From New Orleans...

Prayers go out to all those affected by Katrina. We seem to be in the midst of global, mounting tragedies…

From a Reuters article:
"We are dealing with one of the worst natural disasters in our nation's history," Bush said after returning early to the White House from his Texas vacation to oversee recovery efforts.
"This recovery will take a long time. This recovery will take years," he said. More than 78,000 people were in emergency shelters, and tens of thousands of homes and businesses were beyond repair, the president said.

Below is a note from kalamu ya salaam, the founder/producer of the e-drum listserv which is an amazing resource. He is one of our artists, let’s reach out for him.
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folks, excuse the brevity and directness, but the situation is this: like literally at least a million other folk from new orleans, we are now refugees. we left new orleans early sunday morning under mandatory evacuation. my wife, nia, is an x-ray technician who was on call at the veteran's hospital. we had planned to be at the hospital, however, other arrangements were made early, early sunday morning because the full emergency plan had not been implemented at the hospital and for some reason her name was not on the list for emergency personnel even though she was on call. so at the last minute rather than staying at the veterans hospital we elected to drive to houston to nia's brother's home. with us were nia's daughter and her two small daughters. arrived in houston 2:30am the next morning. it was a long, slow trip. it's wednesday morning. it is clear to me that we won't be back in new orleans anytime soon, and new orleans won't be new orleans anytime the remainder of this year. i have ten dollars in my pocket. a $500 check i can't cash because it's drawn on a new orleans bank and which i did not receive until after the banks were closed on saturday. maybe $50 in the bank. if you are in a position to help, i have one request: i need work: speaking engagements, lectures, readings, short term residencies, writing assignments. please contact me via email: kalamu@aol.com thank you for your consideration. a luta continue (the struggle continues), kalamu