The devestation of Hurricane Katrina didn't end when the destruction and anarchy ceased. Many who were forced to leave New Orleans are trying to rebuild not just houses, but a sense of home right here in the Triangle.
"Our Katrina Neighbors," a multimedia documentary that will be presented by the Center for Documentary Studies tonight, aims to reveal the process of finding a feeling of community in an unfamiliar place.
The documentary grew out of a project that began soon after the hurricane devastated the gulf coast.
"A group [of CDS affiliates] went down to Jackson, Miss. to talk about the situation, and then to a march in New Orleans," said Dawn Dreyer, learning outreach director at the CDS, "but the best result came from a 36-hour bus ride there and back when we met the Broom family and some other local families, and decided to work locally."
That bus ride led to a continuing education course that was co-taught last spring by Dreyer and Pamela Broom, head of the Broom family.
Entitled "Our New Orleans," the course encouraged students to find and collaborate with the new Katrina neighbors in the triangle area. Dreyer and Broom chose to use the term "Katrina Neighbors" in response to national use of the term refugees for those who fled Katrina, which Dreyer said is ridiculous.
"A refugee is someone who is seeking refuge from war or horror. To think that we could have refugees in our own country is absurd," she said.
Students in the course endeavored to understand the lives of those who fled Katrina in more detail than mainstream media provided.
As a result, Our Katrina Neighbors is not the picture of the Superdome that was plastered all over the news in the days following the storm. Instead, the audio, video and photographic production is a real portrayal of what our new neighbors miss about life in an extraordinary city.
The thing to remember, said Dreyer, is that "people were just people before the hurricane. And they're people now."
The presentation will be held at the Hayti Heritage Center in downtown Durham, both because of the space's "artistic presence in the community," and because of its "association with a flourishing black community," Dreyer said.
She emphasized that even though the black population of New Orleans was hit hard by the storm, the exhibit focuses on the lives of new Triangle neighbors from many cultural and social backgrounds.
Our Katrina Neighbors can be seen at the Hayti Heritage Center, 804 Old Fayetteville St., from 5:30 p.m.-9 p.m. There will be a presentation at 7 p.m.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.