Make It Right
A Project to Revive the 9th Ward, New Orleans, USA
www.makeitrightnola.org
Dear IF readers,
have just returned from our family’s annual “revival” at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. As a family, before and after the children, John and I have gone to this music celebration to “revive” our souls, our love for one another and our journey through humanity. It is a great pause in our life to search once again through the clutter of our busy, busy lives to seek some greater truth and meaning. Each year, we pack our bags with great reverence and travel across the miles to find a tangible explanation of life and love. To ask ourselves, what are the philosophies and truth of this lifetime? We arrive at the Fest grounds putting much of the mechanics of the world aside especially words, and we listen to the basic rhythms of the music. And we begin to dance together and side-by-side in large crowds of strangers. Somewhere in those days of dancing and music, we feel connected in a way that allows chaos, dignity, and great joy all at once. And we are “revived”.
Fifteen years ago, when John and I first fell in love and were courting one another, New Orleans played a role. John was on a trip to the Jazz Fest as a music promoter, and I was reading a great book by Tom Robbins, “Jitterbug Perfume” in which one of the locations of the novel took place in NOLA. It spoke of mortality and immortality and soul mates and the lightness or heaviness of that journey. In this book, there is a place in which the soul is judged as “light as feathers” or not. The soul that is lighter than feathers may journey across to the afterlife. This “lightness” of the soul, the journey and the place of New Orleans became parts of the covenant John and I have made with one another these fifteen years together.
As many of you know, a few years ago, New Orleans and other areas in the south such as Mississippi, were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The place of “lightness” that was our annual sojourn was burdened with heartache and personal tragedy. John and I gathered around the friends and families that were affected and gave them as much love and support as we could. And then we wanted to give back what New Orleans had given to us. And so, we looked around for an organization that was on the ground there doing the work needed to be done. We found it in “Make it Right”, an organization spearheaded by an international father, Brad Pitt and his team in NOLA. International Family Magazine, kicks off our campaign to help “Make It Right” bring back the magic of New Orleans and get families back into their homes, safe and sound. A list of the global team of architects that have been organized for this effort:
The Architects
LOCAL: Billes Architects – New Orleans, LA Eskew Dumez Ripple – New Orleans, LA Concordia – New Orleans, LA Trahan Architects – Baton Rouge, LA John Williams Architects – New Orleans, LA
NATIONAL: BNIM – Houston, TX Kieran Timberlake - Philadelphia, PA Morphosis Santa Monica, CA Pugh + Scarpa – Santa Monica, CA
INTERNATIONAL: Adjaye Architects – London, England Constructs – Accra, Ghana Graft – Berlin, Germany MVRDV – Rotterdam, Holland Shigeru Ban Architects – Tokyo, Japan
