson
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WWNO
Katrina evacuee Stasia Davis with her kids and grandkids outside their home in Houston.

New Orleans is a family city. Grandparents and grandkids, cousins, aunts and uncles often live in the same house, share the same traditions. When Katrina hit, many families evacuated together — three generations crammed into one car.

This week on Katrina: The Debris, we take a look at the storm's impact across those generations. 

From music to housing, how were traditions and family assets maintained after so many people were displaced from the city?

We hear from writer and teacher Michael Patrick Welch about a summer camp songwriting class he taught in 2006 that yielded the world's catchiest Katrina-themed rap song. And producer Eve Abrams explores how the city's musicians fought to keep tradition alive after the storm by bringing old timers and youngsters together to play music.

Credit Eve Troeh / WWNO
/
WWNO
Almarie Ford was a plaintiff in a lawsuit that determined that the Road Home program systematically discriminated against African-American homeowners.

We talk to Cashauna Hill, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Centerabout the 2011 lawsuit that ruled that the Road Home program discriminated against African-American homeowners. And we visit with Almarie Ford, one of the plaintiffs of that lawsuit, who's still trying to repair her home in New Orleans East.

Plus, special guest Wendell Pierce reads from the play Brothers from the Bottom, about gentrification in post-Katrina New Orleans.  

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