1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:31,694 --> 00:00:33,946 Yesterday, it was a disaster. 4 00:00:35,949 --> 00:00:37,783 Today, catastrophe. 5 00:00:40,412 --> 00:00:44,123 Our beloved New Orleans, where Katrina hit hardest. 6 00:00:47,627 --> 00:00:49,421 Two of the levees that held back 7 00:00:49,504 --> 00:00:51,714 the waters of Lake Pontchartrain have cracked. 8 00:00:53,550 --> 00:00:56,927 And as the water rises in the city, there are no immediate answers 9 00:00:57,012 --> 00:00:59,763 as to how and when it will be pumped out again, 10 00:00:59,848 --> 00:01:01,641 or what will remain. 11 00:01:03,768 --> 00:01:08,481 Everything that New Orleans ever was, in danger of drowning tonight. 12 00:05:00,255 --> 00:05:02,716 Congratulations, Naquanta. 13 00:05:03,799 --> 00:05:04,801 That's me. 14 00:05:07,761 --> 00:05:11,682 Before the storm, there was nothing like being around my family. 15 00:05:17,104 --> 00:05:18,397 Especially my cousins. 16 00:05:25,237 --> 00:05:26,907 I still remember the last time. 17 00:05:29,533 --> 00:05:33,497 It's August 2005, and summer was coming to an end, 18 00:05:33,579 --> 00:05:34,872 so that meant one thing. 19 00:05:35,456 --> 00:05:39,126 A back-to-school celebration at Tina's with all of my cousins. 20 00:05:40,921 --> 00:05:46,091 You see, Tina's house was the hangout spot for all of the children in my family, 21 00:05:46,176 --> 00:05:49,638 mainly because she had four kids herself who all were my best friends. 22 00:05:51,723 --> 00:05:54,225 I still remember that weekend like yesterday, 23 00:05:54,308 --> 00:05:58,647 me and all my cousins just outside, playing, joking, 24 00:05:59,689 --> 00:06:01,441 and laughing without a care in the world. 25 00:06:06,321 --> 00:06:08,990 Tina made her signature meal, gravy and rice. 26 00:06:12,743 --> 00:06:14,788 I can still remember what it smelled like. 27 00:06:23,088 --> 00:06:26,423 We must have played outside for hours until the streetlights came on. 28 00:06:33,306 --> 00:06:37,269 Once we got inside and ate, we just all piled up in one room 29 00:06:37,352 --> 00:06:41,105 to enjoy each other's presence before our parents came to pick us up. 30 00:06:41,189 --> 00:06:42,273 It's your boy! 31 00:06:45,276 --> 00:06:47,027 -I'll see y'all later. - I never would've thought 32 00:06:47,112 --> 00:06:49,531 that would be our last time together in that house. 33 00:07:22,354 --> 00:07:23,272 All right. 34 00:07:25,650 --> 00:07:27,319 Since the storm, 35 00:07:28,485 --> 00:07:31,655 it seems like everybody just moved on. 36 00:07:35,826 --> 00:07:41,498 In America, especially during disaster, Black children are not even a thought. 37 00:07:44,085 --> 00:07:45,962 Hurricane Katrina was no different. 38 00:07:48,507 --> 00:07:51,425 -See, it's already got a call... - After losing so much, 39 00:07:51,510 --> 00:07:54,846 why wouldn't anyone ask if we were okay? 40 00:08:00,851 --> 00:08:03,647 Nobody ever asked the children how they were doing. 41 00:08:17,327 --> 00:08:18,245 So, I am. 42 00:08:21,623 --> 00:08:24,417 -Got the chargers and stuff? -There's one in the back. 43 00:08:31,632 --> 00:08:33,009 -Yeah. -All right? 44 00:08:33,093 --> 00:08:35,428 Cierra, Katrina Babies, take one. 45 00:08:39,599 --> 00:08:43,227 Lolly, Katrina Babies, interview, take one. 46 00:08:43,854 --> 00:08:45,730 I was 11 years old, 47 00:08:45,813 --> 00:08:48,984 and the first thing I can remember, I was knocked out asleep, man. 48 00:08:49,067 --> 00:08:50,401 The first thing I could remember 49 00:08:50,485 --> 00:08:53,905 was just feet running down the hallway... 50 00:08:53,988 --> 00:08:55,531 and my mom was like, 51 00:08:55,615 --> 00:08:58,784 "Get up, get up, get up. We got to go, we got to go." 52 00:08:58,869 --> 00:09:01,746 Something like that is really hard for you to forget. 53 00:09:01,829 --> 00:09:04,707 Friday, I was at school, walking the hallways with my friends. 54 00:09:04,790 --> 00:09:07,167 By Monday, I was on top of the fucking roof. 55 00:09:07,252 --> 00:09:09,920 My mom's home crying. My grandmother's home crying. 56 00:09:10,004 --> 00:09:11,631 Our house is destroyed. 57 00:09:11,714 --> 00:09:14,967 Like, it was just too much. Even though I'm young and, you know, 58 00:09:15,051 --> 00:09:17,219 it's not like I'm stressing how my parents were stressing, 59 00:09:17,303 --> 00:09:21,057 but I just was... I just wasn't comfortable. 60 00:09:21,141 --> 00:09:24,602 I couldn't... I couldn't think properly. 61 00:09:29,107 --> 00:09:30,400 No. 62 00:09:30,482 --> 00:09:33,861 I started interviewing people, and I didn't know what I was doing, 63 00:09:33,945 --> 00:09:37,699 but I was just like, "This is a story that needs to be told." 64 00:09:38,574 --> 00:09:39,867 All right. We rolling? 65 00:09:39,951 --> 00:09:40,869 Yeah. 66 00:09:41,661 --> 00:09:45,331 All right. Katrina Babies, Betty Buckles, 67 00:09:46,041 --> 00:09:47,833 Betty "Stay Ready" Buckles, take one. 68 00:09:49,001 --> 00:09:51,337 Why you look so scared and serious? 69 00:09:51,421 --> 00:09:53,590 -I don't know. I mean, I'm just-- -It don't got to be scary. 70 00:09:53,672 --> 00:09:54,674 I ain't scared. 71 00:09:54,757 --> 00:09:58,135 All right. So, just... just introduce yourself, 72 00:09:59,221 --> 00:10:00,388 your name... 73 00:10:02,056 --> 00:10:04,516 your name and who you are. 74 00:10:06,185 --> 00:10:09,105 -Oh, okay. What you mean, who I am? -Yeah. 75 00:10:09,188 --> 00:10:11,690 -Like your... your mama? -Yeah. 76 00:10:17,529 --> 00:10:20,575 Dad, as a parent, what you remember going through 77 00:10:20,658 --> 00:10:23,953 as Hurricane Katrina was approaching, just like the whole process 78 00:10:24,036 --> 00:10:26,038 -of Hurricane Katrina? -Good question, good question. 79 00:10:26,121 --> 00:10:28,749 'Cause, like, me and my wife and family, 80 00:10:28,834 --> 00:10:31,711 we had decided at first that we was gonna all stay. 81 00:10:31,795 --> 00:10:34,548 You know, we was just gonna ride this out. 82 00:10:34,630 --> 00:10:39,301 But that morning, the last day of, our last day to get out, 83 00:10:40,053 --> 00:10:42,805 my wife had a change of mind, and she said, 84 00:10:42,889 --> 00:10:47,060 "I think we better leave." So, I wasn't in no argument mood. 85 00:10:47,142 --> 00:10:49,646 I say, "Well, okay. Let's pack up, and let's leave." 86 00:10:50,814 --> 00:10:54,651 Well, I had been hearing about the storm for, like, about a whole week or two. 87 00:10:54,734 --> 00:10:58,655 Then, Ray Nagin came on, and Ray Nagin say 88 00:10:59,238 --> 00:11:00,907 to don't play with the storm, 89 00:11:00,991 --> 00:11:04,411 to please get your family and get out of here. 90 00:11:05,453 --> 00:11:08,456 So, I told your daddy, "We got to leave. We got to leave." 91 00:11:09,290 --> 00:11:12,210 Ladies and gentlemen, I wish I had better news for you 92 00:11:12,293 --> 00:11:16,673 but we are facing a storm that most of us have feared. 93 00:11:16,756 --> 00:11:21,427 I do not want to create panic, but I do want the citizens to understand 94 00:11:21,510 --> 00:11:25,472 that this is very serious, and it's of the highest nature, 95 00:11:25,556 --> 00:11:28,768 and it's... that's why we've taken this unprecedented move. 96 00:11:34,315 --> 00:11:36,025 We're not able to get up and just go. 97 00:11:36,108 --> 00:11:39,487 We don't have transportation. I mean, we living paycheck to paycheck. 98 00:11:39,571 --> 00:11:42,949 I mean, it ain't like we're just able to get up or just leave. 99 00:11:45,076 --> 00:11:46,285 Waiting on the storm? 100 00:11:48,621 --> 00:11:50,581 -You going to wait for the storm? -No. 101 00:11:50,665 --> 00:11:52,541 -Hurricane. -What's up? People getting ready 102 00:11:52,626 --> 00:11:54,711 for the hurricane like it's nothing. 103 00:11:57,964 --> 00:11:59,925 My mindset on hurricanes, 104 00:12:00,007 --> 00:12:03,595 my thoughts toward them were they were always gonna come-- 105 00:12:04,011 --> 00:12:05,889 like, seemed like they were gonna come for New Orleans, 106 00:12:05,971 --> 00:12:07,849 and then turn at the last second. 107 00:12:07,932 --> 00:12:09,726 Well, my grandma always said, 108 00:12:09,809 --> 00:12:12,938 like, the Lower Ninth Ward is, like, below sea level. 109 00:12:13,020 --> 00:12:15,273 Like, we can't stay here. 110 00:12:15,356 --> 00:12:18,734 We packed, and I just remember... 111 00:12:18,818 --> 00:12:23,989 there was, like, something different, even though we didn't know it then. 112 00:12:24,073 --> 00:12:26,825 I remember packing my bag 113 00:12:26,910 --> 00:12:31,288 and putting in some, like, pictures that I had hanging up in my bedroom, 114 00:12:31,372 --> 00:12:34,917 which is not something that you would normally do 115 00:12:35,001 --> 00:12:36,419 when you think you're coming right back. 116 00:12:36,502 --> 00:12:38,004 You know, we didn't even take them serious. 117 00:12:38,088 --> 00:12:39,047 I remember one time, 118 00:12:39,381 --> 00:12:41,883 I was in the Lafitte Projects for a hurricane, 119 00:12:41,966 --> 00:12:43,801 and they had a hurricane block party. 120 00:12:43,884 --> 00:12:46,179 Like, they really had a DJ. Everybody in the project 121 00:12:46,262 --> 00:12:47,972 was right there, dancing and whatnot, eating. 122 00:12:48,055 --> 00:12:49,765 And, like, yeah, the hurricane come tomorrow, 123 00:12:49,850 --> 00:12:51,725 so, we gonna, you know, we're gonna cut up right now, 124 00:12:51,810 --> 00:12:53,228 you know, just in case something happened. 125 00:12:53,310 --> 00:12:56,648 But we always knew it wasn't gonna happen. Nothing was gonna happen at all. 126 00:12:56,731 --> 00:12:59,484 -We was gonna be good. -You know, my grandma was like, 127 00:13:00,277 --> 00:13:03,280 "Pack up some clothes. Just pack up some clothes." 128 00:13:03,363 --> 00:13:05,698 "Get everything you need, pack up some clothes." 129 00:13:06,408 --> 00:13:12,037 I definitely think that me and, like, my friends, 130 00:13:12,122 --> 00:13:13,914 we were just, again, 131 00:13:13,998 --> 00:13:17,001 thinking that this was like a quick one-two, 132 00:13:17,085 --> 00:13:19,546 going for two or three days, and you come right back. 133 00:13:19,628 --> 00:13:23,466 So, it was still that... that innocence there and that sense of, like, 134 00:13:24,509 --> 00:13:27,595 not really thinking that this was gonna be a big deal. 135 00:13:27,678 --> 00:13:30,891 We was in the Lafitte Projects, 136 00:13:30,973 --> 00:13:35,519 and me and my brothers was playing outside with the other kids. 137 00:13:36,562 --> 00:13:40,525 And all I could feel was, like, this real cold wind. 138 00:13:40,608 --> 00:13:44,653 It was so windy. So, so windy. And it was, like, real, real cold. 139 00:13:44,738 --> 00:13:48,449 I went to church that Sunday, the day before the storm, you know? 140 00:13:48,532 --> 00:13:50,784 And the priest was like... I'll never forget this. 141 00:13:50,869 --> 00:13:52,077 The priest looked my dad in the eye. 142 00:13:52,162 --> 00:13:54,080 He was like, "Yeah, y'all evacuating today, huh?" 143 00:13:54,163 --> 00:13:55,831 He said, "Nah." And the priest just looked. 144 00:13:55,916 --> 00:13:58,083 He just had this look in his eye, and we was walking off. 145 00:13:58,168 --> 00:13:59,294 I looked back, 146 00:13:59,376 --> 00:14:02,004 and the priest was just looking like, you know... like he was confused. 147 00:14:02,087 --> 00:14:04,674 And I will never forget that day in my life, dude. 148 00:14:05,717 --> 00:14:09,888 That Sunday, we woke up, and my mama was all over the place, 149 00:14:09,971 --> 00:14:13,349 like, "Yo, we leaving." Like, "Yo, like, I'm not asking you." 150 00:14:13,432 --> 00:14:14,892 "I'm telling you. We're leaving." 151 00:14:14,976 --> 00:14:18,438 "We're getting the fuck out of here, and we're going somewhere." 152 00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:22,191 My mom is that person that, like, she has dreams, 153 00:14:22,275 --> 00:14:24,986 and then sometimes those dreams, like, 154 00:14:25,069 --> 00:14:28,240 manifest into something like, you know, within the family. 155 00:14:28,322 --> 00:14:29,533 Like, she's real spiritual. 156 00:14:29,615 --> 00:14:33,911 So, when she said that, when she's like, 157 00:14:33,995 --> 00:14:37,414 "God is telling us to leave," nobody questioned it. 158 00:14:37,499 --> 00:14:39,209 It's like, "Yo, we got to go." 159 00:14:40,167 --> 00:14:43,546 "We getting out of here. Y'all start getting ready. We got to go." 160 00:14:43,630 --> 00:14:45,381 And then everybody just started getting up. 161 00:14:45,465 --> 00:14:48,176 The children didn't seem to be worried about the storm 162 00:14:48,801 --> 00:14:51,972 'cause I guess they didn't really realize how serious the storm was. 163 00:14:52,889 --> 00:14:54,265 We got rushed into the car, 164 00:14:54,348 --> 00:14:57,602 and we only took like a weekend's worth of clothes. 165 00:14:59,228 --> 00:15:00,564 We had evacuated before, 166 00:15:00,646 --> 00:15:03,066 but there was something surreal about this time. 167 00:15:05,652 --> 00:15:07,487 The city of New Orleans needs to be prepared 168 00:15:07,570 --> 00:15:09,406 for what could be as high 169 00:15:09,488 --> 00:15:14,451 and is right now as high as a 175-mile-an-hour hurricane. 170 00:15:14,536 --> 00:15:17,789 There can be no doubt now that we're talking about... 171 00:15:19,164 --> 00:15:21,543 -levees that will overflow. - Right. 172 00:15:24,129 --> 00:15:27,424 The city seemed to be in, like, a frantic state. 173 00:15:27,506 --> 00:15:31,552 People at the gas station for hours. The gas stations are jam-packed. 174 00:15:31,635 --> 00:15:33,721 People are cursing, people are yelling, 175 00:15:33,805 --> 00:15:39,311 and everybody just has a look of uncertainty and fear on their faces. 176 00:16:07,547 --> 00:16:10,008 You know, it sounded like the apocalypse was outside, 177 00:16:10,090 --> 00:16:11,508 but I still was ignoring it. 178 00:16:11,593 --> 00:16:13,219 And then the electricity went out. 179 00:16:13,845 --> 00:16:15,764 So, I'm just sitting there, listening to all this rain. 180 00:16:15,846 --> 00:16:19,684 I hear, like, all type of animals outside, crying, too. 181 00:16:19,767 --> 00:16:21,310 Rain, wind, and all that. 182 00:16:21,394 --> 00:16:24,356 So, I go into bed with my dad 'cause, you know, I'm scared. 183 00:16:24,438 --> 00:16:29,194 But I remember you can see out... see out the house 184 00:16:29,276 --> 00:16:32,529 'cause we had a screen door on the side of the house. 185 00:16:32,614 --> 00:16:35,115 And I'm just looking at all these things fly by, 186 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:38,954 and trees looking like they about to come out of the ground. 187 00:16:39,036 --> 00:16:42,374 And that's when I really realized, "Oh, this ain't a game," you know? 188 00:16:42,456 --> 00:16:44,124 I remember it was real, real late. 189 00:16:44,209 --> 00:16:47,087 Like, it had to be, like, almost midnight. 190 00:16:47,170 --> 00:16:52,091 And I was up with my mom and, like, my brothers, 191 00:16:52,174 --> 00:16:56,762 and we heard a loud, loud noise, like a boom, 192 00:16:56,847 --> 00:16:58,765 like a bang, something like that. It was loud. 193 00:16:58,847 --> 00:16:59,765 What was it? 194 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:03,811 It was the levees. They broke. 195 00:17:03,895 --> 00:17:06,939 And... I don't know. 196 00:17:07,023 --> 00:17:12,320 Like, then it just got all calm, and then, I just went to sleep. 197 00:17:13,070 --> 00:17:14,989 And then, I woke up 198 00:17:15,073 --> 00:17:20,662 to one of my uncle's friends banging on my mom's door. 199 00:17:21,662 --> 00:17:25,958 And she walked outside, and it was like, flooded. 200 00:17:29,503 --> 00:17:31,547 As the storm was approaching New Orleans... 201 00:17:33,592 --> 00:17:35,385 my family and I were on the road. 202 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:40,473 What should have been a two-hour drive turned into 13 hours 203 00:17:41,558 --> 00:17:43,602 because of the insane traffic. 204 00:17:43,684 --> 00:17:46,521 My parents were just so anxious and tense. 205 00:17:50,274 --> 00:17:52,818 We were hot, and it was dark as hell. 206 00:18:04,247 --> 00:18:07,334 I remember us stopping in this really, really rural, 207 00:18:07,416 --> 00:18:09,752 creepy southern Louisiana town. 208 00:18:11,755 --> 00:18:14,423 They had opened up the flea market to be shelter 209 00:18:14,506 --> 00:18:17,092 for people that were coming from New Orleans. 210 00:18:20,138 --> 00:18:23,183 I don't know if it was because of how exhausted I was 211 00:18:23,266 --> 00:18:26,603 or maybe I was a little bit scared at the time. 212 00:18:26,685 --> 00:18:28,647 I don't know, but it's like a blur. 213 00:18:29,813 --> 00:18:32,400 I just remember us going to a corner, 214 00:18:32,483 --> 00:18:36,488 and all the kids laid down on this hard-ass floor. 215 00:18:37,239 --> 00:18:40,532 And the whole time, I was thinking about Tina and my cousins. 216 00:18:42,285 --> 00:18:43,870 They had stayed in New Orleans. 217 00:18:50,877 --> 00:18:53,003 My dreams must have been so crazy that night. 218 00:19:12,983 --> 00:19:18,612 I remember we woke up, and the press was there. 219 00:19:18,697 --> 00:19:21,032 Like, you know, the local news station was there. 220 00:19:22,283 --> 00:19:25,703 And I remember they pulled out 221 00:19:26,370 --> 00:19:30,332 a television, almost like, you know, almost like in the '90s, 222 00:19:30,417 --> 00:19:32,668 when you were in school and, like, it was a free day, 223 00:19:32,752 --> 00:19:34,838 you know, and the teacher rolled the television out. 224 00:19:34,921 --> 00:19:39,050 They, like, rolled the television out for us to see the news. 225 00:19:39,134 --> 00:19:40,718 And I remember 226 00:19:41,594 --> 00:19:46,641 seeing, like, New Orleans underwater. 227 00:19:54,441 --> 00:19:59,404 And... and then I saw that Circle Food Store was underwater. 228 00:20:00,947 --> 00:20:04,199 That was Tina's neighborhood. That was my cousin's neighborhood. 229 00:20:06,577 --> 00:20:08,497 As a child, I'm just like, 230 00:20:08,580 --> 00:20:11,582 "This neighborhood is underwater, so are my cousins." 231 00:20:34,022 --> 00:20:36,399 I remember, I asked one of the adults, 232 00:20:37,192 --> 00:20:39,778 "Wait. Like, if all of this is underwater, 233 00:20:39,861 --> 00:20:43,740 what happened to the people who stayed behind? Like, where are they?" 234 00:20:43,822 --> 00:20:46,200 And, you know, she was like... 235 00:20:46,284 --> 00:20:49,286 like, looked me dead in my eye as a kid and said, 236 00:20:49,370 --> 00:20:52,082 "Everybody who stayed in New Orleans is dead!" 237 00:20:52,164 --> 00:20:55,669 And I just started crying, like instantly. I just started crying. 238 00:20:56,503 --> 00:20:59,130 Looking at the TV screen and her saying that, 239 00:20:59,213 --> 00:21:00,297 it seemed like it was true. 240 00:21:05,679 --> 00:21:06,972 Police operator... 241 00:21:07,722 --> 00:21:10,933 I need someone out here, ma'am. I'm gonna die in this attic. 242 00:21:14,562 --> 00:21:20,109 The water's started rising in the attic, ma'am, and I'mma drown in the attic. 243 00:21:23,363 --> 00:21:25,781 Is there any way you can get to the roof if need be? 244 00:21:25,864 --> 00:21:27,408 I'm stuck in the attic, 245 00:21:27,492 --> 00:21:29,451 me and my little sister here, and my mama, 246 00:21:29,536 --> 00:21:31,121 and we got water in our whole house. 247 00:21:35,666 --> 00:21:38,170 We're, like, under nine feet of water here, and we're trying to get out. 248 00:21:38,253 --> 00:21:42,715 We have a baby. There's five of us. We're very frightened. 249 00:21:45,050 --> 00:21:47,387 We opened the attic. We punched a hole in the attic. 250 00:21:47,469 --> 00:21:49,723 But the helicopter keeps passing us. 251 00:21:50,682 --> 00:21:53,643 The helicopters, they'll pass over us, but they won't stop. 252 00:21:58,647 --> 00:22:01,359 We sitting on the porch, looking at the water rising up, 253 00:22:02,152 --> 00:22:05,696 and we don't have no way to get out or nothing. It's just coming up. 254 00:22:17,584 --> 00:22:21,796 In New Orleans, I think that one thing that we had 255 00:22:21,879 --> 00:22:24,799 to our advantage is family... 256 00:22:26,635 --> 00:22:30,889 and the warmth of, you know, of a home. 257 00:22:31,681 --> 00:22:35,060 Our houses are very cozy. Our hospitality is very good. 258 00:22:35,142 --> 00:22:36,977 The houses smell like good food. 259 00:22:41,066 --> 00:22:43,568 I know what Tina's house was for me. 260 00:22:44,653 --> 00:22:47,446 And I knew how comfortable and how warm it was. 261 00:22:47,531 --> 00:22:48,573 You know what I'm saying? 262 00:22:54,329 --> 00:22:55,996 This is one of my favorite ones. 263 00:22:59,667 --> 00:23:06,550 And that's me, Quentin, Kiyara, Shirley, and that's my mom in the back. 264 00:23:06,633 --> 00:23:08,093 And this is at the house. 265 00:23:09,301 --> 00:23:12,388 This is at one of the houses that Tina stayed in before Katrina. 266 00:23:13,849 --> 00:23:16,850 As you can see, they got the wood panels, like, just... 267 00:23:20,771 --> 00:23:22,190 - Hello? -What's up, Tina? 268 00:23:22,898 --> 00:23:24,692 Hey, man. What's going on? 269 00:23:25,610 --> 00:23:28,154 I hadn't seen Tina and my cousins in years. 270 00:23:40,624 --> 00:23:44,045 I could smell Tina's gravy and rice all the way to Shreveport. 271 00:23:59,019 --> 00:24:01,104 -What's happening? -Hey, baby. 272 00:24:01,186 --> 00:24:03,899 -What's up? -I said, Lord, I sure hope... 273 00:24:03,982 --> 00:24:06,650 Boy, I ain't camera ready. You got me on the camera. 274 00:24:07,484 --> 00:24:08,485 New Orleans classic. 275 00:24:08,570 --> 00:24:10,488 -Big Shots. You know what I'm saying? -Oh, my God. Yes. 276 00:24:10,571 --> 00:24:12,865 Check it. Come on, now. Come on with it. 277 00:24:12,948 --> 00:24:15,118 -Y'all didn't know-- -I'll drink it hot. 278 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:19,371 It don't even have to be cold. I'll drink it hot, I swear. 279 00:24:19,455 --> 00:24:21,625 So, yeah, like I was saying, it was... 280 00:24:22,875 --> 00:24:27,881 it was part of my depression, where I was so lonesome and homesick, 281 00:24:29,007 --> 00:24:32,886 I stopped combing my hair, like, literally. 282 00:24:33,637 --> 00:24:38,224 And it had got so thick and full, and, 283 00:24:38,892 --> 00:24:43,480 so, I said, "Well, I don't know anybody up here." 284 00:24:43,563 --> 00:24:48,527 "I don't need to put all that maintenance and stuff like that in my hair." 285 00:24:50,194 --> 00:24:53,907 Just kind of became a hermit in the house. You know what I'm saying? 286 00:24:54,615 --> 00:24:58,912 I said, "Well, I'mma just wear my hair natural." 287 00:24:58,994 --> 00:24:59,913 It looks good. 288 00:25:13,552 --> 00:25:15,469 When the storm actually hit, 289 00:25:15,846 --> 00:25:19,474 everybody I think was still kind of asleep or just waking up. 290 00:25:20,016 --> 00:25:23,352 But all of a sudden, we felt the house just... 291 00:25:24,729 --> 00:25:28,774 it almost sounded like a train. It was shaking, wobbling, you know? 292 00:25:31,318 --> 00:25:34,196 My husband told me to look out of the window. 293 00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:40,120 The water was at the window, so we were surrounded by water. 294 00:25:40,202 --> 00:25:41,913 We were surrounded by water. 295 00:25:44,915 --> 00:25:48,503 When the water was rushing in, I think the only thing I was thinking 296 00:25:48,586 --> 00:25:52,841 was, like, I was like in a... mesmerized by, I guess, 297 00:25:52,924 --> 00:25:56,385 kind of by how it was like... you know, that shit was like a movie. 298 00:25:57,012 --> 00:26:00,514 Like, it was rushing in, and then we was trying to get on. 299 00:26:00,598 --> 00:26:01,640 We ran to the back. 300 00:26:01,725 --> 00:26:05,687 But literally, we sitting on the bed, literally, and the water just like this, 301 00:26:05,769 --> 00:26:07,354 -as we're sitting on the bed. -Damn. 302 00:26:07,439 --> 00:26:09,231 The people's dog and this dude was floating. 303 00:26:09,316 --> 00:26:11,943 Their dog was dead, just floating on the water. 304 00:26:12,026 --> 00:26:13,778 -Damn. -Floating about around our house, 305 00:26:13,861 --> 00:26:14,779 or whatever. 306 00:26:17,281 --> 00:26:20,701 I think everybody was just trying to find their mental comfort 307 00:26:20,785 --> 00:26:24,206 of how to handle what was going on. 308 00:26:24,288 --> 00:26:26,957 -Right. -And, so I had said, 309 00:26:27,042 --> 00:26:28,543 "Well, okay. Let's sing." 310 00:26:29,293 --> 00:26:35,299 And that's what we did. We sung hymns. We sung, you know, R&B. 311 00:26:35,383 --> 00:26:39,846 Like, we just formed our own little choir, so we was just in there singing. 312 00:26:39,929 --> 00:26:43,475 And for two days when the world was thinking 313 00:26:43,557 --> 00:26:49,271 that no one was left in New Orleans or in Katrina, we were still in our attic. 314 00:26:50,648 --> 00:26:53,275 The boat pulled up into the living room... 315 00:26:54,986 --> 00:27:00,367 because the whole front of the house, the water had collapsed it, or whatever. 316 00:27:01,117 --> 00:27:03,203 And we got out of there. 317 00:27:06,081 --> 00:27:08,416 There was really an eerie silence... 318 00:27:12,379 --> 00:27:16,966 and I think everybody was so overwhelmed and taken by 319 00:27:17,050 --> 00:27:21,637 how the city, their neighborhoods, was underwater. 320 00:27:22,721 --> 00:27:24,140 The water was so deep, 321 00:27:24,223 --> 00:27:27,351 you saw just that very little point of the stop sign. 322 00:27:30,063 --> 00:27:33,024 It was just like a dead calm. 323 00:27:33,649 --> 00:27:37,820 You didn't even hear birds or anything. 324 00:27:38,989 --> 00:27:43,159 It's almost like what you read in the Bible about the great flood, 325 00:27:43,242 --> 00:27:45,954 and it was just water. 326 00:27:46,037 --> 00:27:48,832 You're surrounded by water, you know? 327 00:27:48,915 --> 00:27:51,960 And you're looking for that dove 328 00:27:52,043 --> 00:27:57,381 to come back and say it's dry land, but there was no bird in sight. 329 00:28:13,731 --> 00:28:16,859 And I looked back, and I saw 330 00:28:16,942 --> 00:28:20,613 that my house was the only house still standing. 331 00:28:29,371 --> 00:28:30,874 Me personally, I thought we was gonna die. 332 00:28:30,956 --> 00:28:34,877 Like, you know, the furniture is floating in here. 333 00:28:34,961 --> 00:28:37,504 Like, you know, if you look outside, you don't see nothing. 334 00:28:37,589 --> 00:28:40,382 Like, we gonna die. Like, we gonna die here. 335 00:28:40,467 --> 00:28:44,387 Like, that's just what it is, you know? So, and we stranded. 336 00:28:44,471 --> 00:28:48,266 We wasn't here for one day, or we wasn't in here for 12 hours. 337 00:28:48,350 --> 00:28:50,936 We was in here three days. We were up here three days. 338 00:28:51,018 --> 00:28:55,815 Then we go from here, we get rescued and go get shipped 339 00:28:55,899 --> 00:28:59,027 into a concentration camp structure. Like, you know what I'm saying? 340 00:28:59,109 --> 00:29:00,653 Like, I'd never fight for this country. 341 00:29:00,736 --> 00:29:02,948 I don't depend on it. I can't depend on it. 342 00:29:03,030 --> 00:29:06,200 Like, I'd never fight for it, just on the strength of Hurricane Katrina. 343 00:29:06,284 --> 00:29:08,827 And I was 11 years old when I made that decision. 344 00:29:18,255 --> 00:29:21,507 With the water, it's like the water's there. 345 00:29:21,590 --> 00:29:25,177 And I go outside, and I'm just like, "What?" 346 00:29:25,261 --> 00:29:29,848 I'm just looking around, like, "What?" I hear a lot of screams. 347 00:29:30,809 --> 00:29:34,812 And the guy next door, he had a boat. 348 00:29:34,895 --> 00:29:38,482 I don't know where this boat came from, but he had a boat, and he was like, 349 00:29:38,567 --> 00:29:42,361 "I'm bringing y'all to the bridge. I'm bringing y'all to the bridge." 350 00:30:34,623 --> 00:30:36,208 We went to the convention center... 351 00:30:37,751 --> 00:30:41,755 and it was... it was weird. 352 00:30:46,508 --> 00:30:49,763 I saw a dead man on the street. It was scary. 353 00:30:50,721 --> 00:30:55,184 Like, "What?" Like, "Am I gonna die?" Like, I started questioning things now. 354 00:30:57,145 --> 00:31:01,983 I could just smell like... like feces, 355 00:31:02,067 --> 00:31:06,780 just lingering from the bathroom, and just people just looked like, 356 00:31:08,031 --> 00:31:11,033 just sad, just real sad. 357 00:31:13,661 --> 00:31:16,164 I don't know. I just was like, "I'm not supposed to be here." 358 00:31:16,247 --> 00:31:20,626 That's how I felt. Like, "What? Like, this is not real." 359 00:31:43,483 --> 00:31:44,692 I don't want to cry. 360 00:31:48,196 --> 00:31:49,990 -Sorry. -It's okay. 361 00:31:51,991 --> 00:31:53,118 Just take your time. 362 00:31:55,035 --> 00:31:57,162 It's okay. Like, wait. So, wait. 363 00:31:57,247 --> 00:31:59,540 So, have you ever talked about this before? 364 00:32:01,001 --> 00:32:03,127 No, I haven't. 365 00:32:03,210 --> 00:32:04,253 Why, do you think? 366 00:32:05,422 --> 00:32:07,799 I don't know. Nobody never asked me. 367 00:32:16,850 --> 00:32:17,808 Can we take five? 368 00:32:23,981 --> 00:32:25,566 Hey, buddy, are you good? 369 00:32:25,649 --> 00:32:26,818 Hey, I'm tired, man. 370 00:32:33,867 --> 00:32:37,913 Hey, put me on here. They got us living up in here, bad! 371 00:32:37,996 --> 00:32:41,833 They got babies up in here, and it's unsanitized up in here! 372 00:32:41,917 --> 00:32:43,418 It is bad up in here! 373 00:32:43,502 --> 00:32:47,839 Children burning up and everything! Get us out of this place! 374 00:32:47,923 --> 00:32:50,967 We had several people died out here, 375 00:32:51,051 --> 00:32:54,179 and, you know, I don't want to become one of them. 376 00:32:54,971 --> 00:32:59,975 They say what they're gonna do, but they're not doing anything for us 377 00:33:00,059 --> 00:33:02,187 to try to help us survive and live, you know? 378 00:33:05,689 --> 00:33:09,401 We just need some help out here. It is so pitiful. 379 00:33:09,486 --> 00:33:13,822 Pitiful and shame that all these people out here, 380 00:33:13,907 --> 00:33:17,952 they have over 3,000 people out here with no home, no shelter. 381 00:33:18,035 --> 00:33:18,994 What are they gonna do? 382 00:33:19,078 --> 00:33:20,829 I don't even think I honestly thought twice about it. 383 00:33:20,913 --> 00:33:23,415 I saw a camera guy, and I just walked up to them, 384 00:33:23,499 --> 00:33:25,084 and I basically just 385 00:33:25,168 --> 00:33:28,296 kind of pulled my face really closely towards the camera, 386 00:33:28,379 --> 00:33:31,383 and I spoke eloquently. Like, I spoke. 387 00:33:32,217 --> 00:33:35,177 And I was basically, back then, I was the voice for many people 388 00:33:35,262 --> 00:33:39,932 that couldn't actually, couldn't or wouldn't speak for themselves. 389 00:33:40,016 --> 00:33:43,895 I felt that there were certain circumstances 390 00:33:43,979 --> 00:33:47,189 that were totally unacceptable, that were not cool. 391 00:33:48,190 --> 00:33:51,569 My grandmother had actually, literally, ran out of her insulin, 392 00:33:51,652 --> 00:33:53,113 and my grandmother was a diabetic. 393 00:33:53,195 --> 00:33:55,115 But I didn't realize that, that was something 394 00:33:55,198 --> 00:33:57,116 that she could go without. 395 00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:00,160 I felt as though during that time that it was a necessity, 396 00:34:00,244 --> 00:34:01,872 that this was something that she needed. 397 00:34:01,955 --> 00:34:04,791 And during that time, my grandmother was everything to me, 398 00:34:04,874 --> 00:34:07,878 and I was really afraid and petrified, 399 00:34:07,961 --> 00:34:12,549 and really afraid the most that I would possibly lose her. 400 00:34:13,175 --> 00:34:15,510 My grandmother is a diabetic. She's 76 years old. 401 00:34:15,593 --> 00:34:18,220 She's out of her insulin. What's she gonna do? 402 00:34:18,305 --> 00:34:22,809 She don't know if she gonna live or die. We all don't know what we gonna do. 403 00:34:22,892 --> 00:34:26,020 So, we just need some help and support. 404 00:34:46,665 --> 00:34:48,001 People lost their homes. 405 00:34:50,294 --> 00:34:54,090 People didn't have food, water. It was hot as hell out there. 406 00:34:55,174 --> 00:34:57,135 People were doing what they had to do. 407 00:34:58,470 --> 00:35:01,932 I hate the way they portray us in the media. 408 00:35:02,891 --> 00:35:05,810 If we see a Black family, it says they're looting. 409 00:35:06,393 --> 00:35:08,939 We see a White family, it says they're looking for food. 410 00:35:09,397 --> 00:35:13,943 The things that I witnessed today, Ted, I will never forget. 411 00:35:14,026 --> 00:35:19,198 Looting on a scale that was just so staggering, so overwhelming. 412 00:35:19,824 --> 00:35:22,034 The city has been ravaged by the hurricane. 413 00:35:22,117 --> 00:35:24,579 And now, it's being ravaged by some of its citizens. 414 00:35:24,662 --> 00:35:29,292 We want help! We want help! We want help! 415 00:35:33,837 --> 00:35:37,925 We can't make it. You said if we need You, to call You. 416 00:35:38,008 --> 00:35:41,262 And we are asking You in the mighty name of Jesus, 417 00:35:41,346 --> 00:35:43,056 there is none like You. 418 00:35:43,138 --> 00:35:48,728 And you know that it's been five days because most of the people are Black, 419 00:35:48,812 --> 00:35:53,232 and the way America is set up to help the poor, the Black people, 420 00:35:53,316 --> 00:35:56,402 the less well-off as slow as possible. 421 00:35:56,486 --> 00:36:01,615 Praise the Lord! Lord, we know you're gonna make a way, Lord. 422 00:36:15,588 --> 00:36:17,424 Now, it belongs to God. 423 00:36:19,133 --> 00:36:20,051 It's just racist. 424 00:36:25,765 --> 00:36:27,934 George Bush doesn't care about Black people. 425 00:36:57,796 --> 00:37:00,592 You don't know where you're going. You don't know what's next. 426 00:37:02,302 --> 00:37:04,595 Kids were separated from their families. 427 00:37:04,678 --> 00:37:08,265 Families were separated, just sent into random places. 428 00:37:12,436 --> 00:37:15,606 My cousins were displaced because their home was destroyed. 429 00:37:18,776 --> 00:37:23,198 Hurricane Katrina caused one of the biggest dispersements 430 00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:25,283 of Black people in history. 431 00:37:32,206 --> 00:37:34,084 You know, that shit happened during slavery, and, like, 432 00:37:34,167 --> 00:37:35,710 it also happened in 2005. 433 00:37:43,510 --> 00:37:46,638 I remember sitting in a room with my mom 434 00:37:46,720 --> 00:37:50,642 and my dad in a motel and just wondering when I was gonna go back home. 435 00:37:50,725 --> 00:37:54,228 And it turned into one week to two weeks to three weeks to a month. 436 00:37:54,312 --> 00:37:57,983 And next thing you know, I was living in Mississippi. 437 00:37:58,066 --> 00:37:59,693 I ended up going to Houston. 438 00:38:01,194 --> 00:38:02,696 We was in a hotel. 439 00:38:02,779 --> 00:38:04,488 We can't stay in this expensive-ass hotel anymore, 440 00:38:04,572 --> 00:38:05,907 so what's gonna have to happen? 441 00:38:05,990 --> 00:38:07,826 Where are we gonna go? We can't go back to the city. 442 00:38:07,909 --> 00:38:09,452 A lot of people, for Katrina, 443 00:38:09,536 --> 00:38:11,912 that was their first time ever leaving New Orleans. 444 00:38:11,997 --> 00:38:13,206 Like, people never left. 445 00:38:13,289 --> 00:38:14,708 I was a senior in high school, 446 00:38:14,791 --> 00:38:18,127 and once we came to the realization that we couldn't go back home, 447 00:38:18,210 --> 00:38:19,670 we moved to Dallas. 448 00:38:19,753 --> 00:38:25,260 We were there ultimately for a year because we ended up just relocating, 449 00:38:25,342 --> 00:38:28,095 not really by choice, but we didn't really have... 450 00:38:28,180 --> 00:38:29,890 like, we lost everything in Katrina. 451 00:38:29,972 --> 00:38:32,559 That was the first time I ever got called a refugee. 452 00:38:33,684 --> 00:38:35,645 I'm from America. You know what I mean? 453 00:38:35,728 --> 00:38:39,064 I'm from this... this is my land, but I'm being called a refugee. 454 00:38:39,149 --> 00:38:42,360 Kids at the schools would be like, "He's a refugee. That's what they're..." 455 00:38:42,444 --> 00:38:46,196 "Yeah? What you loot? Did you loot? Did you... did you loots?" 456 00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:48,782 The principal was like, "Do you think you'll fit in here?" 457 00:38:48,866 --> 00:38:52,620 What kind of question is that to ask a girl that just came from, 458 00:38:52,704 --> 00:38:55,122 you know, her house being under eight feet of water? 459 00:38:55,206 --> 00:38:56,665 "Do you think you'll fit in here?" 460 00:38:56,749 --> 00:39:00,086 Hell the fuck no, I'm not gonna fit in here. I don't want to fit in here. 461 00:39:00,170 --> 00:39:02,631 The tension has been slowly escalating here. 462 00:39:02,714 --> 00:39:06,968 Fights have broken out in schools between New Orleans evacuees and Houston students. 463 00:39:07,051 --> 00:39:10,931 And now, Houston police say Katrina evacuees have been the victims 464 00:39:11,014 --> 00:39:14,601 or suspects in about 20 percent of the city's homicides. 465 00:39:14,684 --> 00:39:17,061 More than double their percentage in the population. 466 00:39:18,687 --> 00:39:21,190 It was two weeks after we had evacuated to Lafayette, 467 00:39:21,273 --> 00:39:24,569 and it was not easy to adjust to this new place. 468 00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:28,698 I think that, like, you know... 469 00:39:30,408 --> 00:39:33,537 Like, I don't know. Like, we definitely went to school too soon. 470 00:39:34,787 --> 00:39:37,541 I didn't retain anything that they were teaching us. 471 00:39:38,166 --> 00:39:42,962 We stayed in Lafayette for about eight months, and it felt like two years. 472 00:39:51,428 --> 00:39:54,640 The people in Lafayette knew we couldn't go back to New Orleans, 473 00:39:54,724 --> 00:39:58,061 so they tried to make it as easy as possible 474 00:39:58,143 --> 00:40:01,230 for us to make that transition with the kids. 475 00:40:03,857 --> 00:40:08,446 As far as you're concerned, when you started playing football 476 00:40:08,529 --> 00:40:12,409 and getting into activities in the school that you was in, 477 00:40:12,492 --> 00:40:13,826 you were fine then. 478 00:40:13,909 --> 00:40:16,079 Matter of fact, you didn't even want to leave there. 479 00:40:16,163 --> 00:40:19,665 The people that we were staying with didn't want you to leave there. 480 00:40:19,749 --> 00:40:21,501 Your coach didn't want you to leave there. 481 00:40:21,584 --> 00:40:24,169 He wanted you to continue playing ball there. 482 00:40:24,253 --> 00:40:26,173 So, that was good therapy for you. 483 00:40:26,255 --> 00:40:30,177 My kids, they came out of it pretty good, I think. 484 00:40:31,635 --> 00:40:34,638 How do you think overall, Hurricane Katrina impacted, 485 00:40:34,722 --> 00:40:37,266 like, you know, the family or, like, the kids? 486 00:40:39,310 --> 00:40:41,061 How do I think they impacted? 487 00:40:44,858 --> 00:40:46,985 I really don't know how it impacted the kids, 488 00:40:47,068 --> 00:40:49,361 cause the kids wasn't saying anything. 489 00:40:49,446 --> 00:40:51,573 They wasn't telling us nothing. 490 00:40:51,656 --> 00:40:55,534 So, it was like a normal, everyday life. 491 00:40:55,618 --> 00:40:59,705 So, that's how I looked at it, as normal, everyday life. I mean... 492 00:40:59,788 --> 00:41:02,291 We actually... I used to constantly ask you how you were doing 493 00:41:02,374 --> 00:41:06,921 and how Kiyara and them, how they doing, and y'all just say, "We okay." 494 00:41:07,004 --> 00:41:10,300 And especially you, 'cause you used to go in a room and lock up in a room, 495 00:41:10,383 --> 00:41:12,801 and I used to say, "You all right, you all right?" 496 00:41:12,886 --> 00:41:15,597 But didn't seem like nothing was wrong with you. 497 00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:17,599 If it was, you didn't say anything. 498 00:41:31,821 --> 00:41:35,367 It was a big day in New Orleans. A month after Hurricane Katrina, 499 00:41:35,450 --> 00:41:39,079 officials began letting people back into three large neighborhoods. 500 00:41:39,162 --> 00:41:40,622 It's been clear for some time 501 00:41:40,705 --> 00:41:42,498 that the city would never be the same, 502 00:41:42,581 --> 00:41:46,126 but just how it could change is just now becoming clearer. 503 00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:53,134 New Orleans and the French Quarter will continue on no matter what. 504 00:41:53,218 --> 00:41:54,594 I mean, it's gonna be a different city, 505 00:41:54,678 --> 00:41:56,805 but there's gonna be a lot of things that ain't gonna change. 506 00:41:56,888 --> 00:41:59,181 And I think the things that don't change will be... 507 00:41:59,265 --> 00:42:02,519 for the better, places like Cafe Du Monde and Jackson Square. And... 508 00:42:03,227 --> 00:42:05,564 I mean, it's just a whole list of institutions 509 00:42:05,647 --> 00:42:07,357 that have been here forever. 510 00:42:09,860 --> 00:42:12,320 The city was not ready to receive all of us. 511 00:42:13,446 --> 00:42:15,906 But of course, they needed their workers to come back, 512 00:42:15,991 --> 00:42:18,534 you know, to get that tourism industry pumping again. 513 00:42:32,257 --> 00:42:33,925 This is Granny's house. 514 00:43:06,124 --> 00:43:10,502 Being honest with y'all, I would rather the whole house... 515 00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:13,507 I don't know how it's gonna be... 516 00:43:21,223 --> 00:43:22,139 Oh, God. 517 00:43:25,894 --> 00:43:28,021 When did you get back to New Orleans? 518 00:43:28,605 --> 00:43:32,066 When did I get back to New Orleans? As soon as they opened the state back up, 519 00:43:32,150 --> 00:43:33,193 my great-grandmother was like, 520 00:43:33,276 --> 00:43:36,028 "Okay, it's time to go home. I want to go back to my house." 521 00:43:36,111 --> 00:43:37,112 You know what I mean? 522 00:43:37,196 --> 00:43:39,074 And so, we packed up, and we went back home. 523 00:43:39,156 --> 00:43:40,824 -What did you see? -Ghosts. 524 00:43:42,451 --> 00:43:45,538 Nobody around here, it was just a ghost town. 525 00:43:45,621 --> 00:43:47,122 Debris everywhere. 526 00:43:47,207 --> 00:43:51,086 Dead animals. I actually came back and saw my dog because I couldn't take him. 527 00:43:51,168 --> 00:43:54,964 You know what I mean? It was just a whole lot of hurt. 528 00:43:55,048 --> 00:43:57,508 I seen people that was just hurting, head down. 529 00:43:57,591 --> 00:43:58,927 Didn't know what they was gonna do. 530 00:43:59,009 --> 00:44:01,304 Didn't know if a better day was gonna come. 531 00:44:01,388 --> 00:44:02,596 It was just gloom everywhere. 532 00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:04,181 And as far as I can remember, 533 00:44:04,265 --> 00:44:07,351 that's what it was every day for a long time. 534 00:44:14,066 --> 00:44:15,317 I was ready to get back to school, 535 00:44:15,944 --> 00:44:18,488 so we ended up coming back down to New Orleans. 536 00:44:19,114 --> 00:44:21,324 And I stayed in a FEMA trailer 537 00:44:21,407 --> 00:44:25,244 that I later found out was filled with formaldehyde. 538 00:44:26,161 --> 00:44:27,204 Okay, so... 539 00:44:31,251 --> 00:44:34,920 Yeah, basically, because they were... they were cheap. 540 00:44:35,004 --> 00:44:39,800 So, they bought all these trailers that were actually not in use 541 00:44:39,885 --> 00:44:42,679 because they were filled with formaldehyde. 542 00:44:43,513 --> 00:44:46,141 It's another blow for victims of Hurricane Katrina. 543 00:44:46,224 --> 00:44:49,226 Tests found toxic levels of formaldehyde fumes. 544 00:44:49,311 --> 00:44:52,354 More than 500 trailers in Louisiana and Mississippi, 545 00:44:52,439 --> 00:44:56,400 some had 40 times the fumes found in most modern homes. 546 00:44:56,483 --> 00:44:58,236 Two years later, 547 00:44:58,320 --> 00:45:01,697 when I would actually lay on my back, I would notice 548 00:45:01,781 --> 00:45:05,452 a ball sticking out of my stomach that just came from nowhere. 549 00:45:06,119 --> 00:45:09,122 So, I kind of ignored it for a while 550 00:45:09,206 --> 00:45:12,250 until I started having, like, all kind of issues, health issues. 551 00:45:12,334 --> 00:45:15,378 So, then I went to the doctor to find out 552 00:45:15,462 --> 00:45:19,924 that it was a tumor that had grown because of staying in the trailer. 553 00:45:25,137 --> 00:45:27,516 You could smell death. 554 00:45:27,598 --> 00:45:29,683 You had bodies laying on the side of the road still, 555 00:45:29,767 --> 00:45:33,520 lifting-up trees, and dead dogs, and dead birds underneath, 556 00:45:33,605 --> 00:45:35,981 maggots everywhere, all type in the garbage everywhere. 557 00:45:36,065 --> 00:45:39,319 So, you know, it was just a smell that I'll never forget. 558 00:45:40,028 --> 00:45:42,072 My people went to go check on the house, 559 00:45:42,155 --> 00:45:45,116 and I still just remember being, like, giddy, like, 560 00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:49,746 "Cool. My toy that I left on my dresser, they bringing all of that," type of thing. 561 00:45:49,830 --> 00:45:53,458 And I just remember, like, when they got out the car, 562 00:45:53,542 --> 00:45:57,671 and it was just a trash bag that wasn't even filled, 563 00:45:57,754 --> 00:45:59,922 and it was like, "This is it from the whole house." 564 00:46:00,005 --> 00:46:01,590 I'm thinking that's just my room. 565 00:46:01,674 --> 00:46:06,220 So, that I think was the first time it actually hit of, like... 566 00:46:07,805 --> 00:46:10,474 what we knew to be true is gone. 567 00:46:14,896 --> 00:46:17,314 This is what it means when they say nobody asked you. 568 00:46:17,399 --> 00:46:19,733 'Cause it's the first time I said that out loud. 569 00:46:24,488 --> 00:46:28,326 Everything you consider as part of who you are 570 00:46:28,410 --> 00:46:30,620 was reduced to a trash bag, you know? 571 00:46:32,539 --> 00:46:37,126 But the magnitude of that just became so much worse when you start to realize, 572 00:46:37,210 --> 00:46:39,421 "Oh, not just the house. The whole neighborhood." 573 00:46:39,504 --> 00:46:42,048 Like, "Ms. So-and-So doesn't live here anymore." 574 00:46:42,131 --> 00:46:44,593 Or when you start to really see 575 00:46:44,676 --> 00:46:48,095 the loss of life, that's on a completely different level. 576 00:46:48,180 --> 00:46:52,725 And when so much of your identity is where you're from, 577 00:46:52,809 --> 00:46:54,561 specifically what neighborhood you're from, 578 00:46:54,643 --> 00:46:56,228 and that neighborhood isn't the same anymore, 579 00:46:56,312 --> 00:47:00,524 that house isn't there anymore, what does that do to your identity? 580 00:47:00,608 --> 00:47:02,360 Like, sometimes, after the storm, 581 00:47:02,444 --> 00:47:05,738 I'd just go back to my old neighborhood and just sit on a porch. 582 00:47:07,239 --> 00:47:09,034 Like, the house was all boarded up and stuff, 583 00:47:09,117 --> 00:47:11,368 but I still just wanted to be there, you know? 584 00:47:11,452 --> 00:47:14,079 Like, I'd just sit there for hours, you know? 585 00:47:36,228 --> 00:47:39,688 My parents had finally decided that it was time to go back home... 586 00:47:41,273 --> 00:47:42,816 so we got on the road. 587 00:47:48,948 --> 00:47:52,201 This is the shed, everything that was in it, 588 00:47:52,285 --> 00:47:54,662 the bicycles and... 589 00:47:54,745 --> 00:47:59,084 Although my house was still standing, the New Orleans that we knew was gone. 590 00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:01,544 Boy, what a thing to lose. 591 00:48:23,274 --> 00:48:29,071 Before Katrina, I remember everybody in the neighborhood, all of us together. 592 00:48:29,154 --> 00:48:32,033 Your neighborhood was crucial to who you were. 593 00:48:32,117 --> 00:48:34,578 At the least, you had your family. 594 00:48:35,078 --> 00:48:37,413 You had your community. You had your people, so to speak. 595 00:48:37,496 --> 00:48:40,208 Everybody on the block watched out for my kids. 596 00:48:40,292 --> 00:48:42,042 We watched out for each other's kids. 597 00:48:42,585 --> 00:48:44,753 Before Katrina, like, you had no reason to leave your hood 598 00:48:44,837 --> 00:48:46,922 because your hood had everything in it. 599 00:48:47,007 --> 00:48:51,093 Kids was outside, playing in the street. You know, it was amazing. 600 00:48:51,178 --> 00:48:54,472 Like, thinking about it, it really was African in the essence. 601 00:48:54,555 --> 00:48:55,639 It was just Black people. 602 00:48:55,723 --> 00:48:58,392 That's all you saw, and that's all you really thought about. 603 00:48:58,476 --> 00:48:59,728 It was really the Big Easy. 604 00:48:59,810 --> 00:49:03,522 Like, generation after generation, we lived the same way. 605 00:49:04,106 --> 00:49:05,483 Nothing ever changed. 606 00:49:08,069 --> 00:49:08,945 But after Katrina... 607 00:49:11,656 --> 00:49:16,160 The displacing of Black communities all over the city 608 00:49:16,244 --> 00:49:20,081 started to cause, like, this trickle-down effect of, you know, 609 00:49:20,164 --> 00:49:23,543 you are no longer in the community you came up in. 610 00:49:24,211 --> 00:49:29,131 You are now being put in, like, concentrated areas or, like, 611 00:49:29,216 --> 00:49:33,470 pockets to where people that are territorial 612 00:49:33,553 --> 00:49:37,265 and are super, you know, hard up about where they're from 613 00:49:37,348 --> 00:49:40,601 now being placed in certain parts of the city 614 00:49:40,685 --> 00:49:43,270 because they were displaced or they lost their homes. 615 00:49:43,355 --> 00:49:46,149 And, you know, now, the rent for the whole street 616 00:49:46,232 --> 00:49:48,984 has gone up and new people have moved in. 617 00:49:49,069 --> 00:49:54,866 Think about what that does to a community. It destabilizes it. 618 00:50:01,122 --> 00:50:04,167 Q93, WQUE-FM New Orleans. 619 00:50:04,251 --> 00:50:06,336 - Less talk, more jams. - Yeah! 620 00:50:06,419 --> 00:50:07,838 - Q93. - Number one... 621 00:50:07,921 --> 00:50:10,465 I just remember going, like, back. 622 00:50:14,219 --> 00:50:19,098 And they had the weird houses. I thought it was so weird. 623 00:50:19,765 --> 00:50:21,977 And they had, like, solar panels on them, 624 00:50:22,060 --> 00:50:25,188 and I did not know what that was at that time. 625 00:50:27,148 --> 00:50:29,483 I just feel like they're trying to make it into, like, 626 00:50:29,567 --> 00:50:31,735 a new community full of White people. 627 00:50:34,655 --> 00:50:36,616 We see all these White people coming out of houses 628 00:50:36,700 --> 00:50:39,202 across the street from the projects, and we're just looking like, 629 00:50:39,286 --> 00:50:40,911 "What is going on, you know?" 630 00:50:40,995 --> 00:50:43,957 The White people and stuff taking over 'cause the rent getting high and stuff, 631 00:50:44,039 --> 00:50:46,876 so the neighborhoods is totally different now. 632 00:50:46,960 --> 00:50:51,173 I think gentrification was happening before the storm, but Katrina sped it up. 633 00:50:58,220 --> 00:51:01,016 The feel of community in New Orleans is different now, 634 00:51:01,891 --> 00:51:04,269 'cause people are moving around so much, you know? 635 00:51:04,352 --> 00:51:07,272 Like I was saying, you can live in the Eighth Ward one year, 636 00:51:07,355 --> 00:51:09,732 then move uptown to the 13th the next year. 637 00:51:09,815 --> 00:51:12,485 And, so, you don't really get to know nobody. You might speak to your neighbor, 638 00:51:12,569 --> 00:51:14,237 but it's not like it used to be. 639 00:51:14,320 --> 00:51:15,321 You're not rooted. 640 00:51:15,404 --> 00:51:19,074 The children aren't as rooted as they used to be before the storm, you know? 641 00:51:28,417 --> 00:51:30,420 When I got back after Katrina, 642 00:51:30,502 --> 00:51:33,381 I naively thought that everything was gonna be normal again. 643 00:51:38,637 --> 00:51:44,099 But in actuality, with my cousins not being able to come back... 644 00:51:46,394 --> 00:51:48,146 I felt alone and bored. 645 00:51:54,152 --> 00:51:56,488 I would just roam around New Orleans, going to places 646 00:51:56,570 --> 00:51:59,449 that my parents had sheltered me from as a child. 647 00:52:02,326 --> 00:52:06,455 My mama disliked a lot of the neighborhood kids that I started to hang out with. 648 00:52:09,459 --> 00:52:11,920 But then I met this one kid, Jacquez. 649 00:52:14,421 --> 00:52:15,757 We called him Jac for short. 650 00:52:17,092 --> 00:52:21,220 I remember one day, me and this other kid were gonna fight at the bus stop. 651 00:52:22,013 --> 00:52:24,348 I guarantee you that it was for no good reason. 652 00:52:25,475 --> 00:52:27,810 And right when we were about to go at it, 653 00:52:29,395 --> 00:52:34,317 Jacquez, simply 'cause I was from his hood and he knew my parents... 654 00:52:36,235 --> 00:52:39,822 stepped right in front of me, and he defused the whole situation. 655 00:52:48,747 --> 00:52:51,126 Afterwards, he became like a big bro. 656 00:52:54,044 --> 00:52:58,549 He was one of the only kids I ever heard talk about the future or going to college. 657 00:53:12,480 --> 00:53:15,399 My mama always had this Hi8 camera in the house, 658 00:53:15,774 --> 00:53:19,028 so I picked that up one day and started filming things in my neighborhood. 659 00:53:21,614 --> 00:53:23,782 -I love you. -I love you, too. 660 00:53:27,579 --> 00:53:28,580 That shit's crazy. 661 00:53:30,665 --> 00:53:33,042 That be nice. That be just icy. 662 00:53:33,960 --> 00:53:35,378 Yes, sir, what's happening with it? 663 00:53:41,051 --> 00:53:43,594 - What is it? - Crawfish, crabs, and shrimp. 664 00:53:43,678 --> 00:53:47,807 Jac always made me feel like I could do anything I put my heart into. 665 00:53:49,976 --> 00:53:54,480 When I graduated college, Jacquez was so proud. 666 00:53:54,563 --> 00:53:55,564 Which is... 667 00:53:58,985 --> 00:54:04,782 Look, everyone's just graduated. Wayne, Tom, Clack, all the family. Shaq. 668 00:54:04,865 --> 00:54:07,534 He and Tom bought a leotard one time. 669 00:54:07,619 --> 00:54:08,535 And Jac! 670 00:54:13,458 --> 00:54:16,877 The violence in New Orleans still touched everything. 671 00:54:18,046 --> 00:54:22,425 You had people from different neighborhoods just all combined together, 672 00:54:22,508 --> 00:54:24,802 which means that you got new people back there 673 00:54:24,886 --> 00:54:28,139 trying to make a name for themself, trying to claim territory, 674 00:54:28,222 --> 00:54:31,350 but then you got the people that already had that territory, like, 675 00:54:31,433 --> 00:54:33,353 "Nah, bro. This is my shit." 676 00:54:33,435 --> 00:54:35,438 So, it was just, like, a lot of gunplay. 677 00:54:35,521 --> 00:54:38,024 It was, like, a lot of gun violence, a lot of fights. 678 00:54:38,108 --> 00:54:40,485 Little kids, they want to be killers when they grow up. 679 00:54:40,569 --> 00:54:42,571 Like, they see their little partners with a gun, "Oh, yeah." 680 00:54:42,654 --> 00:54:45,907 Like, little kids now, they really just want to be real. 681 00:54:45,990 --> 00:54:48,827 Like, that's what it really is. Like, they want to be gangster. 682 00:54:48,910 --> 00:54:51,121 They ain't really like, "Oh, I want to be this when I grow up." 683 00:54:51,203 --> 00:54:53,914 It's really like, "Oh, yeah. I'm about that life, yeah." 684 00:54:53,998 --> 00:54:56,417 "Let me put on my Dickie fit. Yeah, I'm hood now." 685 00:54:56,500 --> 00:54:58,253 But now, after the storm, it's like... 686 00:54:59,254 --> 00:55:02,131 you don't even have to be living that life in that world. 687 00:55:02,214 --> 00:55:04,842 You don't have to be living in the "hood," per se. 688 00:55:04,925 --> 00:55:07,970 But you could be affected by violence in New Orleans, 'cause it's so scattered. 689 00:55:08,053 --> 00:55:09,513 It's so random, you know? 690 00:55:09,597 --> 00:55:12,392 It could pop off at any time of the day, anywhere. 691 00:55:53,683 --> 00:55:56,144 Deputies were called to the corner of Whitney Avenue 692 00:55:56,770 --> 00:55:58,938 and Landry Street around noon yesterday. 693 00:55:59,021 --> 00:56:03,610 There they found 23-year-old Jacquez Young dead inside of a car. 694 00:56:04,069 --> 00:56:06,779 Another 20-year-old man was taken to the hospital. 695 00:56:06,862 --> 00:56:09,824 Both of them had been shot several times. 696 00:56:09,907 --> 00:56:12,534 Witnesses told investigators they saw several people 697 00:56:12,618 --> 00:56:17,582 inside of a white, four-door F-150 pull up to the car and open fire. 698 00:56:25,589 --> 00:56:29,052 And that fucked me up, like, bad. Really, really bad. 699 00:56:32,055 --> 00:56:33,013 Like... 700 00:56:39,855 --> 00:56:41,982 Yeah, I don't know. I think that... 701 00:56:44,942 --> 00:56:47,737 You know, like, where I'm from, we know. 702 00:56:47,821 --> 00:56:51,324 Like, we know that somebody isn't gonna grow old with us. 703 00:56:51,408 --> 00:56:55,953 We know that somebody is gonna either be a victim of, you know, 704 00:56:56,037 --> 00:56:59,207 the mass-incarceration system or violence, 705 00:57:00,165 --> 00:57:03,294 you know, or drugs. We know it. 706 00:57:04,253 --> 00:57:09,134 But I didn't think that it would be Jacquez, you know? 707 00:57:12,553 --> 00:57:17,100 It was just like, "Man, if that can happen to Jacquez, that shit can happen to me," 708 00:57:17,182 --> 00:57:18,560 you know? And, like, 709 00:57:19,477 --> 00:57:22,479 I was sad, but I was more pissed than anything 710 00:57:22,563 --> 00:57:25,065 that we had, like, allowed that to happen to him. 711 00:57:25,149 --> 00:57:27,735 And, like, when I say we, I mean, like, my neighborhood. 712 00:57:27,819 --> 00:57:32,032 I mean, like, you know, society, like, America. It's just like... 713 00:57:32,115 --> 00:57:34,992 It just, like, really pissed me off and made me angry, you know? 714 00:57:36,035 --> 00:57:38,455 Like, these are the conditions that we live in. 715 00:57:38,537 --> 00:57:44,085 And, like, we live under conditions where somebody as good as Jac, 716 00:57:45,253 --> 00:57:47,672 you know, can be shot dead in the street. 717 00:58:04,981 --> 00:58:06,399 Buckles! 718 00:58:07,816 --> 00:58:09,528 -What's up, Buckles? -Hey, Snapchat! 719 00:58:09,611 --> 00:58:11,321 -It's not Snapchat here. -Buckles! 720 00:58:12,906 --> 00:58:16,242 You look tired behind the camera, dawg. Put the camera on y'all. 721 00:58:16,326 --> 00:58:20,038 Let me see it? I'm gonna put the camera on y'all because y'all look tired, son. 722 00:58:20,121 --> 00:58:22,290 Three months after Jacquez passed... 723 00:58:24,500 --> 00:58:27,127 I was offered a job as a high school media teacher. 724 00:58:27,211 --> 00:58:28,380 What's up, students? 725 00:58:30,673 --> 00:58:33,760 Being around those kids was therapeutic. 726 00:58:33,842 --> 00:58:37,137 They were so energetic, and I just saw so much hope in them. 727 00:58:37,222 --> 00:58:38,431 Intro videos, take one. 728 00:58:40,057 --> 00:58:42,309 Wait, wait, wait. You look good! 729 00:58:42,394 --> 00:58:43,269 Not yet. 730 00:58:45,647 --> 00:58:49,150 As soon as they started filming each other, they went deep real fast. 731 00:58:49,234 --> 00:58:50,360 Let's do a session. 732 00:58:50,443 --> 00:58:51,903 Quiet on the set. 733 00:58:51,987 --> 00:58:54,238 What's the worst thing you experienced in life? 734 00:58:57,576 --> 00:59:00,620 I guess... I don't know. 735 00:59:00,704 --> 00:59:04,665 I guess, it was, like, Katrina. I guess that would be the worst, I guess. 736 00:59:04,748 --> 00:59:07,043 I was scared a little 'cause, like, 737 00:59:07,127 --> 00:59:08,919 I didn't know if we was gonna make it or not. 738 00:59:09,461 --> 00:59:13,341 I get nervous and scared and paranoid. 739 00:59:17,261 --> 00:59:21,765 All right. Now it is rolling. Who's that, now? Tell me when. 740 00:59:24,393 --> 00:59:27,898 It was so clear that these students were dealing with a lot, 741 00:59:27,981 --> 00:59:30,232 especially outside of school. 742 00:59:30,316 --> 00:59:32,068 World Issue, Calvin, take one. 743 00:59:33,695 --> 00:59:34,778 Action. 744 00:59:34,862 --> 00:59:38,742 Hi. My name's Calvin Baxter, and I attend Edna Karr High School. 745 00:59:45,499 --> 00:59:46,583 Take me back to that night. 746 00:59:46,666 --> 00:59:49,836 Like, you know, what was going on? What was happening? 747 00:59:50,628 --> 00:59:54,298 I went to the store. I had bought me some gauze. 748 00:59:54,382 --> 00:59:58,302 And I'm walking out. I'm on the avenue, and, fuck, 749 00:59:58,385 --> 01:00:02,598 a cop, he acts funny, just started shooting at me. 750 01:00:02,682 --> 01:00:06,602 You see my heart right here, you know, in that area right there. 751 01:00:06,685 --> 01:00:10,690 That's about three inches away, you know? I could have got hit in the heart. 752 01:00:12,900 --> 01:00:16,654 And, fuck, I had... I had made it to the hospital on my own. 753 01:00:17,738 --> 01:00:19,032 How many times they shot? 754 01:00:19,114 --> 01:00:21,367 They shot at me about 17 times. 755 01:00:21,451 --> 01:00:23,994 And they hit you how many times? 756 01:00:24,079 --> 01:00:26,080 -One time. -You blessed. 757 01:00:26,164 --> 01:00:28,165 Oh, yeah. It made me carry a gun 758 01:00:28,250 --> 01:00:31,794 because I feel like I've got to protect myself. 759 01:00:31,878 --> 01:00:34,464 Like, I'm... Shit, I don't know when something gonna happen, 760 01:00:34,548 --> 01:00:36,216 so I got to keep it on me. 761 01:00:36,298 --> 01:00:40,678 -Even at 15? -Even at 15. It don't matter. 762 01:00:42,096 --> 01:00:43,890 All the shit you've been through, 763 01:00:44,640 --> 01:00:47,351 like, you numb to the pain. Really, like, it's numb to you. 764 01:00:47,434 --> 01:00:50,396 Like, you're so used to it happening, you're like, "Fuck it." 765 01:00:50,479 --> 01:00:54,442 You're numb to the feeling. You're coldhearted. You don't give a fuck. 766 01:00:54,526 --> 01:00:56,361 What does that do to a kid? 767 01:00:56,444 --> 01:01:00,823 That make them traumatized. Like, coldhearted. 768 01:01:01,658 --> 01:01:06,078 I feel like everything changed after Katrina. 769 01:01:06,161 --> 01:01:08,163 Like, you know, they had to rebuild everything. 770 01:01:08,247 --> 01:01:10,791 And a lot of buildings, like, you know, 771 01:01:10,875 --> 01:01:13,878 they had a lot of youth centers before Katrina and all that. 772 01:01:13,961 --> 01:01:16,005 They don't got a lot of them now. 773 01:01:16,088 --> 01:01:18,173 Okay, and what does that mean? 774 01:01:18,258 --> 01:01:21,302 A lot of children, they don't really got no guidance out here. 775 01:01:21,386 --> 01:01:25,931 They don't got no place where they can go after school to keep their mind occupied. 776 01:01:26,015 --> 01:01:29,436 The high school dropout rate, the jail rate increasing. 777 01:01:30,102 --> 01:01:33,856 They just built a whole new jail. Kids gangbanging it. 778 01:01:33,940 --> 01:01:36,693 Man, I seen a nine-year-old smoking weed. Like... 779 01:01:38,236 --> 01:01:42,531 They need more jobs, more youth programs, more mentors, 780 01:01:42,615 --> 01:01:45,200 more counseling, more guidance period. 781 01:01:47,704 --> 01:01:48,705 Cut. 782 01:01:55,127 --> 01:01:56,046 Okay. 783 01:01:59,798 --> 01:02:02,927 -You know, what is-- - Calling Officer Blaine, come in, please. 784 01:02:08,641 --> 01:02:11,310 -Go ahead. - Come outside the back. 785 01:02:12,269 --> 01:02:14,689 -There's something going on. -Let's cut, let's cut. 786 01:02:18,276 --> 01:02:19,819 Come on, Rodney. Let's go, let's go. 787 01:02:23,949 --> 01:02:26,660 I just went and stopped them two just fighting out here. 788 01:02:26,743 --> 01:02:29,246 No! Move! Leave me the fuck alone! Move! 789 01:02:29,329 --> 01:02:30,872 -Come over here. -No! Leave me alone! 790 01:02:30,956 --> 01:02:34,667 I didn't recognize my trauma and my peers' trauma when I was in school. 791 01:02:34,750 --> 01:02:37,878 When I saw it as a teacher, it was obvious that these kids 792 01:02:37,962 --> 01:02:40,298 are experiencing some of the same things that me 793 01:02:40,381 --> 01:02:42,801 and my peers experienced when we were in school. 794 01:02:46,513 --> 01:02:49,599 These kids' realities was only getting worse, 795 01:02:50,267 --> 01:02:53,311 and it blew my mind that nothing was in place to help them. 796 01:02:58,525 --> 01:03:01,860 Carol Carter, Katrina Babies, take one. 797 01:03:01,944 --> 01:03:03,946 We always have the perspective, 798 01:03:04,614 --> 01:03:08,910 which is very annoying to me, is that somehow, 799 01:03:08,994 --> 01:03:10,661 we need to fix the children. 800 01:03:12,288 --> 01:03:17,501 We don't need to fix the children. There is nothing wrong with the children. 801 01:03:18,920 --> 01:03:22,966 How do you make someone feel safe? To feel safe is fundamental. 802 01:03:24,174 --> 01:03:27,137 They're in home environments where they don't feel safe. 803 01:03:27,762 --> 01:03:30,472 They go to school, and they don't feel safe. 804 01:03:31,975 --> 01:03:33,977 What does that do to our children? 805 01:03:34,060 --> 01:03:39,356 It wreaks havoc on their mental health, their physical health, their well-being. 806 01:03:39,440 --> 01:03:41,025 And, so, they're, you know, 807 01:03:41,109 --> 01:03:44,321 how do you learn when you're in trauma state, 808 01:03:44,404 --> 01:03:46,238 when you're in fight-and-flight state? 809 01:03:46,323 --> 01:03:49,034 Your body is producing all of these chemicals constantly. 810 01:03:49,117 --> 01:03:50,493 That's your stasis mode. 811 01:03:50,577 --> 01:03:55,749 Your homeostasis is that trauma, is that fight-or-flight mode. 812 01:03:56,791 --> 01:04:00,753 Your limbic system is there, 813 01:04:00,836 --> 01:04:04,299 which is what causes diabetes, which causes heart disease, 814 01:04:04,381 --> 01:04:06,384 which causes high blood pressure and kidney failure, 815 01:04:06,467 --> 01:04:10,931 and all kinds of other issues that our children are dealing with. 816 01:04:11,014 --> 01:04:14,601 And, so, when we talk about their behavior, 817 01:04:15,519 --> 01:04:19,314 their behavior is attributed to that state. 818 01:04:22,066 --> 01:04:27,155 Anybody in that state for as long as our children have been in that state 819 01:04:28,364 --> 01:04:31,284 would be angry, would have behavioral problems, 820 01:04:31,368 --> 01:04:36,121 would be responding exactly the same way that they are responding. 821 01:04:36,205 --> 01:04:37,666 They're not different. 822 01:04:37,748 --> 01:04:41,795 There's not something wrong with them. They're doing what their bodies 823 01:04:42,545 --> 01:04:46,674 are telling them to do because that's what trauma does to people. 824 01:04:54,266 --> 01:04:55,308 I feel like that. 825 01:04:58,895 --> 01:05:02,273 That's... Like, I can't never really put it into words, 826 01:05:02,356 --> 01:05:05,235 but like, that's exactly how I feel. 827 01:05:13,826 --> 01:05:16,328 This is my fourth period. They're doing it, you know, right now. 828 01:05:16,412 --> 01:05:18,748 This is Kwani. Say hey, Kwani. 829 01:05:18,832 --> 01:05:20,124 -Hey. -Hey. 830 01:05:21,209 --> 01:05:23,879 This is my class. This is Kayla. 831 01:05:23,962 --> 01:05:27,381 Everybody's doing their work. Kayla, what are you doing? 832 01:05:27,465 --> 01:05:30,093 In order just to get through my days, 833 01:05:30,177 --> 01:05:35,515 I've been pushing that stuff down, though, you know? 834 01:05:40,394 --> 01:05:42,147 And it's taken, you know, 835 01:05:42,230 --> 01:05:45,482 seeing my students deal with this for me to even realize it . 836 01:05:48,611 --> 01:05:52,823 When I look at them and what they're up against... 837 01:05:55,492 --> 01:05:56,786 it just breaks my heart. 838 01:06:02,083 --> 01:06:05,754 My name is Shantrell Parker, and I'm 16, 839 01:06:05,836 --> 01:06:08,798 and I'm from the Fischer Projects. 840 01:06:14,012 --> 01:06:18,266 Barely out of their teens, the family of 20-year-old Shantrell Parker 841 01:06:18,349 --> 01:06:20,227 and 20-year-old Gavonte Lampkin 842 01:06:20,310 --> 01:06:22,395 are trying to come to terms with their deaths, 843 01:06:22,478 --> 01:06:27,484 both of them shot and killed, their bodies burned beyond recognition in Algiers. 844 01:06:29,485 --> 01:06:31,487 So, I'm still thinking it was a dream, like, 845 01:06:31,570 --> 01:06:33,240 we're gonna wake up from it or something. 846 01:06:33,323 --> 01:06:37,159 Kewone Carto says she grew up with 18-year-old Shantrell Parker, 847 01:06:37,243 --> 01:06:41,872 who was killed alongside 20-year-old Gavonte Lampkin July 29. 848 01:06:41,956 --> 01:06:44,835 She says Lampkin was the father of Parker's two children. 849 01:06:45,752 --> 01:06:48,170 What is it like being an only child? 850 01:06:48,254 --> 01:06:52,050 What it's like being an only child is I get anything I want, 851 01:06:52,133 --> 01:06:54,719 and I sleep peacefully. 852 01:06:54,802 --> 01:06:57,555 I want to go to school to major in counseling. 853 01:06:57,638 --> 01:07:00,934 Why do you want to go to school to be a counselor? 854 01:07:02,101 --> 01:07:05,813 I want to go to school to be a counselor because I want to help people 855 01:07:05,896 --> 01:07:08,399 'cause I have been through a lot in my life, 856 01:07:08,482 --> 01:07:11,193 and I know what it feels like to not have, 857 01:07:11,278 --> 01:07:15,615 and I know what it feels like to feel that no one is here for you. 858 01:07:15,698 --> 01:07:18,535 What does it feel like to have no one here for you? 859 01:07:19,160 --> 01:07:23,748 It feels like you want, like, no one's here for you. 860 01:07:23,832 --> 01:07:27,419 Like, it's no love. Like, nobody don't love you, 861 01:07:27,502 --> 01:07:31,173 and you always need that extra shoulder to lean on when you're down. 862 01:07:37,888 --> 01:07:38,847 Yeah. 863 01:07:40,848 --> 01:07:45,103 Like, the anxiety in New Orleans 864 01:07:45,687 --> 01:07:48,564 of just simply walking to your car, 865 01:07:49,732 --> 01:07:53,319 you know, the anxiety in New Orleans of just simply riding in a car, 866 01:07:54,236 --> 01:07:59,116 just sleeping by a window or, like, you know, just existing, just living... 867 01:08:00,659 --> 01:08:04,747 you know? That shit is... That shit will drive you crazy. 868 01:08:04,830 --> 01:08:06,957 And then, you know, I go other places, and like, 869 01:08:07,042 --> 01:08:08,918 I feel totally free of that, you know? 870 01:08:10,085 --> 01:08:12,671 And I love my city, but I'm just saying that, like, 871 01:08:14,048 --> 01:08:18,178 my anxiety is at the highest when I'm home. 872 01:08:33,025 --> 01:08:36,028 There's nothing that calms me like being around my family. 873 01:08:37,571 --> 01:08:39,324 The destination is on your right. 874 01:08:39,407 --> 01:08:42,826 Tina told me that she missed everyone on my last trip there. 875 01:08:42,910 --> 01:08:43,911 Arrived. 876 01:08:45,371 --> 01:08:46,372 We're back. 877 01:08:46,455 --> 01:08:49,876 So, I decided to gather all of my cousins together for a reunion. 878 01:08:50,543 --> 01:08:51,461 Hey. 879 01:08:56,924 --> 01:08:58,050 What's up, little one? 880 01:08:58,718 --> 01:09:00,135 We got everybody with us. 881 01:09:04,474 --> 01:09:05,475 Yeah. 882 01:09:07,727 --> 01:09:09,395 I figure we could use that. 883 01:09:13,482 --> 01:09:14,818 Tina gonna be happy to see everybody. 884 01:09:14,901 --> 01:09:16,403 -I know. -Erica. 885 01:09:18,113 --> 01:09:19,905 So, what's everybody name? 886 01:09:21,365 --> 01:09:24,244 -I never met... -She said, "What's everybody name?" 887 01:09:26,329 --> 01:09:29,123 -RyRy, Kai. -All right. Kai. 888 01:09:31,501 --> 01:09:32,793 What's up, bro? 889 01:09:34,212 --> 01:09:35,087 What's up? 890 01:09:39,133 --> 01:09:40,217 What's up? 891 01:09:42,554 --> 01:09:44,681 Come on, boy. This party getting big. 892 01:10:37,524 --> 01:10:39,151 I think it's hard to talk about Katrina, 893 01:10:39,610 --> 01:10:43,657 because it takes having some form of vulnerability. 894 01:10:46,951 --> 01:10:47,993 You know, 895 01:10:48,410 --> 01:10:53,082 acknowledging that something happened to you and that it wasn't okay. 896 01:10:59,256 --> 01:11:02,967 If you're not able to be vulnerable, how do you heal? 897 01:11:08,473 --> 01:11:10,933 It's decades after Katrina hit. 898 01:11:12,226 --> 01:11:14,395 So much becomes built up 899 01:11:14,479 --> 01:11:17,356 in those decades where it was not talked about. 900 01:11:21,152 --> 01:11:23,696 Being able to tell my Katrina story 901 01:11:23,779 --> 01:11:27,533 has been, you know, part of my healing process, 902 01:11:27,616 --> 01:11:31,413 healing something that you didn't even know needed to be healed to begin with. 903 01:11:36,959 --> 01:11:39,169 New Orleans is an African city. 904 01:11:40,337 --> 01:11:43,800 We're oral people, sitting around a fire, 905 01:11:44,592 --> 01:11:47,636 telling stories passed down through generations. 906 01:11:55,604 --> 01:11:56,896 It's been therapeutic. 907 01:11:59,733 --> 01:12:01,610 Katrina is becoming a folktale... 908 01:12:04,863 --> 01:12:06,363 and we're the storytellers. 909 01:12:10,492 --> 01:12:11,912 Telling my story, 910 01:12:12,578 --> 01:12:16,874 it inspired, you know, a lot of others that's going through the same thing. 911 01:12:16,957 --> 01:12:20,711 It makes them just want to speak up more 'cause they know they're not by themself. 912 01:12:22,129 --> 01:12:25,842 I feel like nobody should be that young going through shit like that. 913 01:12:30,179 --> 01:12:33,307 Really, I want... I'm trying to change myself. 914 01:12:36,228 --> 01:12:39,855 I want better in life than this. I want to raise a family. 915 01:12:41,774 --> 01:12:43,025 When I look at the videos... 916 01:12:43,109 --> 01:12:44,569 Oh, no, man. 917 01:12:53,662 --> 01:12:57,833 You gonna get through it, but you have to have faith that you would. 918 01:12:59,291 --> 01:13:03,504 My journey right now is really to be the best that I can be. 919 01:13:05,090 --> 01:13:06,632 I want to learn new things, 920 01:13:07,800 --> 01:13:10,554 and that just, like, drives me to keep going. 921 01:13:12,347 --> 01:13:17,727 I got things that I want to accomplish, got places I want to go. 922 01:13:17,811 --> 01:13:23,440 I'm older now, and look at me. I made it. I made it out. 923 01:13:33,368 --> 01:13:36,705 Every time they give me a new health diagnosis, 924 01:13:36,787 --> 01:13:39,457 like diabetes formed after, 925 01:13:39,541 --> 01:13:42,669 like, all these different things, and I try not to think about it. 926 01:13:42,752 --> 01:13:49,217 But it's like how would my life be now if I'd never stayed in that trailer? 927 01:13:51,635 --> 01:13:54,431 I really don't tell my story 928 01:13:54,513 --> 01:13:57,392 because I don't want you to feel sorry for me. 929 01:13:57,475 --> 01:14:01,228 I never wanted to be the so-called cancer patient. 930 01:14:01,313 --> 01:14:03,105 Like, I want you to look at me, 931 01:14:03,188 --> 01:14:05,859 and I want you to see the person that I am, 932 01:14:05,942 --> 01:14:09,236 the person that I was before I even got sick. 933 01:14:09,320 --> 01:14:11,114 Like, I just want to be me. 934 01:14:41,602 --> 01:14:43,771 When everything around you is set up 935 01:14:43,854 --> 01:14:47,400 in a way that it's not meant for you to survive, 936 01:14:47,484 --> 01:14:52,154 resilience is when you still find a way to have your head up and help yourself. 937 01:14:55,199 --> 01:14:58,535 But sometimes I feel like resilience is used as a tool 938 01:14:58,620 --> 01:15:02,040 because they want people to think, "Oh, no. Everything is okay." 939 01:15:02,123 --> 01:15:03,875 "These people are good, they're strong." 940 01:15:03,959 --> 01:15:05,876 "Look at how much they've overcome." 941 01:15:09,297 --> 01:15:12,716 So, like, I feel like it's for me to say when I'm resilient. 942 01:15:12,800 --> 01:15:15,679 It's for me to say what is resilient. It's not for you. 943 01:15:39,619 --> 01:15:43,790 You know, it's the whole idea of saying that New Orleans is rebuilt. 944 01:15:45,040 --> 01:15:46,001 It's not. 945 01:15:55,427 --> 01:15:59,763 Even though we are resilient, we can never get back what was lost. 946 01:17:57,923 --> 01:17:59,342 -Y'all had fun? -Yeah. 947 01:17:59,426 --> 01:18:01,344 Excuse me, but I'm too hot for TV. 948 01:18:01,428 --> 01:18:02,637 Okay, baby.