Megan Burns on NP & PJ in Nola & more

Nicole Peyrafitte and Pierre Joris read Thursday, February 23rd at the Gold Mine Saloon as part of the 17 Poets! Literary and Performance Series.

It was a touching reunion of poet and place as last time both poets were here in New Orleans was in 2005 just months after the storm. Scheduled to read in late August ’05 with our series, Nicole and Pierre  instead came in November of ’05 to perform and to document and bear witness to the damage caused to the New Orleans community. Along with their son, Miles Joris-Peyrafitte (now an accomplished young film maker) they took to the decimated streets of New Orleans recording and photographing and most importantly talking to people about their experiences in post Katrina New Orleans. They traveled to the “white goods” dump far out in New Orleans east and spoke to workers and captured astonishing video of the mass destruction of a city’s appliances. View video here.

Their return to Louisiana marks a continuation of their dedication to interviewing, recording, and doing the work of the poet in the form of giving voice and bearing witness to the trauma in the world. They will be spending the rest of their trip traveling through southern Louisiana speaking to residents affected by the Gulf Oil Spill and BP’s clean up efforts. Here in New Orleans they began this task by interviewing Buras activist Kindra Arnesen, mother and wife to a commercial fisherman who was one of the first to speak out about BP’s insidious way of handling the spill and the community. Even in the wake of her family’s sickness and need to be detoxed, including her two young children, she continues to fight and speak out about BP’s blatant destruction of the coast, its waters and animals, and its communities.

continued here!