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NEWS & LETTERS, August-September 2007Katrina WarriorsAs we approach the second anniversary of the horror that was Hurricane Katrina, survivors attending the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) conference showed us what we already feared—that the devastation is far from over, especially for women. Crystal Kile, who works with Newcomb College Center for Research on Women at Tulane University in New Orleans, informally discussed the formation of “Katrina Warriors and a Future for Feminism in Post-Disaster New Orleans” at a workshop whose audience included young college women who had gone to help in New Orleans after Katrina, older women who had lived there years ago and mourned what was lost, and others concerned with if and how the victims were healing. Crystal told us how all of the infrastructure to aid women in the area was destroyed—especially help for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault which skyrocketed drastically starting with the time people were waiting to be rescued. The idea for the formation of the Katrina Warriors network emerged by International Women’s Day 2006—more than six months after Katrina—because little had improved. It was dedicated to ending violence against women and girls in greater New Orleans and to addressing their needs in the post-disaster area. Charity Hospital—the major medical facility that served New Orleans' poor—remains closed and may never reopen. According to Crystal, “Charity operated in the Lord and Taylor [department store] to help sexual assault victims.” Homelessness is still exploding, mental health issues are unaddressed and post-traumatic stress is affecting many and remains untreated. Despite this devastation, Katrina Warriors came from the recognition that women had emerged among the leaders in the recovery effort—in families, in what was left of their organizations, in churches and schools, in all racial, ethnic and economic areas; and included women from New Orleans' “aristocracy,” academic and women’s studies communities, YWCA, church women whose groups had been a mainstay in feeding and helping the poor and homeless before Katrina, residents of the Ninth Ward, and the Mardi Gras Indians whose rich African-Caribbean history was the soul of the Black community. More than 1,000 gathered together in the auditorium at Tulane University in May 2006 for the first Katrina Warriors get together to share stories, music and culture; to begin to make new connections and reweave the social fabric that had been New Orleans. They have expanded their network to the internet to discuss and share information and ideas with women around the country and the world: http://sophie.tulane.edu/katrinawarriors/ —Conference participant |
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