Back to the City... Back to New Orleans.

It has been a good four and a half years since my last visit to this city. The place has been one I have consistently thought about- since I boarded that place back in 2006- as a place I must and needed to return to. With haste. Although it has taken me a longer stretch of time to come back, I feel that this "return" (-if you will, and I shall) is one of the best decisions I have made in my young life. Something just feels "right" about being here. And being here now.

It isn't easy. Last trip I was witness to a city who was undergoing one of the most emotional times in its history. This place, whose heart never misses a beat, might cease to be. That was our fear then. Our fear was that the people (who made this great city what is was at its best) would be pushed out and the Donald Trumps of the world would make their greasy entrance in. Of course that has, to some extents, happened. BUT this city isn't dying out. The Good is still to be found. And in numbers! It is still the Nola we all somewhat love and know. The heartbeat that was once slow and unsteady back in 2006 is now beating strongly and firmly. As it should be.

I want to do this blog because I feel that people think it is as it was. That things are as they once were. I feel that people has lost interest, because there is no reason to still care... right? But the city isn't at all the "French Quarter". And that area was the least damaged in the whole of New Orleans. The hurt is a bit deeper and harder to feel, when you come across someone whose knows no other place in the world but here as Home. They have either weathered through all of these years or have come back.

And don't let the news fool you: people are returning. In high numbers! Mid-City is a bloom with couples coming back and restoring. The city's beat is still kicking and shall be for a very long time to come.

I will be here for less than two months, but I want to share what I come to experience with those who may not know really what is going on now here. This might be some "French Quarter", but it will be a lot more of the outer wards. 9th Ward. 7th Ward- where I am based and call Home currently. Magical places I wander to. Stories that I want to put out there and have reached someone. Because out of all of my travels, within the States and throughout the world, here has been no place like here. Like New Orleans.

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to get in touch with me:
Usedpancakes3@gmail.com.

I know this isn't "correct" writing. I have my own poetics and consider myself more of a poet than a real writer. And I hate rules. I shall spell correctly, but just know that there is a very alive and fluid humanness to my writing. A quality that I find periods cannot allow space for. Please bear with me. And my run-on sentences and incomplete sentences. I did it on purpose. Promise.

Thanks for reading.


Peace, Hope and NOLA. <3 k.