[I can’t quite
believe it, but this week marks the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating
landfall in New Orleans. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy the hurricane, its
even more devastating aftermaths, and a few other contexts for this tragic
and telling 21st century story.]
On five
characters through which the wonderful HBO
show charts Katrina’s stories.
[NB. The hyperlinked
clips are just relatively random ones from YouTube, not summations of everything
about these deeply human and multi-layered characters.]
[Also NB. Here
be SPOILERS, so if you haven’t watched this great show yet, hie thee hence!]
1)
Creighton Bernette:
I wrote about John Goodman’s Creighton and his righteous rants about New
Orleans and Katrina in Monday’s post, and those rants are what made Creighton
famous, both on the show and in the responses to the show. But while those
rants were indeed righteous, they were also fueled by Creighton’s inability to
move on, his permanent state of mourning for what had happened to his adopted,
beloved city. In retrospect, everything in this character (and in many ways in the
show’s first season) built inevitably to his suicide at the end of that season’s
penultimate episode, as a statement about Katrina’s all too permanent effects
for New Orleans and many of its residents.
2)
LaDonna Batiste-Williams:
Khandi Alexander’s fiery bar owner LaDonna’s first season arc embodies a
different, even more tragic lingering effect of Katrina: all those families who
literally lost loved ones in the storm and its aftermaths, and who never knew
(or did not learn for months if not years) what had happened to them. But while
the story of LaDonna’s brother Daymo wraps up by the end of season one, LaDonna’s
character endures, experiencing another decidedly different tragedy of her own
while fighting to maintain a foothold in a city that seems intent on pushing
her and her family out. New Orleans is still trying even in the series finale,
but against LaDonna I don’t like even an entire city’s odds.
3)
Janette Desautel: Kim
Dickens’ chef and restauranteur Janette reflects a third, slower burning kind
of post-Katrina tragedy—someone who tries her hardest to stay but finds the
storm’s lingering effects too much for her, and more exactly for her career and
passion. Like her on-again/off-again boyfriend, Steve Zahn’s DJ Davis McAlary,
New Orleans post-Katrina seems as if it might be more destructive than
constructive for Janette, a passionate but unsustainable relationship. But in
truth, even what would seem to be a significant relationship upgrade (to the New
York City culinary world) can’t ultimately compete, and the show’s end finds
Janette back in New Orleans and back with Davis—and despite ourselves we fully
understand and support her in those choices.
4)
Albert Lambreaux: My favorite
character is Clarke Peters’ Big Chief Albert, a handyman whose true talent and
passion is in the world of Mardi
Gras Indians. Albert’s return to New Orleans and his decimated house (and
to masking Indian) seem for much of his arc like the acts of sheer stubbornness
that his children (especially Rob Brown’s jazz trumpeter Delmond) believe them
to be. But the traditions and legacies that Albert embodies and carries on are
too potent to be broken and, it turns out, too charismatic to be resisted, even
by his frequently resisting son. Like New Orleans post-Katrina, Albert may be
fighting a losing battle—but he makes the fight so irresistibly appealing that
we’re with him every step of the way.
5)
Antoine Batiste: And
then there’s the first character we meet, Wendell Pierce’s jazz trombonist
Antoine. While Antoine is certainly affected by Katrina (particularly in the
loss of his house), in some ways he is the character who seems least by either
the storm or the events of the show’s multi-year arc, who feels the closest in
the final episode to where he was in the opening one (down to his continued
disagreements with cab drivers). But Antoine’s difficulties finding steady gigs
(which might be an effect of Katrina, but might be the challenge of a city
jam-packed with jazz musicians) push him into a new profession, that of middle
school music teacher, and through that work Antoine becomes connected to the
most crucial question of all when it comes to post-Katrina New Orleans: what it
will mean for the city’s young people, and especially young people of color.
That remains a painfully uncertain question at the show’s conclusion, but with
Antoine at the front of the classroom I feel better about the answer to be
sure.
Next
KatrinaStudying tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other Katrina histories or contexts you’d highlight?
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