The Iron Rail Makes a Point that should resonate throughout New Orleans

...but it will most likely fall on deaf ears...

"Sometimes when there's an overload of ugliness you have no choice but to endure it, to let it crash over you like a wave. You can only dig your toes in where you stand, close your eyes, and hope that the horror recedes without dragging you out to sea."

-A quote from our brother D-Bloc at The Iron Rail

http://www.ironrail.org/blog/2008/09/fred-gots-it.html

Prospect Park Paint Party!

PROSPECT PARK PAINT PARTY : October 4th

SLIGHTLYaskew presents NoLA Rising!

NoLA Rising is a post-Katrina arts campaign that focuses on public art, community building and arts therapy in New Orleans. In preparation for the arrival of NoLA Rising in November, SLIGHTLYaskew will be hosting paint parties across New York City.

The next paint party will be Saturday October 4th in Prospect Park. At each paint party, there will be free wood, paint and brushes. We will invite New Yorkers and passersby to paint these pieces of wood with messages of hope for the people of New Orleans.

The signs will be displayed at the NoLA Rising Exhibit which will be open November 21st through the 26th at the infrared theater (IRT) in the West Village.

Many of the signs will also be displayed around the city of New York for public enjoyment, and the rest will be given as a gift to the city of New Orleans and its people who are struggling with post traumatic stress disorder and who are returning to and rebuilding their homes but cannot afford artwork.

Join us on Saturday, and be on the look out for paint parties coming to your neighborhood!

United for Peace / Portrait Party / September 20th

Portraits for Peace

A Community Art Project Promoting Nonviolence in New Orleans

United for Peace in New Orleans is organizing a massive art project, speaking out against violence with poetry, music and visual art. We would like to invite all of our friends and supporters to participate in this important event.

QUOTE: "On Saturday, September 20th, from 12pm until 6pm, United for Peace in New Orleans in collaboration with NOLA Rising and Recycle for the Arts will host Portraits for Peace. Artist from the surrounding community are invited to paint a portrait of a victim of violence who has been lost since the Storm. The portraits will be used for a ‘Peace Pilgrimage’ on November 1st (Dia de los Muertos) where the families will walk with the portraits in hand around the city that day. Poets are invited as well to paint poetry on signs in commemoration of those lost New Orleanians whose picture we did not obtain from the family or the paper." UNQUOTE

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 or (908) 328-7956 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 20th.

We will have a portrait party Sept. 20th from noon until dark at Press St. and Dauphine (XO Press). The rain date will be September 21st.

Since Katrina New Orleans has lost over 500 of our neighbors, friends and community members to violent crime. United for Peace is organizing a march for peace on November 1 starting at the monument of Martin Luther King Boulevard and South Claiborne Avenue.

Our mission is to assert the dignity and worth of all 500 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 in New Orleans is a coalition of concerned citizens using nonviolent methods to build peace in New Orleans.

From The Big Easy to The Big Apple - Announcing November 22nd show

NoLA Rising Gears Up for Show in New York!



It's time for the official announcement to be made. Our brothers and sisters in the West Village have made it possible for NoLA Rising to have a show...a venue...a triumphant circus up in the much loved New York City. And we're not coming up there to play tourist either!

We're going to be getting the job done. NoLA Rising will be heading up north Y'ALL to spread the word that New Orleans is alive and well and that our art scene is in the middle of a Renaissance. Renaissance? That's right, that's what I call it after watching my city drown is sewerage and filth following the Federal Levee Failures. There is no other direction for New Orleans but to RISE from the swamps and show the civilized world what we've been doing with art down here.

In the following days, as the details get scheduled out, those of us here at NoLA Rising world headquarters will be releasing the line up of friends and compatriots in the revolution for a better tomorrow. Shenanigans, artwork, music, interpretive philosophy, activism and sheer fun. There'll be something for everyone when NoLA hits the streets of New York, bringing THE BIG EASY to THE BIG APPLE, this coming November.

You'll be able to find us on Nov 22nd and at our paint parties leading up to then at:

sept 13th FORT GREEN PARK fort green 1-6pm
sept 20 McCAREN PARK williamsburg 1- 6pm
sept 27 HARLEM 1-6pm
Oct 25th TOMPKINS SQUARE PARK 2-7pm
Nov 1 WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK 1-6pm

Be a part of the community that is changing the way people perceive art and activism!

Our Brothers and Sisters from New York at NoLA Shines and Slightly Askew made the following video!


And then there's WE THREE KINGS

Steve Whatstyle Does It Again / The Big Top / Re-Scheduled for Septmeber 13th

RE-SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH! STILL AT THE BIG TOP, SAME ARTISTS, SAME LINE-UP OF GREATNESS.



504 WHAT STYLE

ROCK * ART * CIRCUS

2008 FEATURED ROCK ARTIST: GUEST OF HONOR :: EXENE

CERVENKA, LSW, BILL HEINTZ, STEVEN MARTIN, DUREL YATES, MIKE DARES, HEATHER CLOSE, DONN DAVIS, RANDY MULLER, JIMMY BOWER, MOLLY McGUIRE, SUZANNE SAUNDERS, CATHERINE TERRANOVA, RACHELLE O'BRIEN, MICHELLE LACAYO, GREG HARNEY, PAUL WEBB, MARVIN KIRSCH, JOHN DEAL, FRANCIS WONG, CHRIS KIRSCH, GERLAINE BREWER, DAVE CHANDLER, DAN FOX, ANNETTE HASSELL, CHRISTY KANE, RICKY MOLNAR, GARY MADER, SHARKY, SCOTT ALLEN, SCOTT GUION, MATT PALUMBO, TODD VOLTZ, ERIC LAWS, HEATHER WEATHERS, LEONARD "THE ROCHMAN" .

MUSIC BY: SUPLECS ...WILL PERFORM WITH A . Suplecs will start at 10pm.

How I Spent My Gustov Evacuation - OR - My one day summer vacation

Just when you thought it was safe to evacuate without all those pesky New Orleans folk following you around, NoLA Rising packed up and headed out. I like to call it a guilt trip, as without those loving phone calls from paranoid loved ones, I would have stayed and quietly enjoyed my city. Moral of the story, when someone like Sugar Ray Nagin makes a comment like "the mother of all storms," don't take his words so seriously. When Bob Breck says, "I don't know if I'd call it the mother of all storms...", then I think we're on to something. It makes Nagin look like the boy who cried wolf and when a serious storm does head our way, a lot of people are going to say..."oh, remember the mother of all storms, we only lost power for six hours..." And they'll stay. So, the real risk comes with over-stating the consequences...

I can empathize with those of you out there in the world who believe that we need unity in this city to be able to get things done. However, I do not believe in giving out free passes to people who manipulate fear for their own political purpose. Yes, New Orleans had a successful evacuation, but did it really need it and NOW, can the people afford another one should it need to be called? I personally cannot afford to evacuate again and if it weren't for a small handful of friends, I wouldn't have been able to for Gustov.

As for unity...YES...we need it, but not at the sake where wrongs go over-looked, corruption goes unpunished, and progress gets impeded by the power-hungry. Thank you, but we've had enough of that in Louisiana AND New Orleans and part of the purpose of the people uniting is to make sure it happens no more...even at the sake of criticizing bad decisions in retrospect.

I would gladly unite behind the mayor had he done something worth supporting, up until that point, I will be a critic at any cost. Until then, I beg the mayor AND City Hall to do something to make me a believer. I want to believe! I have faith in this city! I love the people of this city! Everything good I've seen in this city has come from a handful of dedicated citizens. Put the special awards aside and let's start getting to work on the issues that persist, until then, it's up to the everyday people to make the city a better place and not those charged with doing so. Status quo, I don't think so...

When I left, I brought with my the usual fair of loving tools. Thus, the following pictures are how I spent my one day hurrication, bringing the joy of NoLA Rising to one of our fellow Southern cities.

(((CLEARLY THIS NEEDS AN UPDATE: The pictures of the spray-painted wood was done with the owner of the establishment's paint, while he was there, buying me coffee as NOPD officers and National Guard were observing. And, the signs, for those of you worried about me violating any court-ordered agreement, were put up in another city, in another state. There is no violation in Orleans Parish. :)))