The Legacy Remains: Remembering Katrina Through the Stories of New Orleans Artists
Watch the premiere here! The Legacy Remains: Remembering Katrina through the Stories of New Orleans Artists
This beautiful 12-minute documentary honors five New Orleans artists who lived through Hurricane Katrina and returned to teach, create, and inspire in the years that followed.
It's important to acknowledge the thousands of people who lost lives and family members and the hundreds of thousands who lost their homes and who were permanently displaced. At the same time, we honor the living artists who continue to thrive here.
The Legacy Remains features Mr. Roscoe Reddix, Mr. Grayhawk Perkins, Baba Zohar Israel, Solomon Israel Mason, and Ms. Betty Shirley, artists deeply rooted in the cultural life of New Orleans and in longtime collaborators with YALA. Through interviews and archival materials, the film reflects on the role of art in personal healing, community rebuilding, and cultural continuity after the storm.
Roscoe Reddix, Jr. is a New Orleans theater and dance professional whose work carries forward generations of cultural legacy.
The first artist we meet in the film is Roscoe Reddix, New Orleans Native theater artist, culturalist, movement artist, and educator who uses storytelling, movement and percussion as tools for teaching and healing. He says his art is “an effort to recover what African Americans have in this country. It’s a creative journey. It’s a way to connect to the world. It’s everyone’s birthright. All people are born with a story to tell.”
Grayhawk Perkins who is of Native American Choctaw and Houma Nation descent, is New Orleans-born and a well-known cultural figure in Louisiana. In his career Grayhawk has worked professionally as an educator, historian, and musician.
Storyteller Grayhawk Perkins is also an author, musician and artist of Houma and Choctaw descent. He tells us that “In learning more about my heritage and teaching about my heritage, I also wanted to be able to tell that story to my kids and my grandkids. That was the thing that pushed me to be a storyteller and be a writer and a musician.”
Baba Zohar Israel Native New Orleanian, Zohar Israel, is the founder of Free Spirit Stilt Walkers. Israel is an African drum specialist and perceives his involvement in African drum and dance community as a way of fulfilling his responsibility to keep his culture alive.
Solomon “Solo” Israel Mason is a New Orleans–born culture bearer, performing artist, multi-instrumentalist, stilt walker, and educator.
A musician from a family of musicians, Baba Zohar Israel says he “always had music around me. My family played guitar. I’m more like a drummer extraordinaire and also I teach. Drumming and dancing is a way of life, it’s therapy. And to be able to take this blessing and pass it on to someone else, I guess that’s my role, you know, that’s why I’m here.”
Baba Zohar’s son Solomon Israel is also a multi-instrumentalist and a culture bearer. He remembers his childhood fondly, “Growing up in this community and culture always felt like a way of life. I look back on myself. I always had a drum in my hand. I was doing that and also it felt so natural to stilt walk. Taking it so serious and incorporating it into my own repertoire has allowed me to have opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I really couldn’t see myself doing anything else.”
Betty Shirley is a celebrated vocalist, artist, and teacher whose repertoire spans modern and traditional jazz, blues, R&B, bossa nova, and original soulful compositions. She’s known for her humor, sensitivity, and dazzling scat technique.
Betty Shirley who is both a folk artist and jazz singer, came to New Orleans in the early 1990s to record with a musician she had met in New York City and stayed on. She remembers her first impressions of the New Orleans music scene, “ As I was walking down the street in New Orleans, I heard music that was not like the music that I knew in New York. I liked the ambience and I liked the sound of the music and the people here. So, I decided to move down here.”
All of these artists experienced Katrina and returned to work here afterwards.
Richard Bates one of YALA’s co-executive directors, has been with Young Audiences since before the storm. He explains, “I will never forget the impact the storm had on our community. Everything in the city stopped. Our national network raised operating funds and the state extended out of school time grants. So, two months after the storm, incredibly, many New Orleans artists were back to work in Louisiana classrooms.”
For Richard, “the best way forward is to remember the struggle, dedication, and labor of love for all those who were able to return. The artist community, as always, exemplified this commitment.”
And that commitment made all the difference according to Jenny James, YALA co-executive director who has been with YALA since just after Hurricane Katrina, about 18 years. “We couldn’t have jumped back in so quickly without them. These amazing New Orleans artists are truly the heart of our work. And that’s why we are so grateful that some of the artists have taken the time to share their stories.”
For over 60 years, YALA has been inspiring, engaging, and uniting children and communities through education, arts, and culture. That did not stop with the storm.
The storm tells only part of the stories overflowing on the Gulf Coast after Katrina. 20 years later, we at YALA honor the artists whose lives have intertwined with ours. who returned to rebuild, shouldering emotional challenges of the time and helping students see the world in new, renewed, and magical ways.
We remember and honor them not just for what they do, but also for what they represent: an unbroken legacy of culture bearing that safeguards the music, storytelling, visual art, theater, and dance we love so much.
The legacy remains.
Thank you to all Young Audiences artists who give of their time, talent, and energy to young learners in Louisiana. We also honor the YALA artists and culture bearers who have since transitioned:
Adella Adella the Story Teller, Baba Kenyatta Simon, Mama Baderinwa Rolland, Damas “FanFan” Lewis, Leo Jones and Frank Levy
We hope you watch the film, love it and share it with your family and friends!