Tête-à-Tête is a new series that uncovers extended versions of interviews conducted by WWNO journalists. Broadcasting means time limits, and often conversations that range from thirty to forty minutes in length get thirty to forty seconds on air. Tête-à-Tête brings these "private" discussions to light, and goes deeper into the issue at hand.
Elizabeth Steebyis an Associate Professor of English at the University of New Orleans. She teaches New Orleans and Southern Literature, and Women and Gender studies, but her research focus is on contemporary social protests in the southern United States and how that relates to storytelling techniques.
Here, Steeby and WWNO's Laine Kaplan-Levenson discuss the history of protest in New Orleans, and the current local demonstrations surrounding the #blacklivesmatter movement.
Interview Highlights:
“The outrage around ongoing anti-Black police brutality is something that has been on the forefront of New Orleanians’ minds for a long time. I think it’s a reality in our city that’s experienced by communities of color every day. So I think generally people are seeing it’s incredibly relevant, that it’s not just what’s happening in Ferguson or New York, but a national reality and a local reality here in New Orleans."
"Public performance has the potential to be incendiary. Taking over public space, owning a public space for any length of time, asserting your right to be there. If you trace back to the very origins of Mardi Gras, that it was about performance as power, and taking that up in even the most seemingly benign, Carnivalesque, playful, glittery, shiny way, there is something at stake there. Taking over the streets, doing it in the way of pageantry, makes powerful statements about people’s right to define themselves."
"To me, the second line happening at the same time as the Mike Brown protest, I don’t think the second line is a diversion, an escape, or not related to the kinds of affirmations and political statements that are made at a protest. I think people being in the street, asserting their right to be there, and congregating in all kinds of ways to build affirmative collectivity, ways of being together- — eating food, dancing, listening to music. I had a friend that said nobody has a protest in New Orleans without music, because people also want to have a good time while they’re protesting. Part of the politics of it is being loud and sounding great! There’s an aesthetics to protest and lots of cities do it in their own ways too. So a second line isn’t not a protest. "
The Protests Continue:
OnDecember 12, at 6 p.m. there will be a "noisy march meeting" at Lafayette Square under the banner Turn UP Against Police Brutality and Murder. Folks are invited to bring pot, pans and various noise makers to drown out the mundane noises of an average night in the Quarter.
On Tuesday, December 16, at 10 a.m., Orleans Public Defenders are gathering and invite others to join them at 9 a.m. on the steps of the criminal court house at 2700 Tulane Avenue. This shut down will last for 4.5 minutes in memory of Mike Brown and the 4.5 hours he laid dead in the street as well as all victims of police brutality.
*This interview was part of a Listening Post segment about protest in New Orleans. Listen to that episode here.
Copyright 2014 WWNO - New Orleans Public Radio
