Douglas McLennan: January 2007 Archives

I'm happy to introduce a new ArtsJournal blog. It's called CultureGulf: Rebuilding Gulf Culture after Katrina, and it's written by Cynthia Joyce, a resident of New Orleans. I've been looking to get a blog going on AJ about the Gulf ever since hurricane Katrina hit a year-and-a-half ago. It's a region rich with culture, and yet the storm wiped out much of the infrastructure that supported that culture.

So how do you get it back? How do you build something new and how much of the old do you try to recover? The region isn't a museum that needs to be restored, and yet how do you recover an amazing heritage? These are issues that pervade attempts to get this unique region up and running again.

I first met Cynthia when she was my editor at Salon.com about ten years ago. She is a smart, perceptive observer and a passionate writer. She's very much interested in all aspects of trying to put New Orleans and the surrounding area back together, whether it's the dynamic food culture, the distinctive architecture, music, urban planning, or community. This is a blog that won't just concentrate on the traditional performance culture, but on all the thousands of choices that get made about how to support culture of the region. She'll be calling on friends and artists and planners to help contribute to the blog.

While this is a blog about the Gulf, I suspect that the issues facing the region are relevant to communities everywhere. Urban planning, encouraging creativity, preserving community - these are all things which are important for every community.