NYC.neighbors.NOLA...an open letter/call to arms to arts communities everywhere

"Simply put, my name is Angel Brynner. I am a nyc-based artist who ended up in New Orleans on a fluke about 8 weeks ago...who is now returning home feeling called to encourage other artists nationwide to go down into New Orleans and help get the city back on its feet. By ...doing something that artists innately know how to do. I am reaching out to you about a special series of volunteering opportunities being offered to assist with the rebuilding of New Orleans. The  focus  is on bringing various arts- oriented short-term volunteer teams from around the world to New Orleans, Louisiana[NOLA] to assist with the current stage of the rebuilding process. Three and a half years later, there are still people down there working. Helping. Most of the gutting work is complete, and they've rebuilt more than it initially looks like when you get here. But there is still block upon block of barren, bruised and water-stained homes that need some life painted back into them. I'm reaching out to you in order to get a fresh set of volunteer teams down there, operating from a totally different perspective.  The same spirit and vision that picked up Soho (and Brooklyn and Queens and many other urban areas after they had been forsaken)...can be applied in New Orleans for the good of a community still trying to find its sea-legs after having so much of it washed away via Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In the last 40 years, in forsaken industrial neighborhoods in cities across the country,  artists have consistently re-imagined, moved in, and reclaimed the beauty of those sectors, place after place. It can happen in New Orleans too. You are reading this because someone thought you might be willing to help. A quiet influx of artists is already going on under the radar. There are people in NOLA who have welcomed me and others with open arms across the arts. The actual art scene here is so vibrant, so quietly incandescent, so rebellious…it's breath-taking. Their biennale lasts two and a half months. The Bywater district is a more rough-hewn Left-Bank than any area I've seen internationally, artistically-speaking. Artists actually LIVE down here. But across this city…people are tired…and can use whatever outside moral support we've got to give. Two months working with T.C.C - a community group that focuses on the Hollygrove area, has shown me that a can of paint can make a difference.  My goal is simple: Get as many groups of artists as I can to go and push the paintbrushes and pens needed to help a difference be made more manifest in New Orleans. THE PROJECT. The missions trip teams will be coordinated in conjunction with TCC, the administrators of the Ameri-corps (American Peace Corps) program in New Orleans, Louisiana. In addition to placing long-term rebuilding and literacy volunteer members with various site-partners [such as Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together], TCC regularly hosts volunteer teams from across the USA on up to week-long mission retreats, working alongside TCC staff and Americorps rebuilding members. Simply put, we'd like to organize mission teams synched to your art studios or offices for commitments of up to one week each. The teams will be paired with American Peace Corps team leaders and members for a few days, doing what mission teams do when they arrive: Working on local homes. Painting. Dry-walling. Whatever it takes. This "first taste" will help your team to determine the possibilities for further commitment by doing, with no strings attached.  Starting in early 09, there will also be openings for mission teams more interested in  re-mapping the neighborhood, where people will be going out and finding out who has returned, who hasn't, and the state and circumstances of the properties left unattended in the neighborhood at a grass-roots level prior to special interest groups moving in. It will require emphatic listening skills, as many who you will be engaging in conversation…may not have had the opportunity to speak candidly about what they've gone through due to this for a very long time. This phase will be perfect for those who are more geared toward story (hearing, seeing and telling) than working with their hands.

Those meant to help by painting, sculpting, hearing and speaking life back into this zone are going to know that it is something they are called to do. The vision has to move your heart for any of this to work. the search is for sincere Creative Manpower. You are reading this because someone thought you might be willing to help. There are housing options scattered across the city keyed to the size, scope and spiritual denomination of the mission teams who have come through since the hurricane.  Most teams raise their own funds to cover transport and housing and write off all expenditures at the end of the year (including those coordinated by corporations). You can be one person inspired to serve, or a group of twenty-four to thirty. But you must be at least 16 years old and willing to break a sweat for a good cause. At TCC, there is a point-person that handles all the details involved in coordinating short-term missions trips to the area. http://www.tccno.org/stmiss.htm. "