National FEMA Trailer Tour

After a morning drive through the 7th Ward’s Saint Bernard public housing project (fully insured and repairable, but being demolished anyway with HUD and City Council approval) – the KRV Express spent Saturday afternoon up and down the hotel-lined streets of downtown New Orleans. Blaring the tunes of Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone, New Orleans’ own Hot 8 Brass Band and others – numerous laps were made around the city’s riverfront Convention Center, where Tavis Smiley’s 2008 State of Black the Black Union Summit was going on inside.

All along this meandering route, residents and tourists of all stripes boogied to our music and applauded the trailer’s billboard-size message of the day – “It takes sorry politicians and disaster profiteers to RAZE a village.” Afterwards, New Orleans attorney Tracie Washington of the Louisiana Justice Institute joined the KRV Express outside the legendary Dookie Chase’s restaurant, where dignitaries on hand for Smiley’s SOBU summit enjoyed a private dinner party just yards from the barricaded Lafitte public housing project (slated for demolition as well).

Hopefully, our education and advocacy efforts will help Black luminaries and summit participants do more to imagine and help achieve the truly just and comprehensive recovery that just isn’t happening – under anyone’s leadership.