new orleans

The shooting that maimed twenty people on Mother’s Day in New Orleans has been classified as “strictly an act of street violence” by the FBI. This hurts my heart. Calling the violence inflicted upon our lives “street violence” disregards the precious value we hold as human beings. [...Read more]

On Sunday morning, around 10 am, I posted this image (right) and accompanying text on Instagram: “I was starting to get salty about having to work on Mother’s Day. Then I got some perspective handed to me real fresh & simple.”

The flyer advertises a "free support group for children of homicide victims." [...Read more]

Where are you from, originally? This simple question was the topic of a discussion at Community Book Center in New Orleans last week, and prompted a sweeping conversation about race, class, displacement, and what it means to be from this rapidly changing city with deep roots. [...Read more]

Judge Lance Africk is hearing arguments in United States District Court this week regarding a consent decree designed to correct the violent, inhumane, life-threatening conditions at the Orleans Parish Prison (OPP), a jail that an expert witness from a nonprofit criminal justice research and training firm described as the “worst jail I've ever seen.” The parties involved in the court action include [...Read more]

Good natured New Orleanians may be laughing about Sunday night's blackout during the Super Bowl, as a "now you see how we live" type moment for the rest of the country.  I'm actually feeling pretty PO’ed. Not by the black out, no. I am infuriated by the overblown language that some media makers have used to make hay over a pretty minor inconvenience, RELATIVELY SPEAKING, *ahem*. [...Read more]

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It is “Back to School” season in New Orleans. But a recent article by Andrew Vanacore in the Times-Picayune shows that despite recent improvements to the labyrinthine enrollment process, some parents are still finding it impossible to get their children into the school of their choice in New Orleans. [...Read more]

By Wesley Ware, BreakOUT! The Consent Decree between the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) released last week is the furthest the Department of Justice has ever gone in addressing profiling a [...Read more]

By Dr Lance Hill, crossposted from the Louisiana Justice Institute, originally posted on Diane Ravitch's blog. Charter schools that perform better by recruiting and retaining better students don’t exist in a vacuum: skimming the best and most prof [...Read more]

By Shaun King, crossposted from Women With a Vision. I arrived for my internship at 215 N. Jefferson Davis Parkway on a sunny Tuesday morning. This location had been home to Women With A Vision for the past three years. [...Read more]