30 July 2008

The NoLA Rising Paint Party - The Dog Days of Summer - FYYFF!

On July 26th, NoLA Rising held its paint party for the summer. A large number of pieces were made and will be donated to good New Orleans causes, fund-raisers and non-profits. Those of us at NoLA Rising who organized everything would like to thank everyone who came out and was an active part...without you, it wouldn't be an event. And without you, it wouldn't be New Orleans.

DSCN1978

On the day of the paint party, LOKI from Humid City came by to pick up an assortment of artwork for the Ashley Morris Memorial event. The artwork they picked up was auctioned off to raise money for the cause. For more information, see the posting below.

The following picture is a sampling of the artwork donated to the Ashley Morris Memorial Foundation for the FYYFF! event at One Eyed Jacks
DSCN1980

29 July 2008

"popsicle stickin it to the man" - It's like a midsummer's night dream - Students of NoLA Rising give away tasty treats

Students of NoLA Rising - Tulane University

Thanks to the culinary genius of Kelly Jacques, V.P. of S.O.N.R. (Students of NoLA Rising) at Tulane University, we were able to cool down the community on a beautiful Sunday afternoon with a plethora of homemade and hand-crafted popsicles.

Students of NoLA Rising - Tulane University

From toddlers, to park workers, to profoundly parched pooches, we brought smiles to faces and delight to palates. Unfortunately, our little event was short-lived, due mainly impart to the assertive whims of a polite, yet disgruntled Audubon Park security guard.

Students of NoLA Rising - Tulane University

The authority figure felt it was necessary that we have a merchant's license to give away free treats. After a two minute vocal spat, we realized that intelligent argument would have no sway over "Ivan's" sentiments, and thought it would be best to vacate the premises before our popsicle high began to turn sour.

Students of NoLA Rising - Tulane University

Regardless of its brevity, there is no doubt that our give-a-way brought joy to all those who participated. At least we now have left overs for Saturday's paint party! Many thanks to all who attended.

Students of NoLA Rising - Tulane University

UNITED FOR PEACE - New Orleans

United for Peace is organizing an amazing project, speaking out against violence with poetry, music and visual art. Recycle for the Arts would like to invite all of our friends and supporters to participate in this important event.

The march needs visual artists to donate their talent and create portraits of the victims. These portraits will be carried during the march as a memorial to those who have been lost. After the march the portraits will be displayed in an art show and finally given to the families of the victims.

There are no restrictions in regards to media but Recycle for The Arts would like to encourage everyone to use recycled materials to complete their piece. If you are interested in completing a piece please do so and contact receive an image and information about a victim please contact Charles at
chuckoanderson25@yahoo.com
with any questions you may have about the march or other ways that you can help.

Guidelines:

18 inches by 18inches might be a good size restrictions. .. remember people will be walking down the street with these.
Please include the person's name and day of death on the back
Please include the victim's name on the front as well.
Please no street names or nicknames.
The medium and the kind of paint is up to the artist as United for Peace will be taking photographs of the paintings and making copies for people to hold down the street as well.
Please have your portrait completed by Sept 7th.


Since Katrina New Orleans has lost over 400 of our neighbors, friends and community members to violent crime. United for Peace is organizing a march for peace on September 20,

"Our mission is to assert the dignity and worth of all 484 New Orleanians murdered since the Storm. If we can unite for this march, we will create the energy and power needed for our individual projects to grow. The artist of the world have always been the ones to change the consciousness of their community, so let us come together for our community on this day."

United for Peace will be planning the march every Monday starting Monday, July 21st, from 6:30pm to 8pm at 1629 Simon Bolivar Ave. (Berean Church). This is our time to change New Orleans' perspective on peace. Please email Charles at the above address to confirm your attendance.

27 July 2008

American Outside Art Interview - New Orleans

Recently, Rex of NoLA Rising sat down with the crew of American Outside Art at the Nighthawk diner in the Marigny. The following is that interview as posted on their site:

NOLA Rising: Community Improvement Projects

We were introduced to Dingler by our gracious host, Jeffrey Holmes of L’ Art Noir. Rex is greatly invested in community art movements, in particular following the Katrina storm. We interviewed and photographed him in the heaven/hell of the Nighthawk diner/bar deep within the Bywater neighborhood. We had a discussion concerning everything from preferred condiments (ketchup, dijon mustard) to street art and grassroot community services, from the egomania of artists to the futility of campaigns to illiminate personal expression.

Dingler is less an aesthetic artist than a community organizer and courtroom warrior. He’s organized paint parties devoted to filling homes with artwork, replaced street signs blown asunder by rising waters, and fought court battles against a rabid ex-event planner devoted to covering any and all street art in New Orleans.

dingler-and-cr.jpg
Rex Dingler and Craig take a snuggle break in the Nighthawk.

AOA: Ok, to begin with, what is NOLA rising?

D: NOLA rising started out as a post-Katrina art campaign designed to make people feel better about living in the city. We did street signs so that people could figure out where the hell they were going, and then we started making signs; well, I started making signs, and then other people started helping me, making signs that were happy (a simple smile or flower), that would just make people think about the culture of the city and what’s important to them…the little parts of culture that make New Orleans a such a cool place to live.
You know, that PTSD is still a pretty serious thing here, I was going nuts…

AOA: Do you want to talk about your Katrina experience?

D: NO.

AOA: Ok, fair enough. So, you began putting up these street signs, and that was helpful, actually, a literal community service. You obviously have a strong interest in investing in your community. Could you talk a little about how that began?
D: Well, what got me interested was that there weren’t street signs{after the storm}, and that no one knew where to go, or how to get there. Common Ground was doing them, but I noticed that there were some areas that they were missing.

AOA: What is Common Ground?

D: Common Ground is one of many volunteer organizations that came in after the storm, working on a rotating basis, working, gutting houses, and helping with the community.

AOA: So are you continuing to do the signs, how has NOLA Rising progressed since immediately post-Katrina?

D: During that time we put up about 3,000 signs total, and now it has morphed into community shows and events like the paint parties where we have people come in and paint then we donate the artwork. We give the paintings to nonprofits such as the St. Bernard firefighters, who are just now getting into their homes, and still don’t even have furniture. We also do fund-raisers where we sell the artwork to buy art supplies for the New Orleans school system.

Right now, we are really pushing a community mural project as the next step. We’d like to cover alot of the spaces that are decrepit and depressing reminders of New Orleans difficulties with dynamic murals to mobilize the community in general.

AOA: So, would you like to mention some the people and organizations that you are connected with?

D: Well, it depends on who I may come across. The Institute for Women and Ethic Studies, Rebuilding Together Louisana; a part of the Preservation Resource Center, the St. Bernard Firefighters. It’s been great to work on helping people with their quality of life issues (and having art definately improves quality of life), at a time when they are struggling to furnish their houses, much less worry about having a piece of artwork in their home. One of my philosophies is that a house is not a home without artwork.
They are able to come and pick out a piece that speaks to them, and it becomes a type of art-therapy.

AOA: So you are definately looking for people to come down and help with the efforts?

D: We’re always down for people to come help in any way they can, what really needs to happen is some serious funding. So I’m looking into that. Anyone who wants to come and participate or has any information regarding funding this project would be doing a great service.

We foresee beginning an art-therapy clinic because we see that art therapy isn’t really used here and would be helpful, in particular, for children.

AOA: And you’re looking into becoming a non-profit yourself?

D: Yes.

AOA: Can you talk a little about some of the obstacles that have arisen from that process?

D: Well, One of the biggest obstacles has been the association of what I am doing with street art. And although my statement has always been not to exclude any type of artist due to medium, but this is where I’ve come into alot of problems with the “Grey Ghost”.

AOA: I’ve been hearing alot about this “Grey Ghost” guy, can you tell me something concrete about him?

D: He’s a 50-something year old man who believes he was sent here by God to rid New Orleans of grafitti. He paints over every street mark with grey paint.

AOA: How did he get that name?

D: I believe he gave himself that name, he takes great pride in it, he says he’s a “super-hero”. His real name is Fred Radtke, and he’s a retired event planner. He actually would dress in costume when he first began buffing…a homemade super-hero costume. It would actually be so cool, if he weren’t devastating all the individual marks in New Orleans.

AOA: So this has come to court-drama between you and him personally, hasn’t it?

D: Yes, I was levied orginally with thousands of dollars in fines, but after the jury heard my case, they ventured to ask who was the real criminal and reduced it to a couple hundred (ha, ha).

AOA: So the New Orleans goverment hasn’t been particularly friendly to your cause.

D: No, in fact, the “Grey Ghost” lives on grant money from the goverment and corporations at this time. Imagine that.

AOA: So are there any legal walls in town where traveling artists can paint?

D: There were, but he’ll buff them.

AOA: Damn.

D: But, there’s lots of other ways to influence and improve a community that can never be negated by some ridculous rabid campaign. Artists are required to provide the impetus for positive change in an area. It takes creative thinking to initate and continue any project.

24 July 2008

NoLA Rising Paints at XO Studios & Ashley Morris Memorial Foundation Event at One Eyed Jacks

Nola Rising Paint PartyDrawing by G*Rat

Who? Anyone interested in being a member of a community and perhaps would like to paint

What? A Paint Party. We come out and we paint on salvaged wood or canvas. Then, it's left behind and NoLA Rising distributes it out to a network of non-profits or people who just need artwork after their long road home. We're currently working to use all of this artwork to sell at a show to buy art supplies for selected New Orleans public schools. So, come help us help someone else.

So, grab some acrylic paint at your locally owned art store (National Art & Hobby at 5835 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115, (504) 899-4491 has always been very good to NoLA Rising) and come and join us. We have some paint, but we usually also rely on donations. Also, still working on your house and have scrap wood...bring it too!

When? Saturday, July 26th, from noon until sunset. Yep, the dog days of summer. No one said living in New Orleans during the summer is nice.

Where? XO Studios in the Marigny. 2833 Dauphine at the corner of Press (right where the train tracks are)

Why? Why not? We love our community, we love to paint, we love to be a part of something that is uniquely New Orleans. You don't have to be an artist to come and join us. In fact, most of the best talents we've discovered had never even picked up a brush in their entire life.


Attached Image

But if you resist, we have evening plans scheduled too. For those of you that make it out to the paint party, go home and shower first, you stinky freaks! The rest of you, here's an event that is important to the New Orleans spirit of community...see the following:

FYYFF


For those of you who aren't familiar with Ashley Morris and his contribution to this city's Cast of Colorful Characters or of his devotion to The Saints:
Chris Rose: We'll miss the Blogger next door
The Ashely Morris Blog
Remember Ashley Morris

Dirty Coast Press, The Rising Tide and the Big Easy Roller Girls Present:
FYYFF It's Black and Gold Forever
A Fund-raiser for the Ashley Morris Memorial Foundation
Featuring:
The Big Easy Roller Girls
The Other Planets
Simon Lott, Helen Gillet, Justin Peake , Diamond Kinkade,
Fleur de Tease "Nude Is Nice" performance
Supa Saint
and emcee Andrew Ward - The Reverend Pysch Ward.


DEFEND NEW ORLEANS T-Shirts
Proceeds from the raffle and the auction as well as the T-Shirts will be donated by the Morris family to the Ashley Morris Memorial Foundation which will be used to present FYYFF Awards at later dates.


Location:
One-Eyed Jacks
Saturday July 26
Doors 8p
$10 cover

21 July 2008

Tanis Alexis Finds a Pet Tard - New Orleans Foolishness Ensues

As many of y'all know, I can't be serious all the time because I'm just not a serious person, so here is a bit of relief in the form of pure foolishness. It's best if read aloud in your best 1940's news broadcaster voice...

Late last Thursday evening, visiting art dignitary Tanis Alexis came across an abandoned Adidas box while searching for the Holy Grail. Upon closer isnpection, Tanis found that the Grail was a representation of the finer works, but that the box was very real.

Carefully, Tanis went to the box that appeared to have air holes punched through the top as though to give a mysterious creature air. The lid was slowly lifted to reveal the inside and BEHOLD!

A PET TARD! These pet Tards are rare creatures found on the streets of New Orleans in shoe-boxes and kept with the lid for their safe-keeping. Rumor has it that pet Tards can also be found in small jewelry boxes. Left abandoned by larger Tards and expected to make their own way on the fierce streets of New Orleans (branded as a place to be murdered by Mayor "Sweet" Ray Nagin), they often creep into your heart and your home.

These lovable pet Tards can be great if well maintained by the rules of the Cultural Ministry of NoLA Rising (currently based Boston, Massachusetts for the summer). The rules for maintaining you pet Tard are much like those of the endearing Mogwai. Do not get your pet Tard wet with grey paint, or they will multiply. Example:

You can feed your pet Tard, but no margaritas after the sun goes down. You can let your pet Tard out of the box at night, but not out of the house. Violating the rules of the pet Tard will result in large, rampant Tards hungry for tequila and New Orleans nightlife.


So be warned...you now know the rules of the pet Tard should you come across one.

19 July 2008

ANTIGRAVITY HITS THE NEWSSTAND!

What am I saying? Our brothers and sisters and AntiGravity are already out there. But they are expanding their operations by adding free news machines to the mix. NoLA Rising provided paint for their 4th Anniversary party where two newsstand machines were painted by drunken-party goers. The remaining three were delivered to NoLA Rising world headquarters right here in sunny New Orleans to be custom painted much to their readerships' delight.

In a rare interview, NoLA Rising spokesperson said, "This particular machine that will distribute free papers to the masses is designed by ReX, who modified one of Kandinsky's circles and replicated the crap out of it. Keep your eye on the streets...it will be hitting your neighborhood soon." Two more machines are in the works at NoLA Rising studios done by other local artists. Both the machines and the artist will be revealed upon completion.

Title: Robot boy wears a Kandinsky Inspired Dreamcoat

Antigravity News Stand

Antigravity News Stand

Antigravity News Stand
-ReX admits to getting carried away with a new marker on the "face" of this machine

18 July 2008

Edgar Allen Poe

For I have revell'd, when the sun was bright
I' the summer sky, in dreams of living light
And loveliness,- have left my very heart
In climes of my imagining, apart
From mine own home, with beings that have been
Of mine own thought- what more could I have seen?
'Twas once- and only once- and the wild hour
From my remembrance shall not pass- some power
Or spell had bound me- 'twas the chilly wind
Came o'er me in the night, and left behind
Its image on my spirit- or the moon
Shone on my slumbers in lofty noon
Too coldly- or the stars- howe'er it was
That dream was as that night-wind- let it pass.

I have been happy, tho' in a dream.
I have been happy- and I love the theme:
Dreams! in their vivid coloring of life,
As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife
Of semblance with reality, which brings
To the delirious eye, more lovely things
Of Paradise and Love- and all our own!
Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.

Edgar Allan Poe

14 July 2008

Stop the Tanks! - 1989 - TIEN

When the time comes, will you be this brave? You'd better hope to be...

THE YOU-TUBE VIDEO IN QUESTION WAS REMOVED BECAUSE OF A COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT CLAIMED BY A CHINESE COMPANY THAT IS SUPPORTED BY THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT. THE VIDEO THAT YOU CAN'T SEE THROUGH THIS LINK ANY LONGER WAS OF A CHINESE PERSON STANDING UP TO HIS GOVERNMENT'S OPPRESSION IN TIANANMEN SQUARE. INSTEAD, YOU CAN SEE THE SUGARY JOHN LENNON PEACE VERSION BELOW IT...



13 July 2008

NoLA Rising Paint Party - The Dog Days of Summer - Saturday July 26th

Nola Rising Paint PartyDrawing by G*Rat

Who? Anyone interested in being a member of a community and perhaps would like to paint

What? A Paint Party. We come out and we paint on salvaged wood or canvas. Then, it's left behind and NoLA Rising distributes it out to a network of non-profits or people who just need artwork after their long road home. We're currently working to use all of this artwork to sell at a show to buy art supplies for selected New Orleans public schools. So, come help us help someone else.

So, grab some acrylic paint at your locally owned art store (National Art & Hobby at 5835 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115, (504) 899-4491 has always been very good to NoLA Rising) and come and join us. We have some paint, but we usually also rely on donations. Also, still working on your house and have scrap wood...bring it too!

When? Saturday, July 26th, from noon until sunset. Yep, the dog days of summer. No one said living in New Orleans during the summer is nice.

Where? XO Studios in the Marigny. 2833 Dauphine at the corner of Press (right where the train tracks are)

Why? Why not? We love our community, we love to paint, we love to be a part of something that is uniquely New Orleans. You don't have to be an artist to come and join us. In fact, most of the best talents we've discovered had never even picked up a brush in their entire life.


Attached Image

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And for our late-night crowd, NoLA Rising has teamed with underground magazine SECTION 8 to have a late-night paint party at The Dragon's Den on 8-8-08, same rules apply...You come, you paint, you leave your artwork for us to do GOOD THINGs with. Then, you party your little ass off. Be responsible and have fun and try not to see that as a contradiction. We're here to try and help people in this city and we're just glad we have partners like DEFEND NEW ORLEANS, SECTION 8, Louisiana DNB, and NEW ORLEANS RUM to help us in our endeavors.

Ya'erd me?!?!

CLICK ON THE POSTER TO SEE IT IN FULL

12 July 2008

A Quote from Lord David of NoLA

"Every life has a death, and every light a shadow.
Be content to dance in the light, and let the shadow fall where it may."
- Lord David

Dancing - Where the Hell is Matt - He gets the NoLA Rising award / Matt Harding, Melissa Nixon and Palbasha Siddique have re-inspired me today

Screw the mundane usualness of our world and our day to day toil. We have our work schedule, we have all the boring things we have to do to make a paper currency so that we can fit in time to do the things we enjoy. But, those countless hours lost in our commutes, in our production quotas, have nothing on the true measure of life...and that is happiness. I can tell you that if it wasn't for this video, and for people like this, I would still be in bed dreading my day. So let's be grateful for the people like Matt Harding, Melissa Nixon and the Palbasha Siddique in the world.



Stream of Life
by Rabindranath Tagore

The same stream of life
that runs through my veins
night and day
runs through the world
and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life
that shoots in joy
through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves
of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life
that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious
by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb
of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

Thanks for reading,
ReX

XO STUDIOS MAKES THE GAMBIT - Show Saturday, July 12th

XO STUDIOS GETS REVIEW IN THE GAMBIT! Read it below or go to THE GAMBIT ONLINE and find it there...

ART REVIEW 7/8/08 From The Gambit
X Factor

By D. Eric Bookhardt

Located in what owner Dave Bachli calls 'the longest shotgun house" in the area, X/o Studios may seem an unlikely site for an art gallery. Far from the stark 'white cube" favored by contemporary art curators and gallery directors, X/o is located in a very long, narrow and decrepit 1850s shotgun house by the tracks at the intersection of Dauphine and Press streets, a place as rich in atmosphere as it is short on polish. If the style and setting is far from Chelsea, or even Julia Street, the work also tends toward the funky and atmospheric.

'This is what I think of as Bywater art," Bachli says. 'That's something I think is very much a reflection of this area." What he's referring to is a sense of street-level creativity that may not always be precisely polished, but which seems to be coming from a real, if sometimes unpredictable, place.

Yet even if all these artists' efforts look right in this peculiarly Press Street sort of space, their styles can vary widely. For instance, Amie Davis, whose photographs occupy the front room, makes for a stark contrast with the paintings of Eric Lee Buchanan in the next chamber. Expressing a kind of Gothic romanticism, Davis photographs tombs and funerary sculpture in black and white and then enlivens her prints by hand tinting patches of background and details so her tombs and statuary sort of pop out at you, bringing new life to the long dead.

It's all a far cry from Buchanan's buoyantly stylized figures, colorfully expressionistic images of musicians and characters clearly inspired by the denizens of Bywater and French Quarter streets. While they might seem to run the risk of being seen as cliched or formulaic, the verve is real, as is the deft touch with a brush, lending his work an authenticity behind the buoyancy.

Allison Termine returns us to a gothic mode with delicate, dreamlike canvases of spectral figures, some floating across the sky in gothic/romantic cloudscapes recalling Salvador Dali, others wielding tall staffs with colorful streamers as if headed to the Jazz Fest. More introspective than this sounds, Termine's delicate figures suggest that discarnate beings have feelings, too.

That sensitivity extends to the odd little forms and figures in Taylor Lee Shepherd's paintings as well as the little squares on a panel of pressed ceiling tin that he used as a canvas for dozens of fleshy little images of what? I'm not really sure and I didn't ask, probably because I was more intrigued by his odd and finely crafted Drawing Machine, a graceful wooden frame holding the ends of a painted scroll like an old-time piano roll operated by a pair of white ceramic handles. Turn them and a narrative unfolds in a series of line drawings like a Paleolithic filmstrip. His canvases extend this delicate vein of contemplative figuration.

Probably the biggest surprise is the sharply realized work of Paulie Lingerfelt, a 21-year-old perhaps best known as one of those picturesque dudes in vintage rags most often seen in the vicinity " if not behind the counter " of various Marigny-area oases. His Americana-based paintings are illustrational but bristle with an expressionistic intensity reminiscent of a Tom Waits take on Dylan's old John Wesley Harding album.

Other artists include recent Mississippi transplant Martin Welch, whose breezy portrait of his uncle looking rather elegant in an evening dress is a social statement of sorts; Michael Dingler, whose post-storm NOLA Rising project produced numerous hand-painted messages of joy and hope along with countless street signs to replace those Katrina blew away; and well-known Jazz Fest artist Joy Gauss, whose ceramic figures evoke the Bone Gangs that still haunt the back streets on Mardi Gras and other sacred holidays. All of these artists have a distinct worldview, and in this uniquely ramshackle and ephemeral setting, all are quite clearly at home.

---

Printed in The weekly edition of The Gambit

Dancing - Where the Hell is Matt - He gets the NoLA Rising award / Matt Harding, Melissa Nixon and Palbasha Siddique have re-inspired me today

Screw the mundane usualness of our world and our day to day toil. We have our work schedule, we have all the boring things we have to do to make a paper currency so that we can fit in time to do the things we enjoy. But, those countless hours lost in our commutes, in our production quotas, have nothing on the true measure of life...and that is happiness. I can tell you that if it wasn't for this video, and for people like this, I would still be in bed dreading my day. So let's be grateful for the people like Matt Harding, Melissa Nixon and the Palbasha Siddique in the world.



Stream of Life
by Rabindranath Tagore

The same stream of life
that runs through my veins
night and day
runs through the world
and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life
that shoots in joy
through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves
of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life
that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious
by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb
of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

Thanks for reading,
ReX

11 July 2008

NoLA Rising - A Year at the Wheel Video



As seen on BLIP: As Graffiti goes, in New Orleans it seems to blend in with all of the sounds, art, music posters and good food smells - unless you run into a street that has been hit by the grey ghost(Fred Radtke). Fred paints grey boxes over graffiti, commissioned murals, paintings and music posters... Fred also beats on artists, pulls guns on upcoming politicians and is presently at war with NOLA RISING. http://nolarising.blogspot.com/ Distributed by Tubemogul.

See what Shane and Amy have been up to this past year at http://www.ayearatthewheel.com/

10 July 2008

Crucial Millage Vote - Saturday July 19th

As many of y'all may know, I have a number of interests and projects at any one given time. I'm kept abreast of them all by many people who know what to filter to me and this has been one of the most important to come to me lately. Please take the time to read the following email I have received and consider re-posting it or using it as information for an issue that is vital to keeping a healthy public school system. Sure, I'm aware of the school board's past, but that should by no means be an excuse to cut funding to our students in an already suffering system. Thanks for reading...ReX

Michael:

I appreciate your support spreading the word on this critical upcoming election on Saturday, July 19.

On Saturday July 19, voters will have the opportunity to vote to renew the current millage that pays for textbooks, classroom materials, teacher salaries and facilities maintenance for the children enrolled in public schools in Orleans parish (Charter, NOPS, Algiers and RSD). The renewal of the millage will not raise taxes, but will assure critical needs for the children in our public schools. The four tax renewals up for vote are as follows:

Purpose A Instructional Materials
(Textbooks, software, computers and vocational education materials are examples of eligible instructional materials.)
$114 per child
Purpose B Dropout Prevention
(Early childhood development funding for Pre-K, target programs for failing students, dropout prevention)
$114 per child
Purpose C Purpose Salaries/Benefits
(Salaries, benefits)
$535 per child
Purpose D Facility Improvements
(facility improvements such as air conditioning, asbestos removal and renovations.)
$171 per child
Total: $29,966,423
$934 per child

This aforementioned is a crucial existing local revenue stream. Withdrawing an established source of recurring revenue would enormously compound the difficulties our schools face. It would complicate the day-to-day operation of schools and threaten to undermine the school reform movement a whole.

I personally urge you to vote YES on A, B, C, D on Saturday July, 19th.

For an in depth look at each done by the independent non-profit and non-partisan organization BGR see:
http://www.bgr.org/BGR%20Reports/On%20the%20Ballot%2008%20-%20Schools/On_the_Ballot-Schools.pdf

Warmest Regards,

AJ

01 July 2008

Champions of New Orleans and NoLA Rising Team Up for an Afternoon

This past Saturday, NoLA Rising and the pioneering Tulane student group Students of NoLA Rising, had a small paint party with a youth group made up of young adolescents with autism and aspergers syndrome. The event was held at the East Jefferson Main Library on W. Napoleon Avenue with Champions of Greater New Orleans headed by Dee Ducote.

Avi BenBasat, President of the Students of NoLA Rising, happened to meet the coordinator of the group by chance, and thought that it would be really interesting to observe what benefits might come about from concentrated-individual-anything-goes type art projects that are typically associated with NoLA Rising.



For those not too familiar with autism, the condition can often provoke a large amount of stress and uneasiness, as many with the condition have a very difficult time relating to other people, and picking up on social cues and communication, or "empathizing," that most people take for granted. This impairment can often make the world a hostile and confusing place for those diagnosed. The fantastic thing about art, is not only is it incredibly expressive, but it can also be an amazing therapeutic tool. So ideally, one would hope that art projects could not only serve as a potential window for emotions and perspectives previously unknown to the caregivers and loved-ones of someone with autism, but could also be a great calming mechanism for coping with the stresses from a world misunderstood.

The process of creating the artwork showed great promise for all of our young painters and the use of it as therapy was proven. For more information on the Champions of Greater New Orleans, you can email Champions_of_GNO @ juno.com...you can email for more information on meetings and activities.



A very big thank you to Avi for organizing this and to Dee for letting us be a part.