New Orleans fight against crime featured on CNN homepage

Today CNN is featuring an article with the headline, "Fed up, New Orleans looks to shake Murder City title," and it includes the following facts with quote from a mother, Althea Phillips, who's lost all four of her sons to violence since 1992:

Only one killing was solved, that of Leniel Phillips, 29, who stood 4-foot-11 and went by "Shorty." He was killed in a 2005 fight with his wife's ex in Lafayette. The other three slayings -- still unsolved -- took place in New Orleans.

"I miss my children so much that it's unbearable. It takes me to the bed, the pain and the grief that I feel. I don't feel comfortable in this house anymore," she said at her St. Roch home. "When are (they) going to get (the killers)? When am I going to see them on the news? I want them to be held accountable for what they've done. They shattered my life -- again."

It sounds horrible that New Orleans is called "murder city," but when I was a teen the city had a similar name "death city," so called for two reasons: its many unique cemeteries and its murder rate.

The CNN article moves from a discussion of our depressing reality with a quote from Mayor Landrieu who's "called murder 'the single-most important issue facing our city'" to potential causes of the high murder rate and possible solutions to violent crime. Under potential causes, the article engages how views of race and the cold truths of poverty play a role in crime with some of those interviewed suggesting that young, poor black men in particular face a downard spiral of hopelessness--no jobs, no vision of a future. These are themes I approached in my video poem "Misery." Under possible solutions, the article mentions artistic outlets and mediation programs.

Here's the link to the main CNN article if you wish to read the full story, "the other side of New Orleans," and that article includes a link to another about a lamentable industry emerging from violent deaths in the city, that of "memorial shirts" aka "R.I.P tees."

Movie, A Taste of Heaven: the Heartbreak Life of Raymond Myles, needs your support

I have just pledged my support for this project at KickStarter, Leo Sacks's production of A Taste of Heaven: the Heartbreak Life of Raymond Myles. The documentary focuses on the life of one of my former classmates, a gifted New Orleans gospel singer. Raymond died on October 11, 1998 at age 41. Robbers shot him to death with his own gun that he carried for self defense in New Orleans.

Incidents: Today's Poem on New Orleans Crime

" ... we speak to disturb you who think poetry, music should only be beautiful" ~~ the words of Tom Dent, New Orleans writer

Incidents
By Nordette N. Adams

In New Orleans this week, a nurse, 53,
on her way to care for elders fell
into the hands of futureless, young
men. Fifty crusty fingers scraping
a mother's skin.

Today the city wishes to be
only a love poem, but she sits with "The Cenci,"
"The Mask of Anarchy," "Howl,"
with a "Colored Girls" suicide, "Home
is Where the Hatred Is,"
and "Make Me Wanna Holler," "Blue
Dementia" poetry. She is post "Missippi
Goddam."

O' Shelley, Ginsberg, Ntozake Shange,
Heron, Marvin, Komunyakaa, Nina
Simone, y'heard me?

In New Orleans this week, a father, 44,
tried to save his neighbor from a robber
not long past dawn. The robber shot him.
His children saw him die on the lawn.

The city protests,
"Why can't I ever be a simple love poem?
To be a Hallmark Valentine's card for one week
would be sweet."

But she is still Marcus Christian's
"I Am New Orleans" verse
and "The Cenci." She is "Howl,"
wears "For Colored Girls" skirts,
considers suicide, and sings "Home
is Where the Hatred Is"
in a hieroglyphed house,
or hums "God Bless the Child" down St. Claude.
She is complex, "Blue Dementia" poetry,
and post "Missippi Goddam" 9-1-1.

O' Shelley, Ginsberg, Ntozake Shange,
Heron, Holiday, Komunyakaa,
Simone, O' Marcus Christian!
Y'heard me?

© copyright 2012 Nordette N. Adams

Related: "The Poets Speaking Beauty" and "Misery" (Video)

• Police arrest three suspects in hiding for gang rape incident in New Orleans
• Killing of New Orleans "Good Samaritan" shows that victims shouldn't be villainized: Jarvis DeBerry
• New Orleans reader comment with responses: Does anyone have a real solution to New Orleans' murder problem?
• Gun violence claims all four sons in one New Orleans family

Nina Simone's Version of The House of the Rising Sun

Nina Simone's version of "House of the Rising Sun." According to Wikipedia:

"Alan Price of The Animals has pointed out that the song was originally a sixteenth-century English folk song about a Soho brothel, and that English emigrants took the song to America where it was adapted to its later New Orleans setting."

I liked The Animals version (they begin with the English pronunciation of the city's name that I think is more correct), but I prefer Nina Simone's interpretation of the song because it fits the mood of ruin via whorehouse more overall. I hear too much affectation of wailing in The Animals version. Here are the lyrics:

There is a house in New Orleans
They call it the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor girl
And me, oh God, I'm one

If I had only listened to what my mama said
I'd be at home today
But being so young and foolish, my Lord
Let a gambler lead me astray

Now, my mother is a tailor
She sows those new blue jeans
And my sweetheart is a drunkard, Lord
Drinks down in New Orleans

Now the only thing a drunken man needs
Is a suitcase and a trunk
And the only time he's satisfied
Lord, is when he's on the drunk

Somebody go get my baby sister
Tell her not to do, never to do what I have done
But shun that house in New Orleans
They call it the Rising Sun

Well, I'm going back to New Orleans
My race is almost run
Yes, I'm going back to spend my life
Beneath the rising sun

Six Feet Under The Pontchartrain

I discovered this video today, the song "Six Feet Under the Pontchartrain" that Phil Parnell uploaded to YouTube on Aug 25, 2010, with the following note:

From the CD "Callin The Children Home" by Denny Ilett
I wrote this song to document the rage I felt and still feel when I, and the rest of the world, watched in disbelief while the US government turned it's [sic] back on [...] citizens and turned away assistance from others while pouring taxpayers money into an illegal war to secure another country's oil and water resources. The peoples welfare and wishes are clearly being ignored for reasons of greed and imperialism and Katrina [flooding] is sadly just one example of the insanity that is being delivered to the world at large by the US and big business.

According to Phil's bio, he studied under Ellis Marsalis.

Silk and Flour: A Meditation

Written in 2005, the poem "Silk and Flour" was originally entitled "Silk and Flowers," but while creating the video, I changed the title to one I had considered nearly seven years ago. I don't remember what incident inspired the poem. It may have been nothing but a muse in my head, but I feel like I had seen something in the news that caused me to think about the dark side of ego that reveals itself when we indulge in self-pity parties.

Sometimes we get bent out of shape over the most insignificant things and whine so much about what we don't have that we think we deserve that we forget how much more we have than others in the world, sometimes others in our same cities, sometimes people in our own families.

Dear Diary by Janet Caldwell: A Troubled Child Sees the Light (Video)

The above video features a poem by Janet Caldwell called "Dear Diary."